SCOTLAND WANTS TO PLAY ITS PART. WILL BRITAIN LET US?

Munguin echoing the call for more action from Scotland

This blog supports the First Minister's pledge to hold a summit meeting tomorrow with representatives of local councils, charities, politicians, religious bodies, and leaders of opposition parties.

We recognise too that Kezia Dugdale proposed the same idea, and that Willie Rennie has said he will be attending. We've seen tweets from Ruth Davidson praising what the UK government does, but suggesting that we need to do more. We very much hope that she will attend tomorrow's meeting, and that Patrick Harvie will also agree to be there. We need a unified approach on this.

This isn't about party political point scoring. It's seems fairly clear that the parties in Scotland will work together, putting their differences aside.

We are pleased, and proud of that.

We are aware that the UK sends money to countries in the Middle East to help them with the crisis that they have been coping with for some years.  This information may aid understanding of the problems that these countries are suffering. Remember that one in five people in Lebanon is a Syrian refugee!

Craig Murray has interesting blog here proposing that there might be a bit more financial aid coming from Saudi Arabia, which bears a not inconsiderable responsibility for the situation. 

Our First Minister has written to the British PM to tell him that Scotland wants to do its fair share, like most other European countries, large and small. However, unlike most of them, we need the permission of the London government before we can offer help.

Let's hope he reads it and reacts favourably. 

CONFUSED ABOUT THE SCOTTISH DEBATES

We’re a bit confused here at Munguin Towers.

We've been led to believe that there is to be a debate, in the run up to the UK election, shown on STV, between the Scottish Party Leaders.

Fair enough. 

We know that the Scottish branches of each of the London parties are just that, and that their "leaders" take their orders from London, so there is no reason that they wouldn't have the debate in Scotland on behalf of their Westminster bosses. It may seem a little pointless, given that the big bosses are going to debate, but for all that it's harmless.

Except for Labour.

Jim Murphy has been at great pains, since Johann Lamont resigned with the poisoned words “branch office”, to point out that he is his own man, and no one tells him what to do. 

His policies are designed only to help Scotland, for he is a patriot and a proud Scot and he will happily take money from the rich of the South East of England to provide an indefinite number of nurses in Scotland.

So we can see that the other Scottish leaders, who accept their branch status, and thus accept Nick or Cameron as their overall leaders, can speak on behalf of their parties on UK policy. It's also clear that Nicola Sturgeon can speak on behalf of the SNP on UK policy, what with her being the leader.

We are not so sure that Jim can speak for a very separate and independent Labour Party run on different principles, by Ed Miliband in the rest of the UK.

For example on Education policy, Jim will have to stick to the £6,000 a year fees that the English Labour Party want to charge, as opposed to the so-called "something for nothing" fees that the Scottish Labour party want to charge. Isn't he likely to become confused?

It’s just a thought.

Another thought is that there is a glaring omission in the line up. There were, the last time we looked, five parties in the Scottish parliament (and therefore representing Scottish public opinion) . 

SNP, Labour, Conservatives, Liberals and Greens.

So where is Patrick Harvie’s name?

Why has STV decided to exclude him?  

Do they remember what happened when they tried that game in England?

Are they just anti-Green?

Or is there another reason?

The other party leaders should demand Patrick’s involvement in the interests of democracy.

NICOLA AND JOHN TRUSTED TO GET THE BEST DEAL FOR SCOTLAND

So, along with the news that Scots would like to see the SNP hold the balance of power in the London parliament in the hopes that they will get the best possible deal for Scotland, we can also welcome polling which shows that voters trust Nicola Sturgeon and John Swinney to stand up for Scotland.

A Panelbase poll commissioned by the SNP found that 59 per cent of those asked trusted Nicola Sturgeon – compared to just 27 per cent who said they did not. This gives an overall positive rating of +32 points, with positive ratings among men, women, and people of all ages and social groups.

Nicola also has a positive rating among those who voted No in the referendum, with 43 per cent saying they trust her.

Deputy First Minister John Swinney also had very good ratings, with 42 per cent saying they trusted him compared to 28 per cent who did not – a positive overall rating of +14 points.

In contrast, new Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy had a positive overall rating of just +2 points. While 39 per cent said they trusted him, 37 per cent said they did not. In news that will not surprise some, Mr Murphy showed more Tory voters trusting him than Labour voters. 

Strangely, Patrick Harvie had a bad rating of -6 points. Ruth Davidson was at -25 points and Willie Rennie at -31 points.

