Actually, this is brilliant
Absorbing what passes for commentary about the astonishing moment that has just passed, in which the putative leader of Labour in Scotland called on the Prime Minister and leader of his own party to resign, is a bewildering experience.
While some have suggested the faithful media’s response to this debacle evokes Orwell’s line from 1984: “The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command” – others suggest it’s more likely a contender for Private Eye’s OBN (Order of the Brown Nose) whose purpose is to highlight “hilariously sycophantic punditry”.
Free Yourself from Keir Starmer
First out of the traps was Paul Hutcheon at the Daily Record, who wrote [Anas Sarwar has put himself on the same side as Scottish voters on Keir Starmer] “Monday’s events, while bruising for Sarwar, could be the first step towards tipping the chess board for Labour north of the border.”
Now, the idea of Sarwar’s big move being a masterful play of 3-D chess might seem fanciful to some readers, but follow the logic:
“For the last nineteen months, Sarwar has bit his tongue when asked about the failings of the Starmer Government. Scots could see him squirm on TV and hear the carefully phrased statements on policies he did not agree with.”
“By publicly calling out the Prime Minister and demanding his resignation, Sarwar has repositioned his party” claimed Hutcheon.
He concludes:
“He no longer has to apologise for the sins of the UK Government or pull his punches to maintain a relationship with the Prime Minister. Sarwar is now free to criticise both Governments without fear or favour and voters will notice the shift.”
The idea that Sarwar being able to lay into the Labour government over the next three months is some great new boost to the Labour campaign in Scotland is like some new absurdist sub-genre of journalism.
In a campaign in which Sarwar has wrapped himself in a saltire and peppered the Scottish Labour website with thistles, and demanded that the campaign be about Scotland not the UK, he (and only he) has succeeded in making the campaign about the London government.
The recently derided Scotcast followed hot on the heels of the Record, with a programme called ‘What has Anas Sarwar done?‘, hosted by Martin Geissler and Natalie Higgins. Geissler concludes that: “Whatever happens he looks – in his own eyes or the eyes of his supporters courageous and principled – and he’ll hope that’s what the electorate take away…”
Bonnie Scotland!
Not to be outgunned, up pops Kenny Farquharson at the Times [Far From Futile, Anas Sarwar has changed the national conversation] :
“I get why Sarwar’s gamble, viewed through a Westminster lens, seems quixotic. I understand why, with Starmer’s premiership on death watch, Sarwar’s act of treachery is being judged solely on its failure to start a cascade of UK cabinet resignations. Through that Westminster lens, Sarwar’s tilt at the prime minister looks futile, and a failure.”
“Here in Scotland, 400 miles from SW1, we tend to look at politics through a Scottish lens. And from this perspective Sarwar’s big moment looks very different. In fact, it looks to me very much like an inflection point in Scottish politics, a clarifying moment in our relationship with the rest of the UK.”
He continues: “You might think this sounds high-minded, even grandiose [No, just ridiculous, Ed] and you would be right. We are in the thick of a contest to see who will be first minister [that should be capped, Ed] of Scotland and keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland. The earliest surviving example of this seal is held in Durham Cathedral and dates back almost a thousand years to the reign of Duncan II in 1094.”
Wait, what? What’s it doing in Durham?
He goes on: “When you speak to Sarwar in person, what is striking is the extent to which he has internalised the idea that he could be Scotland’s next first minister. I once asked him why he thought he could succeed where the past six Scottish Labour leaders had failed. His answer was simple: “Because I want it more.”
Wait, what is going on here?
There’s more …
” … his purpose was to transform the national conversation in Scotland about the Holyrood election. His point was to signal to the Scottish electorate his break with the failings of the UK Labour government and to stand for election as first minister on his own terms.
*
Soulless Careerism
As I said, this is really a new sub-genre of political journalism that hovers somewhere between Dr Pangloss in Voltaire’s 1759 satirical novella Candide and Hunter S. Thompson’s 1971 novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Pure Gonzo.
He has strengthened, not weakened, the Prime Minister’s position.
Not only have very few (two) Scottish MPs come out in support of Sarwar very few MSPs have either. Watch how uncomfortable they all are:
ICYMI
Are Scottish Labour MSPs backing Sarwar after his calls for the PM to resign?
Colin Mackay has reaction from Holyrood. https://t.co/xNxoeSTn6G pic.twitter.com/jRMq3hUNjJ
— STV News (@STVNews) February 11, 2026
Labour, north and south, are hopelessly and bitterly divided and have now no option but to stagger on with a completely compromised and humiliated Scottish and UK leader tethered together in what looks like a political suicide pact.
