One Day At A Time, or A Much-Needed Push

Oh, frabjous day! The Labour contingent of the Scottish Parliament have finally come to their senses and given the World's Worst Political Leader (since Mugabe can win elections, because he's smart enough to make sure he's the only one running) the brush-off. Well, let's face it, it was unlikely that Wendy, having clung to her position for so long throughout the scandal, and displaying the self-awareness and political nous of a particularly thick earthworm, was going to abandon her position voluntarily. The one-day suspension recommended by the Standards Committee was probably the final straw, suggesting to even the finest minds in the Labour Party that keeping her as leader wasn't a good idea after that heavy blow.

"What?" I hear you say, possibly choking effetely a little on your pipe because this is my imagination and I can create whatever strawman I like, boyo. "But the one-day suspension was just a slap on the wrist, at best! She'd be back in the chamber after no time at all, how can that be a heavy blow, except to the obvious morons who're claiming that it was a "partisan" judgement, to which I say tish and fipsy?"

I'm sorry. I'm making you look bad now. Well, let's look at it this way. The Standards Committee is mostly made up of non-Labour members, since Committees are apportioned proportionately based on party strength in the Scottish Parliament, and Labour does not have a majority. Now, if you were an MSP on the Standards Committee, asked to judge on an opposing party's leader who has made a significant fuckup which means that you have to deal with them, and let's just assume for a second that you're a partisan, party-serving Machiavellian bastard, all of which are sterling qualities in a politician, what would you do?

That's right, you would shaft them to within an inch of their life within the boundaries set out in the rules and regulations to leave the opposing party leaderless and disorientated for as long as possible. Advantage, you (or rather disadvantage them, which comes to the same thing). However, if you consider the opposing party's leader a daftie who couldn't find her policies with both hands, who's made a complete arse of everything since she began, and has generally existed under a scandal-laden malaise for her entire period in charge, what do you do then? You suspend her for the minimum amount of time (so she still gets the suspension, and people remember stuff like that), so she can be back in action to fuck up more and more spectacularly as time goes on. Essentially the one-day ban is an insult, saying "you're thick, and we know you are." though it was pretty easy to tell when it came to Wendy.

Thankfully she's gone now, although it's hard to tell who'll replace her. Big Ayrshire Cathie is taking the reins whilst Scottish Labour sorts itself out, and she seems like a steady sort. The big problem is, since the last Scottish leadership election was essentially Nobody vs Wendy Schmendy, that is no-one could be found to oppose such a patently ridiculous candidate as Wendy Alexander, who do they get now? Andy "Dour Bastard" Kerr? Hugh "Who?" Henry? Hell, Frank "Pie and Chips" McAveety doesn't look ridiculous by now. "Nobody" seems like a better candidate, to be honest.