SCOTTISH Labour politicians have gone to outrageous lengths trying to spin the fallout from Anas Sarwar swanning off to the House of Lords.
They have also tried their best to present Douglas Alexander being kept as Scottish Secretary as a positive move, despite concerns that he had severely damaged UK-Scottish relations in the space of only 10 months.
In case you had somehow forgotten, Sarwar has been made a life peer so that he can become a Trade Minister in Andy Burnham’s Government.
This is despite presiding over Scottish Labour’s historic electoral loss at the Holyrood election in May, and reducing the party to its lowest number of MSPs in the history of devolution.
Notably, Sarwar fudged this in his statement that he published after remaining initially tight-lipped on his move to the Lords – unsurprising, since he repeatedly said the upper chamber should be abolished and that he would not join the Lords himself.
And look how that worked out.
In a four-page statement, Sarwar gave one sentence to the Holyrood election result, where he said: “I am disappointed and sorry we couldn’t achieve a better outcome at the recent Scottish election. I take my fair share of responsibility for that.”
Surely, taking responsibility would be staying in the Scottish Parliament and serving out the term that the good people of the Glasgow Region just elected you to? Rather than taking a plush job for life in an unelected chamber you have spent the last decade decrying.
Acting leader Jackie Baillie went down another route in an interview with LBC on Wednesday, telling the broadcaster: “Leaders move on, and who would deny the opportunity to work in a Labour Government delivering a trade portfolio that will be so important to Scotland.”
Someone with ethics, maybe?
“Of course Anas still believes the House of Lords should be abolished, so do I,” she added.
That might be easier to believe if Scottish Labour politicians didn’t have a tendency to jump ship the moment ermine is in their sights.
Another Scottish Labour politician who appears reluctant to take any responsibility for Scottish Labour’s drubbing at the ballot box in May is Alexander, who it should not be forgotten also oversaw that disastrous election campaign.
Alexander also straight up refused to answer if Sarwar had been “rewarded for failure” on BBC Radio Scotland on Friday morning.
In response he said: “Can I maybe just say first of all – and I hope you'll forgive me – I want to give a shout out to all the volunteers and staff who put on the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games at the Hydro last night. It was absolutely brilliant.
“They did Scotland proud, and it's great that the games are off to such a good start.”
He would later say that Sarwar is someone of “great ability and talent” and then touted that job Trade Minister job and its benefits for Scotland.
Alexander went on to defend Sarwar’s appointment and likened it to David Cameron being made a peer so that he could become Foreign Secretary under Rishi Sunak.
That was also undemocratic – but why let that get in the way of a spin operation on its last legs?
When asked whose fault the Holyrood result was, Alexander said the blame rests with “everyone” in the Scottish Labour leadership team and in the party itself.
There’s a bit of a difference between the people running the strategy behind an election campaign, and those Scottish Labour members on the ground who spent thankless hours knocking doors and delivering leaflets.
Scottish Labour are doomed to repeat the same mistake over and over again, because they seem to think that Scottish voters are stupid and will believe any old trollop they trot out.
Thankfully, they seem to be able to see right through it.