One senior Labour figure called Sarwar’s intervention “idiocy, immature, incoherent and self-defeating” Another called it “soulless careerism”
To call this tactical genius is not political commentary, it’s hallucination.
As we publish The Scotsman’s Westminster Correspondent Andrew Quinn reveals that a No 10 spokesperson has told him that Keir Starmer “will campaign in Scotland” before May 7 [Keir Starmer will campaign with Anas Sarwar in Scotland ahead of Holyrood election].
This sounds like a power play, but also a tragicomedy in the making.
But why have so many seasoned journalists and columnists come to the conclusion that what looks like an ongoing calamity, is actually an act of genius?
They have no alternative. They have swallowed the Constitutional Kool-Aid.
YouGov polling from last month (8-14 January) showed that with the SNP and Greens commanding 70 MSPs, there would be another comfortable pro-independence majority. A seat projection by John Curtice suggested these numbers would give the SNP 60 seats – Reform 23 and Labour 15. The Tories would return 13 MSPs, the Greens 10 and the Lib Dems just eight.
It put Scottish Labour is in a distant third place for the Holyrood election after the poll found Anas Sarwar’s party languishing on just 15%. The poll showed Labour five points behind Reform UK and 19 points behind John Swinney’s SNP.
If repeated in May, this would be Labour’s worst result in either a Westminster or Holyrood election in 116 years.
This is the context for Sarwar’s harakiri, and the aftermath of absurdist Op-eds.
Outside the Unionist bubble, there is more sense. Kevin Meagher writes for Labour Uncut:
“How on earth can Sarwar continue in his role?”
“The coup, such as it was, was over in half a news cycle – with embarrassed political journalists hurriedly reducing their hyperbole from DEFCON 1 when it became clear the Prime Minister would survive. All of which left Sarwar looking like the overexuberant uncle at a family wedding leading a solo conga.”
“The only realistic course is for him to immediately quit as Scottish leader. Its moot whether or not he can do any more harm to Labour’s position north of the border. The party is languishing in a poor third place already, just weeks away from all-out Scottish parliamentary elections – behind the rejuvenated SNP and Reform. Sarwar doesn’t add anything to the ticket. Not after yesterday.”
Shortly after his election victory in July 2024, Keir Starmer told the world “Scotland is back at the beating heart of my government.”
Indeed it is.
Surely , when Scottish Labour declare that Westminster doesn’t work for Scotland ( with Labour in power!) , it is the time to seize the moment!
Time for all who want to play a part in enabling an even better Scotland( by inspiring our fellow citizens to choose Independence ) to give unequivocal full support to the SNP .
The SNP is the vehicle for change . The argument against Westminster is won and we now need to turbo charge the SNP with members , funds, activists, positive coverage and new energy to clearly articulate the systematic ,policy and budgetary changes possible in an Independent Scotland .
Supporting the SNP to communicate the positive alternative can be the tipping point , starting us on the path to real change for the better for the many people of Scotland.
Let’s start now , moving our energy from reacting to and commenting on the Westminster decay to promoting and communicating the positive alternative.
Jings, you had me in stitches there, Mike. Brightened another dour day. Thanks.
Good to hear David!
Sarwar and Baillie the carry on couple comedy act of Scottish politics.the Sid James and Hattie Jacques of Holyrood along with the Munchkins of the “Scottish” media corp, apart from that does Mr.Hutcheon have any comment to make regarding the Daily Record moving to England with the attendent job losses or will he follow it down,(we can live in hope he does) roll on the May elections!
‘Sid James and Hattie Jacques..’ Brilliant
Indeed, in politics like elsewhere, patterns of interaction have a perceivable quality.
Political victories are often brief, transitory and hollow; reverses are common, substance lacking. Flickering indicates approaching system phase changes (fast turnover of Prime Ministers, for example, vetting implosions, and shorter alliances). Thucydides takes a somewhat contrasting view of the Athenian democracy characterised by Pericles with that of successor Alcibiades. I’m just starting the second half of his history of the Peloponnesian War, and there’s a notable drop in the quality of the politicking which is descending into very short-term pretexts, deceptions and promise-breaking which is no basis for the decades-long treaties and alliances that were normalised before. It’s not so much about trust as expectation.
As Thucydides would have sensibly noted, you cannot play 3D-chess when aspects of the real nature of interactions depend on so many unpredictable variables (in war, public health, assembly decisions, catastrophes, corruption, weather etc). I was amused by Sparta’s self-aborting campaigns because the omens from sacrifices were inauspicious (Machiavelli would assume that the leadership had got cold feet or unwelcome intelligence and fixed the results). It’s interesting to see how roles from Classical Greece transpose to today’s British Empire, the oracles and envoys, the demagogues and oligarchs, priest-kings and soldier-slaves, festival-goers and festival-police and so on, including public opinion (somewhat robustly expressed at times).
