Tag: Jeremy Corbyn

ERM, WHO CARES?

I thought it was interesting that a tv journalist considered it worth asking Mr Corbyn if he watched the Queen’s speech on Christmas day.

As it happens, he spends Christmas day with his family and he visits the homeless shelter. Both of these things are perfectly admirable things to do at Christmas. I was surprised then that he tried to give the impression that he did, indeed, watch “The Queen”, but kinda messed it up because he didn’t know that it was on in the afternoon and not the morning.

Queen Elizabeth

I was wondering if there were genuinely any people who would consider it a game-changer in the “who to vote for” stakes.

Does anyone give a damn? We all know Corbyn’s not a royalist. So why did he feel obliged to give the impression that he did watch it?

I think that’s sad.

  • Incidentally, last year the speech was watched in these islands by 6.3 million people out of a population of 66.4 million (down by a million on the previous year), and fewer than 10% of the UK population.

I’ve not actually watched it personally for a long long time, although I’ve caught bits on Twitter or Facebook.

My granny liked it and when she was alive and spent Christmas day with us, it was on to please her, so I have a vague recollection of the type of content that was included…

There was always some detail of what she and her family had been up to over the year… her and Philip touring some ex-colonies; Anne going off to Africa do some “Save the Children” charity work; Airmiles failing to sweat in a helicopter somewhere; a wedding, funeral, birth of a royal high ness, or some such thing you’d be yawning about if it was your auntie telling you.

Image result for prince philip car crash

Then there would be a tie into Christianity, while she sat in, quite literally, palatial setting, surrounded by items of unimaginable financial value, reminding everyone that she had always tried to live her life according to the teachings of Christ (obviously excluding the teaching about it being harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle).

Then she wished everyone a happy Christmas, and they played her dirgy song.

Of course it’s all recorded in advance so that she doesn’t have to waste Christmas day with her message, so your mind goes off to her sitting in Windsor with all her family around for a slap-up meal cooked by chefs and served by butlers and uniformed lackeys, with dirty dishes taken away and washed by other lackeys, all paid for by us… while only a few miles away some of her “subjects” are enjoying cold comfort on the street.

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It might be an idea to remind ourselves at this point that there are many people, and not just politicians, who will be working at homeless shelters and many more who will be obliged to make use of them, while her majesty and her ever-growing family, enjoy our largesse.

(*I wonder if the recent dramatic events will encourage a larger audience this year. Will people tune in to see if she mentions Philip’s actual car crash or Airmiles’ figurative one… Harry’s interview or the way that her Brit Prime Minister made a total patsy of her.)

Out of interest, how many Munguinites will watch “The Queen” show?

RANDOM THOUGHTS

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jake

So, if there is no Conservative Party left on November 1, why are they so keen to have a General Election in December?

I mean, if the Tories cease to exist, The Brexit party and Labour will carve up England between them (well OK, the LibDems may pick up a few seats too even if their leader sounds like she comes from South Africa! (I mean what IS that accent?)

Also, Boris Johnson, intellect and breadth… in one sentence? Surely not.

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cummings

Dominic, on the side of the downtrodden workers, swamped with nasty foreign regulations and court judgments and done out of employment by EU workers. Just as well we voted for him, eh?

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Well, Richard, what do you reckon? Will you call for these things to be devolved?

Then, if it went wrong, you could reasonably blame the Scottish government. As it is the shortcomings are firmly in the court of your beloved Tory UK. And honestly, even with the world’s second most chaotic government, Labout is still a country mile behind Boris “the ditch” Johnson.

For those on Twitter, give Sarah a follow. Great posts.

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alistqair union jack

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joke2

Ooooops! As Mr Grayson would have it… Shut that door!

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Now, I’m no apologist for Corbyn, but it’s a bit of a cheek that the Tory Daily Mail on Sunday highlights a bloke taking 40 winks on a L-O-N-G train journey from England to Scotland. Especially when their own snooze on the front benches while he should be listening to a debate.

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EHZfur6W4AAS7b0

I hear Gove has been ranting at Corbyn about how much money the Tories have spent on the NHS. However much it is, the English NHS is short of 10,000 doctors and over 40,000 nurses, so it’s not enough.

