Covering all bases
Posted on
May 16, 2015 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
For your licence fee this afternoon.
A new guess every 30 seconds. Keep tuning in!
EPILOGUE: Although he HAS now announced that he’ll be resigning, Murphy actually won the vote of confidence 17-14, which by a curious and amusing quirk of fate works out at 55% to 45%. Another resounding victory.
Mr Hothersall had an interesting tweet about the result , now deleted but you can work out the percentage for yourselves 17 votes for and 14 against .
I have no idea what to make of any of this. But I am pretty sure it can’t do labour any good. So that is something
Somebody give Kezia a dandelion. She’ll get more sense out of puffing it.
You began after the bit where the BBC published a page announcing his resignation and had to pull it within minutes because the vote hadn’t finished or something.
Now that the resignation is confirmed, I hear James Cook is inconsolable.
His hair is getting oot of there quicker than Jim. The personification of all that’s wrong with Labour along with Kez, Burnham, Cooper and the rest of them.
You just can’t trust a word he says.end of.
BBC has confirmed that Murphy has at last resigned. Again he offers the wrong analysis for Labour’s immense defeat. Nationalism is all to blame, apparently. If the rump of Labour accepts this rationalising of their abject failure to understand Scottish voters, then it’s hard to see them ever coming back
maybe, like Farage, he’ll resign then re-stand.
Rev, don’t be so quick to judge. For all we know that section of the BBC website is a glitch in the matrix, or even a tear in the very fabric of space and time.
What chance he’ll do a Farage and un-resign? Or perhaps the popular clamour after his report will see him carried in triumph to the overall leadership of UK Labour…
Aha Ya beauty .
Dim Jim going but not going . leaving the leadership but designing a new party ?? Loser but gets to shape how the rest will be run…… Watch out for more infighting. They have lost Scotland for good.
Oh LIEbour – The gift that keeps on giving.
Oh and 55-45 % Feckin hilarious.
Numbers same as the ref and we all know what happens next.
🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 happy dayz
Goodbye and fcuking riddance.
Now I know it’s not kind to mock but this quote from the Scotsman brought a broad smile to my face
He does not intend to stand for election to the Scottish Parliament as previously planned, saying: “It’s time for me to do something else.”
I could make a suggestion but as he;s gonna fu*k off anyway it saves me the bother
Best of luck Jim. You have my full support. I’m a SNP voter btw but don’t let that influence your judgement in any way.
Vote Scottish Labour – See the full manifesto here link to edmilibands.party
I am not surprised at Murphy’s resigning. He had no choice after SLAB lost so many MPs in Scotland. It will be interesting to see what happens next in terms of the overall direction of Labour in Scotland.
Christ, just how batshit crazy has Scottish politics been since 2011? Not many people saw the scale of the SNP’s victory in 2011 coming, then we had the referendum campaign, followed by Salmond’s resignation, then Lamont’s, and now barely six months later Murphy is away, after SLAB are reduced to 1 MP, and the SNP now have 56 MPs!! It seems politics in Scotland has been on turbo charged mode these last few years.
But Jackie Baillie said he was doing a great job.
Jim Naughtie and all the London luvvies will be distraught that their man failed.
Who will be daft enough to put their name foward?
telegraph
By Iain Martin
7:23PM GMT 13 Dec 2014
In any list of the least enviable jobs in British public life, being leader of Scottish Labour must surely rank pretty high.
It is not just that the party has long been difficult to lead because it specialises in a brand of internal feuding, score-settling and rotten machine politics that makes the Mafia look like the Girl Guides.
Today the job is more difficult than ever because the rampaging Scottish National Party threatens to thrash Scottish Labour at the general election next year.
Yesterday, the task of averting such a wipeout fell at the feet of Jim Murphy, the football-daft, teetotal, Blairite former Cabinet minister who is abandoning his Westminster seat to seek election to the Nationalist-dominated Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh.
Ordinarily, the election of a leader of an opposition party in a devolved parliament would not appear on Westminster’s radar, but these are not ordinary times.
Indeed, if Mr Murphy needed any reminder of the scale of the crisis facing Labour in Scotland, a poll published this weekend by YouGov suggested that, based on current voting intentions north of the border, the SNP would end up with 52 Westminster seats, Scottish Labour six, the Liberal Democrats one and the Tories none. Labour is leaking votes in places such as Glasgow, where it has long taken voters for granted.
With an outlook that challenging, it was imperative that Mr Murphy won.
If Scottish Labour had instead chosen his Left-wing main opponent – a virtual unknown dedicated to old socialist nostrums – the party might as well have put up the “closed” sign.
And Unionists would have had to consider doing something similar with the United Kingdom. Be in no doubt: if Labour is banished from Scotland, the Union will be done for. This contest mattered that much.
In the event, Mr Murphy won his party’s Scottish leadership comfortably, delighting Ed Miliband in London
He and the ambitious Mr Murphy have not had a good relationship, what with them being on opposite sides in Labour’s “TBGB” civil war between 1997 and 2007
But Mr Miliband needs Scottish seats badly if he is to stand a chance of becoming prime minister – and he also wants to avoid the bigger disaster of the end of the UK. Labour in Scotland needed a serious leader.
So there was great relief yesterday when it was announced in Glasgow that Mr Murphy had secured 55 per cent of the vote. Fifty-five is turning out to be the Unionists’ favourite number this year.
It was by 55 to 45 that the Better Together campaign won the Scottish referendum in September, although such has been the Nationalist advance since then that it is easy to forget that Alex Salmond and his colleagues were soundly defeated.
Without missing a beat, the Nationalists have moved on to the next stage of their campaign to lever Scotland out of the UK. Their party membership has quadrupled since the referendum to more than 100,000 and the new SNP leader, Nicola Sturgeon, is playing to sold-out rallies.
Mr Salmond, the defeated leader of the Yes campaign, has also announced that he will seek to return to Westminster next year. If he and Ms Sturgeon can secure a large enough block of MPs at that election, they hope to hold the balance of power in the event of another hung parliament. That way, they might demand yet more powers for the Scottish Parliament or perhaps even another referendum on ending the Union.
Mr Murphy’s first job is to halt this momentum in May at the Westminster elections.
Then he must regroup and try to stop the SNP getting an overall majority in the 2016 Holyrood elections.
Anything more than that – a Labour victory – looks very difficult to achieve. The priority is impeding the Nationalist advance.
It will not be easy, although Labour and the other pro-Union parties do have several advantages, not least of which is the wild overconfidence of the SNP
The party’s hubristic rallies are coming to resemble the gatherings held by South American dictators of the kind that feature in the musical Evita. Unionists are looking at ways to vote tactically to stop the SNP.
Such voters can take heart from Mr Murphy’s record as a confident street-fighter prepared to stick it to the Nationalists. He spent the referendum campaign speaking in impromptu town square meetings from atop an Irn-Bru crate.
That social media were filled in the hours after yesterday’s result with maniacal SNP-supporting “cybernats” claiming that his election spelt disaster for Labour tells you a great deal.
The truth, as more thoughtful Nationalists will acknowledge, is that Mr Murphy is a formidable opponent who understands their party’s potential vulnerability.
Labour will now have a leader determined to put the SNP on the spot over its failures in areas such as education
Mr Murphy will try to present the Nationalists as constitutional obsessives who are much happier whining and demanding ever more powers than getting down to the difficult work of using those that the devolved parliament already has.
Here, Mr Murphy’s Blairite background is going to be of assistance. This may sound wrong to those who have fallen for the myth that Tony Blair was never popular north of the border. The New Labour leader secured 45.6 per cent of the vote in 1997 and did well in the two elections that followed. Yet public sector reform was never pursued by devolved Scottish Labour.
Mr Murphy takes the sensible view that parents in Scotland will be as interested in policies that might improve standards in schools as their counterparts south of Hadrian’s Wall.
In England – where the revolution in state education started by New Labour thinkers such as Lord Adonis was turbo-charged by the Conservative Michael Gove when he was education secretary – such statements would be thought unremarkable.
In unreformed Scotland, where a delusional political class suffers a moral superiority complex, such reformist talk is refreshing and almost unheard of outside Scottish Tory circles.
Ultimately, though, policy will only get Mr Murphy so far. The contest will come down to a battle of personalities, and those of us who opposed devolution, fearing it would empower the Nationalists and lead to this crisis, must hope that Mr Murphy has what it takes to defeat Ms Sturgeon
But at least the cocky Nationalists who cannot take No for an answer now have a proper fight on their hands.
WALOFS
He is only offering his resignation? He will stay on for a month as leader. As they say, a long time in politics. He won the vote 17-14, Will they ask him to stay after further kerfuffle? Only an announcement of intent to resign.The fat lady has not yet sung.Bailie standing by on alert.
Jim’s unused to soiling his hands with work and is therefore a complete stranger to the “workin jaiket”. Academe might be the way forward for him, thank God for the absence of tuition fees.
It wid make ye greet so it wid.
Jim not leaving ‘abruptly’ and having a go at the Trade Union. 🙂
More from the Herald.
————————————————————–
He does not intend to stand for election to the Scottish Parliament as previously planned, saying: “It’s time for me to do something else.”
Mr Murphy is resigning despite winning the support of the Scottish Labour executive in today’s vote of no confidence, with a tight vote in his favour of 17 to 14.
“It is clear that a small minority who didn’t accept my election as leader of the Scottish Labour Party just five months ago won’t accept the vote of the executive today and that will continue to divide the party,” he said.
