I don't know if I've just been in a particularly giggly mood since Johann Lamont resigned, but it seems the least wee thing is cracking me up these days. Here's a little selection from various media sources that have unintentionally tickled me -
Mr Sarwar said he did not recognise Ms Lamont's comments accusing Westminster colleagues of treating Scotland as a "branch office".
He said: "That's not an assessment I recognise."
He also said he did not recognise her description of some Scottish Labour MPs as "dinosaurs".
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The former Scottish Secretary won plaudits during the independence campaign for his nationwide tour where he stood on Irn-Bru crates arguing against separation.
If he stands, he would face strong competition from Anas Sarwar, who took over as Labour’s interim leader in Scotland following Ms Lamont’s departure.
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Anas Sarwar, Scottish Labour’s deputy leader, has ruled himself out as a candidate to take over running the party after the sudden resignation of Johann Lamont last week.
One of Sarwar’s close aides said Sarwar, who was never likely to command majority support for the post, was concerned about the significant political challenges and policy workload faced by Labour.
So it just goes to show that being simultaneously lazy, cowardly and highly ambitious is rather like being Scottish Labour "leader" - a contradiction in terms.
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SCOT GOES POP POLL OF POLLS
Today has seen the publication of the first Scottish subsample to be substantially conducted after Johann Lamont blew the whistle on Scottish Labour being treated as a branch office of the London party. It's from Populus (the only company that have shown the SNP behind Labour in any subsamples since the referendum) and it puts the SNP on 42% and Labour on 24%. However, the Poll of Polls update below is still overwhelmingly based on fieldwork conducted before Lamont's resignation. It's an average of six subsamples from GB-wide polls - four from YouGov and two from Populus. As has happened before, I can't include the new Opinium poll, because for reasons only known to themselves Opinium don't publish geographical breakdowns - but with the SNP on 4% across Great Britain in that poll, it seems almost certain they're ahead in the Scottish subsample.
Scottish voting intentions for the May 2015 UK general election :
SNP 41.7% (-0.3)
Labour 24.7% (-1.4)
Conservatives 17.5% (+1.5)
Liberal Democrats 5.7% (-0.3)
Greens 5.0% (+0.3)
UKIP 4.0% (+0.3)
(The Poll of Polls uses the Scottish subsamples from all GB-wide polls that have been conducted entirely within the last seven days and for which datasets have been provided, and also all full-scale Scottish polls that have been conducted at least partly within the last seven days. Full-scale polls are given ten times the weighting of subsamples.)
I barely needs saying, but Anas Sarwar is slimier than a slug smoothie.
ReplyDeleteThe Greens look on course to out-poll the Lib-Dems very soon! Dead chuffed about that. :D
According to Political Betting.
ReplyDeleteAnus is an MSP
'So far the bookmakers appear to have worked on the assumption that it was there for the taking for the so-called Westminster ‘big beasts’ of Gordon Brown and Jim Murphy with Anas Sarwar the Scottish Labour Deputy the main MSP contender. However with both Brown and Sarwar now ruling themselves out, the field opens considerably.'
Deary me.
Incredibly, that article is not written by the clueless Mike Smithson or TSE, but instead by Henry G Manson, who genuinely knows his stuff about Labour (including Scottish Labour). I think we have to put that mistake down to Sarwar being a non-entity.
ReplyDeleteSarwar may be a slimy git, but he isn't an idiot. The person that takes this will be blackmailed into taking it.
ReplyDeleteWho has a skeleton in their closet?
You have to credit Sarwar for not being so stupid as to take the job. Any Westminster MP that takes it on would be faced with fighting the 2016 Holyrood election knowing defeat is almost guaranteed. So they would be moving to Holyrood to be in opposition and may have to resign the leadership before even setting foot in the chamber.
ReplyDeleteBrown doesn't want the gig, which leaves only Murphy and Alexander as realistic contenders from WM. Murphy is odds on favourite, but he is also one of the favourites to replace Milliband if Labour are defeated. Alexander, would be in line for a senior cabinet posistion if they win.
So unless Murphy is forced to by Milliband, we're left with Holyrood MSPs, so a straight fight between Neil Findlay and drew smith by my reckoning!
I daresay the fieldwork for these is done pretty much regularly in the UK-wide ones, but FWIW I took part in a YouGov poll today, 2015 VI included.
ReplyDeleteIt wouldn't make much sense for Miliband to force Lamont out (which is pretty much what happened), only for a more left wing and more independent-minded MSP (Findlay) to take over.
ReplyDeleteThis is already far funnier than Lamont's 'election', whichm for those who don't remember, was pretty fucking hilarious.
ReplyDeleteWatched Ponsonby 'report' on the SLAB meltdown in sympathetic funerial tones while looking like somebody has shot his dug. It's not supposed to be your fight chum and we aw know fine well you would be hammering any other party in this state. Risible stuff from the media all round so far though admittedly some of it just hilarious.
Watching almost all of 'scottish' labour run away as fast as they can from Lamont's job today has been 100% pure comedy gold.
