Saturday 7 March 2015

THOUGHTS ON SATURDAY

Labour's Scottish Accounting Unit has been holding its conference in Edinburgh today, and the big boss flew in from London to speak.
Some Silly Billy put the election poster for
 a non-existent party in a very
unfortunate position.
I was a bit surprised at that. After all, Jim tells us HE is the boss and NOBODY tells him what to do. And he proved it by declaring that, in Scotland, he would vote for free tertiary education and in England (where he is aiming to be an MP for at least a year), he would vote for £6,000 pa fees. 

Anyway, inconsistencies apart, the imperial leader arrived and made a speech.

Strangely he failed to do what his Scottish colleagues (many of whom may be looking for jobs in a few months) asked him to do, which was rule out a coalition with the SNP. 

In one of these odd quirks of fate, Mr Cameron called upon him to do the same thing, which I suppose shows that there is a great deal of common ground between the Eton Boy and the average Labour Backbencher. 

I'm pretty sure they needn't worry about a coalition with the SNP. I doubt very much that it will never happen. 

What could occur, and might ensure that Mr Miliband is the next prime minister of the union, is that the SNP could agree to support Labour on a variety of measures where they had common cause, where it was in the interests of the UK and of course, particularly, where it was in Scotland's interest.

It seems to me that unless you are an adherent of the Willie Bain school of confrontational politics and cutting off your nose to spite your face, that would be the sensible thing to do. 
Willie Bain. Labour Philosopher Extraordinary.
For the uninitiated, Mr Bain, one of the great political thinkers in his own bedsit, declared that Labour would never vote for anything that the SNP supported, on the basis that ...well, the SNP supported it. 

Even if it was straight from the pages of the Labour Manifesto, they would still vote it down. Mr Bain's intellectual processes are clearly way beyond my understanding, or even that of Munguin, so we can only stand and stare, without comprehension at his theories. And we do.

However, Mr Miliband, who isn't in charge of Scottish Labour, because Jim is, trotted out the tired old line about Vote SNP, get Tory, clearly unaware that Scotland has, for 35 years, voted Labour and, for all but 13 of these years, got Tory anyway, and may just be getting a little fed up with it. It's simple Mr Miliband. 

There are 650 MPs in the Commons, Scotland elects 59 of them; Wales 40; N Ireland 18, and England 533. So, which country do you think chooses the government of the day?

Miliband said Scotland couldn't afford the Tories. He simplified it for us. He said, its old, its young, it poor, its NHS, couldn't afford the Tories.

Wait a minute... Its NHS?

WHAT? 

Didn't they tell us, only 6 months ago, that the NHS would only be safe within the UK?

They surely must have realised at that time that it was always possible that the Tories could win a general election, if not this time, next time or the time after... and, well, he just said it. The NHS in Scotland is not safe with a Tory government in the union. 

Does that then mean that they lied to us? Alistair Sweetheart and Gordon Clunking Fist Ex-Politician Millionaire Brown lied?

Surely some mistake.

Talking about coalitions and the Willie Bain philosophy of political thought, how does Mr Miliband feel about Mr Baker's slimy call for the Tories to go into coalition with Labour to keep these damned Scots out. We know that some Labour MPs agree with that, although Maggie Curran isn't one of them. She went so far as to block me on Twitter when I questioned her.

Mr Baker (St Paul and Oxford), who apparently now goes under the title of the Baron or Dork, and is one of the sleeping partners, snoozing on the red leather benches made for aristocratic bottoms, seems to think that it is the only way to keep the UK together.

Too much vintage champagne, good port and quails' eggs at the tax payers' expense, methinks. Or perhaps just distance from any kind of reality.
Hic...hic sunt nobiles
Seriously Mr Baker, your sort told us that we were an important, if somewhat stupid and feckless, part of the Brit family, and that we were all better and stronger together, pooling and sharing, in this green and pleasant land. And we, or at least some of us, took you at your word.

And now you want to do deals with your 'old enemy' to stop us from having a democratic say in the running of the union of which we were persuaded to remain a part. 

If there are a substantial number of SNP MPs elected in May, that will reflect the voting in Scotland, according to your preferred electoral system. Surely, even under a lordly Tory definition of democracy, these MPs have some rights? Perhaps you think not as many as your noble self, elected by...the Queen. 

When the Tories, or Labour, are incapable of forming a government alone (as they were in 2010), then one of the parties will require the votes of MPs from other minor parties to pass legislation. 

Minor parties represent people in the UK too, even if they are only Irish, Welsh or Scottish people. 

The Tories have just worked with the Liberals, a minority party with only 57 MPs. Why, if Scotland is an integral part of the UK would the SNP be different?
Another out of touch remnant of Thatcher
I wonder if you are aware how this comes across to Scots. I'll tell you how I see it. You appear to want us to stay with you as long as we don't exercise our democratic will, and accept the failing two-party system, which is overwhelmingly English oriented. 

Leave governing to you lot, and get on with whatever it is we do up here.

