What a weekend

Christ, you got away for a weekend without having access to the internet and all hell breaks loose!!

Right, where to start…

I awoke on Saturday morning to four texts messages from both friends and journos the jist of which were “Wendy is quitting today.”

My initial thoughts were that of confusion. Why now? I mean, I know the whole suspension thing will hang over her until September but big deal she’s been through worse already in her fairly lousy 9 months as Scottish Labour. To be honest, I also thought she was too arrogant to go but alas, it seems she was not.

So I tuned into her press conference expecting a speech full of grace and humility. Who was I kidding? She blamed everyone but herself for her downfall even ignoring the fact that her campaign team sought money – illegally – for a leadership coronation. How was the money spent? Mini sausage rolls and quiche?!

One Labour source couldn’t hide his glee stating “she was never up to the job” and “it’s ‘buy one get one free’ as it finishes Jackie Baillie as a player!” whilst another source I’m not naming, when asked if it ended Baillie as a player, responded “Fuck, I hope so.” Seems the end is nigh for Wendy and her little group so I guess that includes people like Whitton as well.

SNP Tactical voting has a post here on the runners and riders but leaves out one suggestion muted to me by a Tory MSP..

Foulkes 4 Leader…. I’ll leave Kezia to respond to that…

That’s right, the Lothians Lord himself. Not content with asking parliamentary questions that reveal the SNP spend less on special advisers than Labour and the Lib Dems did or finding out that police numbers will actually go up this year, could the Baron throw his hat into the ring?

What about some of the young turks within Labour. Err….well…. there’s only really one, John Park MSP. I think he’d be a cracking deputy leader and could run a Jon Cruddas-esque campaign promising to reengage with the grass roots…just a thought.

Ultimately though, it seems that the runners and riders are Andy Kerr, Cathy Jamieson, Iain Grey..I mean Gray, and Margaret Curran.

My pick: Andy Kerr as I think he is the only one that could take the battle to Salmond.

Vision

I came across an SNP leaflet titled Vision and contains the following little survey:

Do you think?...

Scotland should…

1 Be able to decide to bring our troops home from Iraq?
2 Be like Ireland and have a voice and votes in the European Union?
3 Be given the choice over Scotland’s future in a referendum?
4 Be like New Zealand and introduce a decent pension to drive down pensioner poverty?
5 Be like Norway and invest a share of our oil revenues in a fund to benefit future generations?

If you answered YES to one or move above, perhaps you should find out more about the SNP and our ambitions for the future of Scotland.

Interesting….. I think Wendy may have answered YES to question three just the other day. No?

Wendy hung out to dry by Brown

I just watched Prime Ministers Questions for the first time in a wee while, interesting to see the next Prime Minister having Gordon Brown over a barrel. He asked Gordon Brown, who had previously said that there’s a line in Britain that pitted "those of us who are prepared to support the shared values of the union" against "those who are prepared to play fast and loose with the union and put the whole future of the union at risk" and failed to back Wendy Alexander over her referendum calls, if he backed Wendy Alexander over her referendum calls.

Brown responded by stating that Wendy hadn’t said that, when asked again by Cameron if he backed Wendy he again refused to answer the question. It’s quite clear that Wendy has been cut adrift again by Gordon Brown. Although it’s difficult to see how she can remain as leader when the person who put her there refuses to back her it is difficult to see if this really is rock bottom for Wendy’s leadership or just another day.

A further to my last post and whether or not Labour can lodge a referendum bill:

From Scottish Parliament Standing Orders (9.14). Given that the SNP have clearly stated their intent to bring forward a Bill on this subject in the lifetime of this Parliament, any such Members’ Bill would fall.

