Jack MacConnell.

From the Herald Diary, "FORMER First Minister Jack McConnell, the next British High Commissioner to Malawi, was increasingly irritated in his previous job when Labour politicians down south got his name wrong, most notably Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt called him "Jack McDonnell" twice during a Scottish TV debate. Last week Jack was down at Westminster's foreign affairs committee, giving evidence about his new appointment. Hansard, the official report of proceedings at parliament, lists him as "Mr John McConnell MSP". Oops."

Jack's ... not alright.

Remember former First Minister Jack McConnell MSP? Mr Smith does ... just about.

"Jack McConnell is understood to be angry with prime minister Gordon Brown after the peerage he was promised has so far failed to materialise. Friends of the former first minister say Brown has reneged on a deal to allow his Labour colleague to sit in the House of Lords. McConnell is also known to be so unimpressed with the state of his party that he is not planning to attend the Scottish Labour conference this month."

If I was PM Gordon Brown delaying giving our Jack a peerage with the result that he "boycotts" the next Scottish Labour Conference would probably have been worth it. And does Jack McConnell or his advisers really believe he will be missed at the next Scottish Labour Conference anyway? ... Jack who?

Eck's Pension.

It was all going so well for Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond, but now he faces an immediate hit on his personal finances with the news that he may not receive his immediate £38,000 a year pension when he stands down as FM.

"HENRY McLeish and Jack McConnell will be laughing all the way to the bank. MSPs are set to axe one of the biggest perks of leaving Bute House: the £38,000-a-year pension enjoyed by former First Ministers from the moment they leave office. But McConnell and McLeish will continue to receive the money. The review of MSP pensions would apply to Alex Salmond and future First Ministers, who would get the cash only when they reached 65."

It made no sense for ex-FMs to get this perk, especially when like Jack McConnell they continue as Members of the Scottish Parliament, and even less in the case of Henry McLeish when he was only FM for twelve months before having to resign. But our Eck won't be laughing all the way to the bank if the change is agreed.

Lucky Jack.

Drumlanrig says "One Labour MSP who doesn't seem to be overly concerned with the chaos engulfing Wendy Alexander is her predecessor Jack McConnell. After spending the last six years of his life under the spotlight, McConnell was seen happily wandering around the Scottish Parliament on Thursday last week, chatting to friends and generally enjoying himself. One hack shouted out to him that he should stay by the phone just in case a new leader was required. McConnell was about to offer a reply before thinking better of it and grinning - a smile which said it all."

He must be glad to be out of it.

Abrasive Wendy.

Mr Smith asks who would want to work for Scottish Labour Leader Wendy Alexander MSP.

"SCOTTISH LABOUR'S new spin-doctor made a series of damning criticisms of his colleagues weeks before he accepted the job as the party's head of communications. Gavin Yates used his blog to describe Wendy Alexander as "abrasive", labelled shadow health minister Andy Kerr as "simply uninspiring", and blasted Jack McConnell for being a "lame duck leader" when in office. He also said the fledgling SNP government had a "long and impressive" list of achievements, while describing first minister Alex Salmond as "a great example of a politician on top of his game".

Wendy really ought to give up employing people who have such mixed views about the Labour Party as well as nationalistic inclinations. Will Wendy need to find someone else to fill the role of her spin doctor? Mr Smith suspects not ... after all she is running out of candidates. Scotland only has a population of five million after all.

Going AWOL.

Mr Smith reads that, "FORMER FIRST minister Jack McConnell has angered his Labour colleagues after missing a key Holyrood vote to attend a leaders' summit in New York. Scottish Labour was deprived of victory in last week's Holyrood housing debate after McConnell flew to America on tycoon Tom Hunter's private jet. His critics within the party believe it is time McConnell chose between being an MSP or the businessman's "special envoy". However, a spokesman for the rich philanthropist Hunter described the Labour MSP's critics as a "bunch of petty politicians". "

Mr Smith did warn at the time that trying to juggle a couple of jobs would be impossible. He takes no satisfaction from having the point proven. When is the by-election?

Staying alive.

ATTICUS in the Sunday Times reports that: “Jack McConnell is clearly enjoying life away from the rigours of high office. He has given up wearing ties, telling friends he’s had enough of them after almost 30 years. Rather more alarmingly, he has also taken to undoing the top two buttons of his shirt and strutting around Holyrood like John Travolta.”

