The New First Minister

Following the recent loss of Donald Dewar, First Minister for Scotland, the race will now be on for the British Unionists to replace him with yet another Blair crony. This organisation will speak no ill of Donald Dewar the man, whose knowledge of Scottish politics was encyclopaedic, but with whose views on the future of our nation we begged to differ. His monument is already being built, over-budget and in the wrong place, but we still hold the view that this was almost forced upon him by the London political mafia. Dewar himself took up the torch passed on by John Smith to bring Scotland's case for nationhood forward, and achieved this at least partially with the opening of the Scottish Parliament. He will be sadly missed by all his friends, and many of his opponents.

The projected line-up of replacements is as follows :
Henry McLeish, Scottish Enterprise Minister, who deputised for Donald Dewar during his recent ill-health, is considered the front runner for the post of Scottish Labour leader. He succeeded veteran anti-monarchist Willie Hamilton in the 1980's in central Fife. Working as a devolution minister in the former Scottish Office, he was deeply involved in delivering the new Scottish Parliament, and is thought to have strong backing from the unions in the leadership race. He is a strong public performer, a smooth and effective debater, and has an uncanny ability to dodge political bear-traps. Some unpopularity amongst his colleagues may stunt his chances.

Jack McConnel, Scottish Finance Minister, is an ambitious man, though little known outside the Parliament. He was general secretary of the Scottish Labour Party from 1992-8, which gained him many friends, and probably just as many enemies. He left the party post to become pblic affairs consultant with lobbying firm Beattie Media, of 'Lobbygate' notoriety, which may well come back to haunt him yet. 'Lobbygate' centred around allegations that Beattie Media executives offered preferential access to Scottish ministers, though a Parliamentary probe cleared McConnel of any wrongdoing.

Wendy Alexander, Donald Dewar's Cabinet protege and close friend, is communities minister with responsibility for housing, social policy and local government. At 37, she is seen to be too young for such a prestige post, and is unpopular with many in Scotland over her stance on the controversial Section 28. Accusations of political correctness were levelled against her, and she has a very limited power base of supporters. Her initiative on housing stock transfer has also been controversial, and activists in Glasgow have mounted a campaign against this.

Susan Deacon, the health minister, is a rank outsider in this contest. She was left politically damaged by a row over health spending when finance minister Jack McConnell announced in early July that a £34 million pound underspend in health was to be put into a contingency fund. This followed untrue allegations by Donald Dewar's chief of staff John Raffety that death threats had been made against her by militant anti-abortionists, over which he was forced to resign.

A motley crew, indeed. None of these have the gravitas and wit which made Donald Dewar so popular both amongst the people of Scotland (whether they agreed with him politically or not) and his colleagues and opponents in the political forum. For a party facing an uncertain future, with by-elections in both Dewar's ward of Anniesland and Falkirk West, following the standing down of Dennis Canavan, the future doesn't look too bright for the Unionist party - we hope....


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