29 January 2015: Brian Cox’s defection to the SNP is a hammer blow for Jim Murphy and Labour
Given the enthusiasm with which Brian Cox campaigned for a Yes vote during the referendum campaign, his decision to quit Labour for the SNP may not seem surprising. It is significant, though that Jim Murphy has made big play of wanting his party to be a place both Yes and No voters feel comfortable since becoming leader north of the border. His mantra has been that Labour values still run strong and people should put constitutional politics to one side and focus on other policies. Cox’s decision to quit – slamming the party’s, “empty rhetoric” accusing it of selling out in the process – severely dents those hopes.
Providing voice overs for Tony Blair and Jack McConnell during previous election campaigns means Cox has by no means been a back seat supporter of Labour. And, as one of the most popular and effective celebrities when it came to campaigning for independence, his defection to the SNP is a hammer blow to Labour’s narrative. It is another blow to the party as it fights for its electoral life amid desperate polling figures for May’s general election. The Holywood actor’s declaration may not in itself seem shocking or significant, but it symbolises much bigger issues. http://www.thecourier.co.uk/opinion/blogs/kieran-andrews/brian-cox-s-defection-to-the-snp-is-a-hammer-blow-for-jim-murphy-and-labour-1.812899
The aforementioned article generated a fair bit of heat amongst the Dundee electorate and this makes the content of interest to all who are interested in bringing an end to Murphy’s ambitions in Scotland
SNP
What do they expect. The abuse by labour directed at the yes campaign was vile. They expect people to just forget? NEVER going to happen!
Labour
Absolutely pathetic, he is an idiot who will never be affected by the Tartan tory cuts and nasty policies like the cutting of early years teaching assistants in Dundee ten minutes later they increased their perks of power the councils hospitality budget. Our children’s route out of poverty sacrificed at the cost of free booze and buffets for SNP supporters. 4000 cut in hospital beds 4000 + cuts in teachers 2000 less nurses, bedroom tax con for 10 months ” we don’t have the powers to fund it then after relentless pressure from Scottish Labour Party the voluntary sector campaign groups and those the SNP elected members left the city to avoid facing the bin the bedroom tax group. They caved in and agreed to fund it in full no change in powers
SNP
You are a fool, worse a fool who appears unwilling or unable to retain any level of fact in your quest to blame everything on the SNP in an idiotic attempt to sustain the sinking ship that is the Labour Part in Scotland. Wake up man they have deserted their core supporters in favour of middle England, the Bankers and Thatcherism!
Labour
I note you are not disputing the cuts in teachers, NHS beds, teaching assistants, of course you can’t as they are a matter of public record therefore one is left with the assumption that you are not being affected by the tartan tory cuts therefore are only interested in the Tartan tory propaganda. Maybe it would help you if you actually got out and spoke to the real people of Scotland who are not falling for your propaganda they believe what they are experiencing and seeing with their own eyes.
SNP
He is well known for his nastiness aimed at Yes voting Scots…he is a disgraces as a person. Folk don’t like him because he is just plain ignorant.
SNP
Who do you blame for the NHS fiasco and Education fiascos in England? Both worse than Scotland has experienced!
Labour
You can’t argue with his remarks about “SNP elected members” – they are facts! I note that everyone who voted “no” is labelled as having viciously attacked independence voters etc- childish, really. Comments below are ridiculous, as in the reference to £1.3 trillion debt. The UK, especially Scotland, has been living beyond its means for years. Free prescriptions, free university places, higher grant per capita from Westminster, etc. It doesn’t grow on trees.
Where would an independent Scotland be right now with oil at $48 pb? Think of it – revenue from oil on the floor, higher unemployment, more social benefit claims, Clyde-side dead from lack of orders, power supplies in jeopardy with frackingforbidden and over-reliance on renewables – this in a country as cold as Scotland! I sometimes think I’m reading the Beano when I review SNP promises.
Just for once, answer the oil question, as this was the issue on which an independent Scotland’s future was predicated – and which you were warned was a very dangerous policy, given the volatility in the price of oil. A great country with several million of decent, well-educated people, is in danger of becoming a laughing stock, and all because porridge eaters swallowed Salmond’s lies, hook, line and sinker. You should be ashamed, very ashamed.
SNP
what a load of drivel! You don’t mention the six figure MP expense claims or the £1.5 trillion national debt? SNP to blame for that as well?