In a later age, rhetoric will also be used to lament the degeneracy of the times (and also be symptomatic of it):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_tempora,_o_mores!
It has been heartwarming to watch and listen as Scottish Labour really gets into its stride in its historic task of performing political comedy.
This week has been a classic, surpassing the long list of stellar comic performances of Iain, Johann, Jim, Kezia, Richard, and Anas himself. Some award is due.
And this years awards of the RASBERRIES goes to Anas and Jackie the dumb and dumber dou of the “Scottish” Liebour party,you couldnt make this shower up what a Sxxx show of nonentities
John Curtice summed it up when he said that Sarwar is driving the Scottish Labour car and he knows he is driving into a brick wall. What he has done is steer off the road without a clue where he is going thinking where he ends up cannot be any worse. It looks as though the Labour car has landed on the ditch.
The mainstream media in Scotland is dying and their bizarre narrative in response to Sarwar’s reckless gamble only highlights why it is dying.
“A No 10 spokesperson has said that Keir Starmer “will campaign in Scotland” ………for the May elections at the request of the ……….SNP.
Doomed, doomed, & I’m enjoying it so so much. Given Sir Starmer will be gone before June & thus looking for a job, I am pleased to say that my company has a position open for him that is emminently suited to his talents: a door stop.
Are you in the Door Stop business Mike?
Yes. We gave Mrs Trussed a try-out – but she was not very good. I have high hopes for Sir S – we like our door-stops to have a blank look – which Sir S seems to have perfected. I see that he continues to make good choices for people in key positions – e.g. the new cab sec, fortunately door-stops don’t need to make decisions.
Perhaps, some media interviewers could ask what ‘Scottish’ Labour think are the ‘best interests of Scotland and the people of Scotland’.
“But why have so many seasoned journalists and columnists come to the conclusion that what looks like an ongoing calamity, is actually an act of genius? They have no alternative”.
Indeed , as God forbid they would ever choose honesty and so just concede that it ended up being somewhat of a damp squib as an intervention, perhaps made by Sarwar himself in sheer desperation , all just to try to limit the anticipated damage the polls are predicting for Labour in May, or perhaps as is being suggested , it was an intervention made by Sarwar but carefully concocted by someone else at Labour HQ , who also, like Sarwar, is just as ambitious to get the top job.
Political Editors and commentators of the BBC in Scotland using words such as “courageous” and “principled” to describe what Sarwar did this week , while expecting us the public to erase from our minds the uncomfortable truth of all that Sarwar failed to say before now, either courageously or in a principled fashion, against his HQ leader.
As prior to the further scandalous revelations that were included within the recently released Epstein files in relation to Peter Mandelson, we all felt that Sarwar was seemingly happy to just keep plodding along making excuses for Labour HQ and also even blaming others for the mess that Labour HQ have made since being in power for only 1 year and 7 months.
(Also Sarwar did post that Mandelson was an “old friend” of his , so back then Sarwar was apparently more than happy and agreeable to Starmer picking Mandelson for that important job).
In fact Sarwar appeared to be a tad too complacent , so one assumed that he was also quite content just to continue supporting and defending Keir Starmer and his UK government throughout all of their failures , U-Turns, betrayals , brutal welfare changes, their demonising of migrants and also their many bad decisions as the new UK government.
So then what was it that really changed for Sarwar?
Well apparently , according to Sarwar, all of the (negative) media exposure upon Labour and their Mandelson fiasco is a “distraction” .
From what ?
Labour being exposed as being no better than the Tories formerly were as the previous UK government ?
Of course it is hardly surprising that the media in Scotland now try to rewrite history and so attempt to brainwash us all into forgetting that it was also Anas Sarwar who was at the forefront of Labour’s GE campaign in Scotland in 2024, pledging and promising “real Change” with Labour in power at WM.
The fact that over time that too has also now turned out to be very much a damp squib should make anyone with common sense work out why now it is that Sarwar is having to clutch at straws , all just to try and save his own political skin in May’s upcoming elections, or rather try to limit the damage of the expected wipe out Labour are predicted to experience.
Future Peerage, as in a reward, for Sarwar for failure, well quite possible as that seems to be the norm with various political HQ’s at WM, but also it will be yet another opportunity for the media to try to convince us that Sarwar deserved it for services rendered , but to whom and to what ?
No guesses needed on that.
I’m tempted to opine that Sarwar is talking out of his Anus, but I will refrain!!
einsean, tractar, agus bhan