BETTER TOGETHER...WITH THIS LOT... WHAT???

Heartbreaking stories...

...Reminiscent of the 1800s

While this sort of scumbag looks down from on high
Lord Ponse

Makes you proud. Can this be the same nation that hosted the best
Olympic Games in the history of the universe?

Thousands have died and thousands more will die. Who cares?

Incompetent moron

Oh you'll think of something, you bastard

Way to save money...

...which can be redistributed upwards

The white powder is erm chalk

Oh and sharing nuclear secrets...given that no one
else will build your power stations

Only the best  for people of his quality

You deserve it George, for just being born.

I think you already have it

How very generous

Well, you have to look after your family ...

Fancy that, a French Viscount

No use asking me. I'm not George Osborne...thank heavens

Priorities, dear boy, priorities

Britain is a scam if you ask me.

Think about it.  You go to uni; you have £40,000 debt; you get on your bike, get a job and move into your own place, then you get paid off and want to move back in with your mum, but she's had to downsize because of bedroom tax, so you're homeless.  That's modern Britain's offer of a future for young people

Way to go George. You know a thing of two about economics

Greedy spiv

That is just such an insult to the post and the turtle...
 and the bits of dead grass you can see

CURREN MIGHT BE BETTER, JUST OCCASIONALLY, TO KEEP HER MOUTH SHUT

Alex Salmond is to have talks with David Cameron in Downing Street, London, during a meeting of the administrations of the UK. 

It is expected that he will raise the spectre of the Bedroom Tax, along with other social security issues and youth unemployment. 

Mr Cameron wants to focus the meeting on immigration, the Commonwealth Games and Ryder Cup. But Salmond is determined to raise issues which are pressing for ordinary Scots. Naturally Cameron has no earthly idea what an ordinary Scot is, only having seen the kind that living on shooting estates and went to Eton. Nor of course does he give a stuff about how they live as they consistently refuse to vote for his party and are, therefore of no interest to him whatsoever.

The new secretary of state, who should be fighting Scotland's corner in cabinet, has advised Mr Salmond to arrive in Downing Street with a positive attitude and to listen and learn.  No honestly, he is reported to have said that. Listen and learn from Cameron (the most inept prime minister since... oh yeah, Gordon Brown) and Carmichael (who's been in the job two weeks!).

Of course it would be handy for Mr Cameron if everyone just sat there and listened and learned from the man that has the best qualifications in England that money can buy. But Salmond needs no lessons on statecraft from Cameron, and no advice on how to behave himself in government from Carmichael, and he is there to do what Carmichael and Moore have singularly failed to do: represent Scotland's best interests.

Stairheid Rammy: The Shadow Secretary of State

Not to be left out of course, Labour's shadow secretary for Scotland had to open her mouth. Was it Abraham Lincoln or Mark Twain who said: "It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt"? (It may have originated in the Torah, Proverbs 17:28). Anyway whoever said it Stairheid should take heed.

She accuses Mr Salmond of "Grandstanding". 

She says: "What Scots need tomorrow is action to tackle the cost-of-living crisis, not more grandstanding from Alex Salmond and David Cameron.

"Prices are rising faster than wages, energy bills are still going up and the bedroom tax is continuing to hit people across the country.

"This is a rare opportunity to hammer out a plan to get to grips with this cost-of-living crisis.

"Instead of coming to London to tell David Cameron to bin the bedroom tax, Alex Salmond should be laying out a plan to stop it hitting Scots."

[The word "coming" is telling! As a Scot based in Scotland, I'd have said "going".]

Maybe China will send us some food aid?

So, does she not think that bringing up the bedroom tax is the best way of dealing with it? Who does she think is responsible for the cost of living, the energy companies' prices, and the bedroom tax? Not to mention the other criminal behaviour that puts the poorest in our country  in need of food banks and Red Cross parcels?

Why does this stupid woman feel obliged every time she opens her mouth, to carp at Alex Salmond and the SNP? The man is going to do more or less all she is demanding but when he does she feels the need to call it "grandstanding". Would she prefer him to just be a polite man and listen and learn from Cameron and Carmichael? She needs to learn that there is a time for opposition, and there is time to let the first minister do his job. Is she unaware that he will be doing more or less what she is demanding?

Labour really needs to replace her with someone with just a spark of intelligence, because right now, every time the shadow secretary of state opens her mouth she proves beyond doubt that she is a bad joke. We deserve better, Ed.

THE RED CROSS KNOWS BEST ABOUT DISASTER RELIEF, BUT MITT KNOWS BEST ABOUT GETTING HIS PICTURE IN THE NEWS

So caught up in our own affairs with Alex and the European Union, and the visit of Pip Hammond and his Weapons of Mass Destruction, have I been that I've failed to say anything about either the horrific weather "event"  (didn't it used to be horrific weather) in the Northeastern United States, or indeed the Presidential election, with which my friend, and Munguin's Republic's 'Man In America', Danny, has been keeping me up to speed.

So now I will rectify both of these omissions by recounting the story sent by the aforementioned Danny, to whom I say "thanks", of Mitt and the Donations, which although it sounds like a 1970's soul group, is in fact, what has been going on over the last few days in the States.

When Hurricane Sandy was predicted and later when it hit landfall, it was only reasonable to expect that Barack Obama would give it his fullest attention. It's his job. Whether he wanted to or not, he was obliged to stop whatever else he was doing (in this case campaigning for next week's election), and work in concert with the national disaster team, and the governors of the affected states and their teams, to do everything they could to save lives, organise relief, comfort and reassure, and get teams working on normalising life as quickly as possible.

The President had to break into his campaign to do that, because he had a role, a job to do. Mr Romney had no such role and there nothing that said he had to do the same, except that generally speaking people would expect it.

So it seems he decided that doing a little "charity work" for the displaced, bereaved, miserable people would be the best use of his time, so he changed the name of his campaign events and carried on pretty much regardless.

This video clip, which I urge you to watch if you have any interest at all in what is going on in America, covers various aspects of what Barack Obama and Mitt Romney have been doing.

I was particularly interested in the ploy Romney used to get charitable donations to the cause to also mean first rate photo opportunities for himself.

For obvious logistical reasons the Red Cross want donations of money (and blood) rather than food. Food randomly purchased and donated on the scale that would be useful for the millions of homeless in the eastern seaboard states would require vast administration to get it to where it would be useful, and even at that tons of it would be useless because it would require cooking where there are no facilities to do this.

But a photo op with Mr Romney accepting cash and cheques wouldn't have made the same splash as pictures of Mitt up to his elbows in poor people's food would. So against the express wishes of the Red Cross, Mitt asked for food.

And worse still, in case people came with no food, he had his campaign purchase $5,000 worth of Walmart food, and as people arrived they were able to pick up something to "donate".  Something that had been purchased by the people to whom they were going to donate it.  It made fantastic photographic evidence of a candidate who cares and who can inspire others to care (even if he has to produce the goods).

Does that not make you sick?

As an afterthought of course, the Red Cross won't want, or be able to use, this stuff. What will become of it? Will the genuine donations from Americans horrified by the plight of their countrymen just go to waste having served their purpose of making Mitt look good? 

Danny has promised to keep his eyes and ears open.

I don't think Mr Romney would make a very good president.