Apart from being able to belittle the new Labour (or is that New Labour?) leader in Scotland through comparison with cheap cartoon Euro-pop figures, their underlying colouring was too appropriate. The taint of blue is an indelible stain Labour has to remove.
For me, before the referendum, Jim Murphy was one of my least favourite politicians. During it, I saw nothing to make me feel any different. I find Murphy embodies a kind of political bombast typical of Labour. His is the hustings equivalent of sound torture. That blaring music played incessantly to unsettle enemies under siege. Or night-time heavy metal played to terror suspects in their Guantanamo hotels.
It’s the prefab one-liners and the stock phrases pumped out like vacuum-packed spin to rally the faithful and make the enemies of New Labour shudder - they ring hollow to my ears.
I’m not going to forget the referendum with Murphy somewhere in the mix peddling vitriol and quarter-truths. Neither he nor his party offered any positive vision of the future. All they had was hatred of SNP and the notion of independence on one hand and a misplaced faith in the union on the other. This they held on to like a comfort blanket, either with their thumbs in their mouths or, more likely, fingers in their ears. La-la-la. Please don’t confuse us with facts.
Facts, as we found out, weren’t a currency they used.
Predictably, in the aftermath, Jim has risen to the top, or should I say surface. He’s elevated by his obvious talent, at least with respect to mediocrity of his peers. Either that, or he’s an example of a Scots aphorism often quoted near sewer outlets, referencing coprological specific gravity…
But now he’s making pronouncements. We’re to expect the fruition of Scottish Labour’s very own Clause Four moment, a declaration of purpose which will alter the political landscape. Murphy emphasises patriotism over nationalism and sets it in the context of the British union, of course. He’s going to bind Scottish Labour to social justice, fairness and equality. He’s putting Scotland first.
At least for now…
If I actually believed it, I’d applaud his Damascene conversion. I wonder, though, where these principles were when Murphy was most vocal in the other direction and standing, brass neck by brass neck, with the Tories and Lib-Dems.
He didn’t put Scotland first then. He didn’t listen to Scottish voices. I say that, not because he opposed independence, but because he refused to see how the objectives he now espouses were and still are part of the independence vision. He wilfully refused, to the point of disrespect and blatant lying.
He didn’t get it then and he doesn’t get it now. These ideals are fundamental to Scotland’s vision of its future. They’re shared, as Murphy no doubt knows, by more than just the 45%. He has a whole mountain to climb. He knows full well he needs to convince Yes and No supporters alike of the Labour Party’s integrity.
Just how will he erase Labour’s past support for the establishment (Tory) position? Social justice took a back seat then. Murphy is going to have to demonstrate that his known capacity for expediency won’t turn him into an unprincipled quisling again. More than that, he has to show that Scottish Labour will be allowed to choose a path independent of their London masters (for such they remain). He says he’s committed to it but we’ve heard that one before.
Anyway, as Lesley Riddoch said today in the Scotsman, the issues Murphy needs to stand firm on aren’t Scottish ones. They’re about challenging Labour in Westminster on austerity, immigration and leaving Europe. This is where the social justice agenda really plays out. Without independence, we’re in it together. Scottish Labour can’t pretend the independence they opposed has suddenly happened for them as a party. They, and that means Murphy, have to take the fight to London, not sit it out.
Indeed, you might view the ‘Scottish Labour is independent of London Labour’ stance as a ploy. It could let Scottish Labour stifle vocal anti-austerity, anti-Westminster opinion in Scotland by not rocking the Westminster boat. All in the name of (I laugh) independence.
Add to that questions about why Labour has been so luke-warm about the Smith proposals, supporting the weakest and least empowering of what is surely a fudge. If Murphy believes in social justice, why didn’t he fight that corner from the start, let alone while Smith orchestrated his Commission’s fiddling. Now it’s over, out comes Jim with his rhetoric. Devo Max, what Devo Max? Long live social justice. Pah!
And then, having said all that, I really want to know why Labour can’t find common ground with the SNP (or the Greens, or the Socialists) on social justice. If, as I believe, in Scotland, it’s never been about nationalism, why not look for common cause and realise the dream together. Why the constant and pathological hatred? It's demeaning and immature. It’s not how the tide of politics is flowing in Scotland and Murphy and his band of cohorts will come undone if they don’t recognise it.
As I see it, nationalism at its worst is found in the growing jingoism of ‘Britishness’. Don't forget, Thatcher was the one who killed the 'British' project, killed British Steel, British Coal: Bathgate no more. Linwood no more. Methil no more. Lochaber no more.
Scottish nationalism is far more inclusive and civic in nature. It’s left-leaning. If Labour can’t get behind it then they’re leaning in completely the wrong direction. We’d be able to tell better, of course, if they stopped dodging. Until I’m sure, the blue skin stays, if only to remind us of the true colour of Scottish Labour.
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