Monday 20 October 2014

SCOTTISH LABOUR IS GOING LEFT, OR SO SAYS MRS CURRAN

So, according to Margaret Curran, Labour in Scotland is going to ditch the legacy of Tony Blair and return to its “socialist principles” ahead of the UK election next May.

Mrs Curran says Ed ­Miliband is going to stand up to big business.

In an article for Scotland on Sunday, the most junior member of the shadow cabinet appears to have been given the job reversing the direction of Labour, which is odd, given that at their recent party conference, far more senior members of the party were talking about more austerity than the Tories, being tougher on benefits than the Tories, and a minimum wage of £8 per hour by 2020, a laughable ambition when a decent living wage must be around £10 an hour in 2014.

By Margaret says, without a flicker of a smile:

“The socialist principles of equality, redistribution and ­social justice need to shape our politics as much today as they did when I joined the party.”

She is on tour… a bit like Nicola Sturgeon, laying out what she thinks Labour stands for. She will talk in traditional Labour strongholds that voted Yes in last month’s referendum in an effort to win back the party’s core support.

Around a third of Labour ­supporters voted Yes in the ­September referendum.

Curran’s piece trots out a load of words that actually say nothing at all:

When we see a country divided, we should not be satisfied" (erm no, we should not... so, what have we been doing about this division in our society Margaret?) "It should make us work even harder to bring our country together." (So are we going to start doing that now, after 40 years of division since Thatcher?  Oh well, better late than never.)

“We need to listen." (I've heard that before. Didn't Ed tour the country, listening?) "But what people say also needs to shake us into action and we need to change.” (Ah, well that would make a change")
 
Labour standing up to big business
 “We have a leader across the UK who has learned the ­lessons of Iraq and opposed military action in Syria" (but not Libya, and not Iraq again), "who refuses to kowtow to vested ­interests like the banks and the energy companies and who believes that politics is about building a movement of ­working people to change our country.” (No, you don't. You have a weak man with absolutely no ideas whose confidence is torn to shreds, whom few like, and who is generally considered to be weird!)

As usual Labour is fighting the wrong election.

Scottish Labour may feel that to save itself and the well paid jobs of its MPs, MSPs and other officials, it must move to the left to win back the votes of the people it was created to represent, but the problem is, and this is fundamental to the whole independence debate is… "Scottish Labour, so what?"

When it comes to the UK, what exactly is the importance of Scottish Labour? 

Well, of course in UK electoral terms they represent somewhere in the order of 40 fairly solid Labour seats. And given the current state of politics where there is little between the two major UK parties, that is the difference between 10 Downing Street, and mixing with President Obama adn the King of Saudi Arabia on the one hand, and back to the back benches, having failed for Ed, with the added embarrassment that his brother might have succeeded.

Labour’s problem is that in much of Scotland, the north of England and Wales, they should be representing the working classes. People living on poverty wages, among the worst levels of benefits in Europe, and the lowest pensions in the developed world (bar Mexico). They should be fighting tooth and nail for better conditions, more social housing, a living wage, lower rents, better and cheaper public transport, etc, but in the south-east of England, as peter Mandelson pointed out so long ago, they need to attract the votes of a very different constituency. A constituency that would have to help pay for all these upgrades to the way the poor live. And the “south east” has four times the population of Scotland! 
Someone who looks up to Ed... Novel.
In her article for SoS, Curran says that her “number one priority” as Secretary of State for Scotland would be a Scottish Jobs Guarantee and getting the country’s young people “back to work”. (Novel idea. No one has ever thought of that before!)

She tells whoever is listening that for working Scots, the party would seek to “improve their conditions so they don't have to work two or more jobs just to make ends meet”. (I'm sorry Mags, that means putting wages up to a livable level and you won't do that, not in 10 years you won't.)

She insists that “That means ending exploitative zero-hours’ contracts and starting to ­increase the minimum wage to £8 an hour". (No, it means increasing the minimum wage to £10 an hour pretty much right away, and that could never happen, not even under the SNP! Companies just wouldn't stand for it, prices would rocket and those without wages would starve unless benefits and pensions were dramatically increased...like that's gonna happen!)

She goes on: "And we will show exactly whose side we are on by freezing energy prices and reforming the energy market once and for all. Even with less money, we will change the country for good.” (You mean renationalise it? No, I thought not. So how can you regulate it? It's in a market.)


Maggie, it's all words. They sound pretty but unless you're 18 you've heard them all before, every 4 or 5 years.  

Most of your suggestions are unworkable and in any case, the minute you have these 40 MPs to bolster your chances of forming a government every single policy will be ditched in favour of keeping the bankers and the City happy.

Nice try, but we aren't all muppets.

29 comments:

  1. We aren't all muppets, but some people are, and Labour know this. It is not unknown for political parties to follow policies which do not match their previous rhetoric, but Labour seem to be particularly prone to this.

    If something like the Trade Descriptions Act applied to politics, then Labour really would be in trouble.

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    1. Oh heavens, Les, that would be a disaster for them.

      Imagine if they were actually obliged to do what they said they would do...?

