FEAR NOT. RICHARD LEONARD IS BOUND TO BE ON THE CASE

I MEAN HE WOULDN’T JUST TWEET HIS ANGER WITHOUT ACTUALLY DOING ANYTHING, WOULD HE?

Rudd is rolling out her defective benefits system in Edinburgh just before Christmas.

She must know that it will leave families penniless at perhaps the cruellest time of the year. When people will have no money to put on their electricity and gas meters, no money for kids’ treats and no money for food.

Fortunately, though, as we noted above, Richard Leonard is on the case.

Richard Leonard‏Verified account @LabourRichard

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This is absolutely shameful.

So, presumably, tomorrow he will be writing a letter, along with Nicola Sturgeon, to Treeeza, demanding that Universal Credit (and hopefully all other benefits) be devolved to Edinburgh where they will be overseen by ministers who are actual human beings.

I can’t tell you how angry I am about this.

Until they iron out the faults in Universal Credit it shouldn’t be rolled out anywhere at any time. But, although, as you know, I hold no brief for Christmas and all its tra la las, you’d have to be some kind of fool to believe that it was appropriate to roll this shambles out in December when you know that the folk concerned will get no money for FIVE weeks.

What kind of person would sign off on that?

Rudd

Oh yeah, her, silly question.

Not that this one would have been any more human.

McVey

We probably suggested this last year, but we make no apologies for doing it again this year. Munguin and I (and Munguin’s gran and I) won’t be buying big presents for each other. Instead there will be a small token gift. We’re all lucky enough to have all we need. Whatever else we would have spent on gifts will be used to help food banks.

Staples, some treats and maybe some little presents for children who otherwise would have nothing.

Nothing for kids, at Christmas?

Jings, that’s such an un-Christian thing for a deeply religious Prime Minister and monarch to preside over.

The walls should start to crack as you walk through the door, you dreadful, heartless, cruel woman.

I don’t suppose you or yours will go without over the festive period.

As for the Daily Record, can I just respectfully remind them of this:

So, don’t you look so smug! We didn’t think you were promising us THIS fiasco.

OUR WHOLE SENSE OF IDENTITY SEEMS TO BE DEPENDENT ON THE COLOUR AND PROVENANCE OF OUR PASSPORTS

 

Isn’t it a little sad when what worries you the most in today’s news is the colour of your passport and its provenance?

Hungry kids; lowest pensions in the world; food bank Britain; police taking days to answer 999 calls; hospitals in crisis; the Archbishop of  York having more say about the future of the Scottish parliament’s powers than the elected government of Scotland?

Nah…

The fact that a French-Dutch company can make their iconic blue passport (which will look exactly the same as every other passport in the world because they need to be standardised from Chile to Mongolia) at a better price than an English firm?

Scream, stamp your feet and have a conniption fit and a hissy fit all rolled into one?

Yup!

Presumably government ministers are the new enemies of the people?

And while we are laughing at the Daily Mail’s pap: why does the queen have “courtiers”?

Isn’t this the 21st century?

Oh yeah, but not in Britain.

 

 

NEVER MIND THE SOLEMNITY OF THE OCCASION, THE SNP ARE BAD, BAAAAD, I TELL YE!

I had managed to get through the early part of November this year without ranting about poppies and how the British state had commandeered them for nationalistic and political purposes. 

In the past I have been known to mention that, whilst the British state puts on a good show of caring about the fallen every year on the nearest Sunday to November 11, wearing the right clothes, looking suitably sombre and laying a wreath or two in Whitehall, they have been less caring when it came to stuff that didn’t get them on the front page of the newspapers and the first item on the BBC news.

We all know, and I won’t repeat them this year, dreadful stories of men (or women) returned from war who have, thanks to unimaginable experiences under orders, failed to reintegrate into civilian life, lost their jobs, lost their families, lost their health, mental and physical, and who have then been treated with none of the respect due to them by HM Secretary of State for Work and Pension and the British government in general.

Many have died, not from wounds inflicted by Her Majesty’s enemies, but by those inflicted by Her Majesty’s government.

So, having said I wouldn’t rant, I just did. Sorry.

What brought it back to mind was that our old “friends”, the Queen’s man, Murdo Fraser, and the guy who was, after a drink or two, a guest of Her Majesty, the ignoble Baron, George ffoulkes, have apparently criticised Ian Blackford for showing up at the Cenotaph in London wearing a kilt and a dinner jacket and without the traditional (or what passes for traditional, among those and such as those) poppy.

