(Tuesday 16 September 2008)
In plain terms, the left candidates got just under half the popular vote.
Butler took 45.1 per cent of ordinary members' votes and 48.4 per cent of those in affiliates - unions and socialist societies. He only got 26 per cent of the parliamentary section.
Jamieson took 42.5 per cent of members' votes and actually won the affiliates section with 51.5 per cent. She got 32.4 per cent in the parliamentary section. Jamieson's figures are for the second-round run-off against Iain Gray.
I said last week about both Jamieson and Butler that, win lose or draw, they would demonstrate large support in the grass roots. In particular, I thought that Butler's vote in the deputy leader ballot would indicate whether the left in the party is still in fighting shape.
A member of the Campaign for Socialism, he campaigned on the basis of the Scottish Trade Unions for Labour Workplace Agenda and called for the railways to be taken back into public ownership.
Butler's platform secured the support of 45 per cent of ordinary party members and 48 per cent of affiliated members. Given that the membership haemorrhage that Labour has suffered over the last decade consisted mainly of disaffected socialists, this result is pretty remarkable.
As the need for Labour to change and box to the left of the SNP becomes ever more apparent, we will see how the left in the party can build on this support.
Indeed, Lord Jamie Lindsay is a former junior to arch-Thatcherite Michael Forsyth when he was Scottish secretary in the dark days before the 1997 election.
Now part of the Calman commission on Scottish devolution, Lindsay was enthusiastically chairing a discussion group at a Glasgow event, the first in the commission's tour around Scotland to take views from organisations and individuals about extended powers for the Scottish Parliament.
History moves in odd ways. Today, the Tories are working through the Calman commission for increased powers to a parliament that they bitterly opposed.
After Glasgow, the commission's roadshow itinerary is as follows: Dumfries on September 25, Berwick-upon-Tweed on October 3, Inverness on October 28, Dundee on October 29, Stornoway on October 31 and Ayr on November 12.
You can register to attend these events as an individual or on behalf of an organisation via the commission's website at www.commissiononscottishdevolution.org.uk
The more representative the views that the commission hears, the better. Calman and the Scottish government's curiously quiet pro-independence "national conversation" now form the parameters of the political debate over Scotland's future.
Open debate is good, but, in my view, it will take a recalled constitutional convention as proposed by the Scottish TUC to create a new settlement.
The subject is New Powers for Scotland's Parliament - New Power for the People? Speakers include MSPs Bill Butler, Elaine Smith and Bill Kidd, Colin Fox, Rozanne Foyer and Dave Moxham.
Registration is £4/£1 - just turn up on the day - and the conference takes place at the STUC centre, 333 Woodlands Rd, Glasgow at 11am on Sunday October 5 2008.
The non-profit distributing model that Swinney hoped would lead us all to believe that PFI had been replaced has been discredited.
The "coup" of hiring merchant banker Sir Angus Grossart to lead a £17 million quango to run the trust simply underlines the fact - this is little more than PFI dressed up in a slightly different form.
The cartoon in the Herald hit the nail on the head.
Swinney is shown applying lipstick to a PFI pig.
The target of 2 per cent imposed by Gordon Brown has been imitated and implemented by the Scottish government and by Scotland's local authorities, with pay offers which fall far below the increasing cost of living.
PCS civil servants will again be on strike on Tuesday September 23. Union members in the Scottish Courts Service, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal's Service, Sportscotland and the National Museums of Scotland are the latest to strike in the ongoing campaign against Scottish ministers' 2 per cent pay cap, which saw thousands of members in the Scottish government and Registers of Scotland take part in two strikes earlier in the summer.
Their local government colleagues in UNISON, Unite and GMB will take to the streets in a 24-hour stoppage during a day of action on Wednesday September 24.
This follows a similar protest last month against a three-year 2.5 per cent deal which brought the employers' body CoSLA to the negotiating table. CoSLA indicated that it would offer a new deal which would take the recent rises in inflation into account. They came up with a one-year 2.5 per cent deal.
When inflation is rising at 5 per cent, these are not pay offers. They are pay cuts. No wonder public-sector workers are angry - and resolute.
His academic legacy is a meticulously researched history, Communist Women in Scotland - Red Clydeside from the Russian Revolution to the End of the Soviet Union.
The book was launched last week at the University of Strathclyde, where Neil was the first person to gain a PhD in oral history.
The book is published by IB Tauris (www.ibtauris.com). It's a fascinating book and, if academic prices appear daunting, it is always a good idea to ask your local library to order a copy. Neil would have approved of that.
I now fully expect new leader Iain Gray and his new deputy Johann Lamont to make an early call to Downing Street to say that their mandate from Scotland is to support a windfall tax on the big businesses which have profited from high oil prices but which have not yet been asked to take their share of the pain.
I also fully expect to see them out on September 24 supporting 150,000 UNISON, Unite and GMB members in Scottish councils on their second one-day strike for a pay offer of more than 2.5 per cent.
MALCOLM BURNS reviews the latest goings-on in Scotland.
Left in the fight
Bill Butler and Cathy Jamieson did rather better in the Scottish Labour leadership election with members and affiliates than the headline votes published in the media suggest.In plain terms, the left candidates got just under half the popular vote.
Butler took 45.1 per cent of ordinary members' votes and 48.4 per cent of those in affiliates - unions and socialist societies. He only got 26 per cent of the parliamentary section.
Jamieson took 42.5 per cent of members' votes and actually won the affiliates section with 51.5 per cent. She got 32.4 per cent in the parliamentary section. Jamieson's figures are for the second-round run-off against Iain Gray.
