Left out of the race
Whither Socialism? Thus the billing for endless, earnest fringe events at Labour (and other) party conferences.
One answer is not, it would appear, down the road of contesting the Scottish Labour Party leadership.
The Campaign for Socialism counts five MSPs among its number. Four were prepared to nominate a rival to Wendy Alexander. Former Cabinet Minister Patricia Ferguson, it would seem, was not on that list.
To stand, a candidate needs backing from six MSPs (self plus another five.) The CfS has until midday Tuesday – but it’s not looking likely.
It was previously said on Ms Alexander’s behalf that she would welcome a contest - but I imagine that she can thole its absence.
Incidentally, asked on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Radio Scotland if she was a Socialist, she talked of her Socialist background. Not, I would suspect, good enough for the comrades.
But then life on the Left these days can sometimes seem a semi-permanent state of disappointment and innate distrust of the leadership.
To be fair, all the signed up members of the Campaign for Socialism have declared that they will support the elected leader of the party - and their record in the past eight years, since devolution, suggests that is a genuine standpoint.
So it looks like there won’t be a contest? Is that a serious problem? Well, arguably, it would have sharpened Labour’s inevitable internal debate had the members been presented with a choice. That was certainly the point made by the CfS.
But you cannot force people to stand for office - or to nominate someone they don’t support just to engineer a contest.
Wendy Alexander is in a clear lead - because she’s in a clear lead. Nobody will stand against her because she is the popular favourite. Folk think she’s going to win - and don’t fancy the grief of a courageous gubbing.
Further, there are many shades of opinion in Labour, beyond the ranks of the CfS, however well-defined their position might be.
Discussion need not be polarised as between the CfS standpoint and the aspirational aims outlined by Ms Alexander in her campaign launch on Friday.
The absence of a contest needn’t mean an absence of strategic and policy debate. Or do you disagree?
I'm 
Comments
Sorry Brian, but I disagree.
If you look at the debate which the SNP had when their leadership and deputy leadership contest was held, it re-energised their grass-roots and got activists back into the fold where they had previously been discontented.
It was from this platform that they worked to win the election in 2007.
Labour seems to have become very fond of the coronation process, denying their members a say in who leads them.
This is demotivational, and detaches the grass roots from the leadership, thus we can expect their woes in Scotland to continue for a while longer yet.
I agree it is disappointing not to have a contest yet again.
We seem to have arrived at a sorry pass in politics where it is now impossible to disagree publicly with a leadership position for fear the party (whichever party) will be portrayed as riven with feuding and infighting. This has a number of serious effects.
Ordinary members are effectively excluded from the policy making process unless they agree with the leader.
There is no dialogue between the party and the wider public either because any party debate has to be held in secret to avoid the appearance of disagreement. This also means policy is handed down by the leadership.
Leadership is only associated with certainty and success. It is now all or nothing. This simply turns politicians into cardboard cut outs.
Party members should be entitled to ask candidates hard questions before they are crowned as leader and frankly I am dismayed that not a single Labour MSP is prepared to put his or her head over the parapet and fight for nomination.
So English Labour is now led by a former finance minister nobody outside his constituency voted for, and 'Scottish' Labour is now to be led by a former shadow finance minister who nobody outside her constituency voted for.
Nice to see that the Labour party is so committed to the democracy it imposes on other countries at the barrel of a gun... not.
Of course it a serious problem. This is not North Korea. You were far too dismissive - on this morning's "GMS"
- I thought about the 7% that Wendy scores in the only poll so far. It may well be that her standing will pick up but I don't think it is at all convincing that the electorate
will grow to love her as she makes
her mark and becomes better known:
she's enjoyed a very high profile since 1998 when she first became a
Minister so is not some new arrival on the average Scottish voter's radar. 7% support means 93% can't stand her. That may change in time, but the numbers might equally well
go in the opposite direction .....
That is a massive IDS-style gamble for any serious political party. I also think her record in office will come back to haunt her and her party.
Even her one major success - sorting out the guddle of Scotland having 78 different careers bodies at the time New Deal is launched in 1998 - has recently come unstuck in part due to the failure to devolve job search support powers to Scotland and the strategic mistake of lumping the new Careers Scotland into one big super quango Scottish Enterprise which is 'not fit for purpose'. Reform
of that behemoth is one of the first items that will be on the Holyrood agenda next session - and Wendy was
the Minister whose mess is now under scrutiny. And then there is PFI ....
