Dinosaur Labour Is Back

Considering the audience to which it was aimed, I suppose one could say that Johann Lamont’s first leaders’ speech to the Scottish Labour party conference was a success. Expectations for Ms Lamont were not quite at Obama-levels. I suspect Labour types will have been pleased by it. Which means, naturally, it should terrify everyone else.

It was, naturally, a Unionist speech largely because it reminded one that Scottish Labour would be a powerful force in an independent Scotland and, by god, that’s enough to make one wary of the entire enterprise. England and Wales and Northern Ireland offer some protection, minimising the amount of damage Labour can do in Scotland. This too, perhaps, is an argument against further powers at Holyrood: at some point Labour will have a chance to play with these toys. I grant that this is not an edifying argument since it rests upon an awareness that plenty of Scots remain thirled to a party that makes Ed Balls appear a vision of neoliberal exhuberance.