red mist

Tommy sheridan (or who framed Rampant Rabbit)

2011-01-26T17:27:00.004Z

These are my opinions, nobody else's. As I have stated previously I am a member of a political party, but I hold no elected position in that party nor have I ever stood for any, and do not in any way speak for or on behalf of that party. Only for myself.

The sentencing of Tommy Sheridan today brings to an end a sad chapter for the left in Scotland. It is well detailed elsewhere but to sum it up Sheridan got himself involved in a sleazy lifestyle. Not that uncommon, but he got caught. He tried to turn the tables and obtain for himself £2000,000 by lies and deception and when honest people wouldn't back him up he labelled them liars and scabs. He demanded that comrades conspire together with him to commit this greedy theft, they refused, and the jury decided. So he goes to jail on a three year sentence and I hope they can give him the help he so obviously needs.

If only it were that simple, but there were those who decided that they would support him and that split the SSP down the middle.

Some of his supporters knew exactly what he was doing because they were present at crucial times. They are the low. A self seeking bunch of liars who should never be allowed anywhere near a socialist again.

Others only knew the Sheridan spin and like many charismatic leaders (Jim Jones springs to mind) he was able to shepherd them along a suicidal path. Those I feel nothing for but sorrow. They got it wrong and they live with the consequences.

But there is another group and in my opinion they are the lowest. They are the ones from other parts of the left who said, 'We don't know all the facts so we'll reserve judgement'. They kept their heads down and hid in their bunkers like the cowards they are offering neither words of support nor assistance to those they had worked hand in hand with for years. They may not have known all of the facts, but they knew all of the people, and if when the words 'Scab' and 'Liar' were being thrown around by Sheridan they could not identify the lie then they are not fit to be making judgements on behalf of the working class. They knew all of the people involved and still chose Sheridan to be a candidate to run for election. They knew he was a liar and that the people he had insulted in the worst way were no scabs, but they chose personality over integrity. They thought they saw a short cut to socialism via personality politics, but that is a house built on sand, and we can now see clearly that socialism is built by hard work and not headlines. They embraced a model of personality led socialism that is now seen to be a failed and discredited model. So don't come to me preaching left unity, please. I want nothing to do with the SWP, TUSC, CWI or anyone else with a catchy set of initials. They are only passing through, like Galloway, and their loyalties lie elsewhere. And as for McCrowe. When did come to believe he was the saviour of the Scottish left. Bob, take your 59K plus expenses and go back to wrecking the left across the border. I want nothing to do with you.

The SSP should be fighting for a united left. We should be fighting to unite ourselves with the people who have lost faith in all politics and don't vote any more. We should be fighting to unite ourselves with good honest trade unionists and others who believe in justice, integrity and honesty, often despite their leadership. We should be uniting ourselves with the poor and the soon to be poor and fighting the upcoming war on their behalf. But we should not be sucked into alliances with the cowards who hid themselves away. They are beneath contempt.

There are no short cuts.

Allan Armstrong Speaks on Scottish Republicanism

2010-06-06T06:34:00.003Z

Renfrewshire Scottish Socialist Party are hosting an open meeting on Tuesday 8th June 2010. Long time republican campaigner Allan Armstrong will be the guest of the branch to discuss the idea of an independent socialist republic for Scotland's future. All members and any others with an interest are invited to this open meeting at 7.30 pm in Paisley Grammar where they can find out more about the republican concept and about the other policies of the Scottish Socialist Party.

Israeli Stormtroopers and the Gaza Convoy

2010-06-02T23:21:00.004Z

I was speaking to a friend tonight who knows about these things and he assures me that no forces who had spent more than half an hour in training would board a ship from a helicopter down a rappel rope without first clearing their landing area with, at the very least, stun grenades. And these stormtroopers who perpetrated the massacre were supposed to be highly trained marines.

Wouldn't it be nice to see the rest of the unreleased footage of the boarding video ?

And what the f*ck were the paintball guns supposed to be about ?

Helmand Province Afghanistan and the British Forces

2010-06-01T16:32:00.002Z

I see that the British Forces in Helmand Province are to have an American commanding officer. Do you think he might be able to stop the gung ho G.I.s from bombing and shooting us ?

Catholic Church and the Child Sex Scandal in Ireland

2010-06-01T15:54:00.003Z

It appears that the Catholic Church in Ireland is going to conduct a full investigation into the child sexual abuse perpetrated by the clergy in Ireland. The enquiry will be carried out by priests led by an Archbishop (I couldn't believe it either). The clergy in Ireland are a small gossipy elite (Father Ted is funny because it's so true) and if there was a cover up I would bet my debt that priests who didn't know what was going on were the exceptions and very few. What are the Garda, who should be carrying out this investigation doing. Isn't it a criminal offence in Ireland to conceal knowledge of a criminal offence ? Let's see the whole fucking lot of them in court to answer to man, who I think might be a harsher judge in this instance than their God.

Fergie, Duchess of York on Oprah

2010-06-01T15:51:00.001Z

Well that explains it. She was pissed and not in the right place. Any suggestions as to the right place for the Ginger Whinger and her former in-laws gladly received.

More Israeli Bullshit

2010-06-01T15:37:00.003Z

Israel are showing off the weapons used against their Stormtroopers by the Gaza Aid activists. It seems that the best they can come up with (on a boat) is a sailors knife with a 3 inch blade. and a few chair legs. Now maybe I'm wrong but I had been led to believe that the Stormtroopers were part of the elite Israeli special forces. So what went wrong ? They still insist that they were justified in their slaughter of these aid workers. They are replaying a video of a fight on the deck of the ship, but with Israel's reputation for forgery and fakery I don't think I'll be believing that until I see the result of a proper independent international enquiry. In the meantime there are about 500 prisoners left to the tender mercies of Israeli torturers (whoops, sorry, sleep deprivation, white noise and water-boarding aren't torture, the Americans said so) including 30 Britons. So what are Lord Snooty Cameron, his fag Clegg and his token working class accent Hague going to do about it? Well, whatever America says, obviously.

Israel and the U.S.A.

2010-05-31T23:22:00.005Z

It looks as if the land of the free are unwilling to condemn the piracy, kidnap and murder of the aid workers taking humanitarian aid to Gaza. They are spouting their usual condemnation of the Palestinians and completely ignoring the fact that the ships were crewed mainly by Turkish workers. The official line seems to be that fully armed Israeli soldiers in battledress, body armour and steel helmets peacefully landed on these ships full of terrorists armed with clubs and knives and that the terrorists decided it would be a good idea to take them on. Americans always have a very good grasp of bullshit but if they think anyone is going to really believe that then they have lost it completely. They want to continue to support a country which sends death squads into any country it wishes using forged (U.K.) passports killing anyone they take a dislike to. Israel are war criminals, pirates, kidnappers and murderers and the U.S.A. finances the whole thing.
Are you watching Mr. Cameron and your fag Clegg. That's what you call a 'special relationship.

Israel. A Rogue State with Nuclear Weapons.

2010-05-31T16:09:00.004Z

I'm drawn back to the blog because I've spent the day listening to apologists for the Israeli terrorist state and their continuing holocaust against the Palestinian people. These holocaust deniers seem to believe that they can commit acts of piracy in international waters by boarding peaceful ships with troops of armed-to-the-teeth commandos and killing any who resist or object whether armed or not. They are a disgrace to the international community and the single biggest threat to World peace. Their whole existence is founded on the belief that the Old Testament is a valid title deed and their Government, born out of terrorism, seems determined to starve to death a whole Palestinian nation. If the U.K. and the U.S.A. continue to support this fascist regime in its ethnic cleansing project then they stand to be equally condemned. 'Everybody hates us and we don't care', is a fine slogan for a band of thuggish football supporters, but thuggish countries present a different kind of danger. The fact that the thugs who govern Israel control nuclear weapons presents a clear and present danger to every bordering state, so Israel should become the pariah of the World and be excluded from every international event from the Olympics to the Eurovision Song Contest. My personal boycott of Israeli goods should become U.K. policy, travel restrictions should be placed on all of their Government representatives including trade delegations, and indictments and arrest warrants for those responsible for the latest and earlier atrocities should be issued by the International Court. Embassies should be closed down and all Diplomatic privileges withdrawn immediately from Israeli representatives in other countries and none of these measures should be reversed until Israel has given up its nuclear weaponry and made genuine progress toward a peaceful settlement with its neighbours.

British Airways Strike

2010-03-22T12:22:00.004Z

British Airways are bullies. They always have been. They tried to bully Virgin in their dirty tricks campaign, they try to bully all of the other airlines with their virtual monopoly of useful landing slots at Heathrow, and they have bullied most of their staff into accepting a reduction in their terms and conditions.

