Interesting times ahead.

Don't know why they keep calling it "the United Kingdom". Looks more Divided than ever.

Foo Kin Twat wrote:

Indie by 2021 for sure.

As you've probably worked out, I voted yes last year but am still sceptical/lukewarm to the idea.  However the above prediction is now inevitable.  In fact I'll say 2019, and this time it will be a yes.
 

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/video/2015/may/08/general-election-charting-snp-political-earthquake-scotland-video?CMP=share_btn_tw

Boys videos were decent throughout election. The ginger Labour boy about 5 mins in explains why they are fucked unless they change. Can't accept anything other than the party line

Scary thing for Scottish Labour is that next year all those 16 and 17 year olds that voted Yes (75% of them) in referendum will be voting and they won't be voting for Labour.

Last edited by huntedbyafreak (09/5/2015 3:41 pm)

Read that someone painted "No more Royal Parasites" on the Tay Bridge after Wullie and Katie's bairn was born!

I'm no supporter of the Royal Family but i found that is taking Nationalism and anti establishmentism way to far. It's not the bairn or his parents fault they've been born into money.

Good article in today's Herald

Scottish Labour: Inside the campaign from hell
Published on 10 May 2015

Paul Hutcheon
IT was heartbreak for Ed Miliband and his team on Friday morning, but for Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy it was more like a nightmare.

Although Miliband failed to topple David Cameron, Murphy had presided over his party's worst election result since 1918.

Scottish Labour, the country's dominant political force for more than half a century, had lost 39 of its 40 seats to the SNP, including in Murphy's East Renfrewshire constituency. Some of Murphy's supporters were quick to absolve him of blame for the terrible state of his party.

Since 1999, they said Scottish Labour had failed to adapt to devolution, elected a succession of bad leaders, selected dud candidates, produced shoddy manifestos and watched as the party's MPs treated MSPs like second-class citizens.

The lessons from Labour's defeats at the hands of the SNP at the last two Holyrood elections were also ignored and the referendum, which saw the party haemorrhage votes to the SNP, accelerated the decline.

However, other party insiders - candidates, elected representatives and activists - say the new leader made the toxic legacy he inherited worse, not better. "He snatched catastrophe from the jaws of defeat," said one.

Murphy, who has never been on the intellectual wing of his party, has always been regarded internally as a

talented self-publicist who was adept at advancing his own interests.

One colleague, explaining Murphy's approach to the media, said: "He once told me he was not bothered about the words in newspapers, just the pictures, and how he looked on TV."

During the campaign, some of Murphy's supporters were taken aback by his obsession with how he looked in the tabloids: how big the photograph was; and whether he came across better than Nicola Sturgeon. He was said to have been driven mad by the exposure given to Sturgeon - particularly after the first leaders' debate involving Miliband and David Cameron - and was grumpy when a daft photo of him emerged in the media.

One senior party figure said he didn't know if

Murphy was campaigning for office, or for "the front page of Vogue". Members of Murphy's team admired his energy, but were bemused by his vanity. They were irked by his bad habit of pulling stupid faces in photo-shoots and grew weary of his incessant football references. He stopped dying his hair, but only reluctantly. The flip-flop campaign strategy was believed to be another reflection of Murphy's shallowness.

During last year's leadership contest - where he succeeded Johann Lamont by seeing off MSPs Sarah Boyack and Neil Findlay - Murphy had struck a predictable New Labour pose, backing a fairer distribution of a bigger tax base and calling for a partnership between workers and businesses.

After the leadership contest, he ditched his Blairite clothes and reinvented himself as a small-N nationalist who was committed to reaching Yes voters. His party's constitution was changed to include the word "patriotism", he flattered 190,000 Labour-friendly Yessers by describing them as the "most important" voters in the UK, and "Yes for Labour" was devised as the campaign slogan.

However, doubts soon crept in about the wisdom of the strategy. Feedback revealed that people did not like to be pigeon-holed as Yes or No voters; more damagingly, those who had backed independence did not like Murphy.

