Rayleen Kelly and the SSP : Accusations of Lying

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.

Rayleen and the SSP

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.

Renfrewshire Labour in Opposition

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.

The Peoples' Princess and the Election Fiasco

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.

SNP and Lib/Dem coalition

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.

Douglas Alexander and the Election Shambles

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

Linwood for the Linwoodians?

A friend of mine from Linwood has just given me a copy of an election leaflet which he (and I ) thinks is strange.

This woman from the local Lib/ Dems thinks she should have your vote because she has lost 6 stones in weight and lives in Linwood. She believes that people from Paisley, Renfrew and Crosslee might not be able to be trusted. It has overtones of the Wicker Man.
I am impressed by her slogan, 'Vote and regain our community back' (sic), but I think I am more tempted to try to protect her from all of that municipal hospitality that has wrought such havoc on the figures of Terry (TKMax) Kelly and Rayleen (the Peoples' Princess) Kelly.

Rayleen's World of Severance Pay and Censorship

It really isn't sporting for Rayleen to censor my latest post and then post anonymous comments criticising me. She either posts anonymous comments or she doesn't and I had thought that it was my anonymity that caused her to censor my comments but it looks now as if it is only because I disagree with her.

The spave (sic) betweem (sic) my ears which her anonymous post complains of probably isn't as well used as it might be, but it is difficult to claim credit for 35 years of service only to retire and leave Paisley the way it is. He must be a broken man.

As a matter of interest, how long do you think that Labour can keep on blaming Thatcher (not that I would exempt her from blame but she's been gone a long time).

What have Labour done to try to re-build our industrial base ?

Councillors Severance Pay : A Message to Rayleen

Rayleen decided to publish my last post, but she isn't happy about it. She says that it doesn't deserve a response and that is always a prelude to censorship, so just in case I will post a copy of my response below :-

Rayleen—I can’t think why my comments should not deserve a response but think of these questions
First . At about 18 years of service the severance would be as follows :-

‘The Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004 (Severance Payments) Regulations 2006
Section 5 . 1 . (c) £20,000 for a member of a local authority who shall, at the date of the next ordinary election, have served for a period of 15 complete years or more.’

I invite you again to ask your constituents if they believe that the retiring councillors deserve this amount of money

Second The remuneration committee looked at the question of pensions and decided as follows :-

‘Scottish Local Authorities Remuneration Committee

Current arrangements

4.1 There are no arrangements currently in place to allow councillors to be part of an occupational pension scheme. Councillors who wish to make pension provision must make private arrangements, using part of their basic and special responsibility allowances’

So the pension was built into the allowances and councillors were expected to make provision themselves.

Third The payment is not a thank you for service to the community, it is a direct bribe for dead wood time-servers to go away and stop preventing innovative people from advancing better ideas and programmes. They must leave government totally (if they go into the Scottish Parliament then they will not be eligible) and the reasons are in this BBC report which says

‘Critics are likely to portray the severance scheme as a way of placating Labour councillors in the central belt likely to lose their seats under the new electoral system.

The executive argued, however, that it would be a one-off move that would provide some incentive for long-standing councillors to stand down and make way for fresh blood in Scotland's town halls.’

It could hardly be clearer without being downright insulting.

Finally, I am also grateful to the councillors for retiring, because they let the problems in our communities flourish for so long. I am not on the sidelines sniping, I am and have been actively trying to remove them (in line with your own policy) for some length of time. I only regret that I couldn’t embarrass them into going sooner and without a large wedge of public money that they scarcely deserve.

Rayleen's Fantasy World of Dinosaur Councillors

I've tried before to publish to Rayleen Kelly's site and been censored, I don't know if its because I'm anonymous or because of what I say, but I've left this comment on her piece about retiring councillors.


Rayleen—I really can’t let you away with this one. Six retiring councillors with 110 years service between them means an average of about 18 years each.
Look at the changes in Paisley in the last 18 years and we will see their legacy.

Traffic flow is monstrous. The town centre is like a graveyard for old unused shops with many of the major retailers who are left wanting away. Local taxation is higher than it has ever been and services are in decline. There is no major industry to speak of. Drugs and crime are rampant in the housing schemes, and councillors are arranging congratulatory dinners in the midst of a child poverty crisis (let them eat cake). It’s sick.

As for the severance awards (pay-offs) which these people are being awarded, ask the people at your surgeries what they think those councillors deserve. I’m sure the answer won’t surprise you.

Just to clarify, because you either don’t or won’t understand. These pay-offs were not for work done. These people were overpaid every year for that. These pay-off were not needed as a pension; millions of people are expected to get by on the state pension unless they buy an extra one for themselves, and if the state pension isn’t enough whose fault is that! These were ‘get lost’ payments to dinosaur councillors, paid out only on condition that they go away from local government and never come back. If we can get back to a situation where councillors serve the community instead of their own egos then it might have been worth it, but I doubt that will happen under this present lot, and you shouldn’t mislead people.

I don't know if she will publish it because Renfrewshire Council knows no shame. Even the Paisley town hall clock has a red face.