In the best New Labour tradition, Jim Murphy has reinvented himself.
To put it mildly, the Eastwood MP is not known as a champion of home rule. But over the past few weeks he has cast-off his scepticism towards the Scottish Parliament like a snake shedding its old skin.
Most Labour MPs regard the Smith Commission’s recommendation to fully devolve income tax as a complete disaster.
They mutter dark warnings to London lobby correspondents that it is a trap to cut Scottish MPs power over the budget at Westminster and even that it marks the beginning of the end for the UK.
The old Jim Murphy would have shared this gloomy prognosis.
The new one hired Glasgow’s magnificent Mitchell Library for a speech setting out his support for devolving income tax and ensured it was front page news. It left his supposedly more radical opponents in the Labour leadership race looking flat-footed.
Lothian MSP, Neil Findlay, has gathered strong support from the trade unions with a left-wing campaign on issues like the Living Wage aimed at putting clear red water between Labour and the SNP.
The former bricklayer should be asking how he allowed himself to be outflanked.
Murphy’s talent for self-promotion has always been obvious. Irn Bru should offer him a sponsorship deal for the publicity he gave them during the referendum campaign with his 100-day tour of Scotland.
He will, in all likelihood, take on the leadership of a party that faces the greatest crisis in its history. The polls show that the Better Together campaign with the Conservatives has left Labour a toxic legacy.
Nicola Sturgeon’s extraordinary tour to rally the SNP’s new members sold more tickets than most Scottish football teams. The 12,000 people that she drew to the Hydro was the biggest crowd of the day after Celtic and Hearts.
Across the city, the attendance at Labour’s leadership hustings on the same day was around 150.
Jim Murphy has had the sense to understand that it is better to upset his colleagues at Westminster than a Scottish public that is demanding change.
The Eastwood MP is caricatured by his opponents as a sort of uber-Blairite.
This may be true of some members of his team, like the sharp and sardonic John McTernan, who was one of his Special Advisers in the Scottish Office. But Murphy has already shown that his political personality is a lot more flexible.
The last Scottish Labour leader with UK Cabinet experience was Donald Dewar. His seniority as a former Chief Whip and reputation for lawyerly caution gave him the credibility to win support at Westminster for more radical options on the constitution.
The same could be true of Jim Murphy. He will demand the right to set his own agenda, appoint his own people and adopt any policy that will help him win.
For his next trick, perhaps he could come out against Trident.
(A version of this article was first published in The National on 10 November 2014)
