The sure thing?
Here’s a picture of Jim Murphy campaigning for a No vote a few weeks ago.
Except it isn’t, is it?
Alert readers will have noticed that almost every single person in the shot above, taken from Murphy’s tour of 100 street corners on an Irn-Bru crate, is already holding a No Thanks placard. It’s the literal definition of preaching to the converted, and even with the combined strength of Labour, the Tory and Lib Dem activists from the “Better Together” campaign to draw on he’s struggled to pull a crowd of a dozen people.
We know the story was the same all over Scotland (until some idiot hit him with an egg and unleashed a massive media blitz that lasted several days). Discounting party workers paid to be there and often shuttled to several “events” in succession, the East Renfrewshire MP was speaking to audiences in single figures.
It’s not exactly box-office. Anthea Turner would have been embarrassed to pull so few punters. And yet to read the Scottish media this morning, you’d think that Murphy’s coronation as the new pseudo-leader of Scottish Labour was a mere formality.
Former Labour adviser Catherine McLeod coos all over him in this morning’s Herald, dismissing opponents Sarah Boyack and Neil Findlay with “both have strengths but few can imagine them surviving the heat of First Minister’s Questions” – apparently unaware that Murphy wouldn’t be able to appear at FMQs at all for at least 18 months.
(Unless a tame MSP could be persuaded to stand down and trigger a by-election, of course, which would be a strategy fraught with enormous risk. Murphy’s no gambler, which we suspect is why he waited to declare his intent until there were at least two other candidates standing to split the “not-Murphy” vote.)
But while we’re no experts on the internal turmoil of Scottish Labour, we’re not at all sure we can see such an easy path to victory as most of the press and broadcast media. Murphy inhabits the extreme right wing of Labour – he sits alongside the likes of Tom Harris, a similarly sneery, abrasive Nat-basher who stood against Johann Lamont in 2011 and was roundly thrashed, securing less than 8% of the vote.
Scottish Labour still chooses its leader through an “electoral college”, with the vote split into three equal parts comprising rank-and-file members, elected representatives (MPs, MSPs and MEPs), and affiliated trade unions. And we’re having some trouble working out which of those Murphy could expect a lot of votes from.
The unions seem to offer slim pickings – they’re widely expected to heavily back the left-wing candidate Neil Findlay. And we’re not convinced that Labour’s rank-and-file are going to be super-keen on a pro-Trident, anti-Palestine, pro-war Blairite like Murphy – they certainly didn’t turn out in their thousands for his tour, and he doesn’t cut a likely figure as the man to win back the swathes of working-class Labour voters in places like Glasgow who voted Yes in the independence referendum.
That only leaves the M/S/EP group, and as a long-running factional war seethes between the party’s Holyrood and Westminster representatives it seems a stretch to imagine a great deal of MSP support for bringing about a situation where both Scottish Labour’s leader and deputy would be male Westminster MPs. Nicola Sturgeon, we’re certain, would be delighted to spend every FMQ right up to the 2016 Holyrood election mocking the fact that whoever was facing her was, at the very best, Labour’s THIRD-choice frontperson.
Even in the London redoubt there’s some pretty public distaste for Murphy among the party’s old guard. So while Findlay should be able to count on the left and Boyack occupies the favourable centre ground, for Murphy to get elected seems to be reliant on a very sizeable proportion of Scottish Labour’s remaining grassroots members being a lot more right-wing than most observers imagine.
The only other factor that could work in his favour is if the media succeed in painting him as “the man the SNP are afraid of”, winning over both rank-and-file and Holyrood support (and probably pointing to articles like this one). But frankly, if we were the SNP we’d be praying he won, and we’re not sure anyone’s going to swallow that line no matter how hard the Scotsman or the Spectator pushes it.
(Indeed, one could reasonably argue that a Scottish Labour leadership candidate needs the backing of the Spectator like they need an anvil dropped on their heads.)
The battle to save the soul of Scottish Labour has six weeks to run. There may yet be more players, although we’d be surprised if anyone else joined the fray now. In this site’s view Sarah Boyack remains the only sane choice, as we noted way back on Saturday morning when not a single other pundit was mentioning her name – both Findlay and Murphy, for different reasons, will only amplify the destructive tensions between Labour in Holyrood and Westminster, not soothe them.
But Scottish Labour has been a stranger to sanity for a long time now. Only time will tell if it regains its senses and turns back from the abyss, or whether it charges headlong and irretrievably into it, enraged by the shadow of the SNP on its walls.
That’s a fair analysis Stu but I note that the BBC are already talking as though Murphy is the only show in town.
Aye, we came across Murphy on his 100 day holiday a couple of times. Always with his little entourage, he never attracted a crowd.
Maybe we should hope that he is elected “leader of Labour in Scotland”. That should convince people once and for all that they should quietly wither.
Boyack’s the one I think will be the most effective at reviving Labour’s fortunes in Scotland (and therefore the most dangerous to the pro-independence movement), but Murphy with be the BBC’s darling, not to mention being bigged up by the Record, etc.
Mind you, going by past form ‘Scottish’ Labour’s bid for the coveted and rare political Darwin award will no doubt continue apace.
The problem for Mr Murphy is that the Scottish electorate know exactly what he’s all about already.
Mr Murphy is all about what’s best for Mr Murphy.
for Murphy to get elected seems to be reliant on a very sizeable proportion of Scottish Labour’s remaining grassroots members being a lot more right-wing than most observers imagine.
Sadly I suspect that is very much the case. It’s not trendy to be Tory in Scotland, so many Labour members are basically Tories who want to be in “the right” party. This is especially true of those young careerists who want to get on – they look to London and the wider UK party as their route for advancement. That’s precisely why they were so keen on Better Together. Then there is the older guard who are simply SNP-haters. They’ll vote for the candidate they think will be most effective at bashing the SNP, regardless of their other policies.
Those who were in Labour a few short years ago and aren’t like those two groups are likely the ones who have left in droves.
I wouldn’t discount between them, a pro-Murphy media and a deliberately engineered split vote him winning easily. Then a seat will be similarly engineered.
remember Clydedale bank threat to leave Scotland during referendum if YESA
oh dear
The Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks are being readied for a stock market flotation after their Australian owner confirmed plans to exit UK banking.
The bbc and the rest of the MSM will try to force Murphy’s coronation so they can promote a war between the SNP and Labour.anti SNP headlines on a daily basis as rabble rouser Murphy gets more and more limelight. And the Labour clique at BBC Scotland will find him fights to pick.Not good democracy but it sells papers.
“Tom Harris, a similarly sneery, abrasive Nat-basher who stood against Johann Lamont in 2011 and was roundly thrashed”
Oh the humiliation! Can you imagine the sort of failed politican you have to be to be roundly thrashed by the likes of Jola?!?
Bring Murphy on… He can only possibly attract votes from other tory (blue, yellow) parties and can only further split the dying dinosaur that is the red tory party. Surely the old labour vote must migrate to the SNP, SSP, Greens…
You can be sure that the media will try to portray Murphy as some sort of genius, the way that the Guardian bigs up the hapless buffoon that is Gordon Brown. I would almost sign a 38 Degrees petition to get Murphy fast-tracked into Holyrood just for the joy of seeing Nicola wipe the floor with him day in, day out.
Be sure that this is some bizarre London-based policy move by a completely out-of-touch Red Tory Party — the fact that the Red Tories are STILL led by Ed Milliband tells you all you need to know about how on form they are… And, anyway, the whole purpose of the Red Tories is not to oppose the Blue Tories, but to try and just perpetrate the sham of “HM Opposition”, not to *actually* oppose…
Well, the Record seems to want Jim. There’s a massive two page splash on him in today’s edition. And the Spectator article above says it’s the obvious springboard that Jim needs to take Miliband’s place. It’s worth a read btw. Has some great lines in it, like this one:
His tour of Scotland was a bravura performance…the sight of him being met by mobs determined to shout him down provided a chilling preview of how dissent would be treated in a Nationalist-run Scotland..