Labour sources at Holyrood were also astonished at Murphy becoming the poster boy for autonomy for the Scottish party: as Secretary of State for Scotland in Gordon Brown's government, he was said to have interfered in ex-leader Iain Gray's speeches and tried to change the content. And when the party's interim devolution commission produced a blueprint of more powers for the Scottish Parliament, Murphy was dead against giving Holyrood control of income tax. "He was the MPs' champion," said one insider.

As the polls showed the SNP lead increasing rather than narrowing, Murphy replaced Yes for Labour with the sort of left-wing campaign he had derided for most of his political life. He backed tax rises on the wealthy,

became a champion of the "working class" and campaigned outside a business that used zero-hours contracts. It was as if Findlay had won in December.

One ally said: "He was even less convincing as a left-winger than a Nat." In a final U-turn, the last days of the campaign were marked by an attack on a second referendum, an approach some colleagues felt should have been adopted from the start. In four months, he had gone from Nat-lite to full-fat Unionist.

A Labour insider said Murphy's strategy did not lack effort, just credibility. "He never sees anything through. Some folk just see him as insincere."

Murphy's handpicked team - effectively a Better Together reunion - also attracted criticism. Many of the

faces who worked on the pro-UK body, which was described as a "pop-up political campaign" for Murphy, eased seamlessly into their new roles.

However, like many sequels, Better Together 2 was a pale imitation of the original. Murphy's key lieutenants - chief of staff John McTernan and strategy head Blair

McDougall - were an awkward fit, while a source said three words commonly associated with McDougall were: "Where is he?"

Meanwhile, McTernan appeared to revel in his status as Murphy's top dog. Under Johann Lamont, the then general secretary Ian Price had occupied the sole private office in the party's Bath Street headquarters. With Murphy in charge, McTernan got the office, while new general secretary Brian Roy used a desk in the open-plan area.

McTernan was also unpopular among some colleagues at Holyrood and acquired a reputation for making bold statements that were rarely borne out by reality. It was said he claimed that Sturgeon would struggle in the first UK leaders' debate, and announced that an event by Gordon Brown in Margaret Curran's constituency would have a big effect on the campaign. In the end, Sturgeon shone in London and the Brown press conference sank without trace. One source said McTernan had two modes: nice guy or wannabe Malcolm Tucker.

As the polls refused to budge, other grievances

developed. Deputy leader Kezia Dugdale was said to have been under-used, as was senior MSP James Kelly, and Murphy's shadow cabinet was deemed to be a paper-body subordinate to his well-paid helpers.

Against a backdrop of political extinction, senior

figures still managed to find time to indulge in petty backbiting. Jenny Marra, who had been co-chair of Murphy's leadership campaign team, employed ex-Lamont spin doctor Craig Davidson to help in her office.

One insider said the bad mouthing of Marra for a routine hiring decision, by people who should have been campaigning, showed Labour's malaise: "It was symbolic of Scottish Labour - a pathetic bitching row about personality, not policy or strategy."

Labour also suffered from tension between candidates in the scramble for scarce election cash. In most campaigns, Scottish political parties prioritise a handful of constituencies; this time, Labour was faced with protecting all of its seats.

Roy, to his credit, produced an incentives-based plan that rewarded effort with resources. If a Constituency Labour Party (CLP) met voter contact rates, extra leaflets would follow.

According to documents seen by this newspaper, the Roy plan flushed out the grafters from the slackers. In early February, East Lothian CLP had made 1,547 voter contacts. Other CLPs were in single digits.

Some seats naturally fell off the radar at Labour headquarters, but in the latter stages of the campaign insiders believed favouritism trumped effort as resources were diverted to the established "sons and daughters" - code for Jim Murphy, Douglas Alexander and Margaret Curran, the latter of whom was believed to be an undeserving resource-hogger.

On election night, party insiders hoped to save half a dozen MPs, but when the boxes opened the list was

whittled down to Murphy and Edinburgh South candidate Ian Murray. As the votes were counted, Murphy fell off the list and Murray became the last man standing. "It went from Get Out The Vote, to get out the revolver," one source said.

