SOPPY SUNDAY

1.

2:Florida.

3.

4: Iceland.

5.

6. Scotland

7.

8. Netherlands 

9.

10: Pont D'Arc, France.

11.

12: Berlin.

13.

14: Finland (I think).

15.

16.

17.

18: Garyvard, Lewis.

19.

20.

21: Canada.

22.

23: Sweden.

24.

25.

26: Mongolia.

27: Turkey.

Just in case you thought that the last few days' posts had concentrated too much on the Labour Party, we shall never forget the other lot...

Surely it's time she resigned the whip?

Just say what you think Charlie...
Oh yeah, of course,  you usually do.

Probably he was less lying and more doesn;t understand what he's talking about, and hoping you don't either.

Well, not so much when you're rich and the heir to a baronetcy.

Hmmmm... How's that working out?

Aye Gideon, you're doing a grand job.

THE NOBLE LORD AND HIS FEE PAYING FARCE

 

George Foulkes‏@GeorgeFoulkes

As we face further major cuts in Council schools might be worth checking where the SNP Cabinet send their children

Some time ago the Noble Baron Foulkes of Cumnock blocked me from receiving his Tweets...a badge of honour for me. I had pointed out to him that there was something slightly ironic about a Labour Aristocrat. He failed to see the amusing side of that.

Anyway, I'm obliged to Rosanna Cunningham for re-tweeting the above beauty and giving me the opportunity to see what I otherwise would have missed.

Irony doesn't appear to be a word in his Nobleness's dictionary, for not only is he a Peer of the Realm, but the daft old bugger himself went to a fee paying school in Herefordshire, to-wit the independent, fee paying The Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School in Hertfordshire (Motto: Serve and Obey...well, the ultra loyalist took that to heart.)

Really, people who live in glass houses should try to remember not ever to throw stones. Otherwise we all laugh at them.

I'm just going to leave this here for you to laugh at...

IF ONLY THE SMITH COMMISSION HAD DEVOLVED TRADES UNION LEGISLATION TO EDINBURGH

As I understand the situation, the SNP and Labour are in agreement about preventing the Tory's absurd Trades Union legislation affecting Scotland. Unfortunately Labour wasn't so much in agreement that it wanted to devolve Trades Union law to Scotland and so voted against this in the Smith Commission deliberations. However faced with the reality of the unions being stripped of most of their powers, they seem to be aboard with Nicola in her attempt to keep the unions' powers in Scotland.

Kezia Dugdale backed the First Minister when she attempted to get a debate under the Sewell Convention, which would almost certainly have resulted in the legislation being voted down in Scotland. 

The Presiding Officer's legal advice, however, was that this was not an area of legislation which was covered by Sewell. She therefore refused to allow the debate in parliament.

It seems that James Kelly MSP decided to take legal advice of his own, and that in the light of that advice he wished to make a point or order with Ms Marwick over her decision.

Unfortunately he stuttered and stumbled his way through some relatively unnecessary preamble, and seemed unlikely ever to get to the point. Ms Marwick hurried him along, and at that point he started to get shirty with her.

This was a bad idea. 

He was clearly questioning her judgement, and that of her legal advisers. One might have thought that the prudent thing to do in such a situation would be to be extremely respectful whilst questioning the decision. 

You can see in the video how the proceedings unfolded and their eventual outcome.

As it goes, I think that the Presiding Officer was a little hard on Kelly at the beginning of the débâcle. He was rambling and stalling, but public speaking doesn't appear to be one of his strong points and she could have cut him a little slack. However, once you have been told to sit down by the PO, you have no alternative but to sit down. 

Regardless of how right he thought himself to be, he was a fool not to do so.

To refuse to do as ordered by the Presiding Officer in any parliament inevitably means being escorted from the chamber. The Chair simply cannot accept wilful disobedience from anyone. To do so would be to invite chaos.

I'm no expert in the doings of parliament but I would imagine that Tricia Marwick didn't make the ruling on the legislation up on the spur of the moment. I'll bet that she took very senior and authoritative legal advice before her ruling. I don't know who gave Mr Kelly his legal advice which appears to be contrary to that of the PO. it may or may not have been equally senior and authoritative. 

But surely in the case where you believe that legal advice given to parliament is incorrect, the sensible course to take would be to have a meeting with the Chair, in private, rather than to try to embarrass in the chamber.

I'm sad that the debate cannot go ahead. I don't want to see the Trades Union legislation enacted for Scotland in a parliament in London. 

How different things would have been if, during the Smith deliberations, Labour had sided with the SNP to have the matter devolved.

CHILDHOOD IN SYRIA AMONGST THE SMART BOMBS

A school is bombed.

YOU CAN ALWAYS TRUST THE SUNDAY MAIL...