12. The member who lodged the final proposal obtains the right to introduce a Bill to give effect to it only if—

(a) no later than the end of the period referred to in paragraph 11—

(i) at least 18 other members have notified the Clerk of their support for the final proposal; and

(ii) the members supporting the final proposal include members of at least half of the political parties (or groups formed under Rule 5.2.2) represented in the Parliamentary Bureau; and


(b) the Executive has not given, by the end of the period referred to in paragraph 11 (or has waived its right to give, within that period), an indication under paragraph 13. [see below]


13. An indication under this paragraph is an indication, given in writing by a member of the Scottish Executive or junior Scottish Minister to the member who lodged the final proposal and to the Clerk (who shall arrange for the indication to be printed in the Business Bulletin)—

(a) that the Executive will initiate legislation, within the same session, to give effect to the final proposal; or

(b) that Her Majesty’s Government has initiated or will initiate legislation, during the current or next session of the UK Parliament, to give effect to the final proposal.

The right to give such an indication may be waived at any time during the period referred to in paragraph 11 by notice in writing to the member who lodged the final proposal and to the Clerk; and such a notice shall be printed in the Business Bulletin.

This referendum stuff

Am I right in thinking that the opposition can’t lodge a bill on a subject that the Government already intends on lodging a bill on? If that’s the case, does that mean that the pro independence Wendy Alexander and her beleaguered troops will have to support the SNP bill on an independence referendum? You really couldn’t make it up.

Yesterday in el Parly, Wendy hosted a press conference on her pro independence stance but is unable to answer a few simple questions.

1. Does she favour a simple yes or no question in an independence referendum or a multi question option?

2. If it’s the former, what is the point in the Calman commission?

3. When does she intend on lodging this bill? Now? 12 months? 2010?

The Daily Telegraph YouGov poll - 30 April 2008

Some of you may have seen the latest YouGov poll in today’s Daily Telegraph, which unfortunately isn’t on the online edition.

I thought I would break it down into what the opinion poll means to each party. First up….

The SNP

The Nats are up on their Holyrood result from 2007. Then they got 33% on the Constituency vote and 31 on the regional list vote, now they are at 36% and 37% respectively. They are also up in terms of Westminster voting as well, rising from their 18% in 2005 to 30% now. 43% of respondents also believe Salmond would make the best first minister while 53% are satisfied with his performance as First Minister with only 26% being satisfied with Gordon Brown’s performance as Prime Minister. John Swinney is also doing well as Finance Secretary, 34% believing that he is doing a good job in comparison to 22% who think he is doing a bad job.

Labour

Oh dear… Labour are down 1% in both the Constituency vote and the Regional List vote. At Westminster level the party are down 6% from their 2005 general election result of 40% and only 11% of respondents believe Wendy Alexander would make the best First Minister. Also, 21% think Wendy is doing a good job in comparison to 60% believing she has done a bad one. Also, only 26% are satisfied with Brown’s performance as Prime Minister whilst 63% are dissatisfied with his performance as PM.

Scottish Conservatives

Down in terms of Scottish Parliament votes but as with the figures for the Lib Dems they are not in line with any other polls. We are up 1% at Westminster level and this is only going to increase when voters are presented with a “Only David Cameron can get rid of Gordon Brown” and as I showed last week 44% of people in Scotland think David Cameron is doing a good job whilst 43% think Gordon Brown is doing a good job.

Our 17% is markedly higher than the 14% YouGov gave us in August and, according to Electoral Calculus this would give us 2 Westminster seats -DCT and D&G - and put us very close in a batch of others such as Argyll, Edinburgh South and Roxburgh Berwickshire and Selkirkshire - and closing in on WAK and East Renfrewshire.

In the individual performances section which rates the performances of John Swinney – as Finance Secretary – and Wendy, Annabel and Nicol Stephen as leaders of their party Annabel fairs the best with 41% believing that she is doing a good job with only 20% thinking that she is doing a bad one.

Lib Dems

The Lib Dems are down slightly on their Constituency vote, 15% now compared to 16% in 2007. Their regional vote is slightly better up 2% on what they got in 2007. Doing less grand at Westminster where they are down 9% from 2005 – a figure that is fairly consistent with other polls. On the individual performance section the Libs will be pleased as 27% of people believe Nicol is doing a good job – which is six points more than Wendy. He also has a whopping 32% less people thinking he’s doing a bad job.

Overall

By all the stuff you’d reckon the Nats would be happy with the poll huh? Well, probably not actually. Support for independence, if a referendum was held, is at 19%, down 4% from April 2007 whilst support for the parliament staying is it is up 9 points to 34% with support for giving the parliament greater powers remaining exactly the same as it was in April 2007 – 38%.