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  2. Nice try, but we aren't all muppets. no but over 2 million are. I have read in some EU stuff that you require at least £21 per hour just to be slightly out of the poverty zone. That 2 million + are sitting quietly waiting not engaging, ready to stab us in the heart at the first opportunity. I fear the yes folk are still living in the pre ref bubble and will be shocked at the result of the next UK GE.
    Wullie

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    1. People are so blind to the fact that other comparable countries live so much better than we do.

      http://derekbateman.co.uk/2014/10/20/nurse-hurry/

      This is good on how we were lied to by Labour about the NHS, but that now the unions are campaigning against what they promised us would be fine.

      We really may lose the NHS because of what England has done to remove it from government control.

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  3. Great piece Tris,

    It's a sad fact that many will listen to the shite from Mags and believe it. We will try and get the message out but like many i fear the NO voters will still vote for their like.

    The GE will be a make or break time. We need to win a majority of seats for Indi parties , SNP likely, or we're goosed.

    During the YES campaign i met so many good folk desperate to make this country better. Now it seems they are arguing amongst themselves and the apathy that ran away with folks hopes before might return.

    I will vote SNP Tris. I will hope the energy and drive re surfaces for the spring. many people are now in the Xmas mode and don't or won't make time till afterwards.

    Interesting times ahead that's for sure.

    Worse case would be a Labour win and the muppet show returns to a venue near you.

    I preferred Spitting Image.

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    1. HI Richie,

      I'm pretty sure that the momentum will be kept up to some extent over the winter... and when the spring comes around there will almost surely be a resurgence, and hopefully a good result for the SNP in the Westminster elections.

      In the meantime we have to see what the unionists will offer as devo max-federalism...

      If it is 50% of income tax devolved then I think they can forget it.

      I suspect that under Miliband there is precious little hope that Labour will form the next government. I seriously can;t see him as prime minister any more than I see Lamont as FM.

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  4. Bloody hell!

    We just begin to get over that imbecile Murph the Smurph and his ludicrous 100 day tour of Scotland at the tax payers expense so he could stand on a couple of Irn Bru crates and shout at lots of innocent passers by. Now for our sins we get this moron who apparently has taken over the job of transporting two Irn Bru crates around Glasgow to shout at loads of Glaswegians!

    When are Labour in Scotland going to return these Irn Bru crates to Barrs? The crates are needed by Barrs to ship out their bottles of Irn Bru for goodness sake! Typical Labour in Scotland, denying the people of Scotland the bare necessities of life to survive just so that one or two of their own MUPPETS can make a name for themselves!

    Well I've a message for Murphy, Curran or any other Labourite in Scotland. You DARE to deny me my weekly fix of Irn Bru ONE second longer and I for one will NEVER vote for you ever again!

    Hang on a wee sec, I think I got that wrong there. I have NEVER voted for Labour ach never mind it still sounds good and she would never know anyway. You deny me my weekly fix of Irn Bru for one second longer Curran and you will have lost my vote for ever!

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    1. LOL Don't worry. Munguin will undertake to get your Irn Bru to you... he's a tad worried that you become slightly deranged without it. :)

      I look forward to Mags coming to Dundee (half of which still holds on to a Labour MP. I can't wait to hear how she's going to get more left wing whilst being more austere than the Tories and tougher on benefits....

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    2. Mind Mags is a hard faced harpy she may put some people off.

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    3. Phew!

      Can you pass my thanks on to the great Munguin himself for me please Tris I don't know how I'd survive without my Irn Bru fix. LOL

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    4. He is graciously please Arbroath... :)

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    5. Well, she'd put me off.

      Although as I said before, I met her about 10 years ago when she was a miniter in the Scottish government and found her agreeable and good company.

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  5. Tris

    It's all too little and too late, but then it's always been too late with me for this party. As you noted above people just don't see how other people live in countries with similar economies and size as the UK and most of the time it is a hell of a lot better than we do. If we had a decent media, and people taking an interest in things,then we might just get a better life here if knowledge allowed the voter to hold politicians to account and we didn't just settle for poverty because we are told to.

    This is a country for the few with the most and those with the least to serve or do nothing to keep low wages low. How screwed up is the UK, and for Labour to support that just shows you how far this disgusting party have fallen and I won't get started on Curran, don't want to spoil my week before it has really even got bad yet.

    Bruce

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    1. Agreed. Perhaps we should put Comparative European Studies onto the curriculum so that people learn what it's like to live in a decent country.

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  6. The saying a 'torn pus' was invented for the likes of Capitalist Curran.

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    1. She does look a bit "begritten ", like she's had a disappointing life.

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  7. Does anyone actually believe anything Margaret Curran says, remember this is the woman who said she didn't know who Denis Healy was.

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    1. Well, I hope they don't believe her.

      If they do then we are all in a mess.

      Us because they will vote Labour, and them, because once they get in Labour will do what they always do and pander to the bankers...

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  8. Labour must be in a panic, if they are letting that eejit loose; with no minders or a bloody clue. Still they'll awe be out in force talking shite to the masses. "Honestly, we're for you, no we didn't work with the Tories to screw you over, honest, please keep us in the lifestyle, we have become accustomed to." Whispers under breath, " fekin mugs".

