Margaret Curran is a liar
We haven’t had one in this series for a wee while, have we?
That’s Labour’s shadow Secretary of State for Scotland, Margaret Curran, accusing the First Minister of “misleading” Scots by suggesting she wants to scrap the Barnett Formula. The only possible implication can be that she doesn’t want such a thing.
Let us help refresh your memory, Margaret.
All of three weeks ago, there.
As documented on the SNP website, Curran isn’t the only person in the No campaign who wants to see the end of Barnett, by any stretch of the imagination. The current actual Scottish Secretary has said so explicitly, as has Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson, and this site’s been pointing out for five months now what One Nation Labour’s pledge to “pool and share resources” in the UK post-2015 really means – an end to Barnett and money flowing out of Scotland to poor regions of England.
While the Tories and Lib Dems are at least open about their intentions, Labour mostly tries to avoid actually spelling out that it’s talking about the end of Barnett. But Ms Curran appears to have both let the cat out of the bag and then put her foot in it.
———————————————————————————————–
ORIGINAL SOURCE: [1]
George Foulkes, June 2011, “block grants are wrong and the Barnett formula should not be revived on a needs basis, or on any other basis, and should be scrapped.”
The sky is green and the grass is blue, everything Curran says just has to be true.
Til the next day.
…and the Pope is Catholic.
This woman deserves to sink in a slurry pit although she would be the most toxic thing in it.
I don’t ‘tweet’ or whatever it’s called but someone should reply to her dishonest message asking her why she keeps contradicting herself. Or is she simply being “economical with the truth”.
These people have the cheek to accuse Alex Salmond of misleading the public while doing just that themselves. Maybe they think everyone in politics is as corrupt as they are.
Dump them all in the slurry next year, vote YES please!
“‘I do believe that we should allocate public funding on the basis of need and it should not be around just a regional or a national demarcation around that. And I think that is a challenge to the nationalists.’”
Is the challenge she refers to working out what the hell ‘it should not be around just a regional or a nationl demarcation around that’ actually means?
if curran is not a liar then a lawyer should be in touch soon.
Post a NO vote
1) Barnett Formula scrapped and the new method of budget allocation is largely diffused to local authorities on the whim of the Viceroy
2) Hospitals allocation reduced in proportion to the English NHS and as the system quickly gums up provate contractors brought in to aid, the run the system piecemeal
3) Scottish NHS now privatised
4) Old age care reduced to next to zero and replaced with care by relatives, Jeremy Hunt is already trailing that.
5) Scottish Water privatised
6) You fill in the rest
Margaret Curran, along with the wretched Jackie Baillie (who is now attacking the SNP over the Bedroom Tax!), are prime examples of the careerist SLAB elected representatives who are destroying the credibility of that party. What they come out with on a regular basis is the most brazen falsehoods imaginable. They are shameless.
As recorded in the Official Report of the Scottish Parliament:-
“We have all learned that just because the First Minister [Alex Salmond] says it does not mean that it is true.”
I struggle to see what the people of Glasgow see in her and why they think that she is worthy of their vote.
She doesn’t even have the common decency to call the First Minister Mr Salmond.
She comes across at all times as a seriously unpleasant individual.
Oh dear. What point are you making, John?
Dpict … I tweeted her asking her for an opinion on this very topic. I included the link to the piece from which the Rev is quoting. They never answer though 😉
Is she being manipulative, selective, forgetful or just stupid? Maybe all at once?
I think Curren is too stupid to know what she’s talking about most of the time. She gets mixed up when faced with any kid of intelligent questioning.
The other day she was accusing the first minister of grandstanding when he had said he would be taking up exactly the points she was urging him to take up.
She is consumed with hatred of the SNP and clearly she wants less money for the people of Scotland, almost certainly because the first minister wants more money for them.
God help us if we vote to stay with their union.
OT but i think you have a typo Rev
” suggesting she wants”
should read ” suggesting he wants“
Poor old Joel. An emergency rule of thumb that actually might have worked but was buggered around with in the hope of staving off the Nats has been kept well past its sell by date, but still with his name on it.
