RANDOM THOUGHTS

I understand that “The Sun” is reporting that Boris Johnson called Nicola Sturgeon “that bloody Wee Jimmie Crackie woman”. (No link to the article because I won’t be a party to their clickbait.) Of course, you can’t entirely believe anything you read in the Sun, but it sounds like his unprofessional style. The kind of thing you’d expect from a 12-year-old.

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This you can believe.

Derek Mackay has resigned as Cabinet Secretary for Finance.

It appears he had been texting a 16-year-old lad and offering him dinner over a six-month period.

As the lad was 16, Derek was doing nothing illegal. In Scotland, you can leave school, get married, have children and vote at 16.

But for heaven’s sake, what a bloody stupid thing to do.

We all know that the Press is against us and that they put a huge effort into finding anything unpleasant they can headline on their front pages.

The Sun has it splashed over 9 pages on this, so presumably, they have been working on it for a while. It will take a bit of living down!

What on earth possessed such an intelligent and otherwise competent man to indulge himself like this?

As Ruth Wishart put it: “Another self-immolation by a politician with no shortage of talent but an all too slender grasp of judgement”.

He’s let us down badly.

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It is said that Ruth Davidson is to be offered a seat in the House of Lords.

The Edinburgh Central MSP has been selected alongside former Chancellors Ken Clarke and Philip Hammond    picture: GettyImages

So just a day after wee Carlot Jackson was hobnobbing with the Duke of Rothsay at Buck House, to collect his CBE, his predecessor is preparing to join Baroness Moan of Mayflower in teh Isle of Man on the red benches, collecting £300 a day and stack of “get out of jail free” cards.

Democracy, huh?

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I read that Wee Sniffy Gove may be appointed to lead the arrangements for the Climate Change summit in Glasgow.  The vacancy came about when Johnson sacked the previous incumbent, former environment minister, Claire O’Neill, without notice, for complaining that he had failed to carry out any of his promises in regard to the conference.

We all know that in most things Johnson does, promises are piecrusts and details are doughnuts. He says stuff. He walks away. He forgets everything.

Ms O’Neill has, subsequently, spent days speaking to the Press about how incompetent Johnson is,  how little he understands the subject and bemoaning the lack of progress that has been made in organising this massive international event.

David Cameron has apparently refused to take on the job, as has William Hague, both citing other commitments, possibly money-making ones (or more likely a desperate desire not to be stuck in Scotland for most of the year).

Grouse Beater on Twitter wrote, “Michael Gove is tipped to be appointed the new president of the UN climate summit to be held in Glasgow because, being a Scot, he is *well-liked* north of Gretna Green.”

Ye, I thought you’d like that!.

If possible, an even less likeable candidate, Michael “Something of the Night” Howard has also been proposed. Why not go the whole hog and invite Ann Widdicombe, his bête noire?  If it all goes horribly wrong she can always give us a tango or quick step! After that, even a catastrophic conference would fade into the mists of insignificance.

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With eight months to go, it seems like a huge task for whoever will take it on, particularly as they will be organising it in Scotland and, whether they like it or not, they need to liaise with Edinburgh about arrangements.

Given the current state of relations between London and Edinburgh, and in particular, between Johnson and Nicola, this is proving to be difficult.

You’ll remember that Johnson said that he didn’t mind if there were one of two Saltires at the conference but he wanted the place to be a sea of union flags and that he didn’t want to see Nicola Sturgeon there.

Bless him. How little he understands…  anything!

Nicola responded that she had been at the last three climate summits by invitation of the UN and that she WOULD be at this one. Of course, she can’t control the flags… but we can, and I have no doubt that Glasgow will be a sea of blue and white and that Back-Door Johnson will get the welcome he has come to expect when he appears in public in Scotland, which may cause him a little embarrassment with the world’s press in attendance.

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43 thoughts on “RANDOM THOUGHTS”

  1. Runners and riders for COP 26 president
    3-1 Zac Goldsmith

    A passionate environmentalist and former owner of the Ecologist magazine, Goldsmith was appointed to the Lords with a ministerial role at the Department for International Development after losing his seat in the general election.