One of the few good interviews to come out of the BBC during the referendum campaign was Hayley Millar’s slicing and dicing of Jim on GMS. Completely lost, all at sea, calling for his mum, she chewed him up and spat him out.
It’s here if you want a listen to rare example of a rigorous BBC interview of a BT politician that made it past the political commissar. Enjoy.
Murphy was campaigning for nothing else except to save his own career.
Heartwarming signs that the political mafia in the media is losing its grip on people (grip on reality long gone)
The BBC loves those right wing politicians! Now, if only Murphy would come out for UKIP…
BBC Scotland has already transformed into BBC Murphy. Brian Taylor’s paean to Murphy this morning suggests that he is a shoo-in, and, since the BBC and Labour are indistinguishable, there’s every reason to suspect the BBC’s take is correct.
Murphy will be lionised on BBC Murphy for the next few weeks just to make sure though.
The BBC is a tabloid broadcaster now, and so will promote whoever, in its view will attract an audience,be it Farage, Murphy, or thon wee knaff with a smart turn of phrase who has been known to wear a catsuit, now hats, George something or other. His name isn’t important, nor him but the BBC believe he is box office stuff.
happily I’m no longer a BBC customer, doubt if I ever will return. Life is too short to spend much time watching and listening to nonsense.
Wings lists above websites where you can access, read, and contribute to sensible discussion.
Boyack has a touch of the Gordon Browns about her, may be a credible politician but never gonna gather enough public appeal to win an election.
Politics is about personality these days. Murphy has that, as vile as it is, he has that. Labour Principles went out the door with Michael Foots duffle-coat. Look at Cameron, Clegg and Farage, all in place due to appeal of their persona rather than great political ability. Even wee Ruth usurped professional politicians when she got the top Tory job in Scotland.
Its Murphys to lose and the Labour HQ and Scottish Media will do all they can to make it so. The referendum showed us how unlikely Labour voters are to think for themselves. Could Sarah Boyack end up looking at joining her mate Jim with the Deputy job ( ie he will soon be lumping everything bar media appearances on her).
As for Neil Findlay, all this Left wing Labour socialist dreaming, will it ever end? Those days are past now, and in the past they shall remain. London Labour says so!
Boyack and Findlay look scared though. They looked frightened on Sarah Smith show last night. They both have that fear in their eyes, like its dawned on them they’re merely tory boy stooges in Scotland protecting England’s interests in our very weird region, ruled by the BBC.
Murphy’s just power hungry. He’ll do anything for his imperial masters.
Betty Boop
Any idea who paid for his 100 day holiday, accommodation, petrol etc, or was he always near enough his home to get back for his tea?
Sarah Boyack is not a bad politician, she would be an asset in an independent Scotland. She is a thoughtful speaker and a pleasant parliamentarian. She is the obvious choice to lead slab…. all this talk of Murphy just shows, once again, how far into a 1984 world we are with our media and sham political parties…
I do hope Jim Murphy wins.
I do hope he finds some mug to step down in 2015.
I do hope he wins the by-election.
Nicola will destroy him at FMQs, week in and week out, and as we all know Murphy will lose it big time.
Murphy will probably win support because of relentless and overwhelming promotion by the Westminster controlled propagandists in the BBC and print media.
Nevertheless it will be of some interest for Scotland to see just exactly how Westminster Labour and their chums at the BBC and in the print media are going to persuade their traditional Labour rank and file and trade union supporters in Scotland to accept Jim Murphy the committed Blairite neo-liberal as their leader, when the Scots Labour rank and file and trade unions are always claiming that they want Labour in Scotland to move back from neoliberalism and re-discover their socialist principles.
Lamont to resign her seat at Holyrood to clear the way for Jim..?
Anyone..? Can’t be Findlay or Boyack resigning in disgrace because they’re (ahem) List MSPs. In fact you’d be hard pushed to find a Labour MSP in a safe seat I reckon
Admit I know very little about this subject but just throwing this out there so people can dismiss it: is the focus maybe just on Westminster elections for labour right now? I mean the strategising is how to get the labour vote (or not SNP vote) to hold up in May. Labour (and other Britnat parties) must be twitchy about all the SNP and Green members, and YES groups that are continuing, and the possibility that they’ll lose a number of seats. Does Murphy in the ring perhaps help to give a focus for the media and the party: UK centric, right of centre. Murphy spent a lot of time banging on about British patriotism, and may help to gather ConDem voters, rather than splitting the constituency votes so that nasty seperatist candidates scrape in.
I think Murphy has been shuved into this position. The Murphy,s of this world prefer the ambush from the undergrowth as was seen in his grand tour, he preached to tumbleweeds until he was ready, just at the end, to spring his stunt, gaining him a floodlight finish. He wont do much of that from a leaders position.
Daily Record are shitting themselves. Here is their latest editorial;
“IN a massive year for politics which has seen the electorate become more switched on than ever before, it pays to stick with the Daily Record as we set the agenda that other news organisations follow.
IN the cut and thrust of politics it pays to be one step ahead of the opposition – and the Daily Record is no different.
Your paper leads the way with the exclusive political stories that matter, keeping you informed before rivals online and in print.
Our groundbreaking initiative to allow the Yes and No camps to edit our paper on different days was a highlight of the referendum campaign.
As Scotland’s champion, we held the stuttering Better Together campaign to account when it seemed little was being offered as an alternative to outright independence.
And when the pro-Union parties woke up to the idea that the status quo was not an option, we forced them to commit to increased powers – as demanded by the people.
We broke the news of Johann Lamont’s resignation as Scottish Labour leader and her frank interview with us rocked the party.
The Record has led the coverage of the hunt for her successor. We revealed former prime minister Gordon Brown had chosen not to stand.
Today, Jim Murphy chooses to put his message across in the Record. He knows another political heavyweight when he sees one.”
More a like punch drunk heavyweight with a glass jaw.
Redundancies at the Daily Record can’t be far off
Rancid hypocrites at the Graun fancy Murphy too
“But I will hire and fire who I want. I am big enough and ugly enough and I am not going to be pushed around by anyone. If I am leader it is not for anyone else, in any other part of the United Kingdom, to tell me who I can employ in the Scottish Labour party. [I] want more autonomy for the Scottish Labour party.”
He added: “I think it is time for a fresh start for the Scottish Labour party,” he said. “I am proud of the Labour party and I am proud of Scotland – but I am not satisfied.
“I want to strike a tone that stops the Scottish Labour Party from committing self harm. I want to unite the Labour party but, more importantly, I want to bring the country back together after the referendum.”
SO Murphy raged against Scotland running Scotland but now he wants independence/autonomy for the Labour in Scotland party, that will then bring the country back together.
Who’d be a BBC in Scotland UKOK propaganda merchant trying to sell all that fraud?
Who?
Scottish labour have through some alchemical process as yet unidentified, transformed themselves in a ponzi scheme based on negative selection. A party that selects its candidates based on the criterion of incompetence. All too willing to mimic their real leaders, they are then never a real threat to the party. No one to pull the party to the left. Keep it grounded in reality. Be an effective opposition to the SNP.
The idea that murphy, now pulling a six figure salary will abandon a safe MP seat, for the risky prospect of taking a “safe” MSP seat, seems ludicrous. I would not put it past this chancer to simply appoint an assistant to the deputy leader from one of those safe MSP seats. My money is on Dugdale or findlay. The fact that he would never serve as first minister for scotland, simply wouldn’t bother him.
Can the media really influence this much?
It’s not like the Referendum or an election where it’s the general public who are voting, those voting should already be quite politically aware. But in saying that, they’re daft enough to be unionists.
In 1843 former Kentucky House Representative Cassius Clay was shot twice at point blank range while delivering a speech in favour of the abolition of slavery. Clay attacked his would be assassin cutting off one of his ears and gouging out one of his eyes and throwing him over an embankment, he then finished his speech before seeking medical attention for his gun shot wounds.
In 2014 Jim Murphy was comprehensively routed (and went in to hiding) with an egg. This, I think, demonstrates most clearly why Mr Murphy is without doubt the perfect candidate for leader of the labour party in scotland.