Looking at the London politicians, Labour leader Ed Miliband’s ratings were negative (-45 points overall with an horrific 63 per cent saying they did not trust him).  David Cameron was also unpopular, with an overall rating of -52 per cent (not surprising for a Tory PM in Scotland), while more worrying for the Liberals, Nick Clegg was the least trusted of all with -64 points overall. 74 per cent say they do not trust him and only 10 per cent say they do. What a disaster for him and the Liberals going into the next London election.

Nicola Sturgeon showed positive ratings of +14 among people who voted Labour in 2011, while poor old Ed Miliband had negative ratings of -3 among Labour voters.

Of course people will insist that a poll commissioned by the SNP will be biased, but I’m not sure how biased you can make a question which simply asks if you trust someone to stand up for Scotland’s interests.

The sample size was 1018 and the polling was conducted by Panelbase between 18 and 23 December.

Maybe Mr Kelly will do a more learned analysis of the figures...
******************

WELL DOH...HA

I’ve just read this from Humza Yousaf… “Scottish Government is being attacked by Scottish Labour for staying in a hotel in Doha, not realising Gordon Brown was staying in exact same hotel for the same conference - hypocrisy knows no bounds!”

Come on, Labour. Get your act together. 

WOW!

We were privileged last night to attend Nicola Sturgeon's speech and question and answer session in Dundee's Caird Hall.

The hall, which holds around 2,300, people was pretty much sold out. There were a few seats not taken in the balcony, but the body of the hall was jam packed. One was reminded of David Cameron's visit to Perth where they couldn't even manage 200 people in the audience, despite going around the old folks homes inviting people and offering tea and biscuits.

The "One Great Thing" Big Country song announced the arrival of the Deputy First Minister, and the hall stood, as far as I could see, as one.

Nicola's first word was: "WOW".

And she kicked off with an apology to the pub owners of Dundee for doing them out of business.

Then she got down to her brass tacks.

She talked a little about her own situation. She has been elected leader of the SNP, and it is expected that parliament will elect her First Minister of Scotland within the next few weeks. 

She said how incredibly privileged and proud she was, and promised us that she would work tirelessly for the good of Scotland, both to make the country more economically sound, and to make it a fairer, more decent place to live. She admitted that she was probably the luckiest leader ever to have come into power at a time when her party had grown from 25,000 to 84,000 members. She acknowledged that some people were saying that this surge in membership would be a problem for her... she wished all her problems would be that small.

She addressed the referendum, and said that it was the most exciting thing that had happened in Scotland in her political lifetime. She said that she absolutely accepted that the Yes side lost... and she was prepared to take her share of the responsibility for that. However, she said that that didn't stop her campaigning now for the very very best that can come out of the deal that Cameron, Clegg and Miliband, along with Brown, promised the country.

She said she would oversee the government of the country for the benefit of every Scot, whether they voted yes or no. She added that she knew that there were some, perhaps even many, who had already changed their minds since the referendum. 

Promises made by unionists were already being broken. The Labour Party, for example, having promised devo max, now appeared to consider that a small amount of independently raised income tax would cover that description. 

This was borne out later be several people who prefaced their questions to Nicola by saying that they had recently joined the SNP because they were sickened by the betrayal of these "vow" promises.

She was lavish in her praise of Alex (and that got a cheer that raised the rafters), but also of other colleagues. John Swinney, who was in the audience, got a special mention for finding so much cash from a reducing budget to help Scots caught in the horrors of Tory benefit cuts. Patrick Harvie was also given high praise (and audience applause for him too was rafter raising).

In a hall of over 2000 people, there were, of course, far too many people who wanted to ask questions for the amount of time alloted, so, despite the fact that Nicola was prepared to go on answering questions a good half hour after the the event was due to close, nowhere near half of the questions could be answered.

However, she has promised to come back. She has said that if (when, I'd say) she is endorsed by parliament as First Minister, she will hold meetings on a regular basis around the country... her and her cabinet. So perhaps there will be an opportunity for those who didn't get a chance last night, to ask their question next time she's in Dundee.

One question came from a young lad of ten. (I should have said that the hall was full of people of all ages, from this lad, through teenagers, middle agers to people in their 80s.) Anyway, the lad said that one day he'd like to be prime minister of Scotland and asked if there was anything he should be studying. Nicola suggested that the best thing would be for them to arrange to get together in Edinburgh and she would take him around, introduce him to some people... and maybe let him sit in the first minister's chair in parliament.

