SCOTTISH Labour members are not renowned for showing good judgement when picking leaders. In the last decade, Labour has chosen Iain Gray, Johann Lamont, Jim Murphy and Kezia Dugdale, none of whom inspired voters.
Yesterday - finally - Labour elected a leader who has the potential to improve the perception of his party.
In a battle between left-winger Richard Leonard and Anas Sarwar, from the right of the party, Labour members picked wisely.
A progressive manifesto based on common ownership, redistribution of wealth and building up public services may take Scottish Labour back to its radical roots.
However, Leonard has his drawbacks, particularly on the EU. Sarwar’s best argument in the campaign was calling for the UK to retain membership of the single market. Leonard was weaker on Brexit and appeared willing to defer to whatever tortured compromise is offered by Jeremy Corbyn. Leonard should put himself at the forefront of the campaign for the single market.
Meanwhile, Leonard’s big day has been overshadowed by the attention-seeking antics of Dugdale, who has decided to leave Holyrood briefly to earn a crust as a C-list celebrity on a reality TV show.
Dugdale’s decision is further evidence of her poor judgement and risks turning her into a national laughing stock.
In PR turns, therefore, Leonard's election is one step forward for the party, but Dugdale's behaviour is two steps back.
Given Scottish Labour’s tough stance on banning MSP second jobs, Dugdale appears to be increasingly contemptuous of her party. Leonard should respond in kind and suspend her from the party.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here