“Today I received more support in the executive vote than I did from members of the executive when I stood for election five months ago.”
He has pledged to table a report of proposed reforms to the executive next month.
“When I table that report at next month’s meeting of the Scottish Labour Party executive, I will also table my resignation as leader of the Scottish Labour Party.
“It will be for the party executive to decide whether it accepts the reforms proposed, but a party in such urgent need of reform blocks those changes at its peril.”
He added: “The Labour Party’s problem is not the link with trade unions, or even the relationship with Unite members – far from it.
“It is the destructive behaviour of one high profile trade unionist.
“One of the things about stepping down is that you can say things in public that so many people in the Labour Party only say in private.
“So whether it is in Scotland or in the contest to come in the UK, we cannot have our leaders selected or deselected by the grudges and grievances of one prominent man.
“The leader of the Scottish Labour Party doesn’t serve at the grace of Len McCluskey, and the next leader of the UK Labour Party should not be picked by Len McCluskey.”
Mr Murphy added: “The siren voice from behind a big desk in Unite’s headquarters in London shouldn’t be allowed to instruct what the Scottish Labour Party does.
“Len McCluskey and the Unite leadership in London are the type of people who could back the wrong horse in a one horse race.
“That is just the way of the world, but it shouldn’t be the way of the world in the future and that is a lesson for the entire British Labour party.”
He added: “Once I stand down Kezia Dugdale, the deputy, will fulfil the role as acting leader.
“I will stand down at the next meeting of the Scottish Labour Party executive.
“But the problem that the Scottish Labour Party has had for some time is that we have had leaders who have left at a moment’s notice.
“I don’t question the reasons, but we know what happened. Wendy (Alexander) left abruptly, Henry (McLeish) left abruptly, Johann (Lamont) left abruptly.
“We need that period of stability over the next month so that by the time of the next Scottish Labour Party executive, I will table that report about the modernisation of the Scottish Labour Party, because to some extent the Scottish Labour Party is the least modernised part of the entire UK Labour movement and that can no longer continue.”
Mr Murphy said he will prepare “a comprehensive report” on his proposals for the future of the party.
“It will cover our plan for earning back the support of Scottish voters, a strategic overview of the voters that we need to win back, and the challenges that we face for the party on the ground ahead for the next two sets of Scottish elections,” he said.
“A clear understanding of Scottish voters’ concerns and aspirations.
“A plan for reshaping the Scottish Labour Party and using all of our talents, widening our membership and ensuring the best possible range of talents from our membership and beyond.
“And above all, defending the rights of Labour Party members and putting them back at the heart of our organisation.
“We should have system of one member, one vote as the UK Labour Party has for the election of all future leaders.
“I will also in that report provide a fresh assessment of our policy platform preparing for using new powers, and then bringing them closer to the voters and out of the Holyrood parliament.
“Looking also at how we defend solidarity across the UK in the face of rising nationalisms, both north and south of the border.”
Jim who..?
If giving a press conference with one of two outcomes – I resign or I don’t resign – can be made to sound as confusing as Murphy just managed, I’d hate to have to read any report on future policy he might have written.
Jackie Baillie YES PLEASE!
There is a danger that they might elect somebody who actually gets it and connects with the voters….on the other hand somebody who actually gets it might be rather less to if not independence then a damned sight more autonomy than we have now.
In England 55.2% of the voters voted right wing lunatics or really, really right wing lunatics. In Scotland those two parties got 16.5%. We are two countries going in different directions. Katie Hopkins speaks for the vox pop in England and we have Jeanne Freeman.
O/T But hilarious.
Just read on Twitter. Someone has posted a photo of an article from the Times, where they quote sections of “Mhairi Black’s diary”.
The “diary” is just satire from BBC Scotlandshire, which the Times seem to have mistaken for an actual article by BBC Scotland.
link to twitter.com
link to twitter.com
The man who keeps giving has been given the heave. As much as he helped our cause, I don’t think I could have stood another 11 months being shouted at. Realistically, it’s good riddance to one more gravy train, self important hypocrite. The sooner they all disappear from politics, the better opportunities this country will have.
On the other hand, the word on the street is that they think Dippity Dugdale is the one to step up to the plate.
Yep, the cabin girl is replacing the captain on the bridge of the Titanic. The iceberg approacheth.
Go and read some of the garbage on BBC Scotland news
on the comments
“His gracious speech upon the announcement he had lost his seat will live long in the memory.”
Or what about this zoomer?
“He struck me as a quite charismatic man – possibility the only charismatic politician in the whole of Scotland in fact.”
Or better still
“Shame – nice, honest guy.”
Delusional or what?
OT but apparently Scotland is responsible for everything that England fails to do.
Fox hunting remains banned in Scotland but according to a remarkable number of Labour folk on twitter, it is the SNPs fault that England isn’t upholding the ban.
Only 31 votes cast, what happened to all the rest ? or was it like a masonic meeting .. wheesht
One of the things about stepping down is that you can say things in public that so many people in the Labour Party only say in private. – Jim Murphy
Same thing was said by evicted MP Brian Donohue who looks forward to being able to tell folk to “Fuck Off” and we know Jim loves to say “Fuck off Fuck off Fuck off” now dont we
Murphy will not go quietly. He will wriggle and build on his 17-14 majority in the next month
O/T: A long look at this mans record.
link to caltonjock.com
Jim is staying just long enough to set out the blueprint of extinction of Scottish Labour.
I wonder if that is what his objective was all along?
A truly sad day for the SNP 🙁
On the brightside Kezia is now in charge 😛
red says:
16 May, 2015 at 3:39 pm
“Jim’s unused to soiling his hands with work and is therefore a complete stranger to the “workin jaiket”. Academe might be the way forward for him,”
He’ll need to get a degree first.
I believe they can be bought over the internet now.
Message to incoming Labour branch manager.. Like a supermarket manager… Look around the “region” and identify local tastes and favourites, they may buck global trends and not fit business models, but must be respected, or market share will suffer.
Makes you wonder about the NEC etc..
Such a selfless act. Jim will spend his remaining days as Scottish Labour Leader, until his newly announced shock ‘resignation’ is tabled before the Party’s National Executive a month from now, putting together a ‘paper’ that points the way ahead for Scottish Labour’s regeneration.
This will be for the same National Executive who wrestled toward a 17/14 confidence vote today for the same Jim and it will be a moot point whether Jim’s was one of the 17 votes.
But what if it had been 15/16 and Jim turned out to be an honourable guy after all? Any takers for that?
After losing virtually all of its MPs in Scotland, barring one torag with the ferile MSM’s support, it’s probably more in keeping that the complete National Executive should pack it in, both for backing Dim Jim and his screwball adviser team and now after-the-event to still be voting for him.
Labour in Scotland has as much chance of getting its act together for Holyrood’s 2016 as the proverbial snowball has in hell.
Mr Murphy apparently won by 3 votes – including his own! He will use this month to hatch all kinds of plans for a new career while Slab disintegrate and if they don’t work I suspect he hopes after his wonderous report they will reject his resignation. No other explanation for such bizarre behaviour.
During his “100 toons” tour last year, I had a wee chat with him after his staged rant session. I said to him that I couldn’t do his job (meaning, lying through my teeth every waking second) and he responded “Neither can I”. How prophetic was that? Or, simply an unguarded truth.
Maybe someone texted / offered him a job between the vote and his resignation?
It’ll be interesting to see what he does next: who’ll offer him a job without as much as a Certificate to his name?
1. CIA
2. Barrs – stacking crates or testing drinks
3. Become a Member of the Conservative Party
4. MI5
5. House of Lords – Lord Fundilymundily
6. Road sweeper in Arden
7. Join the Tartan Army (if he isn’t at the forefront of it already)
Will this be the second time Labour leave a post-it note saying “Good luck..theres nothing left”
Typical Murphy cant just say goodbye and go..we dont do walking away is Rangers Jim..silly billy
@no no no…yes
Ahh, the wonderful Jackie Baillie, says it all really. There is still much work to be done before Scotland rids itself of the nits feeding off our blood.
Goodbye Jim, sorry to see you go 🙂
link to youtube.com
Petra
Dont forget his love for Arms Deal Junkets with his mate Anas..maybe a wee directorship at Kill.com awaits
@Quentin Quale says:
16 May, 2015 at 3:44 pm
Who’s to say that Dim Jim will in fact be writing said ‘paper’ on future policy. He has always been getting his strings pulled by ‘others’and in the end even ‘they’ couldn’t cope with the loathing built up in Scotland for Labour as it now stands.
How many organs does the Henry Jackson Society tap into and fund to achieve its aims?
Murphy doesn’t have an original thought in his body apart from self-preservation.
bookie from hell says
“Telegraph” … Dec 2014
Makes interesting reading, with hindsight.
Ian Martin didn’t have a clue then, and I wonder if post GE he is any better informed!
It’s easy to see stuff like that is totally off the mark, a complete outlier from reality. However, I suspect that’s the way those inside the London bubble thought, and still think, about Scotland, Scottish politics and the rapidly decaying Union.
UK Party leaders Miliband and Clegg resigned after disastrous election results.
Meanwhile in Scotland all the focus has been on Jim Murphy and the two other branch office managers are keeping a very low profile. Both Ruth Davidson and Willie Rennie were in charge of their respective parties worst results too.
I think it is time for them to go as well. Libdems have a very small gene pool to call on, but is this a chance for Murdo Fraser to try for his federal style Tory party?
