Given that he’s the last Labour MP left in Scotland, it’s perhaps just as well that Ian Murray is a quite interesting figure, because there’s going to be a lot of attention on him in the next five years.
Unlike the over-promoted, under-skilled, Buggins’-turn knife-and-fork-operators who’ve disgraced what were previously weigh-the-vote Labour constituencies in Scotland for decades, the member for Edinburgh South has some genuinely admirable qualities. As we noted before the election, he’s earned a reputation as a hard-working local MP: holding surgeries, replying diligently to letters and speaking up in the Commons.
He’s got a sense of humour about his lonely role, he’s the only Unionist politician ever to talk to Wings on the record, and on account of running a large tent at the Bath Festival most years he’s well known to several of our good friends in the city, who all speak highly of his personal character and work ethic.
So in all seriousness, we’re not without respect for the man. Which makes it all the more painful every time he opens his mouth.
Ever since the SNP’s unexpected majority in 2011, there’s been a constant low-level whine of “one-party state” from various elements of the Unionist establishment. (The first example we could find from a quick Google search was Liberal Democrat buffoon Sir Malcolm Bruce in September of that year.)
It’s a curiously bitter and irrational way to refer to the outcome of democratic elections held under proportional representation, reflecting a worrying contempt for the views of voters, but after the SNP saw the benefits of First Past The Post in May 2015 (having spent decades being its victim), the angry bleating has become far more noticeable.
(The most recent politician to use the phrase was the Lib Dems’ current leader Tim Farron. Perhaps the party is engaging in displacement activity to distract itself from its craven abandonment in 2010 of its lifelong commitment to introduce PR, selling its principles cheaply for ministerial cars and a referendum on what Nick Clegg called the “miserable little compromise” of AV, which was then lost by a humiliating margin.)
The editor of the New Statesman just tweeted this image, trailing an interview with Jim Murphy, who alert readers may recall led Scottish Labour for a few months this year before its apocalyptic disaster of a general election campaign which saw it lose 40 of the 41 Scottish seats it won in 2010:
Oh, wait – maybe he’s trying to claim the credit for it.
Alert readers may recall an incident last year in which the Scottish media got itself very worked up about some independence supporters threatening to boycott holiday company Barrhead Travel after its owner sent a barking-mad letter to staff about how the company would go out of business if Scotland voted Yes.
So we’re sure that you won’t be able to move later today and tomorrow for newspaper articles about something similar, but significantly worse, that happened this weekend.
And that’s all very well, but not exactly stop-the-presses stuff – nobody reading this site is going to be terribly surprised at Scottish Labour being caught out in a lie. But the party’s house newspaper the Daily Record went for a subtly different angle on the story that did manage to provoke us to raise an eyebrow.
So we weren’t expecting this. The Telegraph have sent us a reply after we complained to IPSO about this. It’s worth a read, so we thought we’d let you see it.
We’ve got a book to read today, folks, so we’ll be with you later.
We expect it to be in the top three funniest things we read today, but to be honest with you we wouldn’t like to commit to anything more specific than that.
Kezia Dugdale talking to Gordon Brewer on BBC Scotland today:
“I’m astonished that you’ve spent 10 minutes in this interview talking about independence and Trident when almost 50% of the poorest kids in the country can’t read […] I’m sure you’d be shocked to know that 50% of the poorest kids leave our schools unable to read.”
We suspect he would too. Because it’s total cobblers.
Hatey McHateface on Strike A Pose, There’s Nothing To It: “No Mexico, no party! MSM reporting 3, maybe 4, dead celebrating their win over Ecuador. With such dedication, they deserve…” Jul 1, 19:58
Hatey McHateface on Strike A Pose, There’s Nothing To It: “Seth MacFarlane is superb training for identifying and puncturing pretentious old farts.” Jul 1, 19:34
Hatey McHateface on Strike A Pose, There’s Nothing To It: “Dunno Connie. I migrated to CD’s back in the day, and now even they are laughed to scorn. It’s all…” Jul 1, 19:27
Hatey McHateface on The Fast Track: “Thanks for clearing that up, Alf. “The root of colonialism is fascism” (Cesaire) “Helps us locate the origins of fascism…” Jul 1, 19:24
Connie Davidson on Strike A Pose, There’s Nothing To It: “Just where do you come in Hatey? And where do you get off? Is there some criminality involved here, of…” Jul 1, 18:24
Connie Davidson on Strike A Pose, There’s Nothing To It: “No. Not just you. This is the state we are in. The “United Kingdom” and “the Crown” are imposed on…” Jul 1, 18:21
Jay on Strike A Pose, There’s Nothing To It: “Campbell clansman, please name the party or parties to whom you refer by your first word “they” in your comment.…” Jul 1, 18:13
100%Yes on ACC Houston, We Have A Problem: “When I watched the video John Logue I got the impression he was thinking a lot on how to answer…” Jul 1, 17:47
Jack Thomson on ACC Houston, We Have A Problem: “There are also huge questions re potential unrecorded income. This doesn’t seem to have been addressed. The Manchester auditors qualified…” Jul 1, 16:46
Alf Baird on The Fast Track: “We should not confuse nationalism with fascist-imperialism. The imperial state tendency has been to portray Nazism as ‘nationalism’, which it…” Jul 1, 16:17
Cynicus on Strike A Pose, There’s Nothing To It: “AlMac says: 1 July, 2026 at 12:41 pm “……the 75-minute video is starting to look attractive when faced with 8000…” Jul 1, 15:59
Insider on The Fast Track: “Alf, Since you’ve made a complete fool of yourself trying to quote Orwell….how about trying Einstein next ? “Nationalism is…” Jul 1, 15:52
robertkknight on ACC Houston, We Have A Problem: ““ACC Houston, We Have Eh Problem” surely? Waiting staff in restaurants must love him…” Jul 1, 15:40
Cynicus on ACC Houston, We Have A Problem: “Incidentally, Peter Bell lavishly praises the Rev. in his piece, “ Solid Fog”, a few days ago. He is excoriated…” Jul 1, 15:13
sarah on ACC Houston, We Have A Problem: “I meant to say that the title gave me a chuckle. I daresay they are enjoying it at Police Scotland…” Jul 1, 15:10
lothianlad on ACC Houston, We Have A Problem: “Honestly STU, Your dilligence must be making them really nervous. Well done for your persistance.” Jul 1, 15:00
Captain Caveman on The Fast Track: “@Alf “Orwell was around slightly before postcolonial theory had really developed” Good grief, first you’re name dropping Orwell left, right…” Jul 1, 14:59
Hatey McHateface on The Fast Track: “That narrative would be more compelling if we didn’t have the example of the EU referendum to dispel it. There…” Jul 1, 14:06
Hatey McHateface on The Fast Track: “Chronology tells us that colonialism developed millennia before Fascism. But we don’t let awkward facts get in the way of…” Jul 1, 13:57
Hatey McHateface on Strike A Pose, There’s Nothing To It: “Shakespearean tragedy! WTAF are you on about! It’s a comedy the likes of which not even The Bard could have…” Jul 1, 13:52
Cynicus on ACC Houston, We Have A Problem: “Thanks for doing that, Rev. Like Peter Bell, many of us prepare reading transcripts of testimony to video. The services…” Jul 1, 13:45
Peter McAvoy on Strike A Pose, There’s Nothing To It: “Is it just me or does the term crown agent sound like a medieval tyrants minion or dystopian fiction.” Jul 1, 13:40
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The Fast Track: “« The purpose of NEWSPEAK was not only to provide a medium of expression for the world-view and mental habits…” Jul 1, 13:34
