RANDOM THOUGHTS ABOUT SELF IMPORTANCE

In 2004 Theresa May said "I find it extraordinary that a Minister isn’t willing just to step up to the plate and take responsibility… I’m actually sick and tired of Government Ministers who simply blame other people when something goes wrong".

I agree. pic.twitter.com/zv2Dlx6Q8B

— David Lammy (@DavidLammy) April 19, 2018

The thing is, of course, that she DID resign in the end. Any danger you or Rudd will do the same thing, Tess… Nope, thought not.

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Only, it seems no one even noticed you were there. You weren’t helping David with the tea and biscuits, were you?

Well, maybe Tessy doesn’t know. I mean she gets sod all else right, does she?

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This is an unashamedly republican blog. Royal families, titles, bowing and scraping, in our opinion, belongs in the history books, or in stories for children. 

I hope we don’t bore people by constantly going on about what an anachronism all royalty is and what an absolute anachronism British royalty is, but today I just got really angry with a greedy old woman who wants it all. (To be fair, over the next few months as the establishment pushes royal weddings and births in an effort to distract us from the utter chaos they are overseeing in Brexit, policing, immigration, pensions, health, education, welfare, Trump butt licking,  etc etc, there may be a little more royal scrutiny.)

The position of head of the Commonwealth is not hereditary. In theory, it is up to Commonwealth heads of government to decide who should be the next leader. However, today the greedy Windsors have made it clear that they don’t want any competition for the job and like so much else that no one else gets a look in to, this role should go to Prince Charles when the queen dies.

The Queen made it very clear that those were her wishes. She is backed by the British government, which still wants to appear to be in charge of something, even if it is as toothless as the Commonwealth. Commentators doubt very much if the Queen’s wishes will be denied her. So another title for the boys…

They already have it all… and they want to keep it that way. Their sense of entitlement sickens me.

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A TALE OF TWO (WELL, THREE) LEADERS

To paraphrase Mr Dickens, “It was the best of leaders”:

Oh, and again: “It was the worst of leaders”:

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AH YES, THEN THERE’S RUTH…

Still, this bloke called her out for her lies.

If you have to make up stuff to criticise the government in Scotland, that sort of suggests to me that you can’t actually find anything that you can truthfully call them out on.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

 

At least when he’s sleeping he’s not havering more of his right-wing crud.

 

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Should Scotland be an independent country? (STV/IPSOS March 2018)

16-24 YES 58% NO 42%

25-34 YES 61% NO 39%

35-54 YES 51% NO 49%

55+ YES 36% NO 64%

ALL Yes 48% No 52%

OK, 16 to 54-year-olds… it’s down to you to get out, vote and free us from this crap.

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Just because you see them doing something halfway human, don’t assume that they are actually humans. They aren’t.

 

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Gavin: “See you Russians? You should go away… and shut up…

Or I’ll tell my dad.”

Dad: Gavin, take the flags out of your head. You’re supposed to be a big boy now.

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Nine out of ten of them, small European nations.

 

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Interesting that both Ruth and whatsisname (who I assume is a caretaker Labour leader. Come on, he makes Willie Rennie look good!) asked the First Minister to comment on matters which are outwith the competence of the Scottish government today.

Ruth went with the Russians. Not entirely sure that was wise. Firstly because what Russians do in Salisbury, in England has absolutely NOTHING to do with our first minister or our parliament… and, in any case, Ruth appears to have accepted a donation of £15,000 for a Russian to have dinner with her. (It must rile Ruth that a mate of Putin’s paid £30,000 to have dinner with Gavin “go away and shut up” Williamson.)

Mr Leopard, an associate of Keir Hardy, asked  Nicola what would have been a reasonable question had employment law been in the purview of the Scottish parliament and government, about the pay conditions of people working on an ex-Carillion government project (which, incidentally, she said she would be happy to look into if he would share the details with her).  She invited him to join her in trying to get employment law devolved to Scotland.

They really should be asking questions that have to do with the Scottish parliament. That’s what FMQs is about. Presiding Officer take note.

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Just for a laugh, imagine dressing up AND GOING OUT looking like that. What a bloody state!

 

IT’S NOT OFTEN I FEEL SORRY FOR RUTH DAVIDSON…IN FACT I NEVER HAVE

 

Oooft indeed… but

…£800,000 is around 63,807,200.00 Russian Rubles. Good though Eck is, I doubt that he got paid that much…

 

TODAY’S CABINET MEETING

Today and tonight the Maybot was holding long drawn out (probably painful) cabinet meetings, for some reason unknown to me, at Chequers, her country estate.

The purpose of these meetings is to thrash out what Britain will be taking to the table in Brussels. Brussels has already published its basis for negotiation. The UK, of course, has either no strategy or a dozen strategies, whichever you think the most appropriate to describe the dithering indecisiveness of their approach.

Now, of course, not all of the cabinet is there, but you can certainly see the top people along with (for some obscure reason, which may be that Mr Murdoch demanded it), Gove. Also you see Foxy (as in “call me doctor”), Rudd, Hammond, Johnson, etc.

 

Are you the waiter?

 

In all of these people, I was wondering who was speaking on behalf of the unique situation that Scotland finds itself in. With its people having voted by not far off 2-1 to remain in the EU (having been promised that staying a part of the UK was the only way to guarantee our continued rights as European citizens), you’d have thought that maybe someone would have thought to invite either Her Right Honorable Colonelness (who told us she attends cabinet meetings as of right) or Fluffy Muddle who is…well, whatever he is. (To be fair, he may be temporarily absent having been sent to the kitchen for the rich teas! Come to think of it Ruth may have been called upon to defuse a mine or even bake the rest of them a cake.)

