Murphy took the Labour Party from having 41 Scottish Labour MPs is Parliament to having just 1. He himself lost his own seat. So he knows all about being politically maladroit.
You think a 6 million pool of hopefuls is insignificant? The City of Manchester (pop. 520K) seems to be reasonably well run. It certainly isn’t in the mess that Northamptonshire finds itself in.
you could flag this by writing something like [joke]
or if you are recycling a fave one liner
"I went to Scotland once - but it was closed"
you cd add [with thx to W C Fields]