58% of respondents also believe that the Executive is able to operate effectively with the powers it has and can have the best of both worlds by remaining in the UK. It is interesting to note that more people think that the rows between Holyrood and Westminster are essentially Salmond’s fault – with 38% thinking that, as opposed to those believing them to be Westminster’s – 35%.

FMQs

As terrible performances at First Ministers Questions go, today was a new low for Wendy Alexander. As many in the know will know Wendy Alexander, as the leader of the main opposition, is entitled to ask the First Minister three questions. When it came to her third question she started with “I have no further questions” proceeded to rattle on about something but when Salmond stood up to answer the Presiding Officer informed him there was nothing for him to answer.

She may as well have said “there are no other issues in Scotland” – is she that out of touch?Another woeful performance.

FMQ's

Thought for something completely different I'd post about FMQ's. I felt today was Wendy's strongest thus far, felt Annabel nailed Salmond on the issue of local income tax - as did David McLetchie at the end of FMQs - and I felt Nicol was good and straight to the point. This was definitely the worst performance thus far from the First Minister as he failed to answer a single question.

I love snippets from hacks

We saw last week at First Ministers questions Wendy Alexander quoting her new press guy, Simon Pia, in his criticism of Alex Salmond from when he was a diarist. Aside from the comments that were attributed to him in reference to his new boss Wendy I thought little of it, I mean why not quote your brand new first choice spin doctor eh? Well…this is where it gets interesting.

I got a wee tip off from a very good source this morning of a wee tale from someone previously in Labour. It seems that Simon Pia wasn’t in fact first choice for the gig of Wendy’s press guru, heck he wasn’t even second choice as that former business editor of a national newspaper wouldn’t touch the job with a bargepole. The man Wendy likes to quote willy-nilly, despite his previous criticisms of her, grupenfhurer anyone?, was in fact third choice.

Shows how much of a struggle it is Wendy to hire staff.

New Wendy press spokesman

ScottishToryBoy learns that Wendy has got another new press spokesman former Scotsman diarist and ex talk 107 presenter Simon Pia. An appointment clearly welcomed by my Labour source who, when asked if it was true, replied “yes sadly.” Wonder how long this one will last.

Quite a history she has with her press people, well documented but probably worth going through again. Those that have left under Wendy are former Sunday Mail political editor Brian Lironi, Matthew Marr, Tony McElroy, Kerron Cross (although he didn’t actually get to start). That leaves Wendy with Simon Pia and Gavin Yates who if he continues to get Wendy to pose on farms with Jersey cows may not last all that long himself.

Labour civil war?

Kevin Schofield at the Herald is reporting of some unrest in Labour in regards to the commission for further powers for the Scottish Parliament. I wonder how damaging this will be for the Labour Party. The Scottish Tories have been pillored for being "the English party" but we are fully behind this commission and now it becomes quite clear that Labour are not.

What a load of mince

The papers today make very poor reading for those on the Labour floor today. Most papers use a picture of a grim looking Wendy Alexander and when contrasted to the picture of Alex Salmond with a broad grin across his face, you know which one of the two had a better day at the office yesterday.

The Sun picks up on the comments of Gavin Brown who yesterday called Labour Finance spokesman “convenor of the cross-party group on mince” and shows Iain Gray’s head in a mincer. As John Swinney put it, “it is a bizarre position Labour has got itself into” and it is very difficult to disagree.

I posted this yesterday on the budget, a post written quite quickly and with some glaring errors. I stated that Margo opposed the budget as at the time the rumour going around was it was her or Mike Rumbles. In fact, it turns out Cathie Craigie was the Labour MSP who voted against the budget instead of abstaining like her comrades did. Seems that the Labour whips are unable to control their members now, despite Craigie’s claims she voted against the budget on “principal”.

Douglas Fraser perhaps puts it best when he said that the budget “was a test not just of government but of effective opposition. Labour flunked that test.” Although, the Scotsman doesn’t do to badly itself when it describes yesterday as “a total triumph and an utter defeat.”

