Socialism, 2014
Here’s Jim Murphy, a self-proclaimed “socialist” and the hot favourite to be the next “leader” of Scottish Labour, interviewed in today’s Mail On Sunday while doubtless still fresh from his regular early-morning run-through of The Red Flag:
To the barricades, comrades!
You should be able to read the whole piece if you click on the image, but for those of you with poor eyesight we’ve picked out the most stirring paragraphs:
“I am a Labour politician who will never hurt the middle classes. I understand what is often the hidden hurt of the middle classes: that behind what sometimes looks like comfortable homes with large front doors there are often families who worry about how to pay their bills.
Successful people want a Labour Party that is as ambitious as them, celebrates their success and does nothing to hinder them. That is why I am determined to have a tax system that will never hurt the middle class.”
We’re not sure that the size of your front door is directly proportionate to your wealth, certainly not until you’re in the castle-owning class rather than the middle, but it’s touching stuff all the same. Why doesn’t anyone think of the unfortunate successful people in the big comfortable houses, eh?
But the article has a little extra sting in the tail for Labour voters too.
“At an event in Glasgow yesterday, [Gordon] Brown questioned the need for free prescriptions and free school meals for all, saying: ‘Our policy is for progressive measures.’”
Yes, readers, it’s time to rejoice, for soon we will once again be governed by the people’s tribunes, the modern socialist Labour Party that’s against free prescriptions for the sick and free school meals for kids, and promises not to tax well-off Daily Mail readers, just like Keir Hardie wouldn’t have.
Up the workers, and all that.
Question:- Did they redefine “socialism” before “vow” or is this Brown/Murphy redefinition a consequence of one or both?
Let’s just make sure he never gets the chance
So just what are you going to do Mr Murphy?
I don’t know who is worse Brown or Murphy. Both horrible, deceitful individuals who have the MSM in Scotland wrapped around their fingers. Sickening.
“Successful people want a Labour Party that is as ambitious as them …” Jim Murphy
Ah well it looks as if New OneNation Labour have ditched the “hardworking families” spiel and are now only filtering for the successful ones.
Another group left behind in the march to electoral success.
A cadaver advocates death is good for us.
They will hit the ill and the children but protect the well off, the Toryisation of the Labour party is almost complete.
Michael Blackley displaying fine turd polishing skills there.
Well played, that man.
Four Face Sake Murphy! How many choirs do you want to play to? Perhaps best dig in and get that 9 year degree finished. Really? Sound of coffins spinning is deafening. Bye bye you odious little man and take Broon the Cloon wie ya.
North British Labour sub-office and potential admin staff are irelevant, they can say what they want, it will certainly have absolutely no influence on party policy. That said, London HQ’s policies could well mirror Murphy’s. Not surprisingly, because his role will be as London Labour’s man in Scotland.
What Scotland needs is Scotland’s men and women in Westminster.
Does Murphy think he is standing for the WM elections? All my adult life I thought the Labour Party stood for the working class, how wrong was I how wrong!
Murphy and the Mail, an unholy alliance it would appear at first but they are well matched.
The Tory press up here will match the Record for Slab propaganda from now until May. (Well no point in wasting it on Mundell).
Eggs Murphy, there’s more substance in an omelete .
“…he said he would retain all free universal services…. and he would continue to fund the Council Tax freeze.”
So, in effect, he’s endorsing the SNP’s flagship policies. But didn’t Johann say that was a ‘something for nothing’ society?
“…I will never hurt the middle classes.”
Well that’s a relief. There’s one important omission though in Jim’s list of SNP policies he’d retain. What about tuition fees? Would they not “hurt the middle classes?
Reading the article is like a throwback to the 90s & Blair’s attempt to re-assure Middle England. And whatever else you think about Murphy, you have to hand it to him : for 17 years he’s retained a seat which is very middle class in composition. But here’s the rub for middle class voters throughout Scotland. Do you trust a party -the SNP- which has delivered on its promises to maintain free universal services & freeze the council tax. Or do you trust a Johny come lately like Murphy who personally voted for tuition fees in England; personally voted for the beginning of NHS privatisation in the form of foundation hospitals; voted for the Iraq War; voted for the Tories’ austerity benefits cap; & is a member of a party which, in Scotland, has done nothing other than make noise to the effect that universal services should end & the Counxil Tax required to be increased?
sounds like; the working class can kiss my butt, i’ve got an mp’s job @ last.
a few words from a real socialist; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAd_f6Pdm3o
A crack in the crate?
