In case you missed this excellent article first time around here it is again scot2.scot facebook group . Scraping the Barrel: Murphy’s coming assault on the Scottish left and the SNP will make his pre-referendum diatribes look like child’s play MacTernan by Stephen Love 13th January 2015 The campaign to decide the next party of Government in Great Britain has begun. With it will come an all-out assault from the Labour Party in Scotland against those on the left and in the pro-independence camp. Murphy will attempt (indeed has already begun to do so) to woo those socialist, working class voters Labour used to take for granted back into the fold. Although we did not win the referendum, let us not think for a moment it did not have its triumphs. Through the stellar work of Radical Independence in the working class areas of Scotland, and in those areas forgotten by mainstream politics, (without which the referendum may have been a decisive defeat) Better Together lost the working class, who split 65/35 for independence. Glasgow, the capital of Labour’s power base in Scotland for well over half a century, was a tremendous blow to the party and its image. Not only that, but the votes for yes in two other West coast councils, as well as the generally high support for yes throughout that centre of Labour’s power was a damning indictment of party whose leader so arrogantly proclaimed in 2011 that it was the “right” of Labour to win in Scotland. Who, other than the shambolic Ed Miliband would utter such a phrase on the eve of an election? The Scottish people proved his party wrong then. Just as the traditional Labour voters of the West coast and Glasgow proved his party wrong on the 18th of September when they so arrogantly thought that their strongholds would do as they were told, and blindly vote for the Union, at the behest of Labour. This presents the first challenge for Murphy. How, if at all, will he woo these voters back? He has come to Scotland from Westminster, cloaked in the garbs of the prophet-like saviour of the Labour party and all things socialist in Scotland – yes, he has even called himself a socialist. But the thing about Mr. Murphy is that he is the biggest Blairite after the man himself in the entire Labour Party. We are talking about a man who supports trident renewal, as well as its continued stay in Scotland. We are talking about a man who supported the Iraq war, a man who voted for the Bedroom Tax. That sounds closer to Conservative than anything Socialist. Here is a man whose expenses are three times his already £60,000 a year MP salary. He is dishonest in the extreme and will use every trick at his disposal. Furthermore, Labour’s new man in Scotland has said that he will not be answerable to the main Westminster branch of the party. Anyone who has ever been involved for more than five minutes knows that this position is nonsense. Of course Murphy will not even sneeze without Miliband’s say so. Not that Murphy has any intention of doing anything otherwise. His speech when he first became leader of the Labour Party in Scotland spoke of acting independently of the main branch of the Labour party, which was nothing more than a ploy to appeal to the Yes voters – without whom he cannot win another referendum. Make no mistake, between now and the next referendum (which I believe we will win) the Yes vote – if it remains united, will be the deciding factor in every election pertaining to Scotland. That is the great fear of the Labour party – they cannot consolidate the Unionist vote in the same way. The second problem Murphy will have is that the vast majority of that Yes vote will not fall for his bluff and bluster. That will show early, and that’s when it will get nasty. Enter one John McTernan, the master of nasty. Remember the comedy character portrayed by Peter Capaldi in The Thick of it? The odious, snide, foul mouthed, thuggish PR Spin Doctor? In McTernan that is what we in the pro-independence circles will be treated to. Enraged and affronted that we will ignore his false, simpering “social values”, Murphy will instruct McTernan to attack with all the smears and slander he can muster. Remember the One Party State, Nazi, Fascist, narrow-nationalist and “not real Scots” (that beauty came from our revered ex-PM Gordon Brown) slurs? That will come back again, plus everything else they can throw at us. They will challenge the Scottish Government on poverty, knowing that on many of these issues the Scottish Government is powerless to act – thanks to the victorious pro-union campaign that they themselves supported. McTernan forged his reputation in the cut throat arena of Australian politics, where a Prime Minister is more likely to be stabbed in the back by their own party than lose an election. Ask Karen Gillard, who hired this man to fight her dirty wars. Ask Kevin Rudd or Michael Howard. Australian politics is nasty. McTernan has mastered nasty. He has the reputation of a foul-mouthed bully behind the scenes in the Australian civil service, and a tactless political operator. We will see that in all its glory in the run up to the election. Here’s the terrifying thing if you are Jim Murphy, John McTernan, Alistair Darling, Gordon Brown, Douglas Alexander and all the other Labour old boys, support for independence and the SNP went up after the Referendum, not down. Many who voted No, particularly in the postal ballot, later regretted their choice. Support for the SNP, to the amazement of the mainstream media and the established order at Westminster, skyrocketed. With over 100,000 members, the SNP is now the Third largest Party in the United Kingdom – and by far the largest party in Scotland. When membership from the other pro-Yes parties such as the Greens and SSP is added on to that, it becomes clear that in the aftermath of the Referendum, the Yes movement has become a formidable political force. Murphy and McTernan know that. First they will attempt to seduce and cajole. When that fails they will shout and curse and revert back to the worst tactics of Better Together. When that also fails they will revert to “vote Labour to keep the Tories out”. The problem is Scotland did that five years ago. Overwhelmingly. It failed. The people of Scotland do not have short memories. We remember what was promised to us. That will only be delivered with a strong pro-Scotland bloc in Westminster. Unfortunately, Labour no longer get to count themselves in that bloc, if indeed they ever could. In the world of Labour Scotland exists only to provide them with votes. That system has changed. We in the Pro-independence and Home Rule movement must remain strong, united and impervious to all attempts to belittle, seduce and divide us during this election campaign. We must remain strong and return as many pro-Scotland MPs to ensure that Westminster deliver what was promised to us. Nothing less than full Devolution will do. From there, the leap into the “great unknown” that we heard so much about, becomes but the smallest of steps. We cannot allow the inconsequential Jim Murphy or his new toy to dissuade us from our end goal: a fairer, socially just, prosperous and independent Scotland. Copyright © 2014 Scot2.scot All rights reserved. . Site created by Webridean Web Services
Posted on: Fri, 16 Jan 2015 11:23:40 +0000