THE UNIONISTS HAVE IT ALL BUTTONED UP...WELL, SOME OF THEM

Now here is a woman with her finger on the button.

And here is one with her finger NOT on the button.

And here's yet another one who seems to have problems with her  buttons.

IS THAT THE JOB CENTRE MARGARET ...?

Aye, let's get Dougie and the others and get over there.
Do they pay expenses?

Aye, a piece of cake wasn't it just?

Maybe he meant "odd goods"?

ALL OVER BAR THE VOTING

Estimated Declaration Times

Well, it's all over bar the voting.

Much has been written about melt downs and Labour and the Liberals being obliterated.

I'm cautious. OK, call me a pessimist and a glass half empty man, but I prefer to predict low and be pleasantly surprised, rather than the other way around.

Remember any more seats than we have at the moment will be a gain.

At present the SNP has 6 seats in the London parliament. To get 12 would represent a massive success. It would double the representation, and would be one more than they have ever had in London.

Synchronisity  in Anas's ward.
All these people seem to have had the same thoughts, and written the same letter at the same time. Just how completley amazing is that?
Does he have magic powers?

Twenty seats would be a fantastic breakthrough; 30 utterly fabulous.

I'm thinking somewhere between 30 and 35 seats may go SNP.

Any more than that and we are off the scale.

Whatever it is, if it isn't the 59 that some of the press has been predicting, the unionists will call it all a busted flush. Be ready for that and remember that on the day after the election, parties tend to, and have always tended to, big up what little success they have had.

How well we remember, Dave.
Just read it back now and weep for your wickedness.

Just for a little light relief on the last day...

How many seats do you think the SNP will get, realistically?

And...

Of the potential losers, who do you most wish to lose their seat, and why?

Will it be Margaret Curran, for the vitriol she has spewed and for her dogged devotion to right-wing Jim, when only weeks before his election (she voted for him too) she was promising Glasgow Man a lurch to the left; to old Labour and socialism? (Like she remembered what that was!)

Will it be Jim himself? 

The strangest possible choice to lead a party that is begging for a move to the left, is a neo-Liberal, anti-Muslim, white supremacist, enthusiast for war, and lieutenant of the odious Blair. 

Why did they elect him? 

Failure to win his seat would be the ultimate humiliation for the party. Not particularly likely to happen as I'm sure they will have put massive resources into the seat, and will have taken every possible measure to ensure that Jim is back with a decent majority.

Or maybe it will be Cathy. Her record certainly suggests that she is pretty solidly anti Scotland having any powers. Interestingly in a year when most public servants had no pay rise or a pay rise of 1%, she appears to have given her husband a rise of 100%. Nice work if you can get it... and keep it. 

There's a raft of obnoxious Labour MPs who seem to have achieved almost nothing for some of the poorest people in Britain, and Western Europe. Amazingly Willie Bain, the worst of them, is almost guaranteed his seat. 

Just as well, what else could he do?

Remember though, whoever it is you want rid of, THIS is what we are up against. For all their protestations that they want us to stay, there is a strong feeling that we are not welcome in their union.

Who can put up a strong fight for Scotland? Maggie Curran, Cathy Jamieson, Anas Sarwar?

Of course we shouldn't forget the Liberals, although heaven knows, it's easy to do just that. They seem to have adapted remarkably quickly to being Tories. The obvious choice is high flyer Danny Alexander. You may remember that he's not a REAL Tory, just an honorary one.  Alternatively, there is the all but useless Scottish Secretary whose involvement in l'affaire francaise has still not been explained?

Anyway, your thoughts, if you have time on what I know will be a busy day, will be much welcomed.

Fingers crossed. Good luck in all your constituencies.

Resign, Janner

There is a new rule in the House of Lords, according to Michael Ashcroft. Because of the enormous and embarrassing size of the membership of the Lords, the House of Lords Reform Act 2014 states that if a peer is unable to take an active role in the work of the House, he or she should resign.

Ashcroft has indicated that he will do this. 

As far as I understand the person is allowed to retain their title and but ceases to be allowed to take part in the proceedings of the chamber or to collect the tax free salary paid to participants ...some £300 a day plus expenses.

Greville Janner is apparently, as a result of dementia, too ill to answer serious charges relating to sexual matters with under-age boys. He has to the best of my knowledge not resigned from the House of Lords. 

Surely if you are too ill to face charges under the law of the land, you should also be considered too ill to be making laws of the land.