You can have a cinema ticket when we go to the theatre is not the best way of sharing. Instead of the Barnett Formula, voting Yes gives us the chance to go to the cinema or the theatre when we want if we choose to rather than waiting for Boris to go Les Mis.
she is a feckin idiot, even william hague would agree. shes not even worth discussing
forget i posted that Rev…
John, what does bringing up Salmond have to do with Margaret Curran’s comments? You are so obsessed with Salmond that you will use a obvious falsehood by Curran to mention him. Why? Is it because you know he is a major threat to your beloved British establishment and state? You mention him constantly on the Herald comments page.
Hey look, it’s the lesser spotted John OBE, must be back from polishing his union flag and trying to find a jock to kill in York.
“OT but i think you have a typo Rev
Huh? Those are links to the SNP website.
Any principled Unionist should want to ensure that resources are shared across the UK on the basis of need! That’s how an independent Scotland would work.
How could any of them justify a rich country like Scotland, getting a greater share than the poverty stricken North of England or Wales?
Those selfish bastards in the Scottish Unionist parties are kidding themselves if they think “the best of both worlds” will continue after a NO vote, when the reason for the Barnett formula was only ever to stop Scotland voting for independence.
Was Jeremy HUnt the one who charged the tax payer for Mandarin lessons so he could talk to his wife?
I think even Mr McIntyre has difficulty backing the argument Curran is telling the truth on this; and saying nobody else wants to remove it is frankly just plain silly.
I agree with Tris. Curran is too thick to understand the concept of consistency or contradiction. She has the intellectual capacity of a brussels sprout that’s been run over by a steamroller.
What’s far more disturbing is that not one of our glorious MSM ‘journalists’ will ever hold Curran to account even for this glaring inconsistency. That – sadly – is the only piece of information Curran needs to retain, and even she can manage that.
Margaret Curran spends a helluva lot of time in London attacking the First Minister in Edinburgh. Maybe she should spend some of that hot air actually doing her job debating and arguing with her opposite numbers in Westminster… oh I forgot they’re Better Together!
What has she actually done for her constituents again?
We should always ask unionists if the union is so great for Scotland.
Why does Scotland have the poorest people on these islands but is the greatest contributor and richest nation?
There is a deep dark hole that politicians will plunge into if they try to elaborate what ‘needs-based’ funding actually boils down to. They have tried it in the past and they know it failed. Need is a great satisfying all-encompassing term until you have to measure it.
In England back in the 80s/90s, they tried to use incredibly complex series of indices to allocate public spending in health and local government (York indices in health ; I forget what the local govt ones were called). They used not only population/demographic data, but also many ‘drivers’ – relevant activities or events that occured within the services e.g. how many call-outs from a fire station – to help determine how funds would be allocated within a particular service or area.
However, they soon found that a) some activities would be excluded (they couldn’t include everything they did) b) services became dysfunctional acting only on the basis of their driver activities e.g. fire brigades would spend very little on fire prevention or safety if their funding was heavily reliant on fighting fires/responding to calls. Control centres would also share out calls around fire stations to make sure they were all active.
So in the end England abandoned them around the mid-90s, and of course when Labour came in, they tried it the other way with targets with the same dysfunctional effects – although some of those still seem to be retained, and the SNP has added a few of their own.
I think all those shouting for ‘needs-based systems’ need to be reminded of that history and the dreadful bureaucracy of it all, because I’m sure if those systems had worked well enough in the 80s, Barnett would have been scrapped years ago.
I Tweeted Mags as soon as I read her Tweet, and asked if the Telegraph had been lying last month. Her response…
O/T Ipsos Mori poll shows 10 point rise in Scottish Government approval ratings since May:
Report & downloadable tables here: http://www.ipsos-mori.com/researchpublications/researcharchive/3283/Scottish-Government-approval-rating-increases.aspx
…and I even included a link to the Telegraph article and everything!
@Training Day
What’s far more disturbing is that not one of our glorious MSM ‘journalists’ will ever hold Curran to account even for this glaring inconsistency. That – sadly – is the only piece of information Curran needs to retain, and even she can manage that.
