We know that winter is upon us because the new season of comedies rolls out for the poor folk who don’t go out in the shitty weather, the first comedy being the Labour Party Conference from sunny Brighton.
Now like many I was pretty glad that Jeremy Corbyn won the Labour Leadership contest, not that he will ever get me to consider Labour as a potential vote, but at last Labour had elected someone who was, well Labour and not Tory, to lead the party. That’s where the good point ends as far as Scotland goes.
It would appear that Jeremy, and John McDonnell (Shadow Chancellor) have been getting their Scottish information from Kezia Dugdale (leader Scottish Labour Branch Office). On the Andrew Marr show Jeremy Corbyn on Scotland was awful, he made me suspect that as far as he was concerned Scotland is just a part of the empire. He had no idea about rail, the ferries, local government finance, colleges etc etc. I think he might even have missed the referendum last year.
McDonnell was no better today at the conference, his speech had a lot to agree with to be honest but he said that Labour were the anti-austerity party, and that Scots should come home. Now please correct me if I am wrong, didn’t Labour abstain and effectively support the Tories austerity policies, didn’t Burnham, Cooper and Kendall follow Margaret Thatcher’s (sorry Harriet Harman’s) line of abstain because that’s what Labour do and what Labour voters expected of them when it comes to Tory policy, that being Labour actually support Tory policy being the red brand.
If Labour really want to recover in Scotland then they actually have to resort to being Labour, electing a left-wing leader with a left-wing shadow cabinet will only work if a) you are actually left-wing and b) you actually know what you are talking about when it comes to Scotland.
It would appear that Labour just never learn.
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