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one like = one Scottish Labour hot take, let's go
1. Oh boy.
2. I like Richard Leonard. I voted for Richard Leonard. But he wasn’t doing a very good job and there’s not a lot of point in pretending that he was.
3. It is very obvious that Scottish Labour’s huge and varied problems will not be solved by a change at the tiller. That hasn’t worked the last forty-one times and won’t be a panacea now.
4. This is the moment where the party badly needs to start coming to grips with a world where the majority of the Scottish population quite likes the idea of independence.
5. That doesn't mean 'Scottish Labour should back Yes'. Apart from anything else, politicians shouldn’t support things they don’t believe in.
6. But it does mean that politicians need to grapple with the question of what to do if this trend continues. Do we want to die in the last ditch for the Union, and join the Tories on the 'no referendum until 2054' train? I certainly don’t.
7. It is probable that 'what Scottish Labour does' will not be the deciding factor in whether Scotland becomes independent.
8. We really need to finally get a grip on the fact that, however shit we might think they are, the SNP aren’t unpopular. Attacking them every day for absolutely everything isn’t suddenly going to start working.
9. Especially in a time of crisis where the government basically has the support of the public, we'd do an awful lot better if we were broadly supportive of Sturgeon's approach to the pandemic while pursuing a couple of major lines of criticism.
10. Equally, we need to show some evidence that we understand what the SNP actually are (clue: neither ‘barely disguised Tories’ nor ‘zealous ultranationalists’) and attack that, rather than carefully constructed strawmen.
11. Okay, sure, some of their more eye-catching representatives fall into both of those categories, but the main point stands. Technically this isn't a Labour take but I need all the help I can get.
12. The Morning Star shouldn’t be a crucial component of our media strategy.
13. Takes which say ‘Scottish Labour is the third party, what do you expect’ are sort of true, but don’t tell us very much.
14. One crucial difference is that Scottish politics is a one-party system rather than a two-party system. The SNP/Tory gulf is far bigger than any Tory/Labour gap.
15. The Tories are in a better strategic position than Labour in Scotland because they have a very simple message and the SNP aren’t after their target vote, not because they have a handful of extra MSPs.
16. There is a reason that Scottish Labour’s best polling since 2015 came in those three weeks in 2017 when we thought Corbyn might become Prime Minister. A UK-wide recovery is the best hope for Labour north of the border.
17. A short sharp leadership contest is a much better idea than an extended caretaker stint. A new leader introduced to the voters a couple of months before leading a united party into the election feels like a better bet than months of jockeying.
18. Yes, I realise I have just tweeted about the concept of a united Scottish Labour party.
19. We need to accept that the Scottish public care much less than we do about Scotland’s radical Labour past.
20. 'Labour lost Scotland because it moved too far right' has, like most explanations for the collapse, at least a little truth to it. But presenting it uncritically buys into a lot of myths about Labour, about the SNP and about the Scottish people.
21. That said, there would be no excuse whatsoever for not remaining substantially to the left of the SNP, not least because that's extremely easy.
22. We probably need to stop trying to get people excited about their votes paving the way for Thatcher in 1979 though.
23. English Labour politicians who seem to think it's their job to reinforce the way the SNP frames issues appal me to the very depths of my stunted tribal soul.
24. I still live in hope that we can one day break the cycle of 'people who undermined the last leader complaining accurately about people undermining the current leader as the water rises', but over the last few years I've started to suspect that I'm a little naive.
25. Prediction: either a fairly significant Scottish Labour recovery or independence will happen within the next ten years. I know which one of those I think is more likely.
26. Some of these takes are definitely tepid rather than hot, but apparently I have to come up with 100 of them now, so that'll happen. Um. I really like Richard Leonard's scarfs.
27. I have never really understood why we don't make more of the SNP's record on councils. A broken promise to scrap council tax and year upon year of savage cuts. Wish we heard more about it.
28. As we approach the election, it'll be tempting to double down on anti-indy rhetoric to mine unionist waverers. But in the medium to long term we desperately need to avoid alienating young and working-class Yes supporters further if we want to remain (become?) relevant.
29. What I’m saying here is that Scottish Labour needs a position on the constitution which doesn’t alienate any target voters. Someone should have thought of this before.
30. More seriously: we shouldn't be afraid to acknowledge the fact that, for many people, the national question is an extremely tough one with compelling arguments on both sides. That doesn't mean not taking a stance, but it does mean offering space for different views.
Right I'm putting a cap on this for the night, I need to go and phone my mum. I'll come back to it. Probably.
31. I am begging anyone taking the idea remotely seriously to let Gordon Brown enjoy his well-earned retirement.
32. Now, if we were talking about someone to lead the No side in a second referendum,