The terms and conditions enjoyed by their cabin crew are a result of having a strong union in Unison, they are not a negative thing, they are to be aspired to by others who have weak unions.
British Airways under the 'leadership ?' of the arch-bully Slick Willie Walsh, who has lots of form in that department, are now trying to bully the cabin crew by threats and intimidation.

If they manage to break the union it will help them to sell off British Airways at a better price and maximise value for their shareholders at the expense of the workers. Under new foreign ownership every member of BA staff will suffer job cuts, a race to the bottom on wages, and new terms and conditions which are substantially lower than they currently enjoy.

The other sticking point in the foreign sale of BA is the pension fund deficit. This is money owed to workers past and present by the owners (shareholders) of BA, and if they can, they will try to walk away from that debt. They will sell off the profitable part of the company abroad and let the rump that remains go under to try to bully the government into taking on the massive pension debt.
This mustn't be allowed to happen. They can't be allowed to give away the silver and leave the debts to the taxpayer, but I suspect that is the plan.

This strike must be won, for all of our sakes, and the unions are trying to save their jobs, not close their company. They have offered concessions and cuts, but nothing less than a completely cowed workforce will suit Slick Willie's plans for a high income, lowest cost base company saleable to the highest bidder so the fat cats can walk away with their pockets stuffed.

New Scotland Sponsor

2009-10-04T01:27:00.002Z

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.

2009-10-02T15:29:00.003Z

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

2009-10-01T23:19:00.005Z

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

that the Serious Fraud Office couldn't catch a cold in an igloo even with their power to suspend the right of silence
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
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

2009-09-30T22:40:00.004Z

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

2009-09-29T11:59:00.003Z

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

2009-09-28T22:22:00.003Z

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

2009-09-28T16:58:00.005Z

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

2009-09-28T00:16:00.004Z

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

2009-09-28T00:01:00.002Z

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

2009-09-27T00:46:00.002Z

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

2009-02-23T19:04:00.008Z

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

2009-02-11T18:55:00.005Z

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

2009-02-11T00:48:00.004Z

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

2009-02-06T18:38:00.003Z

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

2009-01-19T09:26:00.006Z

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.

Douglas (Duggie) Alexander's Annual Survey

2008-12-24T09:23:00.003Z

I got a leaflet through my door yesterday from Douglas (the chosen one and future anointed) Alexander asking me to complete an 'Annual Survey' of my worries.

As part of the questioning he asks, 'How satisfied are you with my work as your local MP.'

He offers a range of responses from 1 to 5 where '1=very satisfied' and '5=very satisfied'.

He's either as smug as he looks or he still hasn't mastered the basics of a voting system so Ive dropped him a wee email to help him out.

I'm Back Again

2008-12-24T09:04:00.002Z

I've been too busy lately but I'm back, so a quick review and then I'll move on.

SNP have introduced free school meals (nearly).

SNP have ended privatisation of hospital ancillary services (except for the ones they have already privatised).

Ian Bliar has gone (but he shit in the sink before he left by allowing searching of the Commons without a warrant).

The de Menezez affair rumbles on (I think there is more to come out come the damages trial).

The banks I bought took all the money I gave them to lend to keep the economy afloat and said, 'Fuck you, we're keeping it.'

The VAT cut isn't being passed on to consumers (surprise, surprise).

Employers are using the excuse of the 'credit crunch' to cut staff and reduce working conditions it took years to achieve for working people.

And finally, for the moment, the Government are seriously considering giving an enormous cash bail-out to the UK car industry now that it is all foreign owned. I have to ask why that couldn't have been done when they were awash with monopoly money and it might have allowed the UK car industry to survive without all of its income going abroad? Why wasn't it important to save jobs then?

Big Dave Cameron and Consensus Politics

2008-10-13T17:57:00.003Z

I just saw Big Dave Cameron on the telly saying that there is no alternative to Big Gordy's master plan. As I suspected neither he nor the Prime Minister seem to have heard of socialism, even although they seem to be in favour of nationalising banks hand over fist.

Capitalism was failing the people of this country for years before the Iron Woman (she's no lady) finally took away all semblance of restraint. It has finally failed completely. The more freedom the market has to steal the more it will steal from the people of the country. Senior executives will get no bonuses this year, but they will be allowed to retain the bonuses the received while they were seriously failing to do their jobs properly. No doubt bonuses were based on results, but we should go back now that we know better what the result of their greed really is.

Shame.

Resignations and Sackings in the UK Banks

2008-10-13T17:55:00.001Z

Since my post earlier today it appears that heads are starting to roll in the major banks that I bought yesterday. Not before time.

Jean Charles de Menezez

2008-10-13T17:16:00.002Z

As the inquest into the death of this poor young man continues another Senior Policeman is found to have tinkered with the truth.
The Met. is rotten to the core and the new man, whoever it might be, is going to have his work cut out coping with the vested interests and the culture of casual lying which pervades the police service. It appears that they will never tell the truth when a lie will do.

One of the unproven allegations about Bliar was that he had interfered in the allocation of a Public Relations contract for the Met. My question is why they try to change the public perception of the force instead of trying to change the attitudes and practices which gave them such a poor public profile. If they were what they are supposed to be then the need for a multi-million PR contract would be eliminated. Why are they wasting public money trying to give the public the impression that what they see with their own eyes should not be believed, but instead we should believe the hype that a PR firm produces? Public bodies should not be allowed to indulge themselves in self-serving, expensive media exercises for the sole purpose of misleading the public when the public have eyes and ears of their own and are quite capable of examining what they see and hear and making sound judgements. Unless they think that the public are too stupid..Heaven forbid.

Sir Ian Bliar and the Metropolitan Police

2008-10-13T09:25:00.001Z

Goodbye Sir Ian, and good riddance.

Credit Crunch, Gordon Brown and My Money

2008-10-13T09:06:00.004Z

The whole financial system has been changing faster than I can post, but just to update myself, it appears I have bought a number of dud banks which were being run by a squad of disreputable self-seeking gamblers who lost all the country's money. The solution to the problem is obvious, let's give them more money?? As far as I can see only one banking head has had the decency to resign so we should be pressing for the dismissal of the other culprits. Big Gordy, the big clunking fist, is being re-cast as the saviour of the known universe (he has a plan!).

So let's ask the uncomfortable questions.

Who is going to be sacked for their obvious negligence?

Why was there no money to eliminate fuel poverty, because pensioners will die this winter again?

What will be sacrificed to provide the money Big Gordy is going to use to feather bed the rich and greedy who chased the fast buck all over the known world (and Iceland)?

What's to stop the same greedy bastards doing the exact same thing again now that they know that they are so big governments can't let them be losers in the world casino?

How is the taxpayers money going to be ring fenced so that every greedy bastard who has lost money and has a passing acquaintance with an equally greedy lawyer wont be jumping up and down with a writ claiming negligence on the part of some other greedy bastard now that they know the banks have some money?

Financial Institutions and Toothless Regulators

2008-09-19T08:20:00.003Z

It looks as if they might just about stopped the financial world from unravelling but recent events make my previous comments (12th September) look strangely prophetic. The banks with the most money are gobbling up the lesser banks and we all know the consequences of that for the workers in the financial services industry. The corridors of the Parliament (both in Westminster and Edinburgh) are awash with crocodile tears as the Capitalist system creaks under the strain of unfettered greed. Apparently 'Greed is good' doesn't apply any more.

Meanwhile the regulator issues a toothless ban on short selling of the shares of banks and insurance until the end of the year. The whole system of share trading has turned into a giant casino where no-one really knows the rules, because there are no effective rules. Big Gordy and Smirky Salmond might try to scapegoat the short sellers, but they were acting completely within the law, and it is Governments which still make the law. The fact that there are too many financial institutions in the USA and the UK which have grown so large that if they are allowed to go down they take the country with them is a national disgrace. It means that they can indulge in massively risky behaviours in the knowledge that the taxpayer will cover the losses should they fail.

The real answer is to break them up, and sooner rather than later and preferably put them into public ownership so that the workers who generate the profits share in the success of the enterprise, rather than the present situation where the greed generates massive losses, the workers lose their jobs, the bosses walk away with all the remaining assets, and the taxpayer bears the loss.

This crisis was avoidable, and had the regulators real powers to stop abuse then the people would have been better protected.

Coming Soon ... A New Prime Minister

2008-09-16T16:20:00.005Z

It looks like the end for Big Gordy, the big clunking fist. The self destruction of New Labour continues apace. Scotland Office Minister David Cairns has put another nail in the coffin of the New Labour project. When ministers of his status (as opposed to his ability) start to resign then it is time to go. Rats and sinking ships spring to mind. Still, I don't suppose he will be on the breadline. Labours big business pals will rally round and get him an earner as usual.