Mr Janner should resign immediately.
******

Marco Biagi was interviewed by Jim Naughtie on the Today Programme this morning. He explained that, despite all the BBC journalists talking about Ed refusing a coalition with the SNP (the SNP having already ruled out any such thing), that what Nicola had been suggesting, offering to Ed last night on live UK-wide TV, was an opportunity to get rid of David Cameron and bring in more progressive politics. A co-operation rather than anything formal like a coalition.

Naughtie did his job asking Marco fair and reasonable questions and Marco did a good job of answering them failrly and reasonably. Naughtie brought up the argument that, during the minority Scottish government of 2007-11, Alex Salmond's government had worked with Annabel Goldie's Tories. Marco was able to explain clearly that that was what minority governments had to do. He pointed out that they worked with the other parties too. Minority government is impossible otherwise.

It seemed a decent interview, from both parties' points of view.

Then Naughtie interviewed Margaret Curran. He put to her the simple question that Nicola had asked Miliband last night. Would Miliband walk away from the SNP and let Cameron from another government, if the figures worked out like that? She didn't answer it, of course. She said that she was working for her constituents for a Labour majority government. He tried again and pointed out that, with respect, she had not answered his question. Again she rambled about her constituents (for whom she now seems to have the greatest concern). She wanted, as they wanted, she said, a Labour government with a majority.

Naughtie tried again to get her to answer. She didn't. She said that she had been in Scottish politics for a long time and she knew Nicola Sturgeon, who had never had a good word to say about Labour. But she would not answer what the Labour party would do if NOT working with the SNP meant that  Tory or Tory-Liberal and possibly Ukip government were the alternative.

It's a big thing, I know, for a party to concede that it may not win a full on majority, and I can't honestly blame Labour for being unwilling to contemplate losing, but when the polls have shown that it is a likelihood, not just over a couple of weeks, but over months and months, is it not time to be letting people know that you have thought the unthinkable.

Sometimes in office you will have to do this. Perhaps it would be wise to show the electorate that you have a back-up plan.

**********

JUST FOR JOHN...

Further to a request from our slightly mad but very dear nonetheless, friend, John Brownlie, Munguin is delighted to have instructed me to provide more pictures of Mrs Currant and Mr Morphey.

To show that you always get a really good deal for your dollar at Munguin's Republic, I've added a few more Labour Buffoons. Unfortunately we don't have any wee lassies in tin hats. But you really can't expect everything.

Maggie on the Karaoke.
Anyone know what she was singing?

I've no got a tin helmet...

I've got a brass neck though... does that count?

I never have and I never will share a platform with a Tory.
That Lady Goldie wumin was just part of the crown to see how it's done!

Ah... that's a bit awkward....

A poll that shows Labour not losing badly?

Does your warder know you're out?

Hic...Hic erit magnus et bibere taberna ...

PLEASE HELP FOOD BANKS IF YOU CAN...

I'm hoping soon to arrange an interview with Dave, the manager of Dundee Foodbank. 

I was there on Monday and they said that food was starting to come in again following the quiet period after Christmas.

It seems, though, that there is still a bit of a shortage of absolute essentials, like the ones below, from their appeal on Facebook.

So, dear readers, if you live in Dundee, and if you can help, I know that the wonderful people at the foodbank (and they really really are) would be grateful. It must be hell having to turn hungry people away.

Here's their post...

Dundee Foodbank

Yesterday at 12:00 · Edited · 

We are a wee bit short of the following items - could you consider donating a few to the food bank over the next couple of weeks?

UHT milk
Tinned meat
Instant soup / pasta
Sugar
Tinned Fruit

Cheers!

Details of when our centres are open - all of them can accept donations when operating - are at dundee.foodbank.org.uk. We also have donations points at Tesco Riverside, Sainsbury's, Butties sandwich shops & Brands Books.

++++++++++

On a not too dissimilar subject I notice that the Daily Record headline today bemoaned the fact that the government (the one Daily Record thought was best for Scots), is yet again going to cut benefits to Scotland. This time it's targeting the money available to local government to help with Housing costs.

It is, of course, nothing that we haven't become used to from that much vaunted most successful union in the history of the known universe which the Record urged us not to leave. 

It's just a little ironic that the Record should so soon find the policiess of its favoured government to be not quite as perfect as they promised us they would be. Better Together indeed!

It's also a tad on the cheeky side to expend as much ink as the Record recently has on putting down other organs for rudeness and disrespectful stores about Labour, and then describing Duncan-Smith as a "double-chinned millionaire Tory". 

