Jim Murphy’s decision to ride in from Westminster as new Labour’s knight on white charger to take control of the Labour Party in Scotland comes as no surprise.

His self-publicising 100 Corners tour during the Scottish independence referendum campaign, complete with a small group of peripatetic “local people” cheering him on at various locations, did not arise by chance.

As a new Labour House of Commons insider, he knew that the knives were out for Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont and for Ian Price, her appointee as the party’s general secretary in Scotland.

What Glasgow Labour MP Ian Davidson refers to as the Network — a right-wing faction in Scottish Labour — insists that both Lamont and Price resigned their functions.

That may be so formally, but each had been left in no doubt that their time was up. The Westminster elite had made its mind up.

Lamont has not been her own best friend by referring to universal benefits as representing the “something for nothing” society, but she is far from the worst in Scottish Labour.

Her weakness and that of her predecessors has been their unquestioning acceptance of the position she criticised angrily as she walked out — that the British Labour Party leadership regards the party in Scotland as a “branch office.”

Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband have all taken this attitude, sidelining, gagging or undermining Henry McLeish, Jack McConnell, Wendy Alexander and Lamont.

Iain Gray appears alone in not having fallen out with new Labour in London, reaping his political reward by leading the Scottish party to a landslide defeat at the hands of the SNP in 2011.

Labour’s star has been in decline north of the border because the British leadership has insisted on imposing comprehensive control and the Scottish party has not asserted its right to make decisions proper to Scotland.

The contrast in Scottish and Welsh Labour fortunes may not be entirely linked to former Welsh First Minister Rhodri Morgan’s declaration that “clear red water” flowed between Labour in Wales and new Labour in Westminster.

However, the perception among Welsh voters that Morgan and his successor Carwyn Jones can speak for Wales without prior approval from Blair, Brown or Miliband has certainly contributed to a situation where Wales is the only part of Britain where Labour remains in government.

Scottish leadership left candidate Neil Findlay’s reference in a Morning Star article nine days ago to the need to set “clear red water between Scottish Labour and a Sturgeon-led SNP government” is very positive.

Similarly, his determination to unite Scottish Labour “to work for progressive change and create a fairer, more equal and prosperous Scotland” indicates an understanding of what is required.

In contrast, Murphy’s express desire to “strike a tone that stops the Scottish Labour Party from committing self-harm” sounds somewhat sinister.

It smacks of a warning that the Westminster frontbencher’s chosen role is to kick Scottish Labour up the backside and disabuse members of any perceived need to ensure that the party should forge a clear Scottish identity.

Scottish electors voted narrowly but clearly against breaking away from the rest of the Britain, but this should not be misinterpreted as approval for business as normal.

The Labour leadership election must not be allowed to degenerate into a personality or image contest. 

The political priorities required to transform rampant inequality and democratic deficiencies must take centre stage.