{"id":411088,"date":"2025-09-09T18:22:18","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T18:22:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/411088\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T18:22:18","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T18:22:18","slug":"the-secretary-of-state-for-late-britain-bella-caledonia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/411088\/","title":{"rendered":"The Secretary of State for Late Britain \u2013 Bella Caledonia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Douglas Alexander\u2019s return to Cabinet office has, according to some, caused chaos and infighting in Scottish Labour. Mr Ian Murray, the Edinburgh South MP, was surprisingly dumped from the UK government<\/a> on Friday as Keir Starmer announced his first reshuffle since becoming Prime Minister. Murray was however quickly reinstated a day later to a lower-level job, of something or other, at this stage who really cares?<\/p>\n

The idea that you would \u2018freshen-up\u2019 your team and inject some new energy into it by appointing a man who had left front-line fifteen years ago and was emblematic of Labour failure after his defeat to Mhairi Black in 2024 is quite remarkable. It has similar energy to when Jack McConnell\u2019s return was lauded by journalists like the Second Coming back in 2023 [\u2018Jack\u2019s Back\u2019].<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Scotsman reports that Alexander\u2019s appointment hasn\u2019t exactly been met with a wave of enthusiasm from his colleagues, referring to a \u2018civil war\u2019 [No Scottish Labour MPs have publicly welcomed Douglas Alexander as Scottish Secretary<\/a>]:<\/p>\n

\u201cNo Scottish Labour<\/a>\u00a0MPs<\/a> has publicly welcomed Douglas Alexander as Scottish Secretary. None of the 37 Scottish Labour MPs have posted on social media to welcome the East Lothian<\/a> MP to his new Cabinet role despite Mr Alexander being appointed on Friday.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut seven of them paid tribute to the outgoing Scottish Secretary Ian Murray<\/a>. Mr Murray\u2019s sacking has sparked a civil war in Scottish Labour. Some figures said he had been booted out for not coming to Scotland enough, while one MP blasted Mr Alexander for gunning for the job while Mr Murray was in office.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Daily Record, normally a Scottish Labour faithful, got in on the act, leaking damaging quotes from embittered Labour MPs as the story unfolded:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Sources told us that Starmer was increasingly frustrated by Murray\u2019s \u2018semi-detached\u2019 attitude, as was Anas Sarwar, but now Alexander has been put in place to \u2018crack the whip\u2019 and keep Scottish Labour in-line. One Scottish Labour MP told the Daily Record if he had a \u00a31 for every person who likes Douglas Alexander he\u2019d have 50p.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Whatever the reasons for Murray getting the chop, his replacement lost no time in asserting that there would be no change of politics.<\/p>\n

\n

Worth a watch. pic.twitter.com\/SE2cmENqhc<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Stephen Flynn MP (@StephenFlynnSNP) September 7, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Once again, we find ourselves in a position where the person meant to represent the people of Scotland in the British government is the first to close down even discussing a democratic settlement. It\u2019s a very dangerous precedent for a political party to say \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter how you vote\u201d. Alexander\u2019s response to Martin Gaissler\u2019s questioning was quiet contempt.<\/p>\n

But if Murray-to-Alexander changes little, despite the fury and bitterness within Scottish Labour, nor does the flagellation about Angela Rayner\u2019s departure and the hoo-ha about her replacement. As Labour mose-dives in the opinion polls (north and south of the border) we are asked to be interested in these marginal figures who you have never heard of are going to make a difference. This is the uber-bland politics of managed decline that has become the leitmotif of Labour. The arrival of Bridget Phillipson, Emily Thornberry or \u2018Sarah Owen\u2019 won\u2019t make a difference to anyone or anything anywhere.<\/p>\n

Labour have a messaging problem in Scotland that won\u2019t be solved by replacing their absentee toady with their star player from the 1990s. In some ways, this is an attempt to just erase the past decade and pretend none of it really happened at all. \u00a0In October 2013, Alexander was appointed by Ed Miliband as the party\u2019s chair of general election strategy. Two years later in 2015<\/a>, he lost his seat to 20 year-old Mhairi Black, in what was one of the worst results for Labour; with forty seats lost to the SNP nationwide. It\u2019s a Janus-faced approach which wants us to \u2013 simultaneously \u2013 cling on to the result of 2014 as a perpetual and unchallengable totem \u2013 and also just screen wipe the last decade and Alexander\u2019s disastrous role. Starmer is a latter-day resurrectionist, digging up the old cadaver of New Labour and selling it to whoever will pay him something for the rotten flesh, which increasingly is, no one at all.<\/p>\n

Labour\u2019s attempt to suppress democracy forever is a giveaway about how bankrupt they are of ideas or confidence.\u00a0 They can only cling to the past for so long before this decrepit strategy falters. When Labour collapse next year at the Holyrood elections, their retrograde strategies will be exposed for what they are. As I said elsewhere [Britain\u2019s Broken, Now What?]<\/a>\u00a0: \u201cAll of the old post-war certainties of a two-party state in Britain are collapsing. The old duopoly of Labour-Conservative looks at this stage to be doomed, and what will replace them remains unclear.\u201d<\/p>\n

In this context, Alexander\u2019s appointment seems bizarre. Out of time and out of place, he is the Secretary of State for Late Britain.<\/p>\n