IT’S ALL ABOUT SNP BAAAAAD

IT WAS THEN, IT IS NOW…

AND THE TRUTH IS, IT’S LABOUR THAT’S CRAP

It’s really no wonder that “Scottish” Labour, back there in the day, the government, first became the opposition and then became the third party.

As a political force, you really have to have more in your store cupboard of ideas than “the exact opposite of what the SNP says”. The Willie Bain principle just won’t cut it. (In 2012, Bain stated that the Scottish Labour MPs have a convention of not supporting motions put down by the Scottish National Party, which became known as the “Bain Principle“)

In short, no matter how good a policy was; no matter how it would help people, Labour would simply vote against it. The alternative, I suppose, would be to admit that the SNP had had a good idea, and that was out of the question.

Article here on Wings.

Now, of course, an opposition party is supposed to oppose. The clue is, after all, in the name. But a good opposition party doesn’t oppose for the sake of opposing. It opposes out of principle.

Richard Leonard wrongly states there is no case for an independence referendum, completely ignoring that there is a mandate for a referendum from the Scottish people who returned a majority of MSPs to the Scottish Parliament. Time to accept reality & the democratic right of Scotland.

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And Ross Greer’s tweet (below) seems to show that Labour has scant regard for democracy. Pro-independence parties were elected on a platform of “if Scotland is dragged out of the EU against the wishes of the people, the Scottish parliament should have the right to call another referendum on Scottish independence”. Having then put that proposition to parliament and it having passed, it seems to me, the government has an obligation to the electorate to do just that. 

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So if Labour wins an election in the rest of the UK they will block an independence referendum, even when the people of Scotland have elected parliamentary majorities for one? Way to prove why we need independence folks.

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According to Nick Eardley (BBC), Labour seems relatively sure that there won’t be another referendum. Although, of course on their massively inflated salaries, I suppose  £1,000 is not that much.

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A (young) Labour MP just offered to bet me £1,000 there won’t be another in their lifetime (I’m not allowed to gamble on politics)

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So, it’s not been the best day for Labour. Richard obviously wants to talk about “class”, which, in my opinion, should be consigned to the dustbin of bad history.

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It is time to start uniting people on the basis of class instead of creating more division with an unwanted independence referendum.
11:30 AM – 23 Sep 2018
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Tricia Marwick here, replies, referring to the gaff by Andy Kerr, who, upon seeing the person that he has chosen to put a question make the sign of a cross, indicated that perhaps he shouldn’t have chosen her. Protestants’ questions only, maybe?
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Maybe it is about time you united people regardless of religion, creed or colour. The sectarian remarks today against Catholics by your Chair Andy Kerr in an open session of your Conference were disgraceful. What are you going to do about that?

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More

Andy Kerr, Glaswegian chair of Labour’s NEC, called a woman to contribute to the conference debate on party democracy, then ‘joked’: “Did you cross yourself, there? In that case I might not.” Er …

8:39 AM – 23 Sep 2018
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 What a bloody mess for a once respectable political party.

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SOPPY SUNDAY

n or10
What kept you?
n albno squirrel
Albino squirrels
n bear
This’ll go nicely with some chips…
n bed
Perfect bed for a musical dog.
n bibi jawindi's tomb Pakistan
The tomb of Bibi Jawindi, Pakistan.
n dinner
What’s a dog to do to get some dinner around here.
n cccat
What was that dog doing?
Image result for baby elephant
I’m weeding… look.
n goupil Zeb Soanes
Goupil, one of the London foxes beloved by BBC man Zeb Soanes.
Image result for geese
If they were marching would it be called “goose step”?
Image result for swiss valley
Il n’y a rien d’aussi beau, qu’une vallée a l’abri du temp, où les oiseaux font leurs nids dans les coeurs des arbres géants. Et court la rivière à l’ombre et la lumière. Douce vallée, Sweet Swiss Valley. Il fait bon vivre chez toi.*
Image result for Black panther animal
I’m not part of a terrorist group, honest.
Image result for rattlesnake
Oh come on, admit it, I’m as cute as a button. Albeit a very poisonous button.
Image result for luxembourg
Luxembourg.
Image result for baby elephant
You lot are funny looking elephants…
Image result for wildebeest baby
Baby wildebeest saved by lioness.
Image result for african jungle
Don’t suppose you’ve got a banana?
Image result for nile
Nile.
Image result for Bhutan
Bhutan temples.
Image result for ulaanbaatar city
Ulan Bator, Mongolia.
Image result for snail
It’s one way to keep them from eating your plants!
Image result for baby orang
That’s it then. We’re off to school, even though it’s Sunday. I want to get a PhD someday so can’t afford to slack.

