You might remember that in the dying days of Iain Duncan Smith's leadership of the Tory party, the Mirror produced a front page with the self-styled "Quiet Man" mocked up to look like Comical Ali, making ever more ludicrous predictions about how he was about to sweep to a glorious triumph. Does that remind you of anyone at the moment?
Since Jim Murphy first made his notorious promise that he would ensure Scottish Labour holds every single seat they currently have at Westminster, it must have become abundantly clear to him that things are not exactly going according to plan. An Ipsos-Mori poll putting the SNP ahead by 28% with just three-and-a-half months to go was a bit of a clue. Now surely anyone with a bit of sense would be trying to keep very quiet about that initial promise, and hoping that it gets forgotten. Instead, Jackanory Jim seems determined to reiterate it at every opportunity.
"These wolves, these creemeenals, these mer-sen-arr-ees, Sturgeon and Salmond, we will crush them. We will hold EVERY SINGLE SEAT we have. And we will GAIN East Dunbartonshire!"
Why stop there? Why not chuck in Orkney and Shetland for good measure?
Perhaps a passing psychologist might be able to shed some light on what Murphy is playing at. Does he regret taking over the leadership? Is he trying to make his own position untenable, so that he can resume his Westminster career after May? It seems a strange way of going about it, but I'm struggling to think of a more rational explanation.
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Sorry that I haven't updated the Poll of Polls this weekend - I'm feeling a bit under the weather.
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