Te deputy first minister ended as she began... with a standing ovation.  Mum and I had sore hands and Munguin had sore paws!

It was a great evening, and I came away from it reinvigorated.

I think that with Nicola at the helm, and 84,000 members (one in ever 50 of the adult population of Scotland) we will move forward towards independence, and I look forward to seeing Nicola as the first First Minister of an independent country.

RANDOM THOUGHTS ON THURSDAY

MR JIM MURPHY AND THE NATIONAL UNION OF STUDENTS

• Session: 1995-96
• Date tabled: 12.06.1996
• Primary sponsor: Livingstone, Ken
• Sponsors:

That this House condemns the intolerant and dictatorial behaviour of the President of the National Union of Students, Mr Jim Murphy, who has unconstitutionally suspended NUS Vice President, Clive Lewis, because he took part, in a personal capacity, in an open debate at Queen Mary and Westfield College on the issues raised by the Campaign for Free Education; further notes that along with President Elect, Douglas Trainer, both men have warned NUS Executive member, Rose Woods, that if she attends the Scottish launch of the Campaign for Free Education she too will be suspended from the NUS Executive; reminds Mr Murphy and Mr Trainer that freedom of speech is a right in the United Kingdom, that they have no power to overturn the results of elections that went against their preferred candidates and that, whilst these methods are a common practice in dictatorships around the world, they are not acceptable behaviour from someone such as Mr Murphy who is putting himself forward as suitable for election to the House of Commons.

Filter EDMs by:

Total number of signatures: 13

1. Show:

Supported byWithdrawn signatures

Showing 13 out of 13

Name	Party	Constituency	Date Signed
Barnes, Harry	Labour Party	North East Derbyshire	13.06.1996
Benn, Tony	Labour Party	Chesterfield	12.06.1996
Clapham, Michael	Labour Party	Barnsley West and Penistone	19.06.1996
Cohen, Harry	Labour Party	Leyton and Wanstead	20.06.1996
Corbyn, Jeremy	Labour Party	Islington North	19.06.1996
Etherington, Bill	Labour Party	Sunderland North	18.06.1996
Gerrard, Neil	Labour Party	Walthamstow	12.06.1996
Jones, Lynne	Labour Party	Birmingham Selly Oak	12.06.1996
Livingstone, Ken	No party affiliation	Brent East	12.06.1996
Mahon, Alice	Labour Party	Halifax	12.06.1996
Simpson, Alan	Labour Party	Nottingham South	12.06.1996
Skinner, Dennis	Labour Party	Bolsover	12.06.1996
Smith, Llew	Labour Party	Blaenau Gwent	18.06.1996

Interestingly Alex Salmond, MP for Banff and Buchan wanted to add "as a Labour MP" to the end of the motion and proposed an amendment to that effect.

**********

Bravo.

Seems like an evil little bucket of manure, doesn't he?
Think that Eton Dave must be putty in his hands.

So, no wonder Patrick looked like this when daft wee Ruthie
started burbling on about Putin invading Scotland and then talked
bullshit about the size of the British Forces.
They may be buying hundreds of armoured cars, but they don't have any drivers.
Almost as daft as building aircraft carriers when you don't have any aircraft
and who'd do anything that bloody daft...?

You gotta give the Brits credit. They are consistent.
They will keep on starving the lower orders until there are only
 just enough to serve champagne and canapés to their betters.

Don't know where they are going to be working.
There are no oil fields left.

Dave... yer patter's boufie mate.
We stopped believing a word you said 5 years ago

Ahhh, the British establishment.
As ever unaware of the situation outside of a few
select gentlemen's clubs in Pall Mall.

The Libations made it to the charts
But it seems that both they and the Proclaimers may be having problems
getting airplay. I wonder why.
So we have to do it ourselves. The BBC establishment will
 probably play Vera Lynn's White Cliffs of Dover.
If you know someone who doesn't have
Caledonia or Cap in Hand, persuade them to buy them.
It's not expensive and it will make a difference.
Remember the Proclaimers donated to the YES campaign and the
Libations to food banks.

THIS WEEK'S FMQ'S IS OVER AT SUBROSA'S PLACE

Subrosa and I have agreed to take week about at writing up a short report on the spectacle of comedy that is First Minister's Questions at Holyrood.

This week it's her turn. You can find her report and a video of the proceedings here