DOUGLAS ALEXANDER BLAMED FOR BALLOT CHAOS

Confusion over ballot papers predicted nine months ago
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=709282007

"Four voters put one cross on the paper; three put two crosses in the same column," the researchers reported. "This sort of mistake suggested a lack of understanding of the election format (ie, that there were two separate votes)."

Crucially, they went on: "The separate papers were less likely to give rise to these types of mistakes; because they were on separate sheets, it was clearer to voters that each column required a cross."

--- Who's to blame then? Mr Alexander (the Scottish Secretary, Wendy's brother). Also who lied when he said "it was Jack McConnell's campaign" on TV and yet (as revealed in the Sunday Herald) McConnell's ideas were ripped to shreds by Blair and Brown and he was told what his campaign would be! Mr Alexander again, the full story is here:

http://www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldnews/display.var.1379934.0.how_labour_lost_it.php

The bitterness infecting the Labour campaign turned septic at a strategy meeting early this year in London. Attended by McConnell, Brown and Blair, as well as their advisers, it was meant to iron out the differences in approach hampering the pre-election planning. According to one insider, McConnell made a presentation in which he called for a positive campaign strategy based on education, rather than focusing on independence. He also wanted to replace McTernan, then knee-deep in cash-for-peerages, as campaign chief.

The initial response to McConnell's pitch, said one Labour source, was "total silence". Blair is said to have "taken apart" the presentation, while Brown picked at the bones of the first minister's speech. Gould is understood to have winced at McConnell's "humiliation".

...

The views on McConnell from within the Labour camp are brutal. One senior campaign aide said his TV performances were "bloody awful", and added: "There was contempt for him within the team. People were pretty open about it. He was just no good."

Part of this antipathy stemmed from McConnell's perceived inability to stick to Labour's anti-independence line. According to one member of the inner circle, the first minister failed to carry out the instructions agreed by his party's fragile coalition.

"He would go on radio or whatever and just not be convincing about the Nationalists' case. He would want to talk about his so-called achievements, which were almost non-existent," he said.

THIS frustration was keenly felt by the Westminster-based campaign chiefs, McTernan and Alexander. By the end they resorted to an old trick to keep McConnell out of the way: pack him off on the Labour battle bus. A tactic used to marginalise Donald Dewar in 1999 was recycled in 2007.