But we still don't know who is orchestrating the coup.

We should remember that he who wields the knife never wears the crown ! Come on, show yourself.

Paddy's Market

2008-09-15T16:42:00.006Z

The proposed plans by Glasgow City Council to re-develop the site of Paddy's Market should be a source of some sadness for the people of Glasgow, even if it has become a run-down area. I presume it is going to become another gentrified city centre development for the middle classes to occupy while they consider where they really want to live when city centre lifestyle becomes too fraught (when they have kids).

Paddy's market has a long history. It was where the immigrant Irish of the East end of Glasgow went to buy second hand clothes for themselves and their children after they had been evicted from their lands and suffered from the potato famine. They were welcomed in Glasgow but found the same sort of poverty for working people there as they had left. Paddy's market was a necessary evil. The real sadness is that it still exists today for nearly the same purpose. Among the rip-off DVDs and CDs there are still stalls selling second hand clothes for the really poor. On a recent visit my son remarked that it was terrible that people had to sell this kind of stuff to live, but it is worse that people have to buy this kind of stuff to live.

Re-develop Paddy's Market by all means, but re-develop it as a memorial to the plight of working people. It is a piece of working class history, you might even call it an International Working Class Heritage Site, but there was never a member of the aristocracy living there so it won't count, will it?

The Heilan-man's umbrella (under the bridge at Central Station, for my foriegn readers) also served as a dossing down place for Highlanders dispossed in the Highland clearances, hence the name, and it is still in use by the homeless whenever Strathclyde's finest don't move them along.

Just more working class heritage messing up the post-modern image that Glasgow tries to promote by completely invented heritage like the 'Merchant City'. Real heritage is far too 'gritty' for them.

Douglas Alexander and Hugh Henry (Shuggie and Duggie)

2008-09-14T00:36:00.005Z

Following the fall from grace of Wendy (second trumpet in the Alexanders' rag time band) Alexander (for it is she), it seems as if Hugh (the hammer) Henry and Douglas (the golden one and future anointed) Alexander are getting some training in for new careers, presumably in anticipation of the result of the next Westminster elections. Shuggie and Duggie have little to commend them to the voters next time round. Shuggie has been virtually invisible, no doubt not wishing to associate himself with the rest of the duds in his party. Duggie, on the other hand seems to have his own personal photographer who follows him around while he is grinning and gripping the hand of anyone who still feels that they want to be seen with the man who reduced our electoral system to Zimbabwean levels. One sycophantic Labour placeman described duggie to me as 'one in a million' and my immediate thought was 'Christ, how unlucky can you get?' Still, at least he and his cronies are on the way out.

I think the bin bag might be filled with pictures of Big Gordy, the big clunking fist.

New Leader for Scottish Labour

2008-09-13T17:56:00.003Z

Andy Kerr, another po-faced humourless clone, long on talk but short on talent. I'm very much afraid Smirky will eat this guy alive. Remember when Scottish Labour had some socialists in it ? Better days and better people.

Gordon Brown and the Pensioners (but only some)

2008-09-13T01:53:00.003Z

He's not helping himself, is he? Big Gordy has fumbled the football again for the sake of childish spin. He was always going to get caught so why does he keep on doing it. He makes an announcement and the next day we find out that it was just half of an announcement intended to mislead us into thinking that the disaster was being addressed when in fact it was just a papering over of the cracks.

He's no different from Bliar

Gordon Brown, the end is nigh !

2008-09-12T17:08:00.004Z

You know that when you have lost control and discipline in your party then the end of your leadership is in sight. You also know that when junior ministers call for a leadership election to 'clear the air' you have lost control and discipline in your party. Siobhain McDonagh is only saying what the rest are thinking, but the real question is 'Who Convinced her to fall on her sword and what was she promised in return?'.

New Labour is not so much in meltdown as in self-destruct mode. How long can this lame duck Prime Minister soldier on?

My own opinion is that he will take the country into the next election, whenever that may be, and take the battering that Labour will get, so that the replacement dud will not commence the job with the stench of a massive defeat all over him. His Presyterian upbringing would ask that of him, but we'll see, soon.

Racism and the Metropolitan Police Continued

2008-09-12T17:00:00.004Z

Christ Almighty, Sir Ian, you must have a skin like a rhinoceros. You just keep on trying and failing in everything you do. This is your second try at this guy . For god's sake go and let someone come in who can clean up the mess that is the Met.

Legal Fees and Greedy Solicitors

2008-09-12T08:25:00.004Z

The legal profession are at it again. Fees for solicitors in litigation with the NHS can be as much as £600 an hour. That money is being directly sucked out of patient care and represents one of the worst and least principled attacks on the Health Service I have ever heard of (and I lived through the reign of the evil witch of Grantham).

We simply have to move from a culture of litigation to a system of 'no blame' compensation for medical accidents. Doctors (no shrinking violets themselves when it comes to bleeding the NHS) could then possibly learn from the errors of others who would no longer have an interest in denial or cover up. Patients and relatives desperate for answers could be dealt with honestly and openly, and the greedy sods would just have to go and rob someone less vulnerable.

Nationalisation of Financial Institutions

2008-09-12T00:21:00.003Z

Now that the UK has effectively nationalised Northern Rock (almost the first birthday of the nationalisation) and the USA has effectively nationalised both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, we can only applaud this new spirit of public ownership. It's just a pity that the taxpayer always seems to get lumbered with the losers rather than the shareholders who were paid large dividends rather than creating reserves to see their companies through financial crises. It's also a pity that the same spirit of providing a safety net for investors couldn't have been brought to bear on the problems of Farepak, but then their investors weren't already the rich so they don't count for much to Big Gordy.

Just a further comment on the global financial meltdown. Money doesn't just disappear, so if everyone is going to get poorer, who is going to get richer? Capitalists are fighting like ferrets in a sack each trying to save his own arse at the expense of the rest and, as usual, the poorest will pay the price and the rich will get richer. Banks are queueing up to buy each other at bargain basement prices and it's about time the national and international regulators stepped in and sorted out this fucking mess they have allowed to be created by pure greed.

Racism in the Metropolitan Police

2008-09-11T14:26:00.005Z

Once again we have allegations of racism in the Met. but this time the allegations come from a senior officer in respect of himself. The reaction of the Met is as usual, try to gag the victim, suspend him from employment and give time for the cover up to swing into place. My views on the Met are well known and uncomplimentary. The nominal leader (inasmuch as the Police Federation allow him to call himself 'Chief') should really stand down. He is only making a bigger fool of himself every time he opens his mouth. He increases the shame of the name 'Bliar' and that's not easy.

Legal Fees and Greedy Barristers

2008-09-11T13:38:00.005Z

I see that the greedy bastar, whoops spell check error, barristers are up to their usual tricks again. £91 an hour is being described as derisory. Well I must admit it certainly makes me deride them. I've posted about these greedy people before and have yet to see reason to change my opinion. They should grant rights of audience in the High Courts to ordinary solicitors as well as solicitor advocates and make the pompous elite compete for wages like the rest of us.

Gordon Brown and Fuel Poverty

2008-09-11T13:11:00.004Z

I must admit that, despite my severe misgivings, when Gordon (the big clunking fist) Brown followed Bliar I thought that there might be a slightly increased opportunity for some sort of anti-poverty measures. Today's announcement on measures to relieve fuel poverty show that he is as big a coward in the face of big business as ever Bliar was. Brown/Bliar, it's like a choice between the pox and the clap. Both are awful but one is worse.

Pensioners will die of booty capitalism this winter because power generation and distribution is in private hands and a toothless regulator can do nothing to control price increases. Shame!

Free Public Transport

2008-06-20T00:44:00.004Z

On Thursday 19th the SSP launched its week of action on free public transport by leafleting and posting around stations and other transport hubs.

I've put a link to the site in 'Some other views from the left' in the sidebar.

Public reaction was very positive, as you might expect from people who are about to have to buy a ticket for an inferior service at an extortionate price to feed the fat cats who operate and mis-manage public transport for their own and their shareholders benefit.

Perhaps more surprising was the number of people who took the opportunity to express their support for our other policies on abolition of the council tax and its replacement by a fair system of taxation, on ending our involvement in American wars, on council housing, and on independence in a socialist Scotland.

It seems that it has taken a global financial meltdown to get across the message that capitalism is destroying itself through its own greed and to make people seriously consider an alternative 'not for profit' system which puts people before profit.

