Kevin McKenna: A tale of two Scotlands at the COP26 climate selfie-fest

At times during this festival you could be forgiven for thinking Ms Sturgeon was moving on casters. Here she is with President Joe Biden. This was a straightforward enough snap featuring the leader of the host nation welcoming the leader of another to her premises.

But the breathless excitement with which it was greeted by the First Minister’s Twitter fan club suggested it was in the realm of Moses’ encounter with the Almighty on Mount Sinai.

And look; here she is interviewing Alan Cumming. And lo! A wee Brucie bonus: Mr Cumming is considering moving back to Scotland. And is that her with Angela Merkel? Now she’s with the US Democrat politician, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

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The First Minister has taken umSNbrage at criticism of her selfie frenzy. She said she was seeking merely to “take the opportunity to showcase Scotland”. And perhaps she was. She certainly showcased Irn-Bru.

Where the First Minister led, all of Scotland’s other political leaders eagerly followed. Patrick Harvie, co-leader of the Scottish Greens chose the occasion to stage a tiff with Greenpeace, the world’s most influential environmental group. Following Greenpeace’s criticism of Ms Sturgeon over her non-binary stance on the Cambo oilfield Mr Harvie suggested that the group didn’t know what it was talking about as it wasn’t “particularly active in Scotland”.

Mr Harvie and his party have been contesting elections in Scotland for more than 20 years. During this time they have failed to win a single seat. If the Scottish Greens have been politically active these last two decades then very few people seem to have noticed.

Ms Sturgeon and Scotland’s other top politicians had much to say about Cop26, despite not having any power to influence proceedings. Beyond urging world leaders to get a deal done it was all grandstanding and preening. What sort of deal did they have in mind? Would any of it be binding? Would it come anywhere near the fabled global temperature target of 1.5?

VisitScotland also sought to “showcase Scotland” with one of their unicorns-and-moonbeams videos. In this, Scotland was described as “a country of heart, with the warmest of people, determined to play our part. If you share these feelings too Scotland is open to you”. A tweet relaying this infantile and patronising drivel featured a love-heart, a lightbulb and a saltire. Part two will feature Tinky-Winky and La-La on a day trip to Arran. They’ll be drinking Irn-Bru.

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Outside the big tent another Scotland was visible. Those who inhabit this one won’t have recognised anything in VisitScotland’s CBeebies production. This Scotland has the Europe’s highest rate of drugs deaths where, if you’re poor you’re 18 times more likely to die of addiction. The Government of this other Scotland would rather give addicts more drugs in Drug Consumption Rooms than invest in rehab facilities.

In this Scotland, a strike by cleansing workers has been unfolding. It’s a decent and entirely justifiable strike, supported by 98% of Union members who are paid subsistence wages for a punishing job in the UK’s most complex waste management environment.

The SNP spent years courting the unions and soliciting their support for independence. Now they’ve deployed the full arsenal of Thatcher-era bullying tactics in a bid to subdue them.

This Scotland is host to communities with dire rates of child poverty. They’re invisible in the Scotland that Nicola Sturgeon has been “showcasing” during her COP26 showboat. For this Scotland can’t even adequately feed or shelter the 250,000 children who are now deemed to be living in poverty.

In the days leading up to COP26 it was revealed that around a quarter of children in West Lothian are now paying the price for a pattern of inequality that’s been intensified by the pandemic and rising living costs.

In this other Scotland an alternative COP26 was also taking place. This one proceeded in dozens of small venues dotted around Glasgow. They might as well have been happening on a different planet. The language and mood of these events were far removed from the world’s biggest back-rubbing session down at the SEC.

On Thursday afternoon Jeremy Corbyn chaired an event featuring a panel of trade unionists and workers who know the reality of this other Scotland. Here we learned how global hospitality firms who continued to make billions during Covid discarded tens of thousands of its lowest-paid staff with no notice and no furlough pay. Only by organising themselves and joining a trade union were they able to force their employers into decency.

We heard heart-breaking accounts of those thousands of workers who die each year from their employers’ callous disregard for basic health and safety. And we learned too about how Glasgow’s cleansing staff have been supported right across the trade union movement. It was a narrative that flat-out contradicted the propaganda pumped out by Glasgow City Chambers and swallowed whole by their glove-puppets on Twitter.

It was good to see Mr Corbyn hosting events such as these. The former Labour leader remains unique amongst those who have held high office by choosing to pursue grassroots activism rather than a cloak of ermine; a property empire and a corporate non-exec.

In the conference centre and £800-a-night hotel rooms they were hurling apercus at each other like so much empathy confetti. One of these is ‘no climate justice without social justice’. And all of this while being lectured by Jeff Bezos. Among these people such sentiments are barren and the real Scotland is concealed. Only in this alternative COP26 do they mean something. Only here can Scotland’s real voice be heard.

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