That is the crux of the matter. It is not just Curran, you only need to look at the whoopers that Baillie has come out with. She has never apologised to Holyrood for her remarks on the super bugs for example. The MSM simply do not hold Unionist politicians to account. In effect Unionist politicians know they can say what they like, and not have to answer any questions about them.
@Dcanmore
What has she actually done for her constituents again?
Very good question. Curran is a one trick pony, she spends the vast majority of her time attacking the SNP. She refuses to take responsibility for Scotland. When she said that the Barnett formula should be scrapped, Curran was basically saying to her constituents that she wanted less money spent on them! What kind of an idiot would say this?
Scotland loathing selfseeking London Labour puppet Curran is well known for lying , she lied to the parents of a child killed by a thug with an air gun,she wrote to the dead child’s parents stating she voted for an air gun ban in the Scottish parliament and that because of this she deserved their vote.
Compulsive liar Magrat Curran in fact voted against an air gun ban.
Vote Yes to rid Scotland of this repulsive lying evil cow.
Does anyone think Curran ( she started it! – well kinda!) knows how to type and tweet this…some wee SPAD has been at her iPhone again no doubt! I would reckon that Mags just has a phone as it comes with the Expense account.
If Mags opened up on Twitter im sure it would be as popular as British Gas’s attempts at social media!
As for John…to be honest i thought he was being nice and highlighting yet another example of documented vulgar Unionist disdain and slanderous talk about our beloved First Minister!
PS..Beamer…hahaha, god bless the c*ntions, i mean captions!
PPS..Beamer.. at least, that and a wee Mercedes for her free weekends!
I do not trust Ms Curran
That is all
Despite popular opinion on one side and cautious acknowledgement on the other, the Barnett formula DOES NOT favour Scotland in any regard.
The above UK average payment to Scotland, reflects a massively distributed infrastructure, in no small part due to economic migration caused by Westminster’s London centric activities.
Scotland’s land area is 30% of the UK. There are extra costs associated with the geography.
A densely populated city in the South gets a much bigger total ‘allowance’ to spend than a sparsely populated city. Fixed costs or capital costs are spread between more people.
The Barnett formula fails to take into consideration such things as population, unemployment rates and health.
Make no mistake, it is an easy argument for the Westminster Government after a NO in the referendum. They can simply point to the superficial figure ‘Scotland get’s more’ and there will be massively support to remove Barnett.
So Ms Curran is in complete denial of documented history is she? Who knew?
A gift which keeps on giving. 🙂
@Robbie
Im afraid your wishes are doomed to failure. Never forget where sick old dogs go to die…home. If we get our YES vote, then Curran & Murphy will fly back to head the Scottish Labour party and Anas Sarwar will be heading to a nice job near his dad I suspect.
Douglas Alexander may slide into a safe Labour seat in England but who knows who would survive the inevitable backlash, Curran wont be retained “darn sarf” thats for sure.
News for Curran, we all want to scrap the Barnet formula.
It’s called independence.
We also want to scrap the gravy train that you and your ilk have been milking for decades. You have done nothing for the people of Scotland, or worse still , your own constituents. You shame yourself each time you open your mouth. Away and gies peace.
nice one robbie
O/T I see the Guardian’s blog on the SNP conference has a tweet from John Ruddy, a Labour Councillor in Scotland, about one SNP delegate making a remark about Holyrood being abolished in the event of a No vote!
SNP conference live on BBC website – well. I never..
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-24556868
margaret curran is a liar = the pope is a catholic = bears shit in the woods
@muttley 2:48
If Barnett is abolished post No, what is the usefulness of a Holyrood with no power to do anything other than administer the funds alloted in the manner proscribed?
A trip down memory lane with Margaret Curran MP.
Anyone remember this one from her 2008 by-election campaign?
EXCLUSIVE : Glasgow East Labour Fakes “93 Year-Old War Hero” Endorsement
15 July 2008
http://order-order.com/2008/07/15/exclusive-glasgow-east-labour-fakes-93/
Jesus BBC!!! The fucking teaboy they’ve got on the video link is still talking through the first three minutes of Nicola Sturgeon’s speech….SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!!
@Mutley79
“Curran was basically saying to her constituents that she wanted less money spent on them! What kind of an idiot would say this?”
