When Paul Murphy won the Dublin South West by-election in 2014, he didn't in fact stand as the People Before Profit alliance. He stood as the Anti Austerity Alliance (AAA), now Solidarity, an organisation that to all intents and purposes was a front for the Irish organisation then associated with the London-based Committee for a Workers International (CWI - which originated in the 1970s Militant tendency in Britain).
True, the AAA was organised in the Dail (Irish Parliament) as part of a joint arrangement with People Before Profit, the rather clumsily titled "AAA-PBP" group. And it's also true that this was a joint struggle where organisations like PBP and AAA combined their resources, along with others, around the water charges issue. The alliance stood just one candidate in this constituency, though with the Irish Single Transferable Vote system there is theoretically no reason why parties or campaigns are in direct competition with each other, as they can, and do, transfer from left candidate to left candidate. However even under STV there is always a loss of votes in non-transfers and a few wild transfers between polar opposites politically ("voter churn" in the language of psephology).
The problem for Your Party Scotland is not just the current absence of a unifying struggle in May 2026 but the fact that under the Holyrood electoral system multiple left parties are competing AGAINST EACH OTHER for the same votes - those who support Palestine, oppose austerity, defend the environment and want an end to London Rule over Scotland have multiple choices.
In that instance the name recognition of the existing parties - and in the case of Holyrood Regional List votes that many on their Scottish left think is the path to electoral success (because you can get elected with 5-6% of the votes), that means parties like the Scottish Green Party and Scottish Socialist Party have significantly more recognition.
Meanwhile the new "Central Executive Committee" (sic) of Your Party UK-wide is dominated by supporters of Jeremy Corbyn who believe he, a London politician, should be the nominated leader of Your Party and front the Party's campaign and policy platform. Yet even Jeremy Corbyn's historic leadership of the UK Labour Party in the 2016 Holyrood and 2017/2019 UK General Elections barely made a dent in the Party's historic decline in Scotland. Many people in Scotland admired Jeremy Corbyn's principles, but didn't want to vote for his London-based party.
The Your Party Scotland conference made a decision to organise as a separate Scottish party - aligned and in solidarity with the party in England and Cymru - but entirely under its own control in organisation and policies. But from the initial organisational chaos from the launch of Your Party UK-wide it will take time to get there - the YPS conference set a 12 month long process in motion. By an important coincidence, the Scottish local elections take place in May 2027 - fought under the more left party friendly STV system, used in all Irish elections (apart from Westminster in the north). 1,226 councillors, 355 local wards, 32 unitary council areas. While there may or may not be a unifying national (Scotland-wide) struggle in 2027, there will certainly be local struggles around eg council cuts and job losses with fightbacks by local communities and trade unions that local branches of Your Party can get stuck into.
Your Party Scotland can also project itself as the best builder of left unity by using the slogan "Vote Left, Transfer Left" and challenge the other left parties to also endorse that line. Actually that IS a leaf out of the electoral book of People Before Profit for a forthcoming Dail by-election in Dublin Central due also in May - https://www.pbp.ie/by-election-candidate-eoghan-o-ceannabhain-urges-left-party-pact-vote-left-transfer-left/
It's not 3 months to the Holyrood election, it's just two months, and nominations close in only 28 days, yet there is still no YP membership list in Scotland, no control over funds, and an English party that wants Jeremy Corbyn as a figurehead to negotiate with. A rushed and botched campaign could do YPS tremendous harm. A serious building for the local elections should be the aim.
Mike has offered a fair correction on the 2014 by-election, and one worth getting right. Murphy stood as the Anti-Austerity Alliance, the CWI's electoral vehicle, not as People Before Profit. The joint AAA-PBP Dáil group came later. At Dundee, Murphy spoke as a PBP TD and drew on PBP's broader experience, including the presidential election and the anti-far-right strategy, so the article frames his contribution through the organisation he currently represents. But you're right that the 2014 by-election itself was an AAA campaign, and the distinction between CWI-initiated and broader alliance work matters for understanding what kind of organisational capacity actually produced that result.
The substantive point about electoral systems is the one that cuts deepest. Under STV, left parties transfer to each other; under AMS, they cannibalise each other. The Holyrood regional list looks friendly to small parties until you count how many small parties are already on it. The SSP, the Greens, TUSC: each with more name recognition than a formation that was founded last month. The article's argument that a targeted intervention in two or three strongest regions could work as a campaign-building exercise assumed, perhaps too generously, that YPS could concentrate its forces. The point about fragmentation on the list is harder to answer, and the proof is in the pudding" Many YPS regions and branches are deciding to not stand.
The 2027 local elections argument is strong and connects directly to what Murphy was actually describing. STV wards, local campaigns on council cuts and housing, the capacity to build through the campaign rather than before it. "Vote Left, Transfer Left" as a Scottish slogan would do real strategic work: it positions YPS as the party of left unity rather than another fragment competing for the same 5%. The PBP Dublin Central model is exactly the kind of concrete, testable electoral tactic the article argues YPS needs.
Whether the Corbyn machine will permit any of this is, of course, the other question.
PS A great catch on "three months", since it was three months when I wrote this article, but I put more urgent things in front of it in the queue.
