Softening up
A personal comment/disclaimer first. Brian Wilson is probably the first specifically Scottish politician I remember (well, apart from one I knew personally and socially, but that’s a story for another day). He was a prominent Labour figure in the 1980s, and as a young teenager with a just-awakening interest in left-wing politics it’s fair to say he was one of the main things that put me off Labour. Even at the age of 14 I got the impression of a nasty, snide, arrogant and pious career politico who’d say anything he thought might score a point over his opponent whether he believed it or not.
So in the interests of fairness and transparency we’re declaring a prejudice in advance. Brian Wilson is a horrible little man, up to his ear hair in the corrupt crony culture of Glasgow Labour, and whenever we hear him speak on any subject we’re reflexively and overwhelmingly inclined to believe the opposite of whatever he’s saying.
Nevertheless, we can’t help seeing a particular significance in the fact that he of all people was chosen to put Labour’s case on last night’s Newsnight Scotland.
Because Brian Wilson is perhaps the most devout anti-devolutionist in the whole of Scottish Labour, perhaps in the entire Labour Party. He was chairman of the “Labour Vote No Campaign” for the 1979 referendum and has continued to staunchly oppose self-government, describing it in 2008 as a “disaster for the Labour Party” – while, typically, admitting to not knowing whether it had been good for Scotland or not. For Brian, all that mattered was that it had damaged Labour.
(In the same piece, incidentally, he admits what Labour now habitually deny – that the Scottish Parliament’s electoral system was specifically designed to prevent the SNP winning control: “A Byzantine electoral system was created which would ensure that the Nationalists would remain in the minority.”)
Wilson is a man who seems to curse the terrible accident of being born in Scotland. He’s a London party loyalist who backs nuclear power (being rewarded with the Energy Minister post for a few years) and supported tuition fees before Johann Lamont’s U-turn on the issue. He voted “very strongly for” the Iraq war and against an inquiry into it, and backed ID cards, foundation hospitals and draconian anti-terrorism laws.
This is someone who wishes the Scottish Parliament didn’t exist at all. Why, then, is he put forward as Labour’s representative in a discussion about a Holyrood debate on welfare? The answer is that Brian Wilson understands instinctively the new position Scottish Labour is adopting: that of One Nation Britain, where Holyrood will exist only to implement Westminster policy and is to be stripped of any power to resist it.
His job in the coming months will be to constantly rubbish and ridicule the idea that Scotland and the rest of the UK can do things differently. It’s a task for which Brian Wilson has been ready his whole life. Keep it in mind when (if) Labour get round to coming up with a vision for greater devolution if we vote No. Because the last thing in the world that Brian Wilson would have any part of is devolving powers to Scotland.
link to en.wikipedia.org
This Brian Wilson?
Don’t know how accurate or up to date that wiki entry is but the interesting reading is near the bottom on positions held.
I don’t think he’s a very nice person you know. 🙂
I share your sentiments on Wilson, Stu. Like you, I was a young teenager grappling with the notion of how this man and Tony Benn could be in the same party. Like you, I quickly learned that nothing this man said could ever remotely approximate to sincerity, that he could effortlessly advocate black one day and white the next. In that he has proved to be a template for New Labour careerists like Murphy and Alexander. We should really thank him for turning many, many folk away from Labour in Scotland.
In that context, any increases in his appearances in the fray are to be welcomed.
I remember a casual conversation while stuffing envelopes in Peterhead some time in the 1990s. Some activists were talking about Wison in much the same terms as the above, and Alex Salmond commented that as a very young man, Wilson had been an extraordinarily fervent nationalist. He mentioned a pamphlet authored by Wilson which was “so extreme that if he was still a member it would be my unhappy duty to throw him out of the party.” Said with a fairly wide grin.
I remember asking Peter Murrell if the pamphlet still existed, and Peter said as far as he knew no, then they had made some attempt to find it but been unable to locate a copy.
Am I just weird, that I can imagine a unionist seeing the light and understanding the case for independence, but the opposite just seems completely perverse?
Let’s see, throughout the latter half of the last century, the Conservative Party (and Scottish Unionists before them) promoted a ‘one [british] nation’ ideology. To quote Maggie T when talking about her policies ‘This is what is building one nation‘. Now, they started with ~50% of the vote in Scotland, and, with great perseverance, managed to bring this down to 17.5% by 1997, from which they have never recovered. Clearly a stunning success.