Research into health inequalities is clear and unambiguous. Health inequalities in Scotland exist because of the unequal distributions of wealth, income and power.”What would be sufficient to reduce health inequalities in Scotland” McCartney 2012 also says that to shift public opinion to accept the redistribution of wealth, income and power leadership and advocacy is needed at all levels of society.How many newspaper editors local and national can we write to ask if the editor is willing to take on that leadership role? Ask – if not, why? Ask – does Smith help or hinder? Ask for readers views.
sam
Murphy continues to do the Tories’ dirty work in Scotland.
I do not believe that Keir Hardie and all the Labour greats of the past thought for a second that looking after the poor (,and we do have them) ,was exclusively the remit of the rich and priveleged . It was to fall on all sections of society to fulfill that need .How this Labour politician can say this i beyond me. If as he suggests the middle class are suffering too, and he may well be accurate ,what the hell are the working class and unemployed enduring? Sickening.
Had to laugh at his description of the 55% as “the patriotic majority”.
Well, when you’ve lost your previous voting base, who do you turn to? No more a party of the working class – no more a party. Just a laughing stock. They are finished.
But but but, red Tory Labour in Scotland UKOK raged for years against SNP Scots.gov NOT hiking council tax and wasnt that a terrible terrible thing and shows us why we should vote NO, trust/vote Labour, SNP are tartan toriesm fakes and meanies too.
If I was a Labour in Scotland voter I’d be very confused but I’d have Gordon Brown’s THE VOW to get excited about in the long hard teamGB austerity, out of EU happy UKIP decade to come. No wonder Lord Smith and co look like cats that got the cream.
Hang on, wasn’t Murphy saying that he wanted to raise the higher tax rate from 45p to 50p (and he hadn’t asked for permission from London HQ!)?
And didn’t he press the SNP to do the same?
One message to one audience, a different one to another.
Of course you wont Jim, no chance of you ever getting into power.
I don’t pander to the English ideal of pigeon holes for different classes, you either work or you don’t. The only difference is how much money you have access to. There’s plenty of estate owners and the like who haven’t got a bean (or so they claim) but somehow they manage to ‘find a way’ to hang on to their assets and get the rest of us to pay for it. I’m doing all right, many are struggling, but here’s the thing, Mr Murphy, that money you’re prattling on about, well some of it is mine and I want to see it going on STATE FUNDED care and education for ALL – son. I’m not a socialist – if any thing my views are center right but I care about the well being of ALL my fellow Scots and if I’ve paid for something, then why shouldn’t I be eligible for it? Oh that’s right you need to fund your ‘socialist’ lifestyle and pay for wars and weaponry of absolutely no use to us.
Jim Morphy – yes I meant to call him that. Is there nothing he will not do or say to get himself elected the dear leader of the branch office? The more we have two Labour parties the easier it gets. Taxi for Murphy.
Mistakenly conflating a justified objection to the system which privileges the elite in Westminster and those that benefit from it, the British establishment, with resentment towards fellow Scots because they earn more money is self destructive and does the British government’s job for them, divide and rule. This is a trap.
All Scots are valued. Otherwise ‘the rich’ Scots are less equal then others. That’s prejudicing a faceless group and is no better than any other prejudice. We will our children to ‘do well’ and be part of it. And it pays a huge amount of tax, paying for the state that is so held dear and espoused by those that seek to denegrate. That will dismantle wished for progress by pitting Scot against Scot. It’s foolish, and needless. And letting petty jealousy win.
“Hang on, wasn’t Murphy saying that he wanted to raise the higher tax rate from 45p to 50p (and he hadn’t asked for permission from London HQ!)?”
His line is that that affects only the RICH class, not the MIDDLE class. They only pay the 40p rate. So if you earn a measly £140,000 a year Jim will leave you alone.
Labour is a party of the middle class. Funny that Murphy thinks that Middle Scotland to which he will appeal, is Tory and Lib Dem. The Tory vote is 16-20% and never going to shift to Labour. The LibDem vote has been plummeting for 20 years, even before the coalition.
There must be something in that mirror thing.
I had a look in my passenger side rear view mirror when leaving the Edinburgh Indy Rally yesterday.
And independence did indeed look closer. 🙂
He is basically pleading for middle class Tory votes.
Wonder how that will help to counter the red Tory/blue Tory jibes..