Scottish Labour now faces a bout of internal soul-searching about its purpose and survival. According to several candidates, a recurring theme on the doorsteps was discovering little sympathy for the party among the 20-40 age group.

Female voters, a key demographic for Labour and the No campaign, have also migrated to the SNP, particularly since Sturgeon took over. And, in the call centre used by the party, it was said to be striking how many people hung up after they heard the staff were working on behalf of Scottish Labour.

One candidate said he feared Scottish Labour was

becoming like the Tories north of the Border: a tribe backed by a dwindling, ageing core vote, marked by loyalty rather than enthusiasm.

The leadership is expected to back the sweeping internal changes, but a key question will be whether Murphy remaining as leader is a barrier to progress. The former MP was said to be a vote-loser on the doorsteps and that a big chunk of the electorate, for whatever reason, refuses to give him a hearing.

Even Murphy's allies concede that his efforts in Better Together make it hard for him to become the Labour

figure who will bring angry Yes voters back into the fold.

As Murphy examines the wreckage of a party that had dominated politics for decades, a party member summed up his plight by comparing him to a former Rangers manager who departed quickly after finding it hard to make connections with the Ibrox club's players or fans.

"In Labour circles, he is known as the party's Paul Le Guen," he said. "He has big ideas, and a big reputation, but it turns out he doesn't understand Scottish politics and can't get anyone to play for him."

I can't see the MSP group backing Murphy.

St Obswell wrote:

huntedbyafreak wrote:

You don't have to be nationalist to write graffiti against the royal family. I think the term parasite is a bit much when describing a baby. The parents are fair game though. i actually feel sorry for the baby

 
What has big Willie done to deserve that like?

He could have given up his claim to the throne and opted for a normal life. What sort of parent would want their child brought it that?
 

Yeah. He did that yesterday. Unite and ASLEF the 2 biggest donors in Scotland have said Murphy should do the decent thing as well.

When has that prick ever done the decent thing though?

Couldn't give a fuck who they appoint.

Hope Murphy stays on forever

Labour MSP Neil Findlay put this on Facebook today.  Brutally honest and thoughtful.  Not heard this from a Labour politician for a LONG time.

