Ten days previously, Jim Murphy made a speech in Glasgow's east end.
A few dozen members of the party faithful turned up to hear the then-leadership candidate's thoughts on welfare. He mingled with members of the audience as a few aides twiddled their thumbs, realising they'd printed far too many copies of a speech which only a couple of reporters had bothered to attend. Space had needlessly been set aside for tv cameras.
The venue chosen for his first major appearance as Scottish Labour Leader was just a ten minute walk away, but location was about the only thing these two events had in common. A week is a long time in politics.
The problem was not too many speeches, but not enough seats. Flustered staffers make repeat trips to store cupboards to source chairs for late-arriving grandees. The less-esteemed had no choice but to cram into the Recital Room in City Halls as best they could.
The sought-after pews were deserted en masse as soon as Jim, with new deputy Kez Dugdale in tow, strode in. There would be two more rapturous standing ovations before he opened his mouth.
There was talk of rediscovered energy and a party reborn, no longer answering to London. He set out his own 'clause four moment', mentioning Tony Blair for a second time. If 'branch office' is a tag to be jettisoned at all costs, Blairite appears to be one Mr Murphy is more than comfortable with.
"Why send someone to the House of Commons to fight with a Tory government when you can send someone who can replace the Tory Government?", he bellowed, almost bringing the 130-year-old house down. The crowd here, at least, was convinced.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article