Time warp

Today Gordon Brown was wheeled out to give his statesman-like views on the current contest for UK Labour leader.  While careful to mention none of the candidates by name, he made it very clear who Labourites should NOT be voting for.

He explains the rise of nationalism in Scotland and Greece by saying that people are feeling 'uncertain and unmoored', thus displaying his total lack of understanding of what happened during the indyref.  And if he has failed to understand what motivated people to support independence, he will also fail to understand why people are supporting Jeremy Corbyn in their droves.  Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

I have to say I feel I am living in a time warp at the moment. First we have Project Fear 2, with everyone screaming about how Jeremy Corbyn will make Labour unelectable.  Last week we had the 'vile Corbynats' stage, with demands for Labour supporters to cease and desist from vitriolic online abuse.  Now we have phase 3, wheel out Gordon Brown for a barnstorming speech.  This is all so very familiar.  Now if things run true to form, we should find that Mr Corbyn will lose, and there will be all sorts of conspiracy theories regarding electoral fraud and the like.  Only a month to go until we find out.

In other news Kezia Dugdale has been elected leader of the Scottish branch office of the Labour party, with Alex Rowley as her deputy.  This will prove interesting, as Ms Dugdale did not want Mr Rowley to win that position.  They have very different views on policy on matters such as Trident, for example.  Both are MSPs, so this could mean interesting times at Holyrood.

Overall, the leadership elections look like they are not going to resolve the growing factionalism within the Labour party, what with talk of a 'coup' to depose Mr Corbyn immediately after his victory if he wins, and Ms Dugdale and Mr Rowley at odds over policy.  Any hopes for a recovery in time for next year's Scottish General Election must be fading fast.  Ms Dugdale was elected on 72% of the votes cast, which was somewhat surprising, given that the polls suggested a much closer contest for the position of leader.  However, this turned out to be just 5,217 votes, which does not inspire confidence.that Labour will be in a position to run an intensive campaign next May.