 | 'Economically inept, morally repugnant and spiritually bereft.' Falkirk West's decription of Labour's benefits cuts, which were endorsed by the Scottish Labour Party Conference. |  |
| 'Economically inept, morally repugnant and spiritually bereft.' Falkirk West's decription of Labour's benefits cuts, which were endorsed by the Scottish Labour Party Conference. | |
But for the New Labour way of thinking the rot had already set in. They had an MP who would occasionally break the Whip on points of principle, and the local party felt it shared those same principles. Never a hotbed of lurid lefties and fringe groups, it nevertheless backed their MP and forged an incredibly close relationship with him.
Then at Perth in spring this year, the constituency put themselves beyond the New Labour pale. They put in a motion condemning the planned cuts in benefits for single-parent families and as a negotiating position for the inevitable compositing process they phrased it colourfully and memorably: "These changes are economically inept, morally repugnant and spiritually bereft."
The party hierarchy was angry but bullish. The words were always intended to be negotiated away but instead they were deliberately left in, a bluff called, so that conference would reject this dinosaur challenge to New Labour orthodoxy. Only the hierarchy miscalculated and conference ended up endorsing the words.
Scottish Secretary Donald Dewar was furious and condemned the local party chairwoman by name. Ironically Kate Arnott, who wrote the words and was demonised by Mr Dewar is planning to stay and fight within Labour, rather then following her conscience and helping Dennis Canavan's independent campaign.
But speaking at the Women's Aid organisation where she works she made clear yesterday that Falkirk West constituency party did not look for a fight with HQ and did not want its support for Mr Canavan to become a party loyalty issue.
But the die was cast. Delta House (formerly Keir Hardie House, headquarters of Scottish New Labour (formerly the Scottish Labour Party), had decided. Ms Arnott is clearly bright. The wording of her motion would excite the envy of many newspaper leader writers. She did not even get an interview when she applied to be on the list of eligible candidates for the Scottish Parliament.
She failed to get on the list as constituency chairman. Dennis Canavan failed to get on as sitting Westminster MP. Not a single applicant from Falkirk West ended up being approved for the list.
As former CLP secretary Jim Lapsley put it yesterday, in a reference to the fact that three members of the McCullough family from Edinburgh (one a councillor and one a member of party staff) got on the list: "What they were saying to us was that our entire constituency did not have as much talent between us as a single household in Wester Hailes."
The irony is that Mr Lapsley and Ms Arnott spoke in the language of grief and restraint yesterday. Ms Arnott said she would not be publicly endorsing her MP's independent campaign because she wanted to remain inside the Labour Party. Mr Lapsley, a retired principal teacher, indicated he was likely to join Mr Canavan beyond the pale, but principle and personal loyalty were his touchstones, not radical rhetoric.
Both look back on the issue of the scathing motion on welfare cuts with a mixture of sadness and surprise, as something that was never meant to get out of hand in that way. In the months since then the same thing has happened with Mr Canavan's candidature and the future of the constituency as a whole. Bungling confrontationalism from HQ has seen an MP of 25 years' standing and a healthy constituency party both destroyed for Labour.
They are asking whether the finger ought not to be pointed at those in the hierarchy who allowed this to happen. - Nov 12
Return to home page