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The experience of growing up poor in Glasgow and white in South
Africa drove Jim Murphy to join the Labour Party at the time of the
General Election in 1987. "My family emigrated to South
Africa when I was 12 and I'd gone from relative poverty in Glasgow
to absolute racism in South Africa," he explains. Every
morning he queued for his white-only bus to go to his white-only
school and returned home each night to the block of flats that was
home to his family and but one house away from Robin Island where
Nelson Mandela was imprisoned. When he was a teenager all
white boys had to serve two years in the South African army and
though keen to stress that he isn't a pacifist he didn't want to
"fight in a racist army". So he returned to Scotland and at
that time "Mrs Thatcher had one view of apartheid and the Labour
Party had a different view." In a world of moral absolutes,
there was no question in his mind: to side with the party that
sides with apartheid, or to side with the party that wants to bring
down apartheid? Summing up his decision, he says, "Utter
idealism and the Labour Party were much closer to my sense of right
and wrong than any other political party was or is."
It wasn't until recently however that he discovered he had been
interested in politics as a boy. About two years ago his
mother gave him his old school books and his daily news book gave
him a fascinating insight into his concerns and interests as a
child. "Every Monday there was only ever three things in my
news book - one, what priest said that Sunday in Mass, second, how
Celtic did, and the third was, and my family can't explain this
but, what was happening in politics. Church, football
and politics."
We jump to 1997 when he stood as a candidate in East
Renfrewshire on the shared understanding with his wife (girlfriend
at the time) that he would give it a go but that he wouldn't win -
that was the deal. The constituency had been under the
Conservatives since the 1920s so they decided, "We'll have an
election campaign for a month and then we'll get back to making
plans for our life, get married and have a family. There was
no chance I would win - no chance." What motivated him was
the idea that the world was unfair and that you could "make a wee
bit of a difference"; that "well if you want the world to be
changed you shouldn't just sit in your living room and just shout
at the telly, you should do something about it". All
politicians want to change the world, he goes on to say, but some
"want to change it in a way that I would find really pretty
unhealthy, the Conservatives want to do it in a selfish kind of me
first type of way and I just think the Labour Party believe in
something different and it always will do. At our core we
believe in a fairer, better world. People shouldn't live
longer just because of where they were born or have better chances
because of the colour of their skin."
12 years on and 3 election victories later and he has built a
solid base of support in his constituency by "being visible, being
active" and "trying his best for folk". "I'll do 15 surgeries
a month, I'm knocking on doors every week, I try and update my
website by myself every day, so far it seems to have worked
ok. I do my video blog every Friday." This may not
sound out of the ordinary but this is an example of one of the most
accessible local MPs and it is a particular challenge for him when
his role as Secretary of State means that the two places he's meant
to be the most are London and Edinburgh yet his constituents are
just outside Glasgow. And so is his wife and family and he is
clearly concerned that his family are the ones that lose out in
this balancing act saying, "I do my best but it's not always good
enough."
As Secretary of State for Scotland his priority is simple, "To
get out of this recession without the poorest being left
behind." The Labour Party have an awful lot of good things
over the last decade he argues, things that "understandably are now
taken for granted" like the National Minimum Wage, Tax Credits,
Pension Credits, Paternity leave…"We didn't have any of that when
we came to power - that's all the creation of the last decade of a
Labour Government." The danger is though that in previous
recessions "the poor were the first in to the recession and the
last out." It must be different this time but "that's easy to
say as a politician but it's much harder to do."
In a previous role he was Minister for State for Employment and
Welfare Reform. "The most dangerous thing to do in Scotland
is unemployment - bad for your mental health, bad for your diet,
bad for your self-belief, bad for your kids. The Labour Party
was founded on the right to work and full employment and that's
what I believe in." The new Welfare Reform Act is going to
make things better he thinks, but he is concerned that it doesn't
tip the balance one way or the other. "I think what the
welfare reform plans do now is put an awful lot more focus on
mental health illness, learning disability and childcare needs and
that's really important so I think that is going in the right
direction. What is really crucial is that those folk aren't
compelled to take a job - because at a time of recession the jobs
aren't there…You can never force someone with a mental health
illness to go to work but you can say to folk, how can we help
you? You can make it compulsory that folk go on some sort of
course, even if it is one hour a week, volunteering, going on a
computer course, going on a part-time evening course. Just to
try and get people a bit more self confidence and self belief."
Another priority just now is combating the BNP and finding new
ways to respond to the reality that they got 30,000 votes at the
European elections. "We've got to a different stage with them
[the BNP]- it makes me feel ill the idea that they are on telly, it
turns my stomach but it is unavoidable now because we've got to the
stage now where ignoring them isn't an option, it's a luxury we
don't have anymore." Recently he has changed his mind on the
best way to deal with the fascist party: "it's time to bring them
out and into the light and try and argue logic and hope against
their hatred. When I was the president of NUS I used to run
campaigns, ban the BNP, no platform, you can't have them on telly,
you can't have them in universities. I don't want them in any
of these places but they are there now and you can't deny the
reality that 30,000 people in this country voted for a fascist
party." The biggest problem, he argues, is complacency and
gives the example of the St. Andrews Day March last year that
was only attended by a few hundred people. It's vital this
year to have a good turnout at the same event on the
29th November and he urges faith leaders to join
together in their constituencies before the election to show a
united front against the BNP.
This is but one example of how he believes churches and other
faith communities can and do have a big role to play in society: a
role he would like to see grow. "I just kind of think that
Government can't do everything by itself and that churches, and
mosques and synagogues have a relationship with their followers
that Government can never match. There is a relationship of
trust between members of faith organisations that we don't do
enough to harness. So I would like to see faith groups doing
an awful lot more in providing Government services. Now not
in a way that jeopardises the independence of faith organisations
because that is paramount - churches in particular exist in some of
the poorest communities - places where Government doesn't have a
presence." Citing the example of the "spectacular things"
President Obama is doing on the relationship between faith
organisations and Government he goes on, "in a time of recession in
particular we should be harnessing the good will of good people of
faith to take their natural inclination to help people but do it
with some Government support - I'd like to see more of that
happen."
Personally he says, "I've got a faith in God, I believe in the
importance of church. I believe in the goodness of faith, I
believe in the inspiration of faith. If it wasn't for church and
faith I worry about who else would give a societal
conscience. For me faith is about how you live your
life - I think if you preach at people you end up feeling like a
hypocrite."