Why Vote Labour?
I was never wildly impressed with Paul Sinclair when he was Johann Lamont's senior adviser during her unhappy three years as Scottish Labour leader, not least because Johann's political message was very negative and sour most of the time.
But in this article from The Sunday Times it seems to me that Paul Sinclair has finally hit the nail on the head when he says:
"If you can vote SNP and still get a Labour government, why would you vote Labour at all?”
My thoughts exactly because it seems to me that Scotland's interests will be better served if the Labour Party contingent at Westminster is cut down to size.
James Lyons and Jason Allardyce - The Sunday Times
Murphy: promised a ‘fresh start’ for Labour (Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)
LABOUR is facing a fresh crisis in Scotland as it braces itself for an exodus of left-wing members and the possible severing of links by a leading union after Jim Murphy’s election as Scottish party leader.
Yesterday the former shadow international development secretary convincingly won the leadership contest caused by the acrimonious resignation of Johann Lamont. He secured 56% of the vote compared with 35% for left-wing MSP Neil Findlay and 9% for MSP Sarah Boyack.
Murphy’s win coincided with a devastating new YouGov poll suggesting the party faces the loss of most of its 40 Scottish seats in next year’s Westminster general election in the face of a re-energised SNP, following the “no” vote in September’s referendum on independence.
With just over 20 weeks to go, the survey — putting the nationalists on 47% compared with 27% for Labour, 16% for the Tories, 3% for the Liberal Democrats and others on 7% — has underlined the mountain Murphy must climb to help UK party leader Ed Miliband to become prime minister.
Murphy reached out to the left yesterday, declaring that it was his “driving purpose” to end poverty and inequality and to “build a nation created on social justice”.
However, some supporters of Findlay’s campaign, which suffered from a low turnout and a high number of spoilt ballot papers among union members, said Murphy’s win would lead to resignations and demotivate others who would remain in the party but spend little time campaigning for Labour next May.
A senior party source said: “A number of activists and members have made it clear they will just walk away, that this was the last chance and they’re not going to waste any more time and effort on it. Resignations and apathy are going to be a big problem.”
The Unite union is believed to be under pressure from some of its members to end its affiliation to the party. Yesterday its Scottish secretary, Pat Rafferty, said Findlay had offered “a genuine alternative to the politics and policies that led to consecutive electoral defeats for Scottish Labour and the haemorrhaging of thousands of members”.
He said Murphy had recognised an appetite for real change during the hustings, becoming bolder on issues such as taxation and a living wage, and added: “Jim now needs to turn words into action if he wants to start the process of rebuilding Scottish Labour.”
As Murphy becomes Labour’s seventh Scottish leader in 14 years, polling also showed if the independence referendum were run again, the “yes” campaign would win, with YouGov recording 52% for independence and 48% for remaining in the UK.
Paul Sinclair, who was Lamont’s senior adviser until she quit in October — accusing Miliband of treating the Scottish party like “a branch office of London” — described the latest poll as “deeply worrying”. He added that the party had failed to prepare for the crisis it now found itself in.
Sinclair accused the party of decades of complacency and called for an autonomous Labour party in Scotland, with headquarters in Edinburgh and affiliated to the UK party.
He warned that if the SNP emerged as the biggest party in Scotland next May and propped up a minority Labour government, the party’s problems could become even more acute north of the border where it would lose its “last card”— the claim that voting SNP lets the Tories win power.
He said: “If you can vote SNP and still get a Labour government, why would you vote Labour at all?”
John Curtice, professor of politics at Strathclyde University, said the SNP would probably be the third biggest party at Westminster if it secured about 45% of the Scottish vote in May with Labour taking about 32%. But if the nationalist vote slid it could come away with little. “The SNP could easily get 40 seats but they could still end up with four,” he said.
Curtice said Labour’s problems stemmed from a lack of voter awareness of what it stood for in Scotland and the constitutional question continuing to dominate Scottish politics, with support for the SNP at Westminster now as high as it was for the Scottish parliament.
“Labour’s job in the next three months is basically to put tartan on a UK message and persuade people it matters,” he said.
However, he added that in Murphy, Labour has someone who voters probably regarded as being “in the same league” as Nicola Sturgeon, leader of the SNP.
Deputy leader Stewart Hosie said the latest poll “makes clear the scale of the disappointment that is felt across Scotland at the Westminster parties’ failure to meet people’s aspirations for more powers”.
Murphy, who claims Scottish Labour will in future make all its own decisions, says he is aiming to defeat the SNP in the 2016 Scottish election and become first minister.
The MP, who will now need to win a Scottish parliament seat, yesterday confirmed his determination to tackle poverty and said he would use new powers being devolved to Holyrood to introduce a 50p top rate of income tax for those earning more than £150,000.
He said: “It is my driving purpose, it is our driving purpose, it’s Scottish Labour’s driving purpose, to end that type of inequality once and for all.
