THOUGHTS ON SATURDAY

Labour's Scottish Accounting Unit has been holding its conference in Edinburgh today, and the big boss flew in from London to speak.

Some Silly Billy put the election poster for
 a non-existent party in a very
unfortunate position.

I was a bit surprised at that. After all, Jim tells us HE is the boss and NOBODY tells him what to do. And he proved it by declaring that, in Scotland, he would vote for free tertiary education and in England (where he is aiming to be an MP for at least a year), he would vote for £6,000 pa fees. 

Anyway, inconsistencies apart, the imperial leader arrived and made a speech.

Strangely he failed to do what his Scottish colleagues (many of whom may be looking for jobs in a few months) asked him to do, which was rule out a coalition with the SNP. 

In one of these odd quirks of fate, Mr Cameron called upon him to do the same thing, which I suppose shows that there is a great deal of common ground between the Eton Boy and the average Labour Backbencher. 

I'm pretty sure they needn't worry about a coalition with the SNP. I doubt very much that it will never happen. 

What could occur, and might ensure that Mr Miliband is the next prime minister of the union, is that the SNP could agree to support Labour on a variety of measures where they had common cause, where it was in the interests of the UK and of course, particularly, where it was in Scotland's interest.

It seems to me that unless you are an adherent of the Willie Bain school of confrontational politics and cutting off your nose to spite your face, that would be the sensible thing to do. 

Willie Bain. Labour Philosopher Extraordinary.

For the uninitiated, Mr Bain, one of the great political thinkers in his own bedsit, declared that Labour would never vote for anything that the SNP supported, on the basis that ...well, the SNP supported it. 

Even if it was straight from the pages of the Labour Manifesto, they would still vote it down. Mr Bain's intellectual processes are clearly way beyond my understanding, or even that of Munguin, so we can only stand and stare, without comprehension at his theories. And we do.

However, Mr Miliband, who isn't in charge of Scottish Labour, because Jim is, trotted out the tired old line about Vote SNP, get Tory, clearly unaware that Scotland has, for 35 years, voted Labour and, for all but 13 of these years, got Tory anyway, and may just be getting a little fed up with it. It's simple Mr Miliband. 

There are 650 MPs in the Commons, Scotland elects 59 of them; Wales 40; N Ireland 18, and England 533. So, which country do you think chooses the government of the day?

Miliband said Scotland couldn't afford the Tories. He simplified it for us. He said, its old, its young, it poor, its NHS, couldn't afford the Tories.

Wait a minute... Its NHS?

WHAT? 

Didn't they tell us, only 6 months ago, that the NHS would only be safe within the UK?

They surely must have realised at that time that it was always possible that the Tories could win a general election, if not this time, next time or the time after... and, well, he just said it. The NHS in Scotland is not safe with a Tory government in the union. 

Does that then mean that they lied to us? Alistair Sweetheart and Gordon Clunking Fist Ex-Politician Millionaire Brown lied?

Surely some mistake.

Talking about coalitions and the Willie Bain philosophy of political thought, how does Mr Miliband feel about Mr Baker's slimy call for the Tories to go into coalition with Labour to keep these damned Scots out. We know that some Labour MPs agree with that, although Maggie Curran isn't one of them. She went so far as to block me on Twitter when I questioned her.

Mr Baker (St Paul and Oxford), who apparently now goes under the title of the Baron or Dork, and is one of the sleeping partners, snoozing on the red leather benches made for aristocratic bottoms, seems to think that it is the only way to keep the UK together.

Too much vintage champagne, good port and quails' eggs at the tax payers' expense, methinks. Or perhaps just distance from any kind of reality.

Hic...hic sunt nobiles

Seriously Mr Baker, your sort told us that we were an important, if somewhat stupid and feckless, part of the Brit family, and that we were all better and stronger together, pooling and sharing, in this green and pleasant land. And we, or at least some of us, took you at your word.

And now you want to do deals with your 'old enemy' to stop us from having a democratic say in the running of the union of which we were persuaded to remain a part. 

If there are a substantial number of SNP MPs elected in May, that will reflect the voting in Scotland, according to your preferred electoral system. Surely, even under a lordly Tory definition of democracy, these MPs have some rights? Perhaps you think not as many as your noble self, elected by...the Queen. 

When the Tories, or Labour, are incapable of forming a government alone (as they were in 2010), then one of the parties will require the votes of MPs from other minor parties to pass legislation. 

Minor parties represent people in the UK too, even if they are only Irish, Welsh or Scottish people. 

The Tories have just worked with the Liberals, a minority party with only 57 MPs. Why, if Scotland is an integral part of the UK would the SNP be different?

Another out of touch remnant of Thatcher

I wonder if you are aware how this comes across to Scots. I'll tell you how I see it. You appear to want us to stay with you as long as we don't exercise our democratic will, and accept the failing two-party system, which is overwhelmingly English oriented. 

Leave governing to you lot, and get on with whatever it is we do up here.

Let me tell you, your Nobleness, that's the fastest way I know to a second referendum on independence. And I suspect Wales, Northern Ireland and Cornwall too, if you gang up of all of us!

YOU CAN DO IT WALES!

There are other parts of these islands that would be better off making their own decisions about what is right for them, instead of being kept down so that the South East of England can prosper. Northern Ireland, Cornwall and Wales all come into that category. This article from "The Daily Wales" makes a number of good points... and proposes a rally.

