A spot of domestic unhappy politics; Former deputy leader of Edinburgh Council Susan Dalgety quits Labour Party, her emotional Facebook rant blames Jeremy Corbyn, I think history will place the date of the Labour Party’s problems further back to the hostile takeover by the party of university educated middle class careerists which is why Labour is where it is now!

Dear All

The SNP boat has been swamped by allegations against Scotland’s ‘jolly fat man’ Alex Salmond, but as much as this is interesting other stories in other parties abound. A former deputy leader of Edinburgh Council has quit the Labour Party; her reason is that she thinks the party has been subject to what she describes as a “hostile takeover”.

It is true that the Labour Party has problems, both at the top and at the bottom, but to lump everything into the basket of Jeremy Corbyn is a tad unfair. The problems in the Labour Party regarding direction and leadership started a long time ago. The years running up to Blair to me would seem a good starting point. The Labour Party under Blair had electoral success, however despite this their ‘success’ didn’t travel downwards towards the most vulnerable in society.

The Labour Party is supposed to be all about making the life of working class people better, but that all changed when the Labour Party was subject to a “hostile takeover” by middle class university careerists. These middle class careerists did nothing to help the working class hence the Labour Party found itself out of government both north and south of the border.

So, what happened to the middle class careerist MPs etc once they left office, where they battling for Labour values on the doorsteps, week in, week out?

No!

They went off and got other employment and left the graft to the plebs, people like Douglas Alexander went off to work for Bono, Alexander’s sister; Wendy went off to work for a university in Dundee. Of course you have to give credit where credit is due to those former MPs who turn up, do a random day, get their picture taken and then disappear for months.

There is plenty of that going on.

Jeremy Corbyn’s election was a rejection of what some term as Blairites, Corbyn has his own unique problems which are being played out in the press and behind closed doors but his election was needed. Corbyn didn’t lose Scotland for the Labour Party, no; the Scottish leadership of the ‘Blairite’ variety did all that by their own devices. When the Labour Party was at its peak, some of its elected MPs, MSPs and Cllrs deliberately choose to be lazy, but not just lazy, lazy and useless, which led to a tsunami which swept them out of office.

So, what is the middle class careerists main complaint other than they don’t like the direction of the party, presumably they don’t like the prospect if they have a seat that it is threatened by possibly mandatory re-selection. Imagine the howls of protests from ineffective MPs who feathered their nest and now find out they have to justify their existence to someone or group.

Although Susan Dalgety was previously Labour’s chief press officer and she insists the party she loved is dead, she must have known the problems of detachment between the Labour Party and the people existed long before Corbyn ever became leader.

Her emotional Facebook post blaming the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn isn’t credible in my opinion.

She wrote:

“I am leaving the Labour Party, the organisation that has been a huge part of my life since I joined, as young mother, in 1980. I met my husband through the party, made lifelong friends, worked for a Labour First Minister. I was even lucky enough to be a Labour councillor for seven years, on Edinburgh City Council. I marched behind Labour banners, delivered countless leaflets, cried at election results, especially in 1997 when we won that famous landslide. I was Labour for life…or so I thought. Then came Saturday, 12 September 2015. As Jeremy Corbyn was announced as leader of our party, I turned to my husband, and said, through tears, ‘Well, our party has just been subject of a hostile takeover…we are finished.’  And so it has turned out. The hostile takeover is complete. An unlikely coalition of grumpy old blokes in Lenin caps and wide-eyed Millennials in Converse, aided and abetted by some sinister apparatchiks, now controls our party”.

She added:

“The numbers are against us. I have no heart to go over the reasons I am leaving…there are too many…but in the final analysis it boils down to this: the Labour Party I loved is dead. I am not anti-Semitic, I am not pro-Brexit and I don’t believe a command economy will work in Britain. And I am no longer a member of the Labour Party.”

Power for power sake isn’t the be all and end all if the power is wielded badly and used against the very people that the Labour Party was setup to support. The vanguard of the proletariat was never the ‘middle class’, however the middle class university careerists in the Labour Party thought they were effectively managers and not elected representatives of the people.

Years ago, I blogged on how Glasgow City Council which was run by the Labour Party needed a purge, eventually the Labour Party came to the same view, however that purge should have extended into MPs an MSPs but didn’t. The subsequent elections saw the public carry out that task, in Scotland the Labour Party needs to go back to ‘bare metal’ which includes a review of staff at HQ externally done by London Labour. If Scottish Labour keeps losing, like in football, the party will need to bring in new players rather than move old failed ones from Holyrood to Westminster seats which appear to be happening at the moment.

I remember when Jim Murphy was leader, he declared that he had fixed the Labour Party, when I heard this, I wondered what the hell he was talking about, and I suppose so did the public which promptly led to the party being wiped out in Scotland.

Corbyn is a rejection of the Blair era and the people associated with it, him becoming leader was a reaction from the grassroots to what was going on in the party, leaving and pinning it on his leadership isn’t fair, a case however could be made against the antics of Momentum, who need to get their act together and have a broader appeal. They need to understand that the British people will reject them if they don’t support them; the time of loyalty to the disloyal has gone. Equally, a comment could be said that Jeremy Corbyn also has to broader his appeal, and move some of his policy positions.

The row with Jewish Community is a test for him to pass or fail.

Finally, people come and go in the Labour Party, maybe Susan Dalgety will come back, maybe she won’t there is no such thing as the indispensable man or to broaden that out, indispensable party.

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University