ON SUNDAY many will be remembering the late Labour leader John Smith, 25 years on from his death. In a counterfactual history (as part of The Prime Ministers Who Never Were, Biteback, 2011), the writer and journalist Francis Beckett imagined if he had instead recovered from his heart attack. 

In this fantasy, “Smith was happy, after September 11 2001, to send British troops to Afghanistan, but he drew the line at committing himself to war in Iraq, and made common cause with the French.” 

Tony Blair never rose further than education secretary — and Gordon Brown’s hopes were thwarted by his “old nemesis Ken Livingstone, to whose 10-year occupancy of No 10 we owe, among much else, our pedestrianised city centres.”

Donald Dewar

ANOTHER great Scot remembered this week, and another who met a premature end, was Donald Dewar. 

On Thursday night MSPs, journalists and citizens gathered to mark the 20th anniversary of the opening — or reconvening — of the Scottish Parliament.

Earlier in the week, Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard vowed: “We will rededicate ourselves to realising the radical vision politicians like Donald Dewar and John Smith had for our parliament.”

It’s a vision that’s arguably never been fulfilled, but now more than ever Scottish Labour must make clear its clean break with the politics that got it into third place.

Alastair Campbell gets the chop

I COULDN’T help but let out a cackle when I saw Alastair Campbell had been removed from an honorary position at the Cambridge University Labour Club. 

When I was the club’s vice-chair, we had a run-in with another gongee — honorary president Andy Burnham, who refused to pull out of an event at the Cambridge Union society after they hosted Marine Le Pen. 

I hear Burnham has now faced the axe too, as has Baroness Scotland. A new slate of joint honorary presidents includes Diane Abbott, the late Brazilian socialist Marielle Franco and shoe-throwing Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi. Nice.

Orwell Prize longlist

CONGRATULATIONS to Eve Livingston, the formidable Glasgow-based freelance journalist who works from time to time for the Morning Star. 

She’s been longlisted for the 2019 Orwell Prize for Exposing Britain’s Social Evils, for her reporting on the Glasgow women’s strike.

With many mainstream journalists and commentators ignoring the heroic efforts of council workers to get back money illegally withheld from them, Livingston’s reporting was crucial. Best of luck to her.