Ho Hum…Things go better with Coke?

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GROW UP YOU MORONS

Image result for CORBYN STUPID WOMAN PIC

The Tories went into meltdown this afternoon over something that Corbyn may or may not have said under his breath about May.

It is possible that he said “stupid woman”, although many are saying that having seen the tape he said “stupid person”.

The Honourable, Honourable and Learned, Honourable and Gallant, and the Right Honourable versions of the same categories, spent what seemed like forever arguing with each other about the fine details of his insult.

Image result for ANDREA LEADSOM STUPID WOMAN PIC

Andrea Fox-Hunter Leadsom made her usual ‘invaluable’ contribution to the debate by complaining that the Speaker had recently muttered under his breath about HER being a stupid woman (as if), and what was he going to do about it, to which he replied that he had addressed that matter weeks ago (and probably, not unreasonably, muttered under his breath about what an airhead she was).

Nothing, strangely, was made of the insults that Tories have hurled about the place in recent times. Most recently the other day when the deeply unpleasant Nicholas Soames suggested that Ian Blackford go back to Skye. (Jeez man, you have absolutely no idea how much we’d like it if he just could do that.)

Nicholas, the dear boy, has form on this, having previously been pulled up for barking like a dog at Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh. He’s almost as charming as the Liddle Grainger chap who suggested that the Scottish National Party members could commit suicide and then moaned that they were w***ers when they complained.

And I’m no lip reader, but it is reckoned that Hammond used the same expression recently when a Labour MP was asking a question at PMQs, and our own dear Fluffy was caught on camera a while ago mouthing what looked like “silly bitch” (I think) to something that Yvette Cooper said.

Now couldn’t care less what they call each other. They are supposed to be grown-ups and they should be able to handle a bit of name calling. Indeed, for that matter, they can go outside and slap each other about if that’s what they have a mind to do and I still don’t really give a toss. The whole world is already choking itself laughing at the UK, so what difference will some rough and tumble and a few drunks falling in the Thames make? I mean, would anyone even notice?

Image result for ian liddell grainger

However, it’s as well to remember that this was Wednesday afternoon and like many other people in the UK, they were supposed to be at work.

It might be worth mentioning too that, although they may or may not have noticed it, there are a few pretty important things going on right now that they need to be dealing with, and spending time arguing like 6-year-olds in the playground, while we’re paying their wages is very definitely NOT ON.

It may be the end of term but no one told them they could bring games in.

LEAD US, DON’T LEAVE US… HA HA HA HA HA, etc

NOW, GET BACK IN YOUR BOX. HOW DARE YOU ASSUME THAT YOU CAN TAKE PART IN A GREAT BRITISH DEBATE?

Let me translate:

“Well, if the Scottish branch office broadcasters want to arrange a debate between the First Minister and that beardy specky guy, who makes the PM’s tea and serves those delightful butterfly cakes at Cabinet, it’s up to them. We don’t really care. It makes no difference to us what you people do. We shan’t pay any attention to the outcome, anyway

“Remind me, is Scotland the little one on the left or the bigger one up the top? We know it’s not the one with the sharp-tongued leaderette we’ve had to bribe with loads of dosh, which we won’t be able to get back now even though she stabbed us in the back.”

Almost a quote from David Livingstone, who, for those who don’t know, is some wee chappy who works in the imperial cabinet office in faraway London, although according to his photo he’s been dead for more than 100 years. A perfect qualification for a Tory minister.

It occurs to me, though, that if we are going to have a debate here, wouldn’t it be better to have Scottish leaders debating about Scotland, rather than that Muddled blokey, who simply says, nay stutters, whatever London tells him and who couldn’t find Scotland on a big map of…erm, Scotland.

Image result for david mundell beard

Although to be fair, it would be fun to watch the FM’s sharp legal brain wash the floor with Muddle’s fluffy one. Come to that it would be fun to see Nicola and Patrick wipe the floor with Carry on Dick, Wee Wullie and Jackson Carlot.

But wait, a horrific thought has just struck me. If we had a Scottish debate, we probably also have to sit through the awful prospect of Tweedle May and Tweedle Corbyn boring each other and everyone else, to death as well?