I look forward to hearing more about Ed’s new One Nation Tory party. I imagine it shall achieve similar levels of popularity in Scotland.
In terms of choosing your favoured UK goverement, we have
(1) One Nation [England] Conservatives
(2) One Nation (England Britain honestly guv] Conservative Labour
(3) One Nation [England, well they’re screwed in Scotland] Neoliberal Democrat Conservatives
Spoilt for choice really.
And in order to promote this great “one nation” idea, the first move is to threaten universal benefits. You couldn’t make it up.
He’s a prick of the highest order, worse even than the terrible twosome of Douglas Alexander and Jim Murphy. Isn’t it strange how this former energy minister now has his fingers in various energy company pies?
He’s also the guy who slagged off the Tories relentlessly for building the Skye Bridge using PFI, but then said it was “a lie” to say that Labour had indicated they would do anything about it when they got into office. Read Captive State by George Monbiot for details of that particular mess.
A trougher if ever there was one, and the worst thing is he’s now masquerading as a journalist when he’s nothing but a mouthpiece for Labour and nuclear energy companies.
Morag, from his Wikipedia bio:
“He was a member of the Scottish National Party for a short time in his teens, but shortly after the formation of the West Highland Free Press in 1971 joined the Labour Party”
It’s unbelievable, but then converts are often the loudest critics – ex-smokers, for example. Still, Brian Wilson does indeed seem to be the sole example of someone moving from nationalist to unionist, although from what Eck told you, I suspect it was an altogether different type of nationalism than what any of us here want… But I’ve often felt that the main reason independence will win is because people’s minds on the matter will only change in one direction.
@ Doug Daniel
That entry on his positions held struck me as being typical of the man as well Mr Daniel. A man with a coat of many colours and a finger in every pie.
He looks too much like Hoggle from out of Labyrinth to take him at all seriously.
The only reason Labour agreed to implement devolution was to counter the Independence movement. Remember George Robertson’s comment, that Devolution would kill Independence (or the SNP-can’t remember) stone dead.
They didn’t promote devolution to improve democracy. However past Lad/Lib administrations did pass progressive legislation, e.g. free personal care for the elderly. How they wish they hadn’t done that! The Calmman commission was only set up as a consequence of the SNP’s 2007 victory. Again as a counter measure, not to consider what’s best for Scotland. That’s Labour in a nutshell. They hate the SNP because they expose their lust for centralised power retention at all cost.
What’s becoming clear now is the impact of a NO vote. Alistair Darling let the cat out of the bag when he said any further powers would be trivial and would only be enacted with the support of all Westminster parties. Therefore we will be in the position of Hollyrood having less powers than an english parish church, to quote Tony Blair. The consequence of which will be an economy dictated by right-wing parties, who obey the wishes of the City of London. The dismantling of the Welfare state- privitisation of the NHS et al.
As somebody recently said, benefits for the poor become poor benefits.
O/T The new anthem for Scottish Labour 😉 – “I’m against it”
link to tinyurl.com
Watched newnight lastnight.
Ian McWhirter didn’t get a word in edgeways, there is no point on appearing on the show if your not in the studio, the presenter just let Wilson ramble stridently on, McWhirter tried to land some blows but wasn’t allowed the time.
Wilson seems to be that kind of labour politician who thinks if he shouts loudly and for long enough, the point he’s making will become correct.
Raymond Buchanon looked a bit miffed at the end of the show, he didn’t have time to show any news papers.
I could not agree more with your scathing assessment of the odious Brian Wilson. A quite appalling little man who seems to be the well from which all of “Scottish” Labour draws its bilious resentment of the SNP and any who question British Labour’s divinely ordained right to dominate Scottish politics.
It came as no surprise, therefore, to find that he was among the first and loudest cheerleaders for Johann Lamont’s tirade against universal benefits. Because, as we are all aware, that tirade had absolutely nothing to do with a “debate” on the affordability of the current arrangements. It is entirely about a compulsion to attack the SNP so all-consuming that it destroys reason itself. And that compulsion is, in turn, driven by a pathological sense of denied entitlement.
