The march of the young turks

Word reached my delicate ears earlier late on Friday night that Mark Lazarowicz was to face a challenge as Labour candidate from the eager young turks of Edinburgh Labour. I thought it was probably mere speculation until the fire-eating blogger's post today in which he pointed out that Labour will deselect anyone who made improper expenses claims, so it looks like Labour's youngsters might be on the march after all, so here's the rumour:

There's a move on to place a Labour candidate in Edinburgh North and Leith plucked from the ranks of Labour's young team (who aren't actually all that young). Early front runners are said to include Kezia Dugdale (surely Kez has her eyes on a pop at Holyrood in Labour's election melt-down in 2011 though?) - carries a fair bit of support across Edinburgh as a result of her work in Sarah Boyack's campaign and her work with George Foulkes.

Then there's Cammy Day, a councillor for about six months so far, said to be frustrated with what he considers to be a lack of talent and an absence of imagination in the Labour group on Edinburgh City Council. There was talk of him challenging for group leader as well, but surely that wasn't serious.

Most interesting of all, though is the hat being thrown into the ring by Rami "armed and dangerous" Okasha. Already been putting himself about in Edinburgh North and Leith hoping to take over from Malcolm Chisholm, Rami's ambition - unfettered by talent - has made him an enemy or two in Labour circles and his current job as patron spinner of lost causes has made him a figure of some ridicule but he's undeterred. He didn't get where he is today ...

I have no idea how the deselection of Mark Lazarowicz will proceed, when or how the new candidate will be chosen, nor, indeed, who is likely to succeed (not that that will stop me speculating), but it would seem that Labour is in for a bit of a nasty internal battle before its chosen champion gets a sound thrashing by yours truly.

Mind how you go!