Looking better than usual

Granted it's true (these £38 tax payer funded breakfasts...eh?). We can't fault them for accuracy...but it's not very polite. And, although Munguin has no such sensibilities, we thought that the Record set great store by politeness.

It seems that they have taken their place as part of the British establishment, where as we all know there is one set of rules for us, and one for them.

++++++++++

PS. 

....in pink

According to what I read on Twitter (I can't access her account because she has blocked me for calling her out on previous lies, but you may be able to) Maggie Thatc Curran appears to think that it's a shameful lie made up by the SNP that the Tories and Labour may consider a grand coalition to keep the SNP from holding any sway in the next parliament. 

Poor deluded woman appears never to have heard of Gisela Stuart. I knew Mags was detached from what's going on, but for heaven's sake...

Random Thoughts

Natalie with Humza

In an effort to get Glasgow Man back on board, Labour has been whinging about how mean the Government in Edinburgh has been to Scotland's biggest city.

That's the same Labour that only a few years ago, when it was in coalition with the Liberals, managed to give back money to London at the end of the year, presumably because everything was so peachy in Scotland (including Glasgow) that the money was simply not needed. 

I'm not an expert on Glasgow but I'd lay money on it that there will have been some need that could have been fulfilled by that money that went back to London. After all you don;t have life expectancy rates lower than Gaza in a town that is all tickety boo!

Natalie McGarry, the SNP candidate for Glasgow East, Curran's seat, makes a good point .

Labour in Glasgow, she says, need to look to themselves for the perceived underspend in Glasgow.

The Government has had to spend half a £bn making the correct decision to mitigate the bedroom tax and other welfare cuts, but with a budget which has shrunk by 10% because of coalition cuts.

And let's not forget that the Labour Party at Westminster - and yes, that includes Margaret Curran MP - voted with the Tories just a month or so ago to a further £30bn of austerity cuts.

It's the circle of lies which annoys people. Budget cut at Westminster = budget cut at Holyrood = budget cut in councils. It's the inevitability of it which is damning. So if Labour vote with the Tories for increased cuts at Westminster, they are voting for increased cuts at Holyrood which essentially means they voted for cuts at council level. Some of them would like to correct the cuts by making you pay more council tax though. So, bankers cause the banking crisis, but both the Tories and Labour target ordinary folk to pay the price.

Well said, Natalie.

**********

I may be wrong but I thought that Labour in Scotland wanted
to means test university education?

**********

Well done, Gordon.
Not bad earnings for a humble son of the manse.
Makes Rifkind and Straw look like the paupers they
claim to be.

**********

A much younger Murphy in his spiritual home.

I read that Murphy has announced that he will indeed stand as the UK Labour candidate for East Renfrewshire in the UK general election. 

Ruth Wishart wondered on Twitter what his constituents would think of that.

I'd say that they would, if they were thinking rationally, understand that they are being used to provide Murphy with a very generous salary and expenses for the next year and to provide him with the means by which he can continue to lead the Scottish branch office of the UK Labour Party.

In the wake of the scandals over Rifkind and Straw, it seems unlikely that Miliband will allow hiom to be both MP and MSP at the same time.

Munguin's mate Ted, met on line,
 would make a better FM than Spud.!

I'm not sure I'd bother if I were him. I reckon he has about as much chance of being first minister next year as Munguin's mate Ted... and he's not even standing!

FOTOS ON FRIDAY

See... It worked!

We can throw in knitting patterns too...

Just going to the shops like only women do that!

Here's our Employment spokesWOMAN.
She wants to put a time limit on the dole.

Exterminate, Obliterate, Annihilate...
 in a nice warm feminine way, of course. 

Yeah, I'm having a slight problem with the geography here.
English Defence League, South Wales Division.
(Back to boy stuff here so we ditched the pink captions)

You could never accuse Irvine Welsh
 of failing to make his point.

Labour wants to sell off the NHS to save £20 billion.
Don;t forget that when you vote.
This dude is Murphy's right hand...whatever.

It's a mad world that the same state seems to think that
the Vile creature needs more  food money (on top of her massive salary)
than this woman needs to help her manage her disability.

EWWWWWWW!

Poor Murphy... easily confused.
By the way... what happened to the "Murphy's Law" sound bite?

You and thousands of other Mr Reid.

Another thing Labour is confused about...

Erm, and you were whining about someone calling you a cowbag on Twitter? Away you bloody daft woman and grow a spine.
Whit's gaed tae gie's no ill tae tak.
(Pink again because Margaret wouldn't understand
big butch blue writing.)

Perfectly put!

Well said Sir or Madam!

It's not just oil we do better in!