We know who does not want to lead Labour in Scotland.
Apart from Johann Lamont, who quit the post, Jackie Baillie, Anas Sarwar and rising star Kezia Dugdale are among a lengthening list ruling themselves out, or allowing close associates to do so on their behalf.
Meanwhile, Labour's UK leader, Ed Miliband, remains silent on the criticisms Johann Lamont levelled against the party's leadership as she left office. The Scottish party, she claimed, was seen as a branch office by Labour in London. Key decisions such as campaigning on the bedroom tax could not be taken without the approval of the Labour leader.
The issue about the Scottish leader's role was to have been solved when Ms Lamont took office but this turned out to be an illusion. While she may have contributed to her demise by failing to make a sufficiently significant impression as a leader, her criticisms of the party at Westminster are telling.
It appears that the way is being left open for Jim Murphy to succeed Ms Lamont. Yet, leaving aside the question of whether he even wants to lead his party in Scotland, he is not the obvious unity candidate Labour need.
Seen as a Blairite, he is pro-nuclear weapons, unlike the party in Scotland, voted for the Iraq war and has neither been a great cheerleader for Holyrood nor the devolution project. More crucially, he is a Westminster MP. This causes problems in the short term, if the party leader is not able to appear at First Minister's Questions.
The Scottish Deputy Leader, if an MSP, could deputise at Holyrood. Nicola Sturgeon showed this could work perfectly well, while Alex Salmond was still an MP; hence the growing internal pressure in the party for Anas Sarwar to step aside and make way for an MSP who could take that role.
But Labour's position is different. Mr Murphy would be a politician with one foot in London, not fully answerable for the party's policies in Scotland, possibly until 2016.
This is still an open sore for the party. Labour supporters in Scotland want a Scottish party, with distinctive policies for Scotland, not a puppet of the party's Westminster HQ.
Mr Murphy's semi-detached status would therefore need to be rectified if the party is to reverse its decline.
But that leaves the question of the direction in which a Scottish Labour Party should go. A significant element want to see it move to the left. But some feel that if a Sturgeon-led SNP were to occupy that ground, that would leave space for a more centrist Scottish Labour Party to flourish.
This is misguided. Labour's slump is down to a sense that the party has moved from the traditional values of many members and supporters who felt it did not offer a positive vision for the future of Scotland in the UK during the independence referendum.It needs to reconnect with that support. Either way, the timing is far from ideal with the General Election looming and the Smith Commission scoping greater powers for Scotland. Labour in Scotland must resolve this internal civil war with all possible speed. There is not much time to put matters right.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article