What is the point of Labour ?

[DeeTillEhDeh]

So far Lennon has the support of two MSPs - one of them notably being Neil Findlay - while Sarwar has the backing of 11 MSPs and the MP. You need 4 nominations from MSPs or MPs to stand, so Lennon might not even make it to the ballot papers. I suspect a couple of other MSPs will nominate her, if only to create a contest and avoid a coronation that I doubt even Sarwar wants.
Ballot Box Scotland are running an excellent page on it here: http://ballotbox.scot/scottish-parliament/scottish-labour-leadership-election-2021 

Would be funny if Lennon did a Corbyn on the anointed one.

[Detournement]

Gordon Brown made the BoE independent of the Treasury, Dodds wants to make the Treasury independent of the Government. 

Genuinely unbelievably that their big idea is handing fiscal policy to right wing classical economists. Must have got the idea from the SNP's Growth Commission.

[Gordon EF]

Not that that I've seen an enormous amount of Annalise Dodds but everything I've seen of her elicits a pretty resounding "meh". Truly the Starmerites Starmerite.

[Carnoustie Young Guvnor]

Shocker, London has been on the phone to Monica Lennon and she has had her instructions.  Even I didn't expect it this quick tbf

 

[Carnoustie Young Guvnor]

Here was her position before her bosses in London cracked the whip

 

[Ira Gaines]

I thought Starmer did a 180 and had a similar stance just recently?

[Carnoustie Young Guvnor]

3 minutes ago, Andre Drazen said:

I thought Starmer did a 180 and had a similar stance just recently?

I think that's right. When its politically prudent to do so they all make the right noises but when push comes to shove they all revert to their extreme British nationalist position. It was ever thus and thus it will ever be.

 

[invergowrie arab]

41 minutes ago, Carnoustie Young Guvnor said:

Shocker, London has been on the phone to Monica Lennon and she has had her instructions.  Even I didn't expect it this quick tbf

 

TBF that's SNP policy too 

[Carnoustie Young Guvnor]

3 minutes ago, invergowrie arab said:

TBF that's SNP policy too 

No it isn't, she is ruling it out for the foreseeable ie this parliament in the most typically dishonest weasel Labour way possible. After her bosses in London have told her to make a statement to that effect.

[welshbairn]

12 minutes ago, invergowrie arab said:

TBF that's SNP policy too 

And mine, if you want to guarantee losing a referendum, hold it in the middle of a pandemic. I like the cut of her jib.

[Carnoustie Young Guvnor]

8 minutes ago, welshbairn said:

And mine, if you want to guarantee losing a referendum, hold it in the middle of a pandemic. I like the cut of her jib.

Nobody is proposing holding it 'in the middle' of a pandemic. Literally nobody. The UK govt and Scotgov say every adult in the country is on course to have their first jag by July and second by October. So you could hold it this year or no later than next. 

The proposition is this parliament, not 'in the middle of a pandemic'. Which Lennon will then claim is too soon rebuild blah blah blah. You're incredibly naive sometimes.

[John Lambies Doos]

When will the new laughing stock be in place?

[welshbairn]

38 minutes ago, Carnoustie Young Guvnor said:

Nobody is proposing holding it 'in the middle' of a pandemic. Literally nobody. The UK govt and Scotgov say every adult in the country is on course to have their first jag by July and second by October. So you could hold it this year or no later than next. 

The proposition is this parliament, not 'in the middle of a pandemic'. Which Lennon will then claim is too soon rebuild blah blah blah. You're incredibly naive sometimes.

You quoted her twice and she didn't say anything that I disagree with. I'm not sure what you disagree with either. 

[Carnoustie Young Guvnor]

1 minute ago, welshbairn said:

You quoted her twice and she didn't say anything that I disagree with. I'm not sure what you disagree with either. 

The change of tone is very clear, she is simply hoping people, like you, are gullible enough to be taken in by it. Its absolute weasel words of the worst variety and typical Labour. Fundamentally dishonest.

[KingRocketman II]

On 14/01/2021 at 18:56, Alert Mongoose said:

I’m not stating anything new but why can’t Scottish Labour get their head round the fact that around 50% of Scots want independence? They can go through another 1000 leaders and nothing will change.

because despite what they claim, Scottish Labour is not an autonomous body. They are a subsidiary of the UK Labour Party, an accounting unit, and will follow their Westminster leader's orders on major issues every single time. 

Party comes first, then the MP/MSP, then way down the list of priorities come the constituents that were so long taken for granted. For me, the words of Jim Hood, ex-Labour MP sums up their Scottish MP/MSPs to the core:

"Even if the SNP was right and there was a grand, great thing at the end of the rainbow for the SNP and its debate for independence, I would still be against it..........if the Scottish people are going to be better off economically and so on, I would still be against breaking away from the Union.”

[GordonS]

4 hours ago, Detournement said:

Gordon Brown made the BoE independent of the Treasury, Dodds wants to make the Treasury independent of the Government. 

Genuinely unbelievably that their big idea is handing fiscal policy to right wing classical economists. Must have got the idea from the SNP's Growth Commission.

I'm 45 years old and only one Labour leader has won a general election in my lifetime. Blair's government made the BoE independent of the Treasury just after winning a 179 seat majority and before going on to a 167 seat majority.

It might be shit neoliberal economic policy, but I find it hard to criticise a political party for trying to win elections.

[GordonS]

20 minutes ago, KingRocketman II said:

because despite what they claim, Scottish Labour is not an autonomous body. They are a subsidiary of the UK Labour Party, an accounting unit, and will follow their Westminster leader's orders on major issues every single time. 

The accounting unit thing is not merely organisational. Scottish Labour's fundraising is pretty dismal, and very considerably below the SNP's. They depend on England for money and bodies. The 'too wee, too poor' thing does actually apply to them.

[invergowrie arab]

1 hour ago, Carnoustie Young Guvnor said:

Nobody is proposing holding it 'in the middle' of a pandemic. Literally nobody. The UK govt and Scotgov say every adult in the country is on course to have their first jag by July and second by October. So you could hold it this year or no later than next. 

The proposition is this parliament, not 'in the middle of a pandemic'. Which Lennon will then claim is too soon rebuild blah blah blah. You're incredibly naive sometimes.

She doesn't mention this parliament and even if she did this parliament is due to be dissolved in 3 months 

[Detournement]

1 minute ago, GordonS said:

I'm 45 years old and only one Labour leader has won a general election in my lifetime. Blair's government made the BoE independent of the Treasury just after winning a 179 seat majority and before going on to a 167 seat majority.

It might be shit neoliberal economic policy, but I find it hard to criticise a political party for trying to win elections.

Blair's win was nothing to do with the BoE. 

And this crackpot plan is simply to avoid having to answer any questions about  spending plans. It's obviously a compromise between trying to please neoliberal institutions without telling potential Labour voters that austerity will continue.

As we have seen last year public spending is a political choice and is not reliant on taxation. The idea that NAO should choose public spending levels is completely undemocratic. We have left the EU's Fiscal Compact austerity strait jacket and a Labour government should be taking power back from the BoE rather than creating new unelected bodies to institutionalise poverty. 

 

[GordonS]

3 minutes ago, Detournement said:

Blair's win was nothing to do with the BoE. 

 

Blair's win was everything to do with the perception among the electorate that he would run the economy like a benevolent Tory.