Balls and Miliband to rescue Labour's Scottish campaign…
Hamish Macdonell 6:00pm
Can Ed Miliband and Ed Balls save Labour in Scotland? The two
Labour heavyweights have decided to move in to rescue their party's disastrous campaign in Scotland — with Balls being sent up north to sharpen his party's teeth. A desperate measure for a
desperate situation: Labour has not only blown a 10-15 point lead over the SNP in just a few weeks, but now languishes some 10-13 percentage points behind. A mammoth, humiliating defeat looms.
Until now, Labour has liked to portray its campaign for the Holyrood elections as a totally Scottish affair: run in Scotland, organised in Scotland and led by Scottish politicians. Not any more. Senior staffers in Ed Miliband’s office started briefing Scottish hacks last night that Miliband is now going to take a much more "hands on" approach to the campaign. Miliband has only made one, brief appearance in the campaign so far. But he and Ed Balls are due to be in Scotland this week to push a more strident "anti-independence" message.
Gordon Brown has also only appeared on the campaign trail once so far, and that was to meet a few voters within easy reach of his home. But he is also due to take a more active part in the Scottish Labour campaign this week.
Will it work? Scottish politicians are rightly wary of involving Westminster leaders too much because they tend to run against the semi-autonomous spirit of devolution. The leader of Scottish MSPs, Iain Gray, will know he risks being ridiculed as someone who needed to be saved by his party bosses from London.
Yet Labour managers must have weighed up these risks and decided it was still worth sending for the cavalry — in the form of Balls and Miliband. And this is not without risk for Miliband. With Labour seemingly heading for defeat in Scotland, he will now be associated with a campaign that may well end in disaster.
But even damage limitation has its merits. It may be an even bigger disaster for Miliband if his Scottish party goes down to a humiliating and emphatic (and avoidable) defeat in its first
real-world test after his election as party leader.
In another desperate attempt to rescue the campaign, Scottish Labour today re-launched its campaign, ditching the theme of "vote Labour to oppose Tory cuts," for a relentless,
an-independence barrage.
The aim is simple: use a scaremongering argument to woo the wavering Lib Dem voters who have always been seen as the key to this campaign. So far, Alex Salmond has done far better than Labour in
winning them over. His "I stand up for Scotland" claim has resonated far more with those who want to protest at Westminster-inspired cuts than Labour’s message.
Now Labour want to frighten those disillusioned Lib Dems back to the unionist fold with warnings about the break-up of Britain, but it is probably too late to make much difference.
Hamish Macdonell writes on politics for Caledonian Mercury, Scotland's first online newspaper, www.caledonianmercury.com
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The Oncoming Storm
April 25th, 2011 6:12pm Report this commentThe SNP will be licking their lips at this, Labour's Scottish polling must be awful if they're sending for the Eds.
There's probably another dynamic at work here, while Salmond is running an effective campaign about sticking up for Scotland, Scots have seen that he has a good understanding with Cameron and will be able to get more out of London through quiet discussions rather than from the student politics grandstanding that Labour would do. Interesting times ahead!
Liz Brown
April 25th, 2011 6:13pm Report this commentGod help Scotland!
toco
April 25th, 2011 6:15pm Report this commentIf Jonah Brown joins his bag carriers in a futile exercise to save Labour from humiliation then Labour really has hit the buffers.Oh bless the brothers who represent the old communist spirit that has even died in China,Russia and Cuba.
Gold Seeds
April 25th, 2011 6:24pm Report this commentIf a couple of north london, silver spoon fed, oxford ppe proffesional politians cant reconnect labour to its glasgow heartlands then nothing will
Occasional Ostrich
April 25th, 2011 6:24pm Report this comment@Liz Brown
God might be about to do just that, but in a way we don't yet fully perceive.
annassasin
April 25th, 2011 7:23pm Report this commentA gargling, lightweight, kensington politic nerd mincing around Scotland will go down great in the north. Add to that, a pompous pitbull, who still believes the deficit will evaporate if it is ignored. Finally an x-pm that was the greatest failure of modern times, obsessed with worlwide economic destruction, as well as the job he did of our economy, cannot make a succesful return.
Genius
SNP " London losers, launch attack on Scotland"
TrevorsDen
April 25th, 2011 8:04pm Report this commentHilarious! So this is Labour's idea of devolution?
Ho ho ho.
Let the SNP band waggon role - so an english public schoolboy has been sent north to save labour in scotland!
Absolutely hilarious. But seriously - it tells everyone in england where labours priorities lie.
Did I say lie? well we are talking Labour here.
dorothy wilson
April 25th, 2011 8:15pm Report this comment"Balls and Milliband to rescue ...." Rescue?
TrevorsDen
April 25th, 2011 8:17pm Report this commentDid I say role?? Ah well - its still a good laff innit?
Toom Tabard
April 25th, 2011 8:32pm Report this commentHow can Labour expect Scotland to believe that Iain Gray is capable of being First Minister, if Labour doesn’t even believe him to be capable of running his own campaign?
