'Gorgeous George' isn't looking too good this weekend, because he got a doing in the street in London last night. I don't know who did it, although I can guess, having heard his comments about banning Jews from the streets of Bradford. I believe his main defence today was that as he has been elected as an MP 6 - or was it 8? - times, he is entitled to express his opinion. I think George has missed the point: we live in a democracy and we are all entitled to express our opinion. Some of us do and some don't. Some don't because they feel pretty powerless and they react badly when people like George use their speaking skills and their media contacts to publicise views which I think I can reasonably describe as deeply offensive.
Labour Party members (and ex-members like me) in Scotland know George well. I can remember when George was elected MP for Hillhead in Glasgow in 1987. It took a lot of work to get him the seat and he didn't do it alone, although to listen to George you might not believe it. Some of us were doubtful about George back then. And we were right. When it comes to courting publicity, he's an expert. But what's he achieved for his constituents in Bradford? Il reste à savoir.
Then there's this man, Jim Murphy, my MP:
Don't bother feeling sorry for Mr Murphy even if he did get an egg fired at him when he was campaigning for the Better Together people in Kirkcaldy. He is a Labour MP. I have a few beefs with him. We don't see much of him in leafy Giffnock but I believe he is very active in Barrhead where there are likely to be more Labour voters. Fair enough. But I was dismayed that last week he declined to comment on the ebola crisis in west Africa for Radio 4's PM programme, his 'aide' telling the presenter he was too busy working on the independence campaign - for the No side, natch. He is, of course, the shadow cabinet member for International Development, so his input might have been useful: the UK government says we're doing a lot to help. Are we? Does Mr Murphy not get paid extra for doing that job? And he can't spare the time to comment?
Today he has been on TV and radio telling us that the egg-throwing incident was part of a campaign of disruption orchestrated by the Yes campaign and he's sort of suggesting maybe the SNP are involved. To hear Mr Murphy, it's like the end of the world as we know it. It was an egg, people. It was not a stone or a bottle. The country was not invaded by flag-waving Russians intent on occupation or revolution. Planes were not shot down. Fifty years ago, getting egged - or, as a Facebook friend said, getting 'floured' because eggs were too dear - was a normal part of election campaigns. But I have to doff my hat to Mr Murphy: he's a great man for spinning a story to try to make the Yes campaign look bad. But it's nonsense and an indication maybe of a panic in the Better Together camp?
But here's a wee soul that deserves our sympathy:
Ashya King is 4 and he's dying of a brain tumour. His parents took him out of a hospital down south and set off for their holiday home in Spain. It's August and the press in England are desperate for stories. (That's why the Scottish referendum is getting so much publicity, by the way. It's not just about the run-up to the vote.) So the media have focussed on the number of kids in the family and the religion the parents are bringing their kids up in. Have the parents done anything bad to this wee boy? Doesn't look like it. The father has described on YouTube how they are looking after Ashya. Why did they go 'on the run'? They didn't. They had no idea the hospital and Interpol were looking for them - they were travelling to Spain. Now the parents have been arrested and the boy taken to a hospital. And where are the other kids in this family?
Let me put it to you very plainly: Ashya's illness could happen to any family. Children have very few rights. They depend on the adults around them to make sure they are safe. At this stage in his life, that's what Ashya needs: to be safe. What if Ashya dies tonight? Will it be in the care of some very kind people who are not his parents, in a place he doesn't know? I hope not. I hope someone somewhere - but I don't know who - will get the media and Interpol and the hospital in - was it Southampton? - to back off and let this wee boy die with his family around him.
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