Tuesday 3 November 2015

THE EAGLE HAS LANDED ... A BLOW TO THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE SCOTTISH BRANCH OFFICE

Maria Eagle has asserted her authority over Scotland and said that the London parliament is in charge of defence and therefore what the Scots decided, either at the Labour Party Branch Conference, or in the Scottish Parliament doesn't matter a fig. Trident renewal will go ahead.

Clearly Ms Eagle would rather spend £167,000,000,000 on murdering people and animals indiscriminately (you can't be too choosy with a nuclear missile... 'Oh mind old Mr Smith, he's 98 and good to children and animals...") than on conventional forces which are needed by hard pressed British forces in today's world of continual war.

Ms Eagle probably dreams that one day she will be the defence secretary in England and may be invited to stand on the same platform as people as important as the American Defense Secretary or the US Secretary of State. 

The rush of blood to the head that that brings about almost probably clouds her mind as to what else could be done in this rather deprived country with so many billions of pounds.

It is particularly unfortunate, not to say embarrassing, that the put down should come so soon after Kezia Dugdale announced that she and Jeremy Corbyn had reached an agreement to give Labour autonomy in their Scottish branch. Autonomy not granted to other branch offices. 
Baillie: She appears to be saying that the Labour MSPs are not voting out of conviction, but out of loyalty top the party conference?
So who are the actual warmongers?
She told the BBC that if Scotland and England decided to follow different policies on reserved matters, then she and Jeremy would get together and work out what was to be done... come to an accommodation, as it were. 

Clearly what is to be done and the accommodation to become to is that some English shadow cabinet politician tells Slab to shut up and sit down. I wonder how Jeremy and Kez came to that accommodation...

I'm reminded of Jim Murphy when he was banging his autonomy drum ("I need to ask no one for permission") and his "there will be no more cuts in Scotland's budget under a future Labour Government", which was met with incredulity and an immediate "back in your box, Spud" put down by his London bosses, Chukka Umunna, Ed Miliband and Ed Balls, desperate to show English voters that they wouldn't be subsidising Scotland.

In the same way Maria clearly wants to reassure the English voters whom she needs to encourage to leave the Tories, that Britannia will continue to rule the world, under the watchful eye of America (or is it China now?) and that the WMDs will continue to be housed safely away from important centres of population, except Glasgow which doesn't matter because it's only full of jocks.

Ms Eagle is joined in this matter by her friend Ms Baillie and everyone friend, John McTernan (ex advisor to the last Labour branch office leader).
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We will continue to provide nuclear protection to all Scots regardless of their intellect
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That's interesting McT. Are you aware that your English leader (the REAL one as opposed to the pretendy Jock one) said he won't use nukes when he is PM? So we won't be protected at all if there's a Labour government. 
We just hope Kin Jong Un missed that statement.
Or are you planning, along with the top 1%, to get rid of Jeremy somehow?
Are you also aware that your hero, Tony Hague Blair said in his biography that the nuclear deterrent was all for show?
Baillie voted with the Tories and the Liberals against the government, the Greens and her own party to save the 560 jobs at Faslane, which she seems to have exaggerated into 13,000, with the world's biggest ever job creation scheme. Has she been talking to JK Rowling and getting Harry to magic them?

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PS: Please note that although I would have been entitled, virtue of the subject matter of this post to put up another picture of Baillie, I resisted the temptation... just for you guys!

26 comments:

  1. That McTernan's a charmer, eh?
    £167 billion, would create way more jobs, if spent on infrastructure, council housing and development of off shore power generation.
    You could probably clear out the NHS PFI debt, that Labour saddled it with, and while they were at it school buildings PFI and the white elephant centralized fire service call center, that was never used PFI.
    Rather than waste it on a codpiece, so you can strut around, peacock fashion, pretending to be important.

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    1. The weird thing is that a lot of them are going off on the jobs thing.

      Heaven knows I'm aware about the importance of jobs, and the disaster that large scale job losses can cause in smaller communities, but as we've all agreed, £167 billion will pay for a lot of jobs.

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  2. But you could have put up a picture of a baby hippo, we would have known who you meant...

    Saor Alba

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    1. I'm not sure that baby hippos around the world will thank you for that. I'd stay clear of them for the foreseeable future, if I were you!

