Oops, there’s been another Murdo!

 

The inimitable Murdo Fraser, the scourge of, well, nothing much really… has commented on the decision of the Green Party to withdraw their candidates from the North East Fife and Perth and North Perthshire elections, in order, presumably, to give Steven Gethings (majority 2) and Pete Wishart (majority 21) a better chance of winning.

It was a very generous gesture, but also a sensible one.

There was no realistic chance of the Green candidates winning and a vote which was split along independence/dependence lines could well have let in a unionist.

Murdo wrote:

@murdo_fraser

· 4h

Just in case there was any lingering doubt that the ‘Greens’ are now a wholly-owned subsidiary of the SNP… twitter.com/torcuil/status…

Unfortunately, his equally-dismal colleague, Annie Wells, had, over the last few days, spearheaded a campaign for Labour in Scotland to join with the Tories where appropriate to keep the SNP out.

“Kettle”,  “pot” and “black arse” are words that come readily to mind.

Worse still for poor old Murdo, it appears that Nigel Farage (possibly soon Sir Nigel or Lord Farage, if he is to be believed) has stood down his candidates in any seat where there is an incumbent Tory leaver (over 300), thus vastly improving Conservative chances in the election.

Poor old Murdo now has to work out whether the Tories are a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Nigel Farage Party, or the other way round.

That should keep him out of mischief for the rest of the campaign.

I loved this tweet from Crow Esquire:

@CrowSaorAlba1

Replying to

@murdo_fraser

In comedy timing is everything. Look how this clown tweets this on the same day that the Tories became a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Brexit Party.

Murdo for stand-up champion of the year.

++++++++++

STRONG AND STABLE, STRONG AND STABLE, STR….

OK. So according to Dean, the Daily Express and even some of the real press along with the BBC, the Tories won a victory on Thursday, and Scotland said no to independence, presumably preferring to be “strong and stable” with Brexit May and her chaotic bunch of clueless ministers. (Any bets on who will have to go after her election win?)

But, to be fair, the Tories did very well by their standards in Scotland. Since the days of Thatcher, they have been poison here. Playing down the “Conservative” name, the utter chaos of the Labour Party (for which the priority seems to be internecine warfare and voting along with whatever the government comes up with) and failing to talk about any actual policies except SNP BAAAAAD, have played well for them.

 

They made the election about the Union and about being “strong and stable”, whatever that actually means. (Seriously does anyone see Theresa May as being either strong or stable, or indeed anything other than a rather silly woman who sells weapons to Saudi, while ranting that NT left “Easter” out of their egg competition?) They made it about visceral hatred of the SNP, of independence, of the Greens, of Scotland as anything other than a region… So much so that none of us has any idea what their policies for local government are, although I’m pretty sure we can guess. As they don’t actually control any councils, at least we are sure that whatever they stand for will be tempered by decency and humanity.

And to an extent, it worked for them.

 

But the truth, of course, is that the SNP had a great night.

Here’s what you need to know.

1.  The SNP won the election nationally, with the largest number of councillors and the highest vote share of any party.

2.  They’ve won more councillors, with 431 elected compared to 425 in 2012.

3.  The SNP is now the largest group in 16 of 32 councils.

4.  The SNP has ended almost 40 years of Labour control in Glasgow, becoming the largest party in the city for the first time.

5.  The SNP are now the largest party in Scotland’s four largest cities: Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee.

And so now we move to the general election which in England they will fight on “strong and stable” leadership as they come out of Europe leaving chaos in their wake. In Scotland, they will fight on a “strong and stable” leadership for the union.

I’m not expecting to hear much about how some police officers and nurses are reliant upon Food Banks to feed their families, the sale of the NHS to Virgin, Tory electoral fraud, 40,000 deaths caused by pollution, war in the Middle East, abysmal trains, potholed roads, reduced pension, rising prices, thousands of deaths as a result of corruption in ATOS and their likes, sanctions, black hole in the incompetent Defence Minister’s budget, Mrs May’s closest, well, only,  friends, Trump, Erdogan, Netanyahu, and Salman… etc, etc.

