The Labour Party supports austerity in England but opposes it in Scotland. If Labour were to win the general election, and also find themselves in power in Scotland’s 2016 parliamentary elections, there would be “new and higher” benefits in Scotland, whereas sanctions and cuts would continue to oppress the ordinary people of England. Indeed, they have repeatedly promised to be tougher on benefits than the Tories – in England.
Now let us for a moment suspend all our critical faculties, and believe that Gordon Brown is sincere about the higher benefits in Scotland. Let us also ignore the fact that to be practical, that would require devolution of a vastly greater proportion of the tax base than anything Labour or the Smith Commission are suggesting. Let us, just for now, believe it is a sincere and practical offer. It is possible to understand why it could attract some people – the union without the cuts and austerity.
But why one earth would any left wing person in England want to vote for a party which, if in power in both England and Scotland, would pay higher benefits to Scots than to English? Why would the English vote for a continued retrenchment of the welfare state there but not in Scotland. Indeed, is there not liable to be some resentment in England at this rather strange proposition? When you add to this Labour’s absolute insistence that while English MPs may not vote on Scottish affairs, Scottish MP’s must be allowed to vote on English affairs, it seems to me you would have to be nuts to vote for Labour in England at present.
The BBC’s latest promotion of super-Brown and his new promises has caused much hilarity in Scotland. I cannot improve on this incisive comment I lifted from the Guardian, by MurphyUKOK:
What is it with the Labour Party and these 2 in particular? The sequencing of their ‘pledges’ on Home Rule so far had been
1) totally opposed to home rule – it is either yes or no
2) eh no actually, we are shitting ourselves, it looks like we might lose- we ‘vow’ home rule
3) we didn’t vow home rule
4) the smith commission has finalised its position- we have delivered home rule
5) eh no … that actually isn’t home rule but if you vote for us again we will give you home rule
A party of lying fucking idiots!!!
But I think the Greens, the Tories and UKIP in England must be those most amused and delighted by Labour’s latest incredible convolution. All of which reinforces my frequently repeated assertion that Labour are going to be nowhere near government after the general election, unless in coalition with the Tories.
Independence is so close now we can almost touch it.
Daily Mail: Margaret Thatcher tried to stop British diplomat linked to paedophile scandal from being named despite knowing of his ‘unnatural’ behaviour:
Why am I reminded of Quatermass II?
Last week Craig despatched the idea that there has ever been any connection between Jews and banking with a swift stroke of the quill. Let me explain the plan of political Islam as expounded to me by an expert. First you grab power by any means possible, cash, resources. You then progress up the food chain utilising your ill-gotten power until you control property, companies or utilities.
You reach a stage of such legitimacy that governments obey your commands.
The fact that I am not a Zionist, or Political devotee of the Jewish faith, coincides with my not being a member of Political Islam. Both are riddled with corruption in the name of what? In the name of God, if you can believe such a thing.
This week Craig is trying to tippex out the Labour Party in Scotland. However much people may dislike the lying and manoevring of politicians – and it is a particularly ugly sight in the case of discredited economics politicians like Gordon Brown, you will have a hard job to convince die-hard socialists that SNP politicians will be less ugly and deceitful than the devils they know.
Political Islam has totally disgraced itself in Libya and Syria , by openly serving as mercenaries for the world’s capitalist regime. We should never forget that Zionism has succeeded in washing volumes of dirty linen before coming to its present power in the world. Political Islam may have to do the same. But the stupidity of New Labour politicians allowing themselves to be brainwashed into war crimes and financial ruin is a sin no greater than a pair of smelly trainers, compared with the crimes of religious political Zionism and religious political Islam.
CM: “Yes, the Welsh are an entirely different question. Personally I very much hope they will choose independence, but not being in the least Welsh myself it is not my call.
Sorry, I was being a bit grumpy. We (the Welsh) get all the grief that’s heaped upon the English working class, but are rarely even included in the discussion.
” I will instead cite an example of the Scottish government answering, and heeding, the will of the Scottish people, just lately infact. ”
Well a pity there was no public consultation beforehand. It smacks of “let’s try this and see if anybody notices”.
Police Scotland only has 275 firearms trained officers so to claim they were being rolled out across Scotland is misleading.
Lysias
Mrs Thatcher chose Jimmy Savile for weekend company. It’s possible that certain people have a kind of charm, because they accept in themselves things that others try not to accept for morality reasons. Their charm acts as a devil’s advocate or a false touchstone for people who are out of their depth in the extremes of human capacities.
I don’t believe Mrs Thatcher was an immoral person herself, but she obviously kept bad counsel, and concluded that moral rectitude was the graveyard of many a political career, and she did not want to get into the Mrs Whitehouse syndrome.
We are where we are, and we should be able to move forward because our generation has not got such a mental block as that generation about sexual things.
ROS
“You’ve only ever commented once to me, and that was to call me a racist c*nt.”
Yes, big man, I remember your stream of holocaust denying comments. I’m glad you seem to have outgrown that a bit.
