Scottish Labour in Scotland stands at the crossroads, it is important that Richard Leonard wins the leadership of the Labour Party in Scotland to reshape the party back towards the ethos that the party was founded to protect, the working class people of Scotland

Dear All

One of the lies that is sold by the right wing of the Labour Party and the mainstream media is that the ‘Blair Faction’ which is now flying under the title ‘Progress’ is the moderate wing of the party.

It is a lie, Progress or the Blair Faction are the people who aren’t socialists who have taken up residence in the Labour Party who are all university educated and from a middle class background.

The Labour contest in Scotland sees two people standing, Richard Leonard and Anas Sarwar. Anas Sarwar is the much better known candidate, however his campaign has hit trouble, he is a millionaire, he is private schooled, he sends his children to private school; the family business he has shares in doesn’t recognise a trade union.

Just on his family background, he should be ruled out, the Labour Party of Keir Hardie has been changed, and not for the better, this is why the party is in decline. The ‘Blair Faction’, the section of the party which believes in ‘entitlement’ destroyed the party in Scotland; they had lived off the backs of the working class vote for decades while at the same time failing to deliver for the people.

The proof isn’t just the election results; the proof is the utter collapse of the activist base in the party north of the border. Kezia Dugdale should be the last of the ‘Blair Faction’ ever to lead Scottish Labour.

Labour is a Party that needs to rediscover its roots; and its roots like its leaders should come from the working class, not rich millionaires who have their own agenda.

Richard Leonard is the MSP aiming to become the next Scottish Labour leader, if he wins then perhaps the party has a chance to be relevant again, if Anas Sarwar wins then Kezia Dugdale leaving makes no difference, one Blairite replaced by another Blairite doesn’t equal change.

As to Richard Leonard’s claim that the party north of the border would have faced electoral disaster without Jeremy Corbyn is spurious in my opinion because the Blair Faction still control the party machine. In the election, the focus was on one seat that was held by Ian Murray, an anti Corbyn supporter. In East Renfrewshire, the Labour Party wrong choose to pump money into Blair MacDougall’s campaign which had no chance of winning.

Blair MacDougall look like a Corbyn supporter to you?

Richard Leonard is one of two candidates hoping to replace Kezia Dugdale, the fact that only two people are willing to put themselves forward tells you a lot about the state of the Labour Party in Scotland as it stands at present.

Anas Sarwar has declared that he is ready to be First Minister, well I can tell Anas that Scotland isn’t ready to make him First Minister or the Labour Party the party of government.

The recent General Election in Scotland saw the Labour Party make gains, but the important thing is not that the party increased their share of the popular vote to 40 per cent but that the SNP vote collapsed.

The SNP vote collapsed, if you can’t grasp that then you really do need to smell the coffee, success based on other’s failure is hardly anything to crow about. I don’t know where Richard Leonard gets the idea that the UK Labour leader had “revitalised the party and energised young people” since taking charge in 2015.

The reason for making this statement to me appears to be electioneering rather than hard fact, when I did Labour campaigning, the ‘energised young people’ weren’t exactly there in numbers or had the experience to do a good job.

Anyone can be an activist, only a few can be really good at it.

Richard Leonard launched his Scottish Labour leadership campaign in Glasgow on Saturday; it must have been a quiet affair as the main event that day was the Yes mob walking about Glasgow having lost three years ago.

If Anas wins the leadership, then Scottish Labour will not be seen as viable, if Richard Leonard wins then he needs to chart a steady course so that the loony left don’t wreck things as they traditionally do.

This election is about a choice but sadly the choice doesn’t appear to be much different from what has gone before, the fact only two people came forward is rather telling.

Scottish Labour is supposed to have a leaders programme in operation, judging by this contest, you wouldn’t know it existed.

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University