Wednesday 11 March 2009

Jim Murphy: "Intolerant and dictatorial"


Hot on the heels of the red-tops digging out Mike Russell's 10-year old book, the Loon has scoured the parliamentary archives and unearthed an interesting Early Day Motion about one Jim Murphy...

MR JIM MURPHY AND THE NATIONAL UNION OF STUDENTS 12.06.1996

Livingstone, Ken

That this House condemns the intolerant and dictatorial behaviour of the President of the National Union of Students, Mr Jim Murphy, who has unconstitutionally suspended NUS Vice President, Clive Lewis, because he took part, in a personal capacity, in an open debate at Queen Mary and Westfield College on the issues raised by the Campaign for Free Education; further notes that along with President Elect, Douglas Trainer, both men have warned NUS Executive member, Rose Woods, that if she attends the Scottish launch of the Campaign for Free Education she too will be suspended from the NUS Executive; reminds Mr Murphy and Mr Trainer that freedom of speech is a right in the United Kingdom, that they have no power to overturn the results of elections that went against their preferred candidates and that, whilst these methods are a common practice in dictatorships around the world, they are not acceptable behaviour from someone such as Mr Murphy who is putting himself forward as suitable for election to the House of Commons.


Amongst the 17 MPs who signed Red Ken's motion were such luminaries as Dennis Skinner and Tony Benn.

All you Glenrothes conspiracy theorists out there might particularly enjoy the line: "they have no power to overturn the results of elections that went against their preferred candidates". Of course, hypothetically speaking, if a result is already in the (postal ballot) bag, then there would be no need to overturn it.

7 comments:

subrosa said...

Aye I've read this somewhere some years ago. Good for you to bring it back into the public eye.

Have you heard the BBC have withdrawn the Alba programme from YouTube?

Barstewards. They just don't want the truth to be known but, for equality, they had the programme made in Gaelic hoping man wouldn't see it.

It was Doimhair on Alba TV and was on iPlayer.

forfar-loon said...

Evening subrosa,

No I hadn't heard that. Didn't get round to watching it yet either :o(

I suspected my Jim Murphy story might not be the scoop I'd hoped for! But if the tabloids can dredge stuff up from 10 years ago just to try and lodge it in the public consciousness then so can I! Nice picture though, eh? Amazing what 5 minutes in Paint can do :o)

subrosa said...

You're showing off your graphic skills and that scunners me because I've none.

Pity you didn't see the programme, all Scot should have be privilege to it but it was tucked away on the Gaelic channel.

It's too important to be lost and it will reappear hopefully.

Anonymous said...

Hi guys,

Looks like it's still on iPlayer.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00g8hg3/Diomhair/

I'm going to watch it during my lunch break.

forfar-loon said...

Thanks Richard, will try to download it before it vanishes into the ether. I've been tuning in to BBC Alba quite a bit recently. They have some good shows, makes me want to dig out my Teach Yourself Gaelic book and tape...then I remember I don't have a cassette player any more :o(

Anonymous said...

For those with a bit of spare time on their hands, I've posted a transcript over at quirkynats.

:)

BSH said...

Personally, I think Skeletor just needs a good old fashioned Nationalist hug.