Wendy Alexander's announcement to quit as Scottish Labour Party leader over illegal campaign donations just isn't good enough. She should be drummed out of the Party.
The dirty tricks of the campaign, which have rumbled on for nearly a year, have finally come to a head. But instead of trying to do a Cherie Blair and 'hold back the tears' in her resignation speech, Alexander should have at least tried to face down her critics.
Why did she need campaign donations in the first place when she was the only candidate to become the Scottish Labour leader?
Why did she accept an illegal £950 donation from a Jersey-based businessman?
How come she eventually updated her register with 10 further donations all just under the magic £1000, so they could technically be treated as 'gifts'.
Gifts for what? If she was the only candidate, why did she need campaign funds and what did she spend the money on?
The Paisley North MSP has said all along she had acted in "good faith" and on the written advice of the parliamentary authorities.
But she has become a bad joke in the Scottish Parliament, with her ridiculous call to "Bring it On" over a referendum on Scottish independence, losing her voice when she was told she'd be suspended for one day over the donations scandal and with behaviour which has coined the phrase in the Scottish Executive of being "Wendied".
Prime minister Brown, a close ally of Alexander, who's brother Douglas is in Brown's cabinet, said she had made an outstanding contribution to the Party.
Surely he doesn't mean a financial contribution?
The SNP summed up this whole sorry saga: "Decay from within is characteristic of the decline of the New Labour project, and Wendy Alexander's resignation is a symptom of this wider malaise."
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