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Former party leader will not stand in by-election



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Published Date: 20 August 2008
HENRY McLeish, the former First Minister, yesterday ruled himself out as a candidate in the Glenrothes by-election.
The former Labour leader in Scotland had been linked with the party's nomination for the vacant Westminster seat of Glenrothes after the death of John MacDougall last week from cancer.

Mr MacDougall's funeral was held on Monday, with Gordon Brow
n, the Prime Minister, giving a eulogy for his friend.

Mr McLeish said he had been approached about standing, but yesterday ruled himself out of the race.

"While I am appreciative of the interest shown, I have decided not to allow my name to go forward," he said. "I hope this will end the speculation and allow the party to concentrate on the selection of the candidate and retaining the seat for Labour.

"Scotland has moved on, the constituency has moved on and I have moved on. "I feel I have assumed a new role in public life which allows me to work in a number of ways for the future of Scotland."

Mr McLeish has chaired a commission on prisons set up by the SNP government which reported recently, and has also served on the broadcasting commission which was also set up by the Nationalist administration.

He said he also planned to continue writing, broadcasting and lecturing.

Mr McLeish added: "I believe I can be of value to Scotland and the Labour Party from a position outwith elected service.

"These are challenging times but, despite recent setbacks, I am confident Glenrothes remains a winnable seat for Labour.

"Both in the constituency and in the wider arena, I will be happy to provide what support I can."

No date has been set for the by-election, in which Labour will defend a majority of 10,664.




The full article contains 302 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
Page 1 of 1

  • Last Updated: 19 August 2008 9:39 PM
  • Source: The Scotsman
  • Location: Edinburgh
  • Related Topics: Glenrothes by-election
 
1

muppetfinder,

20/08/2008 00:16:02
that's the first out is it going to beat Glasgow East in number of candidates
2

Marky Bhoy,

Dunfermline 20/08/2008 00:17:35

The way this is going they maybe need to put it in the Fife Free Press Vacancies collum
3

a proud doonhamer,

Dumfries 20/08/2008 00:31:13
2

I can see it now.

WANTED: one sacrificial lamb. must be able to take instructions. able to withstand personal abuse. past candidates need not apply.experience desired but not necessary. send personal information to G. Brown, 10 Downing Street, London
4

Marky Bhoy,

Dunfermline 20/08/2008 00:43:47

Doonhamer

My application is in the post

My name is Margaret Curran and I have lived in Glenrothes all my life except for the part I lived in a mansion on the southside of Glasgow and my upbringing in Glasgow East apart fae that am a fifer through and through

The Manager of Raith Rovers is ermmmmmmmmmm ermmmmmmmm does Glenrothes not have team that I have to support Raith who play in Crossgates
5

Pocket Dictionary,

20/08/2008 01:40:27

Seems Christine May has also ruled herself out and possibly Alex Rowley. This is a major embarrassment for GB after the Glasgow East fiasco. Looks like being a Labour candidate in a by-election is being viewed as something of a poisoned chalice.

Et tu Brute?

........................
6

A Better Way,

Scottish Capital 20/08/2008 03:13:47
SNP candidates who run for Westminster hope to do themselves out of a job down at the London TROUGH,so they can come back up to their own nation and run for office.

Unionist candidates start of in Scottish Politics, which was seen as the dregs, with the sole aim of getting to corrupt Westmonster so they can be on the gravy train. Rifkind now lives in Chelsea and loves it.

The majority of so called Labour MP's in Scotland who kept their noses in the trough down in the other Nation, so they could retire back to Scotland as multi millionaires, while the people who voted them in still live in middens or their wee bit of Scotland that many of them never own.

No wonder these low life career pretendy socialist are being exposed on a day by day basis. Those days are about to past forever.In the Scottish Parliament you need to provide a receipt for the smallest claim and its published every year.

In an Independant Scotland the Scottish People are the Sovereign Power, not the politicians or judges. Just like Ireland, the People say yea or no to the Major Changes. Not a Prime Minister who promises a referendum on Europe, then dumps it because he knows it would be defeated.

Its Time For The Scots Way here in our Scottish Nation. Vote SNP.
7

Champion Haggis Slayer of Fife,

Here, there, everywhere 20/08/2008 07:18:43
Wishart wrote the following post in the Herald today regarding this story.
Its a great post and I attach it below, its so true and I agree with every word!

