The War is On: Labour hopes of power could hinge on a Tory deal as polling figures show council election meltdown for the Labour Party in Glasgow, in local news, trust is an issue for Glasgow Labour as internal Party documents are leaked to the press, if you didn’t know better, you might think someone is sabotaging the party for an SNP win

Dear All

If someone in the Scottish Labour Party had said about a decade ago that a current Glasgow City Council Labour Group would jump into bed with the Tories you would have thought that you have lost your mind.

Some time ago in a chat with a Conservative, we ended up talking about the Glasgow Council Elections and he said to me given the success of Holyrood 2016 and the rise in the Conservative vote in the City, he could thought the 4 or 5 seats could be picked up by his party.

A decade ago such a conclusion would have be dismissed out of hand, but Scotland is in political flux, the big loser in the whirlwind is of course the Labour Party.

The Glasgow Labour Party is having a difficult time it had a bad Scottish Independence referendum losing in every area of the city.

Incidentally while in Pollok through-out the campaign no one from Pollok CLP campaign out to work with the Better Together Team.

Imagine it, 9, yes 9 elected members of the Labour Party in the Pollok Constituency and they never did a single day with the Better Together Team made up mostly of people who were members of any political party.

Westminster 2015 saw Pollok lost to the SNP, I always wondered if the then Labour MP Ian Davidson ever considered that working could or might have saved his job.

Holyrood 2016 again in Pollok another SNP victory, Johann Lamont lost badly in a Labour campaign which several people described as a ‘shambles’. Personally I have done a lot of campaigning and this campaign wasn’t good, leaderless, rudderless and not inclusive. It started late, didn’t have enough people, money and resources.

If there was a plan then it was a bad one.

The Labour Party needs to up its game, which is why it is a surprise to me that instead of being down to the business of fixing things, they are planning for defeat, or ‘managing expectations’ as they so delicately put it,

If there is a power meltdown, hopes of Labour continuing as the administration could rest on a Tory deal within the city.

It is said that the party is so sure of defeat that they have internal documents show it preparing for an electoral meltdown.

I wasn’t aware of this development but now that I am I don’t have much faith that appeal to stand as councillor for the Labour Party will come to much given that since they failed on me failure to demonstrate leadership that they don’t actually know what leadership is themselves.

Am I a leader, simple put yes, I have been in leadership positions before such as when I taught at Glasgow University running classes and most recently as Glasgow Spokesman for Leave.EU.

I didn’t volunteer for the role as Glasgow Spokesman for Leave.EU, I was specifically chosen by Dr Tom Walker who travelled right across the country to a meeting specifically to offer me the post. You may remember that I did the BBC Big Debate which is hosted by Gordon Brewer up against Ming Campbell, the elder statesman of the Lib Dems and SNP MEP Alyn Smith.

I and Brian Monteith won that debate hands down, you should have seen the face of Alyn Smith afterwards he was raging.

Some areas of Glasgow is predicted to drop by about two thirds of what it was polling in local government elections less than a decade ago, so you might ask why the massive drop?

It isn’t just because of the Scottish Independence vote, no; resentment has built up for some considerable time against elected Labour representatives.

It seems the part time attitude, failure to deliver and having a big vote to rely on had made some people adopt a couldn’t care less attitude to the punters.

But the tide has turned and people realise that that they can switch their vote to anyone, the Tories played the Union card and scooped up a hell of a lot which is why there are 2 list MSPs in the City of Glasgow.

Adam Tomkins and Annie Wells!

Cllr McAveety of the Labour Party and leader of Glasgow City Council said:

"This is ridiculous. I know what the Tories did to Glasgow and I know what damage their current policies are doing again. They will be nowhere near power next May. The reality is that this election will be a straight fight between Labour and the SNP. A straight fight between a party that will put Glasgow first or a part obsessed with another referendum. We are fighting to win and deliver for our city."

Does Frank remember the shock on his face in 2011 when he got put out in the street, I do, I remember him on the platform at the SECC giving his resurrection speech of he will be back.

Well, he didn’t come back in 2016.

In 2012, the Labour Party officials in London came up to Glasgow to do a cull, that was a success despite them getting some people wrongly put out, I was calling for this for years beforehand. The cull should have been extended to MPs and MSPs, that didn’t happen and we all know how that turned out.

Glasgow is up for grabs, the Labour Party organisers have a problem, the old ways of doing things is gone, you can’t rely on the public just to give you their vote anymore, you have to go out and earn it and not just at election time during the short campaign.

The Labour Party knows it has lost voters, they know that they have lost activists and they also know that they have lost donations from high profile donors; so are they about to lose the City of Glasgow to the SNP?

One ray of hope in the gloom is that the SNP opposition is incredibly poor in Glasgow, filled with non-entities but they wouldn’t be fronting the campaign, they will be standing around Nicola Sturgeon.

Someone in the Labour Party has apparently leaked internal documents show it preparing for an electoral meltdown.

It appears that not everyone is as trustworthy as they should be.

Finally as to my appeal to be a candidate, I do hope I get someone who understands what leadership actually is, part of leadership is about making tough choices and if I have to make a tough choice then you can be damn sure I will without giving it a second thought.

Yours Sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University