An interesting six months for Scotland...

[Workingman]

... and by extension, the UK.

As was widely expected Jim Murphy has become ScotLab's new leader.

He is a bit of a firebrand who does not suffer fools gladly; and he certainly will not allow Westminster to treat ScotLab as a branch office. Will he be able to prevent Labour suffering a total wipeout at the next elections? He may save a few, but it still looks as though Labour will get a good kicking. One thing he will certainly have to do is distance ScotLab from Ed Miliband. He already has the profile to do that.

What I cannot understand are the views being made by a lot of commentators that he should look for a safe seat to stand as an MSP. Surely that would lessen his influence in Westminster rather than enhance it? If he is to fight for ScotLab it must be better to do it as an MP rather than an MSP, at least for the time being.

[Aggers]

I think that Jim Murphy will be the right person for this position.

it will be interesting to see how he gets on.

[cromwell]

He's got his work cut out imo. The SNP have their tails up and the next election is gong to be one of damage limitation for Labour in Scotland. They aren't going to win, it's just the scale of their loss which will matter.

[Workingman]

That is what I was thinking, Cromwell. Apart from Murphy there are not that many big hitters. There are a few 'knowns' in Anne Begg, Jim McGovern, Michael McCann and maybe Anne McGuire, but outside of the few there is not much to rally behind.

Aggers is right, it will be interesting to see how Murphy gets on, but you are also right in saying that he has his work cut out.

[Suff]

Given the changes in Scotland due to the coming Devo Max, it is vital that he presents a good position in Holyrood. Westminster is going to be seen more and more like the EU from a Scots point of view.

Very short-sighted and actually untrue. But how many elections are actually fought on the truth and for the long term.

I'm not sure that a "Labour Firebrand" is what Scotland needs. Distance from Westminster without a doubt, hard core "old labour" values? Not sure about that. Scotland has become very much a thinking nation, open access to university and two decades of extremely high levels of technology graduates tend to base people firmly in the real world and very much out of the working class.

The changes wrought by the Tories in Scotland, by Maggie and others, have changed the structure of society in Scotland. They are no longer the hard drinking working class with a small middle class and even smaller upper class (legacy of the Clan system). Most of the heavy industry went away, coal mining moved from underground to open cast and the replacement was in the technology space.

It will be interesting to see how they do next year. But, as Cromwell says, it will be a case of "how bad" not how good. Personally I'm hoping very bad indeed. I still haven't forgiven them for a whole slew of excesses in Holyrood and I'm sure a lot of others haven't either. What September did was to push that lack of forgiveness over to Westminster as well as Holyrood.

Well I haven't forgiven Labour for 26% inflation in the 70's and the attendant economic pain which drove me into the Army for a job. I see "Brown's Bust" as additional simple proof that you can't trust them with a kid's unbreakable plastic tricycle. They'd break it.

[cromwell]

Scotland has become very much a thinking nation.

I wish England would start to think as much about politics as the Scots do, because we are heading for some major constitutional changes, accompanied by the usual mountain of lies from our politicians. And we need to start to realise this, that the English habit of deference to our political "betters" and our trust in them, is seriously misplaced.

[Workingman]

When I said the Jim Murphy is a firebrand I meant that he is an outspoken centrist rather than old core old Labour. I read that in his nomination speech he deliberately opted not to mention Miliband, to whom he owes no favours. It also has to be said that his task only has one focus.

In the general election the SNP will almost certainly take seven of the 11 LibDem seats as payback for what the coalition has done. The Greens and the Independent will probably be safe and for the Conservatives the only was is up, and that is not going to happen. That leaves the SNP targeting Labour. Murphy knows this.

It is not like any normal election where parties have to fight on many fronts. For Murphy and ScotLab they only have to keep voters away from the SNP. It is not going to be easy by any stretch, but if he does manage to keep, say, 25 or more seats, it will be him marching into Miliband's office making demands and Salmond, with 30 or so MPs, marching on Westminster with his demands, whoever wins.

[Suff]

Whichever way it goes, neither Cameron nor Miliband will be happy campers. Which suits me right now.

[Workingman]

Whichever way it goes, neither Cameron nor Miliband will be happy campers.

That is without doubt. If ScotLab holds on to, say, thirty seats, Murphy is going to want concessions to be made towards Scotland, within Labour, if Labour does win the UK GE. If there is a hung parliament, a distinct probability, Salmond is going to drive a hard bargain.