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"...Ms Lamont has been unhappy for some time about the direction of party strategy".
If only she'd been, like, party leader or something. Otherwise it would sound like she was deflecting from her own inadequacies by blaming someone else. You know the way Scottish parties do that 'blaming Westminster' thing. Throw your hands in the air and say how you'd have done things differently if only it weren't for the Westminster bogeyman.
@Instography
The unwritten background to this story is that Ms Lamont isn't in any substantial sense a party leader. The 'Scottish Labour Party' is maybe a social club, maybe a group of MSPs, but it is not a political party registered with the Electoral Commission. Search as you will;
https://pefonline.electoralcommission.org.uk/Search/EntitySearch.aspx
you will not find 'Scottish Labour'. The leaders of the Holyrood parties are Salmond, Miliband, Clegg, Cameron and Harvie.
The Westminster bogeyman is sometimes valid (illegal wars) and sometimes less so (land reform?), but for Ms Lamont to decry London interference is verging on the surreal. She is a marketing ploy like a Scottish accent on a Carling lager TV advert. It's incredible that the BBC even refers to her as a party leader. If she's a party leader let's have a squint at the constitution of the party she leads.
If you are interested in 'Scottish politics' this is worth a read. Some of it is slightly delusional, but it's obviously 'more about politicians than politics'!
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/johann-lamont-resigns-scottish-labour-4502765
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Mr McLeish said: "Labour in Westminster, Labour in London has not a clue about the realities of Scottish politics.
"Joanne has been badly advised. The influences on Ed Miliband have not been helpful.
"Now what we've got is a situation after a decade that Labour is still in denial in the UK and ... if there's any hiccup in the number of MPs we send to Westminster in 2015 this could be catastrophic for Ed Miliband's effort to become prime minister."
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I know very well what Scottish Labour is. Just as I know very well what it means to run the branch office of a London organisation so I fully appreciate both the limits and scope of that position.
You find, for instance, that if you're doing your job, London is perfectly content to leave you alone getting on with it. Naturally you need their support if you want to make major changes but if they think you know what you're doing you'll have no trouble getting that. So, I find her blaming "Westminster" utterly unconvincing. It's what incompetents do.
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As it stands, Labour look set to lose seats at Westminster next year before being humiliated by the SNP again at the Holyrood election in 2016.
Whoever replaces Lamont faces a tough, tough job.
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http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/david-clegg-johann-lamont-forced-4502624
"So, I find her blaming "Westminster" utterly unconvincing"
Except that in this case the branch office analogy doesn't quite work.
The problem isn't so much 'head office' - Miliband and co.
It's that her supposed 'colleagues' - let's call them 'Area Sales Reps' (ARSs) - see themselves as better than the Area Manager (and definitely not under her control).
Also, because they have 'important' roles at HO (Westminster), the ARSs get to see the boss more often.
It's also probable that the ARSs don't have much respect for their supreme leader because he has made it clear how important their territory is to his future...
Acres of coverage in papers and plenty radio/TV on leadership of Labour in Scotland.
Apparently Gordon Brown doesn't want the job leaving Jim Murphy as frontrunner.
Not sure that would even be good for JM.
Douglas Alexander has been notably quiet on all of this. Still cleaning the blood off the dagger. perhaps?
They do say "all publicity is good publicity", but in this case, for the Labour party, I'm not convinced. They're coming across like the proverbial ferrets in a sack. All this Labour bickering over Scotland is somewhat reminiscent of the Tories' factional infighting over Europe - and just look how that's ending up (UKIP).
I wonder how many Scottish members of the Labour party there still are? How many will there be next year? 5,000?
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The Glasgow-born businessman also suggested a failure to agree solid proposals could see him forced to “step in” and tell the parties to find a way forward. In a further hint the parties will be expected to agree a solid way forward, Smith went onto warn he would introduce proposals made by voters into the talks.
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Sounds like a threat - should be a promise.
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THE former Prime Minister is being lobbied hard by Ed Miliband and Scottish Labour MPs to save the party from an SNP surge expected in next May's general election.
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http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/johann-lamont-quits-labour-mps-4515528
He doesn't want to, but if he though it was the only way to 'save' Labour in Scotland, he might.
He 'properly' lives in Scotland and, since the last GE, has probably spent more time here than most MPs.
Though clearly current (Labour at least) MPs will be spending a lot of time here until May!
I bought the Sunday Herald yesterday. The lady serving in my local Co-op, who I know a little bit, was scathing in regard to 'Miss Lamont', who was involved in a scuffle nearby on referendum day. She noted that Jim Murphy was featured in a soviet-style heroic front page splash on page 1 of Scotand on Sunday. I suggested that I couldn't use suitable language to describe him in the shop, and the guy behind me in the queue, who I didn't know at all, piped up that I could use any language I liked in his regard.
