On the 18th of September 2014 Scotland voted to stay in the United Kingdom. Over two months on, the SNP's support seems only to continue to rise as Scottish Labour face what nationalists are calling a "leadership crisis". I wouldn't go as far as that.
When Johann Lamont resigned she took several cheap shots at the Labour leadership in London which did the party no favours whatsoever.
Johann to me wasn't leadership material anyway. Alex Salmond as First Minister was excellent at FMQ's on a weekly basis and I think the only leader that challenged him was Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson. It takes someone with a strong constitution to take on Mr. Salmond and Lamont didn't have that.
Another reason for Scottish Labour's decline is the fact that she seemed to embrace fiscal conservatism; even Ruth Davidson welcomed some of these proposals! They are based on the false premise that Scotland receives more benefits than England which simply isn't true.
The last time I checked, SNP membership was well over 65,000 and it seems clear that the referendum this year has not settled the national question. Pro-independence supporters are continuing to flock to pro-indy party's such as the SSP and Scottish Greens but there is a problem here.
After the referendum there was (and still is) a lot of talk of a "Yes Alliance". Surely this is unreasonable. The SSP lost seats in the Scottish Parliament and I don't know of any seats where they could mount a reasonable challenge to the SNP. If the SNP did stand aside, Labour would surely win the seat!
Scottish Labour isn't dead by any means, but it has been in decline since Iain Gray. What we need is a strong leader who will challenge the Scottish Government for the mistakes they have made since taking power, not a leader who is going to threaten to cut "free" services for the elderly.
I'm sure by May 2015 Labour will lose a few seats to the SNP in Scotland at the UK election but it won't be a catastrophic defeat.
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