Farewell to Wendy
The inevitable has happened with the trickle of bad news - and it was a trickle - eventually sweeping her away. After a year of constant, unrelenting, abuse from all quarters she must be asking herself "Why did I ever want the job?"Labour members must be looking at the recent leadership (non-)contests and shaking their heads in disbelief.
The easiest excuses, were of course, the ones that Wendy herself gave, but they only scratch the surface of the issues.
To the objective outsider, it looks like at both Holyrood and Westminster that Labour have appointed the intellectual to fill the vacancy, without any thought about their leadership abilities.
In both cases, the vacancy was caused by the Labour Party believing it needed change at all costs. They just never thought what that cost was.
Both Alexander and Brown have a deserved reputation for intelligence and understanding their brief; but neither is able to lead a disparate (desperate!) group of individuals and are unable to inspire loyalty in their troops or even give the vaguest impression of being in touch with the public.
Wendy's greatest problem was that a large section of her own party were out to get her to the extent of providing extremely damaging information to the press.
In the meantime the SNP have got her scalp, when they would have been much better off if they had allowed the matter to drag on indefinitely, and now they will have to deal with whoever replaces her. And Cathy Jamieson is unequivocally NOT the answer.
Alexander had the potential to be an extremely effective leader of the opposition, injecting some needed intelligence and analysis into the debates in the chamber.
Surrounded as she was by intellectual pygmies and useless political advisors, she ended up powerless, aimless and bizarrely appearing to be out of her depth on almost every issue.
She will return to her role on the backbenches (at least until the election) where she will no doubt publish highly clever and effective pamphlets, give well received lectures, and be sorely missed by her Party.
The leadership contest is going to be one of these elections no-one will want to win, as they face defeat after defeat before they can ever hope to win (win? get a decent vote, will be a success) in Scotland.
The Parliament is the worse for this childish witch-hunt, as the appallingly low level of intellect in the chamber is now more obvious than ever, with only a few redeeming MSPs raising the average IQ much above that of an amoeba.
Still, we get what we vote for, so it is only us to blame; but with the public opinion of politicians degenerating with every action these politicians take, the public is quickly becoming even less well served by those we elect to 'represent' us.
16 comments:
Quite a lot of your posts are getting no responses Angus. Are you losing touch or at you at Church, or are your band of followers at Church on this windswept driech Sabbath?
As the Proclaimers might sing, "Wendy no more, Labour no more"....ha ha. Bring on the Labour leadership election ....that'll be the biggest laugh of the summer! And as for the East Glasgow MP by-election they can stand by for a further stuffing... and they've only themselves to blame.
Have a look at the English Sunday newspaper sites (if you're allowed on the Sabbath) - they've all but written Labour off now that Wendy's jumped ship to spend more time with the twins (oh no, not another two Alexanders!). The future is well and trully a Conservative England and I guess it's up to as as to whether or not we want to be part of that.....
It's great to see Annie Lennox coming out in favour of Independence this weekend - and she's not even an SNP supporter! When will the guys in Scottish Labour realise their future lies in Independence too. Word is there will be news of defections to the cause (in addition to old Henry McLeish) soon.
...and with all the previous Labour donors on telly today, it looks like Gordy Broon will be following Wendy into the wilderness too!
Jim Dyer (Standards Watchdog) is reported on BBC TV and new website as saying....
"However, Dr Dyer said responsibility for declaring donations lay with individual MSPs and not with the clerks".
Why can't Wendy accept that she did wrong. Actually she did admit publicly that the Jersey donation in particular was indeed wrong.....and bearing in mind her leadership was unopposed, what did she do with the money she raised? Does she get to keep it now she's going or is it passed to leadership contenders Cathy, Andy, Margaret or Ian?
We keep hearing about Wendy Alexander having one of the most brilliant minds of her generation. She kept that well hidden.
I take it from the lack of posts in Wendy's defence that labour supporters are hiding their embarrasment about their chronic lack of judgement. Others running for cover are the big mouths at the BBC. Never in the history of hot air have so many been so wrong about so few.
The absence of anyone to defend her speaks volumes.....
I thought the lack of posts was down to everyone in Gaeldom ogling page 3 of todays Sun!
Why, is it Erica Morrison?
i hope andy kerr gets the post and takes his cronies manson amd currie along for the ride. And the whole country sees their backhanded and corrupt ways after the mess they made of our health board.
4:52 PM
Perv
9:15 PM
Weirdo!
Scottish Labour Manifesto: Keep Glasgow on benefits.
From The Sun - (topless lovely image removed to save Wee Free blushes)
Caileag rùisgte na Sun taiceil ris a’ Ghàidhlig Sun supports Gaelic
Topless Page 3 girls in the Scottish Sun are supporting the Gaelic language this week. The pin-ups are joining the newspaper's campaign to raise the profile of the language.
In its editorial the paper warns that much of Scottish culture would not exist without Gaelic and its speakers.
It says that Scots laughs at its national language unlike the Irish and Welsh who cherish theirs.
The paper says: "Gaelic provides a vital strand in our cultural identity, our appeal to tourists as well as many of our most accomplished performers, politicians and businessmen."
It stresses: "If our heritage is not worth investing in, what is?"
21-year-old Keely from Bromley who appears on Monday's Page 3 bares her love for the language.
Tha i a' cantainn: "Tha Gàidhlig a' ceangal eachdraidh agus an t-àm ri teachd an Alba. Tha gradh agam air a' chànan."
Did anyone notice that the Scottish government announced yesterday, following a review, that the free bus travel for pensioners scheme would continue? In fact, it is being extended to include injured veterans.
Labour had been spreading scare scories about a "secret review", saying that the SNP were going to "shove the grannies off the bus". They claimed that yesterday's announcement was a political victory for Labour.
What they 'forgot' to mention was that the review had been set in motion by the previous Labour/Liberal administration!
The SNP government followed due process, completed the review, and came to the right decision.
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