Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale. Credit: David Cheskin/PA Wire/Press Association Images All rights reserved.
The UK’s 23 June referendum on membership of the EU is a European event and will have ramifications across the continent. Already it has had one clear consequence. The Labour party in Scotland has become the first victim of the Brexit referendum.
In a situation where centrifugal forces are at work, as is usually the case in Britain, being in the middle can be an advantage as forces press towards the centre. In normal times, last week's elections to the Scottish parliament in Holyrood would have seen Scottish Labour calling on everyone to ‘pull together’ (the classic phrase of a centrifugal system) after the country’s independence referendum of 2014; and put the nationalist versus unionist conflict into its history box. But the times are not normal, they are even maddening. The Brexit referendum acted as a centripetal shock in Scotland. In a situation where centripetal forces are at work, being in the middle means you get torn apart. The impact on the main party of the British Union, Labour, already reeling from the Westminster wipe-out, was another body blow that may prove fatal.
