Wings Over Scotland

There is not yet a vacancy.

Where’s Mundell, oh wrong party…….or is it?

Capella makes a good point. We may have a “Farage moment” by Scottish Labour….by popular demand!

Could the SNP lend them someone to get them back on course? Or perhaps Eric Joyce could go back and instill some much needed discipline in there.

Alternately, and my personal favourite, they simply stop the messing around and merge the leadership campaigns between Scotland and rUK, to come up with a Super Leader will ultimate powers – which is already the reality anyway isn’t it? And it would save them and extra leaders wage. Plus they’re Better Together.

Does anyone know, how much popcorn has been sold in Scotland recently?

@ heedtracker.

He’ll have to do it from the gallery though and I am sure Tricia and also the parliamentary security team will have something to say about that.

@Donald Urquart

That was Nature telling you to give the fags up.

This doesn’t surprise me. There are still some Labour voters who are complaining about how nasty and abusive the Nats are but refuse to accept that there are people like Ian Smart in their own ranks.
Perhaps Murphy has decided to stay on long enough to change the rules on eligibility for the leadership because, as another poster noted, they are indeed scraping the barrel.

One name that doesn’t appear is that of Malcolm Chisholm. Sure, at 66, he’d effectively be a caretaker leader until such time as the Labour party decided where it was going – but he’s not a divisive character, not one of the SNP bad brigade, widely respected in Holyrood, anti-Trident (and resigned over it)…

He’d take a bit of persuading, but he’s about the only figure I can think of who might bring a bit of calm reflection to ScoLab.

Before they decide on a leader first they need to decide how to split up. 1. A loyal northern branch office of UK Labour based on Red Tory policies. i.e. Centre or even slightly Centre Right. or 2. A real Scottish Labour Party with traditional labour values. i. e. more left than centre and totally independent of UK Labour. Once they decide who is in which camp then they can choose a leader. I believe it has to be a sitting MSP or MP and the only MP has nailed his colours to the Northern Branch Office (including any SNP stickers removed from his own office door) therefore narrowing the choice. Of course a third option would be for any decent ones to join the SNP.

The choice is obvious, as is the selection method:
The BBC Scotland staff list can be scoured for nominees and the selection can be by online poll in the Daily Record.

Tru-Labour folk giving Tru-Labour service.

Murphy will join M&M as part of team wannabe Malcolm Tucker.

I’ve seen it, written on an 8′ stone tablet.

Hearald won’t archive:
McTernan tried to bring down the dug it seems, labour split down the middle.
————————————————————–

Jim Murphy: the humbling of a leader.

JIM Murphy announced his resignation as Scottish Labour leader yesterday and took a bitter swipe at the “destructive behaviour” of his trade union nemesis Len McCluskey.

Murphy survived a no-confidence vote by his party – thanks largely to a former MI6 officer in the House of Lords – but he stunned colleagues by saying he would quit next month.

In an attack on Unite general secretary McCluskey, Murphy said the trade unionist’s belief that Scottish Labour was to blame for the UK party’s general election defeat was a “grotesque insult”.

Murphy had gone to ground last week after Scottish Labour lost 39 of its 40 Westminster seats, including his own East Renfrewshire constituency.

The humiliation prompted major trade unions and members of Murphy’s shadow cabinet to call for his head, but he insisted on staying in post.

At a meeting of the party’s Scottish executive committee (SEC) yesterday, Murphy narrowly won the vote by 17-14.

He himself voted – a manoeuvre that raised eyebrows – and a row also broke out about the eligibility of another SEC member.

Under the rules, two members of the UK parliamentary Labour party get an SEC place, but with sole MP Ian Murray getting one vote there was nobody left to fill the other space.

Outgoing UK deputy leader Harriet Harman sent the party a letter saying the slot would be taken up by life peer Meta Ramsay, a former spy and Lords Chair of The Labour Friends of Israel.