Karma comes to town for the second time in as many weeks.
Just listened to Jim Murphy blaming everyone but himself in his graceless albatross-song of an ending.
Even the pro-Labour BBC cut his semi-coherent ramblings off mid-narcissistic rant.
The man is delusional. God help all those who have suffered at the hands of this selfish careerist politician. There are many.
What is all the more disturbing – as a former Labour voter – is the fact that 14 of the 17 Scottish Labour Executive STILL voted for a failure of a politician that contributed to the loss of 40 Labour MPs in Scotland.
Thank goodness we have the anti-austerity SNP with an 8 year track record of balancing the budget and running the government of Scotland well.
Pity the poor souls in England that voted, like turkeys for a Tory Christmas. There will be many tears shed by our friends south of the Border before the current Cameron era is over.
“Everyone else’s fault but mine”. Even to the last Murphy fails to accept any responsibility for the disastrous performance of Scottish labour and blames it on “people who don’t like me” 🙂
The level of the Clyde will have risen a few feet with all the fuckin tears coming out of Pacific Quay, either that or folk will think it’s a siren going off with all the wailing and gnashing of teeth, BBC bastirts
Farewell by Dear beloved Labour party, I’m sailing far far away
I’m off to California, got some friends that I can go working for.
That’s my guess.
Nb: lyrics from two songs for those old enough to remember.
I hear oor Jim is now going to spend the next month before he *ahem* officially resigns, only to have his resignation refused, learning the word to his new theme song. 😉
link to youtube.com
I very much doubt if he would have got the vote of confidence had he not let it be known he would resign anyway. This seems a pretty transparent move to let him go with what dignity he has left.
[…] Covering all bases […]
Karmanaut says:
“Just read on Twitter. Someone has posted a photo of an article from the Times, where they quote sections of “Mhairi Black’s diary”.
The “diary” is just satire from BBC Scotlandshire, which the Times seem to have mistaken for an actual article by BBC Scotland.”
Just satire? Just?!!!
What a sad end to the ‘best campaign ever’ – copyright Gemma Doyle – for ‘Scottish’ Labour.
With a bit of fortitude we’ll get over it.
velofello says:
“I’m off to California, got some friends that I can go working for.”
Yes, California is more probable than Alberta. And, the weather’s better. 🙂
Desimond: we know Jim loves to say “Fuck off Fuck off Fuck off” now dont we?
We do, we sure do. 🙂
Still relevant:
link to grousebeater.wordpress.com
BBC Scotlandshire
‘Just’ – LOL.
Mixed feelings about this. From a Scottish viewpoint, he would do nothing but good in the run up to the 2016 elections.
But as a Scot, seeing / hearing him on TV makes me ashamed to be Scottish. A shame to lose him as it makes watching Reporting Scotland a less painful experience.
O/t, just filled in an ethnicity form from NHS Highland. I got to tick the box “White Scottish” and then realised I’ve never seen this before. Things are changing. The alternative was “White Other British”
Kezia must be feeling the pressure of responsibility.
I do feel sorry for that kid.
Did she know what she was letting herself in for that day her flat mate suggested she join the Labour Party because she was unemployed.
I hope the Greens are the opposition in the next parliament. Might raise the tone of debate considerably as well as the quality of public life in Scotland.
Here’s the way I see it and please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.
UK Labour believe that in order to win the next UK General Election they must move to the Right in order to capture voters who they believe deserted them on May 8th.
Scottish Labour know that in order to capture those voters who they believe deserted them in droves last week they must move to the Left to have any chance of a recovery in next year’s Scottish Election.
It’s a conundrum, bear with me.
Jim Murphy is seen by UK Labour as their man on the inside of the Labour branch in Scotland. They desperately want him to remain as branch manager because they’re worried that Labour in Scotland might just be seeing the writing on the wall and are now thinking of becoming a truly independent Labour party. They could call themselves Scottish Labour, for instance.
UK Labour can’t afford this to happen because no matter how many ‘deserters’ they manage to bring in to the fold by moving to the Right, the loss of the Scottish contingent will nullify any gains.
Factor in the inevitable gerrymandering which will almost certainly happen with the Tories in charge of Westminster and Labour will be forever cut out of Government at the UK level.
How does that sound?
Will he take his hired goons with him?
MacTernan and MacDougal need fresh starts in life. “Want fries with that?” is probably too close to the real world for that pair though. Maybe JK Rowling needs some more butlers/fiction advisers, like their Sturgeon/French Ambassador fraud.
A tribute to Jim Murphy in song:
link to tommymackay.bandcamp.com
Lol BBC Scotlandshire 😉
Well he can probably rule out a job with Unite
Another for Jim Murphy:
link to tommymackay.bandcamp.com
So, Jim has NOT resigned but Jim WILL resign. He is resigning because the Labour Party needs stability. His ‘resounding win’ has ensured his resignation.
The question is, who’d take the job??
Labour Neighbours 😉
link to tommymackay.bandcamp.com
If we’re picking theme tunes for Labour, or in fact the whole of the Westminster circus, “Gimme Some Truth” sums it up for me.
link to youtube.com
Jim Murphy’s got some brass neck spouting about the sudden departure of SLoBO Leaders such as Johann Lamont.
Time for Johann to spill the beans on the whole lying, backstabbing kit and caboodle for example Murphy, Curran and Baillie.
@icyspark
Best laugh of the day 🙂 I’ve got an ear worm now but worth it.
“Although he HAS now announced that he’ll be resigning, Murphy actually won the vote of confidence 17-14, which by a curious and amusing quirk of fate works out at 55% to 45%. Another resounding victory.”
I wonder if the 45% will start their own Facebook page?
@icyspark
Just browsing that site, we shouldn’t get too carried away nor laugh to hard. It might bite us in the bum. Loved this one though.
link to tommymackay.bandcamp.com
Fundimundilly Eggsfantasticalily, fundimundilly the Ego goes on & on & on & on.
Wonder if his analysis of why “Scottish” Labour were decimated and recommendations for the way forward for the party will be published? I would pay good money for sight of that….purely for entertainment value of course! Why on earth would any Labour supporter have any confidence in the opinion of the man who refused opportunities for real public debate in open, accessible public meetings to put the case for the union and instead indulged in demeaning and embarrassing rants on the streets of Scotland and pretended that he fronted a coherent and responsible campaign about Scotland’s future? And Labour wonder why Scottish voters didn’t take them seriously?
@ Rev so remind Us/Me when do you intend taking ah couple of days AFF,cause Us/Me need wan oorselves.lol
Slab boys 🙂
link to tommymackay.bandcamp.com
Thanks for the wee Wullie link Boris.
I was aware he is a hypocritical, bitter, self serving, back stabbing bag of shite mate, just not how big a bag/coal sack. (left out in the sun too. phew!)
I expect he’s writing up his resignation right now…
@ Bugger
”Jackie Baillie YES PLEASE!”
It takes all sorts…
Can anyone see it happening? Jim Murphys address to the Tory Party (plus McTernan, MacDougall et al) next month.
youtu.be/afNR1clZNYc
DON’T DO WHAT I DID
“I’m clear; that the answer to the Scottish Labour party will not be found in the tinkering in the constitution” – Jim Murphy 16th May 2015
Source: link to bbc.co.uk
That’s odd because back in December, Murphy had this to say about Labour’s (north British Accounting Unit) constitution …
“Tony Blair rewrote Clause 4 of UK Labour to bring us closer to the centre of politics. I want to rewrite ‘Clause 4’ of Scottish Labour to bring us closer to the centre of Scottish life.”
and
“…a new statement of purpose for a new generation in the Scottish Labour Party” –
Jim Murphy, 15th December 2014
Source: link to bbc.co.uk
Handclapping at 3.03
I’m currently sitting in the RIE just getting over heart surgery. One of the recovery regimes is to hug a rolled up towel to your chest to support it if you feel a cough coming on. All was going well until you dropped this little gem into the mix:
“Somebody give Kezia a dandelion. She’ll get more sense out of puffing it.”
Nurse! The screens for Mr Dram.
Some kind of
Dave says:
16 May, 2015 at 4:32 pm
I very much doubt if he would have got the vote of confidence had he not let it be known he would resign anyway. This seems a pretty transparent move to let him go with what dignity he has left.
==============
Yeah, That’s what it seems like.
I wonder if he will attempt to come back at the first Westminster by-election – now he says he’s not interested in Holyrood.
@ dramfineday
You alright mate?
Murphy must stay,surely Labours not going to start getting its act together.
Dramfineday,
Best wishes.
“Curse of No” strikes again!
Another one gone.
At this rate, by the time Indyref2 comes around Dunky Horsitall will leading the No campaign as he will be the only one left.
R-type grunt and others have correctly alluded to the dilemma facing UK Labour. Down in Englandshire they want to shimmy over to the right, whereas in Scotland, that is the very last thing they need.
Murphy was London Labour’s man ‘on the inside’ of Labour’s Scottish branch office, but now with his resignation, control is shifting away from London Labour HQ. Given the timescale set for the new Labour leader election in London, my guess is, that the Scottish Labour branch office, may indeed attempt to achieve FPA (full political autonomy). The only problem however, is the Labour Scottish branch office has no money, and if it dumped London control, would find itself homeless within days.
Honestly, the odds really are stacked against Labour making a convincing comeback in Scotland. People like McTernan don’t work for free, and there are precious few strategists amongst their ranks.
