It’s time for Scottish Labour to stop kicking itself and catch up with the rest of Scotland.

Johann Lamont said in 2011 that Scottish Labour’s performance in the 2011 Scottish Parliament elections was “a tired old politics machine which was more about itself than it was about them”.

She was right then, and she’s done much to shake us out of that delusion of ‘our right to govern’. Now it’s time for the rest of us to do our bit and get up off the ground, dust ourselves off, stop feeling sorry for ourselves, and get on with what we’re here for — fighting for a better, progressive, socially just, forward looking, fairer Scotland.

A few months before Johann said those words about our 2011 campaign, Douglas Alexander gave an account of the direction Scottish Labour needs to go — our need to “tell an alternative story” and to ditch the tired narrative that Scotland was fed up hearing:

“the same old Labour ‘hymns’ are increasingly unfamiliar to an audience without personal knowledge of the tunes”.

The time for renewing our story is now.

Yes we lost in 2011. People voted SNP in 2011 because they liked the cut of Salmond/Sturgeon/Swinney’s jib. They compared the vision of Labour and the SNP and they voted for the party that had hope for Scotland’s future. It was simple things — ambition over renewable energy for example. The policy itself didn’t really mean much to the average person, but the ambition of it resonated with people.

And yes we lost the referendum argument in large parts of Scotland. People bought the argument that the only way to get a more socially just society was in an independent Scotland. They bought that argument because compared to the lives people are leading in some parts of Scotland today how bad could independence really be? It didn’t matter that the Yes prospectus would most likely leave them worse off — their campaign showed a determination for Scotland to be better, and they went with it.

What we failed to do in 2011 and in 2014 was provide an alternative narrative — a different vision that showed Scottish Labour not just hungry for power but hungry to do something with power. The chance to serve, as John Smith once asked us.

The response in the few short weeks since the referendum has been less visionary.

First we had the usual chorus of criticisms about the referendum campaign itself — mainly from those who played a minor if any role in trying to shape it for the better. Then we had the BOCTNNs (as Stephen Low eloquently describes them) grandly releasing statements and buying up domain names like they’re going out of fashion. Then the turn of the former First Ministers to pile on the criticism. And then the suggestion we turn back to pre-Blair days for inspiration (nobody remember those days?).

With supporters like these, who needs the SNP, eh?

King Anetlas totem pole, from the Pitt Rivers museum

I listened to a fantastic lecture last week by Frank Cottrell Boyce at a conference I was attending on looked after children. He spoke of a totem pole, constructed by King Anetlas to mark the adoption of a daughter into his family. The totem pole was designed to show the great history of his family — the achievements, the legacy and the path he had led his people on.

Boyce’s point was that this wealth of history and legacy is great — but also an enormous burden, and one we should try to break free from whenever possible. By all means build on your past (and never forget where you come from) but don’t become a prisoner of it.

Scottish Labour has a proud story, built on the foundations of a remarkable idea — working men and women fighting together to make life better for their fellow Scots. On those foundations we built trust in the people over decades, returning Labour MPs to go and pursue that noble cause. We fought for devolution and we created the Scottish Parliament. Now we need to decide what the next notches on the totem pole will be. Where will our story go next, and how will we get there?

I suggest there are five things (actually there are a lot more, but let’s start with five) we could do now to embark on the next chapter:

1. Create our vision for Scotland, and articulate it through policy ambition. This is absolutely critical— people need to know what we stand for and what we are going to do in the Scottish Government. We need to be radical — Scotland is crying out for change, so let’s be the party of change. On health care — do we really need 14 geographic health boards, can we afford to keep losing skilled NHS workers because of increasing workloads and decreasing rewards? On young people — let’s make early intervention not just about early years but about all young people, preventing tens of thousands of children going into care each year because we don’t invest in the root causes of the problems. On education — let’s revolutionise the way we learn, schools should be places for all to learn — so incorporate college, apprenticeships, engineering, practical learning, into the learning journey from an early age not just at the point of leaving school, and invest in our further education so everyone gets the chance to further themselves — young and old, full time and part time, making lifelong learning something we champion again. On land reform —look beyond rural and island communities and make everyone a co-owner of their community — devolution far beyond Holyrood and St Andrew’s House to where it really matters, to local authorities, community groups, schools etc. Radically reform how we think about social care — recognising the growing and under appreciated role of unpaid carers, funding carers properly so we get the best people doing the best possible jobs, and giving them the freedom to care for the people they care for in the most appropriate way (ending 15 minute care visits would be a start). In all these areas and many more besides, we should articulate the tough choices, and let our newly politically active country make their own mind up about whether they agree with us or not. We should lead debate, not follow.
2. Stop talking about ourselves, but start talking about ourselves — okay that doesn't make a lot of sense. But we need to stop talking about our own party structures (chat about non-cooperation pacts really isn’t a massive turn on to the electorate folks). What we do need to get far better at doing is articulating the great things we are doing in local authorities across Scotland. Those achievements are Scottish Labour’s achievements and they are part of our story. Labour won in Glasgow in 2012 because it got serious about articulating a bold vision for the city and telling the story of what Labour had achieved in the years before. We need to do a lot more of this and our Labour Councillors need to be a far more important part of our team than they are now.
3. Organise in communities — we don’t put enough emphasis on community organising. We need to be much more active in communities across the country — finding out what motivates people, what drives them and then finding solutions to the challenges facing them. All politics is local — we need to engage a lot more with local community groups, charities and feed into local campaigns. (there are some great examples of this going on already — Kezia Dugdale and Debtbusters being a perfect example, we just need to do more of it.) We could learn a lot from Citizens UK here on how to organise locally to campaign for change.
4. Learn how to use technology better — Sure the pen and clipboard have their place, but it’s time we invest seriously in technology. It shouldn't take twenty odd clicks on a bit of kit that only works on an internet browser nobody uses any more to get the info we need on a voter. I know for a fact there are clever people in the party who can do this so let’s utilise their expertise.
5. Relax a bit in how we campaign — the Yes campaign was a success because it was fairly relaxed about how it was organised locally. There was a central message and coordination, but grass roots groups really were grass roots groups. Command and control campaigns are a thing of the past — we need to empower local campaigns to deliver Labour’s central message with a local dimension. “Carry a knife go to jail” won’t work everywhere. (scratch that, it won’t work anywhere — bad example).