Image result for may and Corbyn debating cartoons

There seems almost no point in us watching the two Westminster leaders debating as neither has acknowledged the vast difference in the voting intentions in our country in the Scottish parliament, in the central parliament and most specifically, in the European referendum.

They are hardly likely to address any issues that would interest us and if they did they would almost certainly know nothing about them, and care even less.

All of that misses the main point that, if you are not going to allow a people’s vote on your half-arsed deal, what is the point of debating it for the people who can do damn all about it?

It’s the politicians who will make the decision. Maybe May and Corbyn should just bore the backside off THEM, till they agree to vote whatever way the whips tell them.

OH STOP IT

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Richard Leonard said that the Scottish government should mitigate the 2 child policy in its next budget.

Nicola Sturgeon asked him to co-sign a letter with her to the Brits asking for ‘Welfare’ powers to be devolved to Scotland.

He refused to do that.

Jeremy Corbyn has now tweeted:

. is calling on the Scottish Government to use its powers in the interests of the many, not the few. needs to listen and scrap the two-child cap in the upcoming Scottish budget.

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I saw an excellent comment from Cameron Archibald.

Labour: The SNP should mitigate the two-child cap policy!

SNP: Sure, join us on calling Westminster to devolve welfare powers to Holyrood.

Labour: …

SNP: …

Labour: …

SNP: Well?

Labour: …

SNP: Hello?

Labour: …

SNP: Are you ok-?

Labour: The SNP should mitigate…

Come on Labour. What’s the problem? It’s not like some welfare powers are going to make us totally sovereign. It would, though, mean that we would be able to run out own social security system, hopefully, a good way from the despicable English Tory welfare misery which, only last week, prompted damning criticism from the UN Rapporteur.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

Hard to take this in. But apparently, it’s not that unusual on the streets of London, where, according to Mike Dailly’s Tweet, a homeless person dies on average every couple of weeks. This, as the post says, in supposedly one of the richest and most advanced cities in the world.

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Much has been made of the fact that in October one of Andrew Saxe-Coburg Gotha’s daughters is getting married. She is styled and titled Her Royal Highness, Princess Eugenie of York. She is apparently 9th in line to the throne and has absolutely not the remotest chance of getting it. She does no public duties at all. She does, however, go on a LOT of holidays. It is her claim to fame.

However, she has decided that she wants an open carriage procession through Windsor, just like her cousin Harry (5th in line) got.

As far as I’m concerned she can have open carriage processions through Bratislava, Nuuk, Blaenau Ffestiniog and Oymyakon (Siberia) if she wants. Just the same as anyone else can if they have the money. The trouble is that this princess and her pushy father, Airmiles Andy, the Fat Old Duke of York, wants us to pay for all the security that will involve, at a cost of around £2 million.

I have no idea how much the royal family is worth but I bet that they can afford to pay for this nonsense themselves, and when people are dying of poverty on the streets of London, I find it offensive that the government is prepared to spend that much money on some spoiled posh girl whose claim to fame is going on holiday.

The usual, “oh, but think of the money that it will bring in in tourism in London” won’t wash with this one. I doubt if many people have even heard of her and I shouldn’t think that most people are in the least interested in her nuptials.

What do you think?

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I doubt many people would argue that Theresa May is the worst Prime Minister in living memory… and probably a good deal before.

She’s a dithering, wobbly, weak, croaky, cartoon character, who has no control of her party or of her MPs or of her orange-coloured bedfellows in the DUP.

She’s at odds with everyone, here, in Europe and in the USA.

She is utterly USELESS. My granny’s cat could do a better job and he’s dead.

And yet, despite all that, Corbyn comes in a poor second to her in a Yougov poll for the best person to be prime minister. It’s interesting that the most popular vote was NEITHER of them.

And just when we needed leadership more than we have needed it for 70 years.

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!cartoon1
Thanks for BJSAlba for this one.
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It’s disappointing to see a second EU referendum being sold as a “democratic right”. If these groups care about democracy they’ll listen to the voice of the people, clearly expressed in 2016- to leave the EU!

Stephen Kerr is Conservative MP for Stirling, in Scotland.

