Labour’s Holyrood Campaign HQ? The Beach.

YesterdayTom Harris MP wrote a savage-but-accurate appraisal of Labour’s Scottish election failure for Labour Uncut. Pretty much every part of his analysis is persuasive, most notably his appreciation that Scottish Labour has grown fat, arrogant and complacent. Just as importantly, many voters think this too. There was a widespread perception that there had to be something better than what Labour were offering and that Alex Salmond would do as that something even if you disagree with the SNP on its flagship policy or, for that matter, much of the rest of its platform.

Mr Harris’s views are endorsed by this entertaining story in the Scotsman:

Scottish Labour MPs are demanding that one of their colleagues should be barred from standing for the party again after he decided to take a three-week holiday abroad instead of campaigning during the Holyrood election.   The Scotsman has been told that Paisley and Renfrewshire North MP Jim Sheridan told colleagues that the result was “in the bag”.

He added he would not be needed to help in campaigning during the election, which instead led to the SNP winning a historic majority.

Among the Nationalist gains on the dramatic night was the Paisley Scottish Parliament seat, until recently held by former Scottish Labour leader Wendy Alexander, which overlaps Mr Sheridan’s constituency.