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  3. Predictable that the massive and belligerent Baillie would vote that way with the Scottish elections in mind. Is Madam Goldie still in the Holyrood Parliament as I thought she had gone to the House of Expenses? I would have thought that some intrepid journalist would have challenged Eagle on the fact that Trident would be useless if her leader would not use it? Her remarks suggest that, regardless of the wishes of the majority who voted for Corbyn the 'long knives' are being sharpened for Jeremy. The majority of Labour MPs are still, regardless of what they claim, Blairites who have to try and appeal to the majority of English voters.

    The Labour party at present remind me of the old Irving Berlin song "Let's face the music and dance" (Youngsters like Conan and Niko, google it...)

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    1. I assume that they intend to rid themselves of the troublesome Corbyn with his socialist policies and Labour views as soon as possible and return to the cosy, comfortable situation of the recent past where the leaders of the two UK parties shout at each other over the despatch box, but agree on everything.

      I'd love to ask these people how they would feel on the day that they have to press that button, on instructions from the US president, and blow up a good large part of the world. Gone are the days when you could take out only a city. That was 70 years ago.

      It will be a whole country next time, with all the death and destruction that that implies.

      What kind of people are they?

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  4. Ms Ballie should be asked to give a breakdown of those job numbers and locations as the MOD figures are at varience with hers.

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    1. Ahh Gerry, if only the BBC had thought to ask a question like that....

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    2. Ms Ballie and the facts, are oft strangers.

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  5. Tris

    Not surprised by Labour, or certain members, but either way it does not matter what they pass or say at their gathering in the north because they are a branch office. The only way for Labour to recover is to break away, form an independent party, and come out for at the very least Home Rule, ooops Gordon Brownstuff already did that, oh well that worked. They are a joke of a party, it is like some kind of delusional cult who hope and pray that the English will become as delusional as them and vote Labour, which we know will not happen in the South East or the posh counties for a long time or ever again and the English decide the government so thats that. While I dread the next 4 years of class war I do really believe that a Tory win in 2020 will see a new referendum and a yes vote as people will have had it up here, I really believe that. Baillie is a total tube, voting for jobs. What if the world abandoned nuclear weapons tomorrow she would be fighting to keep the bloody things, how she ever gets elected is beyond me, a liar and a nasty piece of work to boot, and a boot.

    Disappointed but not surprised in certain Lib Dems, how anyone can vote to spend this kind of money on a useless weapon is beyond my mental abilities to understand. The Lib Dems are a mixed bunch, the party seems very left and right, neocons and social Liberals with a little bit of a mix in the centre I suppose. Like Labour in many ways but not as bad in many also. But still very disappointing to be honest. What don't people get, these weapons have to go, soon we will have no soldiers but 4 submarines that we can't use. I just don't get it at all. Surely it would be better to spend some of the money building up the conventional forces and then just not spend the rest on that shit.

    What a country.

    Grumpyscottishman(Bruce).

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    1. I would have expected the Liberal Democrats to be utterly against nuclear weapons, Bruce.

      I realise that all parties consist of wide raging views, but I'd have thought that wasting vast sums on world destruction when we don't have to would be against the Liberal philosophy.

      Was Willie Rennie present? I didn't see his name on the list.

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  6. I have to echo the comment by Bruce.I understand Bailie and the Tories opposing the motion, but what on earth do the Liberal Democrats (Misnomer) think they are doing. Guess they are still trying to keep in with their Tory pals.

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    1. Dunno Andy. I don't get that either.

      Either you believe you would use them, in which case you are some kind of monster, and that's not the way I see Liberal Democrats... or you believe that it's good to have them so you can pretend to matter on the world stage by being useful to America, or China... and I didn't really think that was LibDem philosophy... at least not in the wilds of Scotland (although maybe more so in the metropolitan areas).

      Very weird.

      Has anyone done any kind of poll on people, rather than politicians. People don't benefit from being close to the White House. Only top politicians get the 1st class air, and lunch with Mr Obama, or dinner with Mr Xi and the queen. We don't have the same vested interest in being "important".