Scotland voted 62% -38% to remain in the EU. Stirling voted 67%- 33%.

That’s two-thirds of his constituents.

Still, the English and Welsh voted to leave so … sod the people of Stirling.

Image result for steven kerr mps

Mr Kerr’s other claim to fame is, as a high-ranking member of the Mormon Church, yes, I know we’re not supposed to call it that any more, he outed gay members. The Mormons are homophobic, it seems, except, of course, when they use a gay person to get elected to a high paid job.

I hope Stirling remembers that when the next election comes along.

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!apension

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LET’S LAUGH AT LOONIE BREXIT

corbyn
Which only goes to prove that they are as daft as each other.
bres1
So that Liam and Boris can fly around the world in luxury.
brex
‘Principle’, says David Davis! You have to giggle.
brex2
So, it’s odd then, Fluffs, that immediately England and Wales voted for it, it became a great opportunity for Scotland. How did that happen then, Pet?
brex1!
I supposed a burly man with 18 snarling dogs screamed that at you in the street, Ruth. Still, at least you weren’t pregnant at that time.
brexaf
Hmmmm… just at the time when we’ll be needing to home produce as much food as we can.
brexxi
Embarrassingly Colonel Davidson’s boss doesn’t seem to share her recently-adopted opinions that Brexit will be good for us.
brex123
Reported after David Davis made a speech in Germany.
bryng
The seriously sad thing is that, by the time any kind of serious arrangement with the EU is reached, a fair number of the people who voted for Brexit will no longer be around to enjoy it. In the meantime, the opportunities that had been available to them for 45  years of their lives will have been removed from younger people.

BAKER GETS ANOTHER ROASTING FROM NEIL

Initially, you may remember, I was up for Jeremy Corbyn.

I was delighted when, not once but twice, he beat the right wing Blairites into oblivion. What a delight to see the smug self-satisfied right wing of the Labour Party (Tory-Lite) eating crow, as they found their dreams of self-aggrandisement and importance disappearing faster than the proverbial sna’ aff a dyke, to be replaced on the front bench by the slightly scruffy beardy leftie backbencher, who claimed next to nothing in expenses. How cheers too, to see the unlovely Cameron make a real fool of himself when he mocked the man because he hadn’t spent £5000 on his suit.

Frankly, however, I think he has been a disappointment as a leader.

Fair enough, he has always been a Brexiteer and he hasn’t gone against his principles as far as I can see on that. But you can believe in Brexit without agreeing with everything the completely half-witted government in London is doing to drive the country off a cliff and bring back trouble to Northern Ireland.

He has no plan, no strategy for withdrawal that doesn’t mirror that of Fox or Gove.

In short, he’s not got a clue.

And talking about not having a clue, he really needs to stay away from Scotland, because he knows less than nothing about the country, its laws, its government and its people. Every time he comes here he makes a fool of himself and damages his party (like Dick wasn’t doing that well enough at that!).

A poor leader he may be, but now senior government figures (and the daft wee soul above), with nothing much to batter him down (as he agrees with so much of what they say, but is personable with it), have decided to accuse him of being a traitor; of committing treason.

I think you have to be VERY sure of yourself before you accuse a political leader of Treason. And it seems that people in the Defence and Security departments have done just that… not to mention the wee chubby bunny blokey, Bradley, who seems to suffer from foot in mouth disease and is clearly working on a book of “embarrassing tweets what I have sent“.

Not, I suppose in fairness, that anyone gives a damn what he thinks about anything in the whole world.

I not a fan of Andrew Neil either, but in fairness, he can, and does, hand incompetent ministers their posteriors on platters… or their arses on plates, for those of you who don’t come from Morningside or Kelvinside.

Steve Baker is a particularly poor specimen of a minister. In normal times he’d never get past bag carrier. But I guess that no one much wants to work in the Department for Exiting Europe, given that David Davis is an incompetent fool and that no one in their wildest dreams thinks that Brexit’s going to end well. So probably May was dredging the bottom of the barrel to find someone to fill the job.

But, he needs to learn that when you go on tv representing the government, you have to either stand behind your colleagues or …well, you need to resign.

As for Gavin Williamson. Why was he ever appointed Defence Secretary, and why is he still there?

