The Nasty Party



In the wilderness years when the Conservatives were unable to land a glove on Tony Blair and his New Labour Party, leading Tories were forced to do some serious soul-searching.


If I remember correctly, it was the current Home Secretary, Theresa May, who had the courage to tell the Tories that they were widely regarded as the 'Nasty Party', that their Party and its public image needed to change.

Given some of the comments flying sound during the latest Labour leadership election, I think the People's Party could do with some of the same medicine, some tough love and straight talking.

Because there have been a lost of really nasty things said during the Scottish leadership election with the Unite union, in particular, waging a very personal attack upon Jim Murphy with poisonous claims that Murphy's election as leader would be a disaster for Labour in Scotland.

Or consider this venomous quote from a Labour 'insider' published by the Guardian the other day: 

“Jim is very unusual amongst the Westminster hierarchy in understanding the size of the problem that Scottish Labour faces. What he doesn’t understand is that he’s part of the problem.”

Little wonder then that Labour is in free fall north of the border: six months ago the Party was in complete turmoil after its Westminster MPs rebelled against a proposal from the last Labour leader (Johann Lamont) to back full income tax raising powers for the Scottish Parliament.

Six months on Labour was forced to agree a similar proposal via the Smith Commission, yet the underlying argument has never been resolved with and angry rump of Westminster MPs still bitter and hostile towards the Scottish Parliament. 

As a Westminster MP himself Jim Murphy will have his work cut out to persuade his colleagues that Scotland's future lies in Holyrood which is the political equivalent of persuading turkeys to vote for an early Christmas. 

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