JACK McConnell is limiting discussion of his party's election defeat by giving his colleagues only one hour to air their grievances.

The Scottish Labour leader has pencilled in a small slot at his party's "away day" this week to talk about their first loss in 50 years.

The same amount of time has been granted for an analysis of how he sees his new "political unit" developing.

McConnell's bonding session with his Labour colleagues comes weeks after his party's narrow defeat to the Nationalists.

Senior Labour sources are privately citing McConnell's campaign performance as one of the reasons for the Nationalist win.

But an agenda for Tuesday's post-mortem, a copy of which has been seen by the Sunday Herald, shows McConnell is in no mood to dwell on his loss.

The first item, entitled "review of the campaign", has been crammed into a one-hour slot, meaning Labour's 46 MSPs will get around a minute each to offer an opinion.

The second item will focus on Labour's "political agenda" in the current term, as well as concentrating on the party's "objectives" within the parliament.

Another chunk of the day will address the "role of the political unit", which critics fear McConnell will use to argue for a leadership apparatus.

The Sunday Herald revealed last week how McConnell floated the suggestion of each Labour MSP paying a £5000 levy to boost the group's research wing, an idea met with hostility.

A peeved McConnell urged his colleagues to stay disciplined at last week's Labour group meeting.