RANDOM THOUGHTS

 

!trump
One knows Trump said he wasn’t coming, Pheeleep. After all, one has done one’s best to ensure that one leads a “sheet-hole” country, but best to keep safe than sorry. So, if we see anything orange we make for the helicopter, right? It will either be him or that dreadful Arlene person. Either way, being at Windsor will be preferable, even with all these beggars.
!trump2
Erm… sometimes you have to wonder if the flash limos and hundreds of servants are worth the anguish of working under President Pinhead.
£$
Arise, Sir Pledge.  Oh and please take £115,000 a year to run your post-prime ministerial office, even if you were never the prime minister. And the Queen may not have seen fit to honour the fire, police and ambulance people, the porters, doctors, nurses and all others involved, but seriously, ask yourselves who the public value more. And remember, their baubles mean absolutely NOTHING.
£britain
Eugh… how revolting, in every way.
€
Ah, the worst pensions in the world are only safe with the  broad shoulders of our beloved benighted kingdom! Just as well we stayed, isn’t it?
a labour
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Jeremy Corbyn. You’re not half a disappointment. Do you know anything about anything?
a oil
You might think that that was odd, but then, when you consider the other daft stuff the UK has pulled, it all seems quite logical.
a nuclear
Ooops, Philip. Bit of an old gaff there.
a rbs
The closure of hundreds of branches of RBS in England, Scotland and Wales seems to have evoked very little interest in the House of Commons.
A UKEU
Ah, the good old democracy of the Benighted Kingdom.

 

CORBYN AND LEONARD NEED A COURSE ON SCOTLAND AND SCOTTISH POWERS

 

£1£

When Mr Corbyn came to Scotland to welcome yet another new incumbent to the leadership of the Scottish Branch of the British Labour Party, both of them talked, frankly, a load of guff about ‘a far away country full of people about whom they apparently knew nothing’ to paraphrase Mr Chamberlain.

The massive clanger, of course, was the demand from Mr Leonard that the Scottish government must take back Scottish Water into public ownership. To do that of course, the Scottish government would first have to sell it off to private enterprise, something that wasn’t done before.

A common theme from Labour is that the Scottish government has done nothing to alleviate the effects of austerity imposed on the poor (but not the rich), by the British Tories [a party of government (in the UK) and opposition (in Scotland) you’d have been excused for thinking that two supposedly left wingers would have been anxious to ridicule, particularly given that they ARE ridiculous].

 

I’ve always excused Corbyn’s ignorance of Scotland (he didn’t for example, know that there was such a thing as Scots Law), because he is a London MP who has always been just that: a back-bencher mainly concerned with his London constituents (and from what a hear, a damned good one too).

On the other hand, although Mr Leonard is an Englishman, he has been resident in Scotland for some time. He has been a member of the Scottish parliament for a couple of years now and he has just become the leader of  Labour’s Scottish branch. It would be reasonable to expect him to know something of what’s going on here.

Perhaps Mr Corbyn and Mr Leonard might like to take a look at what Scotland has done with its limited powers and compare them with what the Welsh LABOUR government has done with their, albeit more limited, powers.

£as

And remember that the government here had to fight for the power to use money to help the poor. It didn’t just happen.

Justified opposition to government policy is essential, wherever it is from: Labour, Tory or Greens. Carping for the sake of carping is no substitute for it. Corbyn, at least, we know, is better than that. And the public deserves better than the current state of affairs.

Democratic governance works when a government is held to account by oppositions attempting to get the best for the country, rather than trying to score cheap political points, especially with incorrect information and lies.

I’m sure they don’t lie on purpose. They just seem not to know.

aleonardjoke

A course of instruction from someone who does know how things work in this country and is aware of what has been done with the powers we have and what will be done with the powers we are yet to get, might be a good idea, because, at the moment, it looks like the blind are leading the blind and it’s more than a little laughable.

The SNP can’t go on in power forever. No party ever does. But the chronic lack of talent, ability and know how in the current Labour Party leaves us with the horrifying prospect that, when that time comes, it may be the Tories that replace the SNP. A fate to be avoided at any cost.

Lest you should be in any doubt about that, I leave you with this:

ruth£