Breaking: Kezia Dugdale steps down as Scottish Labour leader

[Denzil_DC]

42. It's not getting any better

(I'm not inclined to start another separate Scottish Labour thread at the moment, but this performance out of the gate is depressing even me!)

Richard Leonard accused of gaffes galore in first major speech as leader

...

Calling for a massive expansion of public ownership, he was meant to say: “The people of Scotland deserve public services owned and publicly accountable: our railways, buses, energy and water.”

However what he actually said was: “The people of Scotland deserve public services which are publicly owned and publicly accountable: our railways, our buses, energy and Scottish Water need to be taken back and remain in public ownership.”

The SNP said Mr Leonard appeared not to know Scottish Water was already in public ownership, or that the Scottish Government was committed to making a public sector bid for the Scotrail franchise, or that it wanted councils to be able to run bus franchises.

In her speech to last month’s SNP conference, Nicola Sturgeon announced the creation of a publicly owned energy company.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/15686747.Leonard_accused_of_gaffes_galore_in_first_major_speech_as_leader/

The speech was attended by Corbyn, so he won't have learned much to help overcome his own ignorance of what's going on in Scotland.

Leonard's confusion about Scottish Water may have partly come about because one subsidiary sector of the organization's work - commercial and business contracts - must by law to be put out to public tender.

The law in question is the Water Services etc. (Scotland) Act 2005.

It was enacted by ... wait for it ... Labour.