Dear All
One thing which was noticeable when Kezia Dugdale was the
leader of the Scottish Labour was being wrong and out of touch on the major
issues of our time. She had a history of backing the wrong horse in the race,
from Trump to Brexit, she was always on the losing side of the debate.
As leader, her tenure wasn’t marked by renew of the party in
Scotland
but more with the chaotic race to the bottom. It cannot have escaped your
notice that Scottish Labour has slipped to being the third party in Scottish
politics.
Third party at Westminster
and third party at Holyrood, you could also see under her tenure that the seeds
of destruction were sowed that led to Glasgow Labour losing the Council to the
SNP. The full blame for this defeat cannot be all hers, others played their
part as well.
Now that Kezia Dugdale has decided to leave Holyrood for a
job at Glasgow University 's John Smith Centre for
Public Service, she presumably wants to hang Scottish Labour leader Richard
Leonard some ‘advice’ on how to showcase his talents. Before we get to the
advice, it isn’t unusual for ex politicians to move into the University sector,
the same happened with Sam Galbraith and Wendy Alexander, and also with Gordon
Matheson, he went to Strathclyde as a visiting professor.
Now, let’s see what advice Kezia is dishing out, she says
Scottish Labour leader needs a major political event like a second independence
referendum to showcase his talents and give him a chance to beat his rivals. If
you sit for a moment, you might come to the conclusion that Kezia isn’t pro UK and wants to
see Leonard go down the tubes. Richard Leonard at this point in time doesn’t
need a showcase event in anything; he needs to reform the Scottish Labour Party
to rebuild it from the ground up.
Scottish Labour really isn’t a position to go campaigning
much beyond social media and press releases and interviews on TV. Of course
there are some people who are working way on their Westminster campaigns like Labour MP Paul
Sweeney and Kate Watson in Glasgow East, but there isn’t a surge coming through
from the membership base to be activists on the ground.
If you understand the political economy, you know that
Scottish Labour needs to gel the three most important things to achieve
success, people, money and resources. When the equation is out of balance, the
political machine breaks down, like an engine which has ran out of oil. It
overheats, blows a gasket and seizes up.
Have you seen or heard much of the Scottish Labour European
Election campaign?
Do you know what their policies are?
Do you know who is standing?
Had a leaflet, seen a street stall; even seen a party
launch?
17 days till the vote!
Nothing!
The Labour Party like all the mainstream parties and the
press has deliberately kept a low profile because they know the public are
angry at fact that Brexit hasn’t been delivered. The local election defeats in England are a
major wake up call to the political parties. 1300 Conservatives Councillors
lost their seats at the recent election in England , the worse Conservative
result since 1995. With this single piece of information, anyone think that
Theresa May will comply with Jeremy Corbyn’s wish for an early general
election?
Corbyn may want an election but doesn’t look good for
Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard where a recent poll showed no gains and
one lost; ending up with just six seats; worse still for him, the SNP according
to the poll would go from 35 MPs to 51 MPs. If you understand that that
Scottish Labour and the SNP fishing in the same voter pond for the working
class vote.
Anyone really think that Scottish Labour leader Richard
Leonard needs a major event to showcase his talents at present?
Or, do you think a major event would lead to a major defeat?
One of Kezia Dugdale’s pals is Scottish Labour MP Ian Murray,
both he and Kezia aren’t Corbyn or Leonard supporters. Mr Murray recently gave
an interview that espoused that:
Anyone really think that Scottish Labour leader Richard
Leonard needs a major event to showcase his talents at present?
Regarding Leonard, Kezia also said:
“He has had a lot of time and space to do some of the policy
work that I never had. At the same time he's in a difficult position because
there haven't been any elections, it's not the same chance to put his face and
name forward to the electorate and be better known than he is. The polling I have
seen shows it's not that people do or don't like him, they just haven't met him
yet. That's a blessing and a curse. In not knowing who he is, they haven't
formed any opinion of him so he still has a blank piece of paper to build on
and that's a real strength”.
So, to recap, no track record, no policies, no public rcognition
for Leonard, party campaigning needing restructured, activist base needing an
overhaul from the bottom up, people leaking private conservations, and in some
places briefing against ‘comrades’, clearly no unity at all, plus the
Corbynites and Blairites still at war, yes, that hasn’t gone away.
Finally, Kezia Dugdale said that she has been a ‘friendly
critic’ but you always come back to that the fact that in her eight years as a
list MSP for Lothian, she had many U-turns when she got it wrong, held up by her
opponents, most notably her criticism of Jeremy Corbyn. When she backed
Owen Smith for leader, I didn’t, I thought it was wrong for her to publicly
support anyone for leader. In the end, Owen Smith lost; fell from grace, just
as Kezia did herself, now she leaves for another job. I met Kezia Dugdale once,
it was at the European Election count in 2016, she was in Glasgow for the result; we chatted for a few
minutes, and then said cheerio. I think she will like her new job at Glasgow University , less hassle and an
opportunity to step back and see things for what they really are.
Maybe she is suffering from 'jungle fever?
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University
1 comment:
Wow that was strange. I just wrote an incredibly long comment but
after I clicked submit my comment didn't appear.
Grrrr... well I'm not writing all that over again. Anyway, just wanted to say superb blog!
Post a Comment