Breaking: Kezia Dugdale steps down as Scottish Labour leader

[Ken Burch]

4. Corbyn HAPPENS to be from London. He hasn't taken consciously anti-Scottish positions.

Both Milibands were London politicians, too. It's not as though Labour could win with a leader who said "I despise London".

And I wasn't saying Scottish Labour should have a leader who's a lapdog to the UK Labour leader.

It needs to be led by someone who will defend Scotland and Scottish voters at every turn. That goes without saying.

By the same token, it should never have a leader who colluded in plots to make sure Labour went back to standing for nothing and being meaningless-or who enabled the Scottish and Westminster Tories by forming an electoral pact with them last June. Had she not done those, the Tories would not have enough seats to govern now.

Kezia wasn't fighting for Scotland with either of those actions. She was fighting for the rich against the people, for the insiders against the grassroots.

Nor should it have had, before that, a leader("SLAB" Murphy)who sabotaged his party by having it join an alliance with the Tories and LibDems on the Indyref. Obviously Labour was going to campaign for a "Nae" in that referendum, but it was supposed to do that on its own, making a distinctively Labour case for the idea that it was possible for Scotland to prosper and be progressive within the Union.

As to the miners(I assume this is the EU thing again), Corbyn is walking a tightrope. He was solidly Remain, appeared at a thousand Remain events during that ref, he clearly wanted Remain to win-it lost because the Tory-dominated Remain campaign was a total disaster-but the voters spoke. Labour could only regain power if it regained the working-class Northern English voters who voted Leave. If he did what you wanted and fought all out for a second ref, those voters would all go back to voting UKIP and never break with that. He supports soft Brexit(he was never in line with Theresa May's position)because it's essentially the only stance he can take and hold Labour together. Most of the Northern working-class voters who did vote Leave(there were a handful of Northern areas where Remain prevailed, and I'm glad there were-I'd have voted Remain on anti-xenophobia grounds) did so because it was, for them, the only way to vote against thirty-six years of unionbusting, austerity, and job loss. They believed there was no way for any of that to change within the EU, and it's largely the fault of the Labour Right, along with the Lib Dems and Tories, that they do-all three of those factions have basically abandoned those people.

If Corbyn fought all-out for a second EU ref, UKIP would instantly be back at 15% in the polls and winning byelections, a restored Tory majority at the next election would be a certainty, and he would look like an antidemocratic elitist-a "London politician".

The only real hope is for everyone to focus first on defeating the Tories as soon as possible, and THEN for people who want a second ref to fight for one. The LibDems can't win the next election(there's no chance of the party being forgiven for its devil's bargain with Cameron), and Corbyn isn't going to be dumped as leader before the next election-it wouldn't help to dump him anyway, because there's no one the anti-Corbynites would accept as his replacement that could ever be popular-that lot still wouldn't allow anyone to the left of Yvette Cooper on the leadership ballot.