Spending less? That would be difficult! Have you ever been to her constituency? I had recently had to spend a few hours kicking my heels around the Alexandria Parade area. The poverty was there to be seen. Lots of haggard old ladies waiting for a bus messages in hand. Never saw any old men though. Why? Because that life expectancy for a man in her constituency is 58. That is lower than Mumbai.
She was on question time a wee while ago and some of her constituents were in the audience. They were obviously underwhelmed by her rhetoric. Makes you wonder who actually votes for the lying scumbag.
O/T, watching BBC Parliament channel coverage of SNP conference which seems to consist of someone talking endlessly over Nicola Sturgeon’s address. Can’t hear a word of what she’s saying – what’s the point in covering this at all? Unbelievable.
Another trip down memory lane with Margaret Curran MP.
In this one she claimed to have lived in the East End of Glasgow all her life –
The Labour Lie – for today
Indygal in Europe!
08 July 2008
http://indygalineurope.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/labour-lie-for-today.html
BBC talking over the first few minutes of Nicola Sturgeon’s speech .
Can we not have uncensored coverage?
She obviously has some sort of memory problem
MC: I know I’m getting on a bit, but I wasn’t around in Denis Healey’s days.
http://wingsoverscotland.com/margaret-curran-i-didnt-inhale/
@The Man in the Jar
That is what Curran wants though. The scrapping of the Barnett formula in the event of a no vote means a further cut in the block grant. Therefore, less money will be spent on her constituency.
Magrat Curran,s compulsive lying was also exposed when she stated she wasn’t around when Dennis Healy admitted that Labour had actively mis led the people of Scotland over the value of North sea oil.
Bare faced compulsive liar Magrat Curran was in fact the secretary of Glasgow university labour club at the time.
O/T Ipsos Mori poll shows 10 point rise in Scottish Government approval ratings since May
Quite possibly better than that as MORI’s sampling methodology makes their results demonstrably more biased towards pro-union parties / No.
@handclapping
If Barnett is abolished post No, what is the usefulness of a Holyrood with no power to do anything other than administer the funds alloted in the manner proscribed?
But that is what it effectively does at the moment anyway? It has very little control over taxation. That is why we want independence.
I bet Boris is all for a system based on need. Afterall London needs Olympics, sewers, a high-speed train to turn Birmingham into another suburb, a shiny new hub airport ( just when hub and spoke is being dropped by airlines in favour od direct connections) and out of town housing to make room for the Givernments Help to Buy houses.
Why should someone who chooses to live in Kinlochbervie think they are entitled to treatment at Raigmore? Why shouldn’t men who choose to live in the Carlton die at 54? They don’t need to so we shouldn’t pander to their whims.
To-day’s Herald reports latest Ipsos Mori poll puts Labour and Tories neck and neck despite Ed’s unworked out attempts to freeze energy bills which can’t work in Northern Ireland without the consent of a foreign government as they share the Republic’s grid.
Nicola has come up with a more practical scheme.
And the unionist attack dogs having a go at Gordon Wilson over Britishness comments.
http://archive.is/mMy9a
To-day’s Herald reports latest Ipsos Mori poll puts Labour and Tories neck and neck
The gap is steadily closing. I have it as 3-4 points now, down from over 10 at the beginning of the year.
Arrogance and ignorant just like the rest of Lamentables bunch.
Margaret Curran MSP/MP, the gift that keeps on giving –
Can we believe anything this woman says?
J. Arthur McNumpty
16 July 2008
http://macnumpty.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/can-we-believe-anything-this-woman-says.html
London’s revenues are not being cut. There will be no cuts to the London Metropolitan disproportionally generous allowances//funding.
Scottish Skier
Its not 3 -4 points now its a dead heat.
CON 35 (+1); LAB 35 (-2); LIB DEM 9 (-1); UKIP 10 (-1)
Ipsos MORI’s latest poll has Labour and the Conservatives tied for the first time since January 2012, though the movement from last month’s poll is not statistically significant. Both parties are on 35% among those who say they are certain to vote, UKIP is on 10% and the Liberal Democrats on 9%.