No wonder she is keen to change the subject to talk about 'cotton wool kids' & 'cyber-stalking strangers', not to mention hungry caterpillars!
It would seem that WA is the Woman of the moment and to stand against her would be utter folly, whether or not her position is strengthened from a large supporting from the westminster bigwigs. What WA needs to do now is strengthen the contact between the Labour party and the scottish people, for the moment let the SNP have their moment in the sun and concentrate on the positive issues and policies that Labour have to offer the people. More negativity aimed at the current government will only backfire. (especially as the SNP have delivered on a lot of their policies, even if the cost may come back to haunt us later)
Labour needs to be seen as a positve force in scotland and the last 8 years was pretty lackluster for all to see. New captain, New course, New visions for Scotland thats what is needed.
Looks as Wendy will be the next leader of Labour in Holyrood but she is seriously snookered by Scottish Labour MPs who have seriously damaged Labour in Holyrood. She will have to pander to them at the expense of the Scottish people and the people, who have tasted freedom and belief in themselves through the Nationalists, will notice.
With Des Browne saying that the Scotland Act will not be revisited the aspirations of Wendy Alexander are just that - mere aspirations.
A political leadership without substance, without a sure direction, solely dependent on her patron Gordon Brown means that Wendy Alexander has really nothing to say to the Scottish electorate.
Wendy Alexander is on the verge of winning a Pyhrric victory.
A contest would have looked so much better. Tonight's Edinburgh Evening News has a cartoon which shows an empty room and a notice "would the last socialist turn out the lights". Says it all....
I am puzzled when I hear or see people criticial about the fact there are no challengers for leadership races - if a Party is so united or is so bereft of high quality alternatives, that there is only one suitable candidate, then surely it is logical that they should not feed the media frenzy that accompanies such matters - in the case of Gordon Brown, he was/is so far ahead of any alternative candidate, despite there being a few possible good ones, it would have been folly for anyone else to stand - in the case of Wendy Alexander the Labour alternatives are so poor that I suppose one ex local Councillor is probably as good or bad as another.
You do not lead by hitting people over the head-that's assault, not leadership.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Wendy as a leader i think not. Labour needs somone with vision and new ideas not someone who is going to trot out the new labour mantra. If wendy is incapable of being the labour leader which she is then she is also incapable of leading scotland. However as an SNP supporter i say give her the job boys and girls because she will fail. Until we have a woman leader who is capable of expunging the ghost of margaret thatcher and the diservice she did every woman in politics then all women will be looked at for any part of their personality that in any small way compares to her. After thatcher people do not trust women leaders thats a sad fact but true.
Wendy Alexander doesn't strike me as a leader of any political party in all honesty. I watched some of her speeches in Holyrood and to be frank I just plain didn't like her. What labour need to do is actually listen for once in a while, go to real people (not just the people who frequent their labour clubs) and ask them what their problems are. Also they need to stop saying "SNP are bad!" And say "Hey, we're actually quite good ourselves." I'm sick to death of their negative attitude and thinking that scare-mongering the people of Scotland = votes for labour.
So that's it then. Labour as a party of the left in Scotland is dead ... maybe this'll wake up the slumbering Labour party masses and they will finally see that it's time to move on and stick their 'X' elsewhere.
Wait and see what happens,is somewhere where the tories are,you have got to lay down the foundations and build the social policy and society you believe in,if you continue with and idea that NEW is better and economic brain storming is justified,then you must also accept the results......a party in decline and your social justice policy,s have caused the biggest divisions this country and ever witnessed(THE MORTGAGE WAR)there was a time when politicians had a principle belief,it wasn't so much about left or right,it had a simple starting point_TO GOVERN FOR EVERYONE AND NOT THE FEW...it's a sad day when the building blocks are layed without a foundation...
'After Thatcher people do not trust women leaders that a sad fact but true'.....
Is the this writer being delibrately obtuse when trust, or more accurately, lack of trust became one of the key failures of Tony Blair. In fact the issue of trust in our leaders & goverment is one that has grown since Thatcher's days...or is is it acceptable for male leaders to lie & deceive..??
