So, Jack McConnell MSP has bitten the bullet and announced his resignation as Scottish Labour Leader and his intention of accepting a role on a "voluntary basis, unpaid" with the Clinton Hunter Development Initiative in relation to promoting "opportunities for young people" in Malawi; in between continuing to represent the good burghers of Motherwell and Wishaw in the Scottish Parliament.
Mr Smith was intrigued to read his comment, "having given over twenty years of my life to Labour politics locally and nationally in Scotland, and the last fifteen to modernising and then leading the Scottish Labour Party, I want to use the skills I have acquired, and the commitment I have to tackle those challenges." Mr Smith is not exactly sure that these "skills" are very readily transferable to Malawi, then again there may be more similarities between deepest, darkest Lanarkshire and Africa than are evident at first glance. Mr Smith is also hard pressed to see much evidence of McConnell's modernisation in the "new model" Scottish Labour Party.
But Mr Smith wonders if Sir Tom Hunter first tapped our Jack to take the Malawi job when the former First Minister chaired a lecture by Sir Tom as part of the Edinburgh Lecture series on 6th February this year, an event which was amazingly and wholly coincidentally "presented by" the Scottish Executive.
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