Labour
The debt that was the result of the Labour government deciding to protect our economy, our banks, our saving, our industry and businesses. The only other choice was survival of the fittest and the wealthy.
SNP
It was the result of WESTMINSTER the national debt! Started by liebour and multiplied by Tory. Nothing to do with SNP. Just as liebour refused to vote against austerity or fracking! Voted liebour all my life NEVER EVER AGAIN. Red Tory, sold their soul. Hence the 50%+ SNP support being polled
SNP
Utter nonsense Norway has a £600bn oil fund while thanks to Westminster mismanagement Scotland as part of the UK has a £1.5trn debt.
Labour
It’s your national debt too, the answer is simple and patently obvious. England has a population around 12 times that of Scotland and the patient premium is lower than that allocated to Scotland.
Labour
The “expense claims” is garbage, as there are 600 plus MPs at Westminster, with many from the SW, NW and the NE, not to mention Wales, Scotland and NI. And of course, there’s Wee
Eck! Do you think only rich people should be allowed to enter parliament, thereby obviating the need for expenses? I could give you a dozen better reasons for arguing against the Union than that. You can do better than that, surely?
SNP
What a load of opinionated drivel. I get expenses in my job but lucky if I need more then 5k per annum! I work half the year away from home! There is a huge difference
between REASONABLE expenses and Westminster expenses! as for the national debt, it us a DISGRACE the UK is in this mess when you compare us to Norway! The UK is finished, fact.
SNP
how ironic you pounce on the bedroom tax! people being made homeless on the breadline and idiots like you moan about the snp helping them! you shouldn’t be allowed to breed mate! people like you should be ejected to live south of the border. see hire much more you will have to moan about then! balloon
LABOUR
I note that you are yet another Tartan tory that cannot make a comment without personal abuse I also note you have no answers to the fact that the tartan tories have had the power from day one to mitigate its affects on the Scottish people, by doing as the Northern Irish assembly have done they have stuck up for their electorate by refusing to implement the bedroom tax until they have exhausted all legal options open to them. Unlike the tartan tories who spent millions on ensuring that the Scottish people did not receive access to information about SNP policies through freedom of information requests.
In a perfect example the coverup of the massive escalation in V&A costs with regards to the bedroom tax they also could have changed Scottish law to make it illegal for any Scottish social landlord to evict any of their tenants for specificly bedroom tax debt. And their No1 priority policy if there was a yes win would have been a 3% tax cut for multi national companies and lest we forget or forgive them for their treacherous vote against the living wage being implemented in Scotland
SNP
The “bedroom tax” was imposed on Scotland by a Westminster Government that Scotland did not vote for and despite the majority of our MP’s at Westminster opposing the measure.
Despite this Labour stood shoulder to shoulder with the Tory party to inform Scots we were “better together” and should vote no. Labour prefer Tory rule from London to Socialist rule from Edinburgh. In regards to corporation tax cuts that is again utter hypocrisy from Labour considering Gordon Brown cut corporation tax from 33-28%, a 5% cut the same as George Osborne! Indeed Gordon Brown is on record as stating he wanted to cut it MORE. He stated: “We have cut corporation tax twice and I want to go further,” he said. “We will reduce the tax again when we are able.” http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/2789264/Gordon-Brown-tries-to-win-over-directors-with-tax-reduction-pledge.html
As for the living wage utter hypocrisy from Labour considering in November 2014 a proposal by SNP councillors to pay local authority apprentices the Living Wage in Greenock was thrown out by a Labour-controlled council committee. http://www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk/news/greenock/articles/2014/11/26/517095-bid-to-pay-living-wage-to-apprentices-rejected/ In regards to the supposed “V&A” cover up that is nothing but a Labour lie as demonstrated by the complete lack of hard evidence presented.
SNP
Abuse? Oh come you sensitive little thing. That’s not abuse. Abuse is very different indeed.
SNP
I like many others was a card carrying member of the Labour party and senior Trade union activist, I felt physically sick when one of the Thatcherite Blair’s first acts was to praise Thatcher and invite her to tea at Downing Street. Protect our banks? he and that numb nut Brown deregulated the banks and set off a chain reaction that led to the UK’s involvement in the sub prime banking crash et al. As to NHS cuts our budget is cut from Westminster as a consequential of the Barnet Formula in proportion to what is spent in England and Wales. Why is it so difficult for the likes of you to grasp this simple concept?
