Voting has begun in the ninth ballot to elect a Scottish Labour Party leader since devolution in 1999 – and/or the sixth in a decade. The post is destined to be a permanent poisoned chalice, it would appear, yet both the 2017 candidates, Richard Leonard and Anwas Sarwar, insist they are offering a change of…leadership.
Leadership – if I hear either candidate utter “I believe I am best placed to lead ………..” again, I think I will scream. This is usually followed by a reference to some key policy, but never (in my experience) comes with an example of how they’ve led a collective initiative to a successful conclusion. We’ve allowed the Holyrood bubble to define the job and person specs, with a built-in self-destruct by date.
We do, of course, need a leader who can take on the SNP, expose its false left prospectus and record in office and take back former Labour voters and supporters tempted by its apparent energy and all-things-to-all people offer. But, above all, we need a leader to build a Holyrood leadership team from amongst our MSPs to raise us above our third party status; a leader who can work with our councillors, all of whom are now operating under No Overall Control, when Holyrood- and Westminster-imposed austerity is biting harder than ever and there’s a need to defend services and win the arguments with the voters for redistribution of economic power and increased taxes, with all the tangible benefits that follow; a leader who can work with the staff, the Scottish Executive, our affiliates and members to a common plan around policy-making and factoring it into our community campaigning. And a leader who can complement Jeremy Corbyn’s work with a distinctive Scottish voice.
Organisational health – this seems to be low or non-existent on both candidates’ agendas, as if they’ve fallen into the trap of believing the quick fix of the cult of the leader who will magic away all our problems. Labour, given its raison d’ être , needs strong local organisation to re-establish its roots in the community and to give us a critical campaigning edge at election time, particularly in marginal seats. These days political leaders must come up with policy initiatives, ideally in parallel with internal party processes which engage and empower party members for community dialogue. Placing too many expectations on the leader alone, rather than sharing responsibilities with other elected representatives and the party generally, is unsustainable. What’s more, it’s unhealthy and undemocratic. What have the candidates got to say about this?
Getting results
The next general election – the candidates are seeking to portray themselves as future First Ministers, yet we could have another UK-wide poll before the next Holyrood elections in 2021 and this clearly has implications for the new Scottish leader’s prospects of success. For decades, some of us have been arguing for the Scottish Party to have more say over its own affairs. We’ve only recently begun to mirror political/administrative devolution to Holyrood with devolution within the party.
Having secured greater autonomy, the Scottish Party now finds itself behind its comrades in England & Wales (reportedly their selections are to be completed by Christmas) in selecting candidates for marginal seats, presumably because we can’t run a leadership contest and a series of selections at the same time. Why not? Four months-plus after the electorate delivered Theresa May a weak and unstable hung parliament, CLPs and former PPCs need to be freed from their current state of limbo, with members (not the Scottish Executive) allowed to select our candidates. Then they can start campaigning more openly. Unless of course, persons unknown are playing a long game, intent on allowing the SEC to select candidates for a second time within a year – quite an irony if that were to happen under a Leonard/Corbyn left leadership. The candidates could issue a joint statement tomorrow urging the Scottish Party to get on with it. What have they got to say about this?
So I’m more concerned about having a leader with leadership skills, who’s a team builder and good at delegating and understands the value of building from the bottom up for the long term, than I am about whether he can be pigeon-holed as the Corbyn of Momentum or the Corbyn of McCluskey. Then we can continue the necessary rebuilding started under Kezia Dugdale.
If the limit of our collective ambition is to elect a media-friendly performer (like some kind of reliable weather forecaster) who can deliver a few hits in Holyrood to rally the troops, we’re underestimating the scale of Labour’s problem. And running the risk of getting giddy on the political equivalent of the worst football managerial merry-go-round. As ex-player, wannabe manager Liam Rosenior recently wrote: “..it’s about developing the understanding of what makes your players (employees) tick, managing in a fickle, high-stress, results-driven business, how to maximise potential in a team environment and the art of teaching itself – all skills needed for management in every industry, not just football.” And: “Everyone is an expert now and has an opinion of their club’s best team and formation.” Not me: I just want to work together with the best.