Mr Smith thinks that Mrs McConnell should be concerned and supplies a link to appropriate attire to complete Mr McConnell's image.

Malawi's Clause 28.

Mr Smith noted the following in the Sunday Times' Atticus diary column.

"As Jack McConnell, like so many other failed new Labour politicians, savours the prospect of enjoying the trappings of office as a British high commissioner, a fly has landed in his sundowner. Politicians in Malawi are to fight the appointment of Scotland’s former first minister over his record of support for gay rights. Homosexuality is illegal in the African country, punishable by up to 14 years in jail. “I am scared because he can easily use his influence to force legislation,” said Friday Jumbe, presidential candidate for the main opposition party."

To further complicate matters Malawi's main crop is tobacco, which means they may also not be too impressed with Jack McConnell's other claim to fame, namely pioneering Scotland's smoking ban in public places.

Too much red meat Mr Hutcheon?

Mr Smith has noticed over the last few weeks that perhaps the Sunday Herald's Political Editor, Paul Hutcheon, is eating too much red meat these days. Last week he called for a "cull" of Scottish MEPs in rather impolite terms and this week he turns his ire on Jack McConnell following his resignation as Scottish Leader of the Labour Party.

In an article, Paul comments: "A leader without a legacy... Of all the compliments paid to Jack McConnell last week, the most phoney was how he had helped "steady the ship" of devolution in 2001. According to this argument, the Scottish parliament was out of control and on the verge of implosion. Then Jack showed up and made everything right ... McConnell's key achievement was in how a man of limited ability rose to the top job in Scottish politics, a feat which reflected his core principle: the ruthless pursuit of his own interests. Like a climber who reached the summit of Everest but forgot his flag, McConnell put his energy into reaching the top without ever having a plan once he got there. He forgot that leadership was a process, not an event."

Mr Smith thinks Mr Hutcheon should perhaps be reviewing the red meat content of his diet, but we await next week's victim with trepidation.

278,000,000 Malawian kwacha = 1 Jack McConnell.

So, hardly was the Kleenex less moist after Jack McConnell’s announcement that he was to stand down as Scottish Labour Leader than British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was announcing his elevation to the role of British High Commissioner to Malawi, a role the perks of which the Scotsman reports in tremendous detail.

Now Mr Smith is not exactly sure how this can possibly work in practical terms given Mr McConnell’s avowed intention of continuing to serve as a Member of the Scottish Parliament, presumably, until the next parliamentary elections in 2011, given that presumably as High Commissioner to Malawi he may, actually, er, …. have to spend a lot of time in Malawi, at least after 2009.

So Mr Smith expects that in the not too distant future there will be a by-election in McConnell’s Motherwell and Wishaw constituency, perhaps even after an Ermin-clad McConnell has been raised to the House of Lords, meaning he will then have three jobs on the go at the same time.

But Mr Smith cannot help but notice that Mr McConnell appears to have settled for such a medium rate governmental role. After all, when former Labour MP Helen Liddell opted to bail out of Lanarkshire politics to “free up” a seat for John Reid et al, she was rewarded with the High Commissioner to Australia job. McConnell gets Malawi albeit on a six figure salary or 278 million Malawian kwacha, to go along with his First Ministerial pension.

Jackin' it all in.

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.

Short term memo-ry.

Yesterday, Mr Smith commented on the reported leak of a "secret memo"criticising the Scottish Labour Party's recent Scottish Parliament election campaign. A memo which was written by former Scottish Executive Special Adviser Adrian Colwell.

Today, Mr Smith notes that the Labour Party has not been slow to attack the memo with a story in today's Scotsman distancing the Party from the criticism, indeed some rather strong language is used in relation to the position of Mr Colwell in the 'dog days' of the last Scottish Executive.