This is a game changer
O/T
Oh Wow! Stunning speech from Nicola Sturgeon. What a woman!
Utterly disgraceful ‘coverage’ of the SNP conference by the BBC. Not content with shunting it off a main channel, the erse hosting the programme talked over both the FM and DFM with inconsequential babble clearly aimed at the wider ‘British’ audience. Quite deliberate and calculated to offend a Scottish audience.
Linds Back ‘Can we not have uncensored coverage’ Easy there, are their exotic dancers behind NS? 🙂
It is annoying when speeches are talked over. I’ve never understood why parties don’t live stream the speeches, its relatively cheaper than pies 🙂 We know politicos are behind the tech curve but surely one of the smart adivsors can set this up. Not every member can afford to go to conference and a live stream would be perfect and go some way to counteract any misreporting.
I can’t watch the coverage at the moment but have seen comment on sound issues at SNP conference.
It seems strange that the BBC can film and listen to creatures swimming in the arctic but can’t film and record a person standing still in Perth.
Sorry Lindas Back mispelled your name I can only blame the image in my head of the Chippendales dancing behind NS eek!
The Sturgeonator just gave the No campaign a swift boot up the arse there. I believe we’ve just entered what is referred to as “the real campaign”.
On the substance of what we heard from the DFM once the BBC no-mark deigned to stop talking over her.. delighted to see the first real focus on the consequences of a No vote. Long overdue!
Margaret Curran must realise, that if the Barnett Formula is removed in a post independence no vote, that it would be very damaging for the economy in Scotland.
Why on earth would a SLAB politicians who’s supposed to have the people of Scotlands welfare at heart, even consider backing such a proposeal in the unlikely event of a no vote.
I can only conclude that Margaret Curran like other Scottish politicians who oppose independence, dont have the welfare of Scots at heart,only self-serving interests, as they try and shin up the greasy pole,of promotion all the way to the House of Lords.
Are their no people of substance left in SLAB, Maxton, Wheatley, McLean and Hardy would be burling in their graves if they could see, what a shame party SLAB have become.
I often wonder just how labour find all the utterly horrible people in their ranks. Guess they must pass the Westminster school of nasty ba…..s !
The SNP know what they’re doing here. You can bet your arse that turning the heat up at this conference was in the plan long before they’d even announced the date of the referendum. Now Muhammed Ali comes off the ropes and knocks the crap out of the tired opponent he’s allowed to punch his arms for the past year.
O/T rev. I do apologise.
Nicola Sturgeon has promised to cut fuel bills after independence.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-24568887
Still no terrestrial coverage of the SNP Conference by the MSM, only online coverage.
Oh Wow! Stunning speech from Nicola Sturgeon. What a woman!
Agreed Jeannie, Nicola was on fire! She has thrown down the gauntlet and let everyone be in no doubt whatsoever how massive this decision we all individually will make next year in the referendum. She touched on the aftermath of voting NO and how we will be voting for a continuation of more of the same and worse.
Imagine waking up the day after to hear more of this deceit from Curran and the Lamonts of this world. Anadin wont cure that! They say one thing to one audience then another to us Scots and it will probably change again in line with their Westminster serving masters wishes. Curran and the Labour party were in power for years at Westminster and in Holyrood and yet the gap between rich and poor widened. Shocking stuff. Theyve had all the chances to do good and failed badly. Theyre charlatans only interested in serving theirselves and continued Westminster London rule. Theyre yesterdays news, with nothing to offer us, tomorrow belongs to all of us in Scotland.
Aye right Maggie, even more revenues drained from Scotland, for illegal wars and Banking fraud. Corrupt Media, Fraud, Lying Politicans and Police. Come in Dear, your time is up. How much has been pocketed.
The SNP know what they’re doing here.
Which is why the BBC will be talking over the speeches, downplaying the content, mentioning Braveheart and ripping up policy documents.
Cue Glen Campbell…
Its all so effing transparent.
Curran isn’t concerned about telling the truth.
After she repeated the mantra about Foreigners, and the Irish being foreign, I emailed her and her office a copy of the Republic of Ireland Act 1949, which specifically states that the Republic of Ireland is not a foreign country.
