Listeners to today’s “Good Morning Scotland” were treated (from 2h 7m at that link) to a consummate masterclass in the art of evasion from Labour’s Scottish branch-office manager Jim Murphy. The bulk of a 13-minute segment was devoted to Murphy’s claim that a Labour vote in this May’s general election would bring about an end to foodbanks in Scotland, although the pledge steadily degraded as interviewer Gary Robertson pressed fruitlessly for detail.
(Murphy refused to say if or when any money generated by a Labour UK government would be given to the Scottish Government, wouldn’t be drawn on when the need for foodbanks would be eradicated, shot down a straw man on benefit sanctions and eventually conceded that in fact there would always be foodbanks, by way of a brief diversion to “I do a lot of work for charity but I don’t like to talk about it”.)
Jim Murphy’s practiced air of nonchalant bonhomie was coming apart at the seams all over today’s “Good Morning Scotland” (from 2h 10m). Pressed hard by presenter Bill Whiteford, the beleaguered Scottish Labour branch manager spluttered and blustered and interrupted constantly in a desperate attempt to stop Whiteford from even finishing any questions, never mind getting answers to them.
Murphy tried determinedly and repeatedly to punt the hopelessly-discredited line about the biggest party forming the government, on the sole basis that it had always been the case before, seemingly unaware that the election wasn’t being held in the past. He even tried to use the recent catastrophic Ashcroft polls to Labour’s advantage.
You can marvel at the entire nine-minute trainwreck by clicking the link below. But let’s just pull out that one argument and take a closer look at it.
The election of Jim Murphy as branch office leader has so far failed to produce a shift in the party’s catastrophic polling figures north of the border, with most projections still suggesting that Labour’s Scottish seats will be reduced to single figures in May.
Last night we catalogued a series of its howlers since Murphy took over, culminating in a humiliating climbdown over some false claims about cancelled operations in the Scottish NHS. The party’s Scottish health spokeswoman Jenny Marra turned up on today’s Good Morning Scotland to discuss the subject, and in doing so demonstrated exactly why Scottish voters are deserting it in hundreds of thousands.
Only a few diehards in the press are still clinging this morning to the Labour fiction we exposed yesterday, namely the flat-out empirical falsehood that “the biggest party gets to form a government” in the event of a hung Parliament.
An alert reader pointed us today to this audio clip of Jim Murphy. It’s not tagged, but we THINK it’s from a Radio Clyde interview about three weeks ago which oddly didn’t seem to get picked up at the time by anyone in the media.
Below is a clip from today’s “Morning Call” on BBC Radio Scotland. Speaking (from 16m 24s on the full show) are SNP MSP Mark McDonald, presenter Kaye Adams and Labour MSP Lewis Macdonald. There are a couple of noteworthy moments.
A caller named “George” had rung in concerned that the SNP might be giving up on their goal of independence, and Adams invited Mark McDonald to set his mind at rest. Here’s what happened in the next three minutes.
We missed this on Sunday, because it was 17 minutes into on the short-lived and unlamented “Crossfire” (now binned for a Sunday edition of “Good Morning Scotland”) and therefore pretty much everyone in Scotland missed it. It’s former Labour minister Helen Liddell, or as we should properly address her, Baroness Liddell of Coatdyke.
We’ve spared you her subsequent painful bleating about a general election 35 years ago that she doesn’t seem to have quite gotten over, but we couldn’t help raising an eyebrow at her curious assessment of the referendum result, which we suspect fellow guest Andrew “Lallands Peat Worrier” Tickell was simply too stunned to react to.
Today we’ve become quite obsessed with Jim Murphy’s pathological avoidance of a straight answer to the question of whether income tax should be fully devolved to the Scottish Parliament or not. The BBC now has a report on his much-trailed speech in Glasgow, but we’ll get to that in a moment. First it’s worth having a listen to this.
