Sunday 20 September 2015

KEZIA FAILS TO IMPRESS

I have to say I'm a little confused here.

I understood that Kezia (and for that matter, Ken) were very much against theirs being an "autonomous party", but now it seems that they are autonomous. 

When did that happen?

I also understood that she was very much against Jeremy Corbyn becoming leader, because he would leave them "carping on the sidelines". I realise that she said that this was before he won a whopping 60% of the vote for the leadership, but surely her problem was that he would not win an election. There has seemed to be very little doubt expressed in comments from Labour MPs, even members of the shadow cabinet, and from all the press, including the Guardian and the Observer, that a large number of Labour Party MPs are not behind him (some have refused to serve in his shadow cabinet), and some have made it clear that they will openly defy him. Mr Falconer, Blair's flat mate, was on television today telling Marr that he would resign from the Shadow Cabinet if some of Corbyn's policies went through. 

Does Kezia seriously think he has more of a chance now of becoming prime minister than he did a few weeks ago, with a fractured party? Certainly the polls don't indicate that he does.

We have established that the Autonomous Scottish Labour, led by Kezia, will be able to make policy at conference... but what's new? It always could. Neil Findlay, when questioned about Trident, pointed out that the Scottish conference had voted it down in the past.

Fat lot of difference it made though. 

The British Labour Party simply ignored what the Scots thought. 

Will that change? How could it change?

As for the matter of Kezia controlling the Scottish whip instead of Mr Corbyn, at the present moment with only one MP it hardly makes any difference, but there will undoubtedlyly come a day when Labour has two, three, or even 20 or 30 MPs.

The party may even be in government in the UK one day.

If the English/Welsh Party whips their MPs to vote one way, and the Scottish Party whips their MP(s) to vote another way, how will that work? 

And at the present moment, with one MP (who is personally anti-WMD) will he be whipped by Kezia to vote the way that Scottish conference decides or the way that British conference decides, or the way the shadow cabinet decides?

If they are in government, could it mean that they could lose a vote?

It all sounds very confused to me, and not satisfactory.

Despite the fact that clearly there was no intention on the part of the interviewer to ask about Education, Kezia was clearly itching to talk about it and managed to get in the interesting "factoid" that 50% of the poorest pupils couldn't read when they left school.

She seemed pleased to get that in.

Perhaps she was lucky not to be questioned more deeply about it though.

If I'd been interviewing her I'd have wanted to know:

What is the definition of the poorest students?

How many of them are there? Tens of thousands, thousands, hundreds, tens, seven?

Where are they? Arte they concentrated in one place or all over Scotland or what?

Are there any other contributory factors, apart from poverty, which might be taken into consideration?

And then I would have pointed out that those who are 16 now, would have started at school 11 years ago. Within a pretty short period of starting school, and certainly in the first year there, they would have been shown how to write the alphabet. The building blocks of being able to read and write.

The current government came to power in 2007, or 8 years ago. 

So which party was in government during the first three years in which these poorest kids would have studied the foundations of reading and writing?

If you've got to the age of 8 and not picked it up, you're going to have a very hard time catching up.

Be careful what you desire, Kezia.
**********
On the subject of Kezia, I read on Twitter that she recently said that she didn't get involved with Better Together events.

I think she did:



31 comments:

  1. In next year's Holyrood election, there is a simple test for every potential Labour voter. On the Labour list - and the odds are that is where their MSP's will be mostly drawn from - where do the top 7 candidates in each Region stand on Independence?

    If it is - as I would expect - that they are Unionists, then Labour voters who care about our country should withhold their votes on the Party vote. I suggest abstaining or spoiling ballots if you cannot vote against your Party.

    Demand to know the order of the list, and their side on the Independence issue.

    Saor Alba

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, I know that there were a lot of Labour voters who were for independence, and fell out with the party over that issue and their apparent hatred of the SNP based only on the issue of independence (as they are relatively close on many other things).

      I don't know how many MSPs are potentially yes supporters. The interview seems to suggest that that there were parliamentarians who are pro independence. I wonder how many.

      Delete
  2. I've just seen that Stuart has done a piece on the figures, researched and linked as usual.

    Kezia was talking utter rubbish.

    http://wingsoverscotland.com/kezia-dugdale-fact-check-part-673/

    Linked in right hand column =>>

    ReplyDelete
  3. tris

    snp activist thats you says ...KEZIA FAILS TO IMPRESS .....Qelle surprise !