One also hears that the electoral commission are due to report late this morning – I’ve heard a few whispers thus far….

Who has let the most vulnerable down?

It seems whilst down in London yesterday, as Calum Cashley stated yesterday, Wendy Alexander was again talking about how Labour care most for the vulnerable people, click here to see a previous post on the subject, and that the SNP budget fails the most vulnerable people.

What I wonder is who really has failed the most vulnerable people. Here are two statistics:

1: In the past ten years homelessness in Scotland has increased by 120%

2: In the same period, the gap between the richest and the poorest in Scotland has increased by over 100%

And the million dollar question, which party has been in power in Scotland for all but 9 months of the 10 years?

Tony McElroy has resigned

Another Labour press guy has resigned. Unbelievable. First we had Brian Lirroni jumping ship, then Matthew Marr jumping before he was pushed then Kerron Cross getting the job and never actually starting and now Tony McElroy resigning to work for a supermarket. Gotta be easier than working for Labour at the minute eh?

For future applicants I’ve drawn up a shortlist of talents that are required for anyone willing to take on the poisoned chalice of Scottish Politics:

1) Be willing to answer calls and emails in the early hours.

2) Make sure your tourettes when drunk’ syndrome doesn’t kick in at events with a lot of media coverage

3) Try not to refer to other party MSPs as being attractive whilst at the same time criticising Labour ones.

What a time to get a new job though, right in the midst of Wendy’s troubles. Least she’s got Gavin Yates and Biggles Bundred left to help her cause.

The pressure mounts...

Not only has Scotland's parliamentary watchdog reported Wendy Alexander to the prosecutors for failing to publicly declare campaign donations but there are editorials, such as this one in the Sunday Herald from Iain Macwhirter, calling for Wendy to go. Wonder how long she's got left at the helm of Scottish Labour now that she faces a police investigations.

More Peter Hain

A few weeks ago I posted on Peter Hain and it seems that he’s now resigned to "clear his name" this can’t be good news for Ms Alexander although when I spoke to someone within Labour about Hain’s resignation the response I got was “good riddance.” Oh dear.

Anyway, I found this on youtube:

Also seems other parties are queing up to put the boot into her despite her claims that there won't be a domino effect.

Another blow for Wendy

It's not the first time I've used that headline nor will it be the last, seems there is more trouble for Ms Alexander in her constituency Labour group.

Not only does she have a local Councillor - who also doubled up as her electoral agent - that describes women as thick but now it appears Councillor Tommy Williams, who was formerly the chair of Wendy's constituency Labour group has been filling in his time sheet for times he wasn't even at work and has been suspended.

It goes from bad to worse for Ms Alexander.

Who cares most for vulnerable groups?

Anyone remember Wendy Alexander? She's the Labour who required money to run an election campaign for leader that didn't exist and forgot to mention a donation from a tax exile. Still not ringing any bells? Well, she spoke about a hungry caterpillar once. Still nothing? Hardly surprising, she's been in hiding for what seems like ages. I'm surprised more people haven't used the prefix "AWOL" or "MIA" before speaking about her recently.

Anyway, it appears Wendy has finally admitted that Labour lost in May and has announced a positive agenda for the party as they focus on the issues troubling the people of Scotland whilst at the same time looking like a credible opposition...

I am of course joking. Wendy was on the Scottish Politics show this morning where she claimed that there should be a "big reduction in ring-fencing", but added that central government had to show its commitment to tackling issues such as domestic abuse.

"I have no doubt that Labour councillors, indeed Labour councils, have spent their life looking after the homeless, women's aid, all of these poor, weak, vulnerable groups that we came into politics for," she said.

"But I frankly can't have the same confidence that a Conservative-controlled council, or perhaps even an SNP-controlled council or an independent council will, for example, meet our obligation to women suffering domestic violence."

So let me get this straight. It's only the Labour party that care about vulnerable groups?

OK then, shall we focus on free personal care. This is lifted from the Scottish Government Website:

"Personal and nursing care is available without charge for everyone in Scotland aged 65 and over who needs it, whether at home, in hospital or in a care home.

