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Why Labour should vote for Tom Harris

Nov 4

Posted by Jeff in Elections, Holyrood, Parties | 89 Comments

There are two types of objections that political parties tend to raise against their opposition.

The first is delightful objection. This takes the form of the fake outrage, the calls for suspensions, the stormy press releases when you know your political enemies have stuffed up and you can solemnly delight in their dismay. We have seen a lot of this this week. It won’t have been enjoyable for Eilidh Whiteford to have been threatened with ‘getting a doing’, if that is even what transpired, but there is surely no doubt that central SNP will have been secretly pleased at the opportunity to publicly bash a senior MP over the head with the story. Going the other way, Labour have been busy firing out emails claiming how insulted they have been by the conduct of SNP activists (who are suddenly more senior than they’d otherwise have been if they hadn’t let a comment or two get out of hand). Gail Lythgoe and David Linden will hopefully be reminding themselves that today’s newspapers are tomorrow’s fish supper wrappers, as a wise person once said.

It’s all puff though of course, and it’s the kind of nonsense that politicos delight in even while it pushes the public further away.

The second type of objection that members of political parties tend to raise is the genuinely angry rebuttal. The hairs stand on edge, the teeth grind and the passion spills over into real rhetoric, real emotion around the whys and wherefores of where an opponent has gone wrong. The reason for this energy is typically due to the supposed wrongdoer actually having hit a nerve and that is almost always due to there being a big old grain of truth to their argument.

No-one holds more examples of eliciting this kind of reaction in Scottish Politics than Tom Harris. His blogs, his Twitter feed and even some mainstream news stories show this.

For that reason, and for several others, Tom is my suggestion for who Labour should vote for when they are deciding who to select as their next leader.

The other reasons include the following:

– In my humble opinion, Tom Harris is intellectually superior to his opponents and West Wing episodes alone shows how important such a factor is when it comes to political leadership. That’s not to disparage his opponents or MSPs in general, and it’s not Westminster-inspired snobbery above Holyrood. It’s just a straight-up compliment that it’s clear from Tom’s online presence and his book (well worth a read) that he has a big old brain in his head and he is not afraid to use it
– Tom has Cabinet experience from his time serving in Tony Blair’s top team. That blooding in of how to run an office, how to handle the media, how to work with enemies (within and without your party) must surely be a massive boost to anyone who is next in line to juggle all the different complicated tasks facing the next leader of Labour in Scotland. The inbox includes managing Labour in Scotland’s relationship with Westminster/Ed Miliband, choosing and sticking to a strategic position on the independence referendum, maintaining and building on Labour’s base in next year’s Council elections, somehow nobbling Salmond’s deserved position as the king of all that he surveys and, last but not least, reasserting what it is that Labour in Scotland is actually for (as opposed to what it is against, which seems to be lots of things!)
– Tom is steadfastly opposed to Devo Max and rightly so. This is an issue that draws that genuine anger from Nationalists because they know deep down it is the best play for Labour. The argument that further powers being passed to Holyrood should be a slow and refining process is a convincing one (and one that I have to thank Aidan for making me aware of via an earlier post). The other potential leaders look set to meekly adopt Devo Max as an option but the strategy is ill thought-through. A No result from a straight Yes-No would be a body blow for the SNP that would leave them reeling during a Salmond-less devolution defeat in 2016 and a long way beyond. Yes, there is talent in Team SNP but how can you hold the Nats together as a happy group when you know independence is not an option for another generation? Tom gets that, and could deliver it.
– Also, thinking practically, Tom Harris could in time quite easily be parachuted into Holyrood through a swap deal with a sitting MSP and it’s safe to say that the more talent that Labour can get into Holyrood the better, given that is where Scotland is looking to for political leadership.

