Jack-ing it all in?

Speculation is mounting that Scottish Labour Leader, Jack McConnell MSP, may be about to announce his departure as his Party’s Leader following Labour’s “defeat” at May’s Scottish Parliament elections and their drubbing in the council elections which saw the Peoples’ Party win fewer council seats than the SNP because of the new PR voting system.

The final straw for Jack may well have arrived over his cornflakes in Arran this morning when one newspaper suggested that Labour MSP Charlie Gordon may be prepared to run as a “stalking horse” against his Imperious Leader in order to give unnamed “others” the opportunity to join the race later on without appearing disloyal.

Mr Smith thinks it very likely that Lucky Jack, as he was once christened in a Lorraine Davidson biography of him, will depart the scene at next year’s Scottish Labour Party Conference, but predicts that this won’t be because of the intervention of others. Mr Smith thinks it is perhaps because Mr McConnell will have realised that he has better things to be doing with his life.

The more interesting question isn’t really who will become Labour’s new leader, but rather who will take over from him as MSP in his Motherwell and Wishaw constituency, assuming Labour manage to hold the seat in the likely bitter by-election battle that will ensue in the murky world of Lanarkshire politics.