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Reluctant Hero

Jack McConnell - A Hero !?

Pretty interesting stuff from Iain McWhirter in the Sunday Herald.

http://www.sundayherald.com/oped/opinion/display.var.2104815.0.0.php
skip

it is an interesting read and confirms quite a few things  that people were thinking at the time

If you recall many 'cybernats' did believe  that labour and liberal westminster heirarchy were trying to over-rule their holyrood counterparts. First of all the cybernats were accused of being paranoid. It seems the suspicions were justified since there was an attempt of collusion from Brown to Campbell.

Secondly, Foulkes took exception to the term London Labour... yet it seems the London-based leadership tried to over-rule the scottish party leader. Also it confirms that Labour at westminster is even slower at coming to terms with the election defeat than the holyrood labour party and how to deal with it.

McConnell's biggest mistake in the job was staying "on message" and shielding Brown and Blair. As ive typed here before... he could have won the election if he had gone "off message" and called for the scottish troops to be brought home. he could have renamed it a scottish government... and he could have gone anti-nuclear. Three popular moves that would have aligned him more closely with scottish people.

Perhaps after the event he will see the bigger picture - that he took the party line too often and was too loyal to UK party policies that were beyond his control. many times he had to deal with criticism about war, pensions, sleaze which were not of his own making. I sense that henry mcleish his somewhat "seen the light" and become more open-minded to changing things. i hope mcconnell will do the same.

whatever was said in the "blazing" row with brown... i think the word hero is a bit OTT. a hero would have stood up against a great many things sooner and would be brave enough to say it in public.
Aventinian

skip wrote:
over-rule the scottish party leader.


There isn't one. There is a leader of the Scottish Parliamentary Labour group, but not of some sort of Scottish Labour Party.

Anyway, I don't see what Macwhirter's objections are to the idea of a minority Lib-Lab coalition having taken power after the last election. After all, we are talking about an Exec that would've had 48% of the constituency votes than one that took 32%. Sounds considerably more democratic to me.

Quote:
McConnell's biggest mistake in the job was staying "on message" and shielding Brown and Blair. As ive typed here before... he could have won the election if he had gone "off message" and called for the scottish troops to be brought home. he could have renamed it a scottish government... and he could have gone anti-nuclear. Three popular moves that would have aligned him more closely with scottish people.


Sounds like populist, irresponsible clap-trap to me. Except for that Scottish Government thing - do you think anyone, short of a few Nats, actually had any strong feelings in support of change? I doubt it.
skip

Aventinian wrote:

There isn't one. There is a leader of the Scottish Parliamentary Labour group, but not of some sort of Scottish Labour Party.


yes, but people identify her or her predecessors as the scottish labour party leader. they have their own scottish conference and keynote speech to delegates. its very ambiguous.

Aventinian wrote:
Skip wrote:
McConnell's biggest mistake in the job was staying "on message" and shielding Brown and Blair. As ive typed here before... he could have won the election if he had gone "off message" and called for the scottish troops to be brought home. he could have renamed it a scottish government... and he could have gone anti-nuclear. Three popular moves that would have aligned him more closely with scottish people.


Sounds like populist, irresponsible clap-trap to me. Except for that Scottish Government thing - do you think anyone, short of a few Nats, actually had any strong feelings in support of change? I doubt it.


There's nothing wrong with being populist if its about doing the right thing.
You may think it claptrap but I think it is more in keeping with what the people want and actually a more honest Labour traditional position.

There might not be strong feelings about it but if you did a show of hands in every pub in the country most people would prefer "Scottish government" over "scottish executive" any day of the week.  The change sits comfortably with everyone i've spoken too.
Lochaber

skip wrote:
people identify Wendy Alexander or her predecessors as the scottish labour party leader.

The Scottish Labour Party website refers to her as "Labour Leader Wendy Alexander" on their home page.

Historical note:
The Scottish Labour Party was founded in 1888 and is the precursor of the Labour Party which was not created until the 20th century. Similarly, the Scottish Home Rule Association, founded in 1886, was a precursor of both. (The first secretary and president of the Scottish Labour Party were Keir Hardie and Robert Cunninghame-Graham the founders of the Scottish Home Rule Association. Robert Cunninghame Graham later became the first president of the SNP).
voiceofourown

R.B. Cunninghame Graham was a truly fascinating character. Read his wikipedia entry here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Cunninghame-Graham
Wiki omits the fact that his book 'A Vanished Arcadia', was the basis of the film 'The Mission'.
RadgeJougal

McConnell was weak.
Lochaber

voiceofourown wrote:
R.B. Cunninghame Graham was a truly fascinating character.

And then some!

Jack McConnell - the former leader of Stirling District Council - is a member of Amnesty International and left the SNP to join the Labour Party (a party which, despite its posturing on Human Rights, seeks to detain people without trial). Robert Cunninghame Graham - the former Lord Lieutenant of Stirlingshire - was sent to jail for his part in the demonstration in Trafalgar Square, known as Bloody Sunday (13th November 1887), which defended the right of United Kingdom citizens to freedom of speech. The socialist Cunninghame Graham's increasing dismay with the Labour Party was recorded by the poet Wilfred Scawen Blunt who records a meeting with Graham in 1908 in which he says (of Labour MPs):
William Scawen Blunt wrote:
... he tells me they are a hopeless lot. When they get into Parliament they are at once bitten with the absurd idea that they are no longer to be working men, but statesmen.
mairead

McConnell was a JOKE.

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