So here we go again. Another day, another kite being flown by ‘Scottish’ Labour. How are we to understand the strange death of ‘Scottish’ Labour? Could this collective catharsis be attributable to the prognosis of the psychiatrist who’s been working with them? “You can’t hold anything back” he must have told them, “You need to let it all out. You’ll feel better for it, trust me”. Or can it be attributed to the disaster that is Maggie Broon or perhaps to the legacy that was bequeathed to him (and them) by that spiv in a suit, Anthony Blair?
Perhaps it’s the SNP. How can the SNP, with such limited resources, with all the constraints of being a minority government, with all the limitations of its powers delivered by the devolution stepping-stone, not to mention the entire printing and broadcasting media in Scotland dutifully lined up against them, how can the SNP still be so f-ing popular? And what is starting to preoccupy the minds of the dullards at Smith House is the question that they hoped they would never live to ask. If this is what the SNP can achieve with such limited resources and limited powers, how long before enough people in Scotland start to ask: What could the SNP achieve with all the powers and resources that independence would provide?
And all the while, for ‘Scottish’ Labour, the clock ticks inexorably towards 2010 – tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock...
But the roots of ‘Scottish’ Labour’s dilemma are to be found further back in time and outside of Scotland. Not in 1979 or 1983. These were the days, after all, when ‘Scottish’ Labour could still credibly adopt, in Scotland, its lofty but impotent opposition to the Tories. 1987 was the real turning-point. That was when Labour in England suffered its third consecutive general election defeat. The ensuing soul-searching in the party induced the n
8

Champion Haggis Slayer of Fife,

20/08/2008 07:19:54

But the roots of ‘Scottish’ Labour’s dilemma are to be found further back in time and outside of Scotland. Not in 1979 or 1983. These were the days, after all, when ‘Scottish’ Labour could still credibly adopt, in Scotland, its lofty but impotent opposition to the Tories. 1987 was the real turning-point. That was when Labour in England suffered its third consecutive general election defeat. The ensuing soul-searching in the party induced the notorious ‘Policy Review’ which lasted until Labour’s fourth consecutive general election defeat in 1992. The Policy Review (remember ‘Labour Listens’, now where have we heard that since?) ditched all the old policies and with that went all the old rhetoric.
Meanwhile in Scotland, circa 1987-92, Labour were winning landslide victories. In the 1987 general election in Scotland, Labour won 50 seats, the highest number of seats Labour had won in Scotland in its entire history. And in the 1992 general election, Labour almost matched this, winning 49 seats.
And there was the rub. In England, the Policy Review created the conditions for the ‘official’ launch of ‘New’ Labour at the party’s 1994 conference. ‘Scottish’ Labour now had to sell this dog’s dinner to Scottish voters who were still stubbornly, overwhelmingly, supporting ‘Old’ Labour. And in the fallout from Labour’s 1992 election defeat in England, one English Labour MP, Giles Radice, was honest enough to explain the compelling rationale for the Policy Review and the imminent launch of New Labour: “Either we win middle England or we remain in permanent opposition”.
Labour won over the Tory voters in middle England, with a little help from ‘Black Wednesday’ and some red-eyed Tory Eurosceptics in the 1990s. But what wasn’t in the script of the original architects of the New Labour Project was what to do when the Tory voters of middle England returned home? For if middle England voted Tory again what was the purpose of New Labour? For ‘Scottish’ Labour, devolution might pro
9

Champion Haggis Slayer of Fife,

20/08/2008 07:21:15

Labour won over the Tory voters in middle England, with a little help from ‘Black Wednesday’ and some red-eyed Tory Eurosceptics in the 1990s. But what wasn’t in the script of the original architects of the New Labour Project was what to do when the Tory voters of middle England returned home? For if middle England voted Tory again what was the purpose of New Labour? For ‘Scottish’ Labour, devolution might provide a safety net, maybe even buy it some precious time. For, circa 1999, with the SNP safely marginalised, ‘Scottish’ Labour could always play the ‘Scottish’ card should the Tory voters of middle England return home early – “We’ll protect you from the Westminster Tories - until Labour gets back in down south”, this last part was always implicit of course, north of the border.
But what wasn’t in ‘Scottish’ Labour’s script was the collective awakening of the Scottish people from their dogmatic slumbers. They (we) realised and more of us are realising something that is so sweet, so deliciously sweet that no ‘cybernat’ in her or his wildest dreams could ever have envisaged it. For over 30 years, ‘Scottish’ Labour has traded on the political capital it has accumulated from creating fear in Scottish voters about the consequences of independence. But what many more people in Scotland realise, now more than ever as 2010 approaches, is that, all along, it was the consequences of remaining in the Union that should have frightened us most.
It was Marx who wrote that “History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce”. If the lost decades of Thatcherism were Scotland’s tragedy then the lost decade of New Labour’s Thatcherite revisionism must surely be Scotland’s farce. Marx didn’t have much to say about the third round of history so, in 2010, we’re going to have to improvise and oh, how we shall improvise in 2010!
There is no point to ‘Scottish’ Labour anymore. Like the Union it had a purpose once but like the Union it has served its purpose.
The best epitaph
10

