Scottish Labour seems to be imploding

[AgentProvocateur]

Johann Lamont resigns because she feels there's too much interference from London, and the Scottish party should be autonomous. The irony!

The ScotLabs are in a policy void, and are a party of political pygmies. There is no obvious successor to Johann Lamont, who was a particularly uninspiring, bitter leader who was more interested in putting down the SNP than putting forward any ideas. They've lost their core support, and I think they are in terminal decline.

STV just tweeted that Murphy is standing, no confirmation.

It is confirmed, Jom Murphy is standing. Very good news. Thank you, Scottish Labour.

ScotLab's death warrant is signed - Jim Murphy is going to stand. That's what they need - someone from London coming up to sort them out. Not.

Cross post with Claig!

Nicola Sturgeon will make mincemeat of him as he drones on and the public will fall asleep, turn the volume down and tune out. He'll travel on buses with an Irn Bru crate under his arm, but no one will bother listening, they've heard it all before.

And on top of it all, he is a Blairite.

How does UKIP's David Coburn go down? He cracks me up and makes me laugh as he takes it to them and hits them between the eyes. Coburn was on the BBC Election show during results night in the Scottish independence vote and he wound Jim Murphy up. Jim's voice actually changed pitch as Coburn mocked the spin and then Jim really lost it in anger as he said to Coburn "bye bye". Not only will Nicola Sturgeon make mincemeat of Murphy, everyone who challenges him will.

Christ almighty if Murphy is Scottish Labours answer I'm not sure they understand the question.

Good for the SNP though.

Jut watching some David Coburn videos on youtube. He is the best comedy value I've seen for years. It's a shame we don't see him on our news more often.

The best one that cracked me up is he just said to an interviewer on BBC Scotland that

"there is Faragemania breaking out in Scotland just now"

I'd love to be a fly on the wall at the Labour gala dinner in Glasgow tonight - it's still being advertised as hosted by Johann Lamont with Ed as guest speaker.

Folk doing a silent protest & foodbank collection outside the dinner as well.

Did you read Ian Davidsons comments?

"The crisis at the heart of the Labour party in Scotland has intensified today – as a senior MP warned that the party was in the “middle of a coup” carried out by factions on the right of the party.

In what has been reported as a clear attack on Jim Murphy, Ian Davidson described the campaign against Johann Lamont as “the return of the Blairites and the Network” – and said it would be “absurd” for the next leader to be an MP who had never previously considered a role at Holyrood."

I think the whole issue is that there isn't a Scottish Labour. Lamont was right, and it is being run as a regional branch from London.

Ian "bayonet the wounded" Davidson was in surprisingly good form, I have to say. SLab isn't even a regional branch, it's an accounting unit. That dinner tonight will be priceless, I may find myself glued to my Twitter feed.

Neil Findlay on BBC Daily Politics now. Never seen him before. Disaster. If he wins, Scottish Labour might as well pack up.

new.livestream.com/accounts/8823479/LabourGalaDinner Sadly, this livestream will be from outside the gala dinner tonight, not inside. Live from about 6pm.

news.stv.tv/scotland-decides/297729-stv-poll-labour-would-annihilated-if-general-election-held-tomorrow/ Interesting poll...

OldLady About 40% of Lab voters said "Yes" and (varying according to which poll you look at) significant numbers of SNP voters voted "No" (including, technically, me, as I protest voted SNP for the first time in 2011).

I think all the Scottish parties need to refocus, including the SNP. I imagine the influx of new members and the change of leader will change party policy in due course - and if they're trying to appeal to Labour and ex-Labour voters, I'm not sure how they're going to keep the ex-Tory voters.

Gala will surely be fascinating - wonder if anyone will be live tweeting from it?

Yes, things will be interesting for the SNP too, with the massive influx of new members (over 83,000 total now, from about 25k during indyref, I think) and of course Nicola in charge. Lots and lots of new members for the Greens and SSP too, which will make the Scottish Parliamentary elections even more fun come 2016; I'd like to see both of them gain more MSPs.

Interesting times, indeed.

There's some Labour councillor getting all snooty with the livestreamers on Twitter atm, she seems to think the food bank collection is a party political event. Sigh, they really don't get it, do they?

The old-fashioned bit of me says it would be terribly ill-mannered to live tweet from the Gala. The nosey, gossipy bit of me will be keeping an eye out for same. And if I spot one, I'll post here

lallandspeatworrier.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/murphy-expects-ritual-disembowelment.html Another interesting perspective on Jim Murphy's candidacy.

I'm not watching MSM atm, but keep reading that Mr M is getting disproportionate attention from our friends at Pacific Quay, compared to Boyack and Findlay. What a surprise.

Boyack and Findlay aren't that well known as far as I can see.

I'm not spending much time reading nationalist blogs just now, but thanks for the link

I hadn't heard of Findlay, but Boyack has been in the Scottish Parliament since 1999, and previously held Cabinet positions. She's not a newbie.

I have heard of her on and off (she gets mentioned in the local paper from time to time) but she hasn't had a high profile of late.

Surely that's all the more reason for msm to interview them, highlight their backgrounds etc, so the ordinary Labour party members can make an informed choice? The unions are likely to go for Findlay anyway (can't see them supporting Jim) but the more info there is for the ordinary voter, the better. Msm seem to be behaving as if Jim's already been crowned.

And now Anas has resigned as Deputy? Wtf?

labourlist.org/2014/10/anas-sarwar-steps-down-as-deputy-leader-of-scottish-labour/

Bloody hell! Have you seen the latest poll results for the GE for Scotland?

SNP 52%
Labour 23%
Conservatives 10%
Greens 6%
Liberal Democrats 6%
UKIP 2%

news.stv.tv/scotland-decides/297729-stv-poll-labour-would-annihilated-if-general-election-held-tomorrow/

Yeah, I linked at 14.08. 54 SNP MPs, with 4 Labour (and none of them Jim Murphy) and Ali Carmichael for the LibDems in Orkney and Shetland. Such fun.