European Union, the Lisbon Treaty and Ireland

2008-06-16T08:44:00.003Z

I am reminded of a piece of advice regularly given to aspiring lawyers regarding cross-examination of witnesses. You should never ask a question to which you don't already know the answer.

The Irish referendum on the Lisbon treaty only goes to prove that the same applies in politics.

Democracy is always a real problem for bureaucracies and dictatorships, and the E.U. is both. So as foreign ministers struggle to find a way to thwart the clearly expressed will of the Irish people we should really be asking ourselves why. The answer is, of course, that the E.U. and its past incarnations, have always put profit before people.

The Irish, even although the country has benefitted enormously from the E.U. has seen little of the benefit 'trickle down' to the ordinary people. Big business, especially big farms have flourished and the rich, as usual, get richer.

They, and we, should continue to reject the treaty until it addresses distribution of wealth as well as wealth creation, because in a zero sum game, if business benefits then ordinary people must be penalised, and with growth at only 2-3% it is effectively a zero sum game.

Change to the Law on Sunbed Shops

2008-06-15T16:40:00.004Z

I'm usually highly critical of laws which restrict freedoms, but the changes to the law regarding the use of sunbeds by under 18s has to be welcomed.

One of the hazards of being a full time driver is that your right arm tends to be exposed to the sun on good days when the window is open, and problems tend to be experienced by this group. I had a growth (benign) removed from my own right arm some years ago and it was a very scary time for me, so perhaps I am particularly aware of the damage the sun can do. I always wear a sunscreen now.

These changes to the law will, I hope, make a real difference, but the deterrent effect of a paltry £100 fine, when we consider other reports about the sunbed industry and its practices is still questionable.

But it's better than nothing.

Ry Cooder

2008-06-15T09:56:00.001Z

I've added a new link in interesting stuff. It speaks for itself

Anglican Gay Wedding

2008-06-15T09:36:00.004Z

I see from the BBC web site that the Anglican Church is shocked that a 'Gay Wedding' has been carried out in an Anglican church.

I have two reactions to that.

First, I am deeply shocked. I didn't think anyone really cared about the petty incestuous squabbling within the Church of England except themselves. I certainly didn't. Their continued persecution of gay people within an increasingly tolerant society is disgraceful. I was never allowed to sing it (commie, excused church) but doesn't one of their favourite hymns say 'the lord god made them all'.

Second, why should we deny the right of gay people to be as miserable as anyone else.

R.I.P. Jimmy Bonthrone, East Fife F.C.

2008-06-13T17:03:00.004Z

All East Fife fans will miss Jimmy Bonthrone who died recently. A real gentleman and an extraordinary player. Check out the link under 'Interesting Stuff' or read the full obituary here

Sir Sean's Coming Home

2008-06-13T09:44:00.003Z

I see from the news that Shir Sean is coming back to Scotland.

Oh, hang on. It's just to sell us a book. An autobiography written by a journalist??

Free Public Transport

2008-06-13T09:22:00.005Z

I have added a link to the Scottish Socialist Party's 'Free Public Transport Campaign'

This will be one of the ongoing campaigning issues of the Party

East Fife F.C.

2008-05-03T16:58:00.003Z

Seeing as how its been a quiet day, and since I have a link to the site on my blog, congratulations (belated) to East Fife on winning the 3rd Division title by a mile. Hope for a similar result next season in the 2nd.

C'way the Fife

Beau Derek and the Council Cuts

2008-05-03T08:33:00.004Z

Just some more info on the cuts in public services in Renfrewshire under Beau Derek supported by his lib/dem gofers.

4 libraries to close (Gallowhill, Todholm, Elderslie, Bargarran)

5 neighbourhood housing offices to close

£500 p.a. charge for residents in sheltered housing for the warden service (which is being reduced from 24 to 3 hours per day)

Charges for attendance at elderly day-centres

Cost of kids swimming lessons doubled

Cuts in the park ranger service

2 nurseries to close

Apex community centre in Ferguslie Park (Terry's pitch) to close

Rough Sleepers Initiative for the homeless to close

Museum and observatory opening hours cut

Recycle Renfrewshire funding withdrawn

3 day centres for the disabled to close

Education budget cut by the equivalent of 2 teachers per school

And if Labour think they are off the hook on this can I remind them that:

they passed the policy which made warden charges possible

they closed libraries in Kilbarchan, Johnstone Castle, Spateston, Inchinnan,Brookfield, Houston, Langbank, Howwood, and the Johnstone teenage libraries (and we wonder why our kids are poor readers)

they closed and privatised post offices

they closed community centres like the East End community centre for which a replacement was promised and never materialised

they privatised our schools (opposed and now adopted by the SNP)

and they tried and failed to give away our council housing to a crony body, sorry ..housing association.

It's not until you see the cuts listed like this that you can see how the old, the very young, the vulnerable and the disabled are being targeted.

It's a public disgrace.

Cash for Honours

2008-05-03T08:22:00.004Z

Just thinking about Shir Sean, not that I'm suggesting anything improper in respect of himself, got me to thinking about the Cash for Honours problems which Bliar faced in his closing days.

Both Ruth Kelly and Lord Levy were questioned under caution and under the guidelines should have been required to give a sample of DNA for the database even if subsequently not charged with any offence.

Why won't the Met. confirm whether this happened? One rule for them etc.

Beau Derek Mackay

2008-05-02T16:44:00.007Z

I see Beau Derek in the local paper today trying to encourage council employees to go to work by bike to save the planet. If he really means it why don't the council close the council office car parks to all but bikes and disabled drivers. That would be easier than a bike purchase loan scheme and it might just let them see just how difficult they have made it for everyone but themselves to park in Paisley Town Centre.

Perhaps councillors and council officers should be made to pay a commercial rate for the free parking they get from the council tax payers, or at least have the benefit assessed for tax so that they can employ more smoking enforcement officers (nicotine fascists) to harass town centre traders and pubs.

Of course they have to look after themselves, they're councillors after all, but have they no shame. Bike is becoming the only way to get around the town, but with pot-holes 6 inches deep even that is a bit dangerous.

I'm Back

2008-05-02T10:56:00.003Z

It's been a while but but I'm back in the land of the Blogosphere and hope to be posting regularly again soon.

Meanwhile you have let it all go to the dogs. Where has all of the piss-taking gone. Surely the big clunking fist deserves more than he's getting. Labour are paying the price of their own corporatism. As they moved away from community values and individuals and tied themselves firmly to capitalism they are suffering from the credit squeeze in the same way as the banks and financial institutions they have come to love. The English middle classes, don't you just love them. They have reduced voting with your wallet to an art form. Labour are getting what they deserve in the English local elections, but the Tories under Big Dave Cameron are no better, in fact they are remarkably similar.

The SNP have made a complete arse of things in Scotland. They have not increased the council tax, but instead have cut services to the most vulnerable right through the country. But surely the same price for less is an increase. Perhaps they should re-introduce 'O' level arithmetic. They carry on with PFI schools and hospitals even although they opposed them previously. What happened to those extra police, student debt, a referendum and an end to the council tax Oh, and by the way, where is Sir Sean's new house?

The Lib/Dems, well, anything at all for a taste of power please, including kissing Salmond's arse.
They have become a parody of themselves. Remember when they stood for something, even if it was something different in every town. Now they stand for nothing.

That's enough to start back with.

Back soon

2007-06-07T10:05:00.000Z

Just in case you thought I was dead it is only shift patterns that are dictating the absence of current stuff. I'll be back soon, but you probably didn't even miss me. In the meantime I've added a piece by The Wee Man to Interesting Stuff. I know I shouldn't laugh, but it's funny.

Rayleen Kelly and the SSP : Accusations of Lying

2007-05-29T23:31:00.000Z

I have been having a correspondence with the peoples princess over on her blog
and she has accused me of lying regarding her censorship of my comments in a prior conversation (see mine on 31st march). Now I don't claim to be a saint, but to be called a liar by a former Renfrewshire Labour councillor takes the biscuit.

She has, however, run away from the discussion by closing the topic (presumably that isn't censoring comment in the Labour party). Giving yourself the last word is, I suppose, your right if it is your blog. This isn't Rayleen's blog but she can add comments without any censorship, and no topic ever closes.
She is struggling to make her earlier comments sensible and has obviously run out of steam . Sorry Rayleen, but your loss of reason is showing. You can't just assume someone is guilty of something because you saw them being arrested on TV. Every day I see policemen in stab proof vests queueing in snack bars to buy their rolls, so no assumptions can be made from the gear that they wear in any given situation as to the guilt or innocence of an arrested person.