Joseph MELLON says
I suspect the challenge for the new leader will not simply having general purpose ‘leadership skills’ (that ‘one size fits all’ entry in every CV).
The challenge will be to *create* a Scottish Labour Party. For 50 years or more the Labour Party in Scotland has been a branch office of a Westminster centered party which saw its task as appealing to voters in Middle England. It delivered Scottish votes and seats for this project, and defended any and every policy formulated with that interest group in mind.
Deaf donkeys, blind grannies and the dogs on the street could see that the LP in S was not (is not?) in the business of looking after the interests of people in Scotland. It sometimes took on slightly surreal aspects.
The test for the new leader will be when a future Labour Party or even government proposes measures not in the interest of Scotland. Will the new leader – as Ruth Davidson has started to attempt – tell party HQ where to get off?
A Scottish Labour Party has to act more like a party in a coalition: define what it wants and define its red lines – be prepared to negotiate but never cross them.
Putting it concretely: after an election if there was a possibility of a Labour government but only with SNP support, imagine how hard the SNP would negotiate, and define its profile.
Now imagine what the Labour Party in Scotland would do in the same situation: “Sorry Anwar, but we decided we need to screw over the Scottish fishing in the interests of East Anglia… but you can be Scottish Secrtary”
If that is how the LP in S acts and is perceived then all the ‘leadership skills’ in the world (presumably to deliver docile votes in Westminster) will not keep the new person in office very long past the first two or three issues where the SNP will skewer him to the wall like all the previous ‘leaders’.
Yvonne Bruce says
would be interesting to get the two candidates responses to your questions. I have voted for the candidate I think is best for the post already but if they did answer could show whether my choice was the correct one or not.
Bill you maybe did not notice but your bit about yourself is still showing that you are the Chair of Edinburgh North and Leith maybe you want to alter to show retired chair
Allan Wilson says
Very good analysis Bill. The ‘debate’ between the candidates has been superficial and dominated by media attacks on one while real organisational issues go unchallenged.
Arguably the same has been true to date of big political questions too.
The recent consultation on proposed boundary changes would be another example of how far our party’s basic organisation has tumbled in recent years and how far back it has to come to be credible.
As you say this could suit the respective agendas of both our putative Leaders as they prepare to fill the vacuum left, as well as powerful influences down south as they have no real love for a a well organised and autonomous party in Scotland that can plough a different furrow from the chosen path.
Gordon Munro says
The problem we have had has been self induced . You’re right to point out that it’s not just about the PLP in Holyrood it’s about the Councillors , the members , the trade unions and the socialist societies . When Clause IV was changed it removed the commitment “ to organise and maintain in parliament and in the country a political Labour Party”. It has ignored the latter to its detriment and it is the latter that needs to be recovered .
In my view Richard Leonard understands that which is why he talks about how “ we once again become a party of real change “ . His membership of GMB and Unite ; the Co-operative party ; Scottish CND; Friends of the Earth Scotland ; secretary of the Keir Hardie Society; vice-chair of the Scottish Labour History Society show this understanding. His camapign pledge to an annual training academy to develop a diverse range of candidates is a god example of having party officers help lay members of the party help build the party again. For me that’s a start and one which indicates that the resources of the party will be harnessed for the party as a whole not just the PLP in Holyrood or Westminster .
florian albert says
‘These days political leaders must come up with policy initiatives’
My political memory goes back before the 1964 general elections. This need was recognized by Harold Wilson and, for all his many faults, he led Labour to four election victories.
Labour’s problem is that since the disaster of the 2011 Scottish parliamentary election till the recent general election, there has been little or no thinking.
The individual leaders have been short – to put it politely – of ideas. The rest of the party has been little better.
Scotland faces very obvious problems. To mention a few; the economy is barely growing; the NHS is struggling under the weight of an ageing population and schools are blighted by ‘educational apartheid.’
What thinking has the Labour Party done on resolving these problems in the past 6 years ? If any has been done, the fact that the party came third – to the Tories – in June, suggests the voters have not been won over.