She served in the diplomatic service between 1969 and 1991 and was involved in the successful operation to woo former KGB Colonel Oleg Gordievsky.

If she had voted in favour of the no-confidence motion, and Murphy had abstained, the vote would have been a tie.

Her participation was challenged at the SEC, but she was allowed to vote and backed Murphy.

At the meeting, a letter signed by 10 MSPs – around 25% of the group – was handed to the SEC which called on Murphy to quit.

The ten were: Claudia Beamish; Duncan McNeil; Elaine Smith; Margaret McCulloch; Margaret McDougall; Neil Findlay; Cara Hilton; Jayne Baxter; Rhoda Grant; and Alex Rowley.

After the vote, Murphy failed to tell fellow SEC members that he was planning to announce his resignation at a press conference.

He told journalists that he would table a radical set of internal reforms at the next SEC meeting and quit after doing so.

Murphy said “no option will be off the table” for party reform and said Scottish Labour is the “least modernised part of the UK Labour movement”.

However, his angriest comments were reserved for McCluskey.

The source of the dispute between the pair is the Falkirk selection scandal, during which Unite was said to have manipulated the contest in a bid to benefit McCluskey’s friend Karie Murphy.

The then MP had infuriated McCluskey by criticising Unite’s role in the saga.

The outgoing leader said yesterday: “I know that, in the past few days, I have been at the centre of a campaign by the London leadership of Unite the union. They are blaming myself or the Scottish Labour party for the defeat of the UK Labour party at the general election. That is a grotesque insult to the Scottish Labour party.

“It is a grotesque insult to our thousands of volunteers from someone who pays occasional fleeting visits to our great country.”

He slammed the “destructive behaviour of one high profile trade unionist”, adding: “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.”

Murphy and his allies had spent the previous week trying to shore up support amongst different elements in the party.

Council leaders were contacted about signing a pledge of support for the ex-MP, and MSPs were also approached individually with a view to sounding out their loyalty.

In parallel, opposition to Murphy increased as the SEC meeting approached.

Scepticism about the leader was initially confined to trade unions and supporters of Neil Findlay MSP, who Murphy had defeated along with Sarah Boyack in December.

However, Boyack’s supporters also began to peel away, first at a meeting of MSPs in Glasgow and then during the business days of Parliament.

The mood of MSPs darkened after a request for a group meeting was denied by the leader’s allies.

Others were said to be incensed at comments made by Harman that the “group” of MSPs backed Murphy.

While the ten MSPs signed a letter calling for Murphy to quit, a counter letter supporting the leader was handed to the SEC by a group of ex-MPs.

A key figure at the centre of drama was deputy leader Kezia Dugdale, who was deemed to be a shoo-in if her boss quit.

Many of her supporters were urging Murphy to stay, not out of respect for him, but because they felt the timing was wrong for Dugdale to take over.

They believed it would be better if Murphy led Scottish Labour into the 2016 Holyrood election, take the hit, and hand over to Dugdale.

If Dugdale took over immediately, her allies feared she would get hammered next year and become a lame duck.

One senior party insider said the relationship between Dugdale and McTernan – Murphy’s chief of staff – had “broken down completely”.

McTernan had tried to link Dugdale’s future to Murphy’s fate as leader by arguing that a no-confidence motion in his boss was also a rejection of the deputy.

Oh deary, deary me-they are in a mess aren’t they? Just like Labour in England & Wales. Their choices are pretty limited for Labour anywhere in UK. No one comes across as being capable of uniting the party & reaching out to it’s lost voters to entice them back into the fold.

GOOD!!

And I say that being an ex-Labour voter of 40+ years. Good riddance to the lot of them. They don’t represent the people-they represent themselves & their own self serving interests.

What Scotland & England/Wales needs are principled politicians to represent them not this shower of s*** currently in place on both sides of the border. Purge the lot of them & start again if need be.

