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".]
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.
prices are not rising faster than stairtheid rammys wages, thats for bloody sure
ReplyDeleteAye that's true. It will be interesting to see how many of them give their extra pay rise to charit. Maybe to the local foodbank. It's likely to be around £8,000 a year which will buy a lot of basic foods for the starving.
DeleteAs we used to say - if Maggie's brains were made of dynamite, there wouldn't be enough to blow her own nose.
ReplyDeleteShe really is a gonk and as for Carmichael, he's a wee nyaff, a nobody and a person of no consequence.
If you're going to continue to put images of Curran on your blog, its only fair to put a wee warning at the top. Seeing her face appear from the bottom of the monitor really throws a scare into a man.
Some one send for the Terrahawks!
;-)
Ah, yes. Sorry about the lack of warning. Not suitable for children or those of nervous disposition...
DeleteI thought maybe the word "CURREN" in the headline might be sufficient...
Anyway, I once met her and spent the afternoon with her when she was minister for social development or some such thing. She knew a bit about that sort of thing and showed interest in the project we were working on.
Since the SNP took power she seems to have become a bitter old woman, consumed by hate. I suppose they just never thought they wouldn't be in charge in Scotland. Tony Blair's plans gone wrong again.
Now she is promoted well above her capabilities and makes a fool of herself every time she is interviewed. I'm embarrassed for her to be honest.
There seems to me that there is an art in opposition. You oppose those things that your opposite number does that are against your principles.
She seems to work on the Bain principle that whatever Alex Salmond does must be wrong, even if it is exactly what Labour would have done. Can't help but thinking that she's rather guilty of grandstanding herself.
Agreed.
ReplyDeleteNot going to say this too loudly in case Labour hear but, graceful acknowledgement of shared values is far more attractive than screeching opposition for the sake of screeching opposition.
I just wish they'd see it and I can't help but feel that if they can't, either they are as dim as a broken lightbulb, or they are so consumed by hatred that they let it cloud their judgement.
DeleteYou expect it from a silly wee idiot of a laddie like Bain, but Maggie is a hmmm, mature woman. She should know better.
You have to go easy on Margaret Curran Tris.
ReplyDeleteIn the Labour world standing up for Scotland and the ordinary Scot means that you are not showing due deference to the establishment.
Since the establishment is by definition always right then anything you say or do against it is always wrong so your only motive must be to make a fuss about nothing. i.e "Grandstanding".
The quote that showed the depth of her ignorance or mendacity is this one:
"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."
In other words no-one, especially Alex Salmond, should tell Cameron to get rid of the bedroom tax but Alex Salmond should find extra money in Scotland's budget (set by David Cameron) to fund the extra money needed to offset the bedroom tax (imposed by David Cameron).
Doesn't she understand what the SNP has been saying about the Bedroom tax? That they cannot legally give any more money to offset it?
"...the Scottish government obviously has backed and increased the amount available (under discretionary housing payment) for families in Scotland this year up to its legal limit"
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-24543551
Labour's hatred of the SNP has driven all sense out of them to the point where challenging a Conservative right-wing Prime Minister is seen as bad form and making a fuss.
"Alex Salmond should be laying out a plan to stop [the bedroom tax] hitting Scots."
DeleteHe is. It's called independence. Nice of Mags to highlight that point.
Yes Doug. I know. I expect too much of them. There are rules, and it's more than their job is worth to break them.
DeleteI'm sorry Mags... (Was that OK?)
:)
Bang on Rolfe. We can be rid of the bedroom tax and extremely dangerous missiles and lord knows how much else in one day!
DeleteTris
ReplyDeleteCurran is a shocking joke of a politician, she is not even a smart one at that. Her brand of unionism is all about her personal ambition. MSP/MP for one of the most impoverished parts of Glasgow and has she improved it in any way, no. It suits her purpose to keep them hungry, poor, unemployed, relying on the state and dying young. That should be the mantra of the Labour Party in Scotland, she is disgusting like they all are. She is high on my list of ' traitiors ' to social justice:
Lamont / Curran
Jo Swinson/Danny Alexander 'seperated at birth '
Ming ' the merciless ' Campbell
Michael Moore ' sadly not the american one '
Mundell ' well you have to don't you'
Jim McGovern ' my useless Liebour MP Dundee West '
Gordon ' give me your money' Brown
Alistair 'storyteller home flipper ' Darling
Willie 'not all there' Rennie
Ruthie 'always confused'Davidson
and
Niko and Dean 'joined at the hip':)
Bruce
Lordy , Bruce what a collection.
DeleteI'm not sure that Niko and Deano are joined a the hip though. Taz would have something to say about that...
Although Mrs Niko does seem to spend a lot of time at the bingo with Mr Brownlie...
Since Labour and Tory are just two heads of the same Westminster party is it any wonder that Curren expects the SG to do their bidding.
