Jim murphy treasury biography sample

That narrowed down the options as well. I made it nevertheless, but free of value, free of judgement. But nevertheless, the paperwork was with me so I made the decision. I probably asked myself those two questions thousands of times in multiple ministerial roles. Throughout that time, there was a change of prime minister. How did Brown and Blair compare as prime ministers to work for?

JM: Yeah, so I enjoyed my time. I enjoyed all my jobs because the truth is that the worst, the very worst day in government is so much better than the very best day in opposition. And I only realised that when I was in opposition. But I was always closer to Tony than Gordon. I would say that Gordon is much better at reshuffles than Tony.

You went in via the Cabinet Office in Whitehall and sat in the anteroom before seeing Gordon. It was striking, actually, when Tony left Downing Street and Gordon arrived. I remember going in for the first cabinet meeting and it felt — because everyone that you had known, all the senior people you had known, had left — and it felt not so much like a change of prime minister but a change of government.

But in my time — notwithstanding the fact that I was socially closer to Tony and obviously subsequently went on to work with Tony when I left politics — Gordon was unfailingly supportive of me in the two jobs that he gave me. TD: You mentioned the Lisbon Treaty. What was that decision, or that process, like inside government? And what do you think the implications were for what happened afterwards?

JM: I inherited responsibility for Europe, relations with Russia, and global public diplomacy. And for the first nine months or so I lived in the House of Commons taking the Lisbon Treaty through parliament. But undoubtedly on Scexit [Scottish independence] and Brexit, both of those required referendums. However, it was intensely political, which was countercultural for the Foreign Office.

The Foreign Office is a brilliant organisation staffed with very smart people. But they are exceptional at understanding the politics of every country other than Britain. Here we had a piece of legislation which was arguably the most contentious piece of primary legislation going through parliament and it was being led by a department that normally pointed outwards to every other country in the world and rarely radiated inwards into the United Kingdom.

That just created capacity challenges in the Foreign Office. They rose to it brilliantly: they built a brilliant and well briefed team and we got the Lisbon Treaty through. I ended up enjoying the process and by the end of it was able to, for example, joust with Bill Cash [Conservative MP and chair of the European Scrutiny Committee], for whom this had been a lifelong fixation.

I had grown up in South Africa and it was the only time that my Afrikaans had ever proven useful in real life, because obviously Afrikaans is Dutch as spoken in another century. At the time they were also dealing with a new president in the US, they were dealing with the latest variant of Putin, and we had had the poisoning of the British citizens and much else besides going on.

But Gordon was very generous, very supportive and very collegiate actually. And of course, this was at the time when Russia invaded Georgia, and there was the poisoning of Litvinenko. Reflecting now, given the current context, how do you look back at that period, and the UK and European response to that security crisis, and what followed?

JM: I think that, looking back, one of the behavioural norms of the Foreign Office was that it was important to speak frankly to Putin and also, at the time, Medvedev, in the knowledge that you knew how to get back into the room with the Russians. Because at that time they [Putin and Medvedev] were important in all sorts of different ways, for example in Afghanistan and in a range of political security issues.

The war with Georgia was a very early sign of a different type of Putin. They have rightly been voted off a multiplicity of international bodies in the last year. And I think that process of delegitimization will continue. And he does that by starting new fires that he tells the West that only he can put out. I think we have to, as the West, be able to game where is it and how it is that Putin, or Putinism, forces its way back into the international arena.

AN: Then in , you moved from minister for Europe to be secretary of state for Scotland. What was it like to move from being a junior minister to a secretary of state and running your own department for the first time? JM: The whole process is fascinating, because I went from being a parliamentary private secretary, to being a parly sec [parliamentary under secretary of state], to being a minister of state, to then being a secretary of state.

And being secretary of state is significantly different in that, other than the prime minister, the buck stops with you in your department. Then the secretary of state would take ownership of the three or six months of work that you had put into something as a junior or middle-ranking minister. And I tried to — and it would be for others to comment on whether I was successful I was determined not to do that.

So, for example, Ann McKechin [parliamentary under secretary of state for Scotland, ] worked with me and was a very, very good parly sec. I tried very hard to make sure that she had space to develop ideas and policy and then to deliver them. That was important to me. Running a team, I tried to incentivise collaborative working. As I spotted the most talented civil servants, I tried to make sure that they were more regularly and more closely attached to the centre of decisions.

It was finding a way to gravitate those people closer to me as secretary of state. This was at a time of intense politics because Gordon Brown was prime minister, we had an SNP government in Scotland committed to a referendum, and we were delivering fresh new powers to the Scottish parliament through the Calman Commission [the Commission of Scottish Devolution].

We were navigating that, but I thought we did it very successfully. Then there was also the preparation for the general election in , where Scotland was a crucial component of any chance of Labour winning a majority. That was very important. In terms of the shift, I had early preparation for that because way back when I was at the Cabinet Office as parliamentary secretary, John Hutton had been the chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster when David Blunkett resigned [as secretary of state] at DWP and John went over to run DWP as secretary of state, and I was left at the Cabinet Office for six months with no secretary of state.

Actually I think for more than half of my time at the Cabinet Office, I was the only minister. So that was a very unusual career path, if you like. But it was a great grounding for then formally running a department, having previously informally done so for six or so months. Did that set off warning lights in Westminster? JM: It did.

Seun Matiluko". The Independent. Retrieved 7 May Australian Financial Review. The Times. Retrieved 26 December Retrieved 27 December The Observer. Retrieved 26 June Archived from the original on 18 February Retrieved 5 January Scottish National Party. Archived from the original on 23 January Retrieved 26 November Retrieved 25 November Retrieved 5 October The National.

Retrieved 11 August Youth Football Scotland. Archived from the original on 8 April Retrieved 24 June Retrieved 23 March Retrieved 12 July Sources [ edit ]. External links [ edit ]. Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jim Murphy. Douglas Trainer. Lorna Fitzsimons. Allan Stewart. Kirsten Oswald. John Hutton. Hilary Armstrong.

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Toggle the table of contents. Jim Murphy. In office 13 December — 13 June Ed Miliband Harriet Harman Acting. In office 3 October — 11 May In office 7 October — 2 November In office 8 October — 7 October In office 11 May — 8 October Junior ministerial offices. In office 28 June — 3 October In office 5 May — 28 June Jane Kennedy. Acting 2 November — 5 May In office 13 June — 10 May Further offices held.

In office 1 May — 30 March In office — President of the Scottish National Union of Students — Succeeded by Douglas Trainer. Preceded by Lorna Fitzsimons.

Jim murphy treasury biography sample

President of the National Union of Students — Preceded by Allan Stewart. Member of Parliament for Eastwood — Member of Parliament for East Renfrewshire — Succeeded by Kirsten Oswald. Preceded by John Hutton. Minister for the Cabinet Office Acting — Succeeded by Hilary Armstrong. Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Acting — Preceded by Geoff Hoon.

Minister of State for Europe — Succeeded by Caroline Flint. Preceded by Des Browne. Secretary of State for Scotland — Tonight on the ABC he taunted Tony Abbott as he renewed his challenge to the opposition leader to have debates, including about debt and deficit, boats and the carbon tax. Edition: Available editions Europe. Become an author Sign up as a reader Sign in.

Michelle Grattan , University of Canberra. Link copied.