Thursday, February 19, 2015

Fucking it all up, Labour Leader Jim Murphy has run into trouble, his ‘fitba’ campaign isn’t the substance that will attract Labour voters back, Jim Murphy, go see the 10 year old little boy who got bottled by Celtic fans and ask him should alcohol be re-introduced at football matches, Scotland has changed politically, Murphy needs to address that now



















Dear All

Labour leader Jim Murphy enjoyed himself in the Better Together during his 100 day tour, but the referendum is over now.

He has since went on to be become leader of Scottish Labour, the Labour Party fortunes have somewhat improved against the SNP. 

At FMQs Kezia Dugdale scored some hits against the SNP Government.

The SNP have done some climb downs, the proposed women’s super prison in Inverclyde and demands for the publishing weekly accident and emergency waiting times.

On the issue of the super prison, I have blogged and commented on this before, it was a bad idea, during having a pop at Elish ‘Labour’ Angiolini who decided to reinvent herself as a caring individual, struggling with angst about women being locked up.

Murphy recent call for a lifting of the ban on alcohol at football grounds is bullshit, if he thinks the pressing issue of the day is people getting pissed watching football, he is in for a rude awakening at the ballot box. When he took over as Labour leader, one of his first announcements was to suggest Labour would repeal the OBA Act, brought in by a knee jerk SNP Government.

I am against OBA as it is bad law, my position remains the same, it should be repealed, but what concerns me is that Murphy thought a ‘housekeeping’ issue should figure so high on his ‘to do’ list.

Things have changed politically in Scotland, it isn’t business as usual; the Labour Party need to step up to the plate and start delivering real life changing policies for ordinary working class people.

Failure to do so, failure to deliver will see them destroyed, people in Scotland are sick of being ignored, they are sick of getting nothing in return for their vote.

The Nationalists have decided to oppose the lifting of alcohol, despite the idea being popular among Scottish clubs who are strapped for cash, in an ideal world, people could enjoy a pint and watch a football game; sadly that isn’t the case.  

Some Scots still have a lot of growing up to do, because this minority are spoiling it for the rest, hence the ban on alcohol must stay.

It is a safety issue, we can’t do anything about fans getting tanked up before or after a game, but we can something about it during it.

It is easy to see why Murphy’s call will prove popular but in this case popular doesn’t also mean right.

Murphy sees this as a class issue, but it isn’t, it is a safety and law and order issue, while it is true, that fans can drink at Murrayfield, we should remember that rugby fans by enlarge don’t use violence on opposing fans.

Jim Murphy should think back to the bad old days of the notorious Scottish Cup final of 1980 between Rangers and Celtic which saw fans rioting on the Hampden pitch and the use of mounted police.

Rugby has no history of fan trouble.

Working class people as well as middle class people go to rugby matches without incident so they were allowed to re-introduce alcohol at grounds in 2007.

If football fans want alcohol back, then the element who cause violence has to be removed from entering football stadiums, not exactly an easy task. A couple of weeks ago a ten-year-old Rangers fan left with an injured face and three missing teeth after being “bottled” by Celtic fans.

10 years old, a little kid.

Jim Murphy should drop the call for alcohol to be re-introduced at football matches, in fact, he should drop his ‘fitba’ campaign all together; he is struggling at present because he isn’t producing policies of real significance to change lives of those who need it most in society.

Murphy needs to wise up, he stands to lose many of the current Labour MPs who must be thinking why Murphy dealing with meaningless trivia.

If he fails to grasp the problem, he will be waking up to find himself surrounded by people calling for the end of his leadership sooner rather than later.

Deliver policies of significant meaning to win back Labour voters, big ideas, real change and real commitment.

Pledge to devolve Welfare responsibility to the Scottish Parliament.   

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University  

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

George you are absolutely correct yet again, labour to produce meaningful stuff. Their campaign so far is very poor.