I said last week about both Jamieson and Butler that, win lose or draw, they would demonstrate large support in the grass roots. In particular, I thought that Butler's vote in the deputy leader ballot would indicate whether the left in the party is still in fighting shape.
A member of the Campaign for Socialism, he campaigned on the basis of the Scottish Trade Unions for Labour Workplace Agenda and called for the railways to be taken back into public ownership.
Butler's platform secured the support of 45 per cent of ordinary party members and 48 per cent of affiliated members. Given that the membership haemorrhage that Labour has suffered over the last decade consisted mainly of disaffected socialists, this result is pretty remarkable.
As the need for Labour to change and box to the left of the SNP becomes ever more apparent, we will see how the left in the party can build on this support.
What do you think?
I HAD the interesting experience last week of representing the views of Scottish trade unionists in favour of further devolution to a former unionist minister.Indeed, Lord Jamie Lindsay is a former junior to arch-Thatcherite Michael Forsyth when he was Scottish secretary in the dark days before the 1997 election.
Now part of the Calman commission on Scottish devolution, Lindsay was enthusiastically chairing a discussion group at a Glasgow event, the first in the commission's tour around Scotland to take views from organisations and individuals about extended powers for the Scottish Parliament.
History moves in odd ways. Today, the Tories are working through the Calman commission for increased powers to a parliament that they bitterly opposed.
After Glasgow, the commission's roadshow itinerary is as follows: Dumfries on September 25, Berwick-upon-Tweed on October 3, Inverness on October 28, Dundee on October 29, Stornoway on October 31 and Ayr on November 12.
You can register to attend these events as an individual or on behalf of an organisation via the commission's website at www.commissiononscottishdevolution.org.uk
The more representative the views that the commission hears, the better. Calman and the Scottish government's curiously quiet pro-independence "national conversation" now form the parameters of the political debate over Scotland's future.
Open debate is good, but, in my view, it will take a recalled constitutional convention as proposed by the Scottish TUC to create a new settlement.
* To hone your ideas for engaging in the debate over Scotland's future, whether via the Calman commission or the national conversation or elsewhere, why not take part in the Scottish Morning Star autumn conference?
The subject is New Powers for Scotland's Parliament - New Power for the People? Speakers include MSPs Bill Butler, Elaine Smith and Bill Kidd, Colin Fox, Rozanne Foyer and Dave Moxham.
Registration is £4/£1 - just turn up on the day - and the conference takes place at the STUC centre, 333 Woodlands Rd, Glasgow at 11am on Sunday October 5 2008.
Lipstick on a PFI pig
JOHN Swinney's ill-fated, not to say doomed, Scottish Futures Trust was presented to the Scottish people last week with scant detail and all the indications of a rehash of the private finance intitiative that it was meant to replace.The non-profit distributing model that Swinney hoped would lead us all to believe that PFI had been replaced has been discredited.
The "coup" of hiring merchant banker Sir Angus Grossart to lead a £17 million quango to run the trust simply underlines the fact - this is little more than PFI dressed up in a slightly different form.
The cartoon in the Herald hit the nail on the head.
Swinney is shown applying lipstick to a PFI pig.
Get ready for more pay strikes
WAVES of strikes upon a rising tide of anger at real wage cuts are now hitting home against public pay policy at all levels. Next week will see yet more strike action by Scottish public-sector workers.The target of 2 per cent imposed by Gordon Brown has been imitated and implemented by the Scottish government and by Scotland's local authorities, with pay offers which fall far below the increasing cost of living.
PCS civil servants will again be on strike on Tuesday September 23. Union members in the Scottish Courts Service, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal's Service, Sportscotland and the National Museums of Scotland are the latest to strike in the ongoing campaign against Scottish ministers' 2 per cent pay cap, which saw thousands of members in the Scottish government and Registers of Scotland take part in two strikes earlier in the summer.
Their local government colleagues in UNISON, Unite and GMB will take to the streets in a 24-hour stoppage during a day of action on Wednesday September 24.
This follows a similar protest last month against a three-year 2.5 per cent deal which brought the employers' body CoSLA to the negotiating table. CoSLA indicated that it would offer a new deal which would take the recent rises in inflation into account. They came up with a one-year 2.5 per cent deal.
When inflation is rising at 5 per cent, these are not pay offers. They are pay cuts. No wonder public-sector workers are angry - and resolute.
Communist women history
NEIL Rafeek was a quiet, unassuming but determined social historian who died tragically young last year after many years of ill health.His academic legacy is a meticulously researched history, Communist Women in Scotland - Red Clydeside from the Russian Revolution to the End of the Soviet Union.
The book was launched last week at the University of Strathclyde, where Neil was the first person to gain a PhD in oral history.
The book is published by IB Tauris (www.ibtauris.com). It's a fascinating book and, if academic prices appear daunting, it is always a good idea to ask your local library to order a copy. Neil would have approved of that.
Show us what you're made of
DURING the Scottish Labour leadership campaign, all the candidates endorsed a windfall tax on energy companies and they all pledged support for local government workers going on strike to secure fair pay.I now fully expect new leader Iain Gray and his new deputy Johann Lamont to make an early call to Downing Street to say that their mandate from Scotland is to support a windfall tax on the big businesses which have profited from high oil prices but which have not yet been asked to take their share of the pain.
I also fully expect to see them out on September 24 supporting 150,000 UNISON, Unite and GMB members in Scottish councils on their second one-day strike for a pay offer of more than 2.5 per cent.
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