Must enjoy long hours, complex trade-offs and difficult questions. That may not be the official job description for Scottish Labour leader, but it's perhaps not far from the truth. After all, Anas Sarwar described this gig as "the hardest job in British politics".
Despite this health warning, two candidates are on the ballot paper vying to take on the challenge - Michael Marra and Joe Fagan. I sat down with both of them for the Scotcast podcast to learn a bit about who they are, where they think Labour has gone wrong, and their prescription for fixing things. Scottish Labour leader hopefuls warn against party divisions Lennon criticises 'nasty' Scottish Labour as leadership bid fails But before we got into the nitty gritty of politics, I wanted to know a bit more about these two candidates.
We started with an ice-breaker: If they had to give a Ted Talk (an online lecture about a topic they're passionate about), what would their subject be? For Michael Marra, it was his beloved football team, Dundee United. Given they've just endured back-to-back 4-0 defeats, there's a joke here about the North East Labour MSP backing lost causes.
Joe Fagan opted for a lecture on Cold War Berlin. And there was even a comparison about the "eerie resemblance" between Stasi HQ in East Germany and the office he occupied when he was the leader of South Lanarkshire Council. But we weren't here to talk about DUFC's glory days or the fall of the wall.
This was a conversation about everything that's been going on with Scottish Labour. The most newsworthy reflection probably came from Fagan, the South of Scotland MSP, who was critical of Sarwar's decision to leave Holyrood and take a place in the House of Lords. He wished Sarwar well on a personal level, but said it "wasn't a good look" for him to stop being a Glasgow MSP and head to Westminster's upper chamber.
Fagan said that he would never personally take a seat in the Lords. And not just because he thinks the robes look "ridiculous". But he did concede that it would be difficult to turn down the offer of a ministerial post from the prime minister.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
