After Jackson Carlaw quits, will other party leaders dare to take the mirror test? – Brian Wilson

There’s less shame in recognising you don’t have what it takes to be a leader, than carrying on, pretending that you do, writes Brian Wilson.

Jackson Carlaw resigned as Scottish Tory leader just months after he was elected by party members to the job (Picture: poolphoto/Fraser Bremner/ Scottish DailyMail)

Our Justice Minister, Humza Yousaf, took time off from his pernicious Hate Speech Bill to engage in a spot of triumphalism over Jackson Carlaw’s departure.

“Independence is coming, people. Even more important that we stay focused!”, tweeted Scotland’s legal statesman. His “people” meanwhile were expressing opinions on Mr Carlaw’s stewardship in terms which might one day keep Police Scotland busy.

Mr Yousaf’s colleague, Paul Wheelhouse, also felt the hand of history on his shoulder. Absenting himself from oversight of Scotland’s industrial debris, he likened his opponents to “Canute trying to hold back the Indy tide”.

Well, mibbes aye, mibbes naw, as Sir Kenneth Dalglish might put it. It is a long way from the midst of the pandemic to considered reflections at some distant future point, with an economic Stalingrad in between. They should not get over-excited.

I don’t like calling on people to resign. When they refuse, what next? My preferred formulation is to insist that every party leader has a duty to look in the mirror and ask what, realistically, the future holds.

Jackson Carlaw, very sensibly, has done that even if others may have proffered the mirror. In different circumstances, he might have made more progress but the internal polling showed he had made no impact in six months and was unlikely to do so.

Labour leaders have been particularly reluctant to risk the mirror test even when it was blindingly obvious they were leading their party towards a precipice. Think Milliband... think Corbyn... Think...?

It is possible to be a perfectly good MP or MSP without being a leader. There is a lot less shame in recognising that than in soldiering on regardless.

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