Scottish Labour is doomed, doomed! posted by Richard Seymour

Why is the Scottish Labour leadership so abysmal? Why has it struggled to adapt to post-devolution Scottish politics, and why does it keep having rings run around it by the SNP?

For example, by any reasonable definition, Johann Lamont's policy announcement on Tuesday was a train wreck. After Iain Gray's lacklustre, gaffe-prone and election-losing leadership, pro-Labour pundits had persuaded themselves that Lamont was quite a heavyweight Scottish Labour leader. They should be face-palming. The policy implications of Lamont's speech – ending universal benefits, raising tuition fees, cutting free prescriptions – were bad enough. The atrocious, reactionary soundbites, demanding an end to "something for nothing" culture, were worse. And it was all delivered in a colliding procession of clichés and non-sequiturs, with faltering speech, and without conviction.