Hmmmm.... This is the Sunday Mail's Interpretation of the findings. Quoted below from Lalands Peat Worrier are the comments of Lady Paton, one of the judges in his trial (with additional commentary from LPW).
It is possible, of course, that the Sunday Mail knows more about law than Lady Paton and Lalands, but somehow I doubt it. So it is, more than likely, just a pack of lies. A attempt to make any unionist, even a self confessed liar, from a party which Malcolm Bruce tells us, lies as a matter of course, look better than the sad old lying cheater, desperate to hold on to his £75,000 a year job, that he is, was found by law to be, and actually admitted he was in any case.
**********

"Rejecting Carmichael's evidence as lacking credibility and reliability, the judges also concluded that the northern isles' MP's lies were motivated by his tough election in Orkney and Shetland.

"Lady Paton writes: "the inescapable inference, in our opinion, is that if the SNP became a less attractive prospect, the first respondent’s chances of a comfortable majority in what had become a “two-horse race” in Orkney and Shetland would be enhanced," holding that she was "satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the false statement of fact was made for the purpose of affecting (positively) the return of the first respondent as a Liberal Democrat in the constituency of Orkney and Shetland."

"A strange kind of vindication to be trumpeting from the lawns of Parliament Square, you might well think."

If this is "a good week"; something the Liberal Democrats are proud of, with Mr Rennie and Mr Farron appearing on tv and radio giving him their complete support, I fear for them. Open acceptance of a liar and a cheat as a senior member of the backbench team, is an affront, even to what little democracy there is in the UK. And that is what he is, even if technically they could't find him guilty under election law, of trying to rig the election.

Incidentally, as Liberal Democrat spokesman for Home Affairs (shadowing the Home Secretary), won't EVEL be a huge disadvantage for him in his work? Most of the Home Office business is involved in English Only matters. He may have an opinion, but he won't be able to vote on most of it. 

I know their numbers are limited, but surely there must have been an English MP available for this largely English post.

SOPPY SUNDAY

1.

2. Wyoming.

3.

4. Glencoe

5.

6. California.

7.

8.

9 . Eilean Donan Castle.

10.

11. Oregon (I think).

12.

13.

14. Paris (believe it or not)

15. Ireland.... or rather Yorkshire (because Tris can't tell a White Rose from a Shamrock). Fortunately we have some bright (alert?) readers!

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

21. New England.

22.

23. When you cast little rays of happiness into the lives of others they always come back to you. (Roughly translated.)

24. For Panda Paws.

RANDOM FOTOS ON FRIDAY

Brave decent man.

Let's be honest, neither of you gives a damn...

Oh my.... would you look at the state of that nonsense? I bet Chic was tempted with that sword; I know I would have been. This is how the other half lives, while the rest of us are worrying about the electricity bill.

No wonder the Brits wanted them on the Human Rights Council. When they bring in their English Bill of Rights for those with titles, the Saudis will rubber stamp it.

Eh Cameron?

DANNY SENT ME THIS....

It appears he's not a big hit with this bird....

GREEN LIGHT TO LIE FOR BRITAIN

So Alistair Carmichael has won his court case. I'm sure that we will get a professional reading of this from Lallands Peat Worrier shortly. In the meantime, for what it's worth this is the opinion of a non-legal mind. It's probably worth remembering at this point that they bulk of the population has non-legal minds.

It has been ruled that Carmichael broke no laws in the course of his election campaign following the Frenchgate exploit.

That he is a cheat and a liar, no one, including him, disputed. 

Remember that having won his election in the Northern Isles, he admitted that he had lied and smeared Nicola Sturgeon, the French Ambassadress and the French Consul, and lied to the Press and to the people of his constituency. He had the decency, at least, to write to the First Minister apologising for doing so.

None of that was in dispute. What was in dispute was whether smearing an opponent with fabricated allegations in the course of an election broke any electoral law.

The ruling appears to have shown that it did not.

It  seems, then,  to this non-legal mind, that we must accept that UK electoral law allows for Right Honourable gentlemen or ladies to use their position and access to private information on meetings with elected politicians and diplomats to smear other parties and to lie to the press, about having done it.

It allows them to waste the time of the Cabinet Secretary carrying out an investigation into the source of the smear with all the waste of time and money that that involves whilst all the time the politician knows the truth and protests innocence to his/her constituents.  

It also allows them to further smear the integrity of ambassadors and consuls of other countries by implying that they too, are lying about reported conversations.

It accepts that despite the style "Right Honourable",  it is OK to lie to the Deputy Prime Minister, the Prime Minister and an underling in their department of state, to your prospective constituents and to the United Kingdom. (The assumption is that Clegg, Cameron and Mundel knew nothing of these lies.)

It seems to allow for a person having done all that, and having been elected, to keep that position and salary for the duration of the parliament, despite the possibility that, had they known that he was a lair and a cheat, his constituents might have been less inclined to vote for him.

So now we know.

Malcolm Bruce was correct when he pointed out that all politicians lie and if they lost their seats on account of that, the Commons would be empty.

We also know that no matter how "honourable" or "right honourable" an MP is, (s)he is legally allowed to lie her/his backside off.

OK, I guess we suspected that anyway. But it's nice to have it as a statement of legal fact.

Another Great British value.

Just let's remember that at the next election.

You could be excused for thinking that you should believe NOTHING and if you assumed that, as they are legally allowed to do it, they will be lying.
*********