But it is Tom’s ability to draw genuine ire from his opponents that sets him apart. A political leader that doesn’t pull his punches and commands the support of his team is a fearsome combination. Most leaders have the latter but not the former whereas Tom has things the other way around. He would say the unsayable and think the unthinkable in order to stop the SNP in its tracks and, given the softly-softly approach isn’t working so well, perhaps taking someone out of left field isn’t such a bad idea (one of the few occasions you’ll see ‘Tom’ and ‘left’ in the same sentence).

The biggest risk to Labour, a risk that we saw with Gordon Brown and Iain Gray and we are probably seeing right now with Ed Miliband, is that they may end up choosing a leader that they know deep down can’t win the next election but the party is too collectively paralysed by inertia, by ennui, to do anything about it. It’s over four long years until the next Scottish Parliament election and I suspect two of the three Labour candidates would be effectively lame ducks throughout FMQs, throughout budget debates and throughout the independence referendum, right up to Holyrood 2016.

For Labour, there’s no smoke without fire and since Ken Macintosh and Johann Lamont fail to generate light let alone any heat around their campaign, Tom Harris, love him or loathe him, is the only leadership candidate that can put some flames back into Labour’s belly.

Labour needs to shed off its deep-seated risk-averse nature and back Tom 4 Scotland’s campaign.

So, any objections?

A shameful day for the Scottish Lib Dems

Oct 31

Posted by Jeff in Parties | 54 Comments

I was intending to write a post in the near future about how well Willie Rennie was doing as Scottish Lib Dem leader. I may yet as he has raised some important points about devolved Scotland and the independence referendum while also being quietly effective at FMQ, marked improvement on Tavish Scott’s loud ineffectiveness. He is also shortlisted for being Holyrood’s Newcomer of the Year.

However, then I saw the photo below from the Scottish Lib Dems, my heart sank and thought it best to go negative on them once more before I go positive. Let me be clear, this photo wasn’t on a Lib Dem blogger’s website, it was (and still is for all I know) on the main Scottish Lib Dem Twitter feed and appears to be some sort of leaflet that may be doing the rounds:

Where to begin with how offensive the picture above is?

‘Blacking up’ the First Minister? The suggestion that Qatar is full of sand and camels and nothing else? Implying that an independent Scotland would take on all laws and rules that Qatar have? Painting the SNP as homophobic when they look set to lead the UK on gay rights legislation? Even the “Mr Salmond” is needlessly disrespectful.

It is a terrible statement that the Lib Dems are making, for barely any gain given the cack-handed, amateurish visuals that they have employed.

Qatar is a small oil-rich nation and Scotland is a small oil-rich nation, there is a comparison there that is a valid one to make and at least deserves being contested in good faith.

I don’t know if Willie Rennie personally sanctioned this attack advert above but, either way, he should sack the person(s) who put it together and/or released it online and then have a long hard think about what party he wants to lead and where he wants to place that party in the coming independence debate.

UPDATE: Thanks to Anndra Moireach in the comments, it has been pointed out that Willie Rennie put the ad up on his own Facebook profile. Willie was happy to debate with me on Twitter when I agreed with him about what a Yes-Yes result in the referendum means; time will tell whether he’ll be as keen to respond to my challenge that he should take the link off his page unless he can defend it…

UPDATE 2: It’s worth noting that the emir of Qatar seemed perfectly welcome by the Tory/Lib Dem coalition in a UK state visit this time last year, receiving “special favour” from the Queen. I wonder how Nick Clegg will be taking Willie Rennie’s line of attack…

UPDATE 3: The headline says it all: Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg meets Qatari Deputy Prime Minister

Update 4: From Willie Rennie’s Facebook page – “I apologise for the offence that has been clearly caused by our cartoon on the First Minister’s remarks in Qatar. Although I did not approve its publication I accept responsibility for it. It has been interpreted in ways that were not intended. It has now been withdrawn. I apologise.”

Will the SNP’s bristling new broom inadvertently sweep away independence chances?

Oct 26

Posted by Jeff in Parties | 73 Comments

As first posted at BPPA’s SNP Conference blog.

