Wendy Alexander. There's a woman who could start a fight in an empty hoose...
The leader - although I use the term loosely - of the Labour Party in Scotland has changed stance yet again on her party's stance on a referendum for independence for Scotland. Just a matter of weeks ago, Alexander said she was totally opposed to a referendum. Now she wants to bring forward a parliamentary bill for a public vote on independence and has called on the Scottish Government to speed up its plans for a 2010 referendum. 'Bring it on' one source has quoted her.
Now it's difficult to know what the Labour Party - sorry, 'New Labour' - stands for these days, if anything at all. In the wake of the party's abysmal showing in the English local elections last week and the humiliation of seeing Ken Livingstone defeated by Boris Cripes Johnson in the fight to be Mayor of London, surely the last thing Prime Minister Gordon Brown would wish is for his Scottish loose cannon to go off on one again.
After just a year in power, the Scottish people are demonstrably better off than they ever were under 'New Labour' (same old broken promises) I suspect that's what is behind Alexander's latest outburst, a statement which must make her brother Douglas, a senior Westminster official, cringe with embarrassment.
Playing roulette with the future of the Scottish nation may be a gimmick for Ms Alexander. Two years from now, when the referendum will take the spotlight for real, I suspect the laugh will be on her.
1 comment:
What Wendy's done, and I'm sure her brother knew all about it, is taken a massive step to undermine Gordon Brown.
The risk is that, coupled with the likelihood of an Etonian cabal that has no attachment to the Union being elected in London, this will make independence an eventual guarantee.
So is Wendy brave to play such high stakes? Or an idiot?
The only straw the Labour Party can clutch at is that Boris is so bad (and he might well be) that it shows up Cameron's Tories for what they are and Labour cling on at the next election.
So politics is now about being less bad than the other team.
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