Just a modicum of respect for Scotland’s position would have been appreciated but, to be honest, wasn’t expected.

STOP CARRYING ON DICK

Richard Leonard‏Verified account @LabourRichard

FollowFollow @LabourRichard

Today’s homelessness figures are a devastating reminder of the impact austerity has had on so many lives. There should be no excuse for failing to end homelessness in Scotland. This should be a priority for the Scottish Government, as it is for @scottishlabour.

It seems to me that Richard Leonard is as calamity prone as Theresa Maybot. And that’s saying something.

Of course, Mr Leonard is quite right to be concerned about homelessness but his concern mixed with implied criticism of the government would have been more credible and believable if these uncomfortable facts hadn’t been immediately to hand.

Rottweiler Reid, as Tweeter, Tradasro said,  might like to put some of them up at his £3 million house.

The there’s this embarrassment for the party of the people:

Yes, there probably wouldn’t be nearly as many homeless people on the streets and in friends’ and relatives’ houses or bed and breakfasts, if only Labour hadn’t voted with the Tories for cuts of  £75 million, as Deryck de Rokesburge pointed out.

And, during the time that Labour and Liberal Democrats formed the government, they built somewhere around 6 council houses.

Perhaps if they had made that 60, or 600, or better still 6,000, there would be fewer people without a home?

I really thought that Labour was wise to elect Mr Leonard. I knew absolutely nothing about him; had never seen him or heard him… or even heard OF him, but I reckoned he would be better for the country than Anas Sarwar, whom I had seen a few times in the London parliament. A less articulate or impressive speaker would be hard to find, I thought! However bad he was, Mr Leonard had to be better, thought I!

But since the first hour of his election victory when he hot-footed across the country for a photo opportunity with some workers at Bi-Fab whose jobs the government had just saved, and tried to take credit for it… although the unions and the Greens were tweeting their thanks to Nicola Sturgeon, he has made mess after mess of his attacks on Nicola.

Now, I support the SNP, but I don’t believe that they get everything right all the time. So I would like to see a largely constructive opposition, which, in a minority government, is something you really need.

Of course, it takes an intelligent and mature opposition party, and party leader, to manage that. To an extent, Annabel Goldie was such a leader. Although I profoundly disagreed with her politics, she was sensible and intelligent enough to realise that the way to get things done was to accept that not everything that Alex Salmond’s government did was necessarily wrong. To criticise where criticism was due (I saw her do that at FMQs) and to encourage and enable by working together, when there was a good idea. (Incidentally, I met her once at parliament and she was utterly charming.)

 

Unfortunately, the quality of leadership of the main opposition parties, Tory and Labour alike, have since these days, deteriorated drastically.

They seem to have one policy between them. And that is SNP BAAAAAD.

So if Dick wants to carry on any longer than the average for a Labour leader (around 2.5 years), maybe he should sit down with his team of advisors and think before he blasts off in the SNP BAAAAAAAAD mode.

The SNP may be imperfect, but it would take some doing the beat the hypocrisy and lack of policies from this rump of a party.

I’ll let John have the final word…

John‏ @jscottebo 6h6 hours ago

Replying to @LabourRichard @scottishlabour

Give us policy detail or are you just carping on again from the sidelines?

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FRIDAY FOTOS

Apologies for the lack of work this week.

And I know it’s been an exciting week, what with Derek’s budget proposals, Ruth’s admission that she’d not be averse to a London parliamentary seat (the worst kept secret in the world), the Mayhembot being beaten in parliament on taking back to control to their parliament (instead of a cabal of right wing nut jobs), Kezia being sent to the Scottish equivilent of Coventry, and the high nesses Willie and Charlie joining the Maypole at a service for the survivors and victims of the greed and incompetence of Kensington Council, many of whom still have no permanent home.

Charles and Willie, of course, will remember when their mother’s/granny’s place at Windsor went up in flames and they had to throw Rembrandts and Van der Neers out the window. A dreadful year. An annus horribilis, in fact!

Doubtless, the royals were thinking to themselves how awful it was for these people to lose their priceless works of art (I mean your average Botticelli doesn’t look its best after being flung from the 20th floor of a multi), but then consoled themselves in the sure and certain knowledge that those who were left alive would have, as mama/grandmama had, decanted to one of their other houses, filled with equally desirably artworks

Then there was the slap in the face that Trumpy got when despite his presidential endorsement, Roy Moore and his horse were not elected to the US Senate, and the South’s South, the reddest state in the union, elected a Democrat senator, leaving Trump’s majority on the shoggliest of nails.

Finally, of course, there was that magical and heartwarming news that Harry the Hunter and his bird are to be wed, largely at our expense, on May the something or other. Joy unbounded. (Note to May: Brilliant day to bury any disastrous news.)

Anyway, there should have been articles on most if not all of those matters, and there was not. Munguin is not a happy chappy, and Tris is now sharing the cellars with Mick the Mouse. Nice bit of cheese for supper though!

Anyway… here’s some auld pics to puzzle over. Hope that makes it up to you! Munguin says you can all have 10 per cent of your subscriptions back….

What more could you ask?

Wait a minute…