In the space of two weeks, Harriet Harman has managed to plummet from being the reputed appointed Shadow Deputy Prime Minister down to the most unpopular and disowned member of the upper echelons of the Labour Party Hierarchy. Harman has always been outspoken, strong, and sometimes controversial in her political career; a trait which won her the respect and positions in Blair and Brown's governments alike, but has now cost her the respect of the Labour back-benchers, and one would presume the leadership sooner rather than later.
What precisely has Harman said these past weeks to create this swell of anger and distances against her, politicians in the British sphere are expected to release non-sensual, outspoken and ideological comments in the face of logic and reason to justify policies or beliefs are they not? Well, firstly there was the comment which enraged half the population of Scotland and its leadership, that which related to her slating of the Chief Secutary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander;
"Now, many of us in the Labour Party are conservationists - and we all love the red squirrel. But there is one ginger rodent which we never want to see again - Danny Alexander."More recently, there has been the disowning of the recently 'sacked' MP Phil Woolas after it emerged that he may have broken electoral rules when winning his seat this election;
"It is not part of Labour's politics for somebody to be telling lies to get themselves elected,"These two comments are seemingly well representative of the Labour Party's, and Harman in particular, traditionally highly aggressive political nature, but have both caused outrage. Harman has appologised to the Chief Secutary personally by phone, and some members of the Labour Party have supported Harman in her disengagement from Woolas, claiming it sensible. So why do storms still rage over these issues?
The former comment was made to the Scottish Labour Party, in all its Westminster and Hollyrood form, in and amongst a damning assessment of what the Liberal Democrat Party were doing in coalition with the Conservative Party. The comment caused fury amongst the red-headed population of Scotland, who called the insult completely 'anti-Scottish' and that Harman had no right to be dismissing someone's political works or beliefs due to their hair colour and instead should formulate a proper argument. The SNP called her insult "childish", and Shirley-Anne Somerville (MSP) that;
[Harman's] “silly remark isn’t anti-Danny or anti-Lib Dem, it’s anti-Scottish”.
The Scottish Liberal Democrat Chairman also weighed in on the issue in defense of 'Danny' , pointing out the lowness of the comment, adding;
"There are no depths to which the Labour Party will not stoop. They aren't fit to be in opposition, let alone in government."All in all, the reaction from Scotland that her remark provoked will not the the one which Harman and the Labour party would have hoped for. No doubt this move will have annoyed the various electoral and policy brains of the Labour party, as they attempt to latch on to anti-Liberal Democrat feelings in Scotland: a traditional Lib-Dem strong area. With this now under question, the rival parties In Scotland are jumping at the opportunity to gain ground on the Labour Party. Seemingly the comment has been leapt upon by the SNP and Lib Dem parties, fearful of a Labour resurgence, as an opportunity to demonstrate just how distant from the public at large the Labour Party still remain, indeed this view can be seen in the latter part of Somerville's reaction to Harman's comment;
“Coming from the doyenne of po-faced political correctness, these remarks show she and Labour have lost the plot since losing the election."
The latter comment was in response to an election court ruling that one Mr Woolas had 'spread lies' in his eventually successful election campaign, by 103 votes, in Oldham East and Saddleworth. Harman immediately released 'the official Labour Party line', suggesting that even if Mr Woolas managed to get the decision overturned, his suspension from the Labour Party would not end, and they would not welcome him back into the Parliamentary Labour Party. Harman stated that such an overturning;
"won't change the facts that were found by the election court, which was that he said things that were untrue knowing it, and that is what we are taking action on - because it is not part of Labour's politics for somebody to be telling lies to get themselves elected."The disowning of Mr Woolas backfired hugely on Harman and the senior members of the Labour Party who decided to take this line, with many back-benchers infuriated at the lack of support shown to the lower tiers of the party by the seemingly distant upper members. The feelings are not simply of disengagement from Harman, they are real feelings of hatred and anger, one MP in a private meeting has been said to have called Harman 'a disgrace' to her face. Others are suggesting within the party that Harman should be 'considering her position' as Deputy Leader.
Why the great backlash from the Parliamentary Labour Party? Mr Woolas was seen as a stalwart of the grassroots Labour Party by many, and although never recognised by the senior membership, the back-benchers always we favorable towards his views and respected the 'great service' he had given to the party over the years. In short, it has become a battleground for the PLP against what has been seen as a dissociated, authoritarian, and irresponsible Labour Leadership spanning back to the turn of the century.
In all honesty, it would really appear that much of the rage and fury surrounding Harman's latest two 'gaffes' are not much to do with Harman herself or her views, but have been taken as opportunities by two differing sets of politicians to create a battleground against the Labour Party Leadership, of which admittedly Harman is a big part; The Lid Dem and SNP parties have called out Harman and the Labour Party as having 'lost the plot' and being 'anti-Scottish' for the red-head comment in an effort to quash the recent poll climbing of the party, and the PLP has used the disowning of Mr Woolas in an attempt to bring down the Labour Leadership from what they feel as almost a separate, self proclaimed higher entity, and back down to representing the views and beliefs of the grassroots Party. Still, what remains is the fact that Harman did make the rather childish and nigh on discriminatory comment in Scotland, and then went straight on to controversially shun Mr Woolas. If perhaps not guilty of being a raging, arrogant fool, she certainly is not tactful.
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