Let’s get back to the days when real talent roost ruled the
IT is an accepted truth in Scottish politics that John Smith was the greatest Labour prime minister we never had. What is less well known is that he was very nearly the best Labour MP we never had. Mr Smith lost his first two attempts to get elected. Unable to find a winnable seat in the 1966 election, he instead wrote a book about it.
In 1968 at the Scottish Labour Party conference he met a Lanarkshire councillor, Dick Stewart.
‘You still looking for a seat, son?’ he asked. John Smith said he was. ‘Good, I’ve got one for you,’ Stewart said. Where was it, Smith asked.
‘You don’t need to know that,’ Stewart replied. ‘I’ll tell you nearer the time.’
A few months later he revealed it was North Lanarkshire.
The first time John Smith went to the constituency was for the selection meeting – at which Mr Stewart took his carefully written speech out of Smith’s hand, replacing it with his own script.
Then came the vote – by delegates rather than the ‘one member, one vote’ system Mr Smith would later bring in as leader.
It took an interminable time to count the votes. With the result imminent, five delegates, covered in snow, burst through the door.
Dick Stewart explained to the meeting they had been caught in a snowstorm in Shotts and although they had missed the speeches they ought to be allowed to vote.
Once they had done so, it was announced that John Smith had won – by 13 votes to 12.
THOSE were the days. A time when Labour fixers such as Dick Stewart saw it as their duty to talent-spot if the party was to prosper. Now at Holyrood it is difficult to spot much talent. To be fair, back in the day, Alex Salmond tried hard to attract people of ability to the SNP, but the arrogance of electoral success appears to have ceased the process.
Ruth Davidson has moved the Tories from the difficulties of getting anyone to stand at all to being selective.
But gazing across the chamber at Holyrood, you see many people you would not send for the rolls of a morning let alone run our public services.
Which gives our First Minister Nicola Sturgeon a bit of a problem. After the severe losses she suffered in last June’s general election, it was suggested she would have a reshuffle before the summer recess.
Then it was postponed until after the recess. Now it’s New Year and still no change – although there is need for it.
Our health service is in chaos. We can debate the talent – or lack of it – of our Health Secretary Shona Robison, but one look at her at Question Time and you know she is done. She looks knackered. Spent.
But who would replace her? Such is the dearth of talent on the SNP benches they keep on bringing back Mike Russell, for goodness sake.
Sidelined by Alex Salmond, sacked by Nicola Sturgeon, Mr Russell isn’t exactly Lazarus, but a zombie-like weeble that continuously wobbles but won’t fall down.
We even have to be grateful for the delusional arrogance of our Finance Secretary Derek Mackay, which acts as a narcotic numbing him to the truth of his own inadequacies.
So why don’t we give Nicola Sturgeon a break? A chance to make things better?
The ability to get through an SNP branch meeting and win a nomination does not a health or finance secretary make. So why should the First Minister’s – and the nation’s – talent pool be restricted to the goliaths of constituency politics like James Dornan or Dick Lyle?
When we vote in Scottish elections, most of us are really voting for who we would like to be First Minister.
Once they have won – and been elected by the Scottish parliament – why should the Ministers they appoint be restricted to MSPs?
Wouldn’t it be better if we allowed our First Minister to appoint whoever they wish to high office, provided they are regularly accountable to parliament.
Let’s have Sir Iain McMillan in charge of business. Harry Burns in charge of health. Carol Craig in charge of well-being.
WHY do we demand talent goes through the pain, boredom and petty politics of party selection processes to find the people we expect to deliver the best public services possible. It makes no sense.
Currently, Holyrood is setting up a new welfare system. That work is being led by our social security minister, Jeane Freeman. A former Communist, then Labour, then Labour special adviser, then quangocrat, she has never set up anything like a welfare system. Why not appoint someone who knows what they are talking about.
The days of Dick Stewart may sadly be gone. Talents like John Smith are astonishingly rare.
But the need for this country to be led by the best people possible is as great as ever.
Why restrict it to 129 egos who know how to win a party selection – but not necessarily a country?