Grim News for the Labour Party; Scottish Labour MP Ian Murray launches Labour deputy leader bid, the Tom Watson 2 candidate deludes himself that he is leadership material and that he can make Scottish Labour into “an election-winning machine”, Murray said ‘all I ask is the opportunity to serve’, well given past service, thanks but no thanks!

Dear All

Imagine, the ‘attack of the killer Blairities’, having brought the party down, which made it impossible to win, the sole Scottish MP, Ian Murray who made it plain, he was anti Corbyn has decided to  launch a bid to be Labour deputy leader. So, what are his chances when you compare him against Angela Rayner? She has the bigger media presence; she has a vibe, positive and upbeat. Ian Murray on the other hand doesn’t have the jolly vibe needed to be a number 2 wingman; he has all the charisma of a wet and windy afternoon in Troon. Can he rally the troops? Is he a unity candidate? Does he tick those boxes after his anti Corbyn record, actions and deeds?

When you help bring down the ‘King’, chances of elevation tend by enlarge to be slim, in his case, I would say nil. It is true that he won his seat with a majority of more than 11,000 and was the only Labour MP to win a seat but in reality, it wasn’t a seat that the SNP could successfully peddle their fake news in. It isn’t even a seat to ply his trade as a ‘man of the people’ either.

Scotland’s only Labour MP has confirmed he will stand for deputy leader of the party, in his pitch he wrote: 

“I never again want to feel like I did at 10pm on the night of the general election.” 

Having helped sown defeat in his own unique way, maybe if he hadn’t queered the pitch with disunity, he might not have felt bad at all. The declared at present are shadow sport minister Rosena Allin-Khan, shadow education secretary Angela Rayner, shadow justice secretary Richard Burgon, shadow equalities secretary Dawn Butler and shadow Europe minister Khalid Mahmood.

If you know the players, the outstanding candidate is Rayner.

Laughingly, the former shadow Scottish secretary Ian Murray said:

“I’m standing to be deputy leader of the Labour Party because I want to help us win power to transform lives”.

If you remember the Blair years, the Labour Party was transformed, not for the many, but for the few with the added bells and whistles of punishing the poorest in society. It was a great time to be alive for the middle classes. Middle class Labour helping middle class people, leaving the poor with crumbs.

I wonder if ‘saving the poor’ is in the job description, given he is a signed up member of the Blair crowd called Progress?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progress_(organisation)

Anything with Peter Mandelson involved should set alarm bells off.

Murray added:

“Growing up on the Wester Hailes council estate in Edinburgh, the Tory Government believed families like ours didn’t deserve support. But my mum and my teachers told me and my brother there was nothing we couldn’t achieve. I want that hope and aspiration for every child. That’s what the Labour Party can deliver when it’s in power. The architects of the party’s catastrophic failure in 2019 cannot be allowed to be the architects of the response. The next leadership team must turn us into an election-winning machine that uses the skills and talents of all our members and supporters to succeed. The Labour Party must change. We must be honest with ourselves so we can be honest with the voters. Looking to the past will only prolong our years in the wilderness and put our country at risk.

We must become a credible alternative government of the future, not a protest movement of the past. That’s how we lift millions of children, families, and pensioners out of poverty again.”

While dumping working class working age unemployed Scots in the shitter, while playing ‘games’ of moving the money around. Having the Labour Party under the control and direction of Progress is a return to the bad old days.

The bit I liked is when he said he vowed to put Scotland's voice at the top of the party agenda to once again return Labour into "an election-winning machine". He is where he is because of his support in the past for Hearts Football Club and his involvement in as Chair of the Foundation of Hearts, a bid by a fans' group to buy-out the club from administration. Sadly, this can’t be replicated in Scottish Labour to make the party an election-winning machine. It’s going to have to be the old fashioned way of blood and guts campaigning on the doorsteps and elsewhere, winning over one vote at a time!

In harking back to the tenure of John Smith, Murray said:

“We must listen to and reconnect with voters in the seats we lost, as well as those who abandoned us in the seats we hold. We must also listen to those in seats we will never win and build our response from there. With Scotland’s voice at the top of the party, we can send a strong message that we are listening to all the nations and regions, and that the entire party can learn from Scotland where populist nationalism had its first victory in the UK. We must become a credible alternative government of the future, not a protest movement of the past. That’s how we lift millions of children, families, and pensioners out of poverty again. This is just the start of this debate for me. As my hero, former Labour Leader John Smith, famously said, ‘all I ask is the opportunity to serve’."

The trouble is given his history against actively undermining the leadership and his membership of Progress, the question of what type of service he offers and for whom? Basically, I doubt Murray is leadership material even deputy material. His time is over despite a full blown fight by Blairities to attempt to win the leadership. Yes, Labour would benefit from a return to the politics of former Labour Leader John Smith, but that isn’t on offer here.

Can Ian Murray make Scottish Labour "an election-winning machine"?

No!

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University