*There is nothing as beautiful as a sheltered valley where birds make their nests in the hearts of the giant trees, and the river runs in the shade and the sunlight. Sweet valley. It’s good to live in you. (Song Pet Clark wrote about her home in Switzerland.)

MAKES YOU PROUD TO BE BRITISH (SHUDDER)

I’m indebted to Grafter, who sent this documentary as part of the last post.

I knew the City was corrupt and that Britain was a sham of a decent Western democracy. I just don’t think I knew by how much.

I’m reminded of the time that Cameron, hosting a conference on corruption (being something of an expert, I have no doubt given the revelations in the Panama Papers), said something to the Queen (also mentioned in those papers), the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Speaker about Nigeria and Afghanistan being the most corrupt nations in the world.

If I remember rightly the Archbishop did pull him up about the fact that he was out of date (what else would you expect from an airhead like Cameron?) and that the current president was anti-corruption.

Image result for cameron accuses nigeria of being corrupt

And the Nigerian president replied that he didn’t want an apology. but he would appreciate it if perhaps all the money being stolen from his country by corruption and invested in London might be intercepted and returned by the  British authorities.

Of course, as Britain is also a fabulously corrupt country, Cameron had no reply and I shouldn’t think for a moment that that ever happened.

PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN GLASS HOUSES…

…SHOULDN’T WALK AROUND NAKED

Image result for kenneth williams naked

Richard Leonard tweeted: Child poverty is rising under the Tories and the SNP. Scottish Labour’s plans to raise child benefit will lift 30,000 children out of poverty. It’s time to use Holyrood’s powers to bring about for the many, not the few.

This was in response to a Daily Record story about a survey carried out by Citizens’ Advice Bureaux, which has found 33% of Scots have gone without food because they were too poor to afford it and that 28% of those questioned had done so between one and six times in the past year. Horrific figures in an oil-rich country which forms part of one of the top ten richest in the world (and one which only a few years ago we were told we were better together within!).

(It’s fair to say that as the survey is open to anyone to complete, that it can be done more than once, and will have a relatively limited audience, the accuracy of the figures may be called into question.)

There is no doubt though, that ten years on from the financial crash, overseen by Labour’s Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling, but a long time in the making (Tony Blair, take a bow), the poor have got poorer and the rich richer throughout the UK, thanks to massive pay increases and generous tax policies for the best off, a living wage that no one could live on,  a punitve benefits regime and the lowest retirement pension in the developed world.

David Cameron and Nick Clegg used the crash as an excuse to cut benefits to millions of poor people, and they were backed along the way by their friends in Labour. To balance this up, the people who caused the crash were dealt with too. Fred the Shred Goodwin had his knighthood removed. That’ll teach them.

Much could be said about the iniquities of the policies that led to that crash; policies which were echoed in several other countries, not least USA, Ireland and Iceland, all of which are now making a far better fist of recovery than the UK.

My point here is that Labour seems to think that it is fair to blame the Tories and the SNP for the problem.

Image result for david cameron posh

Every party of government must take some responsibility for the way it allocates funds, and although the SNP has worked hard to find money to mitigate some of the worst features of the Tory austerity programme which has made the lives of tens of thousands of people unbearable, many would argue that it could have done more, whether by concentrating better its resources or  more recently by increasing the few taxes that are devolved.

My argument with Labour is that it, although it is not in government either in England or Scotland, must take its share of responsibility for this mess. After all, it was Labour that introduced the horrific benefit reforms which the Tories grabbed with both hands and doubled down upon, using the Labour banking crisis as an excuse. Take a bow New Labour: In its last term of office, New Labour began to phase out Incapacity Benefit and replace it with Employment and Support Allowance. At the same time, the Work Capability Assessment became the gateway to the new out-of-work sickness benefit. The policy objectives for the new test were: to accentuate the positive by “looking at what you can do, not what you can’t do”.

Labour’s assessment stopped taking into consideration those who would find it nigh impossible to find work. No one ever stopped to think about how to persuade employers to take on someone who probably “could do something”.