The whole situation shows how pointless income tax powers are on their own.
I don’t think the SNP are going to fall into the trap of proposing higher taxes than Labour, when many high earners could simply move South.
Nasty, nasty Brown questioning the need for free meds and meals. This when we know there are 1 in 4 children in poverty, and rampant food banks.
Teachers will tell you that a free school meal is often the only meal a child gets, and the reason there are breakfast clubs, is because children have often been sent to school without breakfast, they can’t stay awake, or focus when they are hungry. I know this all goes on in the Labour stronghold of Glasgow Council area.
These people have no conception of what is going on in this country.
Looks to me like Jim’s not keeping all of his eggs in the one basket?
He’s a disgrace that can only be trumped on this occasion by Broon :-Mr Brown questioned free prescriptions and free school meals for all-stating-Our policy is for progressive measures’
If this isn’t the death knell for Slab and their London bosses then I don’t know what is.
With the amount he has scammed off the system in ‘expenses’, he should be in hiding but like Blair, proud of all he’s ‘accomplished’
Its good to see socialism is still alive in the Labour Party.
The son of the manse that is Gordon Brown will be ticked that he was heckled going into his invited audience yesterday.
“His line is that that affects only the RICH class, not the MIDDLE class. They only pay the 40p rate. So if you earn a measly £140,000 a year Jim will leave you alone.”
That is me completely behind the times. I thought Labour had merely raised the 40p rate to 50p, which had been reduced to 45p by the Tories. I didn’t realise that there was a separate rate for those over £140,000.
You learn something new every day.
Its in the Sunday Heil so its that dual Labour cross border GE campaign going down. One red Tory face for that vital middle England vote winning. Everyone knows its middle England that wins it and its them that Labour’s kissing up to. Murphy’s strategy, thanks to Project Fear, BBC, the 55%, nothing much happens at all in Scotland for at least a decade or three and Labour Westminster gov is all that really matters to these guys now. Murphy’s a realist with a very bright teamGB future in the UKOK. Thanks again proud Scot buts.
A further insight into London’s Gofer – Jim Murphy.
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/10453/jim_murphy/east_renfrewshire/votes
“should he become First Minister”? Horrible thought! Choked on my tea when I read that and had to re-read it several times. What parallel universe does he and the Mail on Sunday live in? He’s not even an MSP yet. Thankfully there are one or two fairly significant hurdles for Jim to get over before he can be in the running to become First Minister. Everything he says is utterly meaningless anyway as it changes depending on which way the wind is blowing and who he’s talking to.
Jim Murphy may be right here. It may make sense for OneNation but still patriotic Scottish Labour to ditch their traditional core supporters and go after “successful people”.
I’m just worried that traditional core voters may feel a bit upset at effectively being labelled unsuccessful and blamed for Labour’s decline.
O/T but some zany comedy relief from Euan McColm in today’s Scotland on Sunday re the Smith Report:-
“… the package of powers is extensive. Bluntly, it goes a long way further than anyone on the losing side of the referendum had any right to expect.”(!)
Altogether now…. “My Lord Smith, we are not worthy! We are not worthy!…..”
Maybe socialist means something different in his dictionary.
Or maybe he’s just a self serving, careerist liar.
I think he’s got confused between socialist and social list.
“At an event in Glasgow yesterday, [Gordon] Brown questioned the need for free prescriptions and free school meals for all, saying: ‘Our policy is for progressive measures.’”
If Labour win the Holyrood election some of the first things they’ll do will be to scrap free prescriptions, free tuition, free school meals, the Small Business Benefit Scheme and the council tax freeze.
Having these benefits in Scotland and Wales is embarrassing for the Labour troughers in Westminster as they can’t deliver the same benefits to England. Therefore, they’d prefer it if the Scots and the Welsh did without also.
Cearc doll – all it took was one L!
He better be careful… If those old Socialists keep spinning in their graves like that, they’ll end up reversing the Earth’s rotation…
Jim Murphy is a right wing Blairite. He will only appeal to a small amount of voters.
So why are Scottish Labour so determined to make him their leader?
As far as I can make out, he will only make the exodus from the Labour Party to the SNP all the greater.
He comes from a scheme in Glasgow called Arden and I can assure you, the people of Arden will not relate to what Murphy is talking about. That is why he moved up the road to East Renfrewshire, they talk his kind of language.