Oh dear, no.

Oh, and this is interesting…

LETTER FROM MUNGUIN

FOR WEE WILLIE

Dear Willie,

You promise above, in your letter to prospective donors, that the Liberal Democrats in Scotland will keep their word. (Well, I guess there has to be a first time for everything.)

But you know, or you should know that, as much as you stood on a platform of “no second independence referendum”, the SNP and the Greens stood on a platform of having a second referendum if there was a substantial change in circumstances...and they actually cited Scotland being dragged out of the EU against its will as one of these circumstances. Scotland voted 62-38 to remain in varying degrees across the whole country. So, I’d say they kept their word to their voters too.

I don;t think that there can be any doubt at all that Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP and the Greens intend that Scotland would remain, or rejoin the EU. Given that the Liberals have always been pro-EU, I’m sure you will appreciate the potentially horrific damage that leaving the EU will do to Scottish jobs, the economy,  and the social fabric. And given that there is no effective opposition to the Tories in Westminster (the SNP only having 56 votes; your own party having 9 and Labour far too preoccupied with internecine warfare to bother their backsides about opposing Tories), I’m sure you would agree that Nicola Sturgeon’s prediction that we may be facing Conservative governments till 2030.

The Tories have (and I have to remind you here that they did a lot of it with the help of the Lib-Dems) starved councils and government services of money so that, in England, without the protection of the Scottish government, basic services are simply no longer coping. When the UK withdraws from the EU we know that we will lose its protection in many different areas.

Liam Fox has already talked about deregulating businesses and some of the nuttier element of the Conservative Party (who wield considerable power now) are talking about reducing standards to meet the demands of the Americans. No more EU protection, we will be left to the tender mercies of the Tories. And we all know that they don’t actually have any tender mercies, except when it comes to themselves, the Lords, big business and of course, the royal family.

This may well suit the people in England as that is what they voted for. But it won’t suit us here…and part of your name is “Democrats”, remnember?

I understand too that you are keen to have a second referendum on leaving the EU once Mrs May, Mr Fox and Mr Davis along with Mr Johnson, have finished their negotiations. In fact, I agree that that would be sensible, but of course, it is not going to happen. I’m not sure why a second referendum is good, for an outcome you disagreed with, and bad for an outcome you backed. Any explanation?

You say that the SNP will take Scotland out of Europe. I think you are getting a bit muddled here, Willie. You see that was the last campaign message. Remember…the only way to stay in the EU is to vote no to independence? We are trying to keep Scotland in the EU, and from what we can tell, they want us to be there.

You talk about fighting in the last referendum for a Britain that is open, tolerant and united. Can you tell me how you reckon that you score on that, given all the racism, and violence against EU citizens? And fair? To sick people, dying of cancer and being told to go get a job? Old people not being above to get any social care and ending up in hospital beds for months at a time? If that lot is your idea of open tolerant and united, then I’m damned if I can work out how your brain works.

Now I reckon that the Greens and the SNP, a majority in parliament, have kept their promises. As you can see I’ve  taken this opportunity to remind you of one of the biggest you broke…the tuition fees pledge débacle… and of how your then boss aided and abetted the Tories, with, as I recall, your full support.

Kind regards

 

Munguin

PLAYED A BLINDER THERE, SADIQ

London’s mayor has described Scottish nationalism as “as divisive as racism”.

So, I wonder what he thinks of this guy…

I seem to recall that he had a burning desire for independence for his country.

Anything to say about this, Sadiq?

Oh look, there’s a party that backs Independence. And you’ll find any number of videos on Youtube showing our first minister making it clear that immigrants are an important part of Scottish society.

Seriously Mr Mayor. I thought you were better than this. The Labour people in Holyrood, maybe not, but you?

You need to get out more.