Skip to main content
Work with the NEU
Don’t mention the councils
The SNP's council election pitch had almost nothing to do with councils, saying little about education, housing or better pay for council workers — instead they are pushing ahead with the privatisation of social care, writes STEPHEN LOW

UNUSUALLY for me, unusually for almost anyone really, but when the party political broadcast came on I didn’t immediately change channels. Instead I watched the SNP’s pitch. It was, I have to say, highly informative, but not perhaps in the way its producers intended.

A man walks through a rural landscape intoning a long list of Tory failings and misdeeds, almost all of which are well known to everyone who hasn’t been in a coma. The bearded protagonist points to an elderly woman, Betty, further up the hill he is climbing.

She, a trifle incongruously, is sitting in an armchair knitting. A waxwork with a blue rosette is brought into frame. Betty attempts and fails to throw the waxwork. Cut to “Vote SNP.” Remaining viewers are then told that was a party election broadcast for the Scottish council elections on May 5.    

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
First Minister and SNP leader John Swinney speaking during a press conference at Grassmarket Apex Hotel, Edinburgh, following the 2026 Holyrood elections, May 9, 2026
Features / 11 May 2026
11 May 2026

The new Scottish Parliament looks set to continue a cycle of managerial tinkering while public services face the axe, writes STEPHEN LOW

Coins in a Saltire purse
Features / 7 May 2026
7 May 2026

Years of underfunding are eroding Scotland’s local services and deepening inequality in communities, says VINCE MILLS

CRUNCH TIME: (Left to right) Wales Green Party Leader Anthony Slaughter, Reform UK’s Dan Thomas, Welsh Labour Leader and First Minister Eluned Morgan and Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth
Features / 7 May 2026
7 May 2026

The election offers a critical chance to shape the future of pay, care and community provision in Wales, says Unison’s JESS TURNER

DIY POLITICS: Trade unionists, community activists, students and staff from the University of Dundee protest at job cuts to £35 million deficit, April 2025
Aw That / 17 January 2026
17 January 2026

It is time to stop tolerating the governing elites incompetence which makes our lives a daily misery, argues MATT KERR