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Democrats, dropped earlier proposals to use these tax-raising powers, suggesting that
Scottish Labour is able to dominate the political agenda, whilst the Scottish nationalists
remain on the defensive. The results of the 2003 election bear this out: Labour lost votes
not to the Scottish nationalists, but to radical left parties such as the Scottish Socialists.
Whilst Labour’s electoral performance has been weak, its electoral difficulties have little
to do with its status as a national party governing in Westminster. Instead, the relative
persistence of a traditional Labour electorate in Scotland puts Scottish Labour under
pressure to follow more traditional social democratic policies and distance itself from the
UK-wide New Labour project. The close attention Chancellor Gordon Brown pays to
Scottish politics restricts the Scottish party’s room for manoeuvre, but it has made
gestures towards ‘old’ Labour values, for instance by eschewing the use of private capital
for investment in public services under the PFI (Private Finance Initiative).
In Wales, Labour under Rhodri Morgan has been relatively successful in resisting
the threat from Welsh nationalism: in the 2003 election the party actually increased its
vote share, largely at the expense of Plaid Cymru. This success suggests that New
Labour’s initial ‘control freakery’ was a losing strategy in devolved elections. Morgan’s
popularity is based on a subtle mix of respect for Welsh distinctiveness and appeals to
traditional Labour values, which allow Welsh Labour to distinguish itself from both the
Welsh nationalists and the Blair government in London. Unlike Michael, Morgan argued
forcefully for greater devolution of power to Wales, describing the devolution settlement
as a framework for a ‘variable geometry UK’, and even citing the historical Welsh
nationalist figure Owyn Glyndwr (Morgan 2000). At the same time, Morgan is critical of
Plaid Cymru, and under his leadership Labour has adopted the slogan ‘Labour: the true
Convention