If the police thought them worthy of being charged with an offence, and if any police were hurt or in danger of being hurt, then they should have been given the opportunity to prove their innocence in court, we have no way of knowing if their behaviour was lawful or not if they are not tried.

The arrest of the 80 year old woman at Faslane received plenty of coverage, and for Rayleen to suggest that she deserved her treatment is a disgrace to a decent society.

And finally, Rayleen, I didn't get you started on the Iraq shroud waving, you did that all on your own because you were struggling for a point that you could win. But you are wrong there as well, it is the flag wavers who are the problem and your party is full of them or we wouldn't be in Iraq.

Renfrewshire Labour in Opposition

2007-05-25T23:41:00.000Z

The shift to a one party right of centre state is never more obvious than when we look at Labour in opposition in Renfrewshire.

Maybe I'm wrong and am just being left behind by consensus politics of the soft right, but I was always under the impression that it was the duty of the opposition to oppose. They did this by holding the ruling group to account and offering alternatives to the policies put forward by that group. This ensured that the proposals of the ruling group were properly scrutinised and compared with an alternative model, that of the opposition. That is the strength of an adversarial system of government.

Labour in Renfrewshire (still in shock at their loss of power and smarting under a new ignominy, they are losing their JPs) are offering no new and innovative policies, they are not even promoting the stale old policies which saw them lose power.

Their stated aim is to ensure that the election promises made by the SNP are kept. But surely it is not the role of the opposition Labour party to ensure that the SNP manifesto is implemented, that is just a stupid thing to say. Labour should be offering a different agenda with new ideas (not the ones which were already rejected by the majority of voters) and fighting tooth and nail to prevent the ideas which they opposed whilst in office from being implemented. That is the duty of an opposition, but they still do not understand that they are the opposition, so they will fight to implement the policies of the SNP and try to take credit for themselves for what goes right, rejecting as not theirs anything which goes wrong.

This is a completely sterile approach to the problems of Renfrewshire, and to think that we paid the dead wood thousands to go away and not prevent innovation. What a waste that was. The new lot haven't an idea between them except to ensure the implementation of SNP policy.

Terry Kelly and Social Housing

2007-05-24T16:57:00.000Z

I've been trying to ignore TKMax recently as he has become something of an irrelevance even within the Labour group, but when he makes a statement like this:-

How about campaigning for a proper social house building programme instead of capitulating to the racists, there's a novel idea, decent socialists in the party now have to apologise for you, for god's sake go !

then I have to remind people that he campaigned against keeping Renfrewshire's housing in public ownership. He bragged about the number of council houses the Labour council had knocked down, and when challenged about the number of council houses they had built (none) and the number of homeless and the waiting lists for council houses (thousands -- see my post on 19th April 2007) he took the cowards way out, did not respond, and barred me from comment on his site.

Well it's his site, so he makes the rules, but we will have to to add hypocrisy to the previous charges of buffoonery (and he is after all McMillan's court jester), and treat his opinions accordingly

Rayleen and the SSP

2007-05-23T12:15:00.000Z

Rayleen (the peoples' princess) Kelly has raised some questions about the survival of the SSP on her site. I've posted a reply but who knows if she will publish it.

I can only tell others what I have tried to tell her, and that is that the SSP will obviously have to have a re-think as regards our operational affairs, but we are resolved to be here fighting for working people against their enemies in the Labour, New Labour, Tory, New Tory, Maybe we're Tory but we're not sure Lib/Dem, and Tartan Tory parties.

We are not going away irrespective of how big an embarrassment it might be for Labour to have us reminding them of what they are supposed to stand for and the liars they have become.

The Coronation of Gordon Brown

2007-05-18T16:10:00.000Z

There was no choir giving us 'Zadok the Priest', but the elevation of Gordon (the big clunking fist) Brown to the status of Prime Minister elect was something of a coronation.

The fact that a left candidate from within the Labour party couldn't even get on to the ballot paper surely tells us that any notional loyalty to the working class, which some Labour supporters were clinging to, has gone completely and forever. There is no way back from this that leads left, the bridge is burnt.

All those, like TKMax, who believe that, as puny district councillors in opposition, they can present any challenge to the inexorable rightward stampede of the Labour party are either liars, clinging to their Labour rosettes in the hope of being able to re-join the gravy train, or fools.

For better or worse we have got Big Humble Gordy, and he has much to be humble about when we consider the growing inequality he has created.

Renfrewshire Labour in Opposition

2007-05-18T12:29:00.000Z

It looks as if they still don't get it, but just for the sake of clarification, Renfrewshire Labour--you're out on your arse. There will be no more corporate hospitality or freebies, declared or otherwise, you're history, live with it. You made no friends in power and could not form a coalition if your lifestyles depended on it (and they did).

So for Sharkey (the assassin of Rayleen, the People's Princess) to say in the paper that he is committed to working with all of his new colleagues? on the council no matter which party badge they wear is just wishful thinking. They won't let you play because of the spiteful and hateful things your party did while in power. Get it in your heads, you are in opposition, you have a duty to oppose and hold up to scrutiny the policies of the new administration, and to be vilified for it in the same way you vilified the opposition while you were in power.

Iain McMillan, who rules over the ashes of what was once the administration in Renfrewshire, is similarly delusional. He is reported to have hit out at the new coalition for failing to tap into the vast experience of some of his colleagues on the policy boards. He can't really have thought that the duds who ruined Paisley (at least those who didn't take the money and run) were going to be offered convererships and places of influence in the new administration. The arrogance of the man is beyond belief. They still think that they have a right to govern even when they have been shoved out the door by a spirit of co-operation which they could not foster for themselves, and deeply resent in other more progressive alliances.

Renfrewshire Politics, Councillors' Expenses and Hate Mail

2007-05-17T22:27:00.000Z

One of the local papers the 'Gazette', a weekly, carries a report today of hate mail which has been sent to a Johnstone woman. The letter, which is on what looks like Renfrewshire council letterhead says, 'We would like to thank you from the Bottom of our hearts For the support you gave the SNP Now #### ### and keep your mouths shut.'

The woman who received the letter is married to Tom Gartley and the couple were the focus of attention when they alleged irregularities in Councillors' expenses claims.

Mrs Gartley also says that the local Johnstone police have passed the complaint on to the officer investigating the alleged expenses fraud as ,'they considered the matter to be linked to the fraudulent councillors' claims.'

I'll keep an eye on it and let you all know what happens if anything.

Gordon Brown a New Leader, but How New

2007-05-17T16:07:00.000Z

'Gorgeous' George Galloway, who gave the US Senate such a battering that I was at one stage (nearly) starting to feel sorry for the US, has described Tony (bye-bye) Bliar and Gordon (big Gordy) Brown as two cheeks of the same arse, so whether we will be able to notice the difference is a matter for some debate.

An arse with two right cheeks is a bit unusual, but it seems like we've got one, so we'll all be watching, I'm sure, to see if it can continue to function. It has been producing crap ok so far.

Terry Kelly (TKMax) and Jesus

2007-05-17T15:49:00.000Z

I see on our favourite blog that Terry Kelly approves the stance of Jesus and Ron Ferguson on the blessing of same sex partnerships. I was interested to read Ron's compelling arguments in the Herald this week, and I am 100% in agreement with the case he put forward.

He and Jesus must be gratified to know that TKMax also approves.

Harry, the Warrior Prince

2007-05-16T16:50:00.002Z

I hear in the news that Harry, the warrior prince is not going to be sent to Iraq. What a surprise !!

Frankly I couldn't care less, what concerns me more is getting the poor sods who have been sent out there to fight in Bush's war back home safe and sound. Everyone knew that Harry would't be sent, the real upper classes send out the middle classes to do their duty in foreign climes, and the working classes to be the casualties. That is how it is and has always been. Harry would no more have had to go than I would, and we all know it.

What is less understandable is his wish to go, if that is true. How could a young boy be brainwashed into believing that his duty lay in killing people in Iraq for no real purpose as far as British interests were concerned.

I suppose he might have been suggestible due to his upbringing as his family have a history of being on the right, which is strange when you consider that they are everything that the right hate.

His grandfather was an immigrant who by his public statements showed he had only a passing familiarity with British culture. He never had a proper job living in publicly owned housing off his wife's state payments.

His father was a fox murdering adulterer who flaunted his promiscuity in the face of his young wife, the boy's mother. He also never held down a proper job, which is possibly why his family became dysfunctional to the extent that the boy had to go to a drugs clinic.

The mother hadn't the bottle to tell her husband 'I dont care who your mum is, if I see you around that woman again her face and yours is coming off'. Any decent working class woman would have done that or something similar, they wouldn't have settled for the position even at the cost of their dignity.