Meanwhile, you really have to laugh that ‘The Thunderer’ has cited the spoof Mhairi black diaries from BBC Scotlandshire, as fact. Are there NO real journalists left?? Dearie me. What are these people drinking?
link to bbc.scotlandshire.co.uk
link to twitter.com
Some kind of……….warning would be nice!
And yes Conan, I’m on the mend and the mist is clearing thank you very much. Should get out next week subject to no more attacks of the dandelions!
Barrs confirm Jim Murphy to head new Irn Bru campaign. retro twist…the catchphrase is “Even though I used to be The Man!”
No word on McTernan and Big Blair being hired for a new version of the “We’re aw Fannies” campaign
@ dramfineday
Cheers. I still have to buy you a pint.
Wearing a pair of respectable breeks.
Just looked at the Labour exec. Committee and 3 names jump out Margaret Curran, Kezia Dugdale and Jim Murphy, I wonder who they voted for.
Donald Urquhart: “Now that the resignation is confirmed, I hear James Cook is inconsolable.”
A love that dare not speak its name . . . Wonder if he’s been the victim of an “extraordinary level of vicious abuse” on twitter – again.
According to the BBC “Jackie Ballie a safe pair of hands” eejits who will never learn.
Looking forward to GE2016 Scotland when Scottish Labour can be finally laid to rest. Jackie for leader!
Ach well here’s my song for Creepy Jim…
(take note petra youtube url)
link to youtube.com
boris says:
16 May, 2015 at 3:55 pm
Murphy will not go quietly. He will wriggle and build on his 17-14 majority in the next month..
Reading his speech, it sounds like he accepts that staying on would split the party, so I don’t think he will do a Farage. He is simply too divisive, both within the party and within Scotland. Too associated with Labour’s role in the referendum – running Scotland down for two years.
There was a good point made in the recent BBC election article by American writer PJ O’Rourke.
————
Labour, I have the answer to the Scottish Question right at home, although I’m afraid it’s too late now.
You see, Labour, your party, like the Scots themselves, opposed independence. But…
I may say that my kid is immature, ignorant, uncoordinated and not ready to be out on his own in the world (he is a bit clumsy, has trouble remembering what nine nines are, and he’s only 11, so I’m quite right). But if you call my kid a dopey young klutz, God help you.
————
Dram @ 3.03
Bloody hell, hope you are alright.
Murphy, no formal qualifications. No work experience, adult life spent steeped in politics.
Kezia Dugdale, List MSP, degree in Law, no work experience(?). No political experience.
Ruth Davidson, list MP, head of the Scottish Tory party, no political experience, has presentational skills developed from previous career.
Nicola Sturgeon, degree in Law, work experience, 20 years political experience.
It’s your tax dollar folks, who would you back for your future?
Then consider the qualifications, and work experience, if any, of the Eton boys at Westminster.
There is something seriously wrong with access to political power in the UK. And access to political power is access to big things, not wee things, like corporate funding of your political party – decisions on Trident; war engagement – weapons sales.
Fortunately the Scots public have astutely recognised these shortcomings. Please Scotland,do not relax your grip.
I’ve been out all day, and just getting up to speed with the news.
Does this mean that Jackie Bird is the new leader of the Scottish outpost of the British Labour Party?
Or is James Cook putting in a bid for power?
TeamGB media not making much sense over this either, as in rancid THE Graun moaning “Chuka Umunna shows how the media is robbing us of ‘normal’ politician”
So the whole UKOK media industry from the horrifying vote Jim or else Scotland BBC to far right Daily Heil/Torygraph, all slammed in behind Murphy and yet here we are:D
#Dickheads
@ R-type Grunt 4.50pm
I think you may well have hit on something there. Awful as he is, Murphy is UK labour’s man in Scotland. They deserve each other.
American writer PJ O’Rourke.
Yeah, only a right-wing jerk like O’Rourke can understand Scotland, and then exploit his son as a fallacious analogy for how we should be treated.
Going, staying, who gives a… Guy’s a zero sociopath anyway.
As they say in Sowetto; “Jim Murphy’s a toss bag…”
He does seem to have a unifying affect on the people here, I’ll say that.
I was thinking this forum might be better if we limited comments to about 100 words maximum. Depending on the mood I’m in I can express everything I want to say with one single punctuation mark…
Anyway, glad we moved on from all that child care chat. There’s a good case for banning kids. They’re nothing but hassle. And they have a huge carbon footprint.
Yes, he’s gone (maybe).
But we will need to keep tabs on the bastirt.
He will do anything to damage the new Scotland.
Jimbo can start a new business.
Rent a FUD,
Whenever a village, town or city is looking for a “village idiot”,
just call on Jimbo.
He can bring his own IrnBru stage and a Big SHOUTY megaphone, and he can even pull daft stupid faces.
Fun for all the family, he should also be cheap, as he will be on minimum wage
Could we still send him a spade or will this “report” be enough to bury Labour in Scotland?
Dramfineday
Get well soon & stay away from dandelions 🙂
At long last and not before time.
Smurphy is going to resign but still their trying to unglue him from the post as he’s no leaving immediately. It was an utter disgrace that it had to come to this in the first place has the gits ego been burst at last?
Well …… no. He’s never accepted he was ever part of the problem. He still thinks he has done better than before.
He narrowly survived the vote of no confidence 17-14 and this was supposed to be an increase in support? Not exactly high in the popularity stakes were you Smurphy!
But the really good news is that he’s no standing for Holyrood.
But there is someone even more overjoyed than I am and that will be Piers Doughty Brown mind in him well Smurphy’s nemesis was present at his downfall so he got the last laugh. Hope he’s using his speaker to shout about it.
Irn Bru sales will now increase again although Smurphy lost his sponsor and hell no be able to put his cans on any expenses after next month.
So eventually we can say its good bye from them and its goodbye from him.
Good riddance Smurphy people like you should never have been allowed to take public office in the first place.
One left to go……..Ian Murray the last red Tory!
To anyone thinking that this is going to be the last of the red Tories think again Labour leader wannabes are all coming out proclaiming the benefits of Blairism. Some folk just never learn.
I think you are being unkind to Mr Murphy.
You should at least acknowledge the sacrifices he made for his party and his beliefs.
For goodness sake, he stopped dying his hair, what more could he have done? 🙂 🙂 🙂
Ah so then. Them were the days:
‘My constituents will be the first to know’ – how true it was Jim, how true it was.
As for all the rest of it? None of it was even vaguely democratic.
ta ra, jim, ta ra.
Personally I’m sure that Murphy was a plant for ‘the Westminster Party’who’s mission was to hatchet Scottish Labour and weaken English Labour and boy didn’t he do a good job?
Everything he tried went down faster than a lead balloon,by design that was the desired effect.
You cannot destroy a party as well as he did without that being the main objective.
End result is Conservatives(Henry Jackson types anyone?) in Government in WM and Trident/Illegal Wars,USA-led directives all in place-job done.
With hapless Labour in England holed below the waterline, so effectively they will never again be in power daan saarf.
Mission Accomplished for old Murph.
Just cos i’m paranoid,doesn’t mean they’re not out to get me.
Will DimJin be writing a Policy Brief for the Hendry Jackson Society before he resigns,wie that Anatomical mind o hiz it,ll be anither Toystory.
Some of my mates suggested that I stand for Slab leader’s job. Thought of some reasons to be excluded;
I know virtually heehaw about politics
I’m not a socialist
I’m not a good orator
I tell fibs on a regular basis
I get aggressive when questioned about anything at all
I have no degree
Hang on……..
Does this mean the return of Just For Men chestnut brown?
Now that Murphy has done the decent thing after the Slab defeat & leadership fiasco surely Willie Rennie & Ruth Davidson will have to consider their positions, their own parties fared no better than Slab. We need a new start in Scottish politics, no place for dead wood. In the words of the irepressable Jackie Baillie, “Cheerio”.
Murphy wins the vote, but then resigns, am I missing something?
Diz DimJim get ah demob suit efter hiz service tae Labour.
Thepnr how much is ah bibby wie braces newadays,any idea. lol
Seriously, please let Jackie Baillie become branch manager.
@ Thepnr re my last post Bibby wie Braces minus the Rule Pocket. lol
Don’t laugh, but can someone explain what the Fundily Mundily thing is all about as I appear to have missed out on a good joke there.
From the saviour of Scottish labour to its pallbearer in 5 short months. Spectacularly, monumentally deluded mutterings about it being everyone else’s fault but his. And the gall to offer up the plans for the righteous paths to future success, wouldn’t it have been better to implement the plans before the GE Jim? I’m going to miss him. Sniff
Grouse Beater says:
16 May, 2015 at 6:25 pm
Yeah, only a right-wing jerk like O’Rourke can understand Scotland, and then exploit his son as a fallacious analogy for how we should be treated.
The point is true though, even if the metaphor is clumsy. Scotland isn’t an immature kid, but most people, No voters included, didn’t appreciate being told we would be some kind of basket case.. unable to make it in the wider world without the UK holding our hand.
Labour has certainly paid the price for running Project Fear alongside the Tories.
So jim murphy and james cook are off to the states eh?
We got any expats willing to keep an eye on them?
Much larger population in the States, so per head there will be more fannies. There will be some who are receptive to their lies and bullshit.
Wings over USA? Nay, wings over the world – we should make sure there is nowhere for the lying unionist bastards to seek refuge and still harm Scotland, because they will.
Just saying, you know….
