Hamilton South By-election 1999

'When Mr Dewar and Dr Reid protest that they get on well together, they should be believed. They are not the cause of this trouble. When they claim the turf war is pure media invention, they should be disbelieved. Oh, it exists all right, but only in the minds of those with something to lose, mainly the increasingly frustrated band of Westminster MPs who are beginning to look evermore like a sixth finger, just hanging there uselessly and with no apparent reason for their being.' Murray Ritchie in the Herald, 28 th July 1999.

Critics say Network has power monopoly

By Robbie Dinwoodie in the Herald

The pro-Blair faction in the party has been astonishingly successful in getting its members into the Westminster and Scottish Parliaments, and critics say it continues to control all the levers of power within the party's structures.

There were complaints at the sparsely attended meeting of the party's Scottish Policy Forum last weekend that the timing of such events and the way full-time officials turn up with game plans already in place shows that the desire to exert continuing control has not waned. That meeting sought at one stage to appoint policy commission members for the next two years, even although a new, more representative policy forum is about to be elected.

It is part of a pattern, as a look at the origins of the Blairite group known as the Network demonstrates. Formed in 1996, this group had two co-chairs, Rosemary McKenna and Rhona Brankin.

The former was selected for Cumbernauld and Kilsyth when the sitting MP abruptly announced his decision to retire and strong rival candidates were kept off the short list. Mrs McKenna became Westminster MP for the seat, and went on to chair the infamous vetting process that deemed some apparently strong contenders unsuitable as Holyrood candidates.

Ms Brankin was selected as Scottish Parliament candidate for Midlothian largely on the votes of the larger neighbouring party membership in East Lothian and against the publicly stated wishes of the constituency. She is now Deputy Minister for Culture and Sport.

There were 18 others on the inaugural invitation list to the Network. Six were already prospective parliamentary candidates; Frank Roy, Anne McGuire, Frank Doran, Jim Murphy, Douglas Alexander, and Keith Geddes. If Mr Geddes is selected for one of the two upcoming Westminster contests and finally wins, it will mean all six have reached their goal.

Three others invited were an aide to Robin Cook, Peter Hastie, and Alex Rowley, who was about to become Labour's Scottish general secretary. These two have slipped back on the political ladder but the third name, Angus McKay, is now Deputy Justice Minister in the Scottish Parliament.

Four more named in a reserve list were Andy Kerr, Allan Wilson, Tom McCabe, and Jim Stevens. The latter has had health problems but the other three made it to the Scottish Parliament, with Mr McCabe becoming his party's business manager at Cabinet level.

This left only the five on the trade union section of the invitation list, only one of whom has made it to parliamentary office as yet. Duncan McNeil is an MSP and deputy Labour Whip. The others are John Glass, Bobby Parker, Danny Keeney, and Bill Tynan. Now the latter is tipped as a strong contender for the Hamilton South seat and were he to make it to Westminster it would continue the remarkable record of the Network in seeing its supporters achieve office.

There was disquiet in advance of last weekend's Scottish Policy Forum meeting, held at Unison's offices in Glasgow, that a relatively unrepresentative gathering was about to set in motion policy formulation for the remainder of the first term of the Scottish Parliament.

Of the 85-strong body only around 15 were present on Saturday, excluding party officials. An attempt was made to appoint members to the commissions that will look at different policy fields over the next two years.

Only after objections was it agreed to appoint only for one year and allow the new forum membership, currently being elected, to appoint the second wave of commissions. This limited success for those suspicious of the ways of New Labour did not prevent the feeling of constantly being "bounced". - Aug 4