In the light of the Herald's article yesterday about the files on devolution, we asked, Mr Darling, in his live Scotsman appearance:

In the interests of complete openness and the fullest of information being available to the voters in Scotland's referendum, and, given that there is little likelihood of security implications, should not the UK government  make an exception to their rules about disclosure of information, and release the files on devolution, in line with the disclosure rules brought in by the Scottish government (ie,15 years after the fact)?

Would you not further agree that to fail to do that, without giving good reason, will encourage people to speculate on what it is that the UK government wishes to keep hidden?

Answer came there none.
*****
Today Captain Pugwash Cameron and First Mate Clegg relaunched the coalition coffin, no no no, I meant government. Probably this pretty much sums up what we think of it: (click on picture to enlarge) Actually it's more or less what Tom Strathclyde thinks about it too. But you'd think that he could have chosen another day to do it.

*****

We've all got round to thinking what a horrible man Cameron is and how his government is evil, hurting as it does, the poorest and the least able to defend themselves. He has managed so far to persuade large numbers of the public that sick and disabled people are wicked scroungers... when most of them are not. Like it or not, there are people who are ill, and a quick look at the government's own figures for fraud on sickness benefits will show that there is almost none at all.

He's also talked people into believing that the unemployed are lazy and shiftless because they don't have a job, even allowing his pea-brained finance secretary to run off at the mouth about 'darkened bedroom windows when a shift worker is going off to work in the morning'. 

The pea brain himself seemed not to twig that it was ever thus, that shift workers very often saw dark windows when they went to, and returned from work... on the basis that they were SHIFT WORKERS and worked SHIFTS. He seemed to be unaware that in a 24/7 world many people are at home when others are at work. Osborne, of course, never having worked shifts, would be oblivious to all that. When he was little maids appeared to light the fires and serve breakfast, and it never occurred to him that they were at work long before he opened his eyes.

The bone heads who believe this nonsense and who have recently taken to abusing sick, disabled and unemployed people, might also like to reflect that a large number of these unemployed are in that position because of the policies of Cameron and Osborne. Many more have to get by on part-time wages... And with sky-high power prices (in an oil rich nation) many part timers are forced to stay in bed a little longer to keep warm and conserve energy, which might explain darkened windows even at 8 am.

They might also like to reflect upon the fact that most welfare benefits go to those people who are in work. And that this is because vast numbers of people in the UK are paid so appallingly lowly, that they couldn't possibly live without government assistance. The figures in this link belie most of what they are saying.

We should, however, in all these reflections on the Tories, never forget that this most recent persecution of the poor was started by Brown's government. They double the bottom rate of income tax, and started the witch hunt against the so-called "welfare scroungers": they brought ATOS in and they set the original targets. (And don 't let them tell you that there are no targets. They have already told us how much money they will save, so there must be targets.)

Neither should we forget this man, whose lack of concern for human life was so low that he was prepared to do whatever it took to keep George Bush happy.

Even by the standards of this government 120,000 to 1,200,000 is a LOT of dead people.

THIS IS A TOPPER OF A BEEZER OF A DANDY OF A STORY, FROM THE BEANO

A completely crushing blow has hit the first minister. No, not two of his MSPs resigning the whip; no, not being called a bare faced liar by, erm Labour (no, stop laughing, it's not funny)*. No no no, it's worse. Get a load of this!

Some bloke in Kelso with, it seems to me, too much time on his hands, has decided that Mr Salmond calling the Tory government "this bunch of incompetent Lord Snootys" was "an attack on people, identifiable to me as English, solely on the grounds of race", and as such showed anti-English prejudice.

Colin Shaughnessy has written to Lothian and Borders police to make a complaint (although, as Mr Salmond made the statement at the conference, and the conference was held in Perth, it should probably be Tayside Police that he complains to). The sooner we have one police force, the easier it will be for dullards to know whom to write to with their complaints.

