Will SNP deliver on “anti-austerity” promises?

Will the Scottish National Party deliver on its “anti-austerity” promises?

According to media commentators the SNP’s leader Nicola Sturgeon emerged as the ‘victor’ in the Leaders’ debate. She also enjoys a higher opinion poll rating as a party leader than Cameron, Miliband and Clegg.

The SNP, despite implementing austerity cuts and promoting a capitalist agenda, is likely to emerge as the largest party in Scotland, and possible ‘king makers’ of the next government.

Could this scenario be behind the leaked email from the Scottish Office that dubiously claimed Sturgeon had dismissed Miliband as ‘weak’ and would prefer a Cameron-led Tory government?

Subsequently, Sturgeon has denied preferring Cameron as Prime Minister and has made coalition overtures to ‘austerity-lite’ Labour.

As Socialist Party Scotland has consistently pointed out, the SNP’s pro-capitalist policies have led them into accepting the logic of austerity – even it if is the diet version, rather than the full-fat brand being brutally carried out by the Con-Dems.

As Douglas Fraser, BBC Scotland’s economy editor, pointed out: “Neither Nicola Sturgeon nor her deputy are saying austerity can be avoided. Instead, it’s being re-badged and re-profiled, or spread out longer”. Fraser added: “The defiant refusal to accept more austerity, which won power for Syriza in Greece last month, is not being offered here”.

In practice, the gap between Miliband’s economic plan and that of the SNP is not wide. Depending on the parliamentary arithmetic, therefore, a deal between Labour and the SNP is possible after the election. This could see SNP MPs vote in favour of yet more cuts and austerity on the pretext that these are less bad than would have been the case had the Tories been re-elected.

The SNP leadership is sending out a message that it is prepared to work in the interests of British capitalism, which means carrying through cuts.

Read the full article on www.socialistpartyscotland.org.uk