Scottish Solutions for Scottish Problems

By Martin McCluskey / @martinmccluskey

Almost exactly eleven years ago, Donald Dewar stood at the Labour Party conference in Bournemouth and talked of Labour, in control of the Scottish Parliament, delivering “Scottish Solutions for Scottish Problems.” Looking at the overhaul of the Scottish Labour Party announced on Saturday, it seems like the team behind the review may have had his words ringing in their ears as they decided to establish the post of Scottish Labour Leader and devolve more powers to the Scottish party.

In many respects, Saturday’s announcement was long overdue. Since devolution, and as the Parliament and Scottish government has found an increasingly assertive voice, the current state of affairs has become untenable. Unclear roles and muddled responsibilities has led to a party in Scotland that looks disorganised in the face of a strengthened SNP, and accusations of Scottish Labour being “London led” has been an easy line for Alex Salmond to throw at successive Labour leaders.

It’s certain that this review will place the Scottish Labour Party on a stronger footing for the future, not least because the Scottish leader will now be empowered to provide clear leadership, strategy and direction. However, it is worth keeping a few things in mind as we digest this stage of the review.

Firstly, structural changes only go part of the way. Sarah Boyack and Jim Murphy have grasped the nettle when it comes to the difficult organisational questions, but we also need deep rooted cultural change in Scottish Labour. This is true most of all in the party’s approach to campaigning. The local party leadership (especially councillors) have to take a lead in building a culture of campaigning across Scotland, and members and party staff should be prepared to hold them to account for poor performance. If the next stage of the Scottish Review introduces candidate contracts, along the same lines as has been suggested in the Refounding Labour consultation south of the border, we should make sure we have these in place for candidates currently being selected for the 2012 Scottish local government elections and be prepared to take decisive action if councillors and candidates aren’t on the doorstep.

Secondly, as I’ve argued elsewhere, we need to invest in ideas. Scottish Labour is up against an opposition which has the whole Scottish government policy machine behind them and over the last few years we have lacked the resources to develop an innovative and groundbreaking programme. The new Scottish leader has to get to grips with this and make sure that by the time the next election comes round, we have a team of experts in Scotland who can deliver a winning manifesto that’s also a radical programme for government.

Finally, we shouldn’t fool ourselves that the arrival of a “big beast” from Westminster as Scottish Labour Leader is going to solve all the problems the party is facing. Whether our next leader is Tom Harris, Johann Lamont or Ken McIntosh (or even, for that matter, Jim Murphy or Douglas Alexander), they’re going to face an uphill struggle to get the party into shape for 2016. And they’re not going to be able to do this alone. A Scottish Labour Party with a Westminster leader is still going to face the same key challenge of recruiting Scotland’s next generation of MSPs and securing the stewardship of the party for the next 20 or 30 years.

In doing this, they’re not only going to have to build and reform the Scottish party, but also inspire people about the potential of the Scottish Parliament, as Donald Dewar did when he spoke at its opening in 1999:

“Walter Scott wrote that only a man with soul so dead could have no sense, no feel of his native land. For me, for any Scot, today is a proud moment; a new stage on a journey begun long ago and which has no end. This is a proud day for all of us.”

Scottish Labour should continue to be proud of its role in bringing about devolution thirteen years ago and should welcome these changes as a way of continuing the work we started in 1999.