Kenny
I’ve met Sarah Boyack and agree that she is s nice person. It would be nice if she agreed with Nicola about working for the good of Scotland, instead of the outpourings of bile from her predecessor against anything
Jim Murphy, “But I will hire and fire who I want.”
Well here is test for Jim if he is elected re-instate Scottish Labour general secretary Ian Price.
Go on Jim, show London who is boss, promise to give Ian Price his old job back.
Cath’s pretty much got it spot on. Remember who the “grassroots” of Better Together generally consisted of – young middle-class dorks without one single principle between them, and they were mostly Labour members. Those kind of folk will vote for Jim Murphy. And like I’ve said on Twitter, I don’t believe Jim would stand unless he was fairly confident he had the support of a sizeable number of the parliamentarian vote.
The unions will go for Findlay (just like they went for Miliband and Lamont…), but even they can’t be guaranteed to vote as one block – remember that it’s individual members voting, and some of them will go with whoever is getting the most media coverage, which is going to be Jim, without a shadow of a doubt. Jim might not fare as badly as we think, because Ken Macintosh (aka mini-Jim) only trailed JoLa by 4% in 2011 amongst the unions. If Murphy throws in some token lefty bone (e.g. “I’ll put ScotRail back into public ownership! Honest!”), he could do alright in that group.
In summary, if there’s one thing the referendum campaign showed us, it’s that people can be convinced to vote against their own interests very, very easily.
….the SNP was proposing.
Sorry, on a train which shoogled before I could finish.
I agree with much of this, going on the last decade of poor choices, the notion that Labour will make the sensible rational choice, is pretty much non existent.
For all her faults, Lamont had her supporters in Labour and the unions, and they will not take kindly to what has happened. My instinct is ,that regardless of who becomes ‘branch manager’, the situation at Labour will only get worse before it gets better. The current situation really does seem to be living on borrowed time.
It is as many others have pointed out, ironic to note, that had Labour supported a YES vote (or even just a devo max question and vote), they would now be the kings of Scotland, and have the SNP on the back foot. Like I said, way back at the start of the referendum campaign, Labour joining with the Tory ‘NO’ campaign, was a guaranteed win-win for Tories, and Lose-lose for Labour.
I honestly think Murphy, the opportunist, is thinking, get out of London before Labour lose an election they should have won and go for the British Labour leadership when Ed is sacked.
No he wouldn’t be an MP, but it wouldn’t be beyond the realms of possibility that he has made a deal with someone further down the road to effectively swap parliaments.
The fact that London have ‘asked’ him is merely a front for him, he gets to be loyal stooge whilst plotting their downfall from Scotland.
Simple stuff.
He should win, but you never know what will happen…Findlay clearly has support as well, whilst Boyack may well take votes away from Murphy
Let’s make sure that we get all of Murphy’s dodgy dealings out there for all to see including his support for Trident replacement, continuation of his ‘blur’ Tory pals austerity cuts etc. We must do all we can to undermine him at every opportunity, including letters to the papers (if you can get them printed), phone-ins etc.
Auld Rock
Something else to bear in mind, which struck me while watching Findlay and Boyack speaking on TV last night. Neil Findlay doesn’t have a hope of doing any better than Lamont in terms of getting MPs to respect the position of Scottish Branch Manager. “I’m not taking orders from the guy who was third on the Lothian list”, they’ll think. There are Labour MPs who won’t know who Findlay is, never mind party members.
A lot of the people voting might think “which of these folk is most likely to actually get MPs to do as they say?” and vote for everyone’s second-favourite warmonger.
I believe the way for Labour to minimise damage in Scotland in GE 2015 is to play up the importance of WM.
Is Murphy the best candidate for this job? Being outside Holyrood would be an advantage. Play up WM, play down Holyrood. He wouldn’t need to actually interface with the SNP government directly! He could talk past them. Murphy could almost stay out of the detail of Scottish issues! If Lab’s sales pitch is to be ‘Vote Lab to keep out the Tories’ then a WM MP is better placed to promote that focus.
Encourage those Lab voters who voted Yes to continue to vote Lab for WM. There is a chunk of Lab support who vote SNP for Holyrood, but Lab for WM. These might be the same people. Make it an anti-Tory crusade rather than pro-Scotland. Keep the focus off Scotland – the BBC and MSM will oblige with this.
If he is the chosen one, then it’s the usual Lab short term gain approach. Ignoring Scotland, Holyrood and devolution for immediate WM advantage.
But, he has to get elected first!
Great news I hope Jim Murphy becomes leader he is so right wing he will drive the voters to the SNP
” two other candidates standing who’ll split the “not-Murphy” vote.)”
Is the election format not a transferrable vote system so if Murphy gets less than 50% on the first count his second, third, etc. votes could be enough to push one of the others over the threshold?
Getting the increasing feeling that no matter what we do, or say, or who we convince, that being an independent country is best for all concerned and that we should all go for it – there are serious characters at work who are setting about manipulating that same democratic mandate.
Who can handle the Sir Jeremy Heywood(s) of this political world?
Who can counter the sort of crap that the Record spouted two days before the referendum vote?
We already know the BBC is ‘concreted in’ to support the political establishment and absolutely no shame about going for it full tilt – with no fear about doing so either.
Is this dis-engagement? Is this apathy looming large? Is this a reaction to what John Pilger tells us happened to Gough Whitlam who dared take on the ‘world establishment’ and was totally screwed?
We were within an ace of independence in September and ‘dark things happened’, of that we can be absolutely certain. How do we overcome that?
How much to buy the Clydesdale bank 🙂
galamcennalath
Good point, an attempt to simply by-pass the SNP in the same way that the BBC debates are going to.
heedtracker, what Jim Means is he will hire and fire who he wants after he has asked London’s permission first!
He just forgot to add that bit.
If Jim Murphy’s seat ”east renfrewshire” was predominately muslim community as opposed to the largest jewish community that is there, Jim Murphy would be supporting the palastinians and not the israelis.
gillie
yep, they are well and truly on the ropes, hahaha.
🙂
Just a detail…as I understand the processes of Scottish Labour, the leader and deputy leader cannot be in the same Parliament. Which means if Murphy gets it, it is the waste chute for Sarwar, to be replaced, after a formality of an election, with Boyack.
However as there will be a political necessity for Murphy to go to Holyrood asap., there will have to be “due consultation” with some aged dead wood on the Labour benches to create a vacancy (seat in the Lords maybe?) and then if Murphy gets in, Boyack has to stand down…..
What could possibly go wrong? Well how about Murphy not getting the seat he was supposed to “take over”? That pesky thing democracy again?
Sit back and enjoy folks.
If Murphy is unsure of victory then, at some point, pressure will be put on Boyack to withdraw.
Carrot
Perhaps she will be offered a senior role eg depute and the leader of opposition in Holyrood .
Stick.
She will be made aware that the campaign will be fierce and that much attention will be paid to her family and personal life.
She will be reminded that her political career cannot be guaranteed and that her ability to achieve the best for her constituents may be lost.
Sometimes, people succumb, sometimes, not.
Murphy is the last person Labour should be putting up front -he’s divisive even within his own party and certainly the country, he’s an MP with through the roof expenses, and frankly a bit of a thug. He’s everything people have rejected in the Labour Party and if they go with him things will only get worse. WHich is exactly why the Rev’s right – let’s hope they’re stupid enough to pick him.
If jim Murphy wins,he WONT be at FMQs,a MSP will be instead
That’s bizzare,and Nicola will have a field day playing one off another
Why don’t we join with the BBC, the Record et al and campaign for a Jim Murphy win?
He will be up front every week at FMQ’s and there will be no hiding place, I believe Mr Murphy underestimates the job he wants to take on.
The deterioration in support for the Labour party in Scotland will accelerate under Murphy’s leadership.
C’mon Murphy, C’mon Murphy. C’mon Murphy…
Out of the three the only one that can stop the Scottish Labour civil war isn Boyack. She’s the only one who is not a total Nat-hater and who is therfore able to think about a sensible political strategy for Labour without her prejudices about the Nats getting in the way of a realistic analysis.