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    5-1 Michael Gove

    Hotly tipped within Westminster, Gove surprised green campaigners by proving an effective and reforming environment secretary, having outed himself as a “shy green Tory”. Can bank on goodwill and respect among the climate community, and has the ministerial heft and record. Also enjoys good relations with Rupert Murdoch and was described as a “phenomenon” by Donald Trump. Gove was thought to want a greater role in the negotiations on new trade deals following Brexit, but now that David Frost has taken on more of that responsibility, Gove may be willing to consider the COP 26 role.

    10-1 Andrea Leadsom

    A prospect viewed with horror by climate campaigners. Leadsom is reported to have asked officials whether climate change was real when taking up her previous role as energy minister.

    12-1 Gordon Brown

    Took on a strong role at the Copenhagen climate summit in 2009, and as a Scot would relish hosting the conference in Glasgow. But as a former Labour prime minister, the chances seem slim.

    16-1 Michael Howard

    Former leader of the Conservative party, and environment minister under John Major. He was instrumental in leading George HW Bush to sign the UN framework convention on climate change at Rio in 1992. In recent years he has made the case for stronger action on the climate crisis.

    The long shots
    Amber Rudd

    The former secretary of state at the Department of Energy and Climate Change has experience of COPs and the COP process.

    Lord Deben

    As John Selwyn Gummer, he was a well-regarded environment minister under Margaret Thatcher. Currently chairman of the Committee on Climate Change, where he takes a robust view of the government’s need to step up its actions to deliver net zero emissions by 2050. His strongly pro-remain stance is likely to rule him out, however.

    George Osborne

    The former chancellor only has six – or is it nine? – jobs already, including editing the Evening Standard and advising fossil fuel investors BlackRock, which recently pledged to examine the climate impacts of its investments.

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    John Major

    The only living ex-Tory male Tory prime minister not to have been approached (yet). Almost no chance, given his very public rows over Brexit.

    The non-Tories
    David Miliband

    A former Labour environment secretary.

    Ed Davey

    A former Lib Dem energy and climate change secretary.

    The non-runners
    David Cameron

    The former prime minister has already ruled himself out, citing a lack of time.

    William Hague

    The former Tory leader is believed to have turned it down.

    Odds from Ladbrokes

    From the Guardian.

    Liked by 1 person

  2. My guess, for what it’s worth, is that both Cameron and Hague declined the offer on the grounds of personal dislike/ distrust of Johnson and, consequently, no wish to be the fall guy who saves Boris’s bacon if anything goes wrong (and the chalice is already poisoned).
    On the matter of wall-to-wall Union Flags at Cop26, I’m reliably informed that sales of cigarette lighters in Glasgow are booming

    Liked by 3 people

    1. I reckon that’s a fair assumption. Anything that Johnson is in charge of is likely to come unstuck. I think it will be Sniffy. He’s the only one stupid enough to think he can do it.

      🙂

      Liked by 2 people

  3. MacKay should resign as an MSP. I don’t have the legal knowledge or access to the communications to comment on whether his conduct constitutes harassment but we don’t need conduct such as this in an elected official of any party. And we certainly don’t need the independence movement smeared by association with such behaviour.

    I don’t care about the age of consent, there is a power imbalance here and an astounding lack of judgement. I’m fecking fizzing. We need a new independence party.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I’m very angry too.

      I know nothing of the relationship either which is why I stuck to what I know, and what I know to be legal.

      I like Derek, but from what I know of the situation (and that could be wrong) he needs to resign his membership.

      Now.

      Like

        1. Terry: It’s almost like they are pretty sure they won’t get caught because they are who they are. The risk of being found out is lessened by their importance. Every so often someone gets caught having fiddled money from the Saudis for arms deals (Aitken) or wearing a bra, sniffing coke with a couple of prostitutes (Sewel), or having the public pay for a duck house in the lake on one’s private estate (Viggers), or turning up at the House of Lords and having a cup of tea, collecting £300 and buggering off home (Hanningfield).

