Labour Dinosaurs
The most exciting piece of news to come out of the latest Scottish Labour leadership election is that no one appears to want the job.
So far the only thing to have happened is that various non-contenders have all ruled themselves out of the contest and as I write this post it's still a 'no horse' race which speaks volumes about the state of modern Labour Party.
Meanwhile many of Johann Lamont's old colleagues seem to have decided that the former Scottish Labour leader is completely deluded and had no reason to resign her post because MSPs and MPs all get on like a house on fire.
Now if you ask me, this is just an odious form of bullying, made worse by the fact that former members of 'Team Lamont' are now implying that she walked away from the job as Scottish Labour leader in no more than a fit of pique, and that despite her three years in the top job her views can be dismissed out of hand with scarcely a backward glance.
Yet two former Labour First Minister's, Henry McLeish and Jack McConnell, have both voiced similar concerns to Johann Lamont and who can forget that it was not so long ago that Labour MPs at Westminster were briefing against the Labour-led coalition at Holyrood for having the temerity to describe itself as the 'Scottish Government'.
Scottish Labour leadership: Jackie Baillie says MPs and MSPs 'joined at hip'
Jackie Baillie [seated centre] said she will not stand as Scottish leader
A Holyrood politician has denied factions between Labour MSPs and MPs and insisted they were "joined at the hip" in doing the best they could.
Jackie Baillie was speaking to the BBC in the wake of the resignation of Scottish Labour Party leader Johann Lamont.
She stood down with immediate effect on Friday evening.
Nominations for Ms Lamont's replacement will be sought and a new leader will be in place on 13 December.
Ms Baillie told BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme that it was natural for there to "always be" a debate between MPs and MSPs but she denied the levels of interference stated by Ms Lamont.
She said: "Whether you are an MP or MSP in Scotland you are representing constituents in Scotland.
"It doesn't matter what chamber you are in, you are absolutely joined at the hip in wanting the best that we can."
Ms Baillie has ruled herself out of the contest, saying she would rather play a "supporting role" than be leader itself.
Labour MP Anas Sarwar is currently interim leader of the Scottish party. He would not confirm if he intended to stand as leader, saying he would not rule it out but that he needed to think it through.
Other possible candidates include East Renfrewshire MP Jim Murphy and several prominent MSPs including Kezia Dugdale, Jenny Marra and Neil Findlay.
Gordon Brown MP has also been linked to the role but reports have suggested the former prime minister has ruled himself out of the running.
Ms Baillie told presenter Gary Robertson: "I believe we should have a very open contest and I look forward to a number of different names emerging, be they MPs, MSPs or indeed MEPs who are entitled to stand as well.
"But I think it would be really helpful to have a debate in the party where we have quite a lengthy nominations process that tries to balance a speedy transition, but yet a clear desire for the members to have their voice heard and I think you will see a number of people coming forward in the coming days and I look forward to that very much."
Nominations open
She added that she was disappointed the party would be using the electoral college method instead of one-member-one vote.
The Labour Party is moving to a more straight forward way of electing its leaders but this contest will use the long-established collegiate system.
Nominations for candidates will open on Friday, 31 October, and close on Tuesday, 4 November.
The ballot will start on Monday, 17 November, and the new leader will be announced on Saturday, 13 December.
After standing down, Ms Lamont accused the UK Labour Party of treating Scotland like a "branch office".
In her resignation letter, the 56-year-old said senior members of the party had "questioned" her place and she was taking herself "out of the equation" so it could decide the best way forward.
In an earlier interview with the Daily Record, Ms Lamont branded some of her Westminster colleagues as "dinosaurs".
If the Scottish people vote for independence is next year's referendum, many things will change - and the Better Together or 'No' campaigners like to present change as a terrible threat, as the harbinger of an uncertain future - which can only work to Scotland's disadvantage.
Now I've never agreed with these scare tactics because the last Labour Government (which proclaimed to have ended 'boom and bust' of course) failed to appreciate the consequences of debt-fuelled spending in both the private and public sectors - which led to great economic crash of 2008.
So, the future is never certain and as events at Grangemouth and Govan have shown in recent weeks - what is comes down to is who people can trust, relatively speaking, in terms of dealing with the big issues of the day including, for example, the direction of economic policy - or the future of shipbuilding on the Clyde.
As far as I can see, most Scots would prefer these big policy issues to be under the control of the Scottish Parliament instead of Westminster - which in the wake of the MPs' expenses scandal is seen as remote and more self-serving than the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh.
Up until recently, I would have said that the Westminster Parliament had the edge in terms of competence at least - because the Scottish Parliament struggled to find its feet, like any new organisation, and had to shake off the mind set captured brilliantly by Billy Connolly's famous barb - that any future Scottish Parliament would be a 'pretendy parliament'.
Maybe that was so in the early years after 1999 when Scottish politicians seemed to fulfil this prophecy and gave the impression they couldn't run a whelk stall - as the cost of building the new Holyrood Parliament in Edinburgh spiralled out of control - under a coalition administration of Labour and Lib Dems MSPs.
The 'pretendy parliament' rage wasn't helped either by the childish behaviour of Labour MPs at Westminster (where Labour was in power of course) - who insisted that the Scottish Government could not call itself a 'Government' and that it had to use the term Scottish Executive - as a visible sign of its inferior standing and status.
The mood was not helped by the off the record and derogatory comments from Labour at Westminster - that the Scottish Executive could call itself the 'White Heather Club' for all they cared, this being a term of political abuse portraying Scots politicians in Edinburgh as unsophisticated, kilt wearing types who couldn't lace the boots of their counterparts in London.