The one thing she hasn’t been so far is much of a leader. I think if she just runs her campaign under the banner ‘lets have discussion’, then she’ll be bullied as much as Lamont was. And while I think Boyack is probably the better thinker, that won’t help her much in the battles against the dinosaurs. Theonly way I can see for to be successful is to set out her stall in terms of Labour reform (selection of MPs, staff directions, policy making – i.e. Proper autonomy) now, because then she force it through by the power of her victory – if she wins. If not, I believe Labour are sunk anyway and will lose at maybe 2/3rds of their Scooths seats come May.
Sarah Boyack would be the best choice for Labour if they want to progress at Holyrood. Jim Murphy would be the best choice for Labour if they want to progress at Westminster. So Murphy must be London Labour’s favoured candidate. If Murphy wins he’ll have the ‘Scottish’ media behind him, someone further up this comment thread summed it up best as BBC Murphy.
Boyack would fit perfectly well into the Scottish Green Party
Doesn’t matter who they put in place you wouldn’t be dealing with them anyway. You are always, but always going to be dealing with the edict of Labour London, only Ed’s too busy to attend Holyrood personally so place man it is then.
They are simply looking for a better performer than JL. They desperately need one now that the SNP are effectively the third largest party by membership in the UK and whoever gets the job, that will be their number one task. Torpedo the SNP.
All of the talk from Labour about reconciliation? BULLSHIT! Their place man has only one remit, end of. Holding to account as an opposition, representing their electorate, forming new and improved policies, working with the party of government when necessary? Not on the agenda. Undermine the SNP as a party and undermine the Scottish parliament as an institution.
Regardless of who becomes leader of Labour’s north British branch, we are still dealing with Ed and WM.
Jim Murphy is a lot cleverer than people think.He has weighed up the political situation and knows that Scotland will become independent. He is jumping from the sinking ship and getting a good position in the life raft.
Bottom line is Murphy will have to become an MSP. Will the electorate vote for him and in what constituency?
Dear Labour Scotland – You will bloody well do what we tell you and like it, and that’s choose our Jim. regards Westminster, BBC , Daily Record.
the sight of him being met by mobs determined to shout him down provided a chilling preview of how dissent would be treated in a Nationalist-run Scotland..
Utterly batshit deluded.
We in Shawlands were obviously doubly blessed as we were granted an audience with both Jim Murphy & Tom Harris. Also present at that little gathering was one of their ‘activists’ who at the Glasgow Count seemed to be very matey with the ‘Britannica’ referendum agent, they seemed inseparable.
whoever gets the job, that will be their number one task. Torpedo the SNP.
It will. But then that’s been Labour’s number one goal for decades now. It’s doesn’t seem to be working out too well so far.
Mind tune in to Hollyrood live TV, the weekly pantomime begins in 3min.
Jim Murphy is a dangerous man, if I were his opponents in the leadership election I would wear body armour. He will do what it takes, he is on a personal crusade.
BBC and Daily Record in full Jim mode, but surely the unions will not back him?
Eleanor Bradford asking the first question at FMQs as predicted..
“Unless a tame MSP could be persuaded to stand down and trigger a by-election, of course, which would be a strategy fraught with enormous risk.”
Can someone clarify the rules at Hollyrood. Couldn’t Blue Jim get into Scottish Parliament if he replaced a LIST MSP who stood down: and thence become Leader of the opposition there?
Looks like the media have already elected their candidate, but they don’t get a vote. (Apart from all the Party members in BBC Scotland of course)
But then Labour haven’t chosen the best candidate for the job for a few goes running, why should they choose Boyack this time?
It’s Murphy time 🙂 LOL
Time fur the rubber calculator to be brought out again Barnett consiquentials SNHS £230ml, Scottish Gov increase total £288ml now whats the greater number.
How to twerk to the top:
Jim Murphy MP – grousebeater.wordpress
How to twerk to the top:
Jim Murphy MP – grousebeater.wordpress
“If we had a written constitution in this country, it would have to say something like, ‘Not withstanding the fact that Jeremy Heywood will always be at the centre of power, we are free and equal citizens’. That is the extent of his ”
We all bow to his command!
link to caltonjock.com
Come to think about it, Labour will probably be able to hang on a few seats in Glasgow (and maybe even Edinburgh) because the LDs and the Tories are so weak and the Greens quite strong there so the yes vote maybe split and the no vote all goes to Labour. Whereas in many other places that voted no (e.g. aberdeenshire) it is likely to be the other way round…
I kinda want Jim Murphy to win because it will make things more interesting. I also want to call him Ice Man for some reason.
Labour finally have someone with serious, ruthless, limitless ambition seeking to use Holyrood as an elevator to the top of the political game. That has never happened before.
It will change Holyrood, it will change the Labour Party, it will be… yeah, interesting.
The thing is, we all know this is make-or-break time for Labour: they must urgently set the ship right, woo back the disaffected, derail the SNP, and push Scottish independence way back off the agenda with a few more powers and some well-directed political management. And that’s not even getting into their crisis at UK level.
The SNP, who until now have merely had to fight against the entire Westminster political establishment, its international allies, and virtually the entire British media and corporate world, will now have a fight on their hands in Holyrood and on the streets, the two places where the Yes movement is strong and where Murphy reckons he has the chops to give them a thrashing.
Forget the Irn Bru crate, Jim, it’s time to step on the SLAB and show us watcha got.
He has nothing to say and the pictures justify that.
Again we see bullshit manifest itself with noise, Westminster style.
It really is an appalling spectacle.
“The Scottish Labour Party of course can take a different policy direction from the rest of the UK Labour Party. We already do so in so many different ways, that is the nature of devolution” – Jim Murphy
Anyone have any examples?
@Cath
Heh, very true. 🙂
Till now though its been very much a home grown assault. I think now we’ll find that the WM contingent will be taking a very active interest in directing affairs.
Oh please let it be Jim Bob, Nicola will have a field day with him.
I doubt it though, SLAB have to return to sanity sometime, and I feel that Neil Findlay is closer to SLAB traditional values than the other two, if Neil Findlay does become branch leader then good luck to them.
[…] The sure thing? […]
Murphy is an extremist, an extreme dirty politician, have to agree with this article Boyack would be the more sensible selection, but Skeletor will be backed by BBC better together LabServative media
@Broch-Landers
If you think having a neo-liberal Blairite in charge of LiS well be a challenge for the SNP, then I don’t really know what to say.
The only thing Murphy will do is force the trade unions into either
Backing the formation of an independent labour party split off from the BLP
Push them to the SNP or SSP
More tories might vote for murphy, but that will hurt the tories, more labour voters will go elsewhere….just like in 2011.
I wonder who is donating to Jim Murphy’s campaign? Remember what happened to the last Labour big hitter Wendy Alexander.
I don’t think you should be so critical of the eggman.
He’s managed to get the entire paid up membership of the Labour party surrounding him in those pics. That’s an impressive 100% turnout.
He’ll go far. 🙂
Murphy is the choice of McTernan, who will write his scripts and pull the strings.
Just thinkin, like.
Bbc giving jim murphy another plug on politics show
come dine with me glasgae
my money is on the chef over cooking the sirloin
Neil Findley (daily politics) SNP attempted to steal labours,aye Neil labours the new Mac men/woman. cover up your a obsenity.
Giles Brandreth Gordy walks on water, canny wait tae he gets to the Crown of Thorns bit.
desimond says:
30 October, 2014 at 12:29 pm
“The Scottish Labour Party of course can take a different policy direction from the rest of the UK Labour Party. We already do so in so many different ways, that is the nature of devolution” – Jim Murphy
Anyone have any examples?
:::::::::::
Well, the Scottish Labour Party has a policy not to dictate to the British Labour Party whereas, ……….
steal labours clothes that should read.
@chalks
I don’t think Broch-Landers was saying that Murphy would be any kind of challenge at all. I read the oppisite!
It is for Murphy if he gets the gig to step up to the plate and show if he is even capable of holding his ground never mind the fact Labour need to move forward.
Murphy as leader is another own goal for Labour, this is a prediction but will be shown as fact come election time.
Sir Jeremy Heywood – Chinese Whispers – Is This Anyway to Run a Country?
