Scots, Wha Hae Wi Murphy bled!

Submitted by Matthew on 14 January, 2015 - 11:41 Author: Anne Field

Newly elected Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy has produced his own version of a new Clause Four for the Labour Party in Scotland.

(To be more accurate: he claims that it is all his own work. In fact, it reads like an entry in a primary school competition (“Write your own clause four and win a gold star!”) which has been pulled out of a hat at random.)

The first part of the new, Scottish, Clause Four is the verbose and vacuous Blairite Clause Four adopted by the Labour Party in 1995, albeit with a reference to Scottish Labour and “the people of Scotland” thrown in.

A succession of additional clauses adds to the verbosity and vacuousness of the original version, peppered by all manner of references to things Scottish.

Thus, Scottish Labour “works for the patriotic interest of the people of Scotland.” It will work for “the advancement of Scotland’s interests.” It will work “with the Scottish people to create policy in Scotland for a just society.”

“On the basis of these principles” (! — Murphy probably had to consult a dictionary to learn how to spell the word), Scottish Labour “seeks the trust of the Scottish people to govern.”

Scottish Labour will seek to achieve its aims “with trade unions and the co-operative movement, and also with voluntary organisations, consumer groups and other representative bodies.” For “other representative bodies” read: the Scottish CBI.

In his spare moments between rewriting Clause Four in his own image, Murphy has found time to give jobs to his friends.

The right-wing nonentity Brian Roy (whose main connection to politics is the fact that his father is an MP) has been appointed Scottish Labour General Secretary. The political corpse of John McTernan (formerly Blair’s Political Secretary) has been exhumed and appointed Scottish Labour chief of staff.

And Kieron Higgins has been brought in to deal with the media. Higgins was one of the architects of the disastrous “Better Together” campaign, which succeeded in frittering away a 20 point lead in the run-up to last year’s referendum.

More likely than not, Murphy’s strategy to reverse the collapse in electoral support for Scottish Labour will simply give another boost to the spiral of decline.

Appealing to “Scottish patriotism” will play into the hands of the SNP. Giving jobs to Blairites and wasters from “Better Together” will remind ex-Labour-voters why they stopped voting Labour. And so too will Murphy’s contempt for democracy.

No amendments will be permitted to the new Scottish Clause Four. The role of the special conference to be held in the spring will simply be to rubber-stamp it (on the basis that a defeat for the Scottish Labour leadership would supposedly undermine the party’s credibility on the eve of a general election).

“Go back to your constituencies and prepare for government!” was David Steel’s message to the Lib-Dem party conference in 1981.

Murphy’s message to Scottish Labour members at last month’s rally where the result of the leadership contest was announced should have been: “Go back to your constituencies and prepare for oblivion!”

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