The poster wanted it shared widely. I thought it followed on nicely from Panda Paws' piece...
Happened last night Friday 10th April and shows up Jim Murphy for what he is.
A slimy git.
I was at a friend’s for dinner in Barrhead.
Early
evening there is a knock at the door, it's Jim Murphy on the Labour campaign
trail. Friend brings him in, introduces us as 5 social workers (she always
tells people). His opening gambit was " is this a girls Friday night drink
party?"
Couple of points here:
1. None of us are "girls” and haven't been for sometime, but let's say it's his attempt at an ice breaker
1. None of us are "girls” and haven't been for sometime, but let's say it's his attempt at an ice breaker
2. There was one bottle of Prosseco on the table and significantly more in the way of dining accoutrements.
Anyway, moving on, he starts his piece. Slate, slag,
criticise SNP!
We start asking him questions, he appears slightly unnerved!
One friend asks about politicians pay rises, he is getting
bit annoyed.
He says she is listening to too much news - point made is
media not accepted form of communication in election campaigns???
Why doesn't he challenge BBC? He hasn't got the time !
Same person asks him
about cuts to public services stating this is a Westminster issue, asks what Labour
will do about it. His response is it’s an SNP issue., They are the ones in
Government in Scotland. Alex Salmond gets blame here! No mention throughout
discussion about Nicola Sturgeon. (Sorry I thought she was SNP leader)
Debate ensues about what Westminster give Scotland.
JM needs to leave now.
Another friend speaks about her political history, states
she likes Andy Burnham and names few other noteworthy politicians.
JM response: "do you like his eyebrows?? All my female
friends like his eyebrows".
What??? We are 5 professional, educated, interested women.
Why would it be his eyebrows we notice????
Discussion had about nuclear weapons...blah blah.
Then friend who asked about politicians’ salary makes
further comment.
JM replies
"you've been on that Internet too much"
I said that the Labour campaign appeared to be about
slagging off SNP rather than telling the electorate what Labour will actually
do, so he tells us it's all about taxing the rich, taxing the bankers bonuses.
He didn't like it when someone suggested much of the
financial problem is down to bankers and politicians.
I think Alex Salmond
got another mention here!
So we still are not clear on what Labour will do. What our
discussion confirmed for me is that Labour appear to have an issue with a woman
in power in Scotland.
JM clearly has issues
with women in power or indeed who have a view and opinion and are able to
question him. His manner, patronising comments and demeanour when speaking to a
group of strong women was not fitting for this century, this campaign or indeed
the Labour Party.
But poor Jim, of all the doors you had to knock on that one.
At one point his minder came to door asking if we had kidnapped him.
I can only imagine him now ...note to self "never
accept invite into house, especially if door opened by a woman".
On a lighter note he got off easy, if he had stayed for
another 2 bottles the hostess who has a penchant for a wee song after a glass
or two could have had him singing "I am the music man “. We will dine out
on this for years!
He was our Come Dine With Me entertainment.
tris
ReplyDeleteshould rename blog the ........ANTIMURPHY BLOG....
its becoming obsessive now
Niko. You have to admit it. The man asked for it.
DeleteBut I'll give him a break tomorrow...
Promise :)
Well, Nico, he is the "leader" of "Scottish Labour", hahahahahahahahaha; oh no he isn't; little Ed is and Scottish Labour does not exist.
DeleteIf you really think about it, Labour don't exist either. At least amongst the " ahem" leadership.
As you say, he's put himself out there for criticism.
DeleteHe's the supposed leader of a supposed party. Secondly he made wild claims that HE and only HE was in charge and HE took orders from NO ONE. (All in an effort to put down Johann Lamont and her complaints that she had to pass everything by London.)
It turns out that he's doing the Labour party harm in England and had to be put back in his box by some senior cabinet figures, before he scared away the middle classes with his "end to austerity in just a year" which he neither believes or want, but makes his sound more socialist than even Nicola Sturgeon.
The trouble about saying these things when you don't mean them is they always sound completely insincere.
I see the claim 'not to lose a single seat' to the SNP has now been down graded to 'not to let the SNP have more seats' than them.
In my opinion he'd have done better to admit at the beginning that:
i/ They had made a huge error to work with the Tories and Liberals;
ii/ They had lost the confidence of "Glasgow Man" ;
iii/ He had a monumental struggle to get back that confidence but would do his damnedest.
iv/ He would now resign and let Neil Findlay do the job.
Too late.
At least you had canvassers round. Not seen any here for many years, and the area is respectable enough.
ReplyDeleteImagine he had turned up 3 bottles later...........
That's what the lady was saying...
DeleteImagine the fun...
Party Jim.
Five strong women and bottles of wine? Sounds good to me......
ReplyDeleteWhat can I say?
DeleteWelcome back John. Long time no see.
I see you haven't changed!
:)
A pretendy leader of a pretendy Scottish Labour party who inhabit a pretendy Scottish parliament (or at least that is how British Labour always intended it should be).
ReplyDeleteOne of his many problems is that Scots are no longer prepared to have pretendy anything imposed on them and unless the British Labour (Scottish branch) party gets real it is finished.
Not sure he and many of his British cohorts have the capability having been steeped in the politics of deceit for so long.
I doubt Murphy would have been allowed to darken our doorstep but power to the ladies for giving it room to ruminate.
I suspect that they knew what they were doing and wanted to see how far his patience would last with them.
DeleteI suspect that they knew what they were doing and wanted to see how far his patience would last with them.
DeleteMurphy or Dim Jim to us Nats is nothing more than a fraud.
ReplyDeleteCan't believe anyone would let him in to their home. Gonna need a big clean up afterwards.
