[SCOT goes POP!] Ian Murray: one of history's most deserved sackings

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Ian Murray: one of history's most deserved sackings

Given the extremes that Scottish politics has oscillated between over the last three decades, with repeated wipeouts or near-wipeouts of the Scottish Tories and Scottish Labour at Westminster, there have been a number of occasions when someone has found themselves as either Secretary of State for Scotland or Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland on a "last person standing" basis.  Presumably, or at least one would hope, both Peter Duncan and David Mundell had some self-awareness or insight into the fact that they only had the job for that reason, but in the case of Ian Murray we don't even need to wonder - he clearly has no insight whatsoever.  He honestly believes himself to be a political colossus, and thinks that the reason he was the only Scottish Labour MP left after the 2015 and 2019 general elections was his unique skill-set and political vision - not because of his immense fortune in being the candidate in Edinburgh South, the constituency which just happened to be most conducive to mass unionist tactical voting in favour of Labour.  He imagines that there are now 30-odd Scottish Labour MPs simply because they all followed the Murray Blueprint.  To him it makes perfect sense that he was converted from Shadow Scottish Secretary to Scottish Secretary last July, even though Starmer had just gone from having no choice to having dozens of alternatives.  But it made sense to practically no-one else.  Murray is an unlikeable character, and the most noteworthy thing about him was his previous principled stance in opposition to Trident, which he abandoned at the drop of a hat when it proved necessary to cling on to office.  You shouldn't have bothered, Ian - now you have no ministerial job, and no principles either.

The shock of dismissal doesn't seem to have jolted Murray into a more realistic appraisal of his own abilities - we're told he is "genuinely shocked" and "flabbergasted" to have been given the push.  Seriously, Ian?  You can't conceive of any of your dozens of Scottish colleagues being more able or charismatic than you are?

Still, we shouldn't underestimate Starmer - he's perfectly capable of stunning us all by appointing someone even worse.

Source: Ian Murray: one of history's most deserved sackings