The best of it is that Shaughnessy is a lawyer! No, seriously, he is. (Tris checks calendar and notes that it is not April 1.)

But I want to put poor Alex's mind at rest.

You see, first of all, it seems to me that the comment was nothing to do with race and everything to do with the fact that the London cabinet consists overwhelmingly of very rich, privately educated chaps, many of them with aristocratic connections and all of them with absolutely no idea of what life in Britain is like.

But the aristocracy in the UK is not exclusively English, and nor is the Cabinet. Indeed the most senior of the Lord Snootys to which the first minister referred, the leader of the House of Lords, is indeed The Lord Strathclyde, Thomas Galloway Dunlop du Roy de Blicquy Galbraith, 2nd Baron Strathclyde, PC, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, who from his title (Strathclyde), you might guess, and you would be correct in that guess, is Scottish.

Now, how anti-English is that?

Secondly, the name "Lord Snooty" originates in a comic strip from a Scottish (and very loyal Tory) publishing house, D C Thomson. The strip first appeared in the 'Beano's' first edition in July 1938, so not new then, and to the best of my knowledge it has never caused anyone any offense.

Furthermore, 'Private Eye' has recently been publishing a parody comic strip called "Dave Snooty and his Pals" which takes the Mick (oh sorry was that identifiably Irish)  out of Dave and George, and yes, probably from time to time dear old Tom Strathclyde.

I wish Shaughnessy joy taking D C Thomson, Private Eye and the First Minister, oh, and the Daily Telegraph for this, to court. Maybe they will run a counter charge that it's anti-Scottish to imply that the Second Baron Strathclyde is an Englishman (English Gentleman, please).

And i thought I was sad writing a blog. Honestly, some people REALLY need to get a life.

* Off topic, but did anyone see FMQ? Had wee Ruthie been on the wacky backy or the electric soup or something?  I thought someone was gonna have to send for a straight jacket!

ENGLISH TORY DINING CLUB FUNDS THE NO CAMPAIGN

An article in the Herald today, brought to my attention by Dubbieside, has lifted the lid on the secrecy of the funding of the Bitter campaign and no wonder Alistair Darling wanted to keep that quiet.

Headed "Lords, OBEs and a Tory dining club ... the people behind Better Together", and written by Tom Gordon and Paul Hutcheon the article tells of a dinner organised by the United & Cecil Club (U&CC), a Tory dining club based in Sussex, England. Apparently the U&CC helped bring around 50 people from London and the south east of England to the dinner, suggesting significant funding for Better Together is already from outside Scotland.


Scottish Tory treasurer James Stewart, who helped run the evening held in the  Signet Library, is a London, England-based director of private equity firm, ECI. (Does anyone in the Tory Party actually live in Scotland?)

Ah yes, the Dean of the Faculty of Advocates, Dick Keen, was present, and hosted a table at which guests had to pay £1,5000 for their dinner. Among his guests at this top table were Jim Wallace, who used to be a Liberal, but appears now to be very much part of David Cameron's establishment in his ermine robes and with some silly title or titles.


The main speaker at the do (he probably got his dinner for free) was Michael Gove, the English Education Secretary, who has no remit in Scotland. He said that the money raised would support the Tory party in Scotland and the NO campaign.

The Tory MP for Braintree in Essex, England, Brooks Newmark, a private equity director with no seeming connections with our country at all, was present, as were the sole Tory MP in Scotland David Mundell (better known to us as Fluffy), who has only a tenuous connection, Ruth Davidson, David Cameron's woman in Scotland, James Douglas Hamilton, who used to be an MP and MSP and is now in the Lords (wouldn't you know) and Thomas Galloway Dunlop du Roy de Blicquy Galbraith, 2nd Baron Strathclyde, who is Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, which is in England, and Leader of the House of Lords.


One of the guests pointed out that the game for the evening was 'Spot the Scotsman' and that the fact that the money all had to come from England demonstrated the Tories declining support in Scotland.


