Smack of leadership silences the critics, but real test is to come

WITH the SNP riding high in the polls, and with UK party leader Ed Miliband failing to make any discernable headway against the coalition at Westminster, it would have been easy for a certain resignation to have set in at Caird Hall yesterday.

But Johann Lamont’s first message as she addressed her troops was that now was the time to “stop apologising” for past mistakes and to get back on the front foot. The former teacher is not someone who has sought out leadership, but has had leadership thrust upon her. However, now she’s there, the hall responded immediately yesterday to the audibly firm smack of leadership.

On the constitution, Lamont and her deputy, Anas Sarwar, used the conference to build their case for the way Scotland should be run. On Friday, Sarwar laid out what is a tricky political argument; yes, this was a party which puts Scotland first, but no, that did not mean its parliament should, therefore, get as many powers as possible. “The Scottish Parliament was created not to devolve power from one building in London to another in Edinburgh,” he noted. Lamont then pursued the same message yesterday. “The question is not what powers should Scotland claw back, but which powers should we share,” she said.

The new leadership team has, to coin a phrase, put a line in the sand: that there is no point Labour getting involved in a bidding war with the SNP on powers. First, the party needs to work out what the point of them is. There were quiet grumbles from some more enthusiastic devo-supporters in the bars on Friday night over this view. They fear Labour will find itself on the wrong side of the argument. Watch this space.

At least an argument is there. On policy, the emptiness of the Labour cupboard could not be hidden. Education spokesman Hugh Henry yesterday noted that “if we cannot give people a clear reason for voting Labour … then can we be surprised that voters lost faith and confidence?” The answer to that is no. The trouble is that Henry’s answer to his own good question (“we should not be afraid or ashamed to say that we are on the side of ordinary working people”) was both vague and horribly reminiscent of the kind of 1980s language which so failed to enthuse just about everybody last year.

Nonetheless, both Lamont and, on Friday, UK party leader Ed Miliband have cheered the party, and may have silenced the doubters. Lamont is showing she knows her own mind. The test will be whether she can start to articulate her vision in the coming months and gain the public eye. She has a big Salmond problem. Yesterday, Lamont spent long sections of her speech attempting to bring the First Minister down to size. Next weekend, when Salmond speaks before the SNP conference, it is a good bet he will not even feel the need to mention her. That highlights the gulf that exists between them.

Labour now has a few short months to keep up the momentum; the council elections in May, focusing on the battle for Glasgow, will be the key electoral test. And if the SNP breaks through there, any optimism garnered over these last two days here will be short lived.