When Paul Murphy won the Dublin South West by-election in 2014, he didn't in fact stand as the People Before Profit alliance. He stood as the Anti Austerity Alliance (AAA), now Solidarity, an organisation that to all intents and purposes was a front for the Irish organisation then associated with the London-based Committee for a Workers International (CWI - which originated in the 1970s Militant tendency in Britain).
True, the AAA was organised in the Dail (Irish Parliament) as part of a joint arrangement with People Before Profit, the rather clumsily titled "AAA-PBP" group. And it's also true that this was a joint struggle where organisations like PBP and AAA combined their resources, along with others, around the water charges issue. The alliance stood just one candidate in this constituency, though with the Irish Single Transferable Vote system there is theoretically no reason why parties or campaigns are in direct competition with each other, as they can, and do, transfer from left candidate to left candidate. However even under STV there is always a loss of votes in non-transfers and a few wild transfers between polar opposites politically ("voter churn" in the language of psephology).
The problem for Your Party Scotland is not just the current absence of a unifying struggle in May 2026 but the fact that under the Holyrood electoral system multiple left parties are competing AGAINST EACH OTHER for the same votes - those who support Palestine, oppose austerity, defend the environment and want an end to London Rule over Scotland have multiple choices.
In that instance the name recognition of the existing parties - and in the case of Holyrood Regional List votes that many on their Scottish left think is the path to electoral success (because you can get elected with 5-6% of the votes), that means parties like the Scottish Green Party and Scottish Socialist Party have significantly more recognition.
Meanwhile the new "Central Executive Committee" (sic) of Your Party UK-wide is dominated by supporters of Jeremy Corbyn who believe he, a London politician, should be the nominated leader of Your Party and front the Party's campaign and policy platform. Yet even Jeremy Corbyn's historic leadership of the UK Labour Party in the 2016 Holyrood and 2017/2019 UK General Elections barely made a dent in the Party's historic decline in Scotland. Many people in Scotland admired Jeremy Corbyn's principles, but didn't want to vote for his London-based party.
The Your Party Scotland conference made a decision to organise as a separate Scottish party - aligned and in solidarity with the party in England and Cymru - but entirely under its own control in organisation and policies. But from the initial organisational chaos from the launch of Your Party UK-wide it will take time to get there - the YPS conference set a 12 month long process in motion. By an important coincidence, the Scottish local elections take place in May 2027 - fought under the more left party friendly STV system, used in all Irish elections (apart from Westminster in the north). 1,226 councillors, 355 local wards, 32 unitary council areas. While there may or may not be a unifying national (Scotland-wide) struggle in 2027, there will certainly be local struggles around eg council cuts and job losses with fightbacks by local communities and trade unions that local branches of Your Party can get stuck into.
Your Party Scotland can also project itself as the best builder of left unity by using the slogan "Vote Left, Transfer Left" and challenge the other left parties to also endorse that line. Actually that IS a leaf out of the electoral book of People Before Profit for a forthcoming Dail by-election in Dublin Central due also in May - https://www.pbp.ie/by-election-candidate-eoghan-o-ceannabhain-urges-left-party-pact-vote-left-transfer-left/
It's not 3 months to the Holyrood election, it's just two months, and nominations close in only 28 days, yet there is still no YP membership list in Scotland, no control over funds, and an English party that wants Jeremy Corbyn as a figurehead to negotiate with. A rushed and botched campaign could do YPS tremendous harm. A serious building for the local elections should be the aim.
Mike has offered a fair correction on the 2014 by-election, and one worth getting right. Murphy stood as the Anti-Austerity Alliance, the CWI's electoral vehicle, not as People Before Profit. The joint AAA-PBP Dáil group came later. At Dundee, Murphy spoke as a PBP TD and drew on PBP's broader experience, including the presidential election and the anti-far-right strategy, so the article frames his contribution through the organisation he currently represents. But you're right that the 2014 by-election itself was an AAA campaign, and the distinction between CWI-initiated and broader alliance work matters for understanding what kind of organisational capacity actually produced that result.
The substantive point about electoral systems is the one that cuts deepest. Under STV, left parties transfer to each other; under AMS, they cannibalise each other. The Holyrood regional list looks friendly to small parties until you count how many small parties are already on it. The SSP, the Greens, TUSC: each with more name recognition than a formation that was founded last month. The article's argument that a targeted intervention in two or three strongest regions could work as a campaign-building exercise assumed, perhaps too generously, that YPS could concentrate its forces. The point about fragmentation on the list is harder to answer, and the proof is in the pudding" Many YPS regions and branches are deciding to not stand.
The 2027 local elections argument is strong and connects directly to what Murphy was actually describing. STV wards, local campaigns on council cuts and housing, the capacity to build through the campaign rather than before it. "Vote Left, Transfer Left" as a Scottish slogan would do real strategic work: it positions YPS as the party of left unity rather than another fragment competing for the same 5%. The PBP Dublin Central model is exactly the kind of concrete, testable electoral tactic the article argues YPS needs.
Whether the Corbyn machine will permit any of this is, of course, the other question.
PS A great catch on "three months", since it was three months when I wrote this article, but I put more urgent things in front of it in the queue.