Showing posts with label Better Together. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Better Together. Show all posts

Wednesday, 20 July 2016

RANDOM THOUGHTS

So, to add to the list of broken promises from Better Together, we now find that the fleet of global combat frigates promised by Cameron to the Clyde shipbuilders is to be put on hold, because of a mixture of technical and financial problems, putting the jobs to thousands of the Clyde's shipbuilders at risk.

No one seem to know when they will be built, if at all. The number promised by Cameron was 13. This was already reduced to eight. No the immediate plan is for none to be built. 

Fortunately for Scotland the 50,000 jobs (sorry, my mistake; it's only 500) involved in maintaining nuclear subs on the Clyde was secured by the right wing parties in England yesterday, so at least Tory (sorry, keep getting mixed up here) erm, socialist, Jackie Baillie can sleep in peace tonight. (Echos of manic laughter echo around Munguin Towers.)
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 American politics is every bit as crazy as UK politics at the moment, and clearly their politicians like to treat the public with as much contempt as the British ones. But seriously, just how half witted would you have to be to believe this crap?

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Of course the Labour Party in the UK is in the most horrific mess too, and is treating, not just members of the public, but their own supporters and members too,  as if they were morons.

Their desperate attempts to keep Corbyn, a man chosen as leader by 59.5% of the electors, off the ballot paper in a challenge to his leadership would have been astounding in any party, but for heaven's sake, in the party set up to support the ordinary person against the British Establishment, it was breath taking.

When they were forced to allow him to defend his place, they tried to put all kinds of barriers in the way of potential support. They ramped up the minimum membership to £25 and allowed a small window of time for joining. That's a hell of a lot for someone on minimum wage (remember Labour, that's the people you're supposed to be there for), or the unwaged. Then they had a website, set up to raise money to help less well off people to pay this exorbitant fee, shut down. No charity in the Labour movement. Despite this, and hell mend them, 183,541 people joined.

They also shut down Labour Party branch meetings, presumably in order to try to stop angry members deselect their right wing and hard right wing MPs. Stalin and Pinochet both would have been proud of them.

Frankly I'm beginning to wonder if there will be a single British Labour Party by the end of the year. They surely have to split and let the Blairites follow their dreams or being American puppets, while allowing Corbynites to work for ordinary people, just as the Labour Party was intended to do.

(The illustration above was taken from Twitter.)
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Finally, I loved this!

Friday, 27 May 2016

IN OUT, IN OUT, SHAKE IT ALL ABOUT...

This blog has taken a neutral view of the EU referendum from the date it was announced. 

There is a good deal that we like about the EU, and a good deal that we don't. 

In our opinion the main protagonists in the argument so far (as portrayed by the press) have been largely from the Tory Party which is successfully tearing itself apart. That, of course, is something we have no trouble with. Although we think it was madness to stir up this bother just as the Labour Party were descending into internecine warfare over Corbyn actually being a socialist. 

A better Tory leader could have managed the internal unrest over Europe, given that it has been bubbling under for years. But then, where would one of them come from?

We can't for the life of us imagine why anyone in their right minds would trust the word of people like Farage, Johnson, Gove, Duncan Smith or Grayling on the one hand, or the word of Cameron, Gideon, May on the other. They all appear to us to be quintessential incompetents. At best they are figures of fun.

We are lucky not to have done ourselves serious damage while falling about laughing at the similarity of the arguments of "Remain" in this EU referendum to those of "NO", "UKOK", or "Better Together" in our referendum. But then the arguments of the "Leave" side have been equally outlandish. It's been like there were two Project Fears at each other's throats.

Downright lying on both side, usually by people who KNEW they were lying (or were incredibly stupid) has been a mark of the campaigns. They are treating the public like it is comprised of terminally stupid gullible idiots, ready to believe the very worst/the very best according to their newspaper of choice.

We continue to take no side, and will do until the wretched  thing is over and done with. The only way to remain sane is to laugh like a drain.

European elections have always been low turnout affairs. We suspect the turnout for this referendum will be lower than that of 1975, in itself considered low at the time (42.2%), partly becasue of its proximity to other elections (parliamentary in Wales, NI and Scotland, and local in England), and partly because of the mess that the leaders in the Uk have made of the campaigns.

For a much more serious look at these matters we recommend the excellent Doug Daniel article here. It's really first rate.

We also recommend the continuing story of Britain in the EU by Dr Craig Dalzell of the Green party. Second part now up. 
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Next step in EURef. Jane Hill stands outside WM & does series of live updates backed by Brexit posters while ignoring Remain rally.
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Unanimous Treasury Committee report says both REMAIN and LEAVE Campaigns are lying. It's true. Why should voters vote? ?
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The "we" we are using in this post is not royal in origins. Munguin has still not been assimilated into the royal family (although we might recommend him to princess Beatrice). 

We just thought that it was a collective thing, as opposed to Tris's opinion, and that it would be better expressed in the plural.

We hope you don't think we were being pretentious.

Pretentious? Nous?

Saturday, 23 April 2016

RANDOM THOUGHTS ON BETTER TOGETHER FOR JOBS, HUH?

News emerging that UKGov is planning on India & Brazil building Type 26 Frigates promised to the Clyde
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Just got this email.
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Scottish shipyard shop stewards loyal to their Labour career path and Scot Lab loyal to their London agenda. Workers were sold down river
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Really is depressing how many nationalists simply don't care about shipyard workers and their jobs.
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Still, we've always got these thousands and thousands of jobs at Faslane.... haven't we, Jackie?

Wings, of course, got there before me and covered it better!!