However, it’s a bit of a leap from an example of a somewhat progressive political decision to “they only answer to the people of Scotland”. A couple of examples right back at you: I thought the people of Sctoland wanted out of NATO and rid of the monarchy. Perhaps I’m wrong.
Not going to wait for the flower-bed stalker to pepper his backside. Not going to wait for the post-election tears of the main man. Just pointing out that keeping a cool head and sticking to down to earth commonsense is more likely to win votes than idle speculation. Ordinary earth, I mean, not the troilet one.
Uzbek in the UK, 2:57 pm: Edward Snowden didn’t choose to stay in Russia. He was changing planes there to get to South America when the US revoked his passport.
So it seems the US would rather have him in Russia than in South America. I suppose the US government thinks he’s easier to either control or discredit in Russia.
A party of lying fucking idiots!!!
Indeed, but they think we are the idiots.
Thanks for the great independence rally speeches Craig, shame about numbers..methinks the bitter wind chill had a say in that.
Re the all singin all dancin NEW Vow, ‘ A Thousand Flowers ‘ has a good Laugh at Murphy n Co’s new Con, Panic Job –
THE VOW 2 : THE WORST SEQUEL IN HISTORY? #VOWMOVIETITLES –
http://athousandflowers.net/2015/02/03/the-vow-2-the-worst-sequel-in-history-vowmovietitles/
Back More serious Stuff, Another good speech from Tommy –
Tommy Sheridan – Tactical Voting for May 2015 –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_O_48RH_zho
Baal Zevul-Komodo
“However, the middle-class is rapidly polarising between a few major gainers and the rest, who are now beginning to feel disenfranchised”
_________________
That is the very theme of an ongoing series of programmes on BBC Radio 4 (latest by Robert Peston this evening between 21h30 and 22hO0 GMT).
I think you’ve been listening in.
DonnyDarkside
“The mindless minority on this blog is you Fred !!”
________________
Your mention of mindless minirities reminds me that you haven’t yet answered a question I put to you about Greece.
You claimed that it was not Greek workers that got the country into its present position. I asked you who or what had (in your opinion) but you have declined so far to share your insights and wisdom with the rest of us.
With the SYRIZA govt having – reportedly – given up its demand for debt cancellation, now might be the moment for you to do so?
Thanks.
“Police Scotland only has 275 firearms trained officers so to claim they were being rolled out across Scotland is misleading.”
No, it’s not.
Police Scotland (a rather unfortunate branding) are quite proud of the fact that:
On armed officers.
“The decision is informed by a range of factors which includes the need to deliver equal access to specialist resource across the country”
“The postcode lottery of previous policing arrangements prior to Police Scotland where different parts of the country would have different levels of service across the country was not acceptable.”
“What is new is that all parts of Scotland now have access to a small number of specialist officers. It was unacceptable that different parts of the country had different levels of access to a specialist service that is there to keep our communities safe.”
http://www.scotland.police.uk/about-us/police-scotland/armed-policing/armed-policing-in-scotland
Now everyone can have armed officers.
So, if in the past you had a wee constabulary who got by with local knowledge, relationships and so on, now you’ve got the full Glasgow treatment, whether you need it or not.
There’s a reason why Britain doesn’t have a national police force. Well, they do, but it doesn’t look like they do.
Same for the US.
It was considered important that peeps be policed by locally accountable bods, otherwise why would they pay for it, or believe that it was all for their safety.
Seems that time has gone.
ROS I’ll give you that Tommy is quite an able speaker.
“Sorry, I was being a bit grumpy. We (the Welsh) get all the grief that’s heaped upon the English working class, but are rarely even included in the discussion.”
Yes, I’ve noticed that Glenn. But we did give you the Prince of Wales. And a few othere pubs. 🙂
Surprised at you, Craig, buying into the lie Westminster is perpetrating. By that I mean the elite of the Tory and Labour parties.
Westminster is the parliament of the UK in its entirety. Its MPs vote on matters that affect the UK in its entirety.
Ask yourself – what is the only constituent country of the UK to have no powers devolved from Westminster? What is the only constituent country of the UK to have no parliament separate from UK-Westminster?
Strangely, it’s England, the largest country by population. But great swathes of the English population are as dissatisfied with Westminster rule as are the Scots, yet they are they being denied self-determination.
You see, if it’s wrong for Scottish MPs to vote on purely English matters it’s because it’s wrong for any Westminster MP to be voting on purely English matters.
A separate English parliament with separately elected MEngPs would give England the type of self-determination we all seek. It would be fairer to my English neighbours and Westminster could concentrate on being the Parliament it was meant to be – for matters concerning the entire UK.
Stop pretending the Scots are at fault and encourage Westminster to set England free.
Campaign for an English Parliament now!
Perhaps condemlab are ganging up on Alex Salmond over the Gordon constituency because they know he’d be a powerful independent voice in the House of Commons and that’s the last thing they want!
Maybe they’ll be very, very, surprised with the locals’ reaction come polling day.
“Police Scotland only has 275 firearms trained officers so to claim they were being rolled out across Scotland is misleading.”