Hence Wilson’s recent spewings in The Scotsman – Brian Wilson: SNP should heed Lamont’s lament – News – Scotsman.com to which I responded with some advice,
How can Brian Wilson, apparently without blushing speak so disparagingly of the standard of debate whilst lauding the empty vessel that is Johann Lamont as a “politician of standing”?
The fact is that Lamont never intended to start a debate. It was no part of her purpose. Nor has she contributed one iota to any such debate. Not a single idea. Not a single suggestion. Just the same grinding negativity and the incessant drone of the anti-SNP bile that is the sole obsession of “Scottish” Labour.
We see the same rancid resentment in Wilson’s own petulant sniping at Nicola Sturgeon. Why? Because she mocked Lamont’s clumsy, ill-thought lurch to the right? Because she scoffed at Lamont’s pusillanimous evasion with her wee “commission” that won’t report until after the referendum?
I’ve got news for Brian Wlson! People across Scotland are also mocking and scoffing.
Nobody imagines that the SNP has all the answers. Sensible, open-minded people recognise the constraints they are working under and acknowledge the dire situation they inherited. But what distinguishes the SNP from “Scottish” Labour is that people tend to believe Salmond and his team are genuinely committed to doing the best they can for the people of Scotland.
It is many decades since that could be said of “Scottish” Labour.
It’s a matter of trust. A matter of confidence. A matter of credibility.
Even iif there is some truth in the “chiels” that Wilson throws at us, few people will imagine that he is being wholly honest and forthright. But worse, almost nobody will accept that his motives are anything other than nefarious. Partisan. Self-serving. And not in any way connected to a concern for the best interests of Scotland’s people.
Wilson will doubtless whine about this being a “cybernat” attack. Which, of course, it is. But it will not occur to him as he sits in his little bubble of arrogance that his party has brought this on themselves. The leadership has brought “Scottish” Labour to this low state. It wasn’t the SNP that did it. It certainly wasn’t the “cybernat” bogeyman that they like to blame for so much of their woes. They did it themselves.
And Lamont continues the process.
I’ll give Brian Wilson a bit of free advice that I know he won’t even be able to hear. You and Lamont and Murphy and Curran and the whole sorry squad need to stop talking to each other about how much you hate the party Scotland turned to when you failed them and start listening to the people you failed. What they will tell you is that, unless and until you have some purpose more worthy than opposition for its own sake, you will never be regarded as fit to govern.
Brian Wilson exemplifies the type of person who’s active in the Labour Bitter Together campaign, a truly nasty piece of work who rightly sits near the top of their tree. Wilson is only kept off the top branches by the likes of Jim Murphy, Margaret Curran (not as bright but just as bitter), Johann Lamont (even less bright), Ian Davidson (disagree and you’ll get a doing), Tom Harris, Ian Smart (not very bright at all, bless), Fiona O’Donnell, George Cunningham (yes, yes he’s no longer a member but has an honorary position in the tree for stabbing Scotland in the back for his 40% rule), Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling.
I’m sure that I’ve missed a few out from the top branches but given that they try and outdo each other in the bitterness stakes and keeping Scotland down and subservient, its hard to keep track of who’s doing what sometimes.
Some data from a Yougov survey just out; one of the questions was on how well capitalism has worked.
Simplifying/grouping the options into two camps, we have (for those giving an answer):
UK
Works well = 51%
Serious faults & Gov should intervene = 49%
London & South England
Works well = 56%
Serious faults & Gov should intervene = 44%
Scotland
Works well = 39%
Serious faults & Gov should intervene = 61%
A modest subsample, but there you go.
http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/8h6kfbu889/YG-Archives-Pol-Sun-results-121003%20Ed's%20Speech%20(2).pdf
Brian was, indeed, a Nationalist while in 6th year at school and stood as the SNP candidate in a mock election – winning handsomely as I recall.
I “kent his faither” quite well through work – he was a real gentleman.
I can only assume that the SNP of the day were not to Brian’s left wing taste and he rebelled against his own youthful instincts.
I always found Brian personable enough in his youth but he certainly shows a really nasty trait, common in the Labour Party, of viciousness towards the SNP.
