A reader asks: What do you think about Johann Lamont winning the Scottish Labour leadership contest? Well, jings, far be it for me to intrude into these matters but it bears noticing that Lamont, doughty as she may be, relied upon the tame votes of Trades Union affiliates to secure her victory. Ken McIntosh – remember him, Mr Miliband? – actually won the most votes from individual party members.
All Scottish Labour types now admit the party’s “arrogant” belief Scotland would always be there for Labour; all claim to have learned from the chastening experience of this May’s election. All say they must be “about” more than just Nat-bashing. All of which is all very well and good but I’ll believe the Scottish Labour party has changed when it actually changes its attitudes. There seems no good reason to take them at the word even if, albeit from outside the Labour family, one might nod approvingly at the general spirit conveyed by the words.
Nevertheless, and with all due respect to Lamont (who, remember, is such an agent of “change” that until her recent elevation she was deputy leader of the Labour group at Holyrood) her selection by the Comrades does rather remind one that the Scottish political playing field is far from level. Not all the SNP’s talents are clustered at the Scottish parliament but most of them are. The same cannot be said of Labour. The Edinburgh Team is the B (or even C) Team.
The great thing Alex Salmond has over his rivals in Edinburgh is that he is not a heid-in-hands politician. That is, he benefits from one element of the fabled Scottish cringe: the fear that the country might be embarrassed by sending the First Minister off to any kind of international gathering. Mr Salmond passes this test and even those who have not voted for him admit that he’s a canny kind of player who whatever his policy shortcomings won’t make Scotia seem populated by mindless hicks prepared to vote any old numptie into office provided he or she sports the correct coloured rosette. It is not obvious, whatever her other abilities, that Johann Lamont passes this heid-in-hands test.
Doubtless this is unfair but there you go. So is politics. All things being equal, one would think Labour will regain some lost ground at the next election, if only because the SNP must (surely!) be close to the ceiling of what is possible under the present electoral system but that scarcely means there will be a real Labour revival, far less enthusiasm for whatever new products their latest leader unveils. I’d guess, however, that they most probably won’t be that much better than the old lines.
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