It’s an interview taken from the “Pienaar’s Politics” podcast on Radio 5 Live earlier this month. And it makes for an intriguing study of the art of evasion.
twathater on There May Be Justice: “Thank you and the legal Eagles supporting you and us on this challenge to corruption and lies within the legal…” Oct 6, 02:02
Hatey McHateface on There May Be Justice: “Quote Cesaire until the cows come home, Alf, it won’t undo the fact you selectively cropped Northy’s post to change…” Oct 5, 21:56
Alf Baird on There May Be Justice: “That’s quite a meaningless diversion even for ‘an operator’ like you Hatey. The obvious reality here is that Scotland is…” Oct 5, 21:36
Rev. Stuart Campbell on There May Be Justice: “I’m in touch with Paul, but he’s not an ATM. He’s been supportive and we’ll see where we are if…” Oct 5, 21:08
100%Yes on There May Be Justice: “Who can blame him, I wish him well and thank Bruce for all he’s done. grumpyscottishman.wordpress.com is no longer available.…” Oct 5, 20:43
Hatey McHateface on The Love Of Big Brother: “The cheek of her to complain. When she’s looking so well, hale and hearty on the very fare she’s complaining…” Oct 5, 19:59
Hatey McHateface on There May Be Justice: “Your selectively cropped quotation is blindingly obvious, Alf. Not quite the best way for an academic to impress his peers.…” Oct 5, 19:54
Dickie on There May Be Justice: “Ever considered contacting Paul McManus?” Oct 5, 19:54
Aidan on The Love Of Big Brother: “The right to self-determination is indeed universal and inalienable, but outside of a military occupation or colonialism (neither of which…” Oct 5, 19:49
Hatey McHateface on The Love Of Big Brother: “Which is going to break up first then, Alf? The UK or Orcland?” Oct 5, 19:14
Alf Baird on There May Be Justice: ““Scotland is the mess it is because it isn’t independent” Indeed so. Colonialism is ‘a Manichaean world’ (Fanon) where light…” Oct 5, 19:14
Hatey McHateface on There May Be Justice: “Don’t waste your time. The list of independent, corrupt countries is longer than both your arms.” Oct 5, 19:10
Hatey McHateface on The Love Of Big Brother: “Very happy indeed to be a white man, Confused. Equally happy for you to self identify as something inferior. Long…” Oct 5, 19:00
Al-Stuart on There May Be Justice: “. The whimpering sound of something curled up in a mingin, damp, dirty corner is wee James Kelly crying himself…” Oct 5, 18:55
Alf Baird on The Love Of Big Brother: “” Article 2 guarantees the territorial integrity and political independence of all member states.” Which only applies if the state…” Oct 5, 18:50
Lorncal on The Love Of Big Brother: “H McH: we have had a nationalist government for around 20 years of over 300 years in the Union, so,…” Oct 5, 18:38
Dave on There May Be Justice: “The SNP’s entire raison d’être and defining mission should have always been about just one thing: independence for Scotland. However,…” Oct 5, 17:32
100%Yes on There May Be Justice: “Well done Rev. Hopefully history being made.” Oct 5, 17:21
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on There May Be Justice: “Attempt at a Gaelic version of the above – AN RÒS BEAG GEAL Chan eil mo shùil air ròs an…” Oct 5, 17:12
Northcode on There May Be Justice: “For those interested, a Scottish judicial review typically takes 6–18 months from lodging the petition to a final decision, depending…” Oct 5, 17:05
Rev. Stuart Campbell on In The Eyes Of The Law: “For the reasons explained in last week’s post about it. Does anyone bother reading past the fucking headline?” Oct 5, 16:22
Rev. Stuart Campbell on The Love Of Big Brother: ““I thought the introduction of these rules matched those already in place in England and Wales from a year ago.”…” Oct 5, 16:20
holymacmoses on There May Be Justice: “The Scottish people owe yourself, Roddy, David and Lynne and no doubt a few more ‘good men’, a huge debt…” Oct 5, 15:44
Gordoz on There May Be Justice: “Q- Why do I always end up agreeing with Rev Campbell ?? A- Turns out he is pretty much the…” Oct 5, 15:44
Northcode on There May Be Justice: ““This is about being a country worthy of independence…” It could be argued that Scotland is the mess it is…” Oct 5, 15:28
panda paws on There May Be Justice: ““So please don’t donate any more money at this stage, unless you ARE one of said eccentric billionaires” I’m not…” Oct 5, 15:22
TURABDIN on There May Be Justice: “There are two mindsets. The one that operates from the general to the particular and one that operates in the…” Oct 5, 15:01
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on There May Be Justice: “Willie writes (5 Oct 2026 at 1:09 pm): « This one’s for Moira…Democracy is a fragile flower » —————- Brings…” Oct 5, 13:53
Terry on There May Be Justice: “Proud to be part of this – especially when I complained to the police about the donations I gave, got…” Oct 5, 13:25
Aidan on The Love Of Big Brother: “Yes “Confused” – an accurate and concise description description of the formation of Great Britain is “irrelevant pedantry”, whereas your…” Oct 5, 13:23