Ah, Kate lass, you had a lucky escape.

Douglas Alexander and the Local Press

2007-05-16T16:41:00.002Z

Duggie, the golden one and future anointed (I wish he'd resign so I can stop having to type this out all the time) published his regular column in the Paisley Daily Express today, and most congratulatory to the Labour party it was. He didn't, however, mention his part in the elections, only congratulating Wendy (for it is she) Alexander (second trumpet in the Alexanders' rag time band) and Hugh (Shuggie the hammer) Henry among others, on their success.

Perhaps next time he will be able to tell us how he cocked it all up, if he's still there, which he shouldn't be.

Smirky the Fishy King, or First Minister Salmond

2007-05-16T16:24:00.000Z

Well it appears that I was wrong and Gordon (clunky) Brown and Ming (the merciless) Campbell didn't manage to impose a deal on the Scottish Lib/ Dems. Alex (smirky) Salmond is now First Minister.

Great news you might think. I can stop re-paying my student loan (if I ever earn enough to be required to make repayments). I'll stop paying my council tax (surely the income based alternative won't affect people on my earnings). I'll dig out the banners to celebrate our boys coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan. There must be some other things, remind me what I'll be free to do now that we have won our freedom that we couldn't do before.

Oh yes, vote in an independence referendum...........or maybe not.

The Peoples' Princess and the Election Fiasco

2007-05-15T23:39:00.000Z

It is good to see in Rayleen (the peoples' princess) Kelly's latest offering that she stands by her previous comments (to which she directs us).

How she can stand by the view which commences with the phrase 'One of the positives of having the Scottish Parliament elections on the same day as the council', when 140,000 people have been dis-enfranchised as a result of that very decision defeats me.

As far as I and many others are concerned there were no positives directly attributable to that decision, and the man responsible, Douglas (Duggie the golden one and future anointed) Alexander should resign if he had any principles or decency. He has robbed the electorate and no amount of delaying tactics, such as appointing a phony inquiry when we all know what went wrong, will allow this to be kicked into the long grass.

Labour should be ashamed, but they have no shame.

Douglas Alexander and the Election Shambles Contd.

2007-05-15T15:53:00.000Z

So we are to have a Canadian to investigate and find out what went wrong. It will probably cost us hundreds of thousands of pounds to find out that it went wrong because it was a mess from start to finish.

In order to save some money I'll tell them what went wrong.

Postal voting was poorly organised. Ballot papers were designed to be politically expedient to the Labour administration. Little or no help was provided at the polling places, and the staff at the polling places who were appointed to help didn't understand the system themselves. Political parties, well the Nats, tried to capitalise on the confusion by shyster manouvering on the ballot papers. The counting method was not geared up to deal with the sheer volume of spoiled papers it encountered.

Can you not just send me half of the money now that I've told you the result of the Canadian investigation.

The real question is not what went wrong, but what are they going to do about it. We all know what went wrong. Duggie, the golden one and future anointed, should resign immediately and allow someone who is less culpable to examine the problem, because with that amount (140,000?) of spoiled papers, no matter who won they cannot claim legitimacy.

SNP and Lib/Dem coalition

2007-05-14T22:49:00.000Z

Rayleen (the peoples' princess) Kelly has offered here her latest views on the calamity for Labour in the local elections. She still, like many other Labour supporters and councillors, cannot get her head round the fact that the people of Renfrewshire gave the Nats as many seats as they did Labour, and now wants to re-write the rules so that it is the number of votes rather than the number of seats that count.

Sooner or later they will have to wake up to the fact that it was Labour which formed the rules under which this election (assuming it is worthy of the name) was fought. If anyone screwed it up it was Duggie, the golden one and future anointed.

Labour in Renfrewshire have poured such vitriol on all of the other parties for so long that they had no friends to talk to in coalition talks, and they are still pouring. PR is meant to deny any party total power, and to that extent it has worked. Everyone except Renfrewshire Labour seem to be able to make it work (even Happy Jack the numpty managed to make it work in the last Parliament), so don't tell me it isn't sour grapes.

We didn't do so well ourselves, but we aren't bitching 'it's an injustice' like some Calimero. We take it on the chin and try again, we don't blame the voters for our failure.

We're also kind of glad you didn't get back in.

Romans in Scotland: The Eagle of the Ninth

2007-05-14T16:44:00.000Z

A report that 'The Eagle of the Ninth' , a story about the Roman legion which disappeared in Scotland and were never heard of again, is to be made into a film brought to mind a story told to us by a teacher in primary school a long time ago (about 50 years).

She maintained that in and around Dumbarton there is a story that the legion settled in Dumbarton attracted by the women there, and that is the reason why there is such a preponderence of Romanesque noses in the Dumbarton area. (See how nice I can be when I really try, but I mean big noses).

Anyone else heard of this or a similar story, because I'm not sure if she was taking the mickey out of us. She was that kind of teacher.

J K Rowling

2007-05-14T16:41:00.000Z

There was also a piece about J K Rowling, but I,m so fed up reading about her and Harry Potter I didn't bother.

As Fred McAuley says, 'In Paisley jakey rolling is a sport'.

Knitting with a Purpose

2007-05-14T16:29:00.000Z

I don't suppose I ever expected to be blogging about knitting but a piece in the Herald caught my attention today. It was about knitters in the Fair Isle trying to save their tradition in the face of big business.

I thought I might share a bit of folklore with my readers, since people I spoke to didn't seem to know that nearly every island around the coast of Britain had their own knitting pattern or style, Fair Isle, Arran, Jersey, Guernsey (in the north of England they pronounce it Ganzi) etc.

This was so that if a fisherman was lost at sea, irrespective of the state of decomposition of the body, the lanolin in the wool would preserve the knitwear from the salt water and the body could be identified, or at least returned to the right island for proper burial.

Don't complain about the price of fish.

Sir Sean and Duggie

2007-05-14T16:21:00.000Z

I see that Sir Sean has called for the resignation of Douglas (Duggie the chosen one and future anointed) Alexander.

Whilst I agree with him on this point, his voice would perhaps have more weight if he were affected by the decisions made in the UK by those he criticises.

We'll leave a light in the window for you Sean, come home and pay your taxes

Glasgow Airport Rail Link and the Racecourse Playing Fields

2007-05-14T16:01:00.000Z

Renfrewshire Council have received a planning application for new football pitches in the Foxbar area, about 4 miles from the pitches they are meant to replace at the racecourse in Shortroods. The pitches at the racecourse are being ripped up to accommodate the Glasgow Airport Rail Link which will ensure that travellers from Glasgow can get a train to Glasgow Airport (which, for the uninitiated, is in Paisley). The total cost of the scheme is £140 million which will be paid by the taxpayer so that the airlines and BAA can make more money.

But it is the people of Paisley who will bear the social and environmental costs as well as a large part of the economic cost of this project and will be no better off for its completion. This link is meant to serve the people of Glasgow and no others and it is a disgrace that the logical and obvious scheme, to run the link from Glasgow Central through Braehead Centre and Renfrew to the Airport, has been ignored.

Renfrew is the largest town in Scotland without a railway station and the increase in footfall through Braehead shopping centre, if the people of Glasgow didn't have to negotiate the M8, would surely increase substantially.

It is an opportunity lost, and for what reason we can only speculate, but we must doubt the motives of the decision makers. The alternative route is so obviously better that the decision to go through Paisley is distinctly smelly.

Jean Charles de Menezez

2007-05-12T22:13:00.000Z

The family are calling it murder, and they're probably right, but the Police Federation are one of the most powerful lobby groups in the country and usually have defended their members even to the point of bullying Chief Officers. That is why you can't sack a sub-standard officer. Any allegations have to be proved to a criminal standard before disciplinary action can be taken, so, even in the unlikely event of his partner admitting to seeing an offence by an officer, it is unlikely there will be corroboration so there will be no action taken.

If that system applied to the rest of us no-one could ever be sacked. So we are left in the ludicrous situation where a young man lies dead, and a surveillance officer is going to be given 'management advice'. Presumably that will consist of someone telling him he should manage to point out the right guy.

This man was not mistaken for a suicide bomber. There was no suicide bomber there for him to be mistaken for. It was a cock-up plain and simple and the cover-up swung into operation before the body was cold. The lies that were told as to the young man's appearance (bulky clothing), and whether he was running away (he wasn't) were designed to add to the considerable confusion while a believable lie was found or constructed. If there was another reason for the lies let them come out and say so.

The truth (at least in part) was only told when it was obvious that the papers, and particularly the international press, were on to the story and it was clear that the game was up.