Retaining the dregs of GE15 failure is not going to work because the poison is still there at Labour’s core in the UK & Scotland branch office and the Labour held councils throughout the UK.

It’s time for progressive parties to find their feet & challenge the status quo in England/Wales just as the SNP #Team56 have done. This is the only way we will get representation of the people back again.

@ Rev Stu

– and that pretty much leaves only Baillie holding the ticking parcel.

Which she will clutch closely to ample bosom.B

is scottish labour ever going to be outside the sphere of influence of the r.uk labour, no.
what it decides will/can always be outvoted by r.uk labour.
as uk labour is doomed to forever chase the tory shadow, it’s stuck in the shite of it’s own creation.

Why isn’t Simon Pia included? He is one of my favourite zoomers.

call me dave says:
17 May, 2015 at 10:13 am

Hearald won’t archive: McTernan tried to bring down the dug it seems, labour split down the middle.

Excellent briefing note. Thanks

Can’t all the Labour Party members in Scotland just take turns at being leader every week? After all there’s only about 30 of them.

Tony Blair, with Gordon Brown as his deputy.

HandandShrimp says:
17 May, 2015 at 10:46 am
A new leader is just a sticking plaster. Labour needs to sort out who they are and what they are for first. In England the indications are that the Blairites are taking over. I doubt that will cut much ice in Scotland.

And this is the crucial point. The focus on leaders is part of the neoliberal mindset. Until they return to an understanding of the leaderS as servants of the people they represent, they are never going to get anywhere. It is telling that they intend to elect a leader and then decide what to do: instead of deciding what to do and then looking for leaderS who embody that plan. Cult of personality is all

Wot no Jackie Burd or Eleanor Bradford???
I’m shocked.

Fiona says:
17 May, 2015 at 11:01 am

HandandShrimp says:

Those turkeys never would vote for Xmas

I am no political expert, but even I can see that Scotland would have to be Independent to stop Scottish Labours inevitable extinction.

Brown & Blair & Darling & Straw… Etc
“British” elder statesmen.. Took their careers right to the top… AT THE EXPENSE OF THEIR BELOVED PARTY…
Now despised by many, irrelevant to the rest, blighted by a history of mismanagement.

Who would follow in these footsteps..?

We are witnessing the end days of Labour.
I had thought that a Labour Party disassembling into an independent Scottish and a separate English/Welsh party would be a route Labour would take, but with the soul searching currently ongoing in England I can’t see this happening.
There is going to be a lot of navel gazing going on before the gestation of a new, refreshed Labour is going to happen, led by Central Office in London.
The only thing that will save Labour in Scotland is for some brave person to advocate a declaration of UDI for the party in Scotland.

Meanwhile elsewhere, ………..

Andy Burham’s running mate and proposed chancellor in 2020’is the one and only Rachel Reeve.

Remember Rachel is the kind soul who stated the labour party should distanced itself from the unemployed and people on benefit.

Expect more from Rachel during the summer, but to provide balance, let’s remind Rachel and the electorate of her past utterances.

No nameplate for the next Leader. Written in chalk.

Anyone know why Katie Clark is not included?

Ian Murray, Scottish Labour’s only M.P at second last place, although I dread to think who’s at 500-1.

@ Croompenstein.

(Ian Smart/Billy Smart)

Aye, same circus, different tent.

🙂

@CatSilver

I do not believe that. To me that is a tory narrative which will result in wipeout for labour in England just as it has in Scotland. I think it is true that more english voters are tory than Scottish voters, but I do not think that has every been Labour’s core constituency anywhere. You do need swing voters, but they are icing on the cake of core support. Alienate your core and you cannot win.

The english labour voters as yet have nowhere obvious to go: and labour take that for granted, as they did in Scotland. It seems to be inconceivable to the labour party that what happened in Scotland can happen there too: but it can and I think it is only a matter of time.