Trust is not a gender issue and any criticisms of Wendy Alexander should be directed at her policies...and that shouldn't be too difficult!
Whither Socialism may be a consonant too far, seems more akin to wither than whither; socialism seems to be a forever shrinking taboo in the modern day Labour Party, with the obvious exceptions of the highly vocal protestations from those who refuse to change.
I do not think that many of the ideas and concepts associated with Socialism have been sidelined, merely relabeled as not to appear ‘Old Labour’; much of this rejection and relabeling is associated with Tony Blair’s ‘New Labour’, the remainder is allied with the rump of what can clearly be identified as the loony left.
Scottish Labour, if such an animal really exists, is clearly split into two camps, Publicly Acceptable Labour and the dinosaurs of Old Labour; this on its own would be too simplistic a reason for no challenge being mounted to Wendy Alexander.
If we turn the clock back to Donald Dewar who was elected as an MSP on the 6th of May 1999, then as Labour leader, there was no serious questioning of who would be Scotland’s First Minister, Donald Dewar was nominated and appointed as First Minister on 13th May 1999.
From the early demise of Donald Dewar Scotland’s Labour leadership started rolling downhill, first Henry McLeish, then Jack McConnell and now possibly Wendy Alexander continues the descent into weak ineffective leadership; this pattern provides the real reason for no contest for the Labour Leadership, a distinct lack of talent.
I am sure if elected Wendy Alexander will be only too willing to detail publicly where Jack McConnell’s administration ran off the rails, many will nod their heads in agreement, the main problem is that these were the same heads that nodded agreement with the policies of the previous First Minister; these politicians are not prospective leaders merely those who display a willingness to be led, a sad prospect for the future, unless of course your name is Alex Salmond.
Her chum Alistair Darling the Chancellor said recently that he didn't believe in economic patriotism. Not even the Tories have come out with anything like that.
"Trust is not a gender issue"
Sorry to disappoint you Alan but it is in this case. When people form an opinion on something they look to what has come before. Therefore the woman that people use as the benchmark for female leaders in government is Margaret Thatcher. While Wendy may not be anything like one of the most hated women politicians ever to dominate Scotland she is still going to be compared and contrasted with her in most peoples minds. As I said previously until we have a leader with vision and new ideas who is the complete antithesis of Thatcher we are not going to see any woman leading this country to government. That’s why as an SNP supporter I want Wendy to be leader. You can bang on about her policies all you like Alan she could have the best policies in the world it’s the undisputable fact that she is a women who will be compared to the only female leader that Scotland has known that is going to let her down in the end.
What is it with Labour and democracy? They seem to think it's good enough for everyone else but not good enough for themselves. For both Brown and Alexander to be elected unopposed is an absolute disgrace.
Don't Labour stop and think how this looks to the outside world? - they're saying there's no-one else in the Scottish party with the ability to lead it - what a shocking state of affairs.
Brian: Wendy is a shoe in at the diktat of Westminster, Foulkes was parachuted in to ensure that Labour MSP's toe the Brown line.
The problem for Labour is not Wendy, as such, but the fact it yet another shoe in in a long line of shoe ins!
Add in the public perception of the late Labour run East Lothian Council, West Dumbarton or Monklands and you are left with a major integrity problem for Labour, i.e. they do not have any.
Oh dear Brian - is 'numpties' a verboten word now??
Does anyone else think that Des Browns comments will do damage with reguard to the number of MPS that Labour will have in Scotland after the next General Election.
Abandoning the left, not giving more power to Scotland , playing right into the SNPs hands
Brian,
When you interview Ms Alexander, do you use any protection such as a brolley or a pac-a-mac!!! Surely her 'Roy Hattersley' style can drench a poor newshound like yourself!?
As there is no candidate to oppose Ms Alexander there will be no focus from those who oppose her ideas for the future of the party even though her ideas may be the correct way to proceed. However the wider problem as i see it is that if labour cannot get their supporters motovated SNP will go from strength to strength by only promising what was in their manifesto.
What I do not understand is why there is no vote without a second candidate.
The Greens still send out ballot papers which give members the option to vote against the sole candidate. It's just a question of internal democracy.
"Trust is not a gender issue"
Anyone who has worked with women bosses in the past will know that arrogant women bosses are despised and distrusted far more than arrogant men bosses, mainly because they don't know how to balance their arrogance with any other redeeming feature such as loyalty.
