Tagged with Scottish Leadership election 2014

Why Labour could do without Balls and chains

Balls as ball n chainEd Miliband is stuck. He wants to lead One Nation. But Scotland got close to going alone. That independence referendum in mid-September showed Labour voters in its heartland authorities in Glasgow wanted out nearly as much as the SNP. UKIP, while tearing the Conservative Party apart, gave Labour a fright in the Heywood and Middleton by-election coming within 600 votes of overturning a so-called solid Labour majority.

Four years on from his election as party leader, Miliband is still shackled with Ed Balls as his shadow chancellor of the exchequer, a man he did not want in the job when first elected. A man whom Miliband was reported to have wanted to reshuffle (£) after his 2014 Party Conference. However, as former Conservative prime minister Harold Macmillan replied when asked what was the most difficult part of his job: “Events, dear boy, events”. When the reshuffle didn’t happen it was reported by Labour Uncut, that Miliband’s own leadership was unsettled by the Heywood and Middleton by-election close-shave. His cunning plan to move Balls, and replace him as shadow chancellor with his wife, Yvette Cooper, was reportedly shelved. Continue reading →

For Scotland’s sake, we must break from the Westminster establishment

Neil Findlay campaign portraitThe Westminster establishment, to which all the three main political parties are seen to sign up, is the most toxic brew in modern British politics.

It has led to UKIP, which robbed the Tories of Clacton and likely Rochester, as well as almost certainly several Tory seats at the next election. And which came within an ace of robbing Labour of Heywood and Middleton.

It has now led to the SNP to a position where, some polls suggest, it will capture between 47-54 of the 59 constituencies in Scotland where Labour currently holds 41 and the Tories 1, leaving Labour just 5 to 10 seats. Less dramatic polls indicate the SNP might take 23-26 seats, but that could still have severe reverberations for Labour. Continue reading →

Katy Clark to stand for deputy leadership of Scottish Labour

Katy_Clark_MPKaty Clark, MP for North Ayrshire and Arran since 2005, announced today that she was intending to seek nominations for the deputy leadership of the Scottish Labour Party following the resignation of Anas Sarwar under pressure from Jim Murphy in order to deflect criticism of the prospect of  Westminster MP being elected as leader of the Scottish party.

Katy backs Neil Findlay for the leadership and shares his view that Labour must outflank the SNP from the left. Neil Findlay is expected to nominate Katy to be deputy, providing the basis for a Leader who is already a senior member of the Scottish parliament supported by a deputy who can speak for Scotland at Westminster. Also expected to stand as Jim Murphy’s running mate in all but name is current Education spokeswoman at Holyrood, Kezia Dugdale.

Katy intends to make a full statement on Monday but said the following this morning: Continue reading →

Support Neil Findlay’s campaign to lead Scottish Labour in pursuit of social justice

Neil Findlay MSPNeil Findlay, shadow cabinet secretary for health and wellbeing in the Scottish parliament, today announced that he will stand for the Leadership of the Scottish party. Neil can expect the support of many on the centre-left of the party and within the trade unions in the expected contest with Westminster MP Jim Murphy from the Blairite wing of the party who has yet to announce his candidature and fellow MSP Sarah Boyack, shadow cabinet secretary for local government and planning who announced hers yesterday.

Neil had recently made clear his belief that, in order to win the elections Scottish Labour faces in 2015 and 2016, they must outflank the SNP from the left, and he proposed a range of policies necessary to do that. Announcing his intention to stand at Holyrood, Neil Findlay said: Continue reading →

Labour must outflank the SNP from the Left

Johann LamontThis article was written prior to the resignation of Johann Lamont and is reposted here because it is a clear political statement by someone who many on the Left in Scotland would like to see as the next leader of Scottish Labour, and covers the same ground as Neil’s speech to the Campaign for Socialism conference at the STUC in Glasgow today.

As Scotland enters the post-referendum era with a new First Minister in waiting and a political landscape still reverberating from the decisive rejection of independence, the Scottish Labour Party now faces a number of challenges.

While the media focuses on the growth in membership of the SNP and the Greens — not without its challenges — or the creation of yet another new left party (what a novel idea that is), Labour has to respond and respond quickly to the new terrain.

For some the answer lies in the further devolution or independence for the party in Scotland or some other bureaucratic or organisational changes. Continue reading →