My article of what Labour should do now
Neil Findlay, Labour MSP for the Lothians, says this is not a time for people to stay quiet. So it wasn’t a tsunami, earthquake, tidal wave or landslide – it was all of them and as many other cataclysmic metaphors as you want to throw in. Scottish Labour was obliterated at the polls with majorities in the 10’s and 20’s of thousands wiped out at a stroke with only Ian Murray left clinging on. (A Hearts supporter and Scottish Labour MP – you can’t say that guy isn’t up for a challenge, and well done to him on both campaigns.)So are we now entering a new period where politics is not based on a comparing policy positions or manifestos but on a national mood, where like “New Labour” in 1997 it just becomes “the thing to do”? In workplaces, amongst the creative community, the voluntary sector, in polite circles and pubs and bars it has become cool to support the SNP. A bit like Chelsea FC – hardly anyone supported them when they were rubbish but now they are winning everyone’s a fan.And over the last few years a new adjective, whose definition appears to be “negative, old style, distant politics”, came into our lexicon: “Westminster” – no longer just a place! At every turn this was skilfully used to exemplify everything that people dislike about the UK political system. This feeling grew and grew and, despite some major and positive developments under the Blair/Brown governments – big reductions in poverty, the national minimum wage, tax credits etc. – it was the Iraq war and later the expenses scandal that were the heavy straws that broke the camel’s back resulting in mass public opposition and disenchantment, membership resignations and a huge breach of trust with the electorate.Despite Labour delivering the new Scottish parliament, the fixing of candidate selections left a largely unknown and comparatively inexperienced group in government. Donald Dewar’s death, the McLeish shambles and McConnell period compounded our problems. We were seen us dull and lacking in ambition, always appearing to look over our shoulder for someone else’s permission and afraid to take too many bold policy positions (the smoking ban one of the very obvious exceptions). This culminated in Labour being out of office since 2007.At the same time the SNP became (along with Sinn Fein) the cleverest electoral force in the country with high quality strategists, policy advisers and media operators and in Alex Salmond they had one of the sharpest political minds around. The fact that it won a single seat majority in 2007 followed by an outright majority in 2011 was truly remarkable and brought the inevitable referendum in 2014.It is my view that the decision (by whom I still don’t know) to establish the “Better Together” campaign in 2011 was one of the biggest political misjudgements in Labour’s 100 year history. That decision was taken with no reference to party members, MPs, MSPs, trade unions or indeed anyone that I know. It was a disastrous call! We had spent the previous 30 years successfully demonising the Tories as the enemy of the Scottish people, particularly the Scottish industrial working class and yet now the party of the workers was going to campaign alongside our traditional enemy.Ironically the Yes camp including Trotskyists and venture capitalists, climate change deniers and greens and tax justice campaigner and tax avoiders did not see any contradictions within its ranks nor did it attract similar charges of betrayal or collaboration. The Labour broad left and many in the trade unions protested at Labour’s “Better Together” alliance and refused to get involved, eventually supporting the belated “United with Labour” campaign when it was launched, while others organised around “The Red Paper collective.”Saying we were “Better Together” meant bugger all to someone who was unemployed or in a low paid, zero hours contract. It meant nothing to communities hurting from the impact of austerity imposed upon them by the very Tories Labour campaigned alongside, and it meant nothing to young people who wanted a message of hope for the future. The campaign should have been based on the principle of radical federalism and solidarity: the need for Labour to improve the lives of working people across the UK where the interests of a worker in Livingston is the same as a worker in Liverpool and the need for a strong, united Labour movement to challenge the excesses of capitalism, austerity and inequality.We should also have reminded people that it’s the Labour Party and the wider movement that has always been at the forefront of delivering the greatest change and social progress in our history – the NHS, the welfare state, Health and Safety legislation, equality legislation, the minimum wage, social housing, education and the Scottish Parliament. But that case was never properly made, as “Better Together” offered a negative narrative rather than one of hope and social progress. This was a huge and fundamental mistake and contributed to the inevitable result that was to follow.Nevertheless, we have entered an astonishing period where, despite Labour being out of power in Scotland for 8 years and for five years at Westminster, we are still somehow blamed for every problem that affects our country (a situation that is even more baffling in areas where Labour does not run the local council either). And during that period we have witnessed:Our NHS teetering on the brink – its budgets cut more than in Tory England, waiting times increasing, social care in crisis and increasing numbers of GP surgeries closed to new patients.
Council services being decimated with an 8 year council tax freeze costing 70,000 jobs destroying our public services – a policy that benefits the wealthy most and punishes the poor who rely on those services. Where was/is the Labour campaign to defend local government jobs and services?
Our colleges have lost 130,000 places largely for working class students.
The implementation of the new school curriculum has been a predictable mess.
Our police services are in turmoil with stations closing, staff made redundant and stop and search on an industrial scale whilst the police are routinely armed.