Maggie proved that - her inability to inspire loyaly among her own party resulted in her being stabbed in the back when they came to consider her a liability rather an asset.
The "distinct lack of talent" in the Labour Party (Peter, Fife) may be due to the fact that Labour's talent is in the south of England, where all the political action is. This is understandable: if you're a politician with career ambition you go to the "capital". This applies not only to Labour but to the Tories and Lib Dems in Scotland too. It doesn't apply to the SNP, who are Scotland-centric. Maybe this is partly why we are seeing the emerging dominance of the SNP now: a whole party versus the regional outposts of other parties.
This phenomenon of the London honeypot attracting talent and resources is something which affects the whole of Scottish life and which is a primary reason why independence will be so good for this country.
Something not fully discusseed in the lack of a left-wing bid for the leadership is the impact this will have on 'traditional' west/central Scotlanfd labour voters. It's oft been stated that many of these voters are more naturally akin to old Labour than new.
Will this finally shift many of them to vote for the only sensible left of centre option left, in the shape of the SNP? Urban Scotland certainly began that trend in earnest in May (the SNP couldn't have won without it) with many heartland Labour seats falling Central Fife, East Edinburgh, Falkirk West, Kilmarnock & Loudoun, Glasgow Govan all spring to mind. Any further erosion into the heartlands for Labour could see trouble in the two big cities & Aberdeen could join Dundee as an SNP only zone (they only lost by a couple of hundred in the Central & South seats, having held North).
I am no lover of Scottish labour, but there are two things I find incredible about this debate. The first is the correspondents who write off Wendy Alexander by comparing her to to Margaret Thatcher. Why? Surely Ms Alexander should be judged by her successes and failures, not by her gender or in comparison with someone who has been out of office for over 15 years.
The second is the lament over the lack of a Socialist candidate for the leadership. Socialism has had its day. History has tried and tested it, and it has a failed. The world has moved on.
Wendy Alexander reminds me of Helen Liddell, abrasive argumentative and blind to what is happening outwith the Labour heartlands. If this really is the cream of the Labour party in Scotland then it would appear that they will be in oppposition for many a year.
'woman that people use as a benchmark for female leaders in goverment is Margaret Thatcher'
Helen Clark, Mary Robinson, Segolene Royal, Michelle Bachelet, Hilary Clinton....
All ably demonstrating that the definition of female leadership is not Margaret Thatcher, but I know, the Scottish electorate are so insular they could never shake off the imprint of Thatcher and surely aren't capable of looking outside their own direct experiences to make a judgement.
And then there's the whole generation of voters out there who have not lived through Thatcher but only know the Blair way...however even they will have the stories handed down of how bad women leaders can be...
Wait a minute, I've got it now, if a female leader with 'vision & new ideas' = one who advocates independence then they no longer become a Thatcher wannabe!
Louise, you are confirming my opinion that Alex Salmond not only dominates the current crop of scottish politican leaders but is also streets ahead of his own party when it comes to political nuance..
Unless of course the Alex's strategy turns out to be as shallow as expect failure because it's Wendy and everyone in Scotland will think it's actually Thatcher...
Yes that is correct Gavin, but I thought too obvious for comment; Alex Salmond is the only Westminster politician currently to present his return ticket although it must be said that he still keeps his foot firmly placed in the Westminster village rather than put an SNP seat to a by-election test.
If English votes for English issues ever gain serious momentum, even in a Parliament with a permanent inbuilt 412 seat English majority, coupled with Scottish Independence we may see the return of some of Scotland’s more ‘talented’ offspring; talented in this case would be a subjective assessment.
Even Douglas Alexander was a Westminster MP on November the 6th 1997 before the Scottish Executive was established by the Scotland Act 1998; I cannot think of a politician worthy of note that has chosen the road south since the Scottish Executive was established, unless of course you know differently.
Des Broons comments about not 'revisiting the Scotland act'
Should be broadcast from the highest peaks of Scotland to ensure that everyone is at all times reminded of labours true interests Because there no Scottish ones.
Wendy Alexander oh hells bells!!!!!
After question time this week..given that the Welsh Assembly is called the Welsh assembly Government WAG....Alec Salmonds could be the Scottish assembly Government SAG