          Clearly, the number caught is a tiny percentage of those who do what they do. Worth the risk?

          You’re right, of course, this young man can vote, get married, have children (although weirdly he cannot legally buy drink or cigarettes). He isn’t a boy, but I suspect that the newspapers think that “boy” is a more emotive term than “young man”.

          The situation is no different, in the “age difference” respect, from elderly rockers taking up with teens. Or tubby, elderly princes with sweating issues and 17-year-old young women.

          But, maybe not unreasonably, we expect “better” behaviour from our politicians and members of a “royal” family who have been kept at a super luxury level all their lives by taxpayers.

          I suppose it is an interesting argument as to whether we have the right to expect that.

          I tend to think that maybe we do, on the basis that while elderly rock stars live high on the hog on the money they earned by being rock stars, politicians make the rules by which we all have to live paid by our taxes. I can’t work out whether that is a reasonable argument.

          My argument with Mr Mackay is that he has given the press an open goal to bash independence.

          He’s let us down.

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          1. Politics definitely attracts risk-takers – he must have known all along there was a chance this would become public. I find this attitude to risk worrying because it isn’t one shared by most people. Politicians of all genders, of all political allegiances, of all backgrounds, are nothing like the people they represent. Who would want to do that for a job?

            Liked by 1 person

            1. I’m not sure who would want to do it… I guess risk takers with a thick skin; people who want to be important; maybe even some who genuinely want to make a difference…

              It is certainly not a career that ever tempted me. I’m far too thin skinned.

              Like

          2. You know, when I was 16 I would have loved to have an affair with an attractive older man. Of course we didn’t have mobile phones and texting back then, it was all done using scraps of vellum in cleft sticks, but still. As it was, I had to wait until I was 19 before that came my way! And it was still a crime, of course, and just being gay and under 21 could result in being ordered to have compulsory psychiatric treatment, otherwise known as aversion therapy, which could equally well be called torture. That’s how some guys I talked to described it, anyway.

            Seriously, though, I’d like to know how the lad himself felt about it all, and if he himself complained about it at all. Did he perhaps make it public after being dumped? If it wasn’t him, who made it public, and was the evidence obtained legally? And did anyone make any attempt at blackmail?

            I suppose I’m wondering who was the victim here, if anyone. As far as I’m concerned, there is no such thing as a victimless crime, and if the young man himself was not the complainant, then Mackay and he are the victims of a gross invasion of privacy.

            Liked by 1 person

            1. Good questions, Ed.

              I don’t know how it all came out. Whether it was the guy or his family or some newspaper found out.

              How the lad felt I don’t know.

              I haven’t read any of the newspaper reports. It was mainly the Sun which, I think, ran 16 pages about it.

              Sun readers like that sort of thing. It’s the nearest they get to any excitement I expect.

              Like

          3. Trispw wrote: “It’s almost like they are pretty sure they won’t get caught because they are who they are. The risk of being found out is lessened by their importance.” It’s caused by an outsize ego and an over-inflated sense of being too intelligent and important to be found out. I’ve seen it frequently in the business world (just think Fred the Shred), institutions like the NHS, the media, show biz etc and when they are eventually exposed, it’s game and career over, so no sympathy should be wasted.

            Right now it’s more important to find a suitable successor for the position of Finance Secretary and whoever that may be must have a good understanding of economics, particularly the Monetary Cycle (Modern Monetary Theory), and if he/she doesn’t already have that, appropriate education should be laid on as a matter of priority. We can’t afford to go forward without a sound economic policy and that involves our own sovereign currency, ditching the notion of sterlingisation and rethinking the recommendations of the Growth Commission in relation to currency and the economy. A rerun of the 2014 currency/economy debacle must be avoided at all costs.