She still tries to say it.
Until these politicians are confronted on television or on the radio with the counter information to their lies, they will just keep telling them. Of course they will try it anyway, in the next interview!
More folks should put up info on the politicians twitter threads; if it is done often enough it gets seen.
Dougie Daniel @ 4:06 pm
Rope a dope?
O/T was shocked to find out that 49% of the English NHS, is now in private hands.
“The NHS will last as long,as there are folk left,with the faith to fight for it”
Aneurin Bevan.
Further to Jamie Arrier’s post @ 2:17pm, I once worked on a Scottish Office examination into the cost-effectiveness of local authority Grant Aid Expenditure. I would confirm that apportioning need is a complicated process taking account of multiple ‘indicators’ and ‘drives’. At the end of the day though, it is something of an arbitrary decision involving many judgment calls based on assumptions. Income levels are not the only driver of need, though poverty is definitely the most obvious indicator.
All of the UK’s major infrastructure projects are geared towards accommodating continued population growth in the south east. These developments are considered to be of ‘national importance’, so are part funded through Scottish taxes, without any resulting Barnett consequential-s. As such, Scotland is not only expected to help fund the development of the south east, it is helping fund the planned concentration of need in the Greater London ‘region’ (more people = more need, as a proportion of population).
Vote Yes to keep Scotland’s wealth in Scotland, where it can help address Scottish needs.
I thought Nicola gave an excellent speech at Calton Hill too, she has blossomed and is most definitely heir in waiting to Alex. John Swinney grows in quiet and determined competence too. It is developing into a very strong team.
John Ruddy says that Curran misundertood at conference (although he is unable to tell us what she actually meant because he wasn’t there). I thought he had committed to not reversing free titition fees and free prescription charge but he went a bit contradictory on the same matter with someone else so maybes no.
The poll results on voter satisfaction are very good. However, one could almost hear a collective nod of approval over the approach taken over Prestwick and if we can translate that approval rating to the Yes vote we will achieve a remarkable result.
Are the speeches still not up to watch online yet? Can’t find them on YT and BBC News are being as helpful as they always are, ie not at all.
BtP – indeed, been saying ever since the start that it was the plan.
And I do enjoy being right 😀 😀 😀
sorry for going off topic on this thread, though it does relate to Glasgow (like Curran). I was at the Kelvingrove art galleries today and stumbled on some blatant, I think, anti independence material. I have a photograph of said offending display. Not sure how to share it here but think it is worth sharing considering the fact that it was the only vaguely political statement I saw in the whole place, though maybe I’ve missed something.
why is the headline of this article still there, what the hell are the honorable ms currans lawyers upto?
quick way to get the yes word out
tell ten of your friends
to tell ten of their friends
Re. the MSM not reporting/challenging Margaret Curran’s lies – that’s because it’s not news, now if she spoke the truth that really would be news and well worth reporting.
O/T But about Nicola’s speech. If cutting green charges is the only way she can see to reduce energy bills, we need to be thinking about who will make the real decisions in an independent Scotland.
Lets get this straight. Privatized domestic energy is a disgrace. Just like every other company on the stock exchange, they are looking to provide potential/real growth for their shareholders. The only way to do that in this case, is to tax the end user. Therefore, a 5% reduction is meaningless. The prices will not freeze, they will increase pro-rata but at 5% lower than they were – pointless – if the energy companies do not increase profits, no-one will want their shares (except for maybe safe holdings). If the SNP want to serve the people of an independent Scotland, they need to prove they will not be aping the primates in Westminster by leaving us at the mercy of international corporate animals.
John MacIntyre OBE
oohh god not here too….its Colonel Cut and Paste Ad nauseam
@crisiscult
Upload said photae to tinypic.com and post the resultant url here
Atypical Scot
I suspect you have not listened to the full details or misunderstood Nicola Sturgeons speech.The Scottish government would direct the Green programmes because the energy companies are not doing a good enough job.