Labour
Bedroom tax is wrong, very wrong, but even you must see the logic behind trying to find bigger houses for families than having them occupied by single people. I’ve just seen a programme about it this morning and the black lady who eventually moved to a smaller house wanted to give up her 3 bedrooms to a family, providing she could find a smaller house, which she eventually did.your comment, mentions expenses. It depends on where you live and how you decide to manage the distance. Thatcher introduced the system because she was afraid of public reaction to a pay rise for MPs. The answer is to pay them on a par with their Euro counterparts and abolish expenses altogether. But what would the likes of you say?
I spent years abroad on detachments to Italy and Germany where we stayed in hotels and were given an allowance for meals. My son worked for Adobe and was always away from home and his expenses were astronomical. Don’t know the details of your case so I can’t really comment. I agree, their expenses are over the top, but every Scottish MP got them too.
Me? I’d raise their pay and abolish expenses. Trouble is, those who live far away would suffer..
SNP
Scottish Government could not offset the bedroom tax as it was a RESERVED matter and permission had to be granted by Westminster and the money was deducted from the block grant
SNP
You see the problem mate – they don’t understand how things are done. As for the comments before yours, well there is no use arguing with them. They want everything and they want it now, regardless of cost or affordability. They are both logically and economically bankrupt!
SNP
I’ll bet you didn’t describe him as an idiot when he supported labour or did you?
SNP
Calling Scottish Labour the Tartan Tories is not very nice Douglas but you may well be accurate….Labours shift to the right since Blair made me leave
SNP
I am an SNP supporter. Please tell me where I can get my free booze and buffet. I have never seen them; you didn’t just make that up, did you?
As if to prove your point, he is right on the case. Sadly he has obviously never heard the saying, “Better that people believe you to be a fool,than open your mouth and prove it. “Could have been written for him, except he is not important enough, outwith his own self importance. I’ve tried to read his post again but still cannot make any sense of it, he just jumps from one rant to another with no reference to any proof. But then,I suppose when you have the egg man on your side, proof and truth are not obiglatory.
SNP
Jim Murphy promised to hire Yes voters as part of his team but he surrounded himself with rabid unionists like John McTernan, Blair McDougall and Susan Dalgety. You simply cannot work with such people.
SNP
And we’ll not forget their campaign as regards the pensioners. They were telling OAP’s that they wouldn’t have a pension if it was a yes vote. We were alerted to an old lady in Ayrshire that was so scared by this that she was stockpiling food. Thankfully AGE Scotland got involved through seeing our comments on facebook and they brought in the Social Services to help the old dear. However, she was just one that was brought to our attention, think of the thousands that’ll have suffered in silence. Labour, it doesn’t matter what you do and say now, you can NEVER wash that stain away. I ask everyone to vote SNP so that we can get rid of Labour in Scotland and push for home rule.
Labour
Yet more of your evil Nasty propaganda I spoke to hundreds of pensioners before the referendum and not one mentioned anything abou labour saying anything about losing their pensions what they were complaining about was being called traitors for refusing to put up yes stickers,
SNP
Are you mad. Did you even listen to anything during the campaign? The threat of losing pensions was brought up again and again by, “bitter together”. Did you go through the entire referendum campaign with your eyes and ears closed?
Labour
Whereas the SNP were telling pensioners the NHS was going to be privatised into oblivion if we voted No. Has that happened yet?
SNP
Not yet. Please hold…….
SNP
No such thing as Scottish Labour it just does not exist as a legal entity
SNP
It’s like British Gas & Scottish Gas owned by Centrica, & labour are full of gas !!
Labour
What was that you said about personal abuse in a comment?????
SNP
Congratulations, for joining the rest of us who are sick of the manipulations to get a majority in Westminster.
SNP
I spoke to lots of pensioners through my work during the referendum campaign and many of them said they couldn’t vote Yes because their pensions would stop!!! I tried to tell them otherwise but one or 2 of them had been cold-called by representatives from the labour party and told exactly that over the phone. It doesn’t take long for news to spread in the elderly community and even the ones who might have preferred to vote Yes would be pressured not to by friends. A disgusting tactic, that will Never be forgotten!!!
Labour
Absolute rubbish pensioners I spoke to on the phones on the doorstep and in the streets were all complaining about SNp calling them ttraitors because they refused to put yes stickers in their windows and abused in the streets for refusing to wear yes stickers,
SNP
The pensioners I spoke to and ones I know were scared witless by “project fear” not because of yes poster or badge wearing refusal
SNP
any further out of touch mate and you would be in orbit.