I believe that Labour will not survive anywhere in the UK unless they realise this. It is a matter of simple arithmetic, at one level: how many swing voters are there, and how will they make up for the loss of 40 scottish seats?

Scotland has shown that there is an alternative, and I think that the fear mongering about the SNP derives from that: our plutocrats do not wish the english electorate to learn they can do something about what is happening. But they can, and the example is there now.

I do not know where the english alternative will come from: but come it will, I am certain. There is a broad centre left constituency everywhere, just as there are centre right tories. None of them are represented in rUK at present, for they have only hard right parties to vote for, including the red tories. That will change, or so I believe

If I have learned one thing, it is that consequences take a long time to follow and we are not very good at thinking in those time frames: eg. the consequences of selling off the council houses or implementing PFI were slow. But they are there to see now, if we choose to relate cause and effect

@ call me dave (10.13am).

Thank you for the effort put into that post.

Very interesting indeed – they’re a complete and utter shambles.

Lets clear them out of Scotland, at every level.

Let the games commence.
🙂

Good article at Ponsonby Post, which I will not archive as this is a “real” (not corporate) media.

“… it’s not beyond the bounds of possibility that Murphy is laying the ground for some ex-MPs to be shoe-horned into Holyrood constituencies. Such a plan would introduce real political muscle into the Holyrood Labour group. It would also ensure London gained a foothold in the Scottish Parliament at a time when Nicola Sturgeon’s Government is engaged in a major constitutional struggle with Westminster.

“All well and good you may say, but what’s in it for Murphy? I suspect a peerage of some sort for his services. Murphy is now as toxic in Scotland as the Tory party. The former Secretary of State gambled his career when he took over from Lamont. It was a gamble he lost spectacularly. All that remains for him is the House of Lords.

“Jim will look after Jim until the end. That’s what he’s good at.”

link to ponsonbypost.com

Is there any point to SLab reforming and attempting to move forward?

Hasn’t anyone noticed, independence has happened here in Scotland (politically at least), we now just await the twitching of the dying SLab at the fringes so that we can focus on the real job ahead.

And now we have Ian Murray promoting Kezia as a satisfactory replacement to Murphy, having at the very least “shown how she holds the Scottish Government to account week in & out”.

Say’s it all…myopic…delusional…lost…

I’m surprised it’s any more likely than this

link to ipad.paddypower.mobi

Did anyone see the photo of Jackie Baillie that the BBC used last night?
It must have been taken about 20 years ago. Either that or she has slimmed down a hell of a lot in the last week.

As shrimp and others have said, Labour in Scotland need to figure out WHO they are, WHO they represent and WHAT they are for?

They have spent so much time over the decades morphing to appease various demographics, expended so much effort in the toxic politics of fear and smear, that they effectively alienated themselves from the electorate. When they needed support, it was a support from those that they have othered, offended and betrayed. It was support from the people who created Labour in the first place. And still in their defeat they blamed those people, apparently we simply didn’t understand.

No, we simply understood Labour only too well. People shifted their support because Labour no longer represented or reflected the interests of their electorate. That electorate simply found a home which they felt more comfortable with.

The politicians, the policy wonks, the media commentators are scattering about blame for Labour’s demise in Scotland like a muck spreader in a park. They blame (naturally) the SNP, the public’s ability to comprehend their message, individuals within their own party and its affiliates. They haven’t looked in the one place they are most likely to find the answer… the mirror.

The only people responsible for the demise of Labour and indeed all of the establishment parties in Scotland, is themselves. They chose to direct the electorate rather than be directed. They chose the politics of fear and manipulation. They chose to abandon founding ideals in favour of corporate compromise, pursuit of power and position for their own sake. They chose to turn on their own electorate and use any means at their disposal to break our society into alienated demographics which they could then play off against each other to suit the agenda of the day.

They all did this, whilst mismanaging our lives and economy over a period of decades and now Karma is coming to town.