The Herald made much of the attendance of an ex-Scottish Rugby cap, David Sole, OBE, it pointed out that he was born in England but educated at Glenalmond public  (sic) school in Perthshire.


Asked about his attendance, and whether he was pro-Union, Sole said: "Because I'm on the board of Sportscotland and Quality Meat Scotland I'm not at liberty to pass any comment on any political issues. Thank you, bye."


Erm... if you're not able to pass comments on any political issues, Davie boy, what in the name of the wee man are you doing attending a Tory bash to raise money for the NO campaign? 


And what of the partners in the NO campaign.... Scottish Labour (titter) why are they happy to have this kind of person, with no connection to Scotland, pour some of their immense wealth into a campaign about OUR country's future?


Scottish Labour, it seems, have followed their English brothers in a right wing direction, and are now almost indistinguishable from the Tories. As Dubbieside pointed out, 37 Scottish Labour MPs voted with the London government to semi privatise the Health Service IN ENGLAND.  You couldn't credit that, could you.


Not only must we win this referendum, we must also keep these people out of government in Edinburgh. Scots don't want privatised medical care.

Some random thoughts that flitted through my mind....

On average, figures suggest that there are around 120 murders a year in Scotland. Why then have our newspapers and news channels been so full of one murder in Bristol? It is likely that, in the time that this has been being reported, 10 people have been killed in Scotland, and apart from the one at the bottom of my street, which I only heard about because I have very nosey neighbours, there’s been no mention of them. Strange!

Isn’t it wonderful what money and a title can do? His Nobleness Strathclyde, the Tory leader in the Lords, looks like something you would see in the ring at a cattle market. No one in their right minds would call him aesthetically appealing, and yet he managed to arrange a series of sexual liaisons with Brigit Cunningham, who is a bit dishy, even if she is 48. Of course she has been round the block a few times, but even so. Someone with Strathclyde’s looks would have, without £10 million found it difficult to pull a dead rhinoceros!

Richard Lochhead, our Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment, is working hard to get America to lift a 40 year old import ban on Haggis. US import laws ban any product which contains sheep’s lungs (I didn’t know that!), but with the vast number of Americans who have Scottish ancestry, a huge market could open up for Haggis manufacturers if he is successful. Good work Richard. Another example of the government of Scotland working for Scotland.

Didn’t Her Nobilityness Warsi make a bit of a twerp of herself with her rant about Islamaphobia? She has embarrassed the government for the second time in a few days. Dave was forced to distance himself from the comments she made on dinner party conversations about Islam, and of course she put him in another difficult situation when she put the boot into the right wing of the Tory party for not making much of an effort in Oldham and Saddleworth. One of the pitfalls, perhaps, of appointing inept ministers because they tick boxes as representing a couple of minorities?

When Alex Salmond appointed his first cabinet in 2007, he reduced the number of Cabinet Minister (and therefore the cost thereof) to 6, including himself. By contrast the Labour shadow cabinet contains 10 members plus a parliamentary business manager and chief of staff, and a chief whip, who also attend shadow cabinets. Should Labour win the General Election in May, can we look forward to a doubling in the cost of the top level of government?

Gordon Brown apparently fears that journalists may have hacked his phone. The number of times it was flying across the room and smashing to pieces against a door, wall or fireplace, I should imagine no one much left him any messages. Who’d want to speak to him anyway? How incredibly dull that would have been.

Pope Benedict must lack an irony gene as he called upon the Italian government to show a strong moral example to the public following on the scandal of Sylvio Berlusconi and the underage prostitute. Who was it again that said “And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?” Oh yes, Jesus wasn’t it? Have you heard of him Papa?


Pics: Tubs to his friends (and lovers) Strathclyde, the answer to a maiden's prayer, specially a maiden that's short of a few bob. Richard Lochhead, our man down on the farm, being force fed carrots. Baroness Warsi two steps behind her beloved leader. A Nokia after Gordon discovered that Tony had beaten him to see Obama in the White House!