Pathetic liar and turncoat.
Saying that, lIEbour did us a huge favour putting him in charge of the biggest loss of seats in LIEbours history . A gift to the SNP that keeps on giving.
It's funny how they blame the SNP these days for everything . It used to be that LIEbour were opposition to the tory's . The anti- SNP rhetoric isn't helping them a bit and the fact is they have lost Scotland. Zombie party indeed.
happy days Tris.
Vote SNP vote Scotland.
They certainly did us a big favour electing him.
DeleteI asked Neil Findlay what went wrong... he just said, he'll probably have a go "next time". I suspect that indicated he thought next time wouldn't be far away.
When he was elected I said that it was the worst thing they could do. I'd have been far more afraid that Neil or Sarah could have won people back, specially if they had had Caty Clark too instead of Dugdale.
Tris
ReplyDeleteThe main issue with Jim Murphy overall is that he has been found out. He is so full of himself that he thought he would ride to the rescue of the Scottish Branch of Labour, he would put the SNP in their place, would shut up the YES voters and put them back into their box. He is the man who really saved the union, Iron Bru man fought off a particularly tough egg and was crowned by the Daily Rancid as the saviour of Labour. Murphy was the man to sort out the mess, he was the man to get the party activists back in line, he would sort out Holyrood and tell Curran etc what they were to do. Murphy is Scottish Labour, even though we know there is no such thing as Scottish Labour.
But what the rancid did not tell Murphy was that many people in Scotland have decided to move on from being blind, deaf and ignorant. The YES campaign enlightened many hundreds of thousands of people as to how the system of Westminster actually works, how Scotland and Scottish people are viewed ,and they did not like what they found. Many of them have been telling the Labour Scottish Branch for years that they were in serious trouble, they didn't listen so many moved on. So when the hapless Murphy eventually found that out, even though he should have known it being a Scottish MP, all he could do was shout, bully, shout and bully some more, lie and dictate. But wait a minute, the head office have decided that they don't really like Murphy either and actually don't really give a shit about Scotland. They got their NO vote, so for the time being it doesn't matter what Scots want as it's not that important really at the end of the day because the SNP (wrongly) have said publicly they won't deal with the Tories (rightly but should never have been mentioned in public but kept as a nice we surprise). So Miliband and his red tories know that they will form the Government in the case of a hung parliament. They won't do a deal on Trident because they don't need to, they won't do a deal on serious constitutuional change because they don't have to and will just take their chances that they can win some of the tougher votes without the SNP, and you know what given they are no different from the tories, I'm sure they will.
So Jim the Murphy has been found to be a weak bully who is also the wrong bully at this time in the wrong country. His is a plank. Also very happy for your blog to become the anti Murphy the plank blog until after the election, if anything it will upset Nico-but not Nico-la.
Bruce
Totally agree. Here's a man who thought he was Erchy.
DeleteI'll go up there and knock Scottish Labour into shape. The party will be grateful and then I'll come back to London after a few years of being first minister and maybe make leader in the BIG place, having shown them how I can lead Scottish Labour to victory.
Hubris i think.
I doubt very much that Niko has any time form Murphy. Niko is old Labour. Murphy is as near a Tory as makes no difference.
I think there is a plot to topple Milliband and Balls. Milliband doesn't have what Labour want in a leader (ie no style and charisma) and Balls is a liability, who like Cameron, is easily wound up. Look at PMQs, both men go red in the face very easily. Murphy is the fall guy, since he is as useful as a chocolate kettle.
ReplyDeleteBut I don't think the SNP is doing itself any favours with their strategy of absolute refusal to work with the Tories, and unrealistic demands of Labour. As the other Anon said above, the SNP should have kept quiet until they are in a position to negotiate. They've already shown their hand. This ain't Holyrood they are dealing with.
I think Labour are prepared to lose this election in order to dispose of Milliband and Balls (taking Murphy with them). Clears the way for Milliband Number 2 to return. The added bonus is that Cameron will have to take responsibility for the cuts that will be imposed. Cameron is disappearing sometime soon anyway since Boris is on the warpath.
So getting rid of the problems will suit Labour. Their problem is if Milliband somehow gets a majority!
It's a plausible conjecture Anon.
DeleteI'm not sure either that knocking co-operation with the Tories so early was a good thing, but I suspect that the thinking was that frankly the Tories are such poison here that any association with them would be the kiss of death.
I hope they do;t get too chummy with Labour. Support the Speech and the budget and anything that will help Scotland. leave them to get on with what they want to do in England, which is probably pretty much what the Tories want. Stop the worst of the austerity and the attacks on the poor, but nothing else.
David Miliband comes back and we wouldn;t be able to tell the difference between Labour and the Tories.
Nightmare scenario.
But as the song goes... 'un mal peut tres souvant devenir un bien'.
It would be bound to bring independence closer.
I think that the point made earlier that the SNP should have been a bit more coy about supporting labour to get the Tories out is correct,
ReplyDeleteIt would appear that they're fixated on the old Labour trope that the SNP heralded in the Thatcher era (a "fact" believed by no one) which is surprising that the SNP should allow themselves to be distracted by Labour lies,
So Milliband just has to turn up at the party knowing his dance card is full, without having to (ahem) put out,
Im sorry to say but it seems that the SNP have spiked their own guns with their attempt at making Labour appear responsable for another 5 year of Tory policies by refusing our advances.
Of course it's not a coalition that they are looking for. Just some sort of arrangement that they would agree the Queens speech and the Budget, but I think I agree. It would have been sensible to leave at least some wiggle room.
Delete