Can Wendy Survive?

I am going to see the Smashing Pumpkins at the SECC on Tuesday night. Although it is the fourth time that I have seen them, I have been counting down the days ever since I got my ticket.

It looks like we are also counting down the days to the end of the tenure of the fourth Scottish Labour leader since devolution. Wendy may have won a moral “victory” this week, but it is a bit like your team winning the final game of the season when you are already relegated and are facing the prospect of administration.

No sooner had the verdict from the Electoral Commission come out, than the Sunday Herald are reporting that Gordon Brown is about to hi-jack Wendy’s Constitutional Commission. Now Labour made a big thing about this at the time, but now Papa Broon wants to downgrade it to a review or a working party. And he wants it to be led by Westminster.

If that wasn’t enough, Wendy has had to do a bit of moonlighting as a plumber. For the amount of leaks that are coming from Labour at the moment are enough to keep anyone busy. The latest shows that a Shadow Cabinet minute shows that the tactic of reading a pre-prepared loyalty script to selected journalists has been a successful one.

Yeah, right!

Then there was her well documented performance at the vote on the Scottish Budget. Having put forward an amendment to the budget, which was accepted by the SNP, she and her colleagues then failed to vote for it. All, that is, except for Cathie Craigie, who voted against it. By mistake, allegedly. Must be hard, all those options to choose from!

All this must be enough to make her wonder why she even wanted the post in the first place. Then along comes the revelation that she may be facing a further Electoral Commission investigation as well as a police one. This time the claim is that she misled businessmen into funding her constituency office to the tune of £12,000.

The Smashing Pumpkins have been a band, on and off for about twenty years, because of the ability of Billy Corgan, their lead singer. The next Labour leader will have to be just as gifted if the Labour ship is going to be turned around. Andy Kerr may be licking his lips at the prospect of a leadership election, but this job may be beyond his capabilities.