Alex does seem to be a very slippery fish. Party machines break and it will be interesting to see what new monster emerges in the guise of Scottish Labour.
Gerry Hassan in an article in Open Democracy throws up a thought and it occurs to me that the image of two dogs from the same litter fighting over a single well picked bone might be appropriate if it were not for the insult to our friends north of the border :-
The SNP - contrary to Labour's fevered imaginings - is like many centre-left parties around the world, an uneasy compromise between social democracy and neo-liberalism, with no real understanding of political economy or the grotesque ways modern capitalism works (thus, closer to New Labour itself than either would like). Yet it has in government so far managed to address this balance better than Scottish Labour ever has done, displaying more of a capacity for statecraft and stagecraft, all the while conveying its project with a sense of mission, story and voice (something Labour had years ago but has long since lost.So, an interesting time ahead....
This failure to develop any plausible British story - of which Gordon Brown's many missives on Britishness are a symptom, not the solution - offers many new challenges, opportunities and openings to progressives across these isles. The SNP, buoyed by its Glasgow East victory, has powerful political momentum - as long as it does not overreach itself or fall victim to its own form of arrogance. More broadly, the contours of Scottish and UK politics now point to a prospective referendum on Scottish independence (most probably in 2010): this promises to be a historic, even seismic event in the history of Scotland and the UK.To quote Mr Broon, mischievously, from a much earlier period in his life when he could afford to be ironic:-
There's a breakthrough in the pipeline!