As the SNP are the only party who can actually have any left leaning influence on the real outcomes for ordinary people in Scotland, this “party over principles” attitude of the Labour old-guard is baffling. It seems they would rather the Scots suffered under a Tory government with no mandate here.
Blinded by hatred I suppose.
@Doug Daniel,
“It’s unbelievable, but then converts are often the loudest critics”.
This is so true. Some of the most zealous free market fundamentalists are people who started out on the left, and the same can be said for many conservatives (with a small ‘c’) both in and outside the Labour party.
The Labour party has always been a British nationalist party hiding under the veneer of ‘internationalism’, but developments in the post-war period have brought this out more clearly. Most people in post-war British Labour, from Attlee onwards, would agree with Churchill’s response to De Gaulle after the second world war when Churchill said, “If Britain’s choice is between Europe and the open sea, we will always choose the open sea”.
The British have long been known as the ‘awkward partner’ in Europe and British relations with Europe (both Labour and Tory), from Churchill onwards, would provide excellent material for a re-make of an Ealing comedy. But it’s the rise of ‘nationalism’ in Scotland, that has been the other key post-war development here.
On another thread, I drew attention to the similarities between Ed Miliband’s speech two days and Tony Blair’s first speech as leader to the Labour party conference in 1994. The reason for that wasn’t just because Blair, in that speech, used the phrase “one nation” (he did, but that would have been a crude analogy). What Blair was summoning in that speech, like Miliband in his speech, was the spirit of one-nation conservatism. Both speeches make an emotive appeal to a ‘Britain’ that has its back against the wall, bemoan a Tory party that has lost touch with its own traditions, and anticipate a Labour government that will unify the ‘country’.
The point being that in earlier periods of history Labour’s British nationalism was only latent, but over the last 40 years, Britain’s tortured relations with Europe and the rise of the SNP in Scotland have made Labour’s British nationalism manifest. It was Blair who, in his farewell speech as leader in his Sedgefield constituency in 2007, told assembled Labour party workers that, “Britain is the greatest nation on earth”. And it was Gordon Brown who used the phrase “British jobs for British workers” that the BNP recruited in its campaign literature for the 2009 elections to the European parliament.
When I think of Brian Wilson, I think of someone who is perfectly at ease with such sentiments. Scottish Labour is full of such people and we should all be grateful that, at long last, they are now being seen for what they really are, British nationalists.
Brian Wilson,is the the perfect example of how the Labour party loves London,and also the reason why,they would lose their great pay packets and unlimited expenses.Self interest and greed.party first at all times. Was this the party that said that they would always fight for the rights of the working man? I have never believed them,never voted Labour and never could,they are a disgrace to any civilised society.Peter Bell excellent comment,and really said all that I would have been hoping I could have said,but I cant,or rather not able,more power to your keyboard,and your pen.
As I said late last night on the Leader’s Digest post, what I found interesting about Wilson was his attack on Iain Macwhirter. He accused Macwhirter of being a nationalist, Macwhirter’s face was priceless and he was not amused. I think that it is clear sign of desperation when a politician accuses someone who clearly works hard at appearing to be impartial of taking one side over the other. Macwhirter is on record, I think, of saying that he is yet to be convinced of the case for independence, hence at the moment he is a unionist. When fanatics like Wilson start seeing their enemies within their own camp you know they have lost the plot. I hope Wilson plays a prominent part in the Bitter Together campaign for two reasons: a) His agressive, arrogant and derogatory manner can only work in our favour b) When someone is consumed by such hatred of their opponents they make irrational decisions, which again will work in favour of the nationalist cause. More power to his (hate filled) elbow
@Colin Dunn
That song and film are brilliant – and the fact they feature Groucho Marx is such a bonus.
Satire is one of the best ways to cut through the sanctimonious preaching of the Labour Party. It’s hard to be taken seriously when people are just laughing at you. If you’ve got a facebook page, post Colin’s link and spread the laughter.
o/t I came across a song by the great Eric Bogle that I had previously missed. Pokes gentle fun at the Scots abroad. Some good comment about “Where Scotland Stands.
“Because Brian Wilson is perhaps the most devout anti-devolutionist in the whole of Scottish Labour, perhaps in the entire Labour Party.”
