Thursday 7 February 2013

THIS, THAT.... AND THE OTHER

I read a headline in the local paper on the way home tonight. It seems that a local bank clerk misappropriated £7,000 over the last year from his employers. He has been sent to prison. 

I wondered as I read it (in the shop, because I'll never buy another D C Thomson publication after they took a full page ad from the Wiggy-Trump man) if it was entirely fair that this poor lowly-paid guy should go to prison for stealing £7,000, while Fred and his mates at RBS, Halifax, Northern Rock, etc, ad infinitum, cost us tens of billions of pounds ...and they all got bonuses and pay rises and Fred got a pension that would feed a small African country. Not a lot of justice here, is there?
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Liam "Dear Chief Secretary, I’m afraid to tell you there's no money left. Kind regards – and good luck!"  Byrne, author of the staff handbook "Working with Liam Byrne", and so, self evidently, a complete prat, has announced that if Labour come to power in 2015 in the UK (or whatever may be left of it) they will cut welfare. 

I doubt there will be any to cut so vociferously have Osborne and Duncan Smith cut, so I wish him luck trying to take war widows pensions. because that's all there will be left. 

Oh,and as Dean so rightly says, it's Social Security". Welfare is a patronising term designed to make the recipients feel like beggars. That's why they all use it.
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The Right Honourable and Noble Baron ffoulkes, that aristocrat of noble lineage dating back as far as, ohhhh....2005, has used his place in the House of the Living Dead to announce that Alex Salmond is a liar, and that he is guilty of "transgressions".

That drew gasps, apparently, even from the fossil life found in that chamber. When asked to elaborate on the nature of the "transgressions" Mr Foulkes became coy and coquettish and said he would tell the questioner later.  Bet he can't wait!

Now it is possible that Merry Baron had had rather too much liquid with his last meal, or possibly in place of it (he has that kind of reputation), but surely there is someone in the chair, the Presiding Officer, maybe, or whatever it's called in aristocratic terms, who is still alive and listening to the "debate". 


Is it not their place to point out that whilst parliamentary privilege allows you to say whatever you want in parliament without the fear of being sued, you really have to carry it through; not just say "I know some terrible things about...." 

So do tell us, George. 

Has he eaten all the children, or painted a Saltire over the front of Holyrood palace? 

This is pathetic campaigning delivered from hatred, and it's just the kind of unpleasantness that will result in divisions after 2014. The Better Together team need to do ...erm...better. A lot better.
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So says Scotland's Socialist Voice. And it's true. These Crypto-Tories  must all be hoping for seats in the House of Lords. Heavens, if it gets any bigger they will have to get rid of the Commons to accommodate them. Think of the loss that would be!
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I was reminded, reading Scot Goes Pop just now, that I should have, and meant to include a link to Wings Over Scotland's post about becoming a professional site. The Rev Stu tears the Better Together argument up, and flushes it without trace, in a way that I can only dream of doing. He spends a vast amount of time researching and writing his pieces, like the professional journalist he is. But that takes time, and as a freelance journalist, he has to do other things to pay his mortgage and put food on his family (as George DubYa would have it). I don't agree with all that he writes, and I wouldn't expect to, but there is no doubt at all that he does a first class job. I've happily donated, as has Munguin (out of his pocket money). Respect to both Rev Stu and James, for sterling work for independence.

27 comments:

  1. "Oh,and as Dean so rightly says, it's Social Security". Welfare is a patronising term designed to make the recipients feel like beggars. That's why they all use it"

    Its nice to be appreciated ;)

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  2. You are, Dean... even if we rarely agree on anything...

    It is important to us to show when we see eye to eye on something, as it is for us to engage in rigorous argument!!! :) which we do most of the time.

    It is a patronising term. And like you, I detest it.

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  3. Going off topic slightly.

    Although I don't think its anything to do with your blog Tris, I can no longer comment from work (yes, I do most of my mithering from my desk at work, when I should be working, but am not.)

    For what its worth, I can't look at my own blog either. No idea why, its frustrating.

