Scottish Labour Leader

They're looking for a new Scottish Labour leader at the moment, once they work out why they did so badly in the last Scottish election they'll pick one. Just to say here and now I'm not a Labour Member, or even voter at the last election so I'm not an interested party to all this, just an observer of it.

Reason for this is that I saw Tom Harris MP on Twitter earlier saying that under current rules an MP can stand, it doesn't have to be an MSP. I don't know if he'd do a bad job, considering he was my MP for a couple of years when I lived in Glasgow I don't actually know all that much about him other than the Doctor Who obsession, which is probably a plus point for him in my eyes, whatever the Independent diaries say.

Getting to a point, one reason I think Labour lost the Scottish election to the SNP was that they don't seem to take the Scottish Parliament seriously. It's not just most of the known names staying in Westminster, they don't really have that many known names in Scottish Labour outside political circles. Or former cabinet members. Sometimes they seem to talk about it as an exaggerated local council, and treat it accordingly. The fact that an MP is prepared to stand could be taken as that, but the alternatives aren't great for them. And Tom Harris attitude that he's only standing unless someone better comes along? Not really inspiring is it? The centre of their world is London, not Edinburgh. Unless they rectify that, they won't win a scottish parliament election again, or even lead it. They will still make up most of the Scottish MPs, probably, but without an attitude change towards Edinburgh they won't gain Scottish power without a major cock up from the SNP.

I know about the referendum that Alex Salmond has promised for independence in 2014 or whenever, I'm prepared to bet that it will be worded in ways not to damage the SNP if they lose, or they will be an option for further Devolution of power to Scotland. We (probably) won't vote for independence in a straight referendum vote, but I'll bet that we'd vote for more power if it's worded well. And it will be, like Alex Salmond or not, he's not a stupid politician.

If Labour want to get power in Scotland they need this review to be better than I expect it to be, and they need to take the Scottish Parliament more seriously than they seem to. This is my view as someone with an interest in politics, not a political party member, any side, and as an ex Labour voter. It may just be a bad impression I get from them, but those can stick.