            Liked by 1 person

  4. Since the majority of Scots despise BoJo and his chums,it is only right that our FM represent our views on this matter.
    Don’t think BoJo has recovered from his doorstep greeting at Bute House.
    However,when government policy is driven by personal animosity then we are in a different ball game.
    Playing the Trump with us will not go down tremendously well or with the EU.
    As for Derek McKay,appalling lack of judgement and for sure his political career is now over.
    It should be a wake up call for any SNP representatives who are feeling too comfortable.
    When you operate in a hostile environment,you have to be ultra cautious about your behaviour and not give HM press any excuses to splash SNP bad stories across the media.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Let’s be honest, he got the same welcome everywhere. There were crowd out booing at every opportunity whether Edinburgh Cardiff, Manchester, Birmingham.

      I suspect that will only get worse as time goes on and he continues to demonstrate how incompetent he is and what a liar he is.

      If I were Mackay, I would resign as an MSP.

      He has let us down appallingly.

      Absolutely agree about the wake up call.

      If you have something you don;t want the public to know, retire. The press are out to get you and someone will bob you in.

      If you are no longer in power, they will lose interest.

      Like

  5. If Gove is appointed as ‘President’ of COP26 can we PLEASE impeach him??

    Surely UN could appoint the FM as UN Representative to COP26 – and then if Gove is President we’d have a Good COP/Bad COP situation.

    Should Gove be appointed President the overwhelming majority of climate scientists predict massive ‘snow’ blizzards descending on Glasgow but, mysteriously, disappearing without trace. The curious thing is that this odd phenomenon would appear to have nothing to do with climate change.

    Liked by 4 people

    1. Ludo, you are well on the way to winning today’s Freeman Golden Groan Award! The requisite response of laughter followed by a moan of pain was successfully provoked by Good COP / Bad COP, which is no mean feat.

      Rejoice, Ludo, and keep up the good work!

      Liked by 1 person

    1. (Soothing noises) There, there, Niko, some of us quite like you, and even agree with you occasionally, that is, if we can understand what you’re trying to say. So here, take this tissue, dry your eyes and wipe your nose, and have a big hug from me.

      Liked by 1 person

  6. I thought Derek MacKay a good minister, never thought he would be so stupid.
    I am perplexed by the parent/s, if it was me the last thing I would’ve wanted for my child is for the papers to be involed and the likely press hounding. Contact MacKay or other senior SNP, “stop the contact or I’m onto the police”.

    Liked by 1 person

  7. How about this:

    1. MacKay resigns his seat, loses the by-election, increasing Holyrood opposition by one.

    2. Opposition sees an opportunity and votes down SNP budget, forcing a Holyrood election. No way the SNP would lose that and SNP returns with a majority (no matter how small)

    3. Depending on the vote share (55%+), indyref irrelevant. Holyrood opens departure talks with Westminster.

    One can always dream, get the Republic done!

    Liked by 3 people

      1. Yes, that 52% was a bit of a hostage to fortune, wasn’t it?

        Of course, They’ll say that it’s completely different and not the same at all because reasons and besides we would never survive on our own because we’re too wee, too poor and too stupid and they have to keep subsidising us out of sheer generosity so They would really be saving us from ourselves because we’re incapable of running our own country properly and that’s why we can’t have an independence referendum because we were allowed to have one already and although we voted the right way that time if we were allowed to have another one we might vote Yes which would be voting against our own best interests just like we did when we voted against Brexit because that was so obviously against our interests because England voted the other way and we we can’t have that, obviously, and who wants to be like Johnny Foreigner and have to deal with inferiors from inferior countries where they don’t speak English properly and we should have no truck with them like proper English sorry British people and it proves what They said all along which was that everything we Scots touch is a failure like our education system and our NHS oh what a shame and a national disgrace it is so Westminster will simply have to come in to sort us out and save us poor silly wee Jockanese from ourselves or “oorsels” as they themsels say ha ha ha and show us how much better it is when proper British people are in charge over their silly, silly little objections eh what what what?

        Liked by 1 person

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