That being true, and I haven’t checked it, raises the big problem for safe havens. We do not have the stupid gun-laws of the US here. Neither does France. We do however have too many gun-carrying police and these are the ones who make “mistakes” (Mark Duggan and Jean Charles de Menenez spring to mind). I noticed after Charlie Hebdo that a report was put out showing how with just one member of staff at the offices being armed it could have stopped the “terrorists”.
I am sure this nonsense had the sole aim of preaching the message that “Hey, if you are armed you can be as safe as the good old USA, who if you recall wiped out a whole indigenous population of native Americans in the Great Holocaust with guns, while the native Americans only had bows and arrows which they used for hunting with which to defend themselves. The rest is history. They shot all the good guys in the back and left this big shower of cowboys in control. I’m an engineer. I have no time for cowboys.
And I do not want the regression into gun-law when we have proved it does not work.
I very much doubt it was Greek workers caused the financial problems in Greece.
They’d be way way down that chain of grief.
Anyway, let’s hope the Greeks can reinvent democracy for our time. There are many other countries, watching with interest.
And I’m sure The Colonels are watching too.
Interesting times.
If Salmond isn’t elected in Gordon, surely the SNP will persuade one of their MP’s to give up a safe seat, so that Salmond can breeze in in a by-election.
A close examination of the recent death of Chechen terrorist Isa Munayev by the militia of the Donetsk People’s Republic indicates that Islamic State(IS) had co-opted the Chechen movement as their own.
We remember September 1, 2004, when a group of Chechen terrorists took hostage and two days later murdered at least 335 schoolchildren and parents in Beslan, a town in the Russian republic of North Ossetia.
Munayev is formerly a Chechen military commander fighting for the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, a defunct government of Chechnya. He was a police officer in Grozny, capital of Chechnya, and was appointed by Chechen leader, Aslan Maskhadov as a military commandant of Grozny.
During the Chechen War he was responsible for organizing car bombs, mine explosions and ambushes against the Russian Armed Forces.
According to a source in the Ukrainian Volunteer Sheikh Mansur Battalion, Munayev was enjoying the benefits of the US funded Free Syrian Army fighting against the government of Bashar Al Assadin Syria some time after leaving the Islamic Group of Libya and was associated with Islamic State leader Sheik Omar al-Shishani before he was killed.
We know Munayev was in Ukraine in July 2014 and announced the formation of a Muslim battalion mostly composed of European based Chechen fighters who fought under former Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov. He was appointed as Chief Instructor under the Ukraine Interior Ministry.
Munayev’s battalion had smuggled military grade equipment from Ukraine to Europe and my source believes Helric Fredou, the deputy director of the regional judicial police in Limoges knew this connection existed and was the source of military weapons supplied to Cherif and Said Kouach.
@Lysias. Yes, agreed. But would the residents of Gordon want to go down in history as spoilsports?
Mark Golding, 3 Feb, 2015 – 11:38 pm
I’m sure you’re right Mark. My own feeling is that it is the same IS (though under a different name of course, the Mujahadin) who were the ones funded to try and free Chechnya from Russian influence and the ensuing wars were blamed on Russia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_International_Brigade
In some people’s eyes these same Mujahadin were the heroes who opposed Putin. But of course the history is much worse than that and goes back to 1979 (I think) when everybody in Kabul, boy or girl, was being educated equally sa in the Soveit Union. So the US, its Zionist funders and its allies have sought in all ways possible to destabilise Russia. Even Craig Murray still thinks that Russia was the aggressor in Chechnya.
I went offline and checked the last text meticulously before preparing to post. So the software that misspells must be built into the posting. I read it back and find this: “sa in the Soveit Union” if I did not know it to be a lie.
@John re Chechnya. Yes, it was terrible. However, from what I have read the “Chechnyan Rebels” were every bit as bad and bloodthirsty as ISIS is today and we don’t hear too much complaining about them being carpet bombed.
As ever, what is wrong with state aggression is that civilians get carpet bombed as well, which is always a war crime. Of course that goes all the way back to Guernica. Nothing was done about it then, so how many millions of civilians have died horrible deaths in the 78 years that have elapsed since then.
@Glenn
3 Feb, 2015 – 9:02 pm
Pleidleisia dros y Blaid fach ‘te!?
Rhyddid i Gymru .. England’s oldest colony!
@Ba’al Zevul
3 Feb, 2015 – 8:22 pm
I have always thought that where Marx really got it wrong was that he failed to foresee the triumph of the bourgeoisie.
I don’t see the proles doing well anywhere!
So a backbench opposition MP, that is retiring in May, promises superdooper Home Rule.
Why is this man being taken seriously by the media, and plastered all over BBC Jockland?
Juteman.
It is because the BBC want to con us the same as Broon.
The papers are doing the same.
It is to keep them purring doon sooth.
As well as those up here.
I have always thought that where Marx really got it wrong was that he failed to foresee the triumph of the bourgeoisie.
He wasn’t a Biblical prophet. He was an economist. And as his preferred model was never applied, anywhere, it’s no wonder the bourgeoisie…er, triumphed. There is, incidentally, quite a lot of bollocks in Marx, as well as the good stuff.
Scotland is becoming a police state.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-31022269