    Watched QT from Stirling tonight, it was all a bit meh. Humza Yousaf was ok although said 'look' far too often. Michael Moore was as he usually is, verbose yet vacuous. Souter was fine till they asked about gay marriage. The tory was well, a tory and Faulkner was posh.

    Annoying people in the audience were peddling the lies the BBC told about the Irish foreign minister Lucinda Creighton, then by Barosso and by the Czech PM who I didn't even know had commented on EU membership. The question was on the low polling from the SSAS putting support for indy at 23%, no one (Humza wasn't really given the chance) to explain when that 'poll' was taken, Souter tried but was interupted by Moore, Humza was interupted by Dimbleby. They did get to come back later but by then the lie had further sunk in.

    It was a pretty good example of the power of the media and the hold it has over people. Its also really very frustrating.

    (Assuming its not going to bother anyone else, is it possible to put the comments back in the old pop up window? Just if you can... Cheers man.)

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  4. Why on earth would the Rev want to put food on his family?

    The world is full of pedants!

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  5. What need we say about fat-face of Cumnock? A bloated old soak from the House of Placemen, Toadies and Graspers accuses our elected First Minister of lying but is unable to substantiate his claims. No there is respect in action! How many times did the silly old duffer ask stupid written questions while he was an MSP......spacehoppers come to mind, and that’s not because he looks like one either!

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  6. There are noises made about folding National Insurance into Income Tax

    This is so the idea that we are already paying FOR HEALTH AND SOCIAL SECURITY IN TIMES OF NEED gets further broken

    Tories, Lib Dems and Labour all seek to do this

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  7. Pa:

    Dumblebum already showed his credentials when the Deputy First Minister of Scotland, on a programme from Scotland tried to explain something about Scotland and he told her that she had to stick to nationwide matters, meaning across the UK. He's a biased old codger with no journalistic integrity, and he should have been retired 10 years ago.

    We are up against lies and liars who have self interest in keeping the cash cow in their hands.

    Without oil, heaven knows what the UK will do. Without our contribution they will have to scale back their wars; without the overtake in Scotland the BBC will have to cut back. And the MPs and Lords, of course are only interested in their jobs which will disappear.

    Why didn't they have fluffy on for the Tories? Such an insult to have someone from the home counties or some such place.

    I suspect that mr Faulkner is a Tory.

    I'm sorry about the layout causing you problems. I changed it so Boorach would have an easier job commenting, but I have a feeling that it didn't make any difference.

    Is this a recent thing, Pa. Could it be that your employers have blocked Google Blogs?

    I'll change it back if no one has a problem with that, and Boorach can still comment.

    Oh why is the interweb so complicated?

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  8. Dunno Boorach. But if it's good enough for the president of the USA, why not for the Rev Stu, I say!

    Pedant, me?

    More like peasant!

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  9. I see you're a fan of the Noble baron Mr ffoulkes, Munguin.

    The trouble is that we know he's a silly old drunk, but some people who want to believe that kind of thing, will believe that kind of thing.

    We seem to get very little publicity that every time the First minister is cleared of doing anything wrong, there seems to be very little publicity about it, compared with the fuss when Labour accuses him yet again.

    The thing is that all of them are careful not to do stuff wrong, because they know that the hopes of millions of Scots are riding on this. Who'd want to go down in history as the person who brought the country to the edge of independence and threw it away because of some lie.

    I wish we could get it through that independence is not about Alex almond and the SNP. I'd find it hard to imagine that the SNP will form the first Scottish government.

    It will almost certainly be Labour or a coalition of the SNP and Labour.

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  10. Hello Robert. Yes, I've heard that they are trying to do that. It is the best way to stop people thinking....wait a minute, I've paid for this.

    Some of the people who are currently being made redundant, and who have worked all their lives are finding that, if they have a partner in work they are untitled to nothing, despite having paid for it for 30 years.

    Don't see Eton boys giving up their entitlements so easily.

