Why I Don't Crow Over Wendy Alexander

So Wendy Alexander is going to fall on her sword and step down as leader of the Scottish Labour Party this morning. She is also, if rumour is true, going to step down as MSP for Paisley North, causing yet another by-election headache for her party. I'm not going to join the cheering throngs.

What we are seeing is yet another politician deciding that political life is just not worth the candle any longer. Yet again the system of registration of campaign donations has brought a political career to an end in an inglorious manner. Surely the whole system needs to be looked at to ensure that essentially honest politicians cannot misunderstand it, or receive wrong advice from officials (as in Alexander's case). If you create an unnecessarily complicated system no one should be surprised if people are tripped up by it. The donations in Wendy Alexander's case were of around £1,000 each and had been declared to one register but not another. There should be one system for declaring donations and interests, not two. If there had been, at least half the cases of so-called mis-declarations would not have happened - and Wendy Alexander would probably still have a political career.

Wendy Alexander was a politician clearly out of her depth as Labour leader in Scotland. But she was not on the take. And for that reason alone, I take no joy in seeing that her career in politics has been brought to a premature end.

How to Make a Pig's Ear Our of a Dog's Breakfast

Brian Taylor explains HERE. Ach, wee Wendy, I feel you'll not long be for this world. You quite clearly live in a parallel universe already...

That Phone Call Between 'Bendy Wendy' & Gordon

Now, could this be a reason for people losing trust in politicians...

Labour won't deliver on a referendum which was promised in their manifesto (Lisbon), yet they want to have a referendum on something which wasn't (Scottish independence). Work that one out if you can, and get back to me.

I really would like to have been a fly on the wall listening to the telephone call (during which three handsets were no douby destroyed) between Gordon and 'Bendy Wendy' yesterday. I imagine it went something like this.

Gordon: What the **** do you think you are ******* doing?
Wendy: Well...
Gordon: Don't you ******* interrupt me you ********* ******* *****, I've only just started...
Wendy: Well...
Gordon: Listen, get this. I ******* run the ******* Labour Party, not you...
Wendy: Well, actually...
Gordon: [does his Mr Angry from Purley impersonation and throws the phone down]
Wendy: Gordon, Gordon? What did I do, what did I say?

The trouble is, most people will believe that this fictional account is probably quite close to the truth.

Labour's Desperation on Scottish Independence

Wendy Alexander's decision to back an Independence referendum for Scotland isn't just one of the biggest political U Turns in history, it's the last desperate act of a desperate leader of a desperate party. 'Bring it on' she says, which, when translated, means 'Let's hold it now rather than in 2010 because I can't stand up to Alex Salmond in a two year long debate'.

Presumably if all the other parties combined against the SNP Wendy could force her wish. Let's hope the Scottish Tories and LibDems have more sense than to fall into Wendy's little flytrap.

I suppose that Alex Salmond could in theory also do a U Turn and decide to hold a referendum later in the year on the basis that he and his administration is never likely to be more popular than they are now.



A difficult call, but I expect him to stick to his guns.

Wendy Alexander Stumped for a Question

At today's First Minister's Questions in the Scottish Parliament, Wendy Alexander asked the first 2 of her 3 questions (getting swatted by Alex Salmond as usual), then announced that "she had no more questions for the First Minister".

Puzzled looks and gasps on all sides. Alex Salmond got up to reply, but the Presiding Officer ruled that since there wasn't a question there was no need for a reply. Since Wendy is such a friend of Gordon Brown could it be that the line from Washington went down and she didn't know what to say?

Has Wendy Alexander Revealed the Date of the Next Election?

The hapless Wendy Alexander, labour's Scottish leader, may have let the cat out of the bag about the date of the next election, according to today's Glasgow Herald...

Labour is planning to delay the Westminster election to the last possible months, according to its leader at Holyrood. Wendy Alexander has let slip that the party machine is gearing up to fight the election in 2010, when the five-year maximum term is up. As Prime Minister and with the choice of timing, Gordon Brown has not been clear when he wants to call the next General Election, having been badly burned by his close aides talking up a snap election last autumn.He has refused to say if the ballot would take place in 2009, four years since the last national ballot, and following a pattern of four-year elections established by Tony Blair. But as one of those close to the Prime Minister, whose brother Douglas is Labour's campaign manager, Ms Alexander said in an interview with Holyrood magazine this week that Labour is planning on 2010. Talking about the reforms of the Scottish Labour campaigning machine, she said: "We're now in a continuous campaigning environment where we look forward to European elections next year, the General Election the year after that, the Scottish Parliament election the year after that and the council elections the year after, and really transforming our organisation for that environment." While Gordon Brown can call the election any time before June 2010, his Holyrood colleague's comments do not come as a surprise. Uncertainty in the economy and poor poll ratings make it unlikely he would risk going a year earlier than he has to by law. Election timing has proven to be a major problem for Mr Brown. His team's planning for a snap election last autumn was suddenly thrown into reverse when the Tories received a polling boost from their conference.

Is it possible that Wendy's brother, wee Dougie Alexander, has let a state secret slip?