LOL
Meanwhile ittle Ed and westmisnter Labour are running around frantically like headless chickens trying to get Broon to change his mind. With somewhat staggering irony it would seem that even little Ed and London Labour don't believe a word Broon says either since Broon pretty definitively ruled himself out for Lamont's job. Priceless! :-D
If they changed his mind now I can scarcely imagine anything more certain to prove Lamont's words true about London Labour running the SLAB branch office with barely concealed contempt.
"The former Scottish Secretary won plaudits during the independence campaign for his nationwide tour where he stood on Irn-Bru crates arguing against separation"
Sheer poetry without a shred of irony. Don't these idiots get it? While Murphy the Eggman was shouting at 8 guys and a dug from his crate there were HUNDREDS of town hall meetings up and down scotland where Nicola, Harvie, Tommy, Canavan and many more prominent Yes campaigners were actually talking TO ordinary scots and answering questions in packed out venues.
"Plaudits" indeed. ROFL
Nonetheless, I have faith that little Ed and his idiot sycophants (along with the Blairites and Brownites who are of course using this for their own malign purposes) can and will give us even more comedy of this wonderfully high calibre as the trainwreck rolls on and on and on.
Findaly has, according to the BBC, ruled himself out and thereby shown himself not to be a total numpty.
ReplyDeleteIt looks incredibly like it actually will be Murphy. I'm really struggling to get my head round why. The only two things I can think of are that (either or both):
a) He has been told he will be frozen out by Milliband in terms of a cushy ministerial job.
b) He really believes all the ludicrous hype around his Irn Bru crate tour, thinks he saved the union and thinks he can save SLAB.
I can believe a) quite easily but it isn't important unless you're sure Labour will win next year (very far from certain as we know). Otherwise, wait for Ed to lose the election and ingratiate yourself with his successor. But the consequences of b), if he fails, seem so bad (from his perspective) , I'm really surprised he's taking the risk.
In any case, he's let the speculation build up so much now, it seems inevitable that he's going to go for it.
"It wouldn't make much sense"
ReplyDeleteI see James has nailed 'scottish' Labour's campaign slogan for 2015 and 2016.
:-D
Now that Broon has only just ruled himself out (yet again LOL) you have to ask yourself why that level of complete and utter desperation if Murphy wanted the job?
Answer - he doesn't and never did want it.
More pertinent to ask why little Ed was so keen for the Eggman to do it in the first place? Might it have something to do with Murphy being one of the main plotters against little Ed (along with wee Dougie) when the first whisper campaigns against little Ed were being leaked to the media? I think it just might at that. Little Ed demoted the Eggman for a reason and it sure ain't because he trusts him.
Fact is while Murphy is a possible contender to take over from little Ed at some point (along with Cooper, Burnham and few others) he's hardly going to be too keen to take the steaming bucket of shit from Lamont and place it over his head for the foreseeable future.
Be pretty damn funny if he did though.
Has Anne McTaggart ruled herself out yet?
ReplyDeleteJust did a yougov poll. Highlights:
ReplyDelete---
Westminster and Holyrood VI.
How I voted in the iref.
How I'd vote in a new iref.
Whether I think there should be another iref with timescales
How I'd vote for Holyrood if Broon or Murphy were SLAB leaders.
Whether I think more devo is on the cards.
My opinion on EVEL.
Whether I was standing for Scottish Labour Leadership.
Whether the captcha thing on Scotgoespop was putting me off posting
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Covered all the hot topics anyway.
Ladbrokes have put up the prices for the field of runners.
ReplyDeleteGordy McRuin is 3/1 and may be scratched as a non-runner- did not eat up after last gallop
Findlay was 4/1 and may also have scratched himself -lame.
Kezia Dugdale is 14/1 - outsider likely to fall at first fence
Wee Dougie is 20/1 and may also be a non-runner - cast in his box
The red-hot favourite at even money is Eggy Murphy, the comedian. He has been primed for the race according to his trainer, Rt Hon (Wallace)Little Ed. It has been his long term goal. He looks ready to run but is allergic to eggs and there are rumours that all of the SNP members of parliament will be keen to ensure that he lays at least one egg a day.
You have to wonder exactly how seriously little Ed and Labour think their 'scottish' labour leader will ever be taken after the unprecedented and hilarious events of today?
ReplyDeleteIt's clear little Ed and his shadow cabinet aren't the sharpest tools in the box, but even they must be dimly aware that they and SLAB are a complete laughing stock right now. Just in case they still don't realise how incredible their meltdown is, scottish labour politicians are falling over themselves to rule themselves OUT of the running with absolutely NOBODY showing the slightest bit of enthusiasm to become leader in scotland. So do the Labour drones and spinners really think all this will be forgotten in a few weeks??
Nae chance! :-D
They had better get used to Lamont's eventual replacement being mocked mercilessly and relentlessly after this complete and utter farce.
It's not as if the poor chump replacing Lamont had any prospect of doing well anyway but this makes it absolutely certain they are being lined up to fail and fail hard.
James, if I input your p.o.p. figures, or other poll figures, into electoral calculus, it always seems to come out with the SNP taking 30-40 seats from the Libdems and (spit) "scottish" Labour. This (almost) always results in the SNP being the only possible coalition partner in a hung parliament.
ReplyDeleteCare to comment, James?