Scottish Labour: Time For Brown

It an atmosphere when anything that happens with Labour is all Milliband’s fault, it is no surprise that the failures of Scottish Labour to step up to the plate during the referendum campaign leading to panic across all parties at Westminster, is now blamed by the outgoing Lamont on Milliband. The fact is she was in charge, she did not at any time look credible when the fight was on, and since it has been over, there has been an avalanche of people joining the SNP, who stand to take a tidy number of Labour’s Westminster seats in 2015. If that happens Cameron is set to win and would be on course to doing so, were it not for the UKIP joker in the pack, which makes the election impossible to call.

In an age when buck passing has become an art form and the key ingredient of career progression, it is this blog’s view that the buck for the condition of ailing Scottish Labour stops with its leader, Johann Lamont. It is right that she should go and the fact that in doing so she blames everybody else, tells us all we need to know about why she is going. This is not to say that she is other than a worthy person, a good politician and motivated by the highest ideals. She was just the wrong person at the wrong time. A Kind of Scottish William Hague.

But this is a moment for Scottish Labour to think again and think big. The original Scottish First Minister after devolution was Donald Dewar. He was a Labour politician of national standing and huge reputation at Westminster and known across Europe. He died tragically early in his term of office. Scottish Labour then turned to local talent, which not only did not shine but opened the road to power to another politician of national standing, Alex Salmond. If Scottish Labour does not see its future as playing second fiddle to the SNP and unless Westminster Labour is confident that it can do without half its current forty two Scottish Labour members, which it is not, Labour in Scotland has to have a big time leader whom Scots admire and to whose call they rally. One who rescued the whole NO campaign from likely defeat and carried it to a convincing victory.

Exactly. Gordon Brown.

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