That may be the case. or….

Island hopping by Jim Murphy. Perhaps since he can no longer stick it on his parliamentary expenses, Mr Murphy has found another way for the taxpayer to fund his summer holidays.

Remote non-marginal constituencies do not warrant a visit from high profile politicians during an election campaign. Not only the opportunity cost of their time is a consideration, but the high travel cost would be met by party funds once an election has been called.

A visit by a government minister before the election date is announced is paid for by the taxpayer.

So that opposition parties are not able to use the argument that “No goverment minister has visited this constituency since ….” to demonstrate that the government party does not care about or understand local issues, visits are arranged BEFORE before the election if a government minister has not recently been seen in the constituency.

To-days news is that Jim Murphy will visit Scottish Island constituences.

There may not be an election in October, but preparations are being made and contingency planning is advanced.

Labours core vote is tribal in Scotland, however Glasgow East proves that it can be smashed, and even in glenrothes (the so called success) Labour lost half of its vote, and suffered a 12% swing.

Labour might loose as much as 11 MPs from Scotland if the Conservatives and SNP are on the ball in their key marginals- the euros tells us that both opposition parties are and will do well.

http://www.snptacticalvoting.com/2009/07/new-yougov-poll.html

YouGov/Fabian Society poll, in The Herald this morning:

On general voting intentions, the Conservatives received 39%, Labour 26% and Liberal Democrats 19%. In the Scottish sample the figures were Labour 35%, SNP 30%, Conservative 16% and Lib Dem 13%.

Interestingly, when asked how unlikely people were to change their voting intentions, Scots came out as the most unlikely at 44% compared to a nationwide average of 34%.