Expressions like, "George Foulkes, a Labour MSP, said the memo was "totally irrelevant", adding: "He [Mr Colwell] had a relatively peripheral part in the campaign." And "... a source close to Mr McConnell said Mr Colwell was "out of touch" in the latter days of Mr McConnell's term as first minister, with more involvement with the Liberal Democrat camp. He said: "[The memo] is Adrian Colwell's personal reflections and not borne out by reality in any way." "

Reminds Mr Smith of the old adage: methinks they doth protest too much. But these comments beg the obvious points. Mr Colwell was recruited to join the Scottish Executive in 2002 and remained with them until the dissolution of the last Executive administration in 2007. He was recruited as a Labour Special Adviser, and served at the pleasure of the First Minister. If he was so "out of touch" with what Executive Ministers were thinking then why didn't they remove him long before the election, and if his judgement was so off kilter why was the taxpayer still picking up the tab for his salary when at least some of the advice he was offering was "not borne out be reality in any way"?

Its worth also noting that in 2002 in commenting on the members of Team McConnell, the Scotsman refered to Mr Colwell as being part of a "circle of supportive lieutenants ... [to whom McConnell] will turn frequently." Very out of touch then.

Journalistic licence.

Mr Smith is a big fan of journalistic licence and the powerful use of the English language, but even he is overwhelmed by the political imagery conjured up by two of the Scotsman's political reporters in today's edition of the paper.

Gerri Peev excels in the piece entitled "Skilful Salmond returns to Westminster as the political assassin" and goes on to comment "... he (Salmond) started the day with more compliments for his new friend Gordon Brown than a British naval officer returning from Iran with a goody bag." Mr Smith thinks that Gerri may have lost readers with the "naval officer ... goody bag" reference in an otherwise very insightful article.

Not to be outdone, Peter MacMahon, writes that "For McConnell, the night of the long knives may be around the corner." He tells us that "McConnell has spent much of this week in his beloved Arran, working on his golf handicap."

Of course, Mr MacMahon should know a great deal about the dog days of former Labour First Ministers having been the spin doctor and "right hand man" to former Labour First Minister Henry McLeish who was forced to resign from the role after presiding over "a muddle, not a fiddle" with his office expenses whilst a Westminster MP. Mr MacMahon then famously fell out with the brothers and sisters of the Peoples' Party by daring to write about the episode despite his former role as a civil servant.

MacMahon's piece is timely and insightful, if a little fawning in places, "... only Mr McConnell can say whether he is plotting his own future first or whether he is selflessly putting his party first.
Politicians being human beings, the truth is that probably all of these thoughts and calculations are going through his head."

But the Peev and MacMahon articles provide clear evidence of the differing respective fortunes of their subjects: Salmond's star in the ascendant, McConnell's star on the wane. Mr Smith is not sure how many more pieces like this Peev and MacMahon will have the opportunity to write.

Holyrood's leaks.

No. Mr Smith is not refering to the "leaks" of information which make the job of the political diarist a little bit easier, but rather to the fact as disclosed in the Edinburgh Evening News that three years after the opening of the Scottish Parliament's new £414 million building at Holyrood there are apparently still leaks in the building's car park which the Scottish Parliament is still asking contractors to fix.

Now Mr Smith is all for leaks but not if they involve liquid in a public building. Have the Scottish Parliament's authorities never heard of a snagging list?

More interestingly, Holyrood's decision makers have apparently agreed to spend £10,000 extending Leader of the Opposition Jack McConnell's parliamentary office "to allow larger meetings to be held in the (his) room." Now given the parlous state of Mr McConnell's grip on the Leadership of the Scottish Labour Party, Mr Smith must question whether some Labour MSPs will want to be spending a lot of time in meetings with their Imperious Leader rather than being out and about trying to win votes in the forthcoming leadership election.

The Barca is open.

Mr Smith is willing to bet that when Alex Salmond decided to return from “over the water” of Westminster to contest the election for Scotland’s First Minister, his mind wasn’t really on the perks of Governmental office.

But Mr Smith notes that Mr Salmond has now managed to enrich the cultural life of the Scottish nation with another piece of sporting memorabilia, yes, a signed FC Barcelona football strip shirt which the First Minister apparently intends to “display” in his Official Residence of Bute House in Edinburgh.

Mr Smith looks forward to the “gift” being declared by the First Minister in the Executive’s Register of Ministerial Gifts which features lots of goodies received by previous Scottish Ministers including four cases of one of Scotland’s better known beers declared by the former First Minister in September 2005, and numerous bottles of whisky.

Gifts

At least we don’t have to worry about Alex Salmond donning the shirt to join in a five-a-side football match as Jack McConnell might have done.

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.