The Offensive Behaviour at Football Act was passed without a single government backbencher voting against – easily the worst piece of legislation of the devolution era.
The franchise of our railways flogged of to the Dutch, the Northern Ferries and sleeper services to SERCO with Cal Mac next for privatisation.
Plans to abolish corroboration, a pillar of our justice system, proposed then abandoned following an outcry.
A fracking moratorium announced for 2 years to get us past the UK and Scottish election but which will inevitably be followed by drilling across the central belt led by the union busters at INEOS.
Poverty and health and wealth inequality increasing as the middle class benefit most from free prescriptions, free university tuition, bus travel etc. whilst schools in the poorest areas lose classroom assistants, community health provision is in crisis and public transport fares rise. Incidentally, I fully support universal provision such as free prescriptions, school meals, bus passes etc. but without progressive taxation to pay for them they just become a middle class subsidy.
In the Scottish Parliament we saw the Scottish Government voting down Labour proposals to extend the living wage, end zero hours contracts, limit private sector rent increases etc. – all Labour proposals – all voted down by the SNPBut none of this matters in our post rational world.Nor it appears do the commitments in the manifesto of the parties. If we are to believe what is promoted by the SNP and the media then the Scottish people wanted an alternative to austerity and a leftish policy agenda.If that is the case then the Labour manifesto was much more to the left than the SNP on almost every issue. Labour promised:More cash for the NHS,
A future fund for young people,
1000 extra nurses,
more Progressive taxation,
policies to end the need for food banks,
a youth jobs guarantee,
an end to zero hours contracts,
an increased minimum wage and an extension of the Living wage and
Investment to end food banks.
Add to this the assessment by the Institute for Fiscal Studies that the SNP’s budget proposals would mean longer austerity rather than an end to it, and the disaster that full fiscal autonomy will bring (£7.6 billion of further cuts) and Labour should have been sweeping up votes and seats.But none of this mattered – people had switched off and refused to listen to anything Labour said. We could have offered a free million pound note to everyone who voted Labour and still this would have been rejected. This is not the fault of the electorate, we can’t blame the SNP – it’s our fault, Labour’s fault. The people lacked faith in our sincerity.So the £7.6 billion question is where does Labour go from here?Well of course that is the question that every Labour member, every trade union affiliate, every MSP, MEP and Ian Murray will have to address in the coming weeks. It is not a time for people to stay quiet; it is not a time for centralised solutions and for a management or top down fix. If you suffer a trauma or bereavement it is best that the whole family talks about it and learns from that grievous event and ultimately strives to make things better within the family. But for the Labour family time is short – the Scottish Parliament elections are a year away and I know we all want to play a full part in rebuilding the party and movement we love. It is our movement and our values that have driven the campaigns for and delivered the greatest social change for working people in our history. We can do so again BUT this requires a full, free, open and democratic debate about how we go forward.So here are a few thoughts on the way forward:-We should look at creating an autonomous or federal structure within the Labour party giving the Scottish party the ability to develop its own policies, select candidates etc.
Re-democratise our party giving members back power to develop policy and end the top down fixes we have witnessed over the last few decades. Let’s not fear democratic debate, let’s embrace it.
Do not measure everything we do against what the SNP do but develop a policy agenda that is clearly steeped in Labour’s traditions and values
Take a clear anti austerity stance – promoting fairness, equality and a broad range of progressive policies
Concentrate on what matters most to people – a secure job, fair pay, a roof over their head, the NHS, education and dignity in old age.
At the earliest opportunity debate Trident and accept the party’s decision – if it is different from the UK party – so be it.
Oppose TTIP – it is a huge threat to our public services and our democracy
Launch a campaign to defend public services especially local government which is being decimated, working with our councillors who are one of our greatest assets and are in the front line.
Re- build our relationship with the trade unions – many trade unionists want a successful and effective Labour party, promoting an agenda that supports working people and their families.
Re- establish Political education within the party to stimulate debate and ideas and involve our members in policy development not just administration
Re-build and reinvigorate local parties with co-ordinated activity and campaigns in each constituency
Have a complete overhaul of our campaigning strategy – move away from seeing a door knocking league table as evidence of a good or bad campaigning.
Use the talents and resources that are in our communities and embrace the people that are willing to help us. Who are the experts, the academics, the industry specialists, the community activists, the strategists, the teachers, lawyers, doctors, the workers, journalists, IT experts, the young people, people from the BME and LGBT community who will assist us if only they are asked?
There is much more to be said and done but this is a crucial time for Labour – let us start the debate about how we bring about change but let us never lose sight of our timeless values of solidarity, community, cooperation, fairness, equality and justice. It is these values that make us all socialists.

Last edited by lifesanocean (13/5/2015 10:22 pm)