Incidentally, has it ever occurred to you that Wales and Cornwall share a prince/duke. Charlie is Duke of Cornwall and Prince of Wales, but to the best of my knowledge neither he nor his "wife" live in either of these countries. Why not? They spends vast amounts of money every year... Why is it not spend in either of his two fiefdoms? Why is it spent in London, or in her case, wherever she's on holiday?

**********

By Siôn Jobbins

So when was the last time you went on a march in support of independence for Wales?

Never.

Because there has never been one. We’ve been cowards.

I’m not talking about ‘self-government’ or ‘Wales in Europe’. No, I’m talking of a no nonsense, we want to be an independent European nation state rally. Or, at the very least, a rally in support of Welsh as well as Scottish independence.

If the marginalised, brutalised, humiliated gay community are men and women enough to march and come out proud to declare their sexuality, what’s our excuse as Welsh nationalists? We have been cowards and we deserve to be ignored and ridiculed.

Since 1914 Europe has seen the rise of some 20 new nation states. Nations which were poorer than us, weaker than us, whose languages were smaller than ours a hundred years ago and who’ve seen wars, civil wars, deportations, communism on their land.

They are now free whilst we suffer the indignity of being ruled by a Government and Assembly which owns an airport but can’t even raise the puny air-duty tax. Run by a party which is happy to keep Wales poor as they vote with the Tories to deny the Welsh Assembly the power over Welsh water. 

We’re poor because we don’t have the power to use taxes and laws and control our own resources to our advantage.

Independence will make inter-dependence work for Wales. We are poor because we are not free.

Are we not proud enough to keep Wales’s dignity? The forgotten peoples of Europe – Scotland, Catalonia, Basques – are marching with dignity and strength, where are the Welsh?

In the year 2020 Wales could be one of the few historic European nations which isn’t an independence nation state.

If we are not brave enough to proclaim that we wish to be a nation-state then who are we to blame the British media and politicians if they only refer to Wales when they patronise us with rugby and the ‘and finally’ slot?

And what if only 500 turn up? That would be 500 with dignity. They will be a beacon of hope and strength. It will be 500 who’ve decided to stop apologising and being only 80 minute rugby game Welshmen and women.

It’s time to be brave. Let’s do it.

**********

ONEN HAG OLL, KERNOW BYS VICKAN!

One and All, Cornwall Forever

The Coalition last night voted down an amendment to protect the integrity of Cornwall as far as parliamentary seats are concerned in the so called Devonwall controversy, whereby parliamentary constituencies will cross the border between Devon and Cornwall. The vote was 315 to 257, a coalition majority of 58.

There are 6 Cornish MPs, 3 Liberals and 3 Tories. As far as I can make out all of them voted against the Government, but it seems that very few of their colleagues followed.

It seems very strange that if all the Cornish MPs were prepared to vote against their party whips on the subject, the feeling in Cornwall must be very very strong.

I would suggest that, given that the extreme North of Scotland is to be given exemption to the equal sized constituencies, the same might have been allowed in Cornwall. As has been pointed out, cross border constituencies would never be considered on the Scotland-England border, nor on the Wales-England border. Cornwall may not technically be a separate country in the UK, but it certainly is a separate nation with its own customs and language: a language which, although nearly dead some years ago, has found new life and popularity and whose daily use is spreading across Kernow rapidly.

By not being prepared to make this exception the government will have poured oil on the fire of Cornish nationalism.

This is a bad night for Kernow and a bad night for the Tory-Liberal Coalition Government. It's certainly the wrong decision. I hope that it comes back to bite them.

HOW CAN WE SAVE MONEY?

There’s a really interesting article in The Independent which my mum emailed to me (Thanks Mum). It is a list of 80 possible ways that the government could save money. They have come from a wide variety of people including government staff and members of the public.

I thought you might like to have a read through them (linked above) and maybe suggest a few that you like.

I thought some of them were brilliant, well thought out and totally practical; some others are good ideas but would be impossible to put into operation; some would cost more money to administer than they would save; some would save such little money that it’s not worth it... one or two are plain mad!

Of course you may have some ideas yourself... other things we could do to save more money. We are a bit wasteful after all...

Anyway, among the ones I likes were.........

• Taking our basis out of Germany. The cold war is over and has been for 20 years. Most of the Warsaw Pact countries are in the EU. In any case these days I doubt bases in Germany would stop the “Soviets” now if they decided they wanted Paris!

• Withdraw from Afghanistan!

• MPs should use hostels when parliament is sitting

• Teachers should do their training during their very long holidays

• Civil servants bonuses should stop

• Get rid of the vast numbers of managers in the NHS (and other public bodies)

• Only plant perennials in public gardens

• Give councils the rights to triple taxes on derelict buildings

• Abandon the concept of Away-Days

• Have fewer councillors (and indeed MPs)

• Scrap trident

I thought that the idea of selling Cornwall was pretty silly.... unless the buyer takes the daft duke and duchess along with it.

Oh.. and I want to add two that aren't there surprisingly.... scrap the House of Lords and all honours that change people’s names. We are all equal and having titles like 'Sir' and 'Lord' make us unequal in a way that should disappeared 100 years ago. Continue with honours that give you letters after your name, but it’s the 21st century for goodness sake.... and close down or share diplomatic services with other EU countries.