Wanted – tightrope walker, with juggling skills; ability to perform somersaults, flip-flops and headstands would be an advantage; occasional animal training, cage cleaning and lion-taming duties. The job advert for a circus all-rounder was never placed, although it would have been more accurate than the appeal for a general secretary that appeared the other week.
That called for “an exceptional individual to lead and develop the Scottish Labour Party”. It might have said “an exceptionally brave individual”. Instead of submitting to a cross-examination on their own qualifications, applicants would be well advised to quiz the interviewing panel about the unwritten job specification.
They might start by asking what happened to the last general secretary. The vacancy was caused by the departure after only a few months of the well-regarded Alex Rowley, who was ruthlessly bumped then dumped.
Rowley arrived at what was then Keir Hardie House with glowing credentials and the personal backing of Gordon Brown. As leader of Fife council, which he made one of the most forward-thinking and tightly controlled in Scotland, he had impressed the local MP-Chancellor. At a time of turmoil in Scottish local government, Rowley was the very man to sort it out. An astute organiser and deep thinker, his only fault seemed to be a slow and strongly accented delivery, which did not make him the ideal media front-man.
Worse, Labour’s Scottish Parliament election campaign appeared to be running into the sand. With weeks to go, UK party heavies and Millbank apparatchiks parachuted into the flash new HQ at Delta House in Glasgow. Gordon Brown and his henchman Douglas Alexander took up front-of-house duties, while the national general secretary Margaret McDonagh and assorted number-crunchers and strategists discreetly sat behind screens in unseen offices.
Rowley was bumped to backroom duties and Donald Dewar, the Scottish leader, and his team were put on a bus for a mystery tour of Scotland. Once the election was over, without a clear majority for Labour and with an enforced coalition with the Liberal Democrats, Rowley was summoned to London to negotiate his severance package.
The general feeling is that a decent man had not been given a decent chance. He is now marking time and is expected to return with MSP after his name sometime in the future.
In fact, Rowley was the victim (the last, we hope) of pre-devolution Labour Party politics. The advert for the new general secretary states the pious intention: “This senior role . . . will offer the opportunity to be involved in the changes resulting from the recent devolution of power to Scotland.”
Westminster power to the Scottish Parliament, yes. But is London Labour similarly ready to let Scottish Labour off the leash? As we say up here, “Ah hae ma doots”.
However, since the setting-up of the Scottish Parliament, the whole tenor of British politics has changed, and the management of the Labour Party has to change. Devolution, not independence, is the strategy for the parliaments and must be for the party. If the new Scottish general secretary is not given greater autonomy than any of his or her (probably her) predecessors, Scottish Labour will be in a shambles.
Until this year, the parties were geared to a four-year electoral cycle. Now it is two years, with the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly elections falling midway through the Westminster term. So the new general secretary’s first target will be to get the party ready for a UK general election sometime in the next two and a half years, then it will be “all change” for a Scottish general election in 2003-4.
There are obvious implications for policy-making. If there is to be any coherence, there should be a rolling manifesto with adjustments for devolved powers. The current move by the Scottish executive to repeal clause 28 of the Local Government Act well in advance of Westminster and suggestions that there might be a Scottish Freedom of Information Act before the rest of the UK show how the same party in dual government can become controversially out of sync.
It will have an even more profound effect on the campaign front. The Scottish general secretary will have to be in charge of a party machine that is in permanent election mode.
The danger will lie in appointing a party manager without making clear where the political accountability lies. On paper, the general secretary reports to the Scottish executive but in reality it is to the leadership. The question is: which leadership? Donald Dewar’s? John Reid’s? Tony Blair’s?
The worst thing for organisation and morale would be for Scottish Labour to lurch along in two-year cycles. If London runs the show for two years, and Holyrood takes over for the next two, the potential for personality and policy clashes is obvious.
It is also obvious that, as Scotland’s representative in UK government, Reid will want to direct the Scottish party towards the next Westminster election. Gordon Brown, Robin Cook, Alistair Darling, Helen Liddell and every other Scottish Labour MP all have a clear interest.
After seeing that they themselves are safely returned, do they then hand over to Dewar and co, who will turn the Labour battle-bus with a crashing of gears in the direction of Holyrood 2003-4?
More to the point, in the light of the take-over during this year’s Scottish election, is it likely? And is it necessary or desirable?
Electors do not differentiate between Westminster Labour, Holyrood Labour or local council Labour. If one fails, is embroiled in scandal or offends the voters, all suffer.
One Westminster MP, fed up with fielding criticisms of his Scottish Parliament colleagues, said grimly: “We should all hang together or we’ll hang separately.”
If Scottish Labour is in crisis just when Blair decides to go to the country, the traditionally solid Scottish contribution to his majority at Westminster will inevitably suffer. And vice versa.
The only sensible strategy is to promote the Labour brand name. Buy it at the UK, Scottish or council election and you know what you’re getting . . . It won’t matter if your delivery man is Donald, John, Gordon or Tony – they will all be selling roughly the same thing. That’s the theory, anyway . . .
The new general secretary will be in charge of distribution, another problem. The subscription-paying Scottish membership is now around 30,000, which may be poor but is an improvement on the 18,000 of not so long ago.
Constituencies in so-called “Labour heartlands” that have for years faithfully returned Labour MPs and now MSPs are actually moribund. The present Scottish organiser, Lesley Quinn (who is in the running for the top job), recently presented a paper to the national executive spelling out Scotland’s desperate need for a radical re-organisation programme, with more full-time organisers and more funds.
It is all very well fighting the election war in the air through TV, radio and press. But it is the ground troops that win elections, and Scottish Labour’s have drifted away.
The closing date for applications for the general secretary’s job was 29 October. If you missed the deadline, don’t be too disappointed. You probably did yourself a favour.
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