Deadwood Fights Back
The Sunday Herald reported yesterday that the Labour party in Glasgow City Council - seems to be tearing itself apart - a proposition with which it is hard to disagree.
The problem is that Scottish Labour is trying to smarten up its act - in the wake of its terrible defeat in the May 2011 elections - and is looking ahead to May 2012 when the next round of local council elections take place.
Glasgow - the jewel in Labour's crown is under threat - and in the sights of the SNP.
And if Glasgow falls - so say the political soothsayers - then the game's a bogey for Labour in Scotland - the party should just chuck it and maybe take up tiddlywinks instead.
The reason for all the bad blood is that Glasgow Labour members are having to go through a selection process - to decide who will be allowed to stand for the People's Party in next May's council elections.
And some sitting councillors have been deselected - stood down from active service - thrown on the scrapheap - and more to the point 'unfairly' the Glasgow rejects would say.
Now I have no idea whether this is true.
But the problem for Labour is that deselected councillors are threatening to start a breakaway faction before next May - which would potentially split the Labour vote and consign the party to defeat.
What I do know is that some folks in Scottish Labour have been using very loose and ill-advised language to describe what's been going on - referring openly to their Labour colleagues as 'dead wood' which was bound to get people's backs up and invite trouble.
Hence the reason why disgruntled candidates are taking their stories straight to the press - fuelling tales of civil war in the Glasgow party.
The breakaway group - if it takes off - is apparently planning to call itself Glasgow Labour - according to the Sunday Herald - in an effort to distance themselves from the Scottish Labour party - which they regard as being run from London.
Whether all this comes to pass remains to be seen - but Scottish Labour has been here before - when Glasgow councillors came under a botched attack in the 'votes for trips' scandal in 1998.
Leading councillors were suspended and their reputations publicly trashed - yet they fought back in the courts, cleared their names - and were ultimately reinstated.
So the Labour party failed to learn the lesson of its own history - on the importance of doing things properly, professionally - and being seen to be fair.
Meantime all this fighting like cats in a sack - is hardly likely to impress the Glasgow voters.
The problem is that Scottish Labour is trying to smarten up its act - in the wake of its terrible defeat in the May 2011 elections - and is looking ahead to May 2012 when the next round of local council elections take place.
Glasgow - the jewel in Labour's crown is under threat - and in the sights of the SNP.
And if Glasgow falls - so say the political soothsayers - then the game's a bogey for Labour in Scotland - the party should just chuck it and maybe take up tiddlywinks instead.
The reason for all the bad blood is that Glasgow Labour members are having to go through a selection process - to decide who will be allowed to stand for the People's Party in next May's council elections.
And some sitting councillors have been deselected - stood down from active service - thrown on the scrapheap - and more to the point 'unfairly' the Glasgow rejects would say.
Now I have no idea whether this is true.
But the problem for Labour is that deselected councillors are threatening to start a breakaway faction before next May - which would potentially split the Labour vote and consign the party to defeat.
What I do know is that some folks in Scottish Labour have been using very loose and ill-advised language to describe what's been going on - referring openly to their Labour colleagues as 'dead wood' which was bound to get people's backs up and invite trouble.
Hence the reason why disgruntled candidates are taking their stories straight to the press - fuelling tales of civil war in the Glasgow party.
The breakaway group - if it takes off - is apparently planning to call itself Glasgow Labour - according to the Sunday Herald - in an effort to distance themselves from the Scottish Labour party - which they regard as being run from London.
Whether all this comes to pass remains to be seen - but Scottish Labour has been here before - when Glasgow councillors came under a botched attack in the 'votes for trips' scandal in 1998.
Leading councillors were suspended and their reputations publicly trashed - yet they fought back in the courts, cleared their names - and were ultimately reinstated.
So the Labour party failed to learn the lesson of its own history - on the importance of doing things properly, professionally - and being seen to be fair.
Meantime all this fighting like cats in a sack - is hardly likely to impress the Glasgow voters.