@tartanarse
Jim used the phrase instead of “fundamentally” during one of the recent leaders’ debates.
link to youtube.com
@Petra says: 16 May, 2015 at 4:11 pm:
“It’ll be interesting to see what he does next: who’ll offer him a job without as much as a Certificate to his name?”
I hear a rumour in the village Willie has been offered a regular Friday Night gig as a stand-up comedy act in the his home town Kelty Club.
Awwwww! Whit will we date with funnily unduly noo?
tartanarse, during the last scottish leaders’ debate, Murphy screwed up the word ‘fundamental’ whilst speaking and out came a strangulated fundilymundilly…
Here’s the twitter hashtag that resulted…
link to twitter.com
Oh Jim,
Do you mind if I say something about you, now that you are no longer with us!
I take no pleasure in your passing, just an overwhelming sadness, you could have had it all! Instead you wasted your talent on a shower of bastards who couldn’t spell socialism if their life depended upon it. Was that your dream to? the shit that Brown and Blair expounded?
Despite the iron brew and the closet sectarianism you had promise, once. You had the strength, the pig headidness to drive your agenda, to fight your corner, to succeed!
You are a member of a political movement that included Keir Hardie, John Mclean, instead of following the path of righteousness you lay down with Reid, Brown and Blair, those apologists for the new right wing American agenda. They screwed you Jim and I don’t think you realise how hard, you see it’s about money for them, was it for you too? how many million did you want to make?
Think hard Jim, what’s your legacy going to be?
If his Farage finesse pays off and he is still leader, what betting would you get on him supporting a Tory/Lab/Libdem coalition to stop an SNP government even if the SNP are the largest party?
Resigned or not, he won’t be needing a food bank any time soon.
The other Milliband was given the opportunity to cream a charity of half a million a year after losing the Labour leadership.
It is always a win-win situation for these troughers.
Didn’t Jimmer dye his hair grey during the run up to the election so as to “identiry’ with the older voters in his constituency?
Sure I read that somewhere.
Anyhoo, didnae work 😉
Next up, Murray.
Tartanarse
Fundallymundily was what Jim Murphy said in a recent panel discussion, when meanining to say “fundamentally”.
It is getting a bit boring now, frankly.
Pravda GB is required by the Pravda GB Trust to always give a balanced view.
This is how it does it.
I mean he couldn’t possibly accept the post of First Minister if SLAB were not the largest party now, could he? 😉
I read Clerkin was heard shouting ” Murphy must stay” presumably so that he can finish off labour in Scotland once and for all.
It would be interesting to see much money Murphy will be retiring on. Any detectives?
He was one of the biggest troughers, and I doubt he will be visiting a foodbank, now that the cameras will be switched off.
Many thanks to all for your kind regards. I missed out on the political fun from last Saturday and so have a bit of catching up to do when I get home next week. Meantime I’m signing off.Too many dandelions around here to make it safe to read on
Jim is starring in a new version of The Empire (Scotland) strikes back. He takes the lead role of Dearth ( of ideas ) Vadar.
The remaining unionist have signed contracts to star in a remake of The loneliness of the long distance M.P.
More from that album from Tommy Mackay: Now That’s What I Call SNP 56. (thanks to icyspark for this 😉 )
A wee ditty about Jim Murphy…lol
link to tommymackay.bandcamp.com
Seriously, where is oor Nana Smith. distinct lack of decent links. Please Nana come back we miss you 🙂
I haven’t seen his resignation nor a verbatim transcript, but he seems to have stated he will not be standing for a “seat” at Holyrood.
Does this give him wiggle room & lead him to attempt to get on the labour list?
Last one…promise…because it’s so good…
Jim Murphy’s Hair:
link to tommymackay.bandcamp.com
Dandy lions withdraw to base.
It’s difficult to write an epitaph for Murphy.
I can’t recall an episode in politics from recent history that has been more bizarre.
As someone mentioned previously, was Murphy a plant, to bring down the Labour Party?
If he was, all credit to him, he did a marvellous job.
Or was Murphy just a career politician who got found out.
I’m genuinely undecided.
I believe that we have to look at his antics in the context of the behaviour of the Greater UK Labour Party. I mean, who advised Miliband on that stone tombstone? What was that all about?
Was/is Labour so populated with complete idiots and so badly advised? Or is Labour infiltrated by a 5th column, whose purpose is to bring it down?
When you consider Murphy’s minimalist rally’s, Milibands eccentric election pap, the own goals; you’ve got to wonder. Or are Murphy, Miliband and their band (especially the Scottish branch) so absolutely devoid of talent that a gubbing at the polls was inevitable?
If Monty Python created a sketch where the Leader stood in front of a grave stone, the Scottish branch manager woke at 5am to conduct a rally with a bunch of kids holding placards in a deserted street and a cross dressing man turned out to give support, you would think it was outrageous, cutting edge comedy. But that’s what Labour did.
Throw in countless lies, spin and general nastiness; that was Labour’s effort.
Was it a joke, a bad campaign conducted by idiots, or a conspiracy?
Fucked if I know, but good riddance.
And dandy highwaymen?
I heard a rumour the Proclaimers are bringing out a tribute version of letter from America for Smurphy.
No Westminster no more
No troughing expenses no more
No East Renfrewshire no more
No Slab leader no more…………..
link to weegingerdug.wordpress.com
😀
Aye Murphy says he’s going in a month……….maybe he’ll be tempted to do “a Farage “……..after London Labour decide they can’t continue without him at the helm of the Scottish branch office…….
From the BBC Scotlandshire Mhairi Black exclusive:
“Mind you, wi a Paisley accent its dead easy to make ‘the honourable gentleman’ sound mair like ‘that wee Tory shitebag’.”
SLAB are doomed if they don’t go for independence. A very large chunk (about 40% I think) of their previous voters want independence. They’re not going to go back to vote for a unionist party. Where are SLAB going to find the voters to bring them back to where they were 5 years ago.?
@ Giving Goose 8:27 – eggzactly.
Do we not all miss the point, if all we take from this is, how much money he still gets? Say it’s 250k so what !
I believe Jim will be here longer than the 1 month mentioned today.
The trouble is hasn’t developed his visible political profile beyond his highly suucessful student politics persona where he just shouts and points and shouts and points. The electors in Scotland have seen through that persona.
Keep at it till the 2016 Scottish parliament elections please Jim!
It’s indication how far Labour has left its roots when a Labour politician blames a union leader for his demise.
The nail varnish remover has been applied to Murphys grubby fingertips,contaminated from his over flowing glue bag hes still clinging cloyingly. creeepily on for a month. McTernan & McDougal are bolting for cover as Jim tells the clowns left behind he’ll write a manual for them how to it run themselves when hes gone, cmon..popcorn, yeuch, big bag o cheese n onion 🙂
He’s been promised an adviser post/he’ll be asked to unresign (or maybe not to put in the letter) when they see the brilliance of his cunning plan/he’ll join the Tories/he’ll change his mind about standing next year. Whatever option, we haven’t heard the last of Murphy (more’s the pity)
Dear Dim Jim,
You seem to have forgotten that the North British Accounting Unit
leader with the most votes always gets to be the leader!
At least you know that you can always rely on your own vote, and you better believe that of Deputy Dug voted for you as there is no way on earth she wants to be on the bridge of a sinking ship.
(Kaz, you were maybe still at school when the Costa Concordia went down after hitting rocks that they should never have gone near?)
On a serious note please remove the shoelaces and belt from this man as he may be in danger of kicking away his iron bru crates.
Pure done the dirty on me so they did! lol
Is it back to his crisp poke glue in Arden, the national service he ran away from in South Africa, or is it off yo year number ten of his first degree at university, or does he return to face the Student’s Union he stabbed in the back before joining labour?
Could it me that Smurph worked out the maths on the vote and recognised the success SNP had working with the “Losing” 45%?
No! I mean Yes, I mean I’ll tell my constituents first, I mean
only Slabour are big enough to keep Cameron out of his mind with laughter! Let me check with Westminster what I think will you?
The guy can boast that he comes second only to Maggie Thatcher
in the damage done to modern day Scotland by one person.
Still puzzling over he 17 votes of support he got. Though of course some of them would be “No, not me. I don’t want to be leader” votes
Pravda GB says Murphy narrowly survived the vote of no confidence.
Does anyone remember hearing Pravda GB saying Scotland narrowly voted No?
Hi guys check out this link and forward it on even northerners are sick of the lot of them link to change.org
Jim, Jackie and Kezia, the dream team, like something from the Munsters. Don’t go Jim, Scotland needs you……to destroy what’s left of Labour in Scotland. You’re the one that put the fundley mundeley into this campaign. Jim dear, you really are a legend….in your own imagination. Please stay…if only for comic relief, and bring your wife to more meetings, that one you had with you in Glasgow before the election with the red lipstick, lol.
Stephen.
G Goose @8.27pm
Good post .
Labour / JM made so many gaffs with such frequency we have forgotten !
I would add the NHS > Ref Vote No to save the NHS then Oct 2014 (A month Later ! FFS as if we are all zipped up the back ). > Vote Labour to save the NHS !
As an Indy supporter since the 60’s , I’ve never given a dam about Labour .
Well Jim , I still don’t give a dam about Labour .
All together now , football crowd style ….. Cheerio , cheerio ….. Cheerio !
Next ……
Have the ordinary members of Slab 20.000/8.000/4/3000 any say in electing the new leader,or are they feart tae have a members conference for fear we see the true picture of Labour supporters.