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    1. You can only get away with that for so long.

      And the Tories aren't going to do anything nice to help them...

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  9. Have to say given the gullibility of the voting public, I mean who would have imagined anyone returning the troughing freebooters in 2010, and then we have the propaganda machine which is the BBC plus the Vow making Daily Retard. Who knows she will probably get voted in again.The fact that nothing will change for those who vote for Labour seems to confirm that they are according to Einstein all mad, to continually do the same thing and expect a different result.

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    1. In most countries, Pacific Quay and the Daily Record buildings would have been burned to the ground for their lies during an independence campaign.

      'Scotland the brave' has had a vasectomy.

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    2. True Helena, but you can only get away with the same lies so many times.

      And everything that they said is turning out to be lies.

      I noticed that one of the tabloid rags this morning is warning that Scots face poverty in old age because a shortage of funds for pensions. That was only supposed to happen if we were independent. Pooling and sharing was supposed to make that disappear. Well, it hasn't.

      And now, despite telling us that the health service was quite safe from TIPP, Unison are now campaigning to have TIPP binned. Derek Bateman has a good piece on it.

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    3. Yes. The only things that were burned during the referendum campaign were a YES shop and the offices of the Herald...

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  10. My first reaction was the same as Arbroath's Bloody Hell or words to that effect. It would be fair to say that Madame Curran is the ugly face of Labour but I understand that Hampden Park is fully booked and simultaneous broadcasts, courtesy of the BBC, are being beamed to George Square, Ibrox, Parkhead and Firhill in order that she can explain to the deluded and gullibe, yes, Niko, why they are better together.

    According to the Huffington Post it seems that the big clunking fist (?) is thinking of descending on the Scottish Parliament to counter-act "Salmond's lies" regarding the NHS. If anyone is qualified to speak about lies it is the bold Gordie himself. Before the referendum he frightened the vulnerable with lies about pensions, blood transfusions, transplants and, being a son of the manse, his holy "Vow" was, apparently, believed.

    People forget, or don't seem to care, that he colluded in the biggest lie of all which cost thousands of live and left the already poor population at greater risk than under the most brutal of dictators.

    Actually, I think that the Labour party have been thoroughly stitched up by the Tories. They got Labour to forge an alliance with them to thwart independence thus alienating traditional Labour voters. They appointed Darling, Murphy and Brown as the main speakers for Better together again alienating a significant portion of the electorate and, of course, got the clownish Brown to make the holy "Vow" on behalf of the main parties.

    On top of that they are already promising more devolution than the Labour party who are ham-strung by the Tory's intention to combine the additional powers with English MPs only being able to vote on "English" matters thus forcing Labour onto the back-foot. If everything that the majority of Scots want does not materialise then it will be remembered that Brown made the Vow which Labour will struggle to deliver.

    Taking all that into account it would be no great surprise if Labour are not horsed at the GE as far as Scotland is concerned.

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    1. Well, I'm sure that if Mags only spoke to one unfortunate bloke who had his earphones on, didn't hear her coming and got left in the stampede for safety, the BBC would broadcast it like it was One Direction in Glasgow Green.

      I think Brown's office (the office of Gordon and Sarah Brown) has indicated that he won't be accepting the invitation to be in charge of Slab (they are very democratic... they were going to chuck Lamont out and push him in without as much as a by your leave!)

      Anyway. It's not enough money and the hours are very restrictive. He has a job as UN ambassador for education. Fortunately his £66,000 a year job at Westminster does not demand that he ever turn up and do anything at all.

      On the other hand, Lamont has to show up once a week and get swept over the floor of the camber by Alex or , pretty soon, Nicola.

      I'd agree about the Labour party been stitched up. Seriously if, 6 months out from a general election, Gordon didn't see this coming, then he's clearly even less competent than I thought he was...and that's saying something.

      How to destroy Labour without a second thought. Lynton Crocodile is at the back of this, in cahoots with Gideon posh boy. The Eton Boy isn't nearly clever enough to have worked it out on his own.

      People like Darling are now viewed as Tories in Scotland. Apart form the eyebrows, (and his multi million pound bank balance) there's little to distinguish him from Ruthie. And Murphy is just a common version of them.

      Even terminally stupid people won't believe that Curran is going to make the Labour Party socialist.

      Vow? What vow? Oh that vow..... ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha... morons.

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  11. The only left that Mags will know is getting left behind, good riddance to bad rubbish.

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  12. Labour still go with the weird idea that Scotland is somehow 'independent' and voting Labour protects it. Voters have bought this idea before.
    I read an interesting article in Bella Caledonia, that in 1983, Robin Cook thought Scottish voters shouldn't be forced to put up with the Tories for another 5 years, and though seriously about getting Scottish MPs to join with the SNP and declare UDI.
    There is no one in Labour in Scotland who would even think that now. Their voters re expendable, considered fit only to keep the MPs in jobs.

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    1. Hi Brian,

      Robin Cook was, of course, an intelligent and decent man, who, you will remember, wanted to have an ethical foreign policy, and ended up having to resign over the very unethical war in Iraq.

      Then mysteriously died on the top of a mountain.

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