From a left perspective, it is difficult to be positive about the future of the Scottish Labour Party (SLP), after the election on Saturday of its 11th leader since the reconvening of the Scottish Parliament in 1999. Although Michael Marra was the nominal winner, the largest number of Scottish Labour Party members voted for neither Marra nor his defeated opponent Joe Fagan. They simply did not vote: Marra received 4266 votes, compared to Joe Fagan's 2485, with only less than half of the party’s declining membership voting. Worse still just 5% of affiliate members voted; this is hardly surprising, given that, Monica Lennon, the favoured candidate of the two largest affiliates, Unite and Unison, did not receive enough nominations from Scottish Labour MPs to get onto the ballot paper.
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