New Scotland Sponsor

I'm informed (reliably?) that by the time Scotland play the Czech Republic in March their new sponsors will be Adidas. It's a real shame we can't still have Umbro. They did our uniforms way back when I was a Boy Scout. But I suppose that's the growth of the superbrands. Do you think it will make them play any better?

Renfrewshire Crime Statistics.

Renfrewshire police reported in the Paisley Daily Express yesterday a significant drop in crime in the area. Unfortunately while we were reading it some enterprising thief at the Sheriff Court went into her chambers and stole the sheriff's handbag. How could you jail someone like that, you'd surely have to make them a Cabinet Minister at least.

British Aerospace (BAe) and the Serious Fraud Office

The directors of British Aerospace must be shaking in their boots at the news that the Serious Farce Office is to report them to the Director of Public Prosecutions for alleged bribery.

This will possibly end in another dirty little deal and these death merchants will go on just as they always have, peddling arms around the globe by fair means or foul. More likely, however, is that their lawyers will point out to them

1. that the Serious Fraud Office couldn't catch a cold in an igloo even with their power to suspend the right of silence
   
2. even if they do get it to court, the case will collapse because the crown prosecution service are useless at handling complex cases where the nature of capitalism itself is involved
   
3. even if someone is convicted, the rich look after their own and they'll do little or no jail time. We only have to look at the case of Ernest Saunders to see that. He is still the only person to make a complete recovery fromAlzheimer's disease

Doesn't it make you proud to be British?

The Big Clunking Fist and the Super Soaraway Sun

The big news of the day (yawn) is that the super soaraway Sun (so called presumably because all it's fit for is making paper aeroplanes) has decided to withdraw its support from Big Gordy Brown and give it instead to Big Dave (Pilsbury Dough Boy) Cameron. There's a real surprise.

Except, of course, in the Scottish editions for some unknown reason. Perhaps they don't want to lead with the headline in Scotland after the election, 'It Was The Sun Wot Lost It.', because there is as much chance of the Tories doing anything North of the border as there is of us forgetting the Evil Witch Thatcher.

Still, it's good to see that the tabloids are taking a lead from the electorate. This is as shabby an exercise in cynical hypocrisy as it has been my privilege to encounter in a long while. I always thought that the Sun and New Labour were well matched when it came to bullshit, but we now have an outright winner. Well done Murdoch.

I'm a Luvvie, Get Me Out of Here

More info coming out on Roman 'Paedo' Polanski. His lawyers in Switzerland are trying to get him bail. His new defence, 'It was a long time ago'. Well, it was only a long time ago because he has a history of fleeing to avoid arrest and sentence. Reports on the BBC claim that the US has been trying to get him arrested for some time and he was always tipped-off (by whom?) and changed his travel plans.

It doesn't seem like a good plan to bail him, but as I said before, money talks, and the dialogue has started

The New Labour Project

Has the New Labour Party really learned to love Peter Mandelson or is there a lot of desperation in the standing ovation from the conference? I hope it's just a case of the rats leaving the sinking ship and not the birth of a new found affection for the Prince of Darkness. If it is then it means that the New Labour project is finally complete and we are now a country without even the least semblance of a centre left party. We will be left with the Tories, the New Tories and the Tartan Tories. But what about the Liberal Democrats? Who cares?

Roman Polasnski

In all of the hype over the enforcement of the American arrest warrant on Roman Polanski his media and show biz friends seem to have forgotten to mention at any length that the man is a self confessed paedophile. His excuse that the 13 year old girl he abused was already sexually experienced, far from justifying his crime only makes him the latest in what seems to be a chain of similar abusers. His complaint that he had done a deal with the prosecution and settled for money with the victim so he was justified in fleeing to avoid sentence only makes matters worse. If the judge refused to accept the deal then I have a lot of respect for him, and for the Swiss for eventually doing the right thing.

She was 13, and 'She was up for it' shouldn't be a defence in a civilised society. This pervert should have been jailed then and he should be jailed now, but money talks so I'm not sure he will be, and that would be a disgrace.

Kenny McKaskill, al Megrahi and Lockerbie

My views on the SNP are fairly well known, and in Renfrewshire these crypto-facists under Iron Man McKaskill and his protege Beau Derek Mackay have given us, in addition to the police and the special constables, litter wardens, dog shit wardens, taxi rank wardens, traffic wardens, taxi drop off wardens, smoking wardens, street wardens, anti social tenant teams, licenced doormen, street CCTV and a host of other forms of social control, all ostensibly to keep us safe, presumably from each other. All of these strutting uniformed little Hitlers make me despair and what I really want is someone to keep me safe from the increasing tendency of the SNP to impose good behaviour by force instead of education.

You will understand therefore how reluctant I am to give any credit to the Iron Man for anything just in case it encourages him to stay in his post any longer than necessary, but in the matter of the release of al Megrahi I think he has done a good thing.