Well, he is a thoroughly vile character. But that particular accolade must surely go to Tam Dalyell – Wilson’s opposition was, as with everything he’s ever done, purely about him positioning himself. Your use of the word “devout” implies that he might have had a principle at some point in his life, and that is something we could never accuse Wilson of!
@Embradon
Good wee song, Embradon. Not least because it includes the legendary sheep n wellies joke. Love Eric Bogle – still can’t listen to The Leaving of Nancy without shedding a tear.
I’m not keen on Brian Wilson at all. I’m sure it was he who persuaded Donnie Munro to leave Runrig to become a candidate for Labour. Donnie failed – shouldn’t have given up his day job. Ironic then that it’s another Runrig member, Pete Wishart who became the Westminster MP – but for the Scottish Nationalists.
I note MacWhirter’s essay in today’s Herald is all about exhorting Labour to do this or that in order to secure a “win” in the referendum. No doubt he wrote it before his appearance on Newsnicht.
Why, Iain? I mean, for goodness sake, why?
I have Macwhirter down as essentially in the same camp as Gerry Hassan – they’re both instinctively Labour by nature, but as intelligent men simply can’t get behind the intellectually-bankrupt, diddy-filled travesty of a party that Scottish Labour has become.
Having met Wilson way back in the day, he was, then, a strong follower of, and supporter of communism. This was when communism was used to control the people of Russia and Eastern Europe et al. (Maybe that is why he left the SNP – not radically left-wing enough for him?!) He still voices support for communist controlled regimes, such as Cuba. And yet …
…There he was in the Scotsman on the 14th of September accusing the SNP with: ” … the SNP runs as an authoritarian organisation with rigid central control reminiscent of the Communist Party.” (!)
More on the contrarian, Brian Wilson:
He was chairman of Flying Matters, lobbying in support for the aviation industry, a full-on climate change denier. (!)
He is now a “business ambassador”, having been appointed by Michael Moore, “Scottish Secretary” for the coalition = Conservative government. (!)
He is also a regular SNP/Salmond accuser and general doer down of Scotland as an independent country in the MSM. (!)
Contradictory political alliances, climate-change-denying-for-money, anti-Scottish independence and BritNat propagandist Brian Wilson … would you believe this man???
The penny has dropped – I was sort of curious as to how you enthuse about the status quo, as Darling once boasted. It never made any sense to me, to be pro-active about…well…nothing really. Now One Nation Labour creeps on stage with Miliband as Godhead of a new national identity. This is what the no vote is about, and its what it will get us if we do lose. We will become a region of Britain…nothing more than that, as Lamont and her brood set about destroying anything that makes Scotland stand out from the rest of the UK. Can’t have the English seeing that there actually is an alternative to this dreary right of centre miserabilism.
What we’ll see is a social engineering project were the welfare state is re-purposed to provide aid to the private sector. More is spent on keeping various players in the private sector in business than is actually spent on welfare. The only way you can keep up this insanity is to cut out spending on things that matter to voters. Implement regressive means testing for people who need help. Everyone else will be expected to pay more, work longer, get less returns. But we cannot complain because that would undermine one nation britain. The disabled will be expected to work, but no explanation of what that would entail. We will pay the private sector to train apprentices but no explanation of what the training will entail. The elderly to work longer, but no explanation of what work they can do.
However there is nothing underpinning it. Too much has been squandered to little benefit. The rot goes deep into the foundations, structurally, institutionally and morally unsound. No amount of party bunting, balloons and fake smiles can hide how utterly vacuous it is. As social compact were one side gets nothing out of it, and the other side shrugs it shoulders and offers empty platitudes.
Just saw this tweet noted on BBC report of FMQ:
@EddieBarnes23 Salmond makes defence of principle of universal services. Lamont responds with personal attack. “So much for debate,” declares Salmond #fmqs
– Lamont attacked him on his salary and hospitality bills. Sums it all up really.
Brian likes Cuba very much.
link to bbc.co.uk
I believe Jack McConnell is another youthful nationalist who switched to Labour.
Jack and Brian probably figured there was no easy route to advancement in the SNP and looked around for a party more in tune with their personal ambitions.
I’m sure there’s quite a few of those that will switch back again once they see the writing on the wall.
The thing is, Major, the writing is already on the wall.
