Dear All
Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont has
resigned with immediate effect.
In leaving the post as leader she has accused
the UK party of treating Scotland like a "branch office".
The Labour Party in Scotland is now at a
crossroads, when you look up at the sign posts there is really only one name
stands out within the MSP ranks Ken Macintosh.
The other alternative is that Labour elect someone
who is a big Westminster hitter such as Jim Murphy or Gordon Brown, both had
very successful independence campaigns.
In an ideal world, a replacement would have
come from the MSP ranks, but the choice is so poor.
And you can add to it that Scottish Labour
can’t be just a name anymore because as Lamont found out key decisions,
including the removal of Scottish Labour general secretary Ian Price, were made
without her input.
During the Yes campaign, her constituency
Pollok returned the highest Yes vote in Glasgow so Johann Lamont has other
problems to consider like holding onto the seat in 2016. 26.802 people voted
Yes and Lamont’s vote in 2011 was 10.875.
As she has resigned as leader, she will
find the extra help in constituency at election will also disappear, which
means she really does face a long hard slog all the way.
The 56-year-old MSP indicated in her decision
to resign that she had "had enough" well her troubles are just
starting in her own backyard.
As to the removal of Scottish Labour
general secretary Ian Price, it wasn’t a secret that the Labour campaign was
poor on the ground, and it wasn’t a secret that equally Better Together
suffered in Glasgow because of it.
Something had to be done with or without
her input.
MP Anas Sarwar has become interim leader of
the party north of the border while a successor is being chosen.
Former Scottish Labour first ministers,
Henry McLeish and Jack McConnell, spoke to the BBC about the big problems that
now faced their party.
Like loss of direction, lack of policy and
drift, matters haven’t been helped by the infighting to rebrand Labour by
people unhappy about the way the party was going.
Lord McConnell said he was "very, very
angry" and insisted that the UK leadership had serious questions to
answer.
Henry McLeish added Scottish Labour was
facing a crisis following a decade of decline, this was in part caused by a
total disconnection with the people who found out something rather incredible,
you go complain to your elected Labour member and then you don’t get help.
This is one of the reasons why so many
people are turned off by Scottish Labour.
In a parting shot Lamont described some
Labour MPs as "dinosaurs" who failed to recognise that "Scotland
has changed forever" after September's referendum.
She told the newspaper:
"Scotland has chosen to remain in
partnership with our neighbours in the UK. But Scotland is distinct and
colleagues must recognise that. There is a danger of Scottish politics being
between two sets of dinosaurs - the Nationalists who can't accept they were
rejected by the people, and some colleagues at Westminster who think nothing
has changed."
I would have to agree with that, things
have changed but there isn’t a will to accept that in Labour.
Lamont added:
"Party members up and down the
country, voters on the doors, have spoken to me about the change they want. And
that's a Scottish Labour Party which reflects their views. That's what I have
been trying to build. However, some wanted me to become the issue. The Scottish
Labour Party and its renewal are more important than me. That's why I am
standing down - so that debate our country demands can take place."
In her resignation letter to Jamie Glackin,
chair of the Scottish Labour Party, she said:
"In order that we can have the real
discussion about how we take Scottish Labour forward, I believe it would be
best if I took myself out of the equation and stepped down as leader."
As they say never a dull moment in
politics.
Henry McLeish says the resignation was
evidence of his party in crisis, he is right, in very party there is a rise and
fall; the trouble is that renewal can forestall that process if the Labour
Party in Scotland can re-invent itself.
And the re-invention is returning to it
socialist roots which have been abandoned along with the ethos of public
service.
McLeish added:
"This crisis in Labour didn't happen
yesterday - this has been a decade now of decline. We've seen that they
[Labour] have failed to match the other parties in terms of devolution
commission reports and of course we have had this suffocating control of
Westminster during this period. And this leads to the need for a very different
modern Labour Party as we go ahead."
That sounds fine but the real nub is disconnect
with people they are supposed to represent, the Labour Party’s business getting
satisfied customers in the areas they represent, can they honestly say are pro
active in doing that?
I am sure that many people in the Yes
campaign will be very happy today, but they should remember that Lamont took
out Alex Salmond prior to stepping down.
As to my own feelings about her resignation,
I am neither happy nor unhappy by this event, I once went to Johann Lamont with
a complaint, it was a genuine complaint, and it got tossed in the bin.
I got no help.
I got no help.
The Labour Party need to do something major
to sort out their problems which is a bit hard in a party struggling and on a downward slope at present!
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow
University
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