Free nursing care is available for people of any age.

The Executive has provided £712 million for this policy since it was introduced in July 2002."

As we can see from the date of July 2002 - free personal care was introduced under the Labour Lib Dem Scottish Executive. I'm sure we remember them. Yes yes, the Lib Dems are the ones that say different things in different constituencies and are led by that Nicol Stephenson bloke although sometimes I wonder...

Anyway, prior to May's elections there were two Tory MSPs fighting very hard for those that had been wrongly charged for their free personal care. Those two MSPs were David McLetchie and former Tory MSP, the now Presiding Officer, Alex Fergusson. Any can anyone tell me who controlled the respective councils of these two MSPs?

Yup, you've guessed it, that party that cares about vulnerable groups apparently, the Labour Party. Perhaps this may explain the lack of trust Wendy and her colleagues have for local government...

Peter Hain

Back during the Wendygate stuff Scottish Labour's sole blogging voice Kezia Dugdale warned against those living in glass houses not to throw stones due to, and I quote:

"Over the christmas holidays both the Tories and the SNP have had embarrassing slip ups over their finances. Firstly, David Cameron's own constituency party accepted two illegal donations - his words "how could he not know" "...it beggars belief" returning to haunt him. Secondly, a £5000 cash donation to the SNP went unaccounted for 3 years.”

The BBC website will make reasonably unpleasant reading for Miss Dugdale this morning as it appears that Peter Hain failed to declaring a whopping £103k donated to his deputy leadership campaign. It seems to be a recurring theme in the Labour ranks doesn't it?

Another Labour spin guy

The ever well informed ScottishToryBoy learns that Labour have hired another spin/policy guy.

I hope you are all keeping up...

First of all we had Brian Lironi who apparently wasn't too keen on the demands involved in the job; i.e. the 3am phone calls etc nor would he have liked being called an idiot by a senior Labour MSP, then we had Matthew Marr who, well, clearly wasn't a massive fan of Alex Salmond, then Labour hired Gavin Yates who actually was a big fan of Salmond (Yates is still there by the by), then we had Kerron Cross getting the gig; then being told they didn't want him and now the have Allan Wilson.

By all accounts Allan Wilson is a decent enough chap who was probably the unluckiest bloke on election night, losing his seat by just 48 votes to Kenny Gibson of the Nats. He's been taken on as a policy adviser until the Labour conference and I'm sure part of his role will involve being the attack dog against the Nats.

***Update***

Seems my better informed Nat colleague Tartan Hero covered this story 24 hours before I did, I need new informants...

Kerron Cross

Some of my dear readers may remember a post last Sunday titled 'another one bites the dust' in which I talk, albeit, briefly about a story that appeared in the Sunday Mail about Wendy Alexander losing a third spin doctor before they even started.

The spinner in question is a certain Kerron Cross, of blogging 'fame', and the story goes that he accepted the offer, to be understudy to Gavin Yates, but it emerged last week that he would not be joining her team after all - and a union was to fight his case.

The story wasn't one that garnered a great deal of coverage and only got a brief mention on this blog and Calum Cashley's. But the more I thought about it the more I wondered what Mr. Cross could have done in order to annoy the party hierarchy.

Well, I mean we know from the Sunday Mail story that Kerron had criticised Labour MSPs for not mounting a leadership challenge against Wendy and also said Sarah Boyack's name made her sound like a Hungarian rapper but is that really any different to describing Wendy as abrasive and Andy Kerr as uninspiring?

I don't really think it is. So, anyway, I google his name in order to find out if he's said anything really stupid or offensive on his blog and come across this on Mars Hill, twenty questions to a fellow blogger part 1: Kerron Cross. Quite uninteresting you would imagine, you'd think the questions would be the usual fare "what made you start blogging?" "best scoop" etc etc, but no, it appears Kerron Cross is quite open about his blogging, especially when it comes to his worst blogging experience and posts he has had to delete such as:

In fact in the last year I’ve only removed one post from the site – and that is when I ill-advisedly posted up pictures of my then long-term partner cheating on me when she was in France.

Is that just a bit voyeuristic for Team Wendy?