MSM BBC going with Murphys attack on unions rather than him resigning,last week Jim was a socialist was he not? WTF will he morph into next?
You have to wonder about the sanity of Jim Murphy to even have contemplated taking Labour beyond its disastrous culpability over the Indy vote. What did he think a large proportion of the Labour supporting electorate was going to do having witnessed scenes of unspeakable disloyalty to their ingrained anti-Tory existence? A disloyalty which at the heart of it was to suppress the Scottish nation.
Methinks the man suffers an arrogance that is conjured up when the ego-monitory greed bug starts biting; and by all impressions, he gone anaphylactic.
And Jim attacking Len? Now there’s two balloons from the same bunch, filled with the same (laughable) gas that stood behind Millibland. Both sought to exploit potential opportunity had GE2015 gone the Labour way, although for separate reasons. Now the deflation has set in and no-ones laughing.
Summarising his jaunt back into Scottish politics, it’s been an all encompassing political masturbation from Jim, for Jim.
Don’t slam the door on the way out.
Rock – now that you come to mention it…
Don’t see who from the current batch of MSPs is going to change SLABs fortunes.
My money is on them appointing James Kelly as he’ll do whatever UK labour HQ bids without having the brains to question it and then try and get say Douglas Alexander into Holyrood in May 2016.
I think the SNP’s dilema around the next indyref is now increasing. On one hand the polls still show public opinion to be 50/50 but the unionist camp have never been weaker. Labour across the UK never mind Scotland doesn’t have a respected politician to field and the Libdems are irrelevant in Scotland and the rUK.
If they put it in their manifesto for 2016 and held it say September 2016 it pretty much guarantees that the No campaign would have to be lead by a Tory and it would need to be a leading Tory so either Cameron, Osbourne or Johnston. This was the circumstances Salmond wanted to create all through last year. Sturgeon must be tempted.
I’ll believe he’s resigned in a month’s time, when he actually leaves.
Now who voted which way?
Could WoS ask the question!! Might end up with all voting for him!!
SEC Members[edit]
The SEC has three different sections – CLPs (members), Elected Members and Trade Unions & Affiliates.
Office Bearers
Jamie Glackin – Chair of the Scottish Labour Party
Jacqueline Martin– Vice Chair
Cathy Peattie – Treasurer
Elected Members
Jim Murphy – Leader of the Scottish Labour Party
Kezia Dugdale – Deputy Leader of the Scottish Labour Party
Margaret Curran – Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland
Catherine Stihler – European Parliamentary Labour Group
Rhondda Geekie – COSLA Labour Group Leader & Leader of Renfrewshire Council
Stephen McCabe – Leader of Inverclyde Council
Mary Fee – Scottish Parliament Group Representative
Duncan McNeil – Scottish Parliament Group Representative
Michael McCann – UK Parliament Group Representative
CLP Section (Membership)
Helen Doyle – West of Scotland/Mid Scotland & Fife
Jamie Glackin – West of Scotland/Mid Scotland & Fife
Willie Young – NE Scotland/Highlands & Islands
Linda Stewart – NE Scotland/Highlands & Islands
Cathie Craigie – Central Scotland/Glasgow
Scott Nicholson – Central Scotland/Glasgow
Jalal Chaudry – Lothians/South of Scotland
Hannah Lister – Lothians/South of Scotland
Trade Union Section
Jackson Cullinane – Unite
Cathy Peattie – CWU
Elizabeth-Anne Handibode – Unison
Richard Leonard – GMB
Dave Watson – Unison
Jacqueline Martin – USDAW
Kevin Lindsay – ASLEF
Harry Frew UCATT
Vicky Grandon Unite
Cathy Murphy GMB
Co-operative Party & Socialist Societies
Amy Chung – Socialist Societies
Ian Miller – Co-op Party
Scottish Young Labour
Joe Fagan
Erin Mulhatton
Murphy, McTernan, McDougal, wounded beasts,still dangerous.what are they up to? Ronnie Anderson get the tripwire roon the hut 🙂
I eagerly await the Murphy Diary “Douglas Alexander, my part in his downfall”
Sunday Herald front page:
link to twitter.com
Thanks all for the fundily explanation. I’ve looked at the video and it is hilarious.
Goose at 8.27 Spot on. I had similar thoughts myself. It just seemed incredible that they put Ed in charge in the first place and then a deputy Ed.
In Scotland they had the laughable Johann and then when you thought it couldn’t get any better along come Jim and the Deputy Dug. Now she really is useless.
In my opinion they’ve actually sunk further than the lamentable Lib Dems.
Theres something funny going on and I smell Tory shit in it all.
I still don’t understand why the peer got a vote.
I have been told she was standing in because an MP lost his or her seat. But that implies that someone had a vote because they were an MP. If that was so then why did not all MP’s have a vote. Are we to assume that 1 peer is worth 40 MP’s?
If on the other hand an MP had a vote for some other reason, then why could they not vote regardless?
The list above suggests that only the UK parliament group rep would be affected: but only if you presume that shadows like Margaret Curran can still do that job without being an MP. And if they can then why not the parliament rep as well
And why that peer instead of some other peer? Or, why not just leave the place empty
Does anyone here know the rules?
And I said on a thread here last night we were about to have some slow news days with little impassioned commentary.
I talk more shite than Jim Franny Murphy at times,I really do !
Think I might be what they call a Troll with no self awareness 🙂
Long time reader, but was just thinking, like Laukat says, the indiref2 question could be resolved by the following maneuver:
When Scameron comes up with his offer, which will no doubt be loaded to his own tactical purpose, put it to the people in a referendum with the 3 options:
a.Devo-Cam
b.No change GSTQ Loyal
c. agreed proposals for independence should be put forward.
It’s just a thought, and I’m not saying it’s the right call, but as devo-cam is likely to be
a. significantly different from smith and
b. designed to benefit the conservative party
Putting it out there would get the offer exposed very publicly, be democratic, would not simply be a re-run.
Also, the way i see it, until there is a framework for indi in place and agreed, it’s going to be very hard to get the positive change.
That was the single most effective NO tactic “you have to vote yes before we discuss terms” followed by “why can’t the yes side tell you what the terms are”.
The only single settled agreed will of the people out of the indiref was that next time the people should be voting on an agreed framework and terms – That has to be clear otherwise i fear enough uncertainty could be generated to defeat another vote.
As adults struggle to understand Murphy,
perhaps he should start to write children’s books.
Here is the title of the first book.
Mr Shouty and the FundilyMundily.
Fiona hoey – always a bit of peering in the Labour ranks.
All this tells us is 17 put of 31 on ScotLabs national executive do not have a single clue what went wrong. They are wandering about in blissfully ignorance telling everyone poor Jim did not have enough time to sort out what went wrong. Which is ironic seeing as he is part of the problem.
Here’s the rub…… They call themselves the NATIONAL executive 8 months after standing shoulder to shoulder with the Tories telling us we are not a NATION ………
That’s pretty ironic too.
link to en.m.wikipedia.org
This might explain it Fiona.
Margaret Curren and the other MP are I suppose no longer on it so maybe that was why Murphy and the Baroness got to vote.
See link re the election of Johann Lamont– who voted for who, who hates who etc. Murphy’s voting intentions is interesting .
link to leftfutures.org
Let’s hope we see who voted for whom this time around. McCabe from Inverclyde Council was being earmarked a few years ago for a higher position, resigned from the council then after a while returned and got reelected as a council leader again. Such is the wheeling in the Labour Party Many MSP’s and Councillors will be thinking if this ain’t sorted we are next. See how McCabes votes and you see how the winds blowing!!
Eric Joyce has a blog piece on SLAB and the Murphy resignation. It’s entitled “The Fuckwits are Coming”.
Btw, for anyone who thinks that even after decimation in the GE, SLAB are going to give up the “SNP BAD” mantra anytime soon, think again. Duncan Hothersall, Scott Arthur (he who managed to get on every leaders’ debate) et al are letting rip on Twitter over the SNP ‘prevaricating’ on the Tories lifting the ban on fox-hunting in E&W.
Because the Information of the Wm Waldergrove report is finding it’s way out now, even though Cameron and Co are trying their damnedest to suppress it
It looks as though the First Minister, should Cameron and Co not play the game laid out, will be in a position to “Rain Fire” down on Westminster and even the doubters will be convinced
We’ll know in a month
I’m a bit puzzled why folk are still interested in kicking over the embers of what’s left of Labour
Is it not just good news they’re almost destroyed
Throw another log on
So, is our Jim – the best member of the SNP/YES Movement we ever had, hoping for a ‘Farage Moment’ – I mean, the lack expences claimable must be devastating
Boycott Co-op stores as they have voted to give Labour up to £1M per year.
Stewart Kirkpatrick was Head of Digital for Yes Scotland. This article was originally published on his own site at http://www.stewart-kirkpatrick.com. He is a former Labour member and voter.
A thought experiment for Scottish Labour: do you want to f****** win?
That big question is one that was put by a senior SNP figure with regard to the independence referendum.
link to archive.is
if nothing else. the referedum has produced the very best writing in the world for the last 3 years. big up tae y’all.
55% – 45% familiar numbers.
————————————————————
Members of the Co-operative Group have voted to carry on financially supporting the Co-op Party with political subscription fees.
The Keep It Co-op campaign had been set up to encourage members not to break the link between the political party and the Co-operative Group.
In a result announced this afternoon, members voted by 55% to 45% in favour of continuing the link.
However, members did vote against political donations, but it is understood this will not put the Co-op Party’s future at risk.