How ridiculous that behaviour looks now as a Labour Government fought tooth and nail against its own Freedom of Information legislation - to prevent the public from understanding the full extent of the scandal surrounding MPs expenses which engulfed the Westminster Parliament in 2009.
Meanwhile the Scottish Parliament was quietly getting on with its job and the stock of the Scottish Government was rising steadily and its reputation for competence grew under the leadership of the First Minister, Alex Salmond.
My personal position is that I am officially 'undecided' on how to vote in next year's referendum, but on the grounds of competency and basic integrity I have no doubts - the Scottish Parliament is no longer the poor relation and in many ways has done much better than the politicians at Westminster.
A Holyrood politician has denied factions between Labour MSPs and MPs and insisted they were "joined at the hip" in doing the best they could.
Jackie Baillie was speaking to the BBC in the wake of the resignation of Scottish Labour Party leader Johann Lamont.
She stood down with immediate effect on Friday evening.
Nominations for Ms Lamont's replacement will be sought and a new leader will be in place on 13 December.
Ms Baillie told BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme that it was natural for there to "always be" a debate between MPs and MSPs but she denied the levels of interference stated by Ms Lamont.
She said: "Whether you are an MP or MSP in Scotland you are representing constituents in Scotland.
"It doesn't matter what chamber you are in, you are absolutely joined at the hip in wanting the best that we can."
Ms Baillie has ruled herself out of the contest, saying she would rather play a "supporting role" than be leader itself.
Labour MP Anas Sarwar is currently interim leader of the Scottish party. He would not confirm if he intended to stand as leader, saying he would not rule it out but that he needed to think it through.
Other possible candidates include East Renfrewshire MP Jim Murphy and several prominent MSPs including Kezia Dugdale, Jenny Marra and Neil Findlay.
Gordon Brown MP has also been linked to the role but reports have suggested the former prime minister has ruled himself out of the running.
Ms Baillie told presenter Gary Robertson: "I believe we should have a very open contest and I look forward to a number of different names emerging, be they MPs, MSPs or indeed MEPs who are entitled to stand as well.
"But I think it would be really helpful to have a debate in the party where we have quite a lengthy nominations process that tries to balance a speedy transition, but yet a clear desire for the members to have their voice heard and I think you will see a number of people coming forward in the coming days and I look forward to that very much."
Nominations open
She added that she was disappointed the party would be using the electoral college method instead of one-member-one vote.
The Labour Party is moving to a more straight forward way of electing its leaders but this contest will use the long-established collegiate system.
Nominations for candidates will open on Friday, 31 October, and close on Tuesday, 4 November.
The ballot will start on Monday, 17 November, and the new leader will be announced on Saturday, 13 December.
After standing down, Ms Lamont accused the UK Labour Party of treating Scotland like a "branch office".
In her resignation letter, the 56-year-old said senior members of the party had "questioned" her place and she was taking herself "out of the equation" so it could decide the best way forward.
In an earlier interview with the Daily Record, Ms Lamont branded some of her Westminster colleagues as "dinosaurs".
Test of Competence (9 November 2013)
If the Scottish people vote for independence is next year's referendum, many things will change - and the Better Together or 'No' campaigners like to present change as a terrible threat, as the harbinger of an uncertain future - which can only work to Scotland's disadvantage.
Now I've never agreed with these scare tactics because the last Labour Government (which proclaimed to have ended 'boom and bust' of course) failed to appreciate the consequences of debt-fuelled spending in both the private and public sectors - which led to great economic crash of 2008.
So, the future is never certain and as events at Grangemouth and Govan have shown in recent weeks - what is comes down to is who people can trust, relatively speaking, in terms of dealing with the big issues of the day including, for example, the direction of economic policy - or the future of shipbuilding on the Clyde.
As far as I can see, most Scots would prefer these big policy issues to be under the control of the Scottish Parliament instead of Westminster - which in the wake of the MPs' expenses scandal is seen as remote and more self-serving than the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh.
Up until recently, I would have said that the Westminster Parliament had the edge in terms of competence at least - because the Scottish Parliament struggled to find its feet, like any new organisation, and had to shake off the mind set captured brilliantly by Billy Connolly's famous barb - that any future Scottish Parliament would be a 'pretendy parliament'.
Maybe that was so in the early years after 1999 when Scottish politicians seemed to fulfil this prophecy and gave the impression they couldn't run a whelk stall - as the cost of building the new Holyrood Parliament in Edinburgh spiralled out of control - under a coalition administration of Labour and Lib Dems MSPs.
The 'pretendy parliament' rage wasn't helped either by the childish behaviour of Labour MPs at Westminster (where Labour was in power of course) - who insisted that the Scottish Government could not call itself a 'Government' and that it had to use the term Scottish Executive - as a visible sign of its inferior standing and status.
The mood was not helped by the off the record and derogatory comments from Labour at Westminster - that the Scottish Executive could call itself the 'White Heather Club' for all they cared, this being a term of political abuse portraying Scots politicians in Edinburgh as unsophisticated, kilt wearing types who couldn't lace the boots of their counterparts in London.
How ridiculous that behaviour looks now as a Labour Government fought tooth and nail against its own Freedom of Information legislation - to prevent the public from understanding the full extent of the scandal surrounding MPs expenses which engulfed the Westminster Parliament in 2009.
Meanwhile the Scottish Parliament was quietly getting on with its job and the stock of the Scottish Government was rising steadily and its reputation for competence grew under the leadership of the First Minister, Alex Salmond.
My personal position is that I am officially 'undecided' on how to vote in next year's referendum, but on the grounds of competency and basic integrity I have no doubts - the Scottish Parliament is no longer the poor relation and in many ways has done much better than the politicians at Westminster.
