Thread for anyone to explain why Labour would do better under Owen Smith's leadership.

[Denzil_DC]

43. Well, Labour in Scotland's woes are manifold,

and have very little to do with Corbyn, and everything to do with residual Blairism and the hollowing out of the party at all levels over the past couple of decades, along with the tensions of trying to marry the outlooks of the Scottish and UK-wide electorate.

Corbyn doesn't understand the Scottish political scene, and seems to take his briefings via the current out-of-touch Scottish leadership, which is itself divided.

Owen Smith is even less in touch with the situation north of the border:

Labour has been accused of being in “complete chaos” in Scotland after leadership contender Owen Smith declared he would not oppose a second independence referendum – directly contradicting the position of his party north of the border.

The Pontypridd MP, who is standing against Jeremy Corbyn, also said he would happily overrule Scottish Labour on the issue of renewing the UK’s Trident nuclear deterrent, describing this as the “nature of devolution”.

In what Labour’s political opponents described as a “car crash” interview this morning, Mr Smith said that while he did not think there should be another independence vote, it was ultimately “for the Scottish people” to decide whether or not they wanted one.

...

His stance directly contradicts Scottish Labour’s official view on the matter. The party’s manifesto ahead of the Scottish Parliament election earlier this year said it opposed holding another referendum in the next five years, and leader Kezia Dugdale is against a re-run of 2014’s vote. Mr Smith also reiterated his support for the renewal of Trident, which Scottish Labour has opposed since a vote at its autumn conference last year.

https://inews.co.uk/essentials/news/politics/owen-smith-fire-car-crash-scottish-radio-interview/

There's some excuse for this, as the Scottish leadership can't get its own ducks in a row.

Current Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale is a switherer, incompetent, and living on borrowed time, having been AWOL in America for a large part of the summer, missing the fallout from the Brexit vote. She doggedly opposes another indyref, while her deputy and a number of other leading Scottish Labour figures have expressed guarded support for it in recent times. As for Trident, a weathervane swings back and forth less than Dugdale on that issue, and she had to repent on her earlier stance on it to comply with the overwhelming sentiment within the party in Scotland (apart from the ridiculous opportunist Jackie Baillie, obviously).

Smith was gobsmacked at the Scottish hustings when his statement that Dugdale was doing a great job was met with bitter guffaws. Rather than realizing why his declaration might be considered risible, he blethered on about this being evidence of "entryism" in Scottish Labour.

Scottish Labour would wet itself in joy at the prospect of having a problem like entryism.

The irony of his condemning this lack of loyalty to a party leader while playing his own part in the attempted Corbyn coup was lost on him, but very few others.