Dear All
Labour leader Jim Murphy enjoyed himself in
the Better Together during his 100 day tour, but the referendum is over now.
He has since went on to be become leader of
Scottish Labour, the Labour Party fortunes have somewhat improved against the
SNP.
At FMQs Kezia Dugdale scored some hits against the SNP Government.
The SNP have done some climb downs, the proposed
women’s super prison in Inverclyde and demands for the publishing weekly
accident and emergency waiting times.
On the issue of the super prison, I have
blogged and commented on this before, it was a bad idea, during having a pop at
Elish ‘Labour’ Angiolini who decided to reinvent herself as a caring individual,
struggling with angst about women being locked up.
Murphy recent call for a lifting of the ban
on alcohol at football grounds is bullshit, if he thinks the pressing issue of
the day is people getting pissed watching football, he is in for a rude
awakening at the ballot box. When he took over as Labour leader, one of his
first announcements was to suggest Labour would repeal the OBA Act, brought in
by a knee jerk SNP Government.
I am against OBA as it is bad law, my
position remains the same, it should be repealed, but what concerns me is that
Murphy thought a ‘housekeeping’ issue should figure so high on his ‘to do’
list.
Things have changed politically in
Scotland, it isn’t business as usual; the Labour Party need to step up to the
plate and start delivering real life changing policies for ordinary working
class people.
Failure to do so, failure to deliver will
see them destroyed, people in Scotland are sick of being ignored, they are sick
of getting nothing in return for their vote.
The Nationalists have decided to oppose the
lifting of alcohol, despite the idea being popular among Scottish clubs who are
strapped for cash, in an ideal world, people could enjoy a pint and watch
a football game; sadly that isn’t the case.
Some Scots still have a lot of growing up
to do, because this minority are spoiling it for the rest, hence the ban on
alcohol must stay.
It is a safety issue, we can’t do anything
about fans getting tanked up before or after a game, but we can something about
it during it.
It is easy to see why Murphy’s call will
prove popular but in this case popular doesn’t also mean right.
Murphy sees this as a class issue, but it
isn’t, it is a safety and law and order issue, while it is true, that fans can
drink at Murrayfield, we should remember that rugby fans by enlarge don’t use
violence on opposing fans.
Jim Murphy should think back to the bad old
days of the notorious Scottish Cup final of 1980 between Rangers and Celtic
which saw fans rioting on the Hampden pitch and the use of mounted police.
Rugby has no history of fan trouble.
Working class people as well as middle
class people go to rugby matches without incident so they were allowed to
re-introduce alcohol at grounds in 2007.
If football fans want alcohol back, then
the element who cause violence has to be removed from entering football
stadiums, not exactly an easy task. A couple of weeks ago a ten-year-old
Rangers fan left with an injured face and three missing teeth after being
“bottled” by Celtic fans.
10 years old, a little kid.
Jim Murphy should drop the call for alcohol
to be re-introduced at football matches, in fact, he should drop his ‘fitba’
campaign all together; he is struggling at present because he isn’t producing policies
of real significance to change lives of those who need it most in society.
Murphy needs to wise up, he stands to lose
many of the current Labour MPs who must be thinking why Murphy dealing with meaningless
trivia.
If he fails to grasp the problem, he will
be waking up to find himself surrounded by people calling for the end of his
leadership sooner rather than later.
Deliver policies of significant meaning to
win back Labour voters, big ideas, real change and real commitment.
Pledge to devolve Welfare responsibility to
the Scottish Parliament.
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow
University
1 comment:
George you are absolutely correct yet again, labour to produce meaningful stuff. Their campaign so far is very poor.
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