Sour Alba

I have just read Arthur MacMillan’s excellent autopsy of the corpse of Scottish newspapers in the British Journalism Review. It is a forensic examination of what’s gone wrong and why there is no hope. And it rightly fingers the muppets and Johnston Press and Gannet who have brought what we laughingly call Scotland’s quality papers to their knees.

However, the article falls into the trap of by implication exonerating Andrew Neil, who is as responsible for the demise of the Hootsmon as the overpromoted local newspaper crowd. While JP has had a massively detrimental effect on the paper and the website, Neil cannot escape blame. Here’s why:

Wenday Alexander has resigned as leader of Scottish Labour. This is the right decision not because of any donation nonsense but because she’s an uncharismatic policy wonk.Very bright and all that but she doesn’t have ingredient X.

Labour now need to find a leader with brains *and* people skills, someone who can match Salmond and Sturgeon on the intellectual and rhetorical level.

Sadly for Labour, there’s no-one matching that description on their benches…