Eggs, threats, abuse and some uncomfortable questions are all in a day’s campaigning for Jim Murphy

Jim Murphy faced abuse, missiles and threats of violence last week on his referendum tour.

But, just as the pen is mightier than the sword, those out to embarrass the Better Together big cheese should learn the well-timed question is mightier than the egg.

Murphy’s referendum tour taking in 100 towns in 100 days armed only with a microphone and an Irn Bru crate to stand on teetotal Jim doesn’t swally anything stronger than Scotland’s other national drink appeared to trigger a rammy everywhere he went last week.

The open-air meetings have become more heated as the referendum draws nearer, but it was a humble egg that proved the last straw for Murphy.

He was hit by one in Kirkcaldy on Thursday and has suspended his tour as a result. He was due in Selkirk, Peebles and the Edinburgh area this weekend, but has called a halt while he takes police advice and has his staff trained in personal protection.

But not every stop on his tour has been as troublesome. In the genteel town of Carnoustie last week he was met by a crowd just a couple of dozen strong but with no shortage of tough questions.

Topics ranged from Alex Salmond’s threat to walk away from any share of UK debt to the fate of the local hardware store. The latter discussion even drew some joiners working on a nearby house to the open windows to listen.

“Are you working on that house?” asked Murphy. “Supposed to be,” laughed the workmen.

Murphy, who seems to have shelved his day job as shadow International Development Secretary to take the Better Together message to the masses, revealed that had events turned out differently he might have been working alongside them.

“I started out as a joiner, before I lost my way and ended up in politics. I took joinery too far and joined the Labour Party!”

Murphy has an engaging presence, willing to take on all comers. In Montrose, Dundee and Kirkcaldy he faced mobs of Yes campaigners.

He frowned: “I’ve been called a traitor and a paedophile. I’ve had things thrown at me a bottle in Leith, for example. There’s a line when real passion boils over into aggression.”

On a trip to the west coast he was warned about the Oban seagull whisperer, a nationalist who apparently had the seabirds at his command. Murphy and his team laughed off the tale only to find themselves repeatedly splatted by seagulls as he tried to do his spiel on the quayside. Murphy remains amazed, but his assistant claims the whisperer had no magic powers but a poke of chips in his back pocket.

Despite or because of such episodes Murphy insists he’s enjoying the tour.

He said: “I’ve met thousands of people. This is real politics, completely unspinnable.”

Of course Murphy was expecting questions about the currency and about the debt and he knew his street meeting would attract vociferous opponents in some places. What he couldn’t foresee was a little old lady bowling him a googly.

In Carnoustie, Rebecca Clark, clutching a copy of The Jacobite Trilogy, repeatedly tripped up the Westminster bigwig.

When Murphy declared: “I love my country!”, Clark told him: “Then get rid of Alex Salmond and make it better.”

It’s a question repeatedly asked of Murphy why he favours a career in London over Holyrood, though if Westminster whispers are to be believed that could change soon.

Given the question Mrs Clark might be expected to be a frustrated Labour voter who wants the party’s top Scottish talent deployed in Holyrood. Nothing of the sort she’s a lifelong SNP voter who is no fan of the First Minister.

After the crates had been cleared away she said: “Jim Murphy said a lot of positive things about Scotland today. I wish he was standing for the Yes side!”

Pushing her granddaughter in a buggy, Mrs Clark represented Scotland’s past, present and future. But she’s no fan of giving the vote to teenagers.

She said: “When I was 16 I knew everything!”

And Murphy showed off his common touch when he told her his daughter is the same. Apparently her bedroom is a “cowp” but any attempt to make her tidy it is met with the threat to vote Yes!

Murphy is hoping he’ll be proved a more persuasive politician than he is a parent at the end of his 100 towns in 100 days tour.