Saturday, September 13, 2008

Gray becomes Scots Labour leader

I couldn't resist this headline.

Congratulations to Iain Gray after becoming the elected Party leader of the Scottish Labour Party (my father was from Edinburgh but Iain is no known relation – Gray is quite a common surname in Scotland).

I can't remember coming across him when I lived in Edinburgh and was a Party member in the mid 80's? I think he was probably working as a teacher in Mozambique at that time.

Iain was not the favourite to win but ended up with 57% of the vote.

From the video he comes over as a really decent bloke. He seems also to have seen something of the world outside the usual political bubble. Gordon's preferred candidate apparently...which is interesting. If Gordon is as hated as some would have us believe then he would not have stood a chance. I'll post on this later.

12 comments:

Charlie Marks said...

"57% of the vote"?

But then, it wasn't One Person, One Vote.

Interestingly, Jamieson won a majority of votes from the unions.

He's being compared to Blair, so I cant help but feel this is a disaster for Scottish Labour. Unless they can do the unBlairite thing and back the struggle against pay cuts in the public sector and generally attack the SNP on pro-worker grounds...

Anonymous said...

Just to point out that he has become leader of the Labour group of MSPs in the Scottish Parliament, not leader of the Scottish Labour Party, as there is no such organisation. He is Brown's man and the party in Scotland do what London tells them to do. BTW I'm not SNP.

Paul

John Gray said...

Hi Charlie
Apparently http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/briantaylor/2008/09/fine_words_noble_sentiments.html he won the majority of members and grass roots activists vote while only narrowly losing the trade unions (UNISON voted for Jamieson – must find out more). So not that bad a result?

I must admit that the way things are with the Party, if he has even a tiny bit of the election winning gifts of Blair I can’t see that being a “disaster”.

I agree that backing the struggle against pay cuts will win some votes in Scotland. I’m not sure how to attack the SNP. I really cannot understand why the nationalists get support. It’s sheer self indulgent romanticism.

John Gray said...

Hi Paul
You are quite right there is no such beast. Even though as I pointed out above – he did apparently get a majority of votes of individual party members.

It’s ironic if in Scotland they consider Iain as Brown’s man who will do “what London tells them”. While here in London some of the criticism of Brown is that he has installed some sort of Scottish mafia in London telling the English what to do.

Both arguments sound a little silly to be honest.

Anonymous said...

Time to expel the Blair babes me thinks

WE were all told that winning was all


in fact I respected that (even while I was not keen on Blair)

so why should we tolerate their attempts to distance themselves from the policies that got us into this mess

lets be clear the problem is Brown has not significantly changed the Parties access back to core values from middle England

Why when we could have brought in PR and ended Tory rule for ever did he deny it

But lets start by expelling the right wingers

Charlie Marks said...

Blair won his constituency. He lost half the party and millions of traditional voters - that's not something Scottish people need.

As for the SNP, independence didn't win them control of the Scottish parliament - being seen to have a stronger support for social democratic policies did. Outgoing leader Wendy Alexander promised to fight the nationalists with socialism - I think this will be the key to future success...

As for Brown and England - he does control areas of policy that don't affect his constituents, which is why there's the stupid comments about a Scottish mafia. This wouldn't be an issue at all if he devolved them to an English parliament - instead he keeps talking about Britain and Britishness, which attracts attentioon to his being Scottish.

Charlie Marks said...

Sorry I didn't acknowledge your point about Gray's victory, John. To my knowledge the party's being a bit secretive about saying how many voted and where the support came from. I do know that Gray was an advisor to Alistair Darling - the man who had no idea an economic crisis was looming...

Jamieson's past radicalism might have been reawakened had she won and it is a radical social justice platform that's needed to win.

Andrew Berry said...

Gray kept Browns support for hi, to himself for obvious reason, and btw he was always the favourite unfortunately

“UNISON voted for Jamieson – must find out more”

You only need to ask read here: http://unionfutures.blogspot.com/2008/08/our-friends-in-north.html

I am sure that UNISON members in Scotland felt the same way after they had there own husting before deciding who to support.

Charlie Marks said...

I think that of the candidates for leader, Cathy would have been able to develop clear red water between Labour and the SNP. But it's the policies that really count.

John Gray said...

Hi Anon

not sure that we should expell the "blair babes"? - nothing wrong about calling for an election I suppose? timing just is crap mind.

John Gray said...

Hi Charlie

Apologies for not posting on regional nationalism as promised many moons ago. It is a very important issue and I keep putting off looking at it since I need to do a bit of digging (not blogging).

The SNP are a 2 headed monster. They claim to be left wing but in reality they are mostly tartan Tories. Some of them are even worse.

I think you have to accept that Gray won fair and square even if you don’t share his politics. He won a majority of activist votes! Scotland is not obviously as “lefty” as is made out.

John Gray said...

Hi Andrew
The BBC claim he was never the favourite? Mind, I’m very rusty with Scottish politics (the real land of my fathers) so I will bail out of all things north of Berwick until I can speak to people with some local gen (even your good self!).