The answer, if any party type is scanning this thread, is right in front of you. A heart sick and royally pissed off electorate have chosen to overhaul their politics without your permission. We don’t need it you see. Its our politics, our governance and people have simply decided, right across the political spectrum of Scotland, that you don’t speak for us any more.

Every time I see Ian Murray, I can’t get the image of him wearing a jacket covered in Union Jacks out of my mind.

The sight of him gives me the creeps.

@One_Scot,

Likewise.

Watching him after he won Ed South, when the interviewer held up a copy of his Murray leaflet (anyone got a copy of it) – he turned particularly nasty.

I real eye opener.

Blair Mcdougall sadly not making the running. He is a proven winner.

Also why no hobbits or time-lords?

Actually a time travelling hobbit might be what labour need.

Cynicalhighlander @ 12.08

” How can anyone lead a vacuum?”

Ask Schrödinger’s cat.

The one that was alive and dead at the same time.

“Actually a time travelling hobbit might be what labour need.”

Or a dwarf, Lord Foulkes does look a bit like Ken Stott (sorry Ken).

@ Chic McGregor

I am NOT afraid o Baggins: brick hard, me 😉

Jackie Baillie….hahaha … Enough with the jokes folks. Now its ‘they should look at an interim’…how bad is it when prople seriously propose Jackie Peroni Baillie.

Its like grouting your tiles while your house falls down.

Loving the new soundbite “Kez”…used by her fans all morning on BBC..trying to soften her Harpy image already but that wont soften her Murphy style aggression so shes not the answer.

@jimnarlene says: 17 May, 2015 at 9:32 am:

“Does anyone know, how much popcorn has been sold in Scotland recently?”

No selt tae me it’s no. It gies mi wind. The wee dug objects. Nae mair pop corn fir me. A wee cup o tea an a digestive biscuit wull dae fine.

What a dilemma for Labour in Scotland. Left with a bunch of less than mediocre politicians……… absolute washouts in fact. The serial liar Baillie and Dugdale who’s too inexperienced / weak to run a Party. What happened to the John Smiths and Robin Cooks of the Party?

The second problem that they have is in deciding if they are ‘Keir Hardie’ types or ‘Blairites’.

Blairite values / ideology it’s clear is totally unacceptable to the vast majority of Scots. The Hardies won’t sit well with their right wing bosses down South.

And while I’m on the subject every Scottish Labour Politician should be totally transparent and inform us of THEIR views on Trident, austerity, privatisation and so on instead of hiding under Westminsters brolly.

Will Scots vote for decent, hardworking ‘Hardie’ politicians in future Elections knowing that the best outcome for them (if Labour ever wins again) will be a ‘Blairite’ Government ruling them from London. I can’t see it happening.

The only way forward for the SBO of the Labour Party now is to join the SNP to fight for Scottish Independence.

Jim Murphy wasn’t in the job for 5 months at all. He’s been a main player for years now. It didn’t work out for him (or did it?) and his parting gift, bully boy dictate, to the Party will be one of ensuring that the nuts and bolts of Westminster domination of Scotland are tightened. Then he’ll head off to the House of Lords or MI5 (or both).

@Maccart 12:25 – you beat me to it mate but spot on as usual.

Even now, 10 days later, they are still in denial. Murphy’s assault on Len McClusky for telling the truth tells you all you need know about the route (Not) Labour has chosen.

They long since abandoned those that needed them most. So hell mend them.

@Chic McGregor

On present form, the best that SLab will offer will be Baw-Baggins

If anyone really wants to know the score of what is going on behind the scenes with the Labour Party in both Scotland an the rUK I’ll point you in the right direction.

It is the same old internal strife that began with NuLabour and Tony Blair. There were two factions then and there are two factions now. It used to be Blarites & Brownites and both of those guys are still around.

DimJim made reference to things going on in the background, (those in the party out to get him). Remember Alex Rowley and that faction are Brownites and two of them resigned their front bench roles just a few days ago I listed some under watch this space. Keep an eye on Rowley.