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  11. Don't worry, I've managed to get chrome on my machine at work and I can comment (as I am doing now.)

    It was Dimbleby's treatment of Nicola Sturgeon that opened my eyes to BBC bias - one of the many minor infractions carried out by the union and its supporters that adds to the weight of evidence against them.

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  12. The SNP minister on QT got into a heck of a lot of difficulty alongside Souter over equal marriage.

    Souter was a blatant homophobe and Humza Yousaf insinuated 9and failed to clarify) if he felt someone like me being gay was 'morally wrong' or not.

    The forces for separation really showed their true colours if they line up alongside the likes of Souter in hating equal civil rights for us gays.

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  13. Tris

    Did you see that the Rev Stu got over £10000 donated in the first 24 hours. Notch up another strike for the cybernats.

    On a more serious note, if the Rev can generate this amount of cash from small donations from the cybernats (which I am proud to be one)it highlights the grassroots commitment that the Yes campaign has. We are the people that will be knocking on doors and delivering leaflets over the next 18 months. The No campaign cannot match that.

    Since the referendum will be won on the doorstep, the same as the 2011 Scottish government election was, its looking good for the Yes Yes Yes side.

    P.S. Thank Munguin for giving up his Curlywurly this week, every little helps.

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  14. tris

    Fousky was the best potential Labour first minister of Scotland
    we never had wee shame.
    He at least knows who the enemy is and he never stops he will
    never give up That's what he does! That's ALL he does! You can't stop him!.


    Listen, and understand. That terminator/Fousky is out there. It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead. or unelected.

    He is my Hero of all Heroes

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  15. I'm really glad about that Pa...

    Yes. Think about the umber of time on QT (including last night) where we talk about the English Health Service, carefully made to look last night like it was OUR health service that was failing.

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  16. Dean: There are people of all parties that don't agree with equal marriage rights. I imagine the BBC chose Soutar last night because he is vehemently against gay rights. All part of the loving caring all-embracing church he is a member of, which is a million miles from real Christianity.

    Humza is one of the most reasonable and decent people I know. He seems to me to have no prejudice. I don't know what his actual feeling on equal marriage are, so I can't comment on him.

    Yesterday I listened to a number of Tories express their anti feelings for some of the oddest reasons. Marriage, said one, is about having children, in one fell swoop insulting all the people who marry late in life and can't have children, or who are medically unable to have children, and insinuating that once their children have left home married couples should cease to be married couples.

    One Labour member was beside himself with anger on the radio, and many voted against, citing religion. Even two Liberal Democrats, once again citing their Catholicism, voted against. (Andrew Page gives them a going over in his Scottish Liberal blog).

    We know that Gordon Wilson says that HIS marriage will be devalued if gay people are allowed to marry. Where he got that idea I don't know, but if I were his wife, I'd give him a hard slap in the face and a kick in his privates. He surely likes her a bit more that that!

    Every party, as I said, has people who will vote against. You really cannot hold it against the SNP for having one supporter against and one minister who seemed to be unable to support it. Of course, maybe Mr Bumbleclutz didn't let him, in order to give the impression that the Nationalists were all narrow minded.

    Mr Salmond is for, and the bill will go ahead as far as I am aware. It may be electorally damaging (as Wilson says it will be) but it's the right thing to do.

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  17. I'm really happy for the Rev, Dubs. In a few weeks I'll donate more, because I genuinely believe he is a great aid to our cause. I want him to go producing these articles.

    I agree that it shows a fantastic support for the YES campaign.

    I'll tell Munguin how much you appreciate his sacrifice. It will being a tear to his little eye!

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  18. Ahhh, Niko. I though I was your hero. I'm gutted! Fancy coming second to ffoulkesy ...

    You're right about him... he doesn't feel any of these things, and he doesn't feel it when he falls over into the gutter either. He is a most remarkable man, and a great asset to the Yes campaign...

    erm no campaign,... erm...well... something

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  19. Tris,

    you are 100% correct. All those who say you need hetro exclusive marriage also ignore the over 3 million kids growing up in same-sex loving households. And not all of them adoptive, IVF exists ffs!

