Dear All
As a keen observer of the Scottish political pond, I can put
my hand on my heart and say that the Scottish Labour Party’s campaigning from
what I am seeing in the Scottish independence campaign has been shit in my area.
No leaflets from the Labour Party who are wrongly are running their own
separate campaign to the detriment of the Unionist cause to keep Scotland part of the United Kingdom .
On Saturday, I was going to the supermarket to get some
bread, the Labour Party were out in Cardonald. Their event was at the Aldi
supermarket, it started at 10 am, when I passed by circa 11 am, one person had
turned up; that was the organiser who was handing out material. After doing my
shopping, I went to check my email, as I returned back towards the supermarket later
on at about 11.30 am, no one was there. The Labour event was scheduled as
starting at 10 am and finishing at 2 pm at the supermarket.
In Pollok which is the seat of Scottish Labour leader Johann
Lamont; the Labour Party turnout for Better Together events has in my opinion
been nothing more than an outright disgrace.
It seems that the ‘dedicated’ Labour followers including
Johann Lamont, Ian Davidson and both Labour Councillors are still to do their proper ‘first day’ with the current team that is covering the area.
Johann Lamont and Ian Davidson have been noticeable by their
absence, of course in fairness, they have done some BT street stall events at Silverburn
Shopping Centre where they turn up late and ‘do an hour for Scotland ’.
Maybe someone could explain leadership to them. It is said
that Johann Lamont was reluctant stand for the Labour leadership in 2011,
pretty reluctant to be a proper activist as well.
Johann 'photo op' Lamont!
Apparently Johann Lamont has heard of my blog, and doesn’t
like it, so I imagine she probably won’t like this post because it hardly
paints her as the labour leader saving Scotland , even in her own area!
At a previous event I attended I was informed by someone
called John Coyle (Labour Party) that he had complaints about my blog and I was
told ‘don’t talking to the politicians’. Given that the only politician there
at the time was the Asian Labour Councillor who walked up to talk to me, it all
seemed rather cryptic in nature.
Later on at that event Johann Lamont turned up which
explained the ‘don’t talk to the politicians’ crack. At end I said to Mr.
Coyle if he had less cryptic and said straight out what the problem was it
would have cleared matters up for me. I also informed him in front of the Asian
Labour Councillor, I had no interested in meeting Johann Lamont or talking to
her.
When the Better Together group photo was taken by John
Coyle, I was excluded from it, it was Labour people only; hardly Better
Together, the irony is that of the people featured in that photo as being BT activists,
none are doing BT events currently in Pollok. I said to Mr. Coyle if I had
known he was running this event as a Labour event I wouldn’t have come, he
asked me to come back the next day which was a Labour event on the Sunday, I
declined, not because of what happened but because I was going somewhere else.
Anyway, it appears that the Scottish Labour general
secretary Ian Price has been sidelined in his party's referendum campaign, amid
concerns about the party's strategy and effectiveness on the ground.
It seems that there are too many generals and not enough
troops who are willing to work however given the staged managed photos of
United with Labour; you might be tempted to think they were putting a good
effort in. In some respects it is a bit like the farce of Pollok SNP when they
put on their ‘happy face’ at the Pollok shopping centre and later got bounced
by the security staff, they weren’t happy that day. If there is a programme of
internal Labour reforms, you have to wonder how shit they were at campaigning
before they ‘improved’.
As to the problem of fractious relations between MSPs, MPs,
councillors and trade unions, this could be solved rather easily, you get
people in for a chat and tell them in a quiet but firm voice that if they don’t
pull their weight, they are out, no matter whose coat tails they are hanging
onto. Just as a cull was needed in the run up to the 2012 Glasgow Council
Election, it can be done again.
Price won a decent
amount of by-elections, he did so when the Nationalists were in decline, but
nothing should be taken away from him, it is a decent record but we should
remember the credit isn’t his alone and neither are the failures.
Price’s problem is that he was head of public affairs at the
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in Scotland (RSPB); what does he know
about activism on the ground. I suspect not a lot in that regard which might
explain why at Cardonald only one person was doing the Labour event which was
billed online as ‘referendum campaigning’.
Party fixer Frank Roy MP joined the Better Together campaign
in April in a "political co-ordination" role, his job is described as
"Labour's eyes and ears" in the body. Maybe rather than Labour having
him as "eyes and ears" they should stick him out with the activists
to work, perhaps a spell in the trenches will open his eyes to the problems of
elected Labour people backsliding and force Labour into giving Better Together
more support.
One insider said:
"Ian Price came with a good reputation, but it's recognised
he's not been great at some aspects of the job. Sheila Murphy was brought in to
shore up Scottish Labour, while Frank Roy was also introduced to ensure we get
the right result in September."
That is code for doesn’t understand politics, which is rather
odd given his position in the Labour Party. Also you can pretty sure the ‘right
result’ won’t be down to anything that Frank Roy thinks or does, the Scottish
people will take care of the result.
As To Johann Lamont, her future is said to be doubt, and it
looks increasingly unlikely that she is capable of winning the 2016 election
for Labour. The favourites for her job are said to be deputy leader Anas
Sarwar, East Renfrewshire MP Jim Murphy and Kezia Dugdale MSP.
I don’t see either Anas Sarwar or Jim Murphy as Scottish
leader, however both have excellent track records; Jim Murphy certainly brings
considerable political experience. As to Kezia Dugdale MSP, you can forget that
as a non starter, it has always been Ken Macintosh as Scottish Labour leader
who stands the best chance of beating Alex Salmond in 2016. The sooner the
Labour Party wraps their heads round that one the quicker they will turn round
their problems.
Dugdale cannot win!
As Price has been sidelined, the Labour Party has brought in
Sheila Murphy, the former regional director of Labour North West to work on
Labour's distinct referendum campaign. One of the things I have observed in
politics, is someone is hailed by the leadership as being ‘very good’, but when
you see what they produce, you have to wonder how anyone could come to that
conclusion.
In 2012, Alex Salmond hailed the dreadfully inept Glasgow
SNP leader Allison Hunter as a ‘wonderful leader’, the truth was somewhat
different, she was crap, she wasn’t a leader of men and she was a Nicola Sturgeon
crony.
She went on to lose the 2012 Council election; the word ‘slaughtered’
aptly describes that result. Hunter was said to have trained up the current SNP
elected members which begs the question why they were so ignorant and stupid.
The legacy of Allison Hunter was that she was the catalyst
for the soon to be epic defeat on 18th September 2014 of Scotland ’s
‘jolly fat man’ Alex Salmond and unpopular Nicola Sturgeon. The failure to take
Glasgow was an real
epic disaster which proves the point that cronyism cannot replace talent, and
Hunter had no talent.
As to Johann Lamont, she needs to stop Labour’s campaign and
fold everything into Better Together as should the Conservative leader Ruth
Davidson and Lib Dem Leader Willie Rennie.
Having one guy turn up at a Labour event isn’t an event, it
is embarrassing, but Sheila Murphy’s first task should be to address the lack
of a work ethic at the top and why so few Labour activists are coming out.
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University
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