And so farewell then ...

It's a long and sad farewell we are saying to Wendy Alexander's career.

With chaos and bad judgement having been the hallmark of her leadership so far, allied to the odd broken law and a touch of contempt for the due process of law, it seems that the thinking was that she'd be home and safe if she could just get to the Christmas recess without being forced to resign. Ah, would that things were so easy.

Those January blues will be ultramarine for Labour. The Electoral Commission investigation into her dodgy donations will be reaching the point where prosecutions begin; the Standards Commissioner investigation into the evasion of the rules governing the Register of Interests of Members of the Scottish Parliament will be getting into gear; there may be further complaints made about her massaging public money into the Labour party through Computers for Labour or about using Parliamentary staff in the form of Allan Wilson for party purposes.In the meantime, she has been avoiding talking to journalists to make sure that she doesn't prejudice her trial. What kind of a political leader takes a vow of silence? It's no way to run an opposition. On top of the dangers and damage from nefarious activities, Labour's performance as an opposition has been terrible.

Alexander's first questions in the chamber, if I may take you back, were based on false information, and since then she's failed to land a blow. Her politics lacks intellectual grounding - in spite of the great reputation she managed to build - and is built on a foundation of fantasy and invention; the 'great speech' she made at Edinburgh University was lacking in substance (of which more later); the actions of the Labour party in Parliament have amounted to little more than drift and spite; and the true lead in opposition terms has actually come from the Conservatives - constructive and effective - in spite of the Labour group being almost three times as large.

We've seen Labour blindly oppose Scottish Government initiatives simply because they come from the SNP. They seek victories not to change the direction of Scotland but just to seek to defeat the SNP - pyrrhic victories at best.

Labour lost its soul decades ago; it wasn't Blair who sold it, it was the descent from being a party with a purpose to being a collection of self-interested individuals. While seeing another Labour politician go to jail would not be as shocking as it would once have been, perhaps the sight of Labour's Scottish leader being led away in handcuffs might just be an insult too far. The great irony might be that this farrago could be the catalyst which persuades those few remaining decent people in the Labour party that they have to take their party back, that Wendy Alexander could be the saviour of the Labour party simply by being so damnedly poor at the job.

And so farewell then, Wendy Alexander's career.

Before I go, there's some concern over some money that was given to the SNP a few years ago that never turned up in the Electoral Commission register, the branch say that they sent the registration, the Commission say that they never received it. Whatever happened, and how much blame there is to apportion, one thing is clear - since it was a bequest it's fairly obvious that the donor was not seeking any influence, isn't it?

One more thing - this little ditty was begun by someone else and added to by me, any help to finish it would be much appreciated -

On the first day of Christmas wee Wendy sent to me a cheque for £950

On the second day of Christmas wee Wendy sent to me two resigning spinners

On the third day of Christmas wee Wendy sent to me no intentional wrongdoing

Answers to the usual address ...