ReplyDeleteLOL CH...
DeleteI just saw this resonse to Curran from Alex Salmond in the Scotsman:
ReplyDelete"Before the summit, shadow Scottish secretary Margaret Curran said: “What Scots need tomorrow is action to tackle the cost-of-living crisis, not more grandstanding from Alex Salmond and David Cameron.”
But Mr Salmond said: “If Margaret Curran’s asking me to agree with David Cameron on the bedroom tax, she is gravely mistaken.
“The way you deal with the bedroom tax is to persuade the Government that this is a socially iniquitous imposition on people and something that should be reversed.
“If they are not prepared to reverse it now, then it has to be mitigated and to get it mitigated we have to know what the discretionary housing payments are for next year.
“You can’t have meetings where you nod your head when something outrageous like the bedroom tax is being imposed on some of the most vulnerable families in Scotland.”
Trust Alex to come out with something sensible is response to an idiotic statement from Curren.
DeleteThanks for pointing that out Elizabeth.
As Doug pointed out, the Scottish government has already gone to the extent of its legal powers in mitigating the effects of the bedroom tax, despite Labour demanding it break the law and go further.
If it did break the law, it could be fined and powers could be taken back...ie its right to interfere with the policy at all. In that case our people would suffer in the same way that English people are suffering right now.
I see, by the way, that Owen (the badger killer) Paterson is the latest Westminster Tory Toerag to come to Scotland and tell us how completely and utterly pathetic we are. Of course like all the rest he depended on a pack of lies for his reasoning, as shown by Stuart here...
ReplyDeletehttp://wingsoverscotland.com/mutton-dressed-as-lamb/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=mutton-dressed-as-lamb
These people seem to be either incredibly stupid and ill informed, or they are out and out lying bastards.
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteIts when you look at the garbage those people spout on a regular basis Scottish Skiers theory takes more substance,
Deletehis take on it is that Tories are secretly seeking to support a yes vote while appearing to be agin it,
so will ratchet up the antagonism towards Scotland to encourage Scots to man up and tell them to sod off,
the fear I have is that there are a lot of hard of thinking people out there who swallow this pish
sorry to anyone who has a loathing of Susan Calmanesque
comedy
I sometimes wonder about that theory.
DeleteOn the other hand I think it's more likely (given how they are dealing with everything else) that they think themselves above people in general, and feel a god given right to disparage everything... the poor, the sick, the old, the young, the Scots... whoever).
Alistair Carmichael
ReplyDeleteadvises Alex Salmond to listen and learn?
what from Cameron?
a man who has a third of Alex's time in power and has shown what he thinks of Scotland on a daily basis and he should listen and learn from him?
if Cameron had any sense he would sit quietly and learn from Alex,
and just when does a man in a non job( by his own assertion) get to lecture the head of the Scottish government about how to conduct himself?
did he think Salmond was going to GO (not come) to London dressed in plaid and painted blue and have to hand his claymore in at the front door of no 10?
Why is it every time these people open their mouths they (probably without knowing they're doing it) disparage their own country,
Its almost as it they go through some sort of Stepford wives mind conditioning the minute they enter the hallowed place of Westminster, and only become normal people again when they are voted out of that place and the spell wears off
I think wee Mags is trying to come across as a sensible woman knocking two wee boys heads together to make them behave,
ReplyDeleteIn fact all she really does when she opens that mooth o hers is show herself up for what she really is,
a HARPIE,
or if you want to get all Shakespeare about it,
a SHREW
Yes. That really made me laugh.
DeleteWhether you are a independentist or a unionist, you would probably agree that after 6 years and more in power Alex Salmond still has a plus sign before his ratings. That means that even people who are absolutely against independence are for Alex Salmond.
On the other hand, having managed only 3.5 years at Downing Street, Cameron is in a negative position. Unionist or independentist, n o one seems to think he or his government is any good.
As for Carmichael, anyone who is in a minority party in both the UK and Scotland, who has been in post for around two weeks and who thinks it is his place to tell a popular first minister, who has spent more than 20 years leading his party in one way or another (albeit a minority party in the UK) and 6 years + of being first minister... how he should behave at a meeting of ministers, is really begging to be laughed at.
Especially as you say, when he thinks his own job shouldn't exist. He's another one that would benefit for Mark Twain's advice.
Maggie is just a silly woman out of her depth, knowing that she has to say something. Unfortunately she almost invariably says the wrong thing.
If I'd been her I'd have encouraged the FM to GO to London GO to London, and tell the first minister that Scots want less time and money spent on running the world and a little more spent on running Britain.
It's all very well handing out aid to all and sundry, and I'm all for aid to those who need it, but when the Red Cross is handing out food parcels in your own country to stave of starvation, it really is time to do something about home affairs.
But no, the stupid woman still thinks it serves her purpose to have a pop at Alex regardless.