Why would Labour not bring their sole Scottish MP into the shadow cabinet?
It is astonishing that the Labour Party can overlook the one Labour MP who is capable of getting elected in Scotland (“Labour appoints English MP as shadow Scottish Secretary”, Scotsman, 19 December). This has happened not just once now but twice, with Ian Murray the MP for Edinburgh South. Surely he must be doing something right, and is worth listening to?
If they don’t see eye to eye and if someone who can win elections is not off any interest to them, then either Ian Murray or the leadership south of the Border are in the wrong party. Ian Murray looks like and sounds like a Labour politician to me. He has that abrasive and confrontational look about him that many Scottish Labour bruisers have had in the past, and in many difficult situations, those were qualities that might be required. That he can fight for and maintain his position from attempts to undermine him from even his own side suggests he has some substance as well. Compare this to the middle-class wimps currently at the top of the Labour Party elsewhere who can’t do anything, can’t get people to vote for them, and can’t recognise what they need to do to be able to take things forward.
This new shadow Scottish Secretary, however good he is, will be on a hiding to nothing. It must be increasingly clear to people by now that there are three recognisable camps within the labour party. one is the traditional party we know that represents working people, who might be left of centre, but can still put together policies that work in practice. The second is the left-wing intellectuals who are middle class and buffered against economic reality, but would inflict their Marxist fantasies on the rest of us. The third, possibly overlapping with the other two, is the huge numbers of young people on university campuses and elsewhere who have genuine issues they wish to see addressed, but who largely change their views as they get older.
In most other countries, you would see two-three different parties under this wide umbrella. Perhaps it is now time for the Labour Party to split. Let the dreamers do their own thing, and give the others the chance to do what the electorate want them to do VICTOR CLEMENTS Aberfeldy. Pershshire