Tagged with Scottish Leadership election 2014

Jim Murphy and Kezia Dugdale win the election but not the popular vote

Jim Murphy accepting the Scottish leadershipThe media and the bookies predicted a Murphy and Dugdale victory and that is what they eventually got, by a margin that, on the surface at least, looked comfortable. What they appear not to have won is the popular vote – I say appear because no figures have been released on actual numbers voting nor even turnout – but I shall justify my claim below.

It is of course a very disappointing result for those of us who see Jim Murphy as part of the problem rather than as the solution, but it is nevertheless a result for which Neil Findlay deserve credit. The result shows above all, how unrepresentative of the Scottish labour movement their elected representatives have become after two decades of the corrupt manipulation of selections under New Labour – we unfortunately know polls what regard they are held in by the electorate. It was in this section where the 79 parliamentarians who voted each had a vote worth as much as those cast by over 120 party members or 250 trade union levy payers. And it was their shortfall in this section which Neil and Katy always had to make up in the trade union and individual members’ sections.

The detailed results are as follows: Continue reading →

Neil Findlay launches new charter of workers rights

Neil Findlay with supporters in Fauldhouse Miners WelfareNeil Findlay has today launched a new charter for workers rights in Scotland “to make work fit for the 21st century”. If he wins the leadership, he promises Scottish Labour will reconnect with working Scotland and put practical policies in place to make a difference to people’s lives from day one. The charter includes calls for greater devolution of employment law as well as greater use of public procurement to drive up standards in the workplace.

For too many people in modern Scotland, he says, the rights at work we’ve fought for over generations simply do not apply. The rise in zero hour contracts, the failure of previous Labour governments to tackle anti-trade union legislation and EU loopholes that allow unscrupulous employers to undercut pay, terms and conditions all make for insecurity in working Scotland. Continue reading →

The polls provide clear evidence that Findlay can reach the parts Murphy can’t

SL2014It is true that Jim Murphy has a higher media profile than Neil Findlay, but rarely in a leadership election do we have such good evidence that one candidate in the running cannot win over the voters Labour needs whilst the other has the policies they support. This matters if Ed Miliband is to have a reasonable chance of forming a government and if Scottish Labour is to avoid a further drubbing in 2016.

We know that over a third of Labour supporters went with Yes in the referendum. According to Professor John Curtice, a poll from Lord Ashcroft has this figure at 37% with another poll from Opinium in the last week of the campaign showing it to be as high as 47%. As Curtice points out:

It is certainly the case that less well-off voters, that is the kind of people who might be thought to be Labour’s traditional constituency, were more likely to vote Yes than those in more comfortable circumstances.’

Continue reading →

New Labour got Scottish Labour into the hole it’s in. Only Neil Findlay can dig it out

Neil Findlay campaign portraitRecall the Scottish independence referendum? Can you remember the panic when a few polls put the Yes camp in the lead? Politics is a fickle business but surely that was burned on every Westminster psyche. Dozens of Labour MPs should remember it. They tramped north of Hadrian’s Wall to tell the fine people of Scotland to stay with us. We’re better together because of reasons, etc. One of those MPs was Ivan Lewis, whose trip to Glasgow was serenaded by the Imperial March of Star Wars fame. I’m sure he looks fondly back on it now. I also suppose he remembers why he went. Scotland leaving the union affected us English and Welsh just as much as the Scots.

Writing for the Sunday Herald, Tom Watson makes the case for Neil Findlay’s Scottish leadership campaign and recommends party members back him. Ivan Lewis disagrees. After Tom’s article appeared, Ivan tweeted:

Tom tweeted back and it went downhill from there. Continue reading →