You might remember that in the dying days of Iain Duncan Smith's leadership of the Tory party, the Mirror produced a front page with the self-styled "Quiet Man" mocked up to look like Comical Ali, making ever more ludicrous predictions about how he was about to sweep to a glorious triumph. Does that remind you of anyone at the moment?
Since Jim Murphy first made his notorious promise that he would ensure Scottish Labour holds every single seat they currently have at Westminster, it must have become abundantly clear to him that things are not exactly going according to plan. An Ipsos-Mori poll putting the SNP ahead by 28% with just three-and-a-half months to go was a bit of a clue. Now surely anyone with a bit of sense would be trying to keep very quiet about that initial promise, and hoping that it gets forgotten. Instead, Jackanory Jim seems determined to reiterate it at every opportunity.
"These wolves, these creemeenals, these mer-sen-arr-ees, Sturgeon and Salmond, we will crush them. We will hold EVERY SINGLE SEAT we have. And we will GAIN East Dunbartonshire!"
Why stop there? Why not chuck in Orkney and Shetland for good measure?
Perhaps a passing psychologist might be able to shed some light on what Murphy is playing at. Does he regret taking over the leadership? Is he trying to make his own position untenable, so that he can resume his Westminster career after May? It seems a strange way of going about it, but I'm struggling to think of a more rational explanation.
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Sorry that I haven't updated the Poll of Polls this weekend - I'm feeling a bit under the weather.
And of course they may be about to deploy their secret weapon: Gordon The Gorilla. SLab - so good one leader's not enough.
ReplyDeleteI've heard that in Edinburgh they have a "five-seat strategy" - hold the current four and gain Edinburgh West from the LibDems. I suspect they really believe they can achieve this; I do hope they're wrong.
ReplyDeleteI hope you feel better soon James. Not long now until the Ashcroft polling figures come out.
ReplyDeleteDouglas Alexander: ‘We won’t just keep seats in Scotland – we’ll win even more’
ReplyDeleteDDH
I hope Jim doesn't turn up the volume. His voice puts off a lot of voters as it is.
ReplyDeleteIt's really strange. In the recent past, Labour in Scotland have been quite good at downplaying their prospects, while the SNP tended to get carried away with predictions of triumph - Glenrothes in 2008 and Glasgow in 2012 being good examples.
ReplyDeleteSo what the hell are SLAB doing? That Buzzfeed interview the other day where Murph was saying that he never realised the SNP would be such pushovers, or that it would be so easy to restore Labour as the dominant party in Scotland - what is the strategy behind this? Is the idea that the first step to victory is acting like victors, regardless of all the evidence?
That would be the Glenrothes by-election that the SNP won, only to be denied by fraudulent postal votes that couldn't be validated as the registers were destroyed by labour supporters.
DeleteIf elections on Scotland are under the control of the Scottish Parliament then postal votes must be abolished.
Bring in a new system where anybody who will be out of the country can vote, but only if they visit their normal polling place and stick their ballot in a normal ballot box while witnessed by the returning officer and party activists.
If you are so decrepit as to be unable to even be wheeled along to your polling place then
a) tough and b) have a system where the ballot box visits you.
Simple, cheap and stops labour dead. All good points.
That would be the Glenrothes by-election that the SNP won, only to be denied by fraudulent postal votes that couldn't be validated as the registers were destroyed by labour supporters.
DeleteI thought someone might pick up on this. Well, if you think Glenrothres doesn't fit, then take Salmond's projection of 20 seats in 2010 as an alternative example.
I agree that on-demand postal votes should be abolished, but arguing that it's just "tough" if disabled people can't vote makes it difficult to care about the rest of your opinions.
That would be the Glenrothes by-election that the SNP won, only to be denied by fraudulent postal votes that couldn't be validated as the registers were destroyed by labour supporters.
DeleteExcept for that pesky evidence thing.
JM is the master of the mind games. He knows Labour have a fight on their hands in Scotland and he is the master of winding up the nats. We like his style though and it keeps the focus on the slender man.
ReplyDelete"We like his style though..."
DeleteI don't know if you are a Daily Record Pressman - you certainly sound like one. The more focus on the "slender man" the better as it always shows up his Blairite prejudice, although the unionist media do their best to hide it.
DDH
Oh my, so that is what he is doing.....LOL
ReplyDeleteMemo to self.... Do not forget to get wound up everytime Murphy predicts that Labour will win more Scottish seats in 2015 than in 2010. Rolling on the floor laughing is not being wound up.
Fair's fair, the Daily record is always good for a laugh. Remember the "vow"?
DeleteDDH
You have no idea what the hell Murphy is playing at? Join the club. I've been racking my brains at this for ages and I'm utterly mystified.
ReplyDeleteI'm quite surprised to find myself thinking that Findlay or Boyack would've been better.
DeleteMurphy should know better. He could spin the SNP's huge gains as a victory for Labour when we inevitably fall short of those Ipsos MORI style predictions. Instead he leaves himself no wiggle room - his words will come back to haunt him.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like the Labour strategists saw that 'talking up the SNP' was a problem, so decided to talk Labour up.
ReplyDeleteA bit like boxers who talk as if they are invincible and that their opponent will be unable to withstand their power, bla bla bla.
One thing that the SNP has done since the referendum is 'normalise' self determination. The old way of voting SNP for the devolved parliament and Labour for Westminster, is no longer the 'norm' with people now seeing a vote for the SNP as a vote for Scotlands best interests.
What Labour are doing is trying to dampen the enthusiasm of this New Movement, while also attempting to paint a vote for Scotlands interests as a 'mistake' and something that will let David Cameron in.
Although the BT leadership to a man admitted when asked, that they would all rather see David Cameron and the Tory Party ruling over Scotland, than Scotland have its Independence, they are now desperately trying to tell us that this same Tory Party would be a disaster for Scotland!
Confused? ...Yes? Then you must be a Labour voter!
Jim was 9 years at Uni and no degree. A simpler explanation is that he is not very clever and out of his depth.
ReplyDeleteNot very clever people have difficulty in adapting to change and tend to repeat what succeeded in the past, not being able to understand or deal with new realities . Sound like Jim?