Is Murphy trying to do that Tony Blair trick, embracing the Third Way? That’s the one that allows you to be a socialist with capitalist pretensions or a capitalist with socialist pretensions, depending on who you’re trying to win over.
Trying to make sense of anything the buffoon Murphy says is like banging your head against a brick wall: feels great when you stop.
What size of electorate are the people who came up the clyde on a water biscuit?
I feel that something is wrong with the whole situation. (My last attempt to post disappeared by the way) Remember that the first priority above everything for the unionist parties is to preserve the union at any cost. Look at what was pitted against us at the referendum. The main danger to the union is the S.N.P AND OTHER PARTIES IN COALITION , and they show no sign of waning or losing support. They are actually increasing. Dissolving the Scottish Parliament would take a lot of courage. If I was part of the parties and establishment i.e. Civil Service and Monarchy, I would want to turn all my big guns against the threat, as in the referendum. So how do I achieve this? I need to make the S.N.P. unpopular with the electorate ,remembering of course that in spite of all the pressure brought to bear, independence still achieved 45% of the vote. Murphy makes a statement in a national newspaper which is bound to alienate traditional hardcore Labour working class areas in Labour Heartlands. I lived and worked in Glasgow for many years and know the psyche of these voters. Murphy must also know what effect these statements would have. He is an experienced politician. Couple this with the E.V.E.L .I.E. devolved power for cities and regions and the ridiculous proposals of the Smith Commission which leave the Scottish GOVERNMENT “HAMSTRUNG” really. Is there a greater plan afoot across political boundaries to ensure the failure of the S.N.P., whether or not that means defeat for your own prospects. Labour M.Ps have also been unusually quiet ,and not appearing in public. What is going on do you think?
“I am a Labour politician who will never hurt the middle classes”
Regardless of superficial political intent, the condescending and arrogant nature of this statement tells you ALL you need to know about Murphy’s persona.
Murphy…. I have news for you. YOU work for US. Politicians who think people are subordinate will not last long in today’s Scotland.
The Labour party is, in effect, the Tory party’s shield in North Britain. The Tory party is too weak to stand its own ground, it needs someone else to do the fighting for it. Labour is happy to volunteer its services, at the expense of the interests of its own voters.
Once a Tory always a Tory. You can’t wash that short of shite off.
“Two weeks ago the Sunday Times revealed that the Labour MP Barbara Follett, who owns a £2m house in her constituency (in Stevenage), a flat in Soho and homes in Antigua and Cape Town, has claimed £76,357 in Commons expenses over the past four years for her London pad. Perhaps it isn’t hard to see why MPs aren’t clamouring for something to be done. On Friday, Peter Mandelson – the man who says what Blair thinks – told a conference that Labour’s primary challenge was to find solutions “to the angst of the hard-working middle-class … It’s not old Labour territory we have forgetten and which is detaching itself but the New Labour territory we have occupied since 1997 which is at risk.”
Written in 2006 by George Monbiot. Labour really is not a “working class” party.
http://www.monbiot.com/2006/05/25/britains-most-selfish-people/
Paula Rose,
but it makes one L of a difference!
My M.P. what a Delusional Person. I have to have help to get him GONE from our inspiriations!!
A wee bit O/T
I was listening to a discussion today about all the rallies, marches and protests going on in Scotland recently. The consensus was there are too many going on at the same time and therefore too thinly spread. That there’s a danger of falling back into the category of the “whinging jocks” always moaning, unlistened to and all too easily forgotten.
Someone mentioned using reverse tactics, for example, instead of lining up outside the BBC, Faslane etc. howling at the moon, perhaps line up outside the premises of an organisation you support and applaud them. A spontaneous appreciation society style flash mob turning up outside say, The National would be a great opportunity to show a positive message thru support rather than the negative one a protest creates.
Just thought it a plausable notion and maybe worth a mention.
Credits to Sylvia our unquenchable bar lady.
SquareHaggis
MSM are trying to plant the whinging jock message just now, if other’s don’t like it is their loss.
imv the more protests the merrier, we support the national by buying it, or joining proindy PP’s, etc, etc.
however i do think a few big protests are needed now.
🙂
@fred blogger,
Agreed. A good mix of both would be good.
Anyway, just chucking it out there…
I wonder, how much are people up for attending more and more rallies and marches? I was up for it before the referendum, and I’ve been to one or two things since, but am I the only one who also wants to get on with my life and do other things?