John Ruddy
April 25th, 2011 8:46pm Report this commentWell, whats to lose? After all, the nats have been claiming falsely for years that Scottish Labour was run from London.
Call me Dave
April 25th, 2011 9:36pm Report this comment4 years of negativity from Labour opposition in Scotland compared to a well run MINORITY administration from the SNP. 'SIMPLES'
Looks like 5 more years for the SNP and perhaps independence not too far off.
I'm mildly euphoric !
barnacle bill
April 25th, 2011 9:39pm Report this commentPerhaps the two Eds might ask Gordon to introduce them to Stephen Purcell when they are north of the border.
Scotty
April 25th, 2011 10:14pm Report this commentAnother example of how out of touch labour are - who in Scotland is going to be pleased to see the two middle england public school twerps trying to tell people how to vote - the Scots will see the eds as being no different from the tories and SNP will get even more support.
Laurie
April 25th, 2011 10:28pm Report this commentEd 'n' Balls coming to Scotland?
Great, they're the new Toxic Tories, more votes for the SNP!
AliC
April 25th, 2011 10:30pm Report this commentI would laugh but the English still have to pay for the SNP's largesse with the voters.
And no, north sea oil does not cover it.
TrevorsDen
April 25th, 2011 10:34pm Report this commentbarnacle - you are a very naughty boy...
Laurence
April 25th, 2011 10:54pm Report this comment@annassasin
Could not have put it better myself. The worst (unelected) prime minister in recent history, his charmless bug-eyed henchman and an adenoidal numpty union puppet are deployed to 'rescue' Ian Gray, a man so vapid he makes John Major resemble Peter Ustinov. You really, really could not make it up.
skoubhie_dubh
April 25th, 2011 11:50pm Report this commentJohn Ruddy
"Well, whats to lose? After all, the nats have been claiming falsely for years that Scottish Labour was run from London."
Emm! What Scottish Labour. There is no such organisation. Just a northern branch of the UK party. Ian Gray is not leader of Scottish Labour. He is leader of the MSP's who support Labour in Hollyrood which at this particular time is zero as the parliament has closed for the election and all have ceased to be MSP's. In the leaders debates here, Milliband is the person who should actually be involved.
skoubhie_dubh
April 25th, 2011 11:58pm Report this commentAliC
"I would laugh but the English still have to pay for the SNP's largesse with the voters. And no, north sea oil does not cover it."
That's fine in theory, but if this is a realistic situation then it is surely time to cast us adrift to fend for ourselves and leave you to live on all your extra money that you normally send to us.
I'll mark you down for our Independence party then.
Look up GERS. You might find the data that the mainstream press are frightened to tell you. One country is working on a financial surplus over the past few years, and it is slightly firther north than all the others.
Remind me. How much is the block grant to Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England.
Oh! One of these countries doesn't get a block grant? How do you know when you have reached your spending limit then?
Major Plonquer 1
April 26th, 2011 2:00am Report this commentLabour are obviously hoping that Miliband can work his magic and help Scottish Labour win by a nose.
Major Plonquer 1
April 26th, 2011 2:33am Report this commentI can see next weeks headlines now....
"Balls Up In Scotland!"
"Miliband Helps Labour Nose Ahead"
"Iain Grey Sandwiched Between Eds"
Sir Everard Digby
April 26th, 2011 7:09am Report this commentIs it wise to get Ed Balls to advise about how to win elections? After all, he managed to turn a rock solid Labour seat into a marginal constituency and only survived thanks to UKIP splitting the opposition vote.
douglas clark
April 26th, 2011 10:09am Report this commentDo you actually think this a good strategy?
barnacle bill
April 26th, 2011 10:55am Report this comment@ TrevorsDen
The name Stephen Purcell should never be forgotten where politics and NuLabor are concerned north of the border.
Many would want it otherwise!
RandomScot
April 26th, 2011 11:23am Report this comment@JohnRuddy
Iain Gray refers to 'The Labour Group in Holyrood'
That is what they ate, a group, not a separate party, they are a defined subsection of Labour, HQed in London
AF
April 26th, 2011 12:05pm Report this commentCan they stay?? pleasssse.
pretty please.
Ed P
April 26th, 2011 1:53pm Report this commentI was considering a donation to the Labour Party - they deserve it for the amusement value - but now it'll be spent on a new keyboard, as this one is covered in coffee.
Their pathetic antics bring to mind the song,"Send in the clowns"!
Veryuglybloke
April 26th, 2011 5:27pm Report this commentlabour need not worry too much. The voting system gives them a distinct advantage, they have the support of the BBC and ITV, the support of all the press apart from the Sun and they have doubtless filled in many absentee ballots already. All they have to do on the night is ensure that enough ballot boxes and registers are lost in transit....they have some experience at this sort of thing from the last general election and from various by-elections and will doubtless triumph on the night. Democracy in action or what?
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