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  7. Agree with you on the baby hippo thing for JB, cannot think of anything as repulsive as that woman. I suggest she got her seat in the wake of a time when Labour could count the vote, I think her day will be numbered come 2016.
    As for the Autonomous Labour Party (still Scottish Branch). This will not stand, did not manage to right through to the end of their Conference. Maria Eagle will not be alone, the ahem, Electoral Commission will perhaps put them back in their shortbread tin.

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    1. It will be interesting to see what the Electoral Commission comes up with when Labour in Scotland stand on removing Trident, and Labour in England and Wales stand on renewing Trident.

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    2. But Hungry Hippo isn't going to go. She is what passes for talent on her team, so I would expect her to be up high on the local list. So when the voters vote her out, like a wobbly weeble she will get in again on the list.

      Saor Alba

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKcAWO_IznI

      I have had some issues with list selections locally myself. To a degree it could be argued that if voters "deselect" their MSP that should be curtains. However the list system permits a crap member who is a power in the party ( Labour or SNP in particular here ) to be imposed on the constituents anyway. Parties have a lot of power in this system. I know the SNP choose the order of their list, and that not all candidates for fptp even put themselves up for the list.

      I know also that it is difficult when the electoral calculus indicates you are going to move from a slate of fptp to list members and vice versa, for a party to get it right too.

      This needs to be looked at when we are independent. People should choose their representatives, and this version of PR mostly limits their choice to those approved by the party ( however selected ).

      Oh, I got a card in asking me to help select the Conservative candidate. I did think about joining in for a laugh ( and to see if there were any nationalists I could get up on their list ), but in the end I just binned it. After all,to paraphrase Uncle Joe, its not who votes that counts, but who counts the votes :) .

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    3. I'm inclined to think that if the voters reject you on a FPTP ticket, you probably shouldn't get in on a list. So we agree on that...regardless of party.

      Rather like people who have been thrown out by the public in the UK elections should NEVER be given a seat in the Lords.

      It's like "What part of 'we don 't want you' do you not understand?

      LOL ...select a Tory candidate.... what a joy that would be, but in the end a bit of a waste of time...

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  8. I don't think there will be any move on Corbyn until we've had a few by-elections. If Labour are still being rejected, then he will be toppled. He remains a bit of an enigma to me.

    Question on the electoral commission - how can they interfere with what are effectively internal issues? Manifestos are not binding - as we've already seen with the Tories. (My head is frazzled today, too many spreadsheets.......)

    zog

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    1. Unless "Scottish" Labour become a truly separate party, they cannot have separate policy from the UK party; that is the electoral commissions rules. Labour knows this to be so, they are trying to hoodwink the Scottish electorate.

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    2. I think the arrangement will be that they go to the country on the English manifesto.

      Anything else would be silly, and completely unfair to the vastly larger number of English members.

      They can't go to the country on 'We will not replace Trident' and 'We will replace Trident', depending on where you live in their United Kingdom... It ould make it sound like a very disunited kingdom.

      Of course manifestos aren't binding... they are supposed to be a general idea of the policies the party will follow. I don;t see how you can have both views in one manifesto.

      But the electoral commission may see it differently, knowing that manifestos aren't worth the paper they are printed on.

      As you point out, Zog, the Tories have proved that pretty decisively.

      I think if they registered as a separate, but associated party they could promise different things. As the Tories and the Scottish Unionists used to do.

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    3. The Tories and the Scottish Unionists, were two separate entities. One was not a branch office, of the other.

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    4. Yew, that's what I meant. They were two parties, although they were affiliated and they took the same lines on almost everything. They could have different policies on matters which were the responsibility of the Scottish Office, but on UK wide matters they pretty much agreed and took the same whip.

      I'm not sure if they ever espoused different policies on UK wide matters.

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    5. I should not do these answer in such a hurry... I meant "yes" not "yew". Sorry Jim.

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  9. https://vimeo.com/18781528

    A must watch especially those pro WMD because this is the more likely outcome by hosting these immoral weapons of attack as they provide no defence purpose whatsoever.

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    1. Thanks .. off to watch now.

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    2. Hells teeth. Horrific.

      But it would be more than Sheffield now surely. The bombs of 70 years ago devastated a city..well, two cities, but one at a time.

      Now they are far far more powerful.

      It would be a small country.

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