In a most dramatic piece of political serendipity, we had two intriguing stories appearing in The Herald yesterday.
Jim Murphy was suggesting that the Labour message needed some oomph in its communications strategy, while Gordon Brown's former spin doctor Damian McBride was telling us how Labour managed its communication strategy in order to smear Labour colleagues.
But what Mr Murphy ignores is that Scottish Labour has no message to spin save the incredible idea of one-nation politics. This one-nation fantasy is a wholly misguided policy in a UK that has been devolved into four distinct polities; creating significantly plural cultures that suffer from what artists call craquelure; producing a wealth disparity in the most unequal, socially divided UK in decades. Much of the above built by Labour under Messrs Blair, Brown, Darling and Murphy.
What is Mr Murphy's message? That Scottish Labour is the Third Lanark of Scottish politics - a once-proud brand that time has left behind. In its wake, all we have left is the smell of the sm ears.
Thom Cross,
18 Needle Green,
Carluke.
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