“While I’m proud that so many children from prosperous backgrounds do brilliantly at school, it makes me angry that it’s three times harder to get good school results if you’re from a poorer family than a prosperous family.”
Labour refused to put a figure on the turnout or say how many party members voted.
The party is believed to have no more than 13,000 members — and some believe it could be substantially less — while SNP membership has grown from about 25,000 to more than 90,000 since the referendum.
LABOUR is facing a fresh crisis in Scotland as it braces itself for an exodus of left-wing members and the possible severing of links by a leading union after Jim Murphy’s election as Scottish party leader.
Yesterday the former shadow international development secretary convincingly won the leadership contest caused by the acrimonious resignation of Johann Lamont. He secured 56% of the vote compared with 35% for left-wing MSP Neil Findlay and 9% for MSP Sarah Boyack.
Murphy’s win coincided with a devastating new YouGov poll suggesting the party faces the loss of most of its 40 Scottish seats in next year’s Westminster general election in the face of a re-energised SNP, following the “no” vote in September’s referendum on independence.
With just over 20 weeks to go, the survey — putting the nationalists on 47% compared with 27% for Labour, 16% for the Tories, 3% for the Liberal Democrats and others on 7% — has underlined the mountain Murphy must climb to help UK party leader Ed Miliband to become prime minister.
Murphy reached out to the left yesterday, declaring that it was his “driving purpose” to end poverty and inequality and to “build a nation created on social justice”.
However, some supporters of Findlay’s campaign, which suffered from a low turnout and a high number of spoilt ballot papers among union members, said Murphy’s win would lead to resignations and demotivate others who would remain in the party but spend little time campaigning for Labour next May.
A senior party source said: “A number of activists and members have made it clear they will just walk away, that this was the last chance and they’re not going to waste any more time and effort on it. Resignations and apathy are going to be a big problem.”
The Unite union is believed to be under pressure from some of its members to end its affiliation to the party. Yesterday its Scottish secretary, Pat Rafferty, said Findlay had offered “a genuine alternative to the politics and policies that led to consecutive electoral defeats for Scottish Labour and the haemorrhaging of thousands of members”.
He said Murphy had recognised an appetite for real change during the hustings, becoming bolder on issues such as taxation and a living wage, and added: “Jim now needs to turn words into action if he wants to start the process of rebuilding Scottish Labour.”
As Murphy becomes Labour’s seventh Scottish leader in 14 years, polling also showed if the independence referendum were run again, the “yes” campaign would win, with YouGov recording 52% for independence and 48% for remaining in the UK.
Paul Sinclair, who was Lamont’s senior adviser until she quit in October — accusing Miliband of treating the Scottish party like “a branch office of London” — described the latest poll as “deeply worrying”. He added that the party had failed to prepare for the crisis it now found itself in.
Sinclair accused the party of decades of complacency and called for an autonomous Labour party in Scotland, with headquarters in Edinburgh and affiliated to the UK party.
He warned that if the SNP emerged as the biggest party in Scotland next May and propped up a minority Labour government, the party’s problems could become even more acute north of the border where it would lose its “last card”— the claim that voting SNP lets the Tories win power.
He said: “If you can vote SNP and still get a Labour government, why would you vote Labour at all?”
John Curtice, professor of politics at Strathclyde University, said the SNP would probably be the third biggest party at Westminster if it secured about 45% of the Scottish vote in May with Labour taking about 32%. But if the nationalist vote slid it could come away with little. “The SNP could easily get 40 seats but they could still end up with four,” he said.
Curtice said Labour’s problems stemmed from a lack of voter awareness of what it stood for in Scotland and the constitutional question continuing to dominate Scottish politics, with support for the SNP at Westminster now as high as it was for the Scottish parliament.
“Labour’s job in the next three months is basically to put tartan on a UK message and persuade people it matters,” he said.
However, he added that in Murphy, Labour has someone who voters probably regarded as being “in the same league” as Nicola Sturgeon, leader of the SNP.
Deputy leader Stewart Hosie said the latest poll “makes clear the scale of the disappointment that is felt across Scotland at the Westminster parties’ failure to meet people’s aspirations for more powers”.
Murphy, who claims Scottish Labour will in future make all its own decisions, says he is aiming to defeat the SNP in the 2016 Scottish election and become first minister.
The MP, who will now need to win a Scottish parliament seat, yesterday confirmed his determination to tackle poverty and said he would use new powers being devolved to Holyrood to introduce a 50p top rate of income tax for those earning more than £150,000.
He said: “It is my driving purpose, it is our driving purpose, it’s Scottish Labour’s driving purpose, to end that type of inequality once and for all.
“While I’m proud that so many children from prosperous backgrounds do brilliantly at school, it makes me angry that it’s three times harder to get good school results if you’re from a poorer family than a prosperous family.”
Labour refused to put a figure on the turnout or say how many party members voted.
The party is believed to have no more than 13,000 members — and some believe it could be substantially less — while SNP membership has grown from about 25,000 to more than 90,000 since the referendum.
