A rocking horse?

Rumblings around Holyrood about the next leader of the Labour Party in Scotland - despite claims by the incumbent that she will not stand down.

North to Leith claims to be in the know about internal Labour politics, suggesting that 6 MSPs are required to nominate a candidate to challenge the leader. That blog - with its ear suspiciously low to the ground - suggests a stalking horse candidate in the form of Malcolm Chisholm. North to Leith suggests he'd be nominated to do the dirty job of getting rid of Wendy before bowing out - and being rewarded handsomely by the preferred candidate who NtL believes to be Cathy Jamieson.

I have no problem seeing that course of action, and it would be a smart move on Labour's part - Cathy Jamieson is a safe pair of hands, tough and experienced in the area of Justice, and performed well at FMQs prior to Wendy's arrival.

A couple of problems with this though. Malcolm Chisholm - notwithstanding his outstanding first name - is too nice a guy, and has too much in the way of morals to be a oust Wendy. Look at his stance on nuclear - it led to him resigning a front bench role (something Labour are notoriously reluctant to do). And for this he is despised by parliamentary colleagues - all of which shun him in the canteen. So the question is: would they trust him to pull this off?

A bigger problem arises if they can't. Namely - who else is there to take over? Andy Kerr & Tom McCabe are tainted by Wendy-gate. Iain Gray - who was promised a ministerial position if he returned to parliament - is the quiet man, and hasn't been back long enough. Lord Foulkes would be interesting - but also controversial. Margaret Curran is an option, as are Jackie Baillie (please no!) or Karen Whitefield (who I understand is powerful behind the scenes). Or as Calum Cashley points out, there's always Helen Eadie...