30 October 2014

Murphy expects: Ritual disembowelment?


Just a short and grubby blog today. With the news that Jim Murphy intends to enter the Scottish Labour leadership fray comes the intelligence that, according to the Guardian:
"Some senior colleagues believe that a Labour MSP who plans to retire in May 2016 from a safe Labour seat could be persuaded to stand down earlier and allow a byelection to take place on the same day as the general election in 2015."
Other newscasters are also reporting that Murphy himself seems to have raised the idea of a 2015 by-election in a Holyrood constituency in launching his campaign. The expection, presumably, that one of his more lumpen and loyal colleagues will helpfully commit political harakiri, sweeping the lugubrious Jim to Scottish office and allowing him to put questions to Nicola Sturgeon every Thursday going into the 2016 election. 

All I can say is: good luck with that one, Jim. Under Schedule 2 of the Scottish Parliamentary Pensions Act 2009, MSPs demitting office are entitled to substantial resettlement grants if they serve as sitting MSPs at parliament's dissolution but are not returned by the grateful electoral. And here's the nasty snag. If you demit office before your term as MSP is through, you forgo this payment. You "resettle" yourself through resignation, and must fend for yourself financially. Bill Walker won't have got a penny. 

And we're not talking about small beans, here. The rate of an MSP's grant is at least half their salary - and more if they've put in long service, where the formula is their years of service in the parliament divided by twelve and multiplied by 100 (up to a maximum of twelve years in hock). To pluck one example entirely at random, take Ken MacIntosh.

First elected in 1999, MacIntosh will have sat in Holyrood for 17 years by the end of the parliament's 2016 term. If the Eastwood MSP prostrated himself on Murphy's altar, and took one for the team, he'd be forgoing 100% of his annual MSP's salary in a generous payoff - about, what? - £58.000? Even the meanest Labour numpty, despatched to the Scottish Parliament accidentally in 2011, is entitled at least £29,000 - but only if they go into the 2016 Holyrood election still in office. What a wizard scheme. What noble sacrifice. 

So the question is this. Which Labour MSP is daft or loyal enough to let Jim Murphy pick their pocket of several thousand pounds for an early by-election?

Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his resettlement grant for his leader, as they say...

16 comments :

  1. I'm sorry I can't translate this for you, but this is a great clip of Italian Senator Antonio Razzi being secretly filmed saying he voted a certain way to keep everyone happy because he was ten days away from a very generous pension and he wasn't risking that for anyone... quite colourful language. As you say, good luck Jim

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMrBBam9F5g#t=53

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  2. I presume Murphy (or rather, UK Labour's leadership) must have a really good job lined up for the noble MSP standing down early, one with a significantly higher remuneration. Not sure what this job would be, though.

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    1. Haha, I see what you did there. Noble. Ennobled.

      Lady Baillie of Dumbarton.

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  3. Is there anything in the rules to prevent the Labour party compensating a sacrificial victim financially?

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    1. Not in the pensions rules. But I doubt they've got a spare £80,000 lying about. It would also be scandalous, if it got into the public domain...

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  4. Are there any safe Labour seats in Holyrood?

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  5. All this is as nothing compared with what Scotland lost by voting 'No' The details of the £46 billion are given in the current issue of the online magazine johnproblem.com

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  6. Have a look at Murphy's record in this blog. If only the MSM did their job as thoroughly!
    http://tommyballgovan.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/labour-in-crisis-but-surely-even-they.html?m=1

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    1. Thanks for the link. A good read and with humour too!

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  7. I'm sure that the UK secret service can bump off a lone MSP, if not with an exploding cigar then with the poisoned umbrella. Failing that, Jim Murphy can simply not bother ever going to parliament. He's a Blairite; I believe that under Blair it was called (by civil servants) "sofa government."

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  8. Good points... but won't they get a list MSP to resign and avoid need for a by-election? There are some accidental Labour list MSPs who were never wanting or expecting to get elected in the first place.

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    1. Can't be done, I'm afraid. If a list MSP resigns, the person ranked next on the list is elected - until the list is exhausted, whereupon, the vacancy remains until the next Holyrood election. The parties can't substitute in new candidates in that way.

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    2. You're right, as always. It's been a bit since I last read the Scotland Act 1998, but you get to Section 10 quickly.

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    3. Your best post ever. I'm sure most of them, and their agents, are not aware of their current situation. They sign up and don't bother reading the peedie print at the bottom of the contract. Weel done for opening their bleary een.

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  9. Straight swap, Holyrood seat for Jim's Westminster one could be a possibilty although this would rely heavily on OMOV. Sorry I missed this post earlier,interesting.

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