Showdown in the City of Discovery

Well, well, well. Following the Maryfield By-Election, which ended the Grand Unionist Coalition's majority on Dundee City Council, I predicted that Councillor Ian Borthwick would hold all the cards, whereas Grogipher - regular correspondent and friend of this blog - suggested that internal ructions in the other parties would prove telling. Give that man a coconut, is all I can say.

Lord Provost, John Letford, has quit the Labour party, and is now an independent Councillor. This now places the parties at SNP 14, Labour 8, Conservatives 3, LibDems 2 and Independents 2. Significantly, the Unionist parties now have fewer members between them than the SNP on its own. More significantly, Councillor Letford has let it be known that he will support the formation of an SNP administration on Monday.

It goes without saying that there is some scepticism regarding his decision: Stuart airs it and, sadly, I am inclined to agree: Councillor Letford claims to have wanted an all-party administration, and to have been unhappy at the SNP being shut out. Yet for six years, he was happy to be the Civic Leader of the Council whose largest political group was isolated. Given the timing of his decision to convert opinions into action, it's hard not to see Letford as a political weathervane.

Jeff, as it happens, goes further and argues Councillor Letford's move to political independence is anti-democratic. He's right: Letford was elected on a Labour platform, but the reality of our system is that with the exceptions of European elections and the List component of Holyrood elections, it's the person who gets elected rather than the party. Granted, the party is what gets them elected most of the time, but that doesn't change the fact that it's the individual candidate who gets the victory at the end. And even in the two exceptions I noted, those returned can do their own thing once they're Parliamentarians: Dorothy-Grace Elder, Margo MacDonald, Campbell Martin, Brian Monteith, Tommy Sheridan and Rosemary Byrne can all attest to that. So it's a pretty barmy system.

But we know that: while the Maryfield By-Election which triggered this whole situation was a clear SNP win, its consequence was to leave the electors of that ward with no representatives from any party other than the SNP. Given that even in the By-Election which saw the SNP vote increase, 52% of voters cast their first preference for a candidate from another party, they have the right to feel a little aggrieved when STV is meant to be a proportional system.

And even if Letford were to resign, democracy would have come late to Dundee City Council, with the most popular party excluded completely from administration by a convoluted arrangement in which even the official Labour/LD coalition had fewer Councillors than the SNP group before the By-Election and defection. In short, the situation was barking mad to begin with, and subsequent events have merely continued in that vein.

Indeed, they look set to get even stranger. Doubtless as a nod to Councillor Letford, the SNP have said that 'quasi-judicial' Convenerships such as the Licensing Board will not necessarily be in the hands of the administration-designate, which will be content to restrict its control to the policy committees. They propose letting Letford keep the LP's office, with Ian Borthwick as Depute. The latter would prefer an all-party administration but agreement appears to have been reached. And unless it's a formal Coalition with the two independents, the SNP still do not have 'control' of the Council even after the administration is formed: were the two independents to vote with the Opposition on any policy, that would make 15 Councillors to the SNP's 14: a defeat.

Labour, of course, are smarting somewhat from this: to a degree, they have resigned themselves to Opposition but intend to propose Councillor Borthwick as Lord Provost and SNP Councillor Liz Fordyce as Depute. She has told them where they can stick that idea, but they may still proceed with it. Further, the Labour Group Leader, Kevin Keenan, has suggested that the Tories join the formal Labour-LibDem Coalition. Which would still be in opposition so is a bit pointless really.

The Tories, however, are up for this idea but only if it's called a Dundee Unionist Alliance. Which is fine until you realise that the Unionist-Nationalist dimension of Scottish politics is basically meaningless at Council level. And a refusal to work with the SNP flies in the face of their professed sympathy for Councillor Borthwick's idea of an all-party administration. They also don't want to be seen supporting the SNP but have no problem about supporting Labour, who their party will be casting as the enemy at the next Westminster election.

As for the LibDems, they "will not be participating in discussions taking place in smoke-filled rooms". Well, leaving aside the fact that there aren't any smoke-filled rooms anymore - not public ones, anyway - this seems equally rich as they were quite happy to prat about in one of the most contrived political combinations in Scottish local government.

So no one seems to come out of this shining. But if the vox pops in the Evening Telegraph are anything to go by, Councillor Letford may be the villain of the piece, but locals seem content to let the administration that he will be supporting have a fair crack of the whip.

And that's where we are: in less than a week, Dundee will have a new Council Leader. Whether or not things settle down, however, is another matter entirely.