There will be a million words written about the resignation of Johann Lamont as leader of the Scottish branch of the Labour Party today, a lot written will be mushy rubbish in the unionist press. Others will put positive slants on her contribution to Scottish life and the SNP, my party, will wish her well blah blah blah, of course they have to do that or be accused of whatever.
However, I don’t have to go down the mushy road in any shape or form. I’m not a professional writer, I am not even a good writer but my opinion is as good as anyone else’s opinion, as is yours. So from a Jock Blogs point of view here is mine.
I will not miss Johann Lamont from Scottish Politics or Holyrood in any shape or form. Call me bitter but I found her to be an ineffectual, horrible, vindictive, nasty woman who took great delight in telling ordinary Scottish people that they were unworthy of anything that came their way. Some of my favourite quotes from Lamont are:
“We are not genetically programmed in Scotland to make political decisions.”
“If there is a Yes vote, is it not the case that we will need to rewrite the song: ‘Standard Life no more, RBS no more, shipbuilding no more, the Scotland we love and fight for no more’?”
The Scottish Labour leader accused benefit recipients of living in a “something for nothing country”
“But there is one thing which the First Minister has discovered this year. Women give birth to children. Then they look after them. So when his focus groups tell him women don’t like him he discovers childcare. It wasn’t exactly the same as Fleming discovering penicillin. Splitting the atom it was not but I suppose the First Minister learning anything about how real Scots live their lives is some sort of progress. I’m not going to give any theories about why the First Minister has a problem with women’.
Politics is a dirty business, it doesn’t have to be and that is exactly what is wrong with it in my opinion, but Lamont played the nasty card all too well. She hated the SNP, that’s fine, but she hated any Scots that did not agree with her vision. She took the Scottish parliament back 10 years with sub standard arguments, abusive point scoring and zero policy making. She should be regarded as a failure and I will always remember her contribution as being one of talking Scotland and it’s people down, telling me and my kids that we were not good enough.
Bye bye you won’t be missed, well not by me.
grumpyscottishman.wordpress.com 
I don’t think many will miss her, especially her cohorts in Labour Scottish branch.
Jim
I certainly won’t. I found her to be bery offensive and not all any good.
Thanks
Bruce
Having watch FM questions on a few occasions JL seems to get stuck in a loop, often asking the same question 3-4 times have been giving an answer the 1st time, the question would normally be some nasty negative total waste of FM questions time , her dour face and negative stance really was an embarrassment to Scotiish politics, she won’t be missed, she achieved nothing and led Scots to believe we were better together and then only a few weeks later leaves her own job cause clearly we are not better together, she and her party could have got behind the yes campaigne and stood up for Scotland but instead she just did as she was told by Westminster. Johanne Lamont, leader of the Labour Party Northern Britain reporting directly to milliband, good bye and good riddance !!
David
She struggled at FMQs due to having no policies and little skills against AS. She also suffered from very poor MSPs as her shadow cabinet. While it was very funny at times it was also not good for our democracy or for Holyrood. I don’t think any of us should be surprised that London pulls the strings, they always have, and the likes of Curran being back stabbers just sums up the history of Labour. It’s about them and their milking the public purse, it has been for longer than I have been alive. I just can’t understand why people vote for them.
Thanks for commenting.
Bruce
I will miss her in te fact she was so bad she kept the Labour Party out of power here.
Maybe she will return to teaching oh how I feel sorry for those children
Sod
Lol oh please not teaching, we need to win the next vote and that will rely on young people who can read and are able to write at least an X. I would be very concerned if JL got anywhere near the education system, it’s struggling enough already.
Thanks for commenting.
Bruce
JoLa was a thoroughly unpleasant person. How do I know? She was a Labour politician.
GG
Same, it’s not a crime to not be good at your job, we all encounter that daily but she was nasty and had a real hate for people and many in Scotland. How she ever got elected is beyond me.
Thanks for commenting.
Bruce
Struggling as I am to say anything different from all of your other commentators and your good self. I have memories of Johann Lamont the day the SNp won it’s majority in the Scottish Parliament, trailing round sticking her tuppence worth in for all it was worth and I doubt it was tuppence. I will admit that I did not then know she was Ian Gray’s deputy. I thought there goes the new leader for all the use she will be and sure enough so she has proved. One thing which surprised me was she actually noticed that London was controlling her. I thought that was how they liked it in The Labour Party in Scotland. Take the money, do as little as possible and you are doing fine.
I imagine she is back to keeping her head down till hopefully she is removed in 2016 so that Husband Archie can cream off as much money as possible so that they can retire.
No worries about her returning to teaching, she was so bad they had her chasing truants before she got into politics in a big (small ) way.
Labour Party, Educations greatest saviour. McConnell, Gray and Lamont all ex teachers and think of the damage they could do.
hektorsmum
You were ahead of me, I never saw her replacing Grey and the really sad thing is she makes him seem really good in hindsight, even Michael Moore looks like Ghandi compared to Lament. She is a horrible woman, like many in her party, Marra, Curran, Baillie, Dugdale, Alexander etc. I know Labour have all women short lists but these women are not representative of women that I know.
Thanks for commenting.
Bruce
It’s really too bad that we have to point out how substandard are our current crop of Labour MSP’s. I think there are a few who understand what just happened in September, but most, I feel, have an expectation of support based on decades of blind following.
Sad, but true. My own Dad was a committed socialist in Aberdeen when socialism meant something. Clem Atlee’s dedication to working class ideals enabled me, and my siblings, to escape from relative poverty and a blind dedication to the Labour party. have a lot to thank the Labour Party for, but they have, sadly, lost their way….
Alastair
I agree, the current crop are really bad in the main but we probably all have to thank the old Labour movement for advances made for poorer people in some ways. However the new Labour movement are quickly helping to dismantle all those gains and I also can’t abide their blind hatred of the SNP at a time when they should all be working together, when appropriate, to make things better in Scotland. Labour now prefer to work with the the other two tory parties.
Thanks for commenting.
Bruce