More good news for the SNP.

wisnaeme · More good news for the SNP.

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More good news for the SNP. Rhona Brankin has apparently been forgiven by Wee Jack. I'm sure that those good folk associated with crofting and fishing will also be overjoyed at the news. They'll be lighting bonfires and dancing in the street in celebration, no doubt in fond remembrance of her past sympathetic administration of crofting and fishing issues. How many times does a Labour member of the Scottish Executive have to be sacked before they remain sacked? Aye weel, at least they were in the wilderness for more than forty days and nights before lack of choice heralded their reappearance as a miracle incarnate, absolved of all their past sins and misdemeanours, weel by some folk anyway.

http://www.theherald.co.uk/politics/78448.html

macwea · Rhona Brankin

Unbelievable! Rhona Brankin must be the most intellectually challenged Minister that Labour have ever had in the Executive, and that's no mean feat. Having caused mayhem in the fishing and crofting industries she is now to be let loose to create pandemonium in housing etc. I hate to think what her tactics will be to "encourage" local authorities to be dragged kicking and screaming down the housing stock transfer route.
Still, at least her appointment is as unpopular within the Parliamentary Labour Group as it is with the other political parties at Holyrood. According to Radio Scotland's late night political programme last night (Scotland at Ten), at the Labour Group meeting yesterday Peter Peacock received a resounding round of applause for returning following his ill-health, however when it came to announcing Brankin's appointment it was met with silence and a few muffled comments.
Division in the Labour Group just before the election! It doesn't get much better does it?

macnumpty

It was her or no one though: Johann Lamont and Des McNulty had held their positions for only a few weeks, and if Lewis Macdonald or Allan Wilson were never in contention: Macdonald is in a vulnerable seat and the Communities portfolio is tougher than it ought to be (so any extra publicity is likely to be negative), while Wilson 1) is in a West Coast seat (and McConnell's taken too much criticism about a West Coast bias already) and 2) seems to be getting lots of publicity moaning about the SNP's policy on student debt.

Even so, the fact that he's scraping the bottom of the barrel, and re-using Ministers he initially sacked (though Boyack is clued up by Labour standards), shows that he's running out of time. Roll on May 3!