A little interruption in my flow of blog entries regarding the improvement of Social Education in Scotland to blog on something that I feel is of some importance (don’t fear, Social Education blogging will continue later tonight)

Once again I find myself calling for the resignation of the leader of the Scottish arm of the Political Party I was once a member of. I never had any confidence in Wendy Alexander and, had there been an election for the post of Leader of Labour in the Scottish Parliament, I for certain would not have given her my support in such an election.

I attended an event following her unopposed “election” to the post and she almost won me over. I found her saying what had to be said and appeared to be interested in listening to the grass routes members (who she and her parliamentary colleagues rely on to help ensure they get elected!) However, what little confidence I had in her after such meetings vanished when it was apparent that she was not going to act on reforming the party nor was she able to provide strong and effective opposition to the SNP minority Government (who only have one more seat that Scottish Labour in the Parliament).

When the Donorgate scandal (as its come to be known) engulfed the party with three senior labour officials (one who has now done the decent thing and resigned – although he didn’t resign for the right reasons) I decided that I could not longer be affiliated with the party and resigned my membership. When I resigned me membership of the party I wrote a very strong worded letter to Wendy Alexander detailing my reasons as to why I decided to leave the party and in that letter I told her that she must resign to allow the Scottish Party any chance of retaining the little credibility it had left.

Sadly, I never received a reply to this letter (no doubt it was ready by a secretary and filed in the bin) and Wendy Alexander is still sitting in the leaders chair at the Scottish Parliament. Today, she has been referred to the Procurator Fiscal (the public prosecuting authority in Scotland) for them to determined whether or into a Police investigation is necessary over her failure to register donations to her election campaign (may I remind you this was a non-election) fund to become Leader of Labour in the Scottish Parliament.

This issue of not registering donations in the members register of interests is a new dimension to the donorgate scandal (well for Wendy Alexander’s side anyway) – initially it was only over a £950 illegal donation from a Jersey businessman (the donation is illegal as the businessman in question is not a UK voter and as such cannot donate to a UK political party).

Wendy you are a laughing stock and it is time that you leave the post in the Scottish Parliament and went back to being a constituency MSP – at least until you have regained some of the credibility that you lost. Your position is quite simply untenable.

The other person affected by the Donorgate scandal is the Deputy Leader of the UK Labour Party, Harriet Harman. Her part in the scandal appears to have left the public eye while developments North of the Border have continued to come and Peter Hain (the third person involved) resigned from his role as Secretary of State for Works and pensions and Secretary of State for Wales. However, I don’t think the public have not forgotten and her “offence” is much greater than that of Wendy Alexander.

Harriet and Wendy should follow the example set by peter Hain and resign from all senior posts that you hold, whether that be to clear your name (as Hain did) or just out of decency and for the good of the party.

Finally, Wendy you keep banging on about not having intended to do any wrong (essentially pleading ignorance). However, as a lawyer you will be familiar with the phrase “ignorantia iuris neminem excusat”, it applies to you just like any other law breaking individual.

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