While the coalition Government is losing Ministers at a rate of knots, the Scottish Government is a veritable oasis of calm by comparison.

Liam Fox lasted 18 months as Defence Secretary, Vince Cable’s responsibility for media affairs lasted 7 months and David Laws lasted only 17 days as Chief Secretary to the Treasury. Chris Huhne is clinging onto his job by his fingernails after alleged speeding offences and it looks likely that there will be a controlled wind-down of Ken Clarke’s Cabinet position after numerous gaffes and controversies.

Meanwhile, up in Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon has been Cabinet Secretary for Health, Wellbeing and Cities since May 2007, Kenny MacAskill has been Cabinet Secretary for Justice since May 2007, John Swinney has been Cabinet Secretary for Finance since May 2007, Richard Lochhead has been Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment since May 2007, well, you get the point. In and around these high profile SNP high fliers, we have well established figures such as Mike Russell, Roseanna Cunningham, Shona Robison, Fiona Hyslop and Fergus Ewing who have held important posts, also since 2007.

Now, a cynic could say that the reason that the Scottish Cabinet is so consistent is because there are few individuals on the SNP benches who are ready to make the step up to replace them. When the rising stars of the governing party are Alex Neil (aged 60) and Mike Russell (aged 58), then one is inclined to agree.

So what?, one could reasonably ask. The SNP has a safe majority up to 2016 and the First Minister can put whichever bums on whatever Cabinet seats as he pleases. I would very much agree that devolved Scotland is safe in these eminently capable peoples’ hands for the foreseeable future but the problem for the SNP is that there is a referendum to be won around 2015.

An independent Scotland isn’t a novelty for a few years, it is a permanent change in how our nation is governed. The electorate will know that the current crop of Ministers will retire in the near future and will therefore consider who is in line to take over the reins of the Parliament of an Independent Scotland. We will still have the youthful Sturgeon, MacAskill and Robison for a good while yet of course, and there’s no reason why the SNP’s Aileen Campbell and Jamie Hepburn, to name but two of the Nat brat pack, shouldn’t fulfil their overflowing potential and shine as Ministers in due course.

That said, and this is where I stop naming names, the rest of the SNP crop can be far from impressive and are often derided as simply button-pushers in the Parliament, existing merely to serve Salmond’s every whim where stepping away from the party line is unacceptable. MSPs who are a bit too shouty on Newsnight, MSPs who get their billions mixed up with their millions, MSPs who harbour misplaced fears over gay marriage and MSPs who make jaw-droppingly erroneous allegations against the British Army and soldier deaths.

Is this Scotland’s fate for the decades to come? Where are the political leaders in their 20s, 30s and 40s that will save us from ourselves?

Not that the SNP has a lock on forming the first Government of an independent Scotland, but the talent on opposition benches, current and future, is similarly threadbare save for a few notable exceptions.

Alex Salmond’s ‘steady as she goes’ tactic has been necessary since 2007. The SNP were not going to be trusted by a sceptical public unless they could prove their competence in Government within a devolved Scotland before any referendum, and Salmond has probably known all along that he’d need two terms before a referendum could even be a realistic option.

To win a yes vote, the SNP has to defend many flanks from many opponents but will it be the soft underbelly of the next generation of SNP ‘talent’ that results in Scotland not having the confidence to go for it and ensures the Nationalist dream comes a cropper?

The First Minister declares: “the respect agenda lies dead in their throats”

Oct 22

Posted by The Burd in Constitution, Parties | 2 Comments

He came, he spoke, he conquered.  Despite having to clear his throat continually, fending off a cold.

He had MSPs dabbing their eyes, delegates cheering to the rafters, including the hundreds denied access to a full hall, watching it in the Eden Court cinema and huddled round screens in FIVE overflow areas.

This was the First Minister, master of all he surveyed and equal to the task.

