Scottish Labour leadership election.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Some articles that Findlay has written indicate that he might be able to articulate the socialist case for maintaining the Union in an articulate manner.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

What Scottish Labour need to do is to dispel the notion that they are a Unionist Party (or that anyone not in favor of outright independence is a "Unionist".)

Yes, this is true. The word and its associations are toxic.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Findlay isn't running.

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One of the more dispiriting aspects of the last leadership contest was the way that it turned into the usual factional pissing contest (Scottish Labour being even more prone to that than Labour elsewhere). I note that Murphy even bowed out on that note (classy).

[Filuwaúrdjan]

It isn't a serious threat and shouldn't be treated as one (in this case it is a not particularly subtle way of saying that Kendall or Hunt should not be elected as leader), it isn't the TUC (which is a confederation of unions) but the Unite Union (an amalgamation of the old Transport & General Workers Union and the various former engineering and technical unions that made up Amicus), and were it to happen (which it won't) it would obviously be very bad news for Labour as Unite is not just a major donor, but is a major source of local activists and also has a huge presence on various internal Party committees (including the NEC).

[Filuwaúrdjan]

It looks like a contest between Kezia Dugdale (Deputy Leader and so currently also the acting Leader) and Ken Macintosh (ran unsuccessfully for Leader in 2011) with Dugdale the overwhelming favourite.