I think 'Scottish' 'Labour' may struggle to hold Edinburgh South in May.
Looks like Slim Jim has frightened all the other ferrets in the sack;
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-29784568
I think I may get a vote through my union membership. If I do, I'll vote for Slim Jim. He would be the ideal opponent;
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/78555000/jpg/_78555527_murphy.jpg
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An explosion of internal strife found itself all over the weekend papers, news headlines and Twittersphere.
During all that heat and clouds of drama, we forgot about you, the voter.
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http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/opinion/news/kezia-dugdale-future-labour-not-4516185
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The former Prime Minister refused to bow to pressure from Ed Miliband to ride to the rescue of the party and take the fight to the SNP at Holyrood.
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http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/gordon-brown-insists-no-desire-4519491
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ONE of Labour’s rising stars has ruled herself out of running for the party leadership – and revealed she plans to quit politics within a decade.
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Too open/honest? Or should more politicians be like that??
For a lesson in twisty eel-weasel words, jurassic tribal bluster and selective elephant blindness just dial up Anas Sarwar's interview/party political broadcast from this morning's Today Programme on iPlayer.
The 'deputy' 'leader' of Scotch Labour is not 'seeking a nomination' to become 'leader'. Not seeking. Not ruling out shyly accepting a surprise nomination if his dad tells him to neither. Scottish working people must remain on tenterhooks to see who will champion their interests, but it is imperative that they refrain from attempting such championing unaided by the Family.
Not the only dynasty in Scottish politics. For a while a certain Ewing clan made the SNP like a parody of Dallas, going on about oil. The other dynasty in Labour I can think of just now is the Benns: any more?
BBC is an institution for dynasties: Dimblebys, Attenboroughs, Balls, Snows, Ravenscrofts (Peel), Magnussons; then there's the politics/BBC crossover dynasties: Smith, er, that's it. (Ed.)
The Kinnocks;
The Blairs;
All of the ninety six hereditary parliamentarians. Doubtless half the Tory party, but that's not hypocritical.
crowriver - How about:
Siobhan McMahon MSP, daughter of Michael McMahon MSP
Cara Hilton MSP, daughter of Cathie Peattie (ex-MSP)
All Labour.
How could I forget the Alexander siblings? Both in power at the same time. Also the Millibands!
"All of the ninety six hereditary parliamentarians. Doubtless half the Tory party, but that's not hypocritical."
Well yes. We expect the Tory party to be run like a fiefdom, but I wonder if that is still the case any more now that there are fewer aristocrats in politics?
We somehow expect better of "socialists" or social democrats, but depressingly not so. What about the Liberals? Any recent dynastic tendencies there except Johnny Thurso?
"jurassic tribal bluster"(?)
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Jack McConnell (@LordMcConnell)
28/10/2014 08:56
@davidtorrance @Telegraph This is head in the sand stuff from @johnmcternan - distorting views and snide comments are not good enough.
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Apparently Sarah Boyack will stand.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-29802723
'The SNP are busy constructing a myth that Scotland is a wildly Left-wing, working-class country.'
#unhinged
I'm a bit surprised.
Her name didn't 'emerge' when people/press were 'drawing up lists'.
Which (to me) either meant that fellow party members didn't 'rate' her or she let it be known she wasn't interested.
Was on OK Transport Minister until she was abused by the Daily Record for 'riding a bike'.
Whether she is the person Labour (in Scotland) thinks it needs/wants remains to be seen.
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Sarah Boyack (born 16 May 1961 in Glasgow) is a Scottish Labour MSP for the Lothian region and formerly constituency MSP for Edinburgh Central in the Scottish Parliament.
Boyack co-chaired the review of the Labour Party in Scotland with Jim Murphy, commissioned by Ed Miliband in May 2011, which reported in the autumn of 2011.
...
In November 2004 Sarah received the RSPB Goldcrest Award[2] for the most outstanding contribution to the development of environmental policy in Scotland since devolution and in December 2005 was named the Scottish Renewables Best Politician.
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She didn't really get involved with 'Project Fear' AFAIK. Or if she did she was maybe less strident.
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Spokes CycleCampaign (@SpokesLothian)
28/10/2014 16:24
2001: @SarahBoyackMSP was 1st #Transport Minister serious on #cycling. @John_Lauder @POPScotland @CyclingEdin @roadcc
http://pic.twitter.com/hIORg8fYvv
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ruth wishart (@ruth_wishart)
28/10/2014 17:17
Sarah Boyack, not a bloke, not at Westminster, not a lover of nasty weaponry and with the guts to give it a go.
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