One reckoned his speech had effectively fired the starting gun on the campaign to win the referendum.  And unequivocally, he set out, towards the end of his speech, that while full fiscal responsibility “could allow us to control our own resources, introduce competitive business tax, and fair personal taxation” it was not enough.

For “even with economic powers, Trident nuclear missiles would still be on the River Clyde, we could still be forced to spill blood in illegal wars like Iraq, and Scotland would still be excluded from the Councils of Europe and the world”.

Alex Salmond, First Minister of Scotland and leader of the Scottish National Party, announced to sustained applause and cheers that “this party will campaign full square for independence in the coming referendum”.

This was the most lyrical section of his speech.  It generated huge energy in the hall, had some in tears, reminded, as Fiona McLeod MSP was, “of the enormity of what we achieved in May.  We didn’t break the system in May, the Scottish people did, and it is good to be reminded of how momentous that was”.  The First Minister’s speech made her want to “come out of the hall, head straight for the train, and get out there campaigning”.

Jamie Hepburn MSP, meanwhile, reckoned the First Minister had laid to rest “all the murmurings about what independence means.  Which I think have been a deliberate distraction by some.  The First Minister set out clearly what it means and what the SNP will campaign on.  And that’s full blown sovereigny for the Scottish nation.”

It was a speech made less for the audience in the hall, and more for the audience out there in the country.  But it had some great lines and phrasing.  the First Minister acknowledged that “we have to take sides within Scotland, as well as taking Scotland’s side.  Particularly when times are tough we have to ask the rich to help the poor, the strong to help the weak, the powerful to help the powerless.”

Putting Scotland’s energy resources and potential firmly at the heart of the independence agenda, he highlighted BP’s announcement this week and made several of his own:  a new £18 million fund to support marine energy commercialisation, part of a £35 million investment over the next three years to support testing, technology, infrastructure and deployment of the first commercial marine arrays.  “The message is clear:  in marine energy, it’s Scotland who rules the waves”.

He framed the investment in and development of Scotland’s renewable energy potential as the “green re-industrialisation of the coastline of Scotland”  and termed it “central to our vision of the future”.

Within this context, he was scathing about the level of fuel poverty in Scotland “amid energy plenty” and promised a further 200,000 Scottish families access to energy efficiency measures by April 2012.  And he returned to a comfortable Nationalist narrative:  “London has had its turn of Scottish oil and gas.  Let the next 40 years be for the people of Scotland”, he boomed to loud cheers.

As Maureen Watt MSP commented afterwards, the First Minister “reminded us of the ambitions we had and still have for our country.  The SNP Government has been in power for four years – people have seen we can do things differently.  It has given Scotland a sense of control but also confidence in that we’re nae too poor, too stupid to run our country” – this last comment, of course, uttered in the Doric.

But the First Minister reserved his scorn, in passages which the conference audience lapped up, for the UK Conservative Liberal Democrat government, in a clear signal that he sees the fight over the independence campaign as increasingly personal for Scotland, pitting him against David Cameron.

First, he condemned the UK Government for forming a Cabinet sub-committee to attack Scottish independence, “working out how to do down Scotland” ignoring their responsibilities for economic recovery.  He targeted “Mr Cameron” several times:  “how little you understand Scotland”.

But he was at his most passionate when setting out his and the SNP’s agenda for the independence referendum.  It’s us against them, with Labour airbrushed out of existence.  It’s Scotland versus Westminster and warned “the days of Westminster politicians telling Scotland what to do or what to think are over.  The Scottish people will set the agenda for the future”.

And he finished by effectively firing the starting gun on the independence campaign, as one delegate styled it.  Rubbishing the UK Government’s approach to its own Scotland bill – “unloved, uninspiring, not even understood by its own proponents” – he attacked Westminster’s agenda of disrespect:

“… not disrespect to the SNP but a fundamental disrespect for Scotland.  The respect agenda lies dead in their throats.”