Thanks big_al
So, I’ve posted the text and then the context. I was holding my baby at the time so not the greatest photos. Maybe this isn’t as interesting / shocking as I think, but I was pretty angry when I saw it. Seemed like they should have had the sign pinned on to a big straw man.
http://i40.tinypic.com/155opop.jpg
http://i41.tinypic.com/2q9jfp0.jpg
She said: ‘I do believe that we should allocate public funding on the basis of need …”
I think she mis-spoke and that the last word should be replaced with “my needs”. That is what Better Together is all about and she’s a supporter. I’m surprised that they haven’t got an “Anyone But Scotland” T-shirt on sale. Or a “Say No. All 4 Me”.
Deluded Raj from Oxfordshire obviously knows feck all about Scotland.
Famous 15;
Energy prices should be lower and kept lower. Re-jigging green charges is not my bug-bear, it’s a missed opportunity by Nicola to clinch the peoples imagination and truly save real peoples lives by re-nationalizing the sector. 20,000 more people die day to day in winter in the UK every year, many are pensioners. This unholy concept of privateering at the cost of life has no place in my understanding of a progressive society. Fuel poverty must be stopped, and the quickest way is to drag the companies out their boardrooms kicking and screaming.
Don’t you think a pledge to re-nationalize the energy sector in an independent Scotland would be a home run for the SNP? I do. I also think that not pledging it makes me think the SG will pander to the elite, the owners of these companies are ruthless profiteers, they hold Westminster to ransom with their promises of inward investment – at a price to the people. Get rid.
Sorry for OT, but Project Fear has just jumped the shark!
https://twitter.com/UK_Together/status/391239669108588544/photo/1
@Andy B
Margaret Curran must realise, that if the Barnett Formula is removed in a post independence no vote, that it would be very damaging for the economy in Scotland.
Curran will know full well how damaging a No vote is for Scotland. She does not have the people of Scotland’s welfare at heart. Curran is attempting to save her career, along with Davidson, Murphy, Alexander, Davidson, and the rest of them.
@HandandShrimp
John Ruddy claimed on Cif that two SNP MSPs told him that Sturgeon has no intention of honouring the agreement that an independence referendum would only happen once in a generation. He also claimed that he knows an SNP councillor who is extremely anti-English. However, he then claims ignorance of anything embarrassing about SLAB. The guy is in the Duncan Hothersall mode of SLAB, where they offer nothing positive, and smear their rivals constantly. Why would two SNP MSPs tell a SLAB Unionist fanatic about anything as important anyway? It does not make any sense at all. He has begun the old ‘SNP are anti-English’ smear as well.
Raj – well named…
I’m wearing a Mags Curran mask for Halloween
With regards energy prices – there is one way to lower prices ( IMHO )
Every person in our Country plump for the exact same supplier, all the other companies see a massive drop in profit and start to reduce their prices to get custom
Obe awa n bile yer heid , rev please not on here
While I doubt it’s practical to nationalise the power companies I heard the leader of Plaid Cymru suggest a government non profit enterprise to sell energy at wholesale price. Bravehearth if you will. Sorry… I’ll get ma coat.
@twenty14 Which, if you could coordinate such a thing, would work for what, a year? By then the lower prices on offer from other companies would have tempted back enough people that they could all just go back to price fixing and constant year-on-year increases.
The only way to stop this profiteering, for good, is for us to acknowledge that “the market” is NOT the solution to everything. Renationalise the grid and boot out the providers, then set up small, local providers run democratically by those they serve.
Mairgrit goes to the Doctor, worried about her husband’s temper.
The Doctor asks: “What’s the problem Mairgrit?”
Mairgrit says: “Doctor, I don’t know what to do. Every day my husband seems to lose his temper for no reason. It scares me.”
The Doctor says: “I have a cure for that. When it seems that your husband is getting angry, just take a glass of water and start swishing it in your mouth. Just swish and swish but don’t swallow it until he either leaves the room or calms down.”
Two weeks later Mairgrit comes back to the doctor looking fresh and reborn.
She says: “Doctor that was a brilliant idea! Every time my husband started losin it, I swished with water. I swished and swished, and he calmed right down! How does a glass of water do that?”
The Doctor says: “It actually isn’t the water Mairgrit. It’s keeping your fuckin mooth shut that does the trick”.
