Rat joins sinking ship

This cartoon from Martin Rowson in the Guardian nicely sums up the current situation of Labour in Scotland.  It comes as a nice contrast with the hagiographic Guardian editorial suggesting that Jim Murphy is the answer to the Labour maiden's prayer.  For example

The second thing that Labour needs to do is to show that it is the party of the deprived, the exploited and all those who want a fair deal. Mr Murphy’s speech put that front and centre on Saturday too — and his own life story embodies it. This also means reaching out as much as possible to the many traditional Labour voters who voted yes to independence in September, beguiled by SNP talk of Scotland’s distinctive fairness.

So there we are. All of us Yes voters are idiots who were fooled by the SNP and their talk of fairness.  Because we're clearly just too stupid to have understood and thought about the issues, so we just need to be told what's good for us and go back to obediently voting Labour.

Mind you, Mr Murphy's elevation has not been universally welcomed, as can been seen in this piece from the Independent for example.

Meantime, in the Scotsman we have the fascinating story of Jim Murphy going for a run.  Now there's incisive journalism for you.

You've got to hand it to the man though - he is media-savvy.  And that's the reason why I don't think we should underestimate him.  He's the man who turned one egg into a four-day media scandal, citing it as evidence of a Yes conspiracy to silence him, to the point where it is now reported as fact every time the incident is mentioned.  The truth of the matter is that the man who did the egging, one Stuart Mackenzie, was simply annoyed that Mr Murphy ignored his question, so went to a nearby shop, bought the eggs and had at it.  His lawyer was at pains to point out that Mr Mackenzie was not part of any conspiracy against Mr Murphy.  You won't see that mentioned in any story referencing the egging though.

Mr Murphy appears to be a ruthless operator who does whatever it takes to make things go the way he wants them to, and I think he will do whatever it takes to carve himself out his own fiefdom in Scotland.  All non-Labour supporters need to fight against this.  As the Guardian said at the end of its editorial, game on.