The First Minister concluded his speech by paying tribute to his party, its members and its activists:  “we stand where we do today because of generations before us, because of party workers and campaigners who never saw this day”.  And set out his and the SNP’s vision for Scotland:

“And we shall prevail – because we share a vision, A vision of a land without boundaries, Of a people unshackled from low ambition and poor chances, Of a society unlimited in its efforts to be fair and free, Of a Scotland unbound.”

The delegates are still bouncing with energy and dabbing their eyes now.

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EXCLUSIVE: Inverness outpost (1)

Oct 21

Posted by The Burd in Parties | 12 Comments

There’s nothing like arriving fashionably late to a party.  Though I don’t suppose making it here for teatime and managing to miss not just one Ministerial speech, but three constitutes anything but rude.  It wasn’t deliberate, honest.

Welcome, dear BN readers, to our outpost from Inverness and the SNP Conference for the weekend, where the enterprising Burd has secured blogging accreditation rights and will be posting all the highlights from speeches and resolutions.  Almost as they happen.

It’s a bit of a first in that the SNP has never deigned to allow official blogging and I have promised to behave myself.  And tomorrow, ensure that I am here on time for all the big speeches.

So if it wasn’t for the small mercy of transcripts, what might I have missed today?  A rather defensive display from Justice Secretary, Kenny MacAskill MSP and a barnstormer from Nicola Sturgeon MSP, Depute First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport (outposts on both to follow later).  But the opening Ministerial speech was a real crowd-pleaser from Cabinet Secretary for Capital and Infrastructure, Alex Neil MSP.

As well as taunting the other parties in Scotland – “the Tories are fighting like cats and dogs with some of them even wondering if Murdo Fraser is even in the blue corner….Labour is scurrying around its third and fourth divisions looking for its new leader in Scotland…”, Alex Neil also made time to have a square go at the UK Government and in particular, its perceived interference in the proposed independence referendum.  He suggested we might like to “ask David Cameron why he thinks he can come to Scotland where he has no democratic mandate and try to dictate the terms of the independence referendum to the Scottish people and their democratically elected Parliament”.  Methinks we will be hearing more of this refrain over the weekend and indeed, over the winter.

Interestingly, the failed 79 devolution referendum was referenced too:  “this Conference and the Scottish Government should send out a loud and clear message to David Cameron that the days when the Unionist parties at Westminster can rig a referendum, on Scotland’s constitutional future are over.  There will be no 40% rule in this referendum.”  I can practically hear the spontaneous, rapturous applause Alex Neil got at this point.

But it suggests, or rather confirms, following the First Minister’s intervention with the Scottish Affairs Committee at Westminster last week, that the current approach to the independence referendum is one of deflection.  No one practises the politics of grievance with the London lot as effortlessly or as skilfully as the SNP.  The tactics are of course correct, even if they are a tad obvious, and allow the SNP to avoid answering calls to set the date and determine the questions for the referendum by implying that it’s bugger all to do with Westminster and they should keep their noses out.

For all that, most of the Cabinet Secretary’s speech was given over to his day job and the focus was very much on fuel poverty, including an announcement that the Boiler Scrappage Scheme would be extended and increased by £1.5 million “a 60% rise in its budget despite the Westminster cuts”.  The scheme will cover over 10,000 houses in Scotland.  Other actions highlighted include extending the central heating programme and other energy assistance measures to carers from 30 November this year and the initiation of a universal insulation programme to cover over 200,000 houses throughout Scotland in its early years.

Concentrating on fuel poverty also allowed the Cabinet Secretary to point up the difference that could be made in independent Scotland.  “If Scotland had control over all of our energy resources we could:  bring every house in Scotland up to the standard in Scandinavia and eliminate fuel poverty in Scotland.”

Again, expect to hear more on these lines – hints and tints of the brave new world that can be delivered with independence – throughout the weekend.  Indeed, the Depute First Minister continued to develop this theme in her speech – which suggests that while the other parties are caught up in the process, the SNP is already whirring away in the backrooms working out its narrative to sell independence and its merits to the nation.