    Opposition to equal CIVIL (not religious note) marriage is 100% a bigot. Clear cut.

    Religious marriage is more complicated, I agree. BUT, 'religious conscience' works both ways, the quakers wish to marry same sex couples in Christian wedlock, why exclude their religious marital rights?

    Souter, like any pro-section 28er made my life hell as a kid. They are all haters, and shame on the SNP for taking money off of a total bigot.

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  20. Dean: The following Scottish Labour MPs voted against equal marriage rights:

    Tom Clarke, Brian Donohoe, Jim Sheridan, Frank Roy, Ian McKenzie, Jim McGovern, Michael McCann

    They have no interest in this at all. A separate law will go through the Scottish parliament to allow, or not, equal marriage rights in Scotland. The Bill in England is totally outwith their remit, and yet they have voted against the rights of people in another legal jurisdiction, whom they do not represent.

    That is their right, of course, although another Labour MP long ago pointed out the folly of this. The law doesn't deny them the right to vote on these matters. It is morally wrong though, especially when a proposal is put forward for a conscience vote, and MPs either make up their own minds, or consult with constituents, whichever they prefer.

    I imagine Mr McGovern asked his Dundee West constituents what they thought about English and Welsh people having equal rights, and discovered that they were against it. I wonder how the same people will react when questioned by their gay SNP MSP for the vote about Scottish people having the same rights?

    Maybe they will think it good for Scots but bad for English and Welsh....

    So, better together with them maybe... ?

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  21. I named them on my blog. They should be expelled from the Labour Party. No room for anti-civil rights peeps in a social democratic movement.

    McGovern... I hope the SNP destroy the traitor. I'm serious, I prefer a socially democratic Nat (within UK) to traitor Labour... at least I can vote 'No' to indie rep, I can't recall my MP!

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  22. What annoyed me most about QT was they spent the first 15 minutes engineering a discussion about the situation in Staffordshire Hospital and the English NHS as if it was a UK issue. The guy that asked the question was clearly a plant so that the unionists could puff on about “our” problem and what “we” need to do, rather than as it is “their” problem and what “they” need to do. If I had been Hamza I would have said that the PM handled it in a dignified manner, it was a national blot on England but nothing to do with Scotland as our NHS is separate (and always has been)!

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  23. As for equal marriage the Scottish government has prepared legislation which it will be putting before parliament in this session. What clearer commitment can there be than that?

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  24. Munguin

    I read on another blog that the guy who asked the first question was a Liberal Democrat councillor and was the LD candidate for either the Scottish or the UK parliamentary elections.

    If this is correct its another example of the famous neutrality from the BBC We should all be proud of that wonderful organisation!!!

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  25. Well, to be honest, Dean, I don't agree. If the party says it is a matter for individual MPs (or MSPs) then, the party accepts that there may be variances in the vote.

    I can imagine in all honesty that in some of the Tory shires, the constituents simply do not want this; by the same token I can imagine that in some solid Labour areas they are equally opposed.

    I have to au that the religious beliefs of the actual MP/MSP shouldn't be a barrier to them voting for that their constituents want. They aren't voted in for them; they are voted in for US.

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  26. Yes Munguin. Mr Bumbleby's much vaunted "national interest" obviously means that everyone has to be interested in teh NHS in England, despite the fact that they have no influence over it; don't use it and only pay a small subsidy to it.

    As you say, of course it was all a ploy to make people think that the Scottish NHS, which as you say is an entirely separate organisation, was in a mess like the English one.

    The news that day was I think, that hospital acquired infections in hospital were down by 85%. That wasn't the impression that came out though. And Dubs says that the first questioner may have been a plant.

    What a vile organisation it is that takes our money; spends most of it on English programming and insults us with this crap... and how mad as we to sit there and take it.

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  27. Aye Dubs. If there is one item of my expenditure that I object to more than anything else in the world, it is paying for that parcel of lying rogues.

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