War has broken out. The arena is Whitehall. The aggressor is Sir Jeremy Heywood and some senior civil servants. The targets are Coalition ministers. I know what you’re probably thinking: “Yawn! Wake me up when there isn’t war along Whitehall.” But I’ve always thought that the idea of constant, vicious fighting between ministers and bureaucrats is overplayed… but this is bad, this is pretty bad.
link to caltonjock.com
I have recently discovered that in the USA there exists a Murphy Bed..
from Wiki
“The bed is named for William Lawrence Murphy (1876–1959), who applied for his first patents around 1900.According to legend, he was wooing an opera singer, but living in a one-room apartment in San Francisco, and the moral code of the time frowned upon a woman entering a man’s bedroom. Murphy’s invention converted his bedroom into a parlor, enabling him to entertain.”
So it is an illicit FWukr.
Appropriate.
Andrew Neil daily politics
weakest ever questions to Jim Murphy
it’s started already
I don’t know why your all speculating. The Labour Party will ensure Jim Murphy becomes leader. You can bang on all you like about who’s got support from where.
In the end the Labour Party will ensure the vote goes Jim’s way. Simples!
It’s a huge mistake on many levels but it is what it is and we should all rejoice in their incompetence.
Hoping Jim Murphy doesn’t get picked – only so I don’t have to suffer the ongoing embarrassment of sharing his surname.
On the other hand that Murphy Bed from Bugger is pretty cool and much more useful than Jim, possibly even more useful than his Irn Bru crates.
@ seanair, 11:05am
Betty Boop
Any idea who paid for his 100 day holiday, accommodation, petrol etc, or was he always near enough his home to get back for his tea?
Nope, sorry, wasn’t interested enough in him. Maybe BT via its lovely, ethical donors coughed up for it. We, the taxpayers, probably paid for the police presence after egg-gate though. Noticed “the press” started following him around after that too, never noticing how few actually bothered to stop and listen to him rant.
I have a dream.
Murphy elected Scottish Labour Branch Manager,loses MP seat next May, stands for MSP somewhere, nobody votes for him.
Labour is standing on the edge, looking into the abyss – but with Murphy they can take a leap forward. ????
The BBC Radio 3 1pm news bulletin think it significant enough to broadcast to the nation the news of Murphy’s standing for the North Briton Labour leadership. It didn’t bother to actually name the other two candidates and neither has BBC 3 news even deemed the announcement of Jim’s rival candidates running for the same job even worth mentioning to date.
Would he have thrown his hat in the ring if he hadn’t garnered enough support?
Murphy is out of favour with Ed Milliband , over Milliband ‘s policy switch on Syria, which hung Murphy out to dry! Murphy knows that if Labour win the Westminster Election next year that he has no chance of becoming the UK Defence Secretary or Foreign Secretary the two jobs he really wanted.
He therefore used the referendum campaign to reposition himself in the Scottish context. With traditional Labour seats in Glasgow and the west of Scotland under threat from the SNP , he will use the BBC ,Record and the unionist media to promote himself as the saviour of Labour from these nasty Nats.
He probably sees himself as Westminster ‘s future Tsar in Scotland possibly initially as future Secretary of State for Scotland. If he has ambitions to switch to Holyrood in 2016 this will mean in the interim that Labour will have a lame duck leader at FMQ facing a very capable and experienced Nicola Sturgeon.
If he does end up at Holyrood, Nicola Sturgeon is more than a match for soap box Murphy.
By the way, if Alex Salmond is going to target a seat at Westminster, being a man with bottle and not afraid of a flutter, perhaps he should consider taking on a Labour seat eg, Eric Joyce’s Falkirk seat, after all Alex is from just down the road in Linlithgow and folks in Falkirk must be sick of all the Labour shenanigans.
Jim Murphy is the personification of Scottish Labour, and indeed the Labour Party generally: A sepulchral voice designed to kill inspiration, aspiration and thought. A face like the picture of Dorian Gray.
There’s no point in hope, no point in working for substantial change, the Face says, just accept your lot and trust me to try to broker a less vindictive edge to the worst excesses of the power elite. Not to the point where it would damage my own interests, you understand – I need my £200,000 expenses, second homes, guaranteed directorships and cushy sinecures when I step down – but don’t go thinking the way out of poverty is more democracy. I represent your interests. Their interests. The Party’s interests. My interests… the COUNTRY’s interests.
And if you don’t trust me, Armageddon will surely follow. Don’t think for yourself, don’t take control of your own life, your own neighbourhood, your own country… for if you do – if you DARE – next year ISIS will be beheading your granny in George Square, Putin will control the Shetland Islands and your mortgage will be 1% higher.
Behold me for I am the Daily Record, I am BBC Scotland, I am the Crown in Parliament. I am Trident, I am Endless War, I am the City of London in whom we trust.
You are scum. Back in your box, scum. Back in your box.
Have all the three candidates got enough nominations to stand?
There must be some doubts about Sarah Boyack. She seems to be the weakest of all three.
Brilliant Dr Ew
@ Linda MacFarlane, 1:10pm
I have a dream.
Murphy elected Scottish Labour Branch Manager,loses MP seat next May, stands for MSP somewhere, nobody votes for him.
Yep, that is probably just a dream, much though the thought is amusing.
Although difficult to understand, Murphy has a huge majority in his constituency, so, reality check. I know of people who think the sun shines out of him; he puts on such a good show for them.
[…] Alert readers will have noticed that almost every single person in the shot above, taken from Murphy’s tour of 100 street corners on an Irn-Bru crate, is already holding a No Thanks placard. It’s the literal definition of preaching to the converted, and even with the combined strength of Labour, the Tory and Lib Dem activists from the “Better Together” campaign to draw on he’s struggled to pull a crowd of a dozen people. […]
SoS Rev O/T.
link to facebook.com
Lets get behind this site & join the information exchange for those not on WOS.
Paul Murphy says:
30 October, 2014 at 1:08 pm
Hoping Jim Murphy doesn’t get picked – only so I don’t have to suffer the ongoing embarrassment of sharing his surname.
=============================
You made me laugh. If he gets picked or he doesn’t your still going to be sharing his name.
Interesting analysis – but I think you underestimate the desire to win/keep seats as opposed to ideological splits, or even personal animosities within the Labour Party in Scotland. If the unions and MP/MSP/MEP blocks believe/are led to believe that only Murphy can prevent or at least reduce the loss of seats in 2015, they will hold their nose and vote for Murphy. He has name recognition, and no matter how silly his Irn Bru tour was, it got his mug on the news. I think he’ll win, and some pundits have suggested they’ll engineer a by-election in a safe Holyrood on the same day as the May 2015 General Election to parachute him in.
Confusion over when Jim Murphy, if elected as leader, will stand as an MSP.
Sky News say 2015. Other reports now say 2016.
So what is it to be Jim, 2015 or 2016, or maybe never?
I wonder what happens if Anas Sarwar was to have an unfortunate accident by inadvertently stabbing himself in the back?
It could be Jim is intending to stay put at Westminster and have some flunky appointed at Holyrood to take a pummeling at FMQs.
crantara says:
30 October, 2014 at 1:17 pm
Would he have thrown his hat in the ring if he hadn’t garnered enough support?
:::::::::::::::::
I have a very suspicious mind.
I think people like him are bought and owned by USA intelligence agency. That is where his support will come from.
George Robertson is another one.
This is a long held suspicion.
Former Labour adviser Catherine McLeod coos all over him in this morning’s Herald, dismissing opponents Sarah Boyack and Neil Findlay with “both have strengths but few can imagine them surviving the heat of First Minister’s Questions”
I for one would question spud’s ability to survive the heat of FMQs. Anyone who witnessed his antics when questioned on his 100 day junket will testify that unless the question was set for him he became agitated, sometimes angry and downright scary. It was not a pleasant sight and I think that it would be an excellent way of the Labour party finishing itself off for good. I will cheer from the rooftops if the labour membership are so stupid as to elect A Blairite London Labour Candidate with a tendency to be so easily upset.
Just how many open goals do they want to give us?