    Jeremy is a unpatriotic craven coward cos he doesn't want to bomb and
    mutilate slaughter innocent children women and men.

    Cameron is a fine patriotic upstanding brave man cos he does want and is happy to
    bomb and mutilate slaughter innocent children women and men.///

    So the right wing press tells us..go figure

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well seriously. Did she impress you?

      Corbyn himself stands for a lot of stuff that I stand for. My criticism of Dugdale is based not on the fact that she is Labour; it is on the fact she is stupid.

      I'm not criticising Corbyn at all. I agree with much of what he’s about.
      1. I don't want to bomb people, because it’s not nice, and even more importantly it doesn't work.
      2. I do want to renationalise things, because privatising most of the stuff that they did was a big mistake. (I notice she tried to get in a dig that they wanted the SNP to nationalise Scotrail when, un less she is remarkably stupid she knows that that's what the SNP wanted to do and the London government told them they couldn't).
      3. I don’t want nuclear weapons at all. They will never be used. The ones that were used 70 years ago were like fireworks compared to what we have now. We could blow up entire countries. If someone fires then at us, us firing them back isn’t going to stop anything. It’s a nonsense when old folk have the worst pensions in the developed world.
      4. The day I sing God Save the Bloody Queen is the day I fall off my perch. Load of sentimental nonsense, as Corbyn knows. Nothing about the country; all about one person.

      As for Cameron, he’s just like Blair was. A privileged posh boy with no earthly idea of hiw the other 95% lives and not much of a care about it.

      I really do wonder what makes them tick. I also wonder if he knows exactly who he will bomb in Syria: Assad or the rebels which included ISIS, or will he leave the USA to tell him, or will it be the Saudi King?

      The right wing press are giving Corbyn an even harder time than they gave Alex Salmond. Most of it too is lies.

      Even the Guardian and the Observer are giving him stick.

      If they force him out then Labour is finished.

      I just wish the right wing Labour MPs would cross the floor where their ideas will be appreciated.

      But I repeat, Dugdale fails to get through every time. And that’s with a sympathetic interviewer. She’s worse than useless.

      BTW: Helena was worried about you.

      PS Who’s gonna win in Greece tonight?

      Delete
    2. It's ok. We know who won.

      Heartiest congratulations to mr Tsipras .

      Delete
    3. Dear Niko, firstly I am glad that you are okay, I mentioned to Tris I was worried about the fact you had not updated your blog or appeared here in quite some time.
      On Mr Corbyn, how wrong you are, we all wished him well, just not too well up here but then with friends like Kezia how would he. He has unfortunately bent to too many comments made in as you say the right wing press, using the ministerial car promising to sing the National Anthem and worse still employing Baron's in his shadow cabinet. A Socialist who does that is surely beyond the Pale. Then of course and this is something which surprises me that he employed not only a Baron but one convicted of Wilful Fire Raising was bad enough but to employ a Scot as his Shadow Minister for Education (England only) seems to me to be about as stupid as one gets. How they managed not to raise that matter in the English Papers is quite beyond me.
      I think I can truly say I am waiting and reserve my judgement on him until his party has to vote on something, then shall we say we shall see.

      Delete
    4. tris and Helena

      Health wise I am fit as a fiddle but as a father/granddad with
      the responsibilities of two growing grandsons and trying to maintain
      two households.....am wore out but must plod on till the end of the road.
      there are great and wonderful things having two lovely boys to care for
      (Conan says) but cant quiet figure what they are yet......

      that was a joke but takes a lot of my time up

      tris

      see we agree on many things but disagree how to bring our hopes
      and dreams to fruition such is life

      Delete
    5. I know Niko. Conan is a wise man though. You should be guided by him.

      :)

      Yes. we agree on ,much and disagree on much. Such, indeed, is life.

      Delete
    6. I remembered you were doing double duty and realised what a handful you have taken on. Just concerned that we had not heard from you in a while. We may disagree most of the time but we never wish evil on you regardless of what you think.
      At least you had children to practise on imagine what it would be like to suddenly find yourself with a small baby and you hadn't had any.

      Delete
  4. So Dugdale was AGAINST Jeremy Corbyn becoming leader of the Labour party. Then she had a vision and decided that he may actually be the man for the job after all. (I'm guessing the vision thingy came when she saw how big his lead was in the lead up to the members voting.)

    Jeremy Corbyn is AGAINST renewing Trident, the Labour party appears to be hedging its bets on supporting renewal. I wonder what wee Kezia's stance is on Trident or is she still waiting for her decision to arrive from London?

