Breaking: Kezia Dugdale steps down as Scottish Labour leader

[Denzil_DC]

14. Corbyn was Labour leader when the Scotland Act 2016 was debated and voted through Parliament.

Do you remember any notable speech or move he made or stance he took about it at the time?

The bookies' frontrunner for Scottish Labour leadership at the moment is "newly converted to Corbynism" ex-MP and now MSP Anas Sarwar (beware that Wikipedia page, as it currently says he's now Scottish Labour leader and "On 1st of September 2017 he was announced as the new leader of the Scottish Labour Party. In an unusual twist he celebrated outside his family's cash and carry scoffing Tunnocks tea cakes whilst riding a Great British bulldog." - which I think may be vandalism). A highly ambitious rightwing, turncoating, carpetbagging, dynastic tool with a shady family past could be the new great white hope.

The only name that's emerged so far as a possible leftist candidate is Richard Leonard. He's a long-time GMB apparatchik with no public profile. Since most of the rest of the gaggle at the top of Scottish Labour aren't above trimming their sails to suit the weather (instant Corbynites if they think that'll further their careers) or proclaiming their commitment to "socialism" while championing Tory-lite policies, it's not going to be a gripping or constructive contest. Maybe finally my old pal Jackie Baillie will stand, rather than being the eminence grise behind the leadership.

Scottish Labour strongly voted for Owen Smith in the UK leadership election. I don't know that there's been enough of an influx of new Corbyn-supporting members into the party to tip the balance the other way, and the right wing are already shrieking about leftwing purges and a Corbynite takeover, so the next few weeks look like being fun.

Welcome to Scottish Labour - it's always been a broad church. We used to have to rub along with some terrible rightwingers (often union delegates) when I was involved in my CLP. The only thing that eclipses Scottish Labour hardliners' antipathy to the SNP is their hostility to opponents in their own party.