When old wood goes rotten you cut it out and replace it with good wood
You don’t scrabble around trying to find a bit that’s OK to use again, you burn it

The SNP will not, can not, stand in England
The clue’s in the name
The point of the party is Independence for Scotland by hook or by crook not to allow ourselves to be sucked into the Yookay to be absorbed yet again when we’re halfway out the door
I for one don’t want to be British,UKish or any other constructed name Unionists want to come up with
I’m looking forward to my Scottish Passport and being respected in the world for having left a warmongering, corrupt, racist union of Anti everybody except the rich politics

A country who voted for the ethnic cleansing of the poor from London using the bedroom tax
A country who only likes white immigrants as long as they contribute and don’t claim any human rights
A country who whether they say so or not hates the very thought of Scottish people (David Camerons tactics proved that)
A country where my own relatives phone me up to ask if i’m alright under that terrible Sturgeon woman because of the hordes of flag waving thugs in the streets (Media)
A country where education is not a priority (you don’t want an electorate who will actually understand what’s going on)
A country who have been kicked out of every other country in the world just for being Bad Bastirts

Aaah I feel better for that

Dr Jim 1.27pm
Agreed.

Clootie said at 9.19 am “We may have a “Farage moment” by Scottish Labour….by popular demand!”
The Scottish branch office has already had a “reverse-Farage” moment.

link to eurofree3.wordpress.com

Ian Smart has blogged on the SLAB leadership question.

He doesn’t think any of those currently eligible to stand (which would be their sole MP, their MEPs and MSPs) are “viable candidates” (ouch). He opines that if Kez didn’t think she had the credentials months ago to be leader, she still doesn’t have them. He suggests a US-style ‘primary’ election where voters could express a preference as to who should be leader. And (get this), maybe the Daily Record could help with such a primary!

For those who suggest that there should be some sort of ‘independent’ Scottish Labour Party, he rejects that outright. Independence would leave Scotland “economically impoverished and culturally crippled”.

Here we go, here we go, here we go! link to wp.me

A previous life Labour voter, prior to the GE, said to me:

“I now realise, after all this time, that I was never pro Labour. I was anti-Tory”

This one line, for me, says so much in so few words.

teddy bear’s Corky is not in the betting Jeezo

As Famous15 says.

Why this whistleblower’s warnings should spell the death knell for Trident
link to archive.is

Dr Jim @ 1.27

Fuckin A

Have the same concerns.

The uk is finished.

We need to get out of this bloody mess not get further embroiled in it.

Bad bastirts indeed.

@Legerwood
“Ask Schrödinger’s cat.

The one that was alive and dead at the same time.”

That’s a 10 if you were referring to Murphy’s leadership quantum status.

The MS media and Labour in England now seem to be united in their message that Labour didn’t win because they didn’t move to the right to gain the centre ground. Are they deliberatly ignoring the elephant in the room?

35% of voters in England chose not to vote and an estimated 15- 20% of the populaton are not even registered. Not only is this deeply damaging for democracy it shifts the perseption of the centre ground in favour of those who do vote.

Labour cannot win on a left wing agenda in England without reaching out to the half of the population who currently do not feel represented in main stream politics. Just as they cannot win in Scottland without reaching out to the 45% who voted yes. In England more people chose not to vote at all than voted for the party curently in power.

Bringing down new labour and replacing it with a genuine left wing / socialist party is the first step to dismantleing the neo liberal consensus in politics and the MS media. We are close to achieving this in Scotland, we need to continue to educate and expand the voting base and unite the left before the holywood elections next year if we are to make further progress.

Here’s a real outsider. A really dark horse but a GG which could just come up on the inside track.

George Galloway gets a Lordship of convenience and simultaneously rejoins SLAB.

Impossible? Not quite.

Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Pienaar’s Politics, Mr McCluskey said he understood Mr Murphy was “hurting” but claimed his “arrogance” was part of why Labour had failed in Scotland.
He said: “He represented the ideology that has completely alienated (voters) … not just in the election, not just in the (independence) referendum, but for years.

“Since 2008 the SNP have been gaining ground and Scottish Labour have displayed an arrogance that unfortunately led us to where we were at the general election.
“The majority of my members in Scotland voted SNP. What I predicted would happen with Jim Murphy unfortunately came to pass.” ‘Pressure will grow’

Mr McCluskey issued a warning that Unite’s affiliation to Labour could be reconsidered unless it showed it was the “voice of ordinary working people, that they are the voice of organised labour”.
“It is up to them. If they don’t, if they kind of inject more disillusionment in the party then the pressure will grow from our members to rethink. It is certainly already growing in Scotland.
“We have a rules conference in my union in July and there’s already a number of resolutions from Scotland seeking to release them from the rule that kind of limits us just to the Labour Party.”

PS:
Minority sport for non-sky viewers.

Heads up 15:30hrs QoS V Rangers

link to myp2p.ec

The smart move from Labour would be to appoint Malcolm Chisholm as leader up until the election, since he’ll be stepping down anyway. That way, they don’t “burn” any of their members who is hoping for a long-term career in the Labour party.

Chisholm would be in the Parliament to question the SNP at FNQ’s until the election, and would stand aside to allow a real leadership contest to take place after next year’s presumed defeat. His reconciliatory approach could even rub off on the rest of the party.

However, Labour and the “smart move” have proved incompatible in recent years.

@Piemonteis

“The smart move from Labour would be to appoint Malcolm Chisholm as leader up until the election”

Shhh, haud yer wheesht. 😉

I may be being a bit gung-ho on this but I find it quite credible that Murphy will try, with his cronies, to slide as many of his ilk as possible into Holyrood next year; thereby giving London a ‘foothold’, just as Ponsonby suggests. It would be in keeping with ‘Scottish’ New Labour’s betrayal of their history, of their principles and of their country.

The gung-ho bit comes now – the fight now is to totally eradicate New Labour in Scotland: every MSP that hasn’t the guts to be Scottish first and Labour second; every crooked Labour councillor with their brown envelopes and pals in the building trade; every lickspittle, Blairite, warmongering, London-loving toady; every last one of them – clear them out, banish them, wash out the whole dung-bespattered stable of them. With few exceptions they are a cancer on the Scottish body politic. Every seat in Holyrood, every place on a Scottish council must go to someone who is NOT New Labour. Not a single list MSP for them, not so much as a job as a doorman at the parliament; get rid of all of them. Rout them – drag their snouts out of the expenses trough, prise the backhanders out of their sweaty, grasping fists and send them packing and, if it can be proven that they are corrupt and dishonest, jail them. Use the votes that the working class fought for and suffragettes died for to burn their party; bury it and salt the ground. In doing so, Scotland will be doing the remnants of the true Labour movement a favour – perhaps only from the ashes of total destruction can their party rise anew but one thing is sure, it cannot rise from the embers of Murphy, McTiernan, Curran and Project Fear.

Although I may feel sorry for people like Malcolm Chisholm, they too deserve a better party than the one they have now. I am more angry at New Labour than I ever could be at the Tories. The latter are exactly what they appear to be; the party of capital and vested financial interests. They may be heartless, evil monsters but they are, at least, consistent monsters. My fury is not only mine but that of my father and my father’s father, people who were socialists and trade unionists – as am I. New Labour has nothing to say to us but, by god, we have plenty to say to them.

Here’s quite a green idea. Why don’t the Slabbers just once and for all ditch that pap about socialism and the like and reinvent/recycle themselves as the new improved (S)SDP just like they wanted to do in the eighties? Morningside would be thrilled – a political party with a social conscience? There’s got to be a market for it, surely? There, that’s their way back in. Brilliant!