    One final wee theory.

    From all the Scottish G.E. voting intentions for May 2016 the figures are all generally pointing towards an INCREASED S.N.P. majority. This sort of raises a wee question.

    How long will wee Kezia remain in her post as *ahem* leader of the branch office in Scotland?

    I have a strong suspicion that if the current polling continues and Labour does indeed lose a load of seats then her tenure as leader may not last that long past May 2016.

    Will the next set of contenders for Leader of the branch office please stand up to the plate by June 2016 thank you!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The thing about Kezia is that she doesn't tell us what she thinks about anything. We don;t know what she thinks about Jeremy. She wont tell us whether she believes in Trident or not; she won't tell us who she voted for. But it's all supposed to be new and open.

      If he'd been an aggressive interviewer he'd have left her without a name. She's lucky BBC Scotland management is populated by the relative of Labour people.

      The electoral calculus figures show Labour losing 12 seats, but she has already said that she won't stand down. She has to have time to build the party.

      Still, what she says and what happens may be very different. She is as autonomous and Jeremy lets her be.

      Delete
  5. Oh, jesus,

    That was just ridiculous.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'd have expected a better performance from a local councillor.

      Imagine her in negotiations with a foreign head of government?

      Delete
    2. Aye, fair enough. It was a big ask!

      Delete
  6. Corbyn is main stream Scottish politics but regarded by many in England,including most of his Labour MPs as being"extreme" left wing.
    This has completely blown apart the Labour myth of one nation politics.
    The Dug is going to have to decide if she is politically Scottish or English and in either case signifies the end of "British" Labour.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This is, and what always has been, the problem.

      It's probably been more noticeable since devolution, but it's always been true. We are different countries with different priorities.

      England seems right of centre, and still stuck in days of empire, ad Scotland more left of centre, and far less concerned with running the world.

      Seems that the one who put the cat in with the pigeons was Jola!

      Again!

      Delete
    2. If Corbyn manages to take the Labour Party to a unilateralist position on Trident, if he mananges to argue convincingly that we should not use drone attacks and murder our fellow citizens in foreign lands. If he, say, promised to nationalise the merchant banks and go after tax evasion / tax avoidance. If Jeremy Corbyn threw over the usurers money lending tables in the temple, well:

      I'd still want independence.

      Why?

      Because it woud only be a temporary respite.

      Delete
    3. Agreed. It wouldn't be long before the warmongering, poor haters were back to torture.

      It's the way Britain is.

      Delete
  7. One thing I find interesting is how very similar your Labour hacks are to ours in Wales. Change the accents and their evasive bollocks is identical.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. LOL. Internationally poor quality, Anon.

      They must all get the same training course in how to try to avoid questions. The trouble is the training is done on the cheap!

      Delete
  8. Ha ha ha.

    I was thinking, as I listened to the massive dinners he attends at the mansion house. (quot estis in convivio.)

    And comparing it with some poor elderly person who can;t afford a proper meal.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. PS: BTW I'm trying incredibly hard to not think of any other references to Dave and pigs.

      Delete
  9. Is Kezia waving or drowning?.....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maybe both.

      I'd say that Labour has an uphill struggle, but I think they have chosen the wrong person to lead them on it.

      I'm sure she's a perfectly nice person, and clearly she is intelligent (she has a law degree and they don't come without some brains), but she's not a leader. She's not a performer either, and that's probably half the battle.

      Delete
  10. I see that you think acquiring a law degree makes her intelligent. Well Tris once upon a time I would probably agree with you, you have to meet a certain solicitor and then tell me again. I was moved to say that with the likes of Adam Tomkins and that Stephenson woman, that they went to University to finish their primary education. Passing exams for some is easy peasy, becoming educated is much more difficult and if Kezia had any sense she would get out of the situation she is presently in before she has difficulty getting a real job. I would not employ her to walk Hektor.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. LOL. I sure there are exceptions. I've a few friends who are solicitors and all have razor sharp minds.

      The study is hard, compared with some other degrees, but... well Mundell has a law degree and for that matter so does Carmichael, so yeah... perhaps I was judging too much on my own experience of lawyers.

      Delete
  11. The Brewer interview was designed to allow Dugdale to revise her past statements and claims. So, she can now move forward with all lies and deceits expunged. Except, some of us remember.

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    Replies
    1. LOL They should have rehearsed it a bit better then Brian. It left her looking like an idiot.

      Even the BBC can't make her look half decent.

      Delete