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THERE aren’t many people from the tough streets of Edinburgh’s Wester Hailes housing scheme who have a Master of Arts degree in Social Policy and Law.

Even fewer holders of that qualification then go on to run a bistro in the capital and less still leave the pub trade behind to take up a seat inside the House of Commons.

But Ian Murray, the right honourable member for Edinburgh South since 2010, is the one who has done all of those things.

Now he’s attempting to save the football club at Tynecastle that has been the one constant in his life, outside of family, for as long as he can remember.

And do it in the same way he snatched victory from the jaws of defeat when he won his constituency seat after a recount gave him a 316 majority.

An eye-opening 7500 people have so far signed up for the Foundation of Hearts direct debit scheme designed to bring the club under fan ownership.

And Murray, as a Labour man, sees no moral dilemma in asking ordinary folk to devote a portion of their hard-earned cash to the job of restoring a club forced into administration by the reckless behaviour of its previous owners.

“It’s quite the opposite,” he said. “The Foundation of Hearts is like a co-operative movement while not being quite so pure. It is the customer buying the business he, or she, cares for in an altruistic fashion.

“I went to my first Hearts match in 1985 and the constant threads that run through my life are my family and my club.

“There were three conditions attached to being a member of the Murray family. You had to vote Labour, support Hearts and follow the Scotland team through thick and thin.”

Life in Wester Hailes shaped Murray from an early age, starting with the premature death of his dad and the broken promise to his mother which intensified his political beliefs.

He said: “I was only nine years old when my father died. Margaret Thatcher was in power and our local MP was a Conservative, Malcolm Rifkind.

“My mother was promised a new house for her and our family after dad’s funeral but the offer failed to materialise and I never forgot that.

“What I also remember is the influence a club can have on the community which follows it. And there’s nothing which galvanises people more than the chips being down in a way that constitutes crisis.

“Hearts were days away from going under and living in their darkest hour when I was approached by the Foundation.

“Ordinarily, I wouldn’t volunteer to save a club while using what free time I manage to get in between constituency matters and commuting between Edinburgh and London.

“But this was for Hearts and the experiences I’ve been through working with the Foundation will never leave me.

“The response we’ve had to the direct debit initiative has been phenomenal.

“I spoke to the crowd at half-time during the win over Aberdeen at Tynecastle last month and I have never attended a match to compare with that one.

“Going to Hearts games with my older brother and our friends used to be a social occasion but this is a time when every goal for the team is like a pound note for the club and another inch gained towards survival. I told everyone I knew after that game I had never known a feeling like it.”

But keeping a sense of perspective comes easily to an MP. Murray had his summer break from Parliament curtailed in order to return there for a debate on whether there should be an air attack on Syria in response to claims President Assad had launched chemical warfare on his own people.

So he knows the difference between authentic matters of life and death and the struggle to keep a football club from going out of business.

He said: “I had 457 e-mails from my constituents on the subject of the Commons vote on what to do about Syria and that was because it was such a shocking issue.

“Of course something like that puts football into perspective and I spent all night replying to each e-mail.

“There is no problem concentrating the mind on something as serious as that.

“But we are all human beings at the same time and football clubs mean an awful lot to the people who support them.

“Football has a significant impact on Scottish society as a whole and that should be actively encouraged.

“The game is frowned upon by people in certain quarters but Scotland would be a much darker place without the game of football.

“And the English MPs I come into contact with are very supportive of what’s happening with the Foundation of Hearts because they know fan

ownership is the way ahead.

“When all of the cards collapsed at Tynecastle there were 7500 people instantly willing to join the direct debit scheme and there are 10 times that number still eager to help in whatever way they can. A crisis galvanises people into doing something positive.

“Now there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.”

And if that light turned out to be an oncoming train would Murray be able to quantify the effect of that blow on the Hearts family?

His answer was instantaneous and optimistic.

“We are beyond the stage of worrying over whether there would still be a Hearts in the aftermath of things going wrong in Lithuania,” he said, referring to the administrators over there who have the club’s fate in their hands following Vladimir Romanov’s departure.

“There’s no danger the rug will be pulled from under us and I’m not the type of person to be visited by dark moments in any case. The difficulty we have is dealing with Eastern European jurisdiction but I would expect that by late September there will be greater clarity for the supporters.”

At that juncture Murray will then show his hand with regard to the people who are willing to put up capital which ensures Hearts have a better future.

He said: “Any successful business is one which treats its customers well.

“The Hearts fans have been led up the garden path in the recent past but they’ll be delighted with the calibre of the people involved in the club’s future.

“Are the investors genuine Hearts people? Yes. Do they have the wherewithal to take the club forward? Absolutely no doubt about it.

“This isn’t fun and games. And it hasn’t been an easy job to get to the stage we’re at now. I want to complete the job I’ve started and then pass on the club to people who are better qualified than me to take it forward.

“At that point I can get back to taking my seat in the stand at Tynecastle and return to watching the game as a fan.

“Like the day when I watched Hearts stop acting as the perennial bridesmaid and saw them walk down the aisle to be united with the Scottish Cup after beating Rangers in the Final in 1998.

“When I won the re-count to replace Nigel Griffiths as the member for Edinburgh South, the 316 votes that swung it in my favour represented 0.7 per cent of the total turn-out at the polling booths.

“There were no great expectations of me winning that seat so it felt like a victory snatched from the jaws of defeat.

“However, I had a chance back then and I took it. That’s all I have ever wanted to do regarding the job of restoring Hearts to their rightful place in Scottish football.

“And when your club comes calling and asks you to help them out in their hour of need it’s hard to turn them down, isn’t it?”