Murphy will try a Farage

A vacuum you say, in 11 months time, tactical voting will wipe out the remaining unionists in holyrood, the councils will follow shortly after. This cull isn’t over

Bt2 indyref2 will be lead by john barrowman wailing along to a Bowie cover version of No more borders “hit” single

Labour are fighting over a cadaver, they mistake the involuntary twitching as signs of life but the box is open and the cat is out of the bag there is no longer any uncertainty, dead is dead.

Once we have finished with labour, they may as we’ll meet in a room above a pub for all they will have left to discuss 🙂

@SC
That’ll be “The Doo Inn” I suppose.

No matter who takes over the leadership role in Scotland they face a severe shortfall in government funding as will the LibDems unless they can get some very rich donors on board. Every MP gets £660,000 spread over the 5 year term, insolvency beckons.

@cirsium 1.13pm

A really excellent essay. Thanks for the link. Would recommend anyone to follow the link to be reminded of the sheer wickedness of the Blair-Brown project. Remember also that both made much of their Christian beliefs – Blair, a Catholic convert and Brown, the son of the manse.

It’s the Labour party of their ‘modernisation’ project which London Labour and their media friends wish to revive. The haste with which Mandelson, the chief necromancer, rushed to shovel dirt over the recently dead Milliband leadership shows them at their unedifying worst.

I can’t believe that the English electorate wants two ruthless parties of business vying for their votes. I hope that some signs of grassroots stirring against the present Westminster system results in a changed landscape with real political representation for the disadvantaged.

Chic McGregor @2.45

“That’s a 10 if you were referring to Murphy’s quantum status”

Absolutely: he’s alive but his career is dead.

He had a superposition as Leader of Labour in Scotland which collapsed as soon as he interacted with, and was observed by, the real world.

Quantum theory as applied to Labour – fits it to a ‘T’

Scottish Parliament Elections – Thursday 5 May 2016.

Scottish Local Council Elections – Thursday 4 May 2017.

Lets wipe the lot of them out.

Oh, and btw, at some point over these next 2-years we are going to be having some sort of Hokey-Cokey, In-Out, Shindig.
🙂

@CameronB Brodie

Thanks for the links.

My point isn’t about ‘grassy knoll’ conspiracy re: David Kelly, it’s the metaphor concerning the general slime that accompanies any situation like this where the big boys are being undermined by the peasants.

The cynic in me wonders what next will occur in this matter?

I have no trust whatsoever in the actions of WM…

@ Helena Brown (5.08pm).

Nothing, but nothing, would make me more happier.

Well, apart from independence.

JGedd

Lets not forget Blair was an Anglican until he LEFT office..thanks to openly accepted discrimination against Catholics being P.M

Grizzle McPuss
‘Grassy knoll’? Now that was a proper conspiracy. 🙂

Sorry, my internet’s on the fritz.

@ Fiona.
You may very well be correct BUT i can’t see any possibility of that happening any time soon, unless we are caught sitting on our erchies and taking things for granted.

No-matter how much L!ebore try to dress themselves up, at the end of the day, the public will see they are still the same old tired fur coat and no knickers brigade.

We need to work just as hard over the next 2-years as we did in the run up to GE15 and take absolutely nothing for granted.

@velofello says: 17 May, 2015 at 5:46 pm:

“Maybe it is not in fact pooling of resources, more like “gunboat” diplomacy, to demonstrate to Scotland where power and the scope and intent to meddle, lies.”

Any of you old enough to remember The Amethyst Incident, also known as the Yangtze Incident, will remember how the Chinese deal with Gunboat diplomacy.

In 1949 it involved the British Royal Navy ship HMS Amethyst being trapped on the Yangtze River for three months, during the Chinese Civil War.

We could do a River Forth incident or better still a Clyde Base Incident, stop their big Willy waving for three months and teach those, “EVEL”, Britnats a lesson.

It was quite a story in its day.

link to hmslondon.org.uk