I don’t want independence any less than I did, in fact if it’s possible I want it more, but giving up entire afternoons or even days, when you work full time, is a bit of a thought when there’s no obvious benefit coming out of it.
I’d be keener of a smaller number of strategic events rather than everyone suddenly declaring “let’s have a rally!” at the drop of a hat.
Thought that newspaper was against Labour?
muttley79 says:30 November, 2014 at 7:47 pm:
“I don’t know who is worse Brown or Murphy. Both horrible, deceitful individuals who have the MSM in Scotland wrapped around their fingers. Sickening.”
Well, muttley, as my old Granny used to say, “Honest men dinna cairy salmon under thir coats”. I expect that there is some rather fishy odours around that pair of Labour Party, “Big Hitters“. (did I spell that correctly)?
At the annual John MacLean rally on St Andrews day to commemorate The great International Scottish Republican socialist who died on that day, 1923. First we an oration at his graveside in Eastwood cemetery before marching to his cairn at Shawbridge St and then speeches and a ceilidh in the Shawbridge Bar.
The oration compared and contrasted him to the Eastwood “Socialist” MP, the Rt Honourable James Murphy. MacLean’s family struggled to get him through Glasgow University. Murphy spent 11 years at Strathclyde Uni on a State grant, which he voted to abolish and to charge tuition fees. He also voted to destroy the Scottish Union of Students, which he claimed, as a member of the dodgy, now defunct and reborn as a right wing spy group, the Revolutionary Communist Party and Irish Freedom Movement. The English, National Union of Students does nor have the same educational egalitarian history of the former SUS. Allan Stewart the orator also compared Murphys’ millionaire status on expenses alone whilst MacLean starved on peas brose and suffered hard labour spells as a guest of HM Prisons. Maclean gave his only coat to a black Jamaican comrade before he died of pneumonia. I don’t think it necessary to relate the rest of the speeches and other speakers inside the tavern later, nor the reception guaranteed at the very mention of Murphy’s name on that date.
It was nice to meet so many Wingers there and lay a Saltire wreath on the grave.
Are there any socialists in the labour party? Serious question, honest.
You know, I honestly can’t think of any at all. Its been so long since I heard any of them give any kind of oration or policy speech that wasn’t centred on ‘SNP BAD’, I forgotten what socialism sounds like coming from a Labour representative.
They are so focussed on the pursuit of power, votes and career I doubt they’d know a socialist ideal if it jumped up and bit them on the arse.
This is excellent really. The whole article translates as “We have lost our core voters and I neither have the skill or desire to win them back. Can some tories please vote for me?”
An admission of defeat- most welcome!
There were some in Labour for Indp0enendence. Most of them have chucked it. At one time you used to have entrists in the Labour Party trying to convert them into Socialism, but nobody is that daft nowadays.
So its “Labour – The party of the working middle class” now is it?
A not-so-odd coincidence that Murphy is promoting this ‘middle-class tax’ issue at exactly the same time as, according to McWhirter’s latest article, the Smith Commission income tax ‘powers’ may force SNP to raise taxes for those very same people. Looks like Labour negotiators happily leaked this info to Murphy.
The panic is surely spreading when
a) Bullingdon Bertie, our beloved PM, issues such a nauseating and patronising message to Scots on St Andrew’s Day, and all with a relatively straight face too.
b) Eggy Murphy, Leader in Waiting of Scot(?)Lab, endorsed by such selfless Socialists as the Kinnock family, is campaigning for votes in the ultra right wing (Scottish)Daily Mail
c)Alan Cochrane, the well known Tory commentator from Dundee is suggesting in the Daily Telegraph that Scottish (?)Tories should seriously consider tactically voting Labour to halt the SNP bandwaggon
The Daily Hate headlines are already screaming about Sturgeon plotting a Tartan Tax.
Why pay taxes to Westminster?
Unionist politicians at work:
https://archive.today/b3JRW
source:
m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1562050540685401
On which date in history did Labour lose its soul? Eggy is redefining socialism.
Eggy… Dinny use big words til ye ken what they mean!
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/vow-delivered-labour-leadership-candidate-4724901
I cannot believe how brazen this man is. Pants on fire big time !!
Don’t forget that the murph’s constituency is ‘middle class’. The most immediate hurdle he has to face is the GE. He still wants to be leader of Scottish labour, but can do that while still an MP. The pickings at WM are more generous, and above all, he doesn’t want to lose that.