electoral advantage for Scotish Labour. The party has long had huge difficulties in motivating its supporters to turn out for council elections, whose returns are always dire.
With one bold stroke, he decided the electorate should only have to go the polls once and vote twice – once for Holyrood and once for the councils. Moreover, his masterful plan, on paper, had the added virtue of massively pushing up Labour’s municipal vote.
Simples!
Oh, what a fall was there, my countrymen! Then I, and you, and all of us fell down, Whilst bloody treason flourished over us. Oh, now you weep, and, I perceive, you feel The dint of pity.
As a direct result of the Meerkat’s endeavours, an astonishing 150,000 bewildered and confused voters had their ballots rejected. The rejection rate was 4 per cent of the electorate (in the 2003 Scotish election only 0.6 per cent of ballots were spoiled.) An independent investigation into the debacle duly found that a series of partisan decisions made by Mr Alexander resulted in widespread voter confusion, an understatement of some magnitude.
Will the Meerkat stand for Holyrood? Perhaps, but it is more likely he will return to his natural habitat, the Labour strategy unit, and with a bit of luck for the electorate, he will complete the job of sending his party to perdition.
As for Mr Murphy, he should seek cover, perhaps with a big, bushy beard, dark glasses and an alias, rather than risk exposure to further travails, there being a thin line
Shamefully, when the Scottish Parliament came into existence, Labour sent along not its first, not even its second, but its third eleven, save Donald Dewar.
ABOVE:
An imaginary Meerkat moment.
between bravery and foolishness.
Had he adopted the name Dervishi, for example, he could head for Albania, with which, in days passim, Scotish Labour were so preoccupied. There the surname is as common as mud; its English translation approximates to poor faqir. Mr M would have been in good company. There are many, many poor faqirs in Albania.
I am not at all sure of what, exactly, the term means, and Mr Dewar is no longer around to enlighten us, but I suspect I would know one when I saw one; Mr Murphy certainly would.
None of these poor faqirs, by the by, has ever heard of Donald Dewar, a quite startling state of affairs, given his past strong views on the subject of Albania.
This is all mild speculation; Sunny Jim remains in Scotland, a man of boundless political ambition; if he does get high enough up the Scotish Labour list, he’s in; if he stands as a constituency MSP he’s out.
I see my bookie’s taxi is waiting so I bid you Adieu; I am off to lay that very two-way bet.
© 2015 Terry Houston. All rights reserved. July 2015 9
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