Leaving aside the question of al Megrahi's guilt or innocence, to release a dying man to see his family on compassionate grounds, to reasonable people, seems to be a no-brainer. The brutality of the Lockerbie bombing isn't a factor. He was released because we are compassionate, not because he was, and I believe that this is important.

My Muslim friends tell me that the Koran is a book of compassion not violence and I have no reason (not having read their holy book) to disbelieve them. The extremist (and I speak only of the extremists) followers of Saudi Wahabi Islam, educated in hate throughout the Muslim world in the Saudi sponsored Madrasahs promote world wide terror and violence. If we can make it clear that their beliefs are a corruption of true Islam and that we can be more compassionate, in the spirit of the Koran, than the hate filled butchers who advocate amputation and stoning for what are social crimes such as adultery and fornication, then we weaken the grip of the Wahabi on the minds of young Muslims and perhaps we can help the more moderate Mullahs to counter the deep divisions which the Saudis promote.

Obama the First has caved in to the right wing Christian fundamentalists in his own country. He knows that the Saudis are the real sponsors of terror, but I don't see him or any of his countrymen calling for a boycott of Saudi oil. The Saudis have much more oil than the Scots, so they boycott Whisky and Harris Tweed. What a bunch of hypocritical cowards.

So although it pains me greatly, credit where it is due, well done McKaskill

First Things First

Red Mist is much less anonymous than he used to be so I'll remind everyone of the basics of the blog.

No comment will ever be censored unless it is positively sick or something I wouldn't like my grown up kids to be reading.

My political sentiments are fairly well known but the views expressed in Red Mist are entirely my own and not those of any political party. I have no mandate express or implied to air the opinions or policies of others and wouldn't claim to do so.

Red Mist will only answer for his views on the Red Mist blog itself and not in any other place, unless I want to.

Having cleared all that up let's get on with it

I'm Back Again, Again

Did you miss me at all? I've been away dabbling on Facebook, but everybody's just too nice and I need a place to shout so I'm going to try to keep the blog up to date again with my twisted rage on a more regular basis. I'll still dabble in Facebook, even I need to be nice sometimes, but not often.

Binyam Mohamed and Princess Diana

So Binyam Mohamed has been released from the concentration camp at Guantanamo without charge or trial having lost 7 years of his life. Well done the good old US of A.

Mohamed is alleging that he was tortured at the request of the Americans with the complicity of British intelligence, all denied of course. So the question must arise, if you have a handwritten confession, before the witnesses who saw you write it -- for corroboration--, why aren’t you standing in a dock facing a charge? The answer is, of course, that the confession was tortured out of you and it’s just stupid for the US and British governments to deny it. We are asked to accept identity cards on the basis that if we have nothing to hide we have nothing to fear, so why won’t the papers in the case be released. If it’s good enough for us it’s surely good enough for them. So never mind the judicial enquiry. The judges work for the English Establishment (which includes far too many Scots for my liking). Just admit what has been done to this man, sack the bastards who procured it, and worse, the bastards who turned a blind eye to it in the hope that their hands would be thought to be clean. These are the people who are the real threat to democratic rule in this country.

But there’s a problem there also. The English Establishment are a very powerful force in our semi-democracy (only half of our legislative chambers have electoral legitimacy). There is a preponderance of ex-military types in the Establishment who eke out their pensions by consultancies to arms manufacturers or who sit in the Lords, or on the boards of major companies (or all three), and the intelligence services are their enforcement wing and international sales force. So anyone who dares to try to shine a light on the intelligence services and the fact that they account to nobody is a threat to the fabric of privilege and has to be nullified. Any one who tries to blow the whistle suddenly finds that they have either a sudden urge to take their own life (e.g. Dr. David Kelly) or has a tragic accident (e. g. Princess Diana). All of the theories about marrying a Muslim and disgracing the royal family are complete bullshit, but she didn’t last long when she took on the English Establishment in the form of the arms manufacturers in her campaign against the bread and butter of British barbarism, the anti-personnel land mine, which they were selling to anyone with money, irrespective of reputation.

So, please stop treating us as if we were fucking fools. We know that in the Wilson years, (and still today) when such things were nearly possible, if the lurch to the left were to have been realised these people would have prevailed upon the Crown (which heads up the forces of the English Establishment, and is completely ruthless) to declare a constitutional crisis and move to martial law without a single moment of hesitation. They have admitted they were spying on the elected representatives of the people and were ready for action. They still are, because their privilege is at stake.

So no doubt we can ready ourselves to read shortly about how Binyam Mohamed is suffering from severe depression as a result of his imprisonment and is having treatment for suicidal feelings, either that or he has been given a lift home by a drunk. That’s how they operate.

Salmond's Blatant Cowardice on Council Tax

Statement by the Scottish Socialist Party is reproduced below. More mutual back scratching between the main Parties and their robber baron friends. When will working people say, 'Enough's enough' and get rid of the lot of them in favour of a completely new approach to economic, social and political organisation? This is a complete betrayal of their manifesto promise, and for what? So they can go on arse-licking with Soutar, Trump etc.