If folk dont already know the details of his one sided shouting match with Pete Wishart at Westminster they soon will. I do not condone the throwing of eggs, custard pies or insults at politicians but then again most of the targets of such attacks don’t call off a tour. Look at french politicians for eggsample you could probably feed the 5000 with omelettes for a week with the eggs that they have had chucked at them. then when it is explained to the electorate exactly how much the 100 day junketfest and his other expenses cost them (ALMOST TWICE AS MUCH AS ERIC JOYCE IN HIS HAYDAY) I think that the voters will turn away from Spud and SLAB faster than you can say sixty thousand new voters.
I said from the start that the Jim Murphy 100 day soapbox stunt had nothing to do with the Referendum and all to do with the Blairite’s positioning to give him a high profile prior to getting his media friends to undermine Johann Lamont.
To think some uninformed voters believed that Murphy, The Scotsman, Standard Life and Deutsche Bank were the font of all wisdom and knowledge.
Deutsche Bank has just posted a net losses of €92m (£72.6m) for the three months to the end of September, with pre-tax income of €266m.
The third-quarter loss stems from the legal costs of settling a number of investigations, and compares to a €51m profit during the same period last year.
Alleged misconduct by the bank has resulted in increasing penalties from global authorities, with wrongdoings ranging from manipulation of benchmark interest rates to mis-selling mortgage-backed securities. It is also accused of breaching US sanctions by doing business with Iran and other blacklisted countries.
Also this week Scotsman getting rid of even more journalists and Standard Life posts a slump in purchases of its Annuity policies.
Once the vote for the leader of Labour in Scotland takes place will they publish the full results? This will indicate how many members the Scottish Labour Party has at present – a fact that their representatives seem keen to avoid disclosing>
> BBC and Daily Record in full Jim mode, but surely the
> unions will not back him?
They’ll do what they’re told, like last time.
So we have the next teamGB challenge for BBC propaganda, get Murphy elected as Labour First Minister May 2016 but contend with giant London BBC Vote Cameron propaganda machine that decisively lost the last UK GE for Cameron’s and the Tory boys.
What a pickle for all those UKOK liggers at Pacific quay. Last UKOK GE they all piled in to get shot of the most unpopular prime minister ever but this time its probably going to be, get Cameron elected in England, get rid of SNP in Scotland, get Murphy FM 2016. Should be fun watching that mess pouring out of such a corrupt outfit for the next 2 years.
It took two years to get Crash Gordon and New Labour out and BBC failed but they easily won the Scottish referendum. So its all to play for ProjectFear wise.
eg
How to destroy Nicola Sturgeon like they did Alex Salmond, Director of North British region propaganda MacQuarrie, over to you?
link to bbc.co.uk
It’s not trendy to be Tory in Scotland, so many Labour members are basically Tories who want to be in “the right” party.
@cath – so true and it applies to the voters as well. In Glasgow, Cathcart and Eastwood were Conservative and Unionist safe seats. They are now Labour.
Paul Murphy says:
30 October, 2014 at 1:08 pm
Hoping Jim Murphy doesn’t get picked – only so I don’t have to suffer the ongoing embarrassment of sharing his surname
There is always the ability of changing it by deed poll
but no one holds your shared name against you. In the recent influx of new members my branch has the honour of having not one but two unrelated J Lamont’s and a Margaret Curran none of them have never been Labour party members otherwise we could have had a power struggle
“What Scottish Labour has to do is create itself. The Scottish Labour Party has to become a reality. An autonomous, self-governing party. For all the mood music of Scottish Labour becoming more Scottish throughout the 1980s and 1990s, and its change of name, no substantial changes or shifts of power have occurred from London to Scotland.”
“Then the party needs a new form of leadership. Not an election for the leader of the Scottish Labour Group of the Scottish Parliament. The newly elected leader would be the sixth leader in the last twelve years in that post. That tells you something damning. The current leader of Scottish Labour is actually Ed Miliband.
This needs to change urgently.”
__________________________________________
Those two paragraphs above were taken from a good article written by Gerry Hassan (almost three and a half years ago).
Proof, if proof were ever needed, that Labour never listen.
Read the full article here – be prepared for a lot of deja vu:
link to archive.today
Why are people fixated on Murphy’s ( huge majority ) that was then , it hasent been put to the test as yet.new Dawn, new Day & then there,s US newly informed active grassrooters. Scotlands people never attended the Wake of the Referendum result & are more Awake than they’ve everbeen.
There,s plenty of Dirt on the Murph, We just need to get that before the people thats why I am supporting Scot2.Scot, we cant sit about waiting on SNP or whoever,many,s a battle’s been lost waiting on orders.
Apparently Anthea Turner was unable to fill the venues with her stage shows
“Audiences were promised ‘the secrets of being the perfect housewife’, including ‘ten things she can do with a lemon, and other tips for good and effective housekeeping.”
I dunno I would have paid £16.50 to see the ten things she do with a lemon. 😮
Is sarah Boyack not the partner of John Boothman? Head of news at BBC Scotland.
Different topic, What are the chances of The SG bidding to acquire The Clydedale bank?
It would be a start and would sit nicely alongside Prestwick as a future national asset.
Murphy will divide many in the Labour movement in Scotland to look elsewhere for votes. This isn’t a move to galvanise people it’s going to rip the party still further.
I can’t look at him without thinking about 1.4 million in expenses!
Disgusting person, hell bent on making the most of his career not furthering or improving the lives of others.
It should be easy meat for the SNP to pull him to shreads every time he speaks and I sincerly hope we hear a fair bit from him.
Ipsos Mori poll
Has Westminster voting intentions as SNP 52% lABOUR 23%
bring it on
Boyack is the most senible choice, but Murphy will get the media backing. I understand he has quite a bit of admiration from the Daily Mail, so that says a great deal about him.
I am not one of those Yes voters with a visceral dislike of Jim Murphy. I am open-minded on him. But I do know that few people in Scottish Labour like him – he would be the least likely candidate to unify them.
From the Yes perspective I think Murphy would be good – labour would remain weak and divided, and he doesn’t perform well under scrutiny.
I know how you feel about your suraname Paul I feel the same about my Christian name I was proud of it till tony Blair’s father took from his foster parents his real name was Parsons I wish he had kept it
Not happy with Mori poll, the indications are is that G Brown, and I Davidson would survive the election “wipe out”, so we need to up the S.N.P.’s percentage to closer to 60%, aye that should do it!.
P.s. See S.T.V.s website for full breakdown .
Anyone in any doubt that Murphy is the officially sanctioned candidate of the establishment and has already won the ‘contest’ should visit the Rev’s Twitter feed and look at the article from James Cook which has appeared on BBC Murphy.
@jules
I don’t think unifying Labour will be top of his ‘to do’ list. Whip what’s left of it back into some semblance of discipline perhaps, but rousing speeches, new directions, warm hugs and brotherhood, not so much. 🙂
Susan Deacon is the partner of John Boothman.
Sarah Boyack is rather pleasant.
ronnie anderson says:
30 October, 2014 at 1:50 pm
Why are people fixated on Murphy’s ( huge majority ) that was then , it hasent been put to the test as yet.new Dawn, new Day & then there,s US newly informed active grassrooters. Scotlands people never attended the Wake of the Referendum result & are more Awake than they’ve everbeen.
There,s plenty of Dirt on the Murph, We just need to get that before the people thats why I am supporting Scot2.Scot, we cant sit about waiting on SNP or whoever,many,s a battle’s been lost waiting on orders.
__________________
EXACTLY – If you snooze you lose – lets get active.
weegingerdug.wordpress.com/
Anybody have contacts in Unison ( Grangemouth ) that big blaw up Rat must need a airing & I know the rite people who could us it to good effect & the Rev canny object he likes Rats.
Cmon Wingers thinking caps on.
The Scottish Labour branch office is looking for staff, it’s a typical Labour solution to a problem throw more money at it
Policy, Briefing and Engagement Officer
link to w4mpjobs.org
Scottish Communications Officer
link to w4mpjobs.org
Anyone else grin hearing Jim Murphy saying “I spoke to Ed Miliband but be assured, this is my choice!”