17-14 eh? What this means is that whether Jim stays or Jim goes the Executive are going to tear each other to shreds.
weegingerdug gave me no end of pleasure have to say, cannae really believe it, hopefully gael force 56’ll keep eating the pies
@Graeme Kerr
The writing has been superb. Now the writing is on the wall for the Labour party. No one it seems is listening, one last push and they will be history. Hell mend them.
I cannot fathom the reason for this and I spend too much time thinking about it.I can’t get over, why any politician would come out with this.If ever there was a reason for Jim to get his jaiket it is this
Jim Murphy: I’m Astonished By How Easy It’s Been To Outwit The SNP
Murphy may well be buying time in which to extract a seat in the Lords as reward for long service to the Union. If he doesn’t get one, it will surely indicate he is not in favour and will then probably be cast out into the political wilderness – with or without an irn bru crate. Then, starved of the oxygen of publicity, his flame will soon die.
So the UK Labour Partys Scottish Branch Office members are going to await a report (written by Murphy ….. don’t think so) from a most manipulative, lying, ill-educated, failed, narcissistic member of a CIA funded neo-Conservative society that supports extraordinary rendition and torture to help them to move forward in Scotland.
The infamous warmonger and notorious defrauder of taxpayers who is pro-tuition fees, pro-Trident, pro-austerity measures, pro-bedroom tax, pro- disability assessment, pro-privatisation of the NHS etc etc. ONE wee despicable man making decisions for millions of people living in Scotland. Get a grip why don’t you.
The ABSOLUTE future of the Labour Party in Scotland is being decided by the ‘Labour’ man who’s blaming the Unions (for one) for his demise, beggars belief, and / or 30 odd people who’ve totally lost the plot and / or a bunch of right-wing Labour Lords / wannabe Lords from down South. Give us all a break FGS.
Instead of sitting scratching your heads (and blaming everyone but yourselves .. bad, bad Unions, SNP) why don’t you just construct a questionnaire and send it to everyone in Scotland? Ask THEM (US) who they support now / supported previously, why they’ve changed allegiance, left wing / right wing leanings and so on. I’ll devise it for nought if it’ll help you out.
I was a Labour member, shop steward / Union Convenor previously. The Kinnocks, Blair, Mandelson and Murphys have totally destroyed the (my) Party. And yes I’m bl**dy raging like hundreds of thousands of others no doubt. I’m livid with the way you have all been behaving ….. sneaky, lying and conniving …..Darling, Brown, Sarwar, Curran, Baillie and Murphy of course. To name but a few.
If there are any ‘Keir Hardie’ types left out there buck yourselves up ASAP and clean up this mess. Put up a fight for goodness sake and rid yourselves of the low life, lying, greedy, self-centred / absorbed right -wing careerists.
Don’t let Murphy dictate to you anymore. Tell him to shove HIS? report where the sun don’t shine and go take a hike.
So the 45% effectively won, even though they lost.
It’s a funny old world.
Murphy no more, Curran no more, Jamieson no more, Hood, no more… Scottish Labour, never was such a thing, it exists only in the mouths of BBC and the minds of London Labour employees/lackeys/supporters
To misquote the late, great, Douglas Adams:
“So long and thanks for all the pish”.
Ronnie Anderson @9.39pm
“Have the ordinary members of Slab 20.000/8.000/4/3000 any say in electing the new leader,or are they feart tae have a members conference for fear we see the true picture of Labour supporters.”
Ha! good point Ronnie, I hear the Scout hut in Cardenden does good nightly hire rates. they’ll even fill the urn fur ye 🙂
FrankensteinMary ShelleyChapter 20
I sat one evening in my laboratory; the sun had set, and the moon was just rising from the sea; I had not sufficient light for my employment, and I remained idle, in a pause of consideration of whether I should leave my labour for the night, or hasten its conclusion by an unremitting attention to it. As I sat, a train of reflection occurred to me, which led me to consider the effects of what I was now doing. Three years before I was engaged in the same manner, and had created a fiend whose unparalleled barbarity had desolated my heart, and filled it for ever with the bitterest remorse. I was now about to form another being, of whose dispositions I was alike ignorant; she might become ten thousand times more malignant than her mate, and delight, for its own sake, in murder and wretchedness. He had sworn to quit the neighbourhood of man, and hide himself in deserts; but she had not; and she, who in all probability was to become a thinking and reasoning animal, might refuse to comply with a compact made before her creation. They might even hate each other; the creature who already lived loathed his own deformity, and might he not conceive a greater abhorrence for it when it came before his eyes in the female form? She also might turn with disgust from him to the superior beauty of man; she might quit him, and he be again alone, exasperated by the fresh provocation of being deserted by one of his own species.
Norwegian Independence Day today .Thanks for nothing
Jim Murphy/ “Slab/better together”.
@North Chiel
Looking forward to wearing my kilt in Oslo today. I can’t help think of what might have been for Scotland on this marvellous and special day here in Norway. Gratuleter med dagen.
You’ve got to hand it to them, the Tories, they’ve played a blinder. They got Labour to do all their lying, cheating and skullduggerey during the referendum, thereby ensuring the preservation of the Union, for the moment, and at the same time ensuring the demise of Labour in Scotland precisely because they were happy to take on the role of unionist thugs and enforcers.
Was there not a single Labour politician of sufficient intellect, anywhere in Britain, to see where this would ultimately lead? Why was there nobody in Scottish Labour savvy enough on a purely selfish basis to see some years ago where the wind was blowing and have Labour in Scotland declare for independence?
The SNP will have to pay a blinder now too. Destroying Labour in Scotland was easy, for the many reasons that have been discussed on this site, but particularly because the intellectual calibre of Scottish Labour is so abysmally poor. The smarter ones always have taken the highway south, where pickings are better, or else have converted to the SNP over the years, where ethics are better.
The well-educated, well-connected, well-heeled and highly manipulative Tories are a different breed. They represent the Establishment and the status quo and no devious, dirty trick will go unconsidered. Unless they are minded to “let Scotland go”, which is not outwith the bounds of credibility, after a show of trying to keep the Union together, then we are in for a very dirty fight and the SNP will need all their wits about them, be one or two steps ahead, and have the finest Scottish/international minds working with them.
Why not just come clean, and tell it like it is, we the Labour party in Scotland stood shoulder to shoulder with the Tory’s against the people of Scotland, we were hugging and congratulating each other after the NO vote. We were so so so so wrong and we beg you for forgiveness. And we promise to go back to grassroots Labour and start representing the poorest in our Country. Please forgive us…… can you imagine these words coming out of smurf or deputy dug !!!!!!
How come all the votes we hear about concerning Labour are 55 / 45. I think someone needs to get GCHQ to nuance their vote rigging app.
Interestingly Jim Murphy is a Labour Friend of Israel and a memeber of the Hugh Jackson Society. The letter has ties with the Security services in US, UK and other places.
A curious attendee was not a member of the SEC but was nominated to attend as a Labour Peer.
Who was that Peer, Meta Ramsay, a former spy and Lords Chair of The Labour Friends of Israel.
Some people wanted Murphy to stay in place?
@ Hamish, a great surfeit of Chiefs & a paucity of Indians. 🙂
Is Murphy stringing our his swansong to inveigle himself onto the list?
Jackie Baillie is a safe pair of hands!
Did you ever see her drop food?
Why did no one in Labour see what would happen to Scotland, if they did the Torie’s dirty work for them in the referendum?
That’s an easy one, and they even spelled it out for us:
The Westminster Labour party comes before everything else!
For decades they have taken for granted that Scots will vote for any kind of monkey who wears the red rosette. So even if they turn themselves into Tories doing Tory dirty work, they are too dumb to know what’s happening so they blindly vote Labour until Westminster tells them different.
They will never be a force in Scotland again, now that the spell is broken.
Look at them right now, still not a clue as to why they didn’t get their 40 something seats.
Very soon you will see they wheel out that old standard:
We will listen to the people, we will make your lives better, we will beat the Tory party that we have been working for/with and who have ran rings around us for years.
They obviously can’t listen, so read this:
Scots don’t want weapons of mass destruction in our living room, we don’t want the lives of ordinary people to suffer in order to
give you £100 Billion to buy new ones, we don’t want any privatisation of the NHS, we won’t accept being second class citizens to please London right wing voters, we don’t want scaremongering and lies from our politicians, we see the Bedroom Tax as being more vile than the Poll Tax, and the big one, we have had enough of austerity and paying off the debts of your criminally corrupt Bankers and Politicians.
Start with this list to see why you are un-electable and why no one listens to you. If not, just go and find something worthwhile to do with your lives.Sponging, Lying and Cheating ain’t a career
The objective now must be Holyrood 2016. It may be that his renewal plan will be so good that SLAB beg him to stay and implement it. Svengali-like, he pulls the strings and manipulates the party, press and media thus engineering a surprise SLAB revival. They win Holyrood 55% to 45%.
End of threat to the Union.
No one wants the poison chalice. It’s jinxed. Jinky Jim can’t fix it. Step up to the chalice. Step up to the chalice next one. Another one gone and another one gone. Another one bites the dust. The last despicable Unionist politician in Scotland will be gone
Bye Bye Jim. It will be a relief not to have to look at their vacant coupons ever again. Or tolerate their disgusting behaviour. Sanctioning and starving the vulnerable, the illegal wars,banking fraud and tax evasion. Canvassing against Scotland. People will be able to sleep at night knowing they are in good, capable, caring hands. The SNP for fairness and prosperity. Holyrood next.
