Dear All
It seems that Sarah Boyack, the former
Environment minister has decided to throw her hat into the ring and confirmed
that she is to stand for the leadership of the Scottish Labour Party.
Is she the person to lead the Scottish
Labour Party out of their current difficulties?
I would say no.
Ms Boyack despite having been a former
minister has been very low key politically since she peaked.
Although she served in previous Labour-led
executives in Edinburgh, and has some backing from colleagues in Edinburgh and
London, she isn’t the person to change Labour around. The Labour Party needs a
natural charismatic leader as a minimum requirement who has to rebuild an
entire party from the ground up.
Boyack does tick on the boxes in that she
has been a MSP since the establishment of devolution in 1999.
So, in once sense she has experience of
Holyrood, however, she will need a whole lot more than that to be a serious
contender.
Jim Murphy, the front bench Labour MP is
also expected to throw his hat into the ring and is said to be forming a
campaign team in preparation to make his bid. Although being an MP is no bar to
leadership, ideal the person who becomes leader needs to be in the Scottish
Parliament.
If Murphy does declare he will have to find
a vacant seat. I would say it is hardly likely that Ken Macintosh will want to
give up his seat unless he could be persuaded to switch to Westminster which
would helpful as Jim Murphy has already built up a personal following in his
area.
It would also be a safe bet.
If Murphy goes elsewhere he runs a risk.
Boyack becomes the first of the likely
candidates to formally announce but she wouldn’t be the last, Neil Findlay, the
Labour health spokesman, is another tipped to enter the race.
If Murphy declares then in reality it becomes
a one horse race, Boyack compiled a report into the future of Labour in
Scotland following the SNP’s landslide victory in 2011. Given current
circumstances, she would be advised to do a rewrite, things have changed in
Scotland.
And someone is going to have to come up
with solutions to fix the current problems of Scottish Labour and their relationship
with the voters.
It won’t be done by a big smile especially
in former Labour strongholds where they have lost ground due to a failure to
engage.
A lot of people I have spoke to have said
that they never left Scottish Labour, Scottish Labour left them; the trouble
with people walking is that sometimes they never come back.
Sarah Boyack, the person to bring them
back?
I don’t think so!
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow
University
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