The Lady doth proteth too much!
scot2.scot gets ready to launch
link to archive.today
Jim Murphy looks frighteningly like Lord Voldemort, the villain in the Harry Potter books. So be prepared for the Dark Lord and use of the dark arts.
6 weeks from Indy – still haven’t got over it.
Managing to live with it – just.
Resolved to go on fighting – against the odds.
No TV. No papers. Family now in SNP.
I wish it were campaign time for GE15.
Nothing will ever compensate for the loss of freedom.
It will be interesting to not only watch Labours voting process but to see how many actually bother to vote.
Of course Jim Murphy has been picked as the candidate whom Labour supporters,voters,msp’s and mp’s will rally around, the last two of course won’t be given any choice. it’s all about getting Labour into some kind of shape for the General Election, helped of course by their friends in the media, we will of course be trying to counter this, may I suggest a starting point?
We have all heard about the famous 100 towns tour, but have the names of those towns actually been cataloged? how do we know it’s a hundred? might be worth a check!
Please stop and let me off “pooling and sharing of rescources,the labour family,post referendum,labour values.I have swallowed a bagful of labour cliches.Does no one in that party have an original thought .
Jim Murphy picked by USA to protect their investments! Was he not invited to America for reprogramming as one of the Atlantic Bridge Crowd?
CIA, Friend of Israel, MI5, Minister for Defense!
The die is cast, Western Military Industrial Corporation needs a guy on the inside!
Just joined Scot2Scot…great idea….let’s get Labour out !
SNP have 52% on Ipsos-Mori poll. Labour faces meltdown.
link to news.stv.tv
Trying to refresh page but it sticks at 2:32pm. Anyway, On the Rev’s twitter feed there is STV news article about an IPSOS MORI poll:
link to news.stv.tv
This shows SNP at 52% of the vote, translating into 54 seats at WM GE2015
I do not believe this poll for one minute, it is the equivalent of the Sunday Herald 51% YES lead poll. It has been designed to show a high point for the SNP and that as the weeks go on and Big Skinny Jim takes over the helm, there will be a new poll showing this lead starting to fall. If the polls start to show even a tiny reduction after that, McTernan and Murphy will try and claim that the momentum is with the “New and Improved” Scottish Labour party. Big
They are playing the long game and the gullible will fall for it,
WE SHOULD NOT TAKE OUR EYE OFF THE BALL.
Jim Murphy has drafted his first motion for Holyrood 2016
“Recalibrate MSP Renumeration and Expense Allowance to ensure parity with Westminster. The SNP must agree as this is needed to show equal recognition exists for both Governments”
How will Murphy get into Holyrood if that’s the polling for WM ?
gillie says:@2.59pm.
Interesting reading so that is the real reason he is standing..
there is an old saying you have to earn respect it is not automatic something i think Slab have forgotten, that dinner in Glasgow tonight will be interesting.
Ronnie I think you mean Unite, similar name I will give you.
**********************************
Fuck me!
link to heraldscotland.com
No apologies for the MSM direct link, you’ll see why.
***************************************************
There is talk of Heywood obstructing secretaries of state, shafting Camerons and organising Downing Street to his own convenience. We have gone beyond ‘Yes, Minister’ and now have ‘Yes, Sir Jeremy’. Worryingly, no one seems more in hock to him than our soigné, someone -take -care – of – that PM. The Camerons are dying like bees. Andy Coulson is long gone. The Wade-Brookses have also been swept away by Hackgate. Other parts of the Chipping Norton set are in retreat. Steve Hilton is fleeing to California.
Heywood remains. He is steering policy, attending daily strategy meetings, sitting next to ‘DC’ at Cabinet, shimmering with purpose. If Heywood disapproves of a project, it disappears from Cameron’s in-tray. One Cabinet minister says, “We cannot have a referendum on who runs Britain because the answer will be the same whether we leave the EU or not: Jeremy Heywood.
link to caltonjock.com
Heard this morning on Radio 4 that Mr Murphy was going to unite Scotland, now that is a difficult one as there are 1,6 million people you offended and then we need to look at those others you cheated Mr Murphy.
Even if Murphy gets the job, given there is no understanding of why they are in the pickle they are in Mr Murphy is unlikely to be able to fix it.
Will Bottler Brown stand and risk rejection?
The IPSOS poll has Indy parties on 58 and London parties on 42……….and that’s a poll BEFORE Murphy said he would stand.
The Earth shaker, now which members of the family are earmarked for these jobs. I mean there must be several of them working, ahem in the BBC but looking for a more secure sinecure.
I am glad to see Murphy has recovered from his post traumatic stress after the encounter with an egg of mass destruction. Did he ever repent for Iraq?
Ohhhm I’m old news. Scotlandvotes shows just 1 Labour seat, Willie Bain.
link to scotlandvotes.com
TartanPigsty, Susan Deacon is life long partner of John Boothman.
@ manandboy
I know how you feel. Still brings me out in tears when I really think about what happened….
Onward!
@tartanpigsy
Is sarah Boyack not the partner of John Boothman? Head of news at BBC Scotland.
No, that is Susan Deacon.
Been out of comms in East Africa for the last few days. Jings crivvens and help ma boab, what a pleasant re-introduction to t’internet!
You can be sure it’s going to get dirty, very dirty.
O/T, is it legally allowable for a crowd just to stand and laugh constantly for a couple of hours outside the North Britain branch troughing session?
Helena Brown says
“Heard this morning on Radio 4 that Mr Murphy was going to unite Scotland, ”
Yes but not in the way he has planned. 🙂
BBC still not got the polls results up. Medic!
@ Helena Brown correction correction correction Thanks Helena Paula Rose,s dungoion for the treatment,awe please no the Lochgely Twase Paula.
gillie says: 30 October, 2014 at 11:05 am:
“I do hope Jim Murphy wins. I do hope he finds some mug to step down in 2015. I do hope he wins the by-election. Nicola will destroy him at FMQs, week in and week out, and as we all know Murphy will lose it big time.”
Nah! Murphy is not about to remove his snout from the Westminster trough. He’s one of the Labour MPs with the larger expenses accounts so he has lots to lose. I doubt he will even attempt to win a Holyrood seat, even as a list MSP. He can quite legally remain a Westminster MP and be the Scottish Branch Manager passing down Miliband’s orders to the Scottish minions via a tame sitting MSP, perhaps Ms Baillie, as his Scottish deputy.
Nothing, in the rules to stop him wearing two hats. He could thus claim two ministerial salaries, and lots more expenses, from both parliaments. Why would he chance being rejected by the voters as an MSP? Mind you London Labour have a long history of the man from London coming to Scotland and deselecting elected and sitting MPs, MSPs and councillors to appoint London Labour’s choice upon constituencies.
Hi. Stumbled across WoS several months back and have subsequently developed a great respect for it.
Re Murphy confirming his nomination as ScotLab leader:
Knowing the London owned msm will support Murphy 100%, maybe we should use this period as a test run for the bigger battle ahead.
The reason YES lost, we’re told, was, unlike the NO campaign with full media support behind them, the YES campaign didn’t manage to get their message across to enough voters in time. Ok. Lesson learned. How do we go about circling the wagons and making sure the msm never again have that same advantage?
Bearing in mind the other side are honing their skills all the time!
Please folks, read Weegingerdugs latest, it’s important to get involved in the initiative described.
I had such a laugh in the car at 12.30pm today, John Beattie asked for texts on thoughts on Murphy. He was struggling to find polite ones, and the ones he did read were full of adjectives like self serving, deluded, warmonger etc. Beatrice said, well, these are all just going in one direction!
I wonder if Milliband is just putting him up to scare the electoral college, into making a decision.
Agree with others, Boyack is the only reasonably sane choice, not that I care, as none of them can touch SNP.
It looks to me as if he has accepted that Labour will not be forming a government at Westminster next year, that his ambition to become a Cabinet Minister will not be realised, and that he had better get himself something to do until the next General Election in 2020. A man can’t spend his time twiddling his thumbs, now, can he?
WHO HAS THE POWER; WHO HAS THE MONEY?