So, for all involved, it isn't too late to do something decent for the mans family and accept your responsibility for his death. 'Management Advice' is either a joke or an insult, and the Independent (another joke) Police Complaints Commission and the Crown Prosecution Service should be ashamed. As accessories after the fact they are as guilty as the trigger men if justice is suppressed..

The Day the Music (or at least the Alexanders' Rag Time Band) Died

2007-05-12T15:25:00.000Z

Reading the comment in the local and the national press it is clear that Labour are stunned by the fact that the people of Renfrewshire decided overwhelmingly that they did not want Labour to be in a position of power in Renfrewshire. They just can't believe that they have lost their divine right to govern the district.

The voters gave Labour the same number of seats that they gave to the Nats, but in their arrogance Labour couldn't get any consensus on the way forward for Renfrewshire (hardly a surprise when they can hardly get agreement within the Labour group).

Perhaps they now regret that they allowed the politics of the area to become mired in personal and spiteful abuse (a la TKMax) and found themselves with no friends to do business with when they needed them.

Gone are the hospitality days of the free bars and functions; they now face years out in the cold after so long being pampered and feted by contractors and others.

I am starting to feel sorry for them, is there no counselling service that can help?

Maybe the new SNP/Lib dem administration could set one up as a kindness.

In Memoriam: Jean Charles de Menezez

2007-05-11T22:35:00.000Z

This young man was shot seven times in the head at close range by firearms officers of the Metropolitan Police.

The news today that 11 officers involved in his killing will face no disciplinary action fills me with disgust. We had already learned of the whitewash regarding criminal charges, with the Met being charged only with a breach of health and safety regulations. I'll say it was! There is a young man dead and his killing did not even justify a verbal warning for the officers concerned, because that is what today's ruling means.

The poor parents of the young man do not understand, and I do not blame them. They are outraged and so they should be, because their son's only crime was to look like a muslim on a day when muslims were all under suspicion.

As usual, however, no-one in the Government or the police force will take the responsibility for what happened and resign. I don't care what any enquiry says, a young man is dead who shouldn't be and the people who killed him, and their taskmasters, must be held to account and pay the price of their carelessness, because someone must have been careless for this 'mistake' to happen, and in view of the dire consequences that person or persons should go and never again be in a position where their poor judgement means life or death to an innocent person.

Douglas Alexander and Downing Street

2007-05-10T16:44:00.000Z

Immediately following the Fiasco of the Scottish elections I tried to open a petition on the Downing Street e-petitions web site in the following terms : -

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Remove from
office with immediate effect Douglas Alexander MP following the
Scottish Elections fiasco

I deliberately worded this so that it promoted the interests of no particular political party and offered it merely as a plea from the people of Scotland for accountability in Government and for a higher standard of governance.

As we might have expected no criticism of Duggie, the golden one and future anointed, will be allowed on that site and the petition was rejected on the basis that it was 'party political'.

This only goes to underline the vacuous empty imitation of democracy we have in this country. The e-petition site was supposed to be there so as to bring public concerns to the attention of the Prime Minister. It was meant to be participatory democracy in action, but it turns out to be no more than a sham, another piece of Bliar spin which provided a sound bite at the time and little else.

This is not a party political petition, it promotes the views of all parties that we should have a system of democracy where people have a right not only to vote, but to have it counted. Duggie has denied that right to 140,000 citizens. He must go no matter what party he is from.

There is however some good news. There is a petition up and running at

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/ScottishVoteScandal2007/

which I urge everyone to sign asap. There is a difficulty with the link, but if you click on 'Sign Petition' and then put 'scottishvote' in the mini search engine you will get to the page.

Sometimes I wish I was more technical, but it always passes.

Lawyers and their Briefs

2007-05-09T23:12:00.000Z

Just a wee additional thought further to my rant about affordable justice, has anyone else noticed a curiosity I see in Paisley around about the court every day. There are always lawyers running about with large numbers of files piled up on their arms. I assume you see the same thing in Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Now I can't believe that people who earn that sort of money can't afford a carrier bag, disposable, recyclable or one of the new high fashion ones that are not plastic and idiots queue for as if they were going to stop making them.

I similarly don't believe that they lack the gumption to go into a shop and ask for a cardboard box, as an intelligent person would do.

I'm left with the assumption that they are afraid that someone might not notice that they are lawyers and fail to pay them the proper respect (bowing and scraping etc). The pile of files is their badge of office.

So I've got a word of advice for them.

The clue's in the name. Get a bloody briefcase you ponces.

Foreign Visitors

2007-05-09T22:53:00.000Z

I don't know if this is a terrible breach of blogging etiquette (I haven't been doing this long) but I seem to be getting a lot of hits on the site from overseas. I'm quite curious to know how you found me and what you were looking for. Perhaps you even found it, but I doubt it. So at the risk of a major breach of etiquette as I said, can I ask, if you are passing through or if you were actually looking for this kind of site, if you are an overseas visitor please leave me a comment (even if it's abuse ) . Thanks

Office of Fair Trading and Affordable Justice

2007-05-09T21:59:00.000Z

The Law Society and the Faculty of Advocates have rejected a call for an enquiry into affordable justice. At the risk of being sued, well its no risk really because I'm skint, I would simply ask readers to go to the website of the Scottish Legal Aid Board and have a root around until you find a complete listing of all of the amounts paid out in legal aid to both firms of solicitors and individual advocates. It's all on the website year by year in their reports but you have to dig deep to get at it. When you do you will see that some of these people are greedy beyond belief.

There is one advocate of distinctive appearance in 2003/4 who earned over £305,000 including VAT according to the legal aid board. I believe he might do a bit of cabaret to make ends meet. I've seen the video if you get my drift (that joke was strictly for Scottish readers in case you are mystified).

Over £100,000 is not uncommon and several others top £200,000 including some who threatened to strike for higher fees in 2005. Now I would normally be inclined to support strikes (it's a red thing) but I think I might not have given that one my best efforts.

The other thing to remember is that these are only payments from the Scottish Legal Aid Board, in other words, this is what they were paid for representing people who had not the means to pay, so I assume it does not include corporate work, work on public enquiries, work for the better off, or work on behalf of the Crown as advocate deputes in charge of prosecutions rather than defence.

We are starting to see why an enquiry into affordable justice might just be a good idea. I wonder how much they earn in total. Some of them must be on nearly a million pounds a year and that is obscene when legal aid is being cut back for poor people who find it increasingly difficult to enforce their rights against corporate bodies who can afford a long strung out defense (such as the tobacco manufacturers have used in the USA for years, don't let it come here).

Douglas Alexander and the Election Shambles Contd.

2007-05-09T21:44:00.000Z

I see that Duggie the golden one and future anointed is still refusing to resign even although there are 40,000 more reasons than we originally thought. Yes, the figure for spoiled papers is now thought to be 140,000. This guiser has absolutely no shame. He says we need to get answers, but surely the first question we need answered is who was responsible. No doubt some civil servant is getting lined up for the chop even as I write, but, Duggie, you are responsible and that answers the main question. Either the shambles we got was your best shot, in which case you are incompetent, or it wasn't, in which case you are careless. In either case you should not still be in office. You can't investigate what went wrong, because you have a vested interest in making it someone else's fault. Why don't you take advantage of the Bliar resignation and slip out the back door while nobody's looking. You won't be missed for years.

The Greens and the Balance of Power

2007-05-09T08:55:00.000Z

Following the Scottish election fiasco, which made Florida look intelligent and Zimbabwe look democratic, it appears that the Greens are trying to put together a sort of diddy-coalition with the Lib/ Dems to wield the balance of power in the new Parliament. I think they might be getting ideas well above their station, at least we know we were beaten, but the idea of the Greens in power brings fears to the surface I didn't know I had.

As far as policies went, in the last election they were possibly less envoronmentally aware than we were. They were even using plastic cable ties (perish the thought) rather than proper hairy string (hooray) to put up their posters, and I saw at least one who wasn't wearing brown corduroy trousers. Can we rely on nothing any more?

I'm still tipping Menzies (Ming the merciless) Campbell and Gordon (the big clunking fist) Brown to dash the cup from the lips of Alex (Smirky) Salmond at the last minute, although I am less certain than some days ago

Rationing in the National Health Service

2007-05-07T15:28:00.000Z

NHS doctors are apparently discussing rationing of treatments in the health service as a way of saving money (or making existing funding go further).

I don't really want to get overinvolved in the healthcare arguments, although it seems as if one of the richest countries in the World shouldn't be in a position where it has to let its old and its ill suffer and die because it is expensive to keep them alive with dignity.

The other thing that this discussion of rationing raises is the very real possibility of patients being divided into the deserving and the undeserving. As the country moves to the right, and it is becoming ever harder to stop that drift, we will hear more and more about treatments being withdrawn from those who have abused their bodies by their lifestyles.