Labour
Vote tartan tory guaranteed to get english tories all shaking hands and big cheesy smiles on the telly and in pictures in the newspapers together.
SNP
We feel your pain mate, Labour being rejected by Brian Cox. Your party, whatever you call yourself or present yourself, are the problem and not the answer to Scotland’s needs. Labour no longer represent us, its policies do not reflect our concerns, aspirations and hopes, and the bargain you made with the Tories during the referendum have made it and you irrelevant. Many more will make the journey that Brian Cox has taken. I doubt you ever will.
SNP
Tartan Tory I thought we were extreme left wing according to the press. Do you actually live on planet earth, or in a bubble
SNP
Obviously it is not Planet Earth as he is always bubbling.
SNP
Tartan Tory? That highlights your idiotic mindset. The Scottish National Party are the only left of centre party in Scotland if not the UK the rest are blue Tories, red Tories, yellow tories and UKIP Tories. Wake up man!
Labour
So the Scottish Socialist Party, Greens, Respect, etc. don’t exist? All are far more left-wing than the SNP.
SNP
Better tartan Tory than red
SNP
Care to comment on your hero McGovern’s recent behaviour, re not voting on bedroom tax issue? Or will this be another tumbleweed moment for you. And on fracking as well.Never mind he will soon have more time on his hands.Maybe his glorious leader will show him a few keepy up tricks.
SNP
Are you proud of labour’s support of the tories austerity bills?
SNP
What about there refusal to back the amendment to devolve fracking to Holyrood? Does that fill you with pride?
SNP
Let’s go back to when the labour party turned into the Tory party… Do/did you support the changing of Clause IV?
SNP
You have a cheek describing the SNP as “Tartan Tory” considering it was LABOUR MP Alistair Darling who was given a standing ovation at the 2013 Tory conference. http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/top-stories/scots-tories-give-alistair-darling-standing-ovation-1-2960255
SNP
You might want to drag yourself out of the 1980s and into this century. The ‘Tartan Tory’ smear stopped working decades ago. At least find a smear that is relevant to today’s Scottish politics.
SNP
The real people are about to obliterate the labour party’s Scottish branch. Those are the real people speaking.
SNP
Wow this guy is in complete denial and delusion. Having spent 2 years cheek by jowl campaigning with the Tories , using Tory money and Labour mouthpieces then to refer to SNP as Tartan Tories is beyond parody.
SNP
Had Brian Cox decided to stay with Labour that would have been a far bigger blow to us.
SNP
Brian Cox is merely reflecting the almost total disillusionment of most Scottish Labour members/voters and their overwhelming repugnance at SLAB getting into bed with the Tories during the Referendum.
SNP
Johann Lamont’s resignation – and her very true description of what Scottish Labour had become, which she spat out on her departure – followed by Murphy’s fairy-tale reinvention of his part in Better Together (Not a Unionist???????), allied to his employment of gutter trash like McTernan and McDougall, only re-emphasize just how low that Party has fallen, up here.
SLAB are finished in Scotland and have just been defined by the UK Electorate Commission, no less, as nothing more than an “Accounting Unit” for Westminster Labour. They are merely a lowly branch office of Ed’s London HQ, with Murphy achieving the public status of a ridiculous Westminster Glove-Puppet. Everything is controlled from down south and their priority will always be to get Milliband elected – nothing else. Scotland will, as usual, be just a wee afterthought. No wonder Cox left this discredited, derided and despicable shambles.
SNP
If Murphy had honestly wanted to bring Yes voters back to Labour, his hiring of John McTernan who is well known for his vicious attacks on Yes voters was, to put it mildly, a strange decision.
Labour
What year is this? 2015? Brian Cox joining the SNP is not significant or surprising any more. Furthermore, it makes no difference – he lives in New York. Very big joke and obviously stage-managed. Cox has been defacto SNP for years. Surprised it made the news, and I’m not joking He voted for Salmond in 2011: http://news.stv.tv/scotland/241730-scottish-film-legend-cox-dumps-labour-for-snp/ Nothing to do with the Yes campaign – he was already voting SNP. Will he now finally decided to come out of tax exile in NewYork
Labour
An actor who spent the last year openly arguing against Labour and for independence is joining the SNP. Why is this news again?
caltonjock 