The Scottish Socialist Party today accused the SNP government of a cowardly manifesto u-turn, abandoning pensioners and low paid workers in favour of the rich and business interests who bankroll their party after Finance Secretary John Swinney told MSPs that legislation to introduce a local income tax would not be introduced in the current parliament.

This is not the first time the SNP has abandoned opposition to the Council tax and watched hundreds of thousands of pensioners and low paid workers who stood to benefit most from abolition of the Council tax lose out.

SSP national co-spokesperson Colin Fox said today;

“The SNP’ cowardly manifesto u-turn means that the super rich businessmen like Brian Souter who bankroll the SNP with their bonuses will continue to benefit while pensioners, low paid workers and millions of those worst affected by the current economic recession, like the thousands of sacked Woolworths workers who would have at least enjoyed some financial relief with the reduction in their Council tax bills, will continue to be hammered by this unfair Tory tax”

“The SNP has again failed to capitalise on the majority support across Scotland for abolishing the Council tax. They have now given up the idea without a fight or even a vote in Parliament.”

“How different their approach to that of the Scottish Socialist Party on this issue.”

“The SSP, with just 6 MSP's, were able to make far greater headway. Our Bill to abolish the Council tax, a bill which incidentally the SNP voted down [on Feb 1st 2006] attracted considerable support across civic Scotland.”

“The SNP's subsequent local income tax plan with its regressive 3p across the board charge attracted much less enthusiasm. Our local income tax replacement by contrast was graduated to ensure the better off paid more as their income went up and the poorer were exempt.”

Treasury Select Committee and the Robber Barons

I think one of the most telling things to come out of the Treasury Select Committee hearings is the fact that not one of the 4 heads of HBOS or RBS had any sort of banking credentials or qualifications. This was the 'Old Boy Network' exposed for what it really is; a completely self-serving systematic robbing of both staff and ordinary shareholders by a greedy elite. One of the sacked heads is being retained by his former employer at £60k a month as a consultant. It runs across the whole of the sector, sitting on each others boards as non-executive directors playing you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours in each others remuneration committees while forcing down wages for junior counter staff in the name of cost cutting and efficiency, and getting more bonuses for the savings they make. Well, they have shown us efficiency in action and they shouldn't only be apologising to the Commons, to their staff, or to their shareholders. They should be apologising to the whole country which they have forced to the point of bankruptcy with their greed, and especially to the minimum wage workers who will lose their jobs in every sector of the economy, not just the financial sector, because of their greed. They should be barred from holding directorships, because the morally bankrupt are much more despicable than the economically bankrupt. It's sick.

Financial Crisis Notice of Meeting

YOU ARE PAYING!
WHAT’S THE ALTERNATIVE?
THE FINANCIAL CRISIS
—your questions answered.
THIS GREED WAS BEYOND IRRESPONSIBLE!
Kirkintilloch Leisure Centre Conference Room
Saturday 7th February, 10.30am– 12.30pm
Facilitated by the SSP co-convenor,
Frances Curran
Speakers—Raphie de Santos— was head of Equity Derivatives Research and Strategy at Goldman Sachs International. He was an advisor on derivatives and financial markets to the Bank of England, London Stock Exchange, London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange and the Italian Ministry of Finance. Raphie has been a guest lecturer on derivatives and financial markets at Harvard and New York universities and the London School of Economics and has spoken at the annual Nobel Foundation conference in Stockholm.
Bill Newman spent most of his working life in banking, latterly as head of economics and then as Assistant General Manager of a City of London bank. For some 15 years he was also editor of and wrote for a journal on international monetary economics.
Bill was also on the Executive Committee and the Management Committee of the Banking, Insurance and Finance Union (BIFU) and a delegate to the TUC.

THE CAMPSIE BRANCH SSP invite your participation in this important discussion. How will this crisis effect YOU?

About the Scottish Socialist Party
While it fights to defend jobs, working conditions and living standards and for houses and health the SSP also demands a new economy.
Such an economy would start the task of harnessing the stupendous technological and material resources which already exist to meet the needs of society rather than the greed of the few.

Link to Campsie Branch of the SSP in the sidebar

Alistair Darling (of the City)'s Second Bank Bail Out

It's like deja vu and so very predictable. Having concealed the true extent of their gambling losses in the hope that there would be a resurgence in confidence the major banks have now, with results due to be published and the previously incompetent regulator taking a close interest, been forced to admit the real depth of the shit they are in and come to government (me and you) for more money.

This looks more and more like more than just incompetence and it is really time that the Serious Fraud (Farce) Office took a much greater interest, but that would damage confidence and confidence tricksters like New Labour and their big business cronies depend on confidence.

Capitalism is crumbling due largely to its own values of greed and inequality.

I've posted a link to The Red Banker in the Sidebar for a socialist analysis.