The knives are out

Scotland on Sunday reports on the recriminations within the Labour Party over the by-election:

"Observers noted that on Friday morning, Jack McConnell declared the defeat had posed many questions for the "Fife Labour Party" to sort out.
"That was short-hand for Gordon Brown," said one Brownie. Allies of McConnell's were blunter - Labour had lost because of Brown's blunderbuss approach. The Chancellor's declaration that the £4 toll on the Forth Road Bridge was "dead in the water" and that a new bridge would be built both led to confusion, after McConnell insisted that neither decision had yet been made.
While McConnell's allies insisted that they were disappointed with the result, it was impossible not to detect a tone of quiet satisfaction too. "He tried to get his tanks on to Jack McConnell's lawn but the voters have taken away the gearbox and he has got stuck in reverse," said one of the First Minister's inner-circle deploying a rather tortuous metaphor.
The recriminations were reciprocated - in spades. For Brown's supporters, it was McConnell who had caused the damage, by not backing up the Chancellor. Brown had cleared his statements with the First Minister, they claim, only for McConnell to then disavow them the moment they were made public. Not only that, but McConnell stands accused of putting his precious coalition with the Liberals before the bare-knuckle war of by-election politics.
One Brownite declared: "There is a strong feeling among people in the campaign that Jack totally f***ed up the campaign. He stopped us being as aggressive as we would have liked to have been. He didn't want us to do anything that was devolved nor damage the coalition."

Is it not odd that the Labour Party (and the Labour Party in Scotland particularly), despite having brought devolution into being, seems to have the most difficulty in coming to terms with its practical implications? As evidence of this, ask yourself: how many Westminster Labour MPs are likely to campaign wholeheartedly in the Scottish Parliamentary elections next year? It seems much more likely that many of them would prefer the McConnell administration to be given a bloody nose. Certainly, the failure of Messrs Brown, Darling and McConnell to sit down together and sort out their lines in this byelection must have been a major contributory factor in the defeat. By contrast, the LibDems and the Conservatives seem much more comfortable with the distinction between Holyrood and Westminster.