Let me tell you, your Nobleness, that's the fastest way I know to a second referendum on independence. And I suspect Wales, Northern Ireland and Cornwall too, if you gang up of all of us!

13 comments:

  1. Re your pic of Willie(good choice of name...Dick would have been a good alternative) Bain...
    There's a waant aboot that laddie....

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    Replies
    1. Yep, so it would seem.

      Funny thing is he seems to be pretty safe in his seat there. So he could be the next Scottish Secretary LOL!!!!

      And you though Alistair was bad?

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    2. Now that's a scary thought....

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    3. Actually, I think it's hilarious!!!!

      We had some good laughs at Alistair. Imagine the screamingly funny time we would have with him. And remember, it's a non job. The count paper clips and move the pictures around in Dover House.

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  2. At least the Orkney cardboard cut-out doesn't wear such scarey lipstick.
    In public, at least.

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    Replies
    1. Suppose you have a point there Veggie...

      That is pretty ghastly.

      Delete
  3. Since Murphy is the leader of a party which currently has over 40 MPs at Westminster,we will expect to see him being invited to the TV debates along with the other leaders.
    What?
    Why not?

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    Replies
    1. Erm, because, in two words, he's not.

      next!

      :¬)

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  4. tris and other snp thugs


    The snp whom i admit are the enemy of the Union and their supporters
    have the right and the DUTY to represent their voters and follow out the
    policys they put before their voters.

    screw Cameron

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's the way I see it.

      I seems like they are saying that despite being part of the union we HAVE to vote for the establishment, whether that is Cameron or Miliband.

      But unless the place has become even less democratic than it used to be, we should be able to vote for whom we wish... and if we do it properly and legally, and within the Westminster system, it's their job to deal with the situation.

      They are after all our servants.

      Trying to thwart people doing things in a democratic way leaders to one of two things around the world...

      a) demands for change... in this case probably a second referendum. or

      b) terrorism, where denied legitimate democracy, people take things into their own hands.

      Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP have said that their immediate concern is getting the best possible deal for Scotland. Independence remains the long term goal of the party as anyone would expect. But the leadership accepts that the people voted no to independence and yes to devo max.

      Devo max started to disappear on the day after the referendum. It is the SNP's job to hold Cameron, Miliband and Clegg and their little helper, Brown, to their word. No one else is going to do it.

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    2. "Terrorism" is such a loaded word. And in today's climite, not a good one tho be throwing around.

      Was Robin Hood (as commonly portrayed) a terrorist? Freedom Fighter? Someone who told the government of the day: "I don't accept that you have a monopoly on legitimate use of force, or a monopoly on taxes"? Or a guy who said: "enough is enough, I'm feeding, housing and clothing these people, and damn you if you try to get in my way"?

      "From each according to their ability, to each according to their need" sits quite nicely alongside "rob from the rich and give to the poor" in a lot of people's minds. And I'm not sure if they're wrong about them being similar in practice.

      I'm in favour of adjusting the tax bands so that if you're earning less than a living wage, then the government owes you money, rather than the other way around. I don't think I'm alone in that belief (and it would save a bunch of admin money currently spent on "JobSeekers" and other means-testing programs, probably far more than is lost in "benefits' fraud", but probably not as much as is lost in tax fraud/evasion)

      I'm also in favour of setting the minimum wage (per hour) to "whatever the MPs are getting per year, divided by the *median* number of hours an MP spends in the house of Commons" (and exempting MPs, and only MPs from minimum wage laws)

      I seem to have drifted off down a tangent, so I'll stop there for now.

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    3. Yes, it's a loaded word and I thought before I used it.

      I can understand why people turn to terrorism. If you have no democratic voice, and if no one will listen to you when you complain, it's hard to imagine what you can do.

      I'd never support it. I'm a totally non violent person. I deplore terrorism whether it is carried out by groups ...the Red brigades, IRA, UDF, Al Qa'ida, or states like the UK, America , Spain, Italy with illegal wars...

      You make a good point about Robin Hood. You might have said Yassar Arafat, Nelson Mandela... One man's terrorist, another man's hero

      Terrorism, like wars waged by countries, is wicked because so many totally innocent people get hurt, including children and animals, lives, livelihoods are lost.

      But it seems to me that that way7 does exist.

      I can;t see Scotland ever taking it.

      The independence movement here is amazing in its peacefulness.

      But a Home Secretary that had to deal with the threat of irish terrorism when he was in office, should know that it is not an impossibility.

      I reckon we'll,simply have another referendum and this time we will believe nothing they say, vote yes and leave.

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  5. I love that top picture Tris. Elsewhere folks were saying the room capacity was 1200 but estimates put the *ahem* audience at around 800. Hmm ... I seem to remember not too long ago a wee *cough* get together in the SECC in Glasgow that had erm 12,000 in the audience and was oversubsrcibed to boot as well. LOL

    p.s. Wwe had a wee door knocking session down my neck of the woods on Saturday in an area of town that returned a NO vote in September. I bet you have no idea what the returns were do you? Well here they are. Enjoy!

    S.N.P. 19
    Labour 10
    UKIP 4
    Tory 0

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