Champion Haggis Slayer of Fife,

20/08/2008 07:21:52

The best epitaph for both ‘Old’ and ‘New’ Labour that I have ever seen was written in 1993 (you must admire the prescience of the man) by Gregory Elliot in his book, ‘Labourism and the English Genius: The Strange Death of Labour England?’ just after the completion of Labour’s Policy Review. It wasn’t written as an epitaph but it can and maybe should be adopted as one:

“It is otiose to commend or condemn Labour for abandoning something – socialism – it never espoused, and for embracing in its stead, something – social democracy – it had already jettisoned”.

Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock...
11

Boy Wonder,

20/08/2008 07:43:15
Will we ever have heard of the eventual Labour Candidate for this by-election??
12

MacGillicuddy,

20/08/2008 08:08:48
McLeish has had to rule himself out since his fiddle-muddle snout in the trough affair would just have got in Liebour's way. He has the satisfaction of a lottery-win size pension payable for failing for one year as first minister.

#5
Christine May (ex MSP) has already been thrown out by virtually the same electorate at the last Holyrood election in favour of the SNP.

Alex Rowley currently makes a pig's ear of things as leader of the opposition on Fife Council. He was also at one point the most forgettable Scottish General Secretary of the Liebour Party. I am sure he still has the knife marks on his back to prove it.

13

Rev. S. Campbell,

Bath 20/08/2008 08:38:54
"Scotland has moved on"

Wise words from the only Labour politician who's actually opened his eyes and noticed what happened in 2007.
14

Rose Bhoy,

20/08/2008 08:41:58

Peter Grant!!!!

15

Rose Bhoy,

20/08/2008 08:42:28

Let the games begin
16

donald,

glasgow 20/08/2008 09:21:20
Wise move for Henry. Even wiser if he chucks the Lumpen Party and joins the SNP. He has done more good for Scotland acting outside the Lumpen party, as in US tours, etc.

The local muddle was nothing in Labour culture, but a backstabbing excersize by the Lanarkshire Mafia.
17

Benarty,

Fife 20/08/2008 09:48:37
Lots of other Fife names, who have already indicated interest in Westminster or Holyrood, spring to mind - Kay Carrington, Mark Hood, Mary Lockhart,Willie Sullivan. All of these are outwith Westminster and Holyrood. All have some connection to the constituency. All as as well known as Peter Grant was before he became leader of Fife Council.

It will be interesting to see which, if any of them, dares to come forward.
18

bluehead,

edinburgh 20/08/2008 10:00:00
really!!!! that will be music to many people's ears
19

Venachar,

20/08/2008 12:28:19
"Scotland has moved on, the constituancy has moved on." wise words Henry. A lot of people in the constituancy thought you were an excellent MP/MSP. That the backstabbers in Labour cannot find a suitable candidate is telling.
If Peter Grant does take up the challenge I am sure that he will make a better MP than most. Peter and his wife and the rest of the SNP Councillors and supporters have been working hard for years.
Henry is right, the constituancy has moved on and it is towards the SNP. The coward in Downing Street can't make up his mind yet again when to call the by-election. I bet it will be called during the school holidays - another cunning plan Baldrick!
20

,

20/08/2008 12:43:32
Comment Removed By Administrator
Reason:
21

The Federalist (the poster formerly know as NAUON),

20/08/2008 14:39:58
#12 "#5
Christine May (ex MSP) has already been thrown out by virtually the same electorate at the last Holyrood election in favour of the SNP"

1. Going by your logic then the likes of Nicola Sturgeon should never have stood in Govan at the last Scottish Election because she was beaten at the previous General Election in Govan.

2. It won't be "virtually the same electorate" as the electoral roll will have be altered since 2007 through deaths, movements in/out of the area, and young voters joing the roll. Moreover, because the roll was taken in October 2007 many who appear on it won't vote for exactly thye same reasons.
22

Rose Bhoy,

20/08/2008 15:20:21
#19

Another Granty Rant! Who is he shouting at?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/7570173.stm

He’s a beauty! I can see him next to Salmon trying to explain why he thinks it’s a good idea to increase the charge for home care from £4 a week to £11 per hour. Popular Government, I don’t think so!

Is there a NAT out there that will is brave enough to predict the majority for the by-election? Let’s see how confident you are!
23

Alberto.,

21/08/2008 10:09:17
Why do they need a 'Leader?' - where are they going, but OUT!

 

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