Neo-Liberalism is an organic force.
Neo-Liberalism is politically and economically organised monetary greed on a national and international scale, and it’s daily goal is to hoover up all the money in the public purse.
Furthermore, Neo-Lib is constantly growing.
With the desire for wealth comes also the desire for power.
Power and wealth – they go together.
But they also GROW together to become total wealth and absolute power. That is the position we are almost at today.
Most of Scotland’s wealth is in the hands of very few people. Those same people have the power to rig an election or referendum; and to do so in such a way that the majority of the population haven’t a clue and are left BELIEVING that the vote was genuinely democratic. Furthermore, in Indy, the voters were powerless to do anything about breaches in the rules. When people are powerless it is a sign that others have absolute power.
So we can see how Democracy is manipulated by neo-Liberalism because it is a threat to the super rich who demand complete control and absolute power.
And yet the appearance of democracy is a useful tool for the neo-Liberalism.
Votes for the people give a cloak of credibility to behind the scenes fraud. Democracy has become a trick with which to fool the public into believing that the ruling classes are acting on behalf of the voters for the good of the public.
Under true democracy, the power lies with the people.
But with neo-Liberalism, the power has been transferred to the rich through orchestrated elections and controlled results, while the people merely BELIEVE their vote counted. But it didn’t.
Meanwhile the money is constantly being transferred out of the public purse into private pockets eg. through Privatisations, dodgy contracts and PPI. Scottish Oil is a classic case in point. Publicly owned oil going straight to the wealthy while the real owners, the people, hardly see a penny.
And to keep the whole scam going, you have State propaganda through the BBC and the Press, directing and controlling what the people think so that they won’t think about what is actually going on.
All of this is going on behind the scenes in the Jim Murphy Soap Opera.
SOMEHOW SCOTLAND HAS TO BREAK FREE FROM NEO-lIBERALISM
Ps. One of the future targets of the neo-Liberals is the wealth of all the elderly – property, investments, savings. Just give David Cameron or Boris Johnstone time – they’ll get their instructions.
The elderly No vote won’t help.
Poor souls – they didn’t realise a ‘No’ was a noose.
Considering this is a vote by labour scottish members for the leadership of labour scottish branch managers job, would it not be a good opertunity to calculate how many scottish labour party members there are, just a thought.
Don’t be fooled by Sarah Boyack’s personable demeanour. She is an ambitious Labour politician who was happy to sell here on country down the river. She even suggested to me that HS2 would be good for Scotland, and despite having responsibility for planning matters, had not heard of creative destruction (Schumpeter’s gale). She is as false as everything else in Labour. She is also a Fabian, so undoubtedly an imperialist Britnat.
link to en.wikipedia.org
Viking Girl says:
30 October, 2014 at 4:04 pm
A man can’t spend his time twiddling his thumbs, now, can he?
He’s a politician – he wants to twiddle his thumbs on full expenses and a fat salary.
JimMurphyMP’s speech to Scottish Labour at tonight’s gala dinner :
Right you lot, I’ve been sent up here from London Labour HQ to sort you out, so listen up, OK.
First off, it seems like everyone we install as local branch manager has been going native. You get ideas in your head that you want to change things here in Scotland, realise you don’t have the levers or freedom to do that so you start demanding autonomy or more powers or devolved max or whatever.
Well I’m here to tell you it’s gonna stop and I’m gonna be the one to stop it. We cannae trust any of you lot as branch manager any more so I’m gonna have to do it maself.
You need to come to terms that there will be no more powers, just like we said in our Smith Commission submission. Do you think London HQ are gonna risk the English votes for English laws legislation that would come about if we let you have more powers? Do you really think the party’s gonna CHOOSE to throw away all our powers at Westminster just so you lot can gain a few to play with in your wee kid on parliament up here?
So the first one of yous to be asking for more powers again will be resigning from your seat so I can have it next May.
Now, you might hear me on the radio or telly talking about more powers for Scotland. That’s nothing to worry about. I need to do that to get the rank and file to vote for me in December. They fell for it with the vow so there’s no reason they won’t fall for it this time around too.
Right, the reason I have to get you lot sorted out is so that you get on with your real job which is to make sure Scotland sends at least 50 MPs to London in May, that what we’re here for after all. And if that means the people of Scotland having to make a few sacrifices then tough, man up, sometimes the good of our party has to come before the good of our countrymen.
So how are we going to achieve this? First we have to win back all those bastarding yes voters by kidding on we’re still a left wing party here in Scotland and the SNP are all right wing.
Now this will be a bit tricky cos meanwhile the press down south will be telling the important marginals that we are committed to Thatcher economics, hammering the dole scroungers and booting the brown folk out the country.
It’s likely that voters in Scotland might hear about this, but don’t worry the BBC and Record have promised that they’ll kid on to the jocks, I mean Scots, that we are definitely, honesty promise we’re lefties, fingers crossed behind our backs.
Meanwhile we’ve been speaking to the press about trying to persuade the Scots that all our red tory right wing policies to win over the marginals, like NHS markets, student fees and austerity are actually good for the working poor, but not to worry because Scotland is deep down more right wing than you think, we all aspire to be middle class, and this election will be won in the right of centre, so you must reject the left wing SNP policies which are all just middle class freebies anyway.
OK. So that’s the plan and you’ll all do as you’re told and get on with it or I’ll be kicking your backsides into the middle of next week.
Just the three articles this evening on the BBC news website about how Murphy is on course to be First Minister in 2016……
BBC in Scotland will do a Farage on him. Suddenly we’ll find he walks on water, and somehow will elected.
Why do I get the distinct immpression that Murphy was just given, “Buggin’s Turn” by Head Office in London?
To be fair the oft used picture of Murphy in Airdrie is not a fair reflection. There were around 25-30 people (at the most) and a fair few of us were there to have a proper debate. Mr Murphy’s tactic was of course to avoid answering where possible, and respond instead to any half drunk ned that shouted abuse as they walked past, claiming this was reflective of the Nationalists.
Were screwed if Murphy gets the job.
@ biggpolmont says:
30 October, 2014 at 1:47 pm
Paul Murphy says:Hoping Jim Murphy doesn’t get picked – only so I don’t have to suffer the ongoing embarrassment of sharing his surname
Switch Gaelic if he gets EG Pól O’Murchadh or MacMuchadh or modern Irish Gaelic “Ó Murchú”
The slime is hard to ignore as, they try to slither back into our considerations .I try to imagine Lamont is showing remorse for her deceit as like many drowning rats , she jumps ship.Sorry hen …..sink or swim… you sold us out. You sold our childrens and grndchildrens dream. Tread water by yourself and Skeletor…… had it been the thirteeenth centuary, you’d be waking up to see a mace ball crash down on your skull.
Hugh Kerr writes in Newsnet that the London Labour apparatchik will endorse and ensure he wins by hook or by crook irrespective of how Labour members in Scotland feel about it which makes a mockery of Murphys claims that he will be his own man and wont be pushed around by London. As if London Labour would allow any rebel anywhere near a cabinet post let alone any kind of leadership position.
Lamont only held onto her position as leader in Scotland because she towed the party line.
The delusional ranting about Labour treating the party in Scotland as if it were a branch office is staggering. She only got the job as Leader by being endorsed by the Labour leadership in London.
Labour truly are devoid of any relationship with reality. So out of touch.
“Towed the line”, please, please – toed the line as in foot/toe on the line – sorry for being a picky old so-and-so!
[…] of this assumes Murphy will win, of course, an outcome this site remains sceptical about. But there are all manner of potential pitfalls along that path too, which Murphy attempted to […]
Daily Record have already cut staff by moving parts of their IT operation offshore last year. Those staff in Glasgow were cynically dumped for profit. There is no job security working with the DR never mind post referendum when they have been exposed as corporate liars.
Goodbye, good riddance. Trinity Mirror will get what they are seeking, a tabloid produced in England and sold under a Scottish banner. Its just one step away from what they operate now.
[…] figures suggest that our scepticism about the easy Murphy victory most of the press is predicting may be misplaced. Murphy already has […]