Can an appointed, unelected Lord really be a Political Party leader in Scotland? Non Democratic. A farce. No taxation without representation. The Unionist politicians in Scotland must go for Democracy.
It will be interesting to see if Creepy Jim appears on today’s Sunday Politics either the Brillo bit or the Brewer bit.
Given the number of times he has been allowed to preach his poison on the BBC surely today of all days is a day when he should be interviewed in depth.
Time to watch that Bella Video about Jim the martyr again. Somehow it has more resonance now. I just hope the final bit comes true, with Scotland becoming independent.
Slabour in their current form are dead. They have two choices. Split from London or give up. The MSPs are on borrowed time. They will get a few list seats ,but who would bother voting Labour now.
@bookie from hell
Great post!
If Jim Murphy securing 55% of the vote filled Ian Martin with such confidence in him, and better together winning with 55% of the vote meant Alex Salmond was “soundly defeated” – then why is Tony Blair being unpopular in Scotland just a myth? He only secured 45% of the vote, which according to his previous logic would surely be a trouncing.
And this other bit about Jim Murphy is too funny:
“That social media were filled in the hours after yesterday’s result with maniacal SNP-supporting “cybernats” claiming that his election spelt disaster for Labour tells you a great deal. The truth, as more thoughtful Nationalists will acknowledge, is that Mr Murphy is a formidable opponent who understands their party’s potential vulnerability.”
…and breath.
Ah wunner whit DimJims definition of F*ck off F*ck Off F*ck off is. Is it Fk the noo, Fk off the morra, or Fk off whenever its taking the Camels Humpf.
@Giving Goose
Murphy’s early morning mini-me rallies were a response to political reality. If he attempted an open air rally in a public place when there were lots of ordinary folk about he would get an argument he didn’t want. They had to at least attempt to show they could play the public adoration game Nicola was getting. So they stage managed it, helped by a compliant media who close cropped the photos.
As for Miliband, the conversation would have gone something like this: voters don’t believe we’re serious, that we mean our manifesto, so how can we convince them otherwise? Write them in stone. You can see how it worked. Too small a stone and it looks like a tombstone. Which is how it ended up so big. Should have used a really grainy marble though, to make the photoshopping much harder. Smooth sandstone was just too easy.
At some point they will figure out that folk holding up simple signs just begs for mischief that has a good chance of being seen and passed around more than the original message. It took politics a long time to trust computers, then grok social media. Photoshop and Twitter will get into their heads eventually.
What I heard him say was he would table his resignation and it was up to the National Executive to decide to accept it or not. Weasel Words from Murphy ? Surely Not ?
So 55% to 45% is not such an overwhelming majority after all. More U turns than a laundry plumbling system.
JAMES FRANCIS MURPHY – A NATION MOURNS
Selfless and magnanimous as always, after clinging on desperately for a week in the most undignified (and divisive) way possible, Jim Murphy has “abruptly” resigned despite narrowly “winning” a no-confidence vote. A not-much-confidence vote.
Yup, the ego has landed. Or is that the egg has landed? With a dull splat. All over Jim’s death mask of Tony Blair face. And he’s still there! For another month. Like Banquo’s Ghost. Better get the bailiffs in cos it looks like they’re gonna have to prise his fingers from the Scottish Labour “leadership.” Dignity. Always dignity.
“Crushed between two nationalisms”? Rubbish. Murphy was still blaming his and Labour’s own failings on the SNP to the bitter end. And it was bitter. And it’s not over yet.
Yes, the SLP’s problems existed long before Murphy became leader, but he personified them. He wasn’t just part of the problem, he was the problem.
Blame the SNP, blame the voters (same thing), blame Len McCluskey (eh?), blame anyone and everyone but himself or the Labour Party.
Who does Murphy think he’s kidding? He didn’t have to go because of Len McCluskey. He had to go cos he just led his branch of the Labour Party to an historically catastrophic defeat if not the edge of extinction and threatened to do so again in 2016.
“The kiss of death”? Well he should know. Murphy couldn’t even hold on to his own seat. An abject humiliation which would have had anyone else running for cover and going into mortified hiding. There’s no surviving that! Not even the undead “leader” of a shambling zombie party which is a sad and grotesque parody of what it once was.
Bitter, spiteful, vindictive, mean-spirited, vengeful, rancorous, bad-tempered and seething with barely suppressed rage – temper, temper! Nothing became Jim Murphy in his political career like the leaving of it.
It was even vaguely menacing. Pyrrhic defeat isn’t enough for Oor Jim, he threatens scorched earth as well. Promising to deliver a doubtless self-justifying (and self-aggrandising) “report” which can only add to Labour’s woes by sowing even more division and turmoil. Proving once and for all where Jim Murphy’s loyalties truly lie. With Jim Murphy.
If Jim Murphy cared at all about his party (or, God forbid, the people of Scotland), he would have fallen on his Irn Bru crate a week ago and exited the political stage swiftly, silently and with little fuss. If.
Anyone else would yearn for a period of quiet reflection and perhaps humble penitence. But not Oor Jim. Oh no.
A shameful, embarrassing spectacle, Jim Murphy threatens to do more damage to Labour’s prospects in Scotland than Nicola Sturgeon or David Cameron ever could. Just when you think things couldn’t get any worse for Labour…
Just what Scotland needs, oor very ain Tricky Dicky. I’m surprised Slippery Jim didn’t snarl at the gathered media: “Yez willnae huv Murphy tae kick aroon’ any mair.”
And the SLP still wonders why the voters have deserted it, never to return. Probably.
For what seems like an age, the SLP has been acting like a nihilistic death cult on a single-minded suicide mission of self-destruction. Now Lord Jim has drunk the Kool-Aid and expects the rest of his branch office to do the same.
So monstrous is his ego, so towering his vanity, so overwhelming his preening self-regard that it’s not enough that he goes. He wants to take the SLP with him.
In any other walk of life, this would be considered psychopathic behaviour. Sociopathic, certainly. Jim Murphy makes Gordon Brown look well-adjusted by comparison.
“My name is Dozimurphiarse, branch manager of branch managers,
Look upon ma works, ye ungrateful scum and despair…”
May I offer a contribution to the much needed debate on the soul of Labour, North and south?
A manifesto for real, honest Labour
Implement the living wage immediately
Commit to a minimum citizen’s income before 2020
Raise all benefits automatically in line with inflation
Renationalise the railways
End privatisation of the NHS and reverse its implementation to date
Alter legislation to eliminate all potential for crony benefits
Hold a referendum on Trident and whether to replace it
Long term cap on energy prices
Sufficient new houses to meet ownership/ rental demand by 2020
Reasonable cap on rent levels
Abandon all tax concessions, and offshore taxation by 2020, and stringently punish tax evasion
Land reform
Steeply progressive taxation throughout the system
Abolish the royal prerogative, and replace with limited emergency powers, to be then ratified by parliament
Reduce MPs salaries to 150% of the average wage, and refund only their actual outlays
Restrict maximum MP term to 10 years
Restrict MP candidacy to those with significant links to the constituency
Make MPs wear hearing aids
Produce significant powers of MP recall and public accountability sessions
Tax and borrow sufficient to achieve these results without delay – the markets will support real planned reforms. The existing situation will otherwise implode anyway
Commit full heartedly to these reforms, and replace equivocal statements with resolute action instead of evasive excuses
This is only the start! Increase equality in all things! Tackle exploitation!
@ chris kilby, a very good post, well put kid!
Put simply the man has no class!
Undignified in power and undignified when resigning. He looks outward to blame others,instead of saying he got it wrong! Sure sign of a sociopath. They have thin skin and can’t ever admit any failings.
His biggest blunder was trying to redefine patriotism. To him it means wearing a Scotland shirt, but letting another country run your nation. Not unlike many Scots. But it could not be called patriotic in any sense. If you are patriotic you value your nations independence above everything else. Is Scottish patriotism different from every other nation on earth!
I get squeamish when people like him talk about patriotism as doing what’s best for your country and voting no. Jim you cannot do what’s best for your country if someone else is running it,end of. You can’t go where you want in a car that someone else is driving!
I think SLAB have been crushed between two nationalisms. The one their leadership believe(d) in – British Nationalism and the one the Tories South of the Border, Red or Blue, believe in – English Nationalism.
Good point, Chic McGregor
Don’t know abot you, but I’m worried.
I think we’re forgetting just what an intellectual superior is: This is ALL PART OF HIS SUBTLE PLAN. He’s outwitting the SNP again by appearing to flush his own career down the toilet.
If you think about it, it’s brilliant. We all think he’s dead and buried and torpedoing the “party he loves” by lashing out at all in sundry but soon, very soon, we’ll all be laughing on the other side of our faces when Mr Murphy returns, Lazarus-like, to strike at the very heart of the evil SNP, evil trade unions, and evil voters.
You’re all being outwitted! Only a matter of time…
@ Dr Ew
I am not sure if you are serious.
If you are then can you actually explain this brilliant strategy? I can’t see it. Perfectly happy to accept that this is because I am less intellectually gifted than you (though not really prepared to accept that I am inferior in brains to Jim Murphy). Join the dots for me, please.
Dr EW …it’s got to be a pisstake.(Are you McTernan or Ian Smart?)
If not then I worry for your sanity!
A wise winger once said:
17 / 14.
14 / 17.
Same thing.
Big splits.
Yes2018.