 | 'There are no leaders. Scottish Labour in parliament is filled with competent people and padded out with some incompetent people. Realistically, there isn't a single serious leadership candidate from either the left, centre or right of the party who it is possible to imagine actually making an impact on Scotland. Only followers are left.' Bob Thomson, former chairman and treasurer of the Scottish Labour party, 24 th May 2009. |  |
Labour could be out of power at Holyrood "for decades", according to a former minister who has accused the party's Scottish leadership of "directionless flailing about".
Brian Wilson, the former trade and Scotland Office minister, said the experience of other devolved administrations showed that secessionist parties were very difficult to oust once in office.
However he said the SNP, like their counterparts in Canda and Spain, were unlikely to achieve their stated goal of independence.
In another setback for Iain Gray, the Scottish Labour leader, Bob Thomson, former chairman and treasurer of the party, said he did not believe there was anyone of sufficient calibre capable of leading it out of its malaise.
Many in the party fear it will struggle to hold its previously safe seat of Glasgow North East, vacated by the resignation of the Commons Speaker, Michael Martin, in a foirthcoming by-election.
The Scottish National party has been installed at favourite, after winning the neighbouring seat of Glasgow East last year and while the Labour government is suffering its worst poll ratings in recent history.
Writing in today's Sunday Times Wilson, who served for two terms in Tony Blair's government, said Scottish Labour should "get ready for a long haul at Holyrood".
"The bad news for them is that once nationalist parties got into power in comparable situations like those of Quebec and Catalonia, they tended to stay for decades," he says.
"The good news is that neither Canada nor Spain is one whit closer to being broken up. That is the same pattern that Scottish devolution is likely to follow."
He said Scottish Labour had "managed to self-destruct in recent years to a quite spectacular degree" and that "the precipice now looks even steeper".
"Without the perceived prospect of a Labour government in the UK, not to mention all the other woes, it seems unlikely that Labour can maintain its preponderance of Scottish MPs.
"Out of power at Holyrood, greatly reduced in local government and marginalised at Westminister - that certainly meets the definition of a crisis, to be wasted or faced up to.
"Certainly, judging by their directionless flailing about in opposition at Holyrood since 2007, Scottish Labour needs to look somewhere for a strategy that goes beyond the hope that something will eventually turn up."
Thomson, one of the Scottish party's most prominent figures for several decades, said Labour has become a shell, with membership in freefall, with "no activists and almost no enthusiasts".
"There are no leaders. Scottish Labour in parliament is filled with competent people and padded out with some incompetent people. Realistically, there isn't a single serious leadership candidate from either the left, centre or right of the party who it is possible to imagine actually making an impact on Scotland. Only followers are left.
"The membership has at least halved in recent years. Labour used to be a grassroots organization but now party meetings - on the occasions where they are quorate - are filled with only two kinds of people; those who have jobs and those who want jobs.
"There are no activists and there are almost no enthusiasts. It is an organisation without a party and nothing good can come from that."
Kenneth Gibson, the nationalist MSP, said the comments underlined the decline of Labour in Scotland and growing disenchantment with its leadership.
"This stinging internal criticism only matches that of Scotland's voters who have been turning away from Labour at the opinion polls," he said.
Meanwhile, friends of Martin have accused his officials of bouncing him into quitting as an MP when he was in a vulnerable state and undermining the Labour government.
Lord Foulkes said his secretary Angus Sinclair was wrong to advise Martin last week that convention suggested he should quit as an MP if he was resigning as Speaker.
Foulkes and Sinclair had a heated exchange hours before Martin announced his intention to quit the Commons.
The Labour peer accused him of "arrogance", arguing that Horace King, the first Labour Speaker, and Selwyn Lloyd, a Conservative holder of the post, had not quit the Commons immediately after resigning the Speaker's chair.
Other Labour MPs and sources close to the Labour leadership are also angry at what they regard as a stitch up by the so-called "men in tights". Sinclair said Martin had reached his own decision after receiving advice from all quarters including Foulkes.
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