The sylph-like figure of the ignoble lord reposing on the red benches as he sleeps off lunch hic!

Incidentally, although I can’t get hold of ffoulkes’ tweet, as he has blocked me, I believe he referred to Ian in that noble way of his, as  “Billy Bunter Fatso”, which, when you consider the physique of ffoulkes himself, is delicious irony.

Why is it that the royals, would-be royals and other self-important people have special poppies?

So, first of all, let’s deal with the small stuff.  The badge that he wore instead of the traditional poppy was reportedly a Scottish poppy badge. I’m not sure what the problem is.

Secondly, anyone who has ever had to take part in an occasion where royalty will be present knows perfectly well that you receive from the palace incredibly detailed instructions about what is and is not appropriate, in matters of dress, comportment, etc, ad infinitum. Mr  Blackford checked with the authorities. He was told that he must wear a black jacket with his kilt. He complied.

Oh look, soliers in kilts.

But most importantly, ffoulkes and Fraser being singularly ignorant people, may not be aware of the fact that many Scots soldiers went to war wearing kilts. People of their “class” may think that the service of remembrance, like so much else in British life,  is about taking part in a fashion parade, putting on a show for the lower orders, or something.

Goodness, more of them. You’d have thought they would have had the good grace to dress like proper Brits.

On the other hand, some people think of it as a genuine occasion for paying respect to people who died in the service of the country.

‘Struth, these ill-dressed scallywags get everywhere.

What a bunch of cheap second-rate politicians, prepared to use ANYTHING to denigrate the SNP/Scotland, we have. They make you so ashamed.

I’ll leave you with the wise words of one of the guys I follow on Twitter.

 Taylor‏ @dtaylor563313h13 hours ago

If you’re indeed complaining about Kilts being worn on remembrance day, then that shows you have no concept of what the day is about, a total ignorance of history or the forces and your poppy is more of a fashion accessory than a mark of respect/remembrance. Do one!

Well said, Mr Taylor.

THIS IS SERIOUS, TRAGIC AND DISGUSTING

This was seen on a Facebook, ESA/PIP support group.

Although it arrived on my Twitter feed courtesy of Christina McKelvie, I cannot 100% verify its authenticity. But it does seem to be the kind of thing that no one in their right mind would joke about.

So, this woman has a prognosis of somewhere around 6 months left to live. Presumably getting less fit by the day. Towards the end she will undoubtedly be hospitalised. And ATOS say she can go get a job.

Clearly, of course, she can’t, because, to put not too fine a point on it, no one wants to employ someone who is within 6 months of death, even if at the moment they are fit and well, which, in any case, this woman isn’t.

So to have any income at all, she has to get to a jobcentre to sign on. Pretty much impossible, I’d reckon.

I’m so ashamed Scotland is tied to a regime it didn’t vote for that would even contemplate this kind of barbaric inhuman behaviour. Especially, as I never tire of reminding everyone, as they bang on incessantly, about how they are a Christian country with a Christian monarch and a Christian prime minister.

I’m going to end here before I call the British government in general, the DWP in particular and ATOS, a set of inhuman, heartless bastards.

Oops… too late.

AYE, SHE GOT THERE THROUGH HER HARD WORK AND DEDICATION, ERIC

“This International Women’s Day we should pay tribute to someone who has dedicated her life in service to her people. Queen Elizabeth II has demonstrated that hard work and commitment earn you far more respect than demanding that people make way and artificially promote you simply because of your sex.” Eric Abetz.

Eric Abetz is a Liberal member of the Australian Senate, representing Tasmania.

I can’t really think of anything more to say. Except, maybe, well done, Liz, for clambering to the top of the greasy pole of government in not one but 15 countries, based only on hard work, dedication and just that little bit of luck that we all need with our careers.

TAKING BACK CONTROL

Tiresome Tess makes her speech tomorrow (or today, if you’re reading this on Tuesday). This is pretty much a map of Great Britain after March 2019. Goodbye, cruel world.

PS: How dare they have French on a map of Britain. Next thing Liz Saxe-Coburg Gotha will be having her family motto in French. Dieu et Mon Droit, or something. Not at all the done thing, what!