Tagged with Jim Murphy

Is Keir Hardie turning in one grave as Jim Murphy digs another?

keir hardie 's graveLast weekend, the Scotsman quoted unnamed Labour sources as confirming that Scottish Labour was effectively abandoning most Labour-held seats in Scotland by deciding to name just twelve seats it was trying to “rescue” from the SNP onslaught.

The last time Labour did as badly as this in Scotland was 1931 when it won only 7 seats (though it still had 32.6% of the vote, better than is likely on Thursday). That disaster could be put down to an earlier Scottish Labour leader, Ramsay MacDonald. It would be churlish to blame Jim Murphy alone for what will happen on Thursday, but whether or not it is his intention, it is New Labour that is being buried in Scotland by abandoning the former industrial heartlands that gave birth to British social democracy. Continue reading →

Scotland: the patriot game’s a bogey

braveheartby the collective editorial team of Uncivil Society

In the lead-up to the General Election, Scottish politics is constrained within the stifling discourse of who best represents the national interest. Whilst SNP billboards imagine a House of Commons complete with tartan benches, Jim Murphy has foisted a commitment to patriotism and the service of the nation into Scottish Labour’s constitution. Whether by reaction or design, Labour is now mired in the patriot game. It may as well impale itself upon a thistle. Continue reading →

There are better things to be doing than playing the patriot game

Jim Murphy by by Steve Punter at http://flickr.com/photos/11051496@N00/3465695310“To these ends we work for the patriotic interest of the people of Scotland” runs part of a suggested new aims and values statement (Clause 4 – renumbered from Clause 2 for marketing purposes) that we are being asked to endorse at Scottish Conference in March.

As a party and a movement we can do better than this, if we are allowed the chance. And there are a number of reasons both political and practical why we should make a point of doing so. Not least, because the idea is built on a foundation of myths – and nationalist myths at that.

More fundamentally our party should be forming our aims and values through participation and involvement from the grassroots up. Not a take it or leave it edict handed down from the top. Continue reading →

Scottish Labour’s Clause 4 moment – socialism and patriotism

MurphyWell that’s the Scottish leadership election over. There was at least a real debate about ideas and strategy and Neil Findlay’s campaign ensured that we didn’t get the coronation the system usually delivers. Neil also delivered ideas of substance and generated energy amongst party members that I haven’t seen for a long time.

From Jim Murphy’s initial announcements it would appear that we are about to get some internal constitutional change.

Jim wants a ‘Clause 4’ moment, although it’s actually Clause 2 in the Scottish Labour Party rules. Yes, I know I’m a pedant. Not in this case for some New Labour policy purpose, but to bring Scottish Labour ‘closer to the centre of Scottish life’. The strategy appears to be aimed at dispelling the myths about ‘London Labour’, stoked by the actions of the UK party during Johann Lamont’s leadership.

Many in the party will welcome this strategy as long overdue. Even in government there was an unwillingness to shout about the different approaches we took in Scotland in areas like the NHS and education policy. If a Scottish solution to Scottish issues is to mean anything, then differentiation is fine.

He set out five principles for this new aims and values statement. Continue reading →

Jim Murphy and saving Scottish Labour

Murphy campaignThe victories of Jim Murphy and Kezia Dugdale in the Scottish Labour leadership elections have invited much comment. Some of it warm and friendly, but a great deal not. Indeed, soon after Saturday’s results were announced obituaries (like this) have been pouring in from the left. True, many who are so minded wish Scottish Labour little other than ill and can’t wait for the party north of the border to shuffle off this mortal coil, but wanting something and having it happen are not the same. As readers know, Jim wasn’t my choice, but that doesn’t mean I think Scottish Labour is doomed, doomed, doomed. Continue reading →