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Labour has over and over again voted for austerity measures introduced by the Tories.

And, in 13 years of UK power, Labour did little or nothing to increase the tax burdens on the richest. Britain has the biggest gap (by a long way)  between rich and poor. It did in 2000 and it still had in 2015 after 10 years of Labour and 5 years of Tory and Liberal Democrat rule. Unionism seems to work for the rich.

inequalities

 

But one of the most telling truths and one that seems to have escaped Richard Leonard’s attention over and over again is that Labour is in power in Wales. Wales has a semi-autonomous government in Cardiff. It has many (but not all) of the powers that Edinburgh has.

And the record of the Welsh government is not one to be proud of.

Not just on child poverty, but this one will do for starters.

Mr Leonard has a history of demanding that the Scottish government act on matters that are outwith its control, often at least partly because Labour voted against these matters being devolved.

He has, in fact, made a fool of himself on several occasions in parliament at FMQs, to the embarrassment of his own team.

It would probably be best if he spoke rather less and researched a little more in future.

And one last thing… and this goes for EVERY party.

Whoever told you repeating the same slogan line over and over again is clever?

Image result for tory strong and stable stance theresa may

Mrs May’s “strong and stable” or “I am clear”, and Richard’s “For the Many; not the Few” get right up the nose after a few hearings. Especially when they are absolutely rubbish.

 

Random Brexit Thoughts

brexit3
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H & S Committee hearing Brexit has caused huge increase in vacancy rates for Care staff & ability to carry forward at least current standards is “threatened by Brexit”. Those we want to be cared for will suffer because of Brexit.
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BREEEEXE
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According to a study carried out by Oxford Economics, unless we come to a good arrangement with the EU over immigration, we will need to increase taxes, by up to 5p in the pound.
It seems from their studies that immigrants make a greater net contribution to the state than natives do. This may be because they arrive already schooled and ready to start work, and a great number of them retire back to their home country and save the country the cost of old age.
“If the UK’s new relationship with Europe involves reduced migration, this analysis suggests the tax burden on others will have to rise”, they say.
The figures are laid out here. in the Independent.
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It occurs to me, as Mrs Strong and Stable croaks on about the “will of the British people”, that no one really knows what that is. Least of all Mayhem herself.
She didn’t even know what Brexit was, except that it was Brexit, and it was Red, White and Blue.
UK wide, 48% of the people were motivated to vote for Remain, but of course, 52% voted to leave.
Almost everywhere you look the UK is split about what it should mean. The Tories and Labour are both split. England and Wales voted one way; Scotland, NI and Gibraltar the other way. And Brexit, which the idiot prime minister couldn’t define, means different things to different people.
My point is that “the will of the British people” (or 52% thereof) probably comprises a pretty wide spectrum of points of view.
What did Neil of Newcastle, Sally of Stoke on Trent, or indeed Cathy from Clachnacudden or Billy from Blaenau Ffestiniog actually vote for?
Some will have read excellent pieces online, on blogs or Twitter.
And some will have read in-depth financial reports from learned academics. Others will have taken the Financial Times and daily faithfully ploughed through it.
Many more, I suspect though, will have been influenced by the headlines in the Sun, Telegraph, Star, Express and the Devil’s own journal, the Daily Mail. After all, who can forget the story of an old woman being carted off to casualty with a broken arm the day after the referndum, and demanding to know why the Iraqi doctor that was treating her had not gone home.
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They will have seen this kind of thing, daily on the newsstands.
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They will have read about £350 million a week that we apparently send to Brussels and which they have promised to dedicate instead to sorting our four ailing health services in these islands.
And they will have swallowed the line repeated everywhere about taking back control of borders, laws, and money (eh? Never understood that!).
Image result for sensational headlines on EU
If this is true, surely any kind of deal, which, remember, will require compromise on both sides, will not be suitable for them. You can’t take back control and then immediately cede it. Can you?
No, I suspect that many of these people voted to strike out on their own.
No deals. No compromises. No foreigners. No foreign laws. Nothing. Nada.
Just “Rule Britannia”, iconic blue passports… or to be more accurate…passeports bleus iconiques and “Dieu et Mon Droit” (bloody foreigners get everywhere).
It will break,  and with a bit of luck break-up, the UK, but I suspect that that is what the British people voted for.
Mrs Maybot might like to reflect on that thought a while before she repeats “the will of the British people” ad nauseam.
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