“james morton says:
October 4, 2012 at 2:14 pm
Now One Nation Labour creeps on stage with Miliband as Godhead of a new national identity.”
One nation under Bod. 🙂
Couldn’t agree more on the comments/observations on Wilson. I offer a further anecdote …
A few, ah … associations made by my otherwise splendid football team of choice, Glasgow Celtic, have caused me no end of embarrassment and shame. Picking John Reid as chairman was one of them. Having Brian Wilson as a director is another.
A couple of years ago I attended a charity dinner at Parkhead hosted by a major supporters club. There was a tribute to Jimmy Johnstone from Archie Macpherson and in attendance were members of the current squad and surgical staff from the spinal injuries unit of the Southern General – for which the supporters club had raised a significant amount of money. Wilson was there to hand over the cheque.
That’s all he had to do – say a few warm words and hand over the cheque.
Out of nowhere, however, the man launched into a meandering, snide and, of course, entirely irrelevant attack on devolution and it’s ‘so-called benefits’. Memory has (thankfully) robbed me of whatever fantasy, fraudulent connection he’d made between the constitutional settlement and footy fans raising money for folk with sore backs but I well remember the stunned, awkward silence he left in his wake.
My heart sank when he oozed onto my TV last night and gave us another reprise of his visceral, incoherent anti-Scottish schtick. Took me ages to calm down enough to get to sleep!
I wonder, could Wilson be the Scottish Labour equivalent of this guy?
link to facebook.com
And BBC Scotlandshire has an interview with the esteemed Brian Wilson as he describes his new sinecure as Trade Ambassador.
link to bbc.scotlandshire.co.uk
I remember this wee gland being one of the founders of the Stop It campaign designed to get rid of the hated poll tax. Aye that lasted a while. Right up until him and his kind saw what an electoral liability it was going to be for the Tories south of the border.
Absolutely cannae stand him. A sneerin’, twisted face ye’d never ever tire o’ leatherin’.
I went over and spoke to Brian Wilson back in the 70’s when I saw him standing by himself in the general observer’s section at an SNP conference. He really gave me the creeps and after only about 20 seconds of his company felt I had to move away from his ‘presence’. In fact I moved about 30 or 40 yards away.
I felt the same way when I once had occasion to stand briefly beside Menzies Campbell.
Something not quite ‘right’ with these people.
Mein Got-hes back!A paradigm of the machine pole-climber politician who will do all he can to advance himself and to hell with everything else.this mans fizog should be plastered all over the Yes campaign literature-“Vote No and you get this!!”Yes it is negative but nowhere near as much as the real thing.Dire.
I love it whenever I consider the concept that Labour designed the Scottish electoral system to ensure SNP never won. This only works with the preconception that Labour will always have their core vote to keep control. Oops!
Stuart, on your comment about Brian Wilson looking like Hoggle from Labyrinth, from memory, Hoggle was a puppet(!) dwarf sent out to confuse the main character into heading back to the start of the labyrinth(!). She fmet Hoggle when he was sent to protect the swamp of eternal stench(!) Hoggle used poison to put the main character into a dreamlike state(!) to make sure she fails in her mission to rescue her family(!) I had to google this bit but the most important line in the movie is ‘You have no power over me’. The movie ends with a victory party. Stuart, your choice was character wasn’t an accident was it?
Hoggle switched sides and redeemed himself in the end. This guy is no Hoggle.
Brian Wilson is a cunt! This piece of shite will be answerable…
Alan, that’s a bit harsh…. female parts and excrement are useful things.
Please don’t use the C word to describe labour politicians. Or anyone in fact.
You know, just reading another article about underspend of 444 million quid on the Scotsman and trying to do research on this fellow as quite frank:
The article is at best a terrible excuse for investigative reporting, at best a (brit) nationalist propaganda exercise.
It seems the man cannot write anything without avoiding putting facts in and some how managing to drag it out to 8 paragraphs about the SNP.
Which is a pity as this instance in question he could have done a fantastic breakdown of exactly where these instances of underspend were made and why its bad, as well as fostering some possible interest for his union.
But all its done is get my backs up and spammed my feed with just as much bull shit anti SNP ranting.
God they go on about nationalists not getting back in their box, what do they think they are doing? Project Fear did not die with the referendum.