Ideology as an end in itself

A couple of decades ago my personal politics were in a perpetual state of flux, and at one point I recall wrestling with the Labour v SNP option. In essence it was a class-based politics versus my strong sense of patriotism. Crudely, it was class versus country. In the end class won out, but the choice wasn't quite grounded in the kind of Labour/SNP fissure that scars Scottish politics today. Indeed, it was more like the choice between chocolate or ice cream, and I was certainly the antithesis of a Unionist, which I perhaps naively saw as an essentially right-wing concept.

But that was back in the days of personal idealism, and the real world and experience has from my individual perspective put paid to both left-leaning ideology and Scottish nationalism. Part of the problem was the realisation that abstract ideological notions and tribalism become the goal rather than anything more concrete in policy terms. Thus a Labour government at Westminster was a cause for celebration in itself, and the details didn't matter. It would be alright on the night, sort of thing. But a few years later and the realisation is that having your tribe in power isn't enough, and it's what it does with that power that's ultimately important. On the other hand, many individuals will hang on for decades thinking that the former is more important than the latter - maybe because they gain personally from it - or perhaps they just delude themselves into thinking the latter is better than it actually is. Of course, the floating voters who decide elections are by definition neither tribalistic nor particularly ideological, thus UK Governments tend to cycle between Labour on the left and the Conservatives on the right, much to the chagrin of both sides of the ideological divide.

Thus for me it's much the same as regards the debate on Scottish independence. Abstract notions on autonomy and sovereignty don't matter so much these days as what it would all mean in more mundane terms.

And while I'm sure he wouldn't thank me for saying this, and equally he'd probably disagree with my interpretation of what he said in a typically dense cogitation, a recent post by Nationalist blogger Lallands Peat Worrier neatly articulated some of my own scepticism as regards what Scottish independence would ultimately mean, although his perspective is clearly more 'half full' to my 'half empty'.

But without getting into the minutiae of LPW's particular argument, a comment on his post left by a Scottish Nationalist stalwart perhaps better encapsulated the problem, albeit presumably inadvertently:

I understand that people will want to know what an independent Scotland would be like but the truth is that the SNP cannot answer that question, any more than unionist parties can answer the question what will the UK be like in ten, twenty, fifty years time. None of us have a crystal ball.

The case for independence does not rest on defining what kind of country Scotland will be post-independence because we will all have different ideas about that - even within the SNP people have very different political outlooks. What is important is that Scotland's future course will be decided democratically and by the Scottish people - and only the Scottish people.

My cynical interpretation of the above is that independence is seen as an end in itself, thus even if things aren't much different than under the current status quo then it's still a cause for celebration, because the Scottish people are deciding things, blah, blah.

Which comes back to what I said earlier about having a left wing government in power at Westminster being sufficient. However, experience dictates that it's not enough. Ditto Scottish Nationalism.

And perhaps the past week's result in the Welsh referendum on enhancing devolution is a case in point. Supporters will point to the resounding margin of victory, and the conclusions to be drawn by Scottish Nationalists from this are obvious.

But for pragmatists the salient lesson of the vote was the pitiful turnout of just over one third, which means that in this 'decisive' victory only just over one in five voters actually endorsed more powers for the Welsh assembly.

But this won't matter to the ideologues and tribalists. The victory is an end in itself. The fact that the vast majority don't care means nothing.