Up for the cup

June 14th, 2010

For most of us men, the next few weeks are going to be dominated by football.

Love it or loathe it, there will be no escaping the World Cup and the battle for the remote control is going to be intense.

While I relax and catch up on the adventures of Rooney, Torres and Messi, I will spare a thought for five of my colleagues down south who will be lucky to catch a kick of the ball because of another contest.

David Miliband, his brother Ed, Andy Burnham, Ed Balls and TV favourite Diane Abbott have all been nominated to stand as the next Labour leader.

Now the starting gun has officially been fired, the five hopefuls now embark on a punishing 15-week campaign to secure the backing of party members and supporters all round the country.

I met the first of the candidates, David Miliband, the shadow Foreign Secretary, in the Scottish Parliament and hosted a question and answer session for him with my fellow MSPs.

And I watch all five battle it out at a hustings event in Glasgow on Sunday.

I have still to decide how I will be casting my vote for but I do welcome the large scope of the contest.

Of course, as a Labour MSP I have a particular interest in this and you may be wondering what this have to do with you?

With a minority government in Holyrood making swingeing cuts and a coalition government in Westminster promising even deeper cuts, these are uncertain times and a strong opposition has never been more important.

With tough and unpopular choices to be made that will affect us all, we need a strong voice that ensures the weakest in society don’t pay the highest price.

So whether Spain or Brazil lift the World Cup in three weeks time, who emerges victorious in the leadership contest may have a bigger impact in our lives.