I would not personally exclude the possibility, with the leaps in technology we are making, of some committee examining your supermarket loyalty card to see if you have been eating your 6 portions of fruit and veg. a day and avoiding unhealthy foods before authorising your operation.

Palmprint scanners in some primary and secondary schools are already recording what our children eat. I hope that their records don't come back to haunt them in later life.

We should be opposing compulsory ID cards, but just as invidious are the voluntary ones to which we sign up in increasing numbers. If we are asked for personal information we should be asking why, who will have access, and what happens to it when it is no longer needed .

One Socialist Party for Scotland

2007-05-07T15:16:00.000Z

The letters in the 'Herald' today include a plea from a Solidarity supporter to get in touch if you want there to be only one socialist party in Scotland.

I have to tell him that this situation already exists. The Scottish Socialist Party are the only really socialist party in Scotland, the other, which purports to support Scottish socialism is largely funded from other places and was never any more than a vehicle for one man's vanity (and the driver seems to be abandoning the vehicle rapidly to try to find a career where his talents will be better placed--in the media presumably, even although he has condemned them up and down, but thats show business, even if it's not politics).

Update on Ferguslie Park

2007-05-07T15:12:00.000Z

One thing I forgot to mention in my list of outstanding queries was the old tyres lying in the lay-by in Drums Ave. Ferguslie (see mine 19th March) , so just to keep everyone up to date on TKMax's contribution, the old tyres I mentioned are still there, and don't look like going anywhere anytime soon.

Scottish Coalition Negotiations Cont.

2007-05-06T22:10:00.000Z

I hear from Radio Scotland News at 10 pm that negotiations between the Lib/Dems and the Nats have broken down over the issue of a referendum on independence, but that the Lib/Dems have already excluded a coalition with Labour.

Time perhaps for the really big Westminster boys to step in. My previous post is looking more like prophecy than comment.

Let's keep watching, it's getting interesting.

Scottish Coalition Negotiations

2007-05-06T17:07:00.000Z

The idea put forward in the Sunday Herald today has a great deal of sense to it.

It speculates that while the Nats and the lib/dems are negotiating in Edinburgh, down in London, Gordon ' the big clunking fist' Brown (who can't stand Alex 'Smirky' Salmond) and Menzies' Ming the Merciless' Campbell are quietly sorting out a deal which will be imposed on the Scottish Lib/dems.

Watch out for sparks.

Outstanding Queries: Can Anyone Update Us

2007-05-06T08:46:00.000Z

I saw an incident on Saturday night which reminded me of why I started to Blog in the first place (see my first post) so I decided to go through the blog and look for the unanswered questions that I will have to chase up via freedom of information since we have lost our MSPs.
So can anyone update us on the following (dates as per my blog) :

8th March Did West Yorkshire Police ever discipline the officers who beat up the young girl

15th March Did Strathclyde Police or Jamieson ever explain or apologise for the police actions

4th April Did anyone from the airlines ever explain how flights could take off with the baggage reconciliation not correct

9th April With the Nats being the biggest party has Sir Sean Connery announced when he is returning to Scotland to take up residence (pay his tax)

24th April Has anyone accepted responsibility for the sewage spillage into the Forth and resigned

25th April Has Tesco made any announcment in respect of its proposals for the Love Street site. I'm getting anxious to know if we were screwed in the election by a lie (but I suppose to say that the people of the area are looking forward to their new supermarket isn't really a lie even if it never arrives), and finally

4th May Has Duggie offered his resignation for the voting system fiasco

Feel free to comment if you can add any enlightenment

The Election Results

2007-05-04T22:48:00.000Z

This is a painful one to write, but I said that I would comment on our own showing in a later post, so I suppose I can't run away from it. The only caveat I would add is that this is my personal opinion (as is everything else in this blog)
The result for us was dreadful. Our parliamentary base has been wiped out and the Scottish Nationalists with their capitalist puppet masters have become the biggest party. It could hardly be worse.
But it is worse. Some of our failure, as Clairwil comments earlier today, was due to the general squeeze that was felt by all of the smaller parties, which, in their rush to give Labour a good kicking, just supported the most likely boot boys. It would, however, be hypocritical to ignore the mutually assured destruction which Tommy 'tangoman' Sheridan forced the left wing parties into.
He has deprived the people that he purports to represent of a voice of any kind in the Parliament by an act of triumphalist self aggrandisement. Who will speak for the poor and the disenfranchised now. Tangoman has deprived them of a voice and is trying to give them just a mouth. He has become a disgrace to socialism and is now everything a socialist should not be.
He should be ashamed of what he has done to his own people who trusted and believed in him. It is the right of everyone to form a party and to stand in election, but to target your highest profile candidates in places where there is a sitting socialist member is either malicious or just plain crazy. It isn't as if the result was unpredictable, he knew exactly what he was doing when he set out to destroy what he had created for no other reason than that it had survived without him. I repeat--he knew what he was doing because he has been in politics long enough, and every pollster and pundit told him.
There are 100,000 more people disenfranchised today than there were yesterday because of Douglas 'Duggie' Alexander's Westminster imposed voting system and not a solitary damned MSP of the left to represent them .I hope you're proud Tommy.
There is nothing more unseemly than a fall out within the left (Peoples Front for Judea etc) and as my old mum used to say 'The more you stamp on a skitter the further it spreads.' so it is not my intention to make any further comment at all on this, but I will not censor comment. I've given it out, so I'll have to take it. And yes, I am bitter.

Jim Bollan SSP Councillor West Dumbartonshire

2007-05-04T22:12:00.000Z

I've added a link to Jim Bollan's blog in 'Other Views From the Left.' Jim is a highly committed activist and his local reputation for helping the less advantaged is the stuff of legend. He's world famous in Renton and I'm delighted he has been returned to the council to continue to expose the erosion of the rights of the ordinary people of west Dumbartonshire.

Douglas Alexander and the Election Shambles

2007-05-04T15:54:00.000Z

I'll get to our own performance in a later post once it all sinks in, but for the moment I can only say that I am very disappointed by the result. TKMax has held on to his place, but the People' Princess has gone. Labour and the Nats are tied with 17 seats apiece on the council, so we will need to wait and see how coalitions form, if they do.

The real problem is that we now have an electoral problem that I thought could only exist in a third world dictatorship. If an election in an African country had resulted in 100,000 (yes 100,000) spoilt papers we would be screaming electoral fraud and demanding that they re-run it. The Electoral Reform Society has called it unacceptable in early interviews, but no doubt when pressure is applied from the big parties it will be accepted.

The real story to come out of all of this is that Douglas 'Duggie' Alexander has really blotted his copybook. The golden one and future anointed presides over what can only be reasonably described as a total effing fiasco. This system of holding 3 elections simultaneously was a Westminster decision by his office. A man of honour would resign, so no doubt he wont, but it wont be because nobody asked him to. I can see Smirky Salmond foaming at the mouth already aboutWestminster's involvement, except that he is, of course, part of the Westminster system

Duggie has made Scotland a laughing stock throughout the whole world and he should be hung by the chads

Election Day is Here at Last

2007-05-02T22:48:00.000Z

All of the trekking around the streets is done, now we just have to sit back and watch the votes roll in ;-).

Obviously I only want there to be one winner, but I wish everyone who has been involved in campaigning all the best.

I'll be at a polling station tomorrow so lets keep it friendly, I'm too old for anything else.

The Best Wee Numpty in the World

2007-05-02T16:33:00.000Z

I'm never sure whether I'm the only person on the net who has'nt seen these things so maybe you have all seen this You Tube I have added under 'Interesting Stuff' links.

If you haven't, it is well worth a look

Terry Kelly's Conspiracy Theory

2007-05-02T15:26:00.000Z

I'm not sure what I've done to be characterised by being SSP as one of a 'vicious bunch of thugs' by TKMax, but just to clarify my record, I've never been reported to the police or the standards commission for any offence apart from speeding and that was 30 years ago.

I've never been thrown bodily out of an election count for trying to pick a fight with a political opponent, and just to cap it all, TKMax has never in all of his life spoken to me or to any of my family, and that's a promise, so how can he smear me as if he knew me.

Desperation is a terrible thing, but if he sees me as part of a right wing conspiracy then he has lost it completely.

I note that he has not denied the story about the free entry to the fairground reported on 'Terrywatch', and whether he paid for it or just got it as a favour from a grateful fairground operator (who needs the local council on side to be able to get the prime sites) then it is morally and probably legally suspect.

I look forward to the outcome of any police enquiry.