Murphy’s ‘British nationalisms’ are outdated

In an extraordinary attack on Labour’s Secretary of State for Scotland Jim Murphy the leader of Scotland’s Episcopal Church has called the Labour MP's attempts at trying to introduce religion into the forthcoming general election campaign as “flatfooted” and “regressive”.

The Right Rev David Chillingworth accused Murphy of doing a “grave disservice” to religion by trying to “shrinkwrap” it to suit Labour’s manifesto.

Rev Chillingworth went on to say of Labour: “They are regressive, inviting us to revisit outdated nationalisms, to pursue those whom we deem to be work-shy, to close our borders to the poor of the world on the basis of a ‘firm and fair’ immigration policy.”

The attack follows Mr Murphy’s recent public comments on immigration where he attacked those who were soft on immigration and stated that dawn raids were “unavoidable”. Murphy also suggested that the public ought to inform on those they suspected of being benefit cheats, with rewards being offered in return for such clandestine snooping.

However it was Murphy’s clumsy attempt at harvesting the votes of religious groups that has brought the most serious condemnation. The Rev Chillingsworth’s remarks follow those from Cardinal Keith O’Brien, the leader of Scotland’s Catholics, who accused the Labour party of pursuing “a systematic and unrelenting attack on family values” during its time in power.

The ‘outdated nationalisms’ attack is particularly embarrassing for Murphy who has spent that last few months engaged in a one man campaign against the British National Party, a campaign that some have suggested owes more to the significant Jewish community within Murphy’s constituency than any real threat posed by the BNP.

Indeed some of Murphy’s recent statements on immigrants have been eerily similar to those from the far right. Murphy spoke about the system being abused or "queue-jumping" in the welfare state; he also insisted that there was “the need for new immigrants to accept core British values” and added: “It's in no-one's interest if new immigrants can't speak the world's most popular language when they come to live here.”

One wonders if Mr Murphy’s own family endured similar conditions when they emigrated to South Africa when it was still under the apartheid regime. In that instance the roles may well have been reversed with many of the indigenous non white South Africans having to adhere to and endure such a draconian system.

It remains to be seen what cumulative effect Murphy’s attempts at manipulating immigration and religion for political ends will have on the voting intentions amongst his religiously diverse constituents.

Funny though that the press have appeared reluctant to headline these attacks and to pursue Mr Murphy over his very clear error of judgement (remember those?) with regards to religion.

Oh, and while we're on Mr Murphy this ministerial statement from 23rd February was brought to our attention:

Subject to Parliamentary approval of the necessary Supplementary Estimates, the Departmental Expenditure Limit (DEL) provision for the administration of the Scotland Office will be increased by £1,200,000.

Seems that Scots (unlike the Welsh) are to be denied a referendum on their constitutional future because according to Labour it is a waste of money - meanwhile the Scotland Office are happy to spend the equivalent of the cost of a referendum every single year.  This follows on from the revelations in Newsnet Scotland over Jim Murphy's fondness for self promotion.

Finally:
If you really want a laugh then you simply must take a look at this article from The Daily Record CLICK HERE.