I think I would take STV News more seriously if they could get one of the SNP Cabinet Minister’s name correct;
‘Queensferry Bridge will be toll free says Sweeney’.
Ha ha ha good one @Thomas.
@thomas
The Doctor says: “It actually isn’t the water Mairgrit. It’s keeping your fuckin mooth shut that does the trick”.
Brilliant. Every time I see or hear Margaret Curran I will remember this and laugh, instead of getting mad.
Atypical Scot says :
‘Don’t you think a pledge to re-nationalize the energy sector in an independent Scotland would be a home run for the SNP?’
Ok, so how do we go about this ?
How much is it going to cost us to buy out all those energy companies, Centrica, EDF etc etc ?
What effect will it have on the National Grid ?
What effect may it have on North Sea Oil, will those companies (BP etc) start getting jittery that they could be next in line ?
What effect will it have on our prices ?
Could we be open to the EU blocking any ‘nationalisation’ on the grounds of unfair competition or other similar rulings ?
And many other questions.
It seems to me that if you want to have any nationalised energy industry it should be in renewables, as this is the future and currently it’s a reasonably untapped potential – there are certainly no big energy companies hogging the best resources, especially in tidal power. Why not invest in renewables, building new infrastructure – creating jobs and development within Scotland rather than shelling out potentially £10’s of billions in buying out Centrica or EDF.
It might not lower our energy bills now, but it would certainly do so in the future.
O/T.
I see George Osborne’s father in law Lord Howell, lobbys for the Windsor Energy Group, which includes BP, Shell, British Gas and Marathon Oil.
Shell, BP, British Gas and Marathon Oil,have major interests in shale gas, and said companies are due to benefit from huge tax breaks in the fracking industry, recently anounced by none other than George Osborne.
Mr Osborne is certainly looking after HIS family, as for ours, well Im sure you get the picture.
Tartanfever;
There are ways of re-nationalizing sectors without the shock buyouts. The shareholders are redeemed portions of their stake annually. Quite painless, the question is, how many people dying of fuel poverty we think personal profit is worth.
Plus, the EU has no say on nationalized sectors, only privatized business, think NHS.
Magrit Curran – visited HMNB Clyde yesterday – wait for the pics to surface…..somewhere. The reason for her visit – to better understand Faslane & Coulport’s role in the overall UK’s Defence Policy….posture, illusion or should that be delusion?
Translated – I’m no interested in Defence, just ma gub on a photae fur bragging rights, sook ma wake Jim “The Coward” Murphy, cumin tae the Riverhill Deli, Jackie, fur coffee n posh cake lass?
Labour + Scotland’s Defence = leave it tae England.
@atypical
Don’t think the English NHS. Two hospitals in Dorset were not allowed to merge by the Competeion Commission because they were trusts and so busineses!
I would just love to hear a panel chairman offer Magrit a glass of water!
Crisiscult I saw said offending display a couple of weeks ago and agree it’s the only political display in the Gallery. They should be brought to book for it.
Duncan hothersall is a lying piece of neo-nazi shite and if he objects to that description the then tough. If you model your ideology on the nazis then you are one. Godwin can feck off and die too.
Where is there any agreement that a democratic voted by the people to decide their future can only be held every 30 years? And why are those nice anti-democrats trying to suggest this to be the case?
Is it just me, or ….
…. ’twas it not the free-loading Lab who front-loaded in devolution’s faux decentralisation their self-serving protection racket / thiefdom in Glasgow & Central Scotland especially and with it sowed the seeds of their own undoing thanks to Lab’s Chancellor GB o’ GB obsession in all things to do down the dreaded Tories who were anything but conservative as he was a socialist with a conceit that Scots are unique in being a’ for one and one for a’.
Of course, the sainted Donald and the now ignoble lord McConnell o’ somewhere on earth who handed back or rather let GB o’ GB’s Treasury not carry forward the amounts not spent on – for example – not building council houses at the same time as removing Mortgage Interest Rates – in switching frae the RPI to the CPI used by the EU, so stoking the myth of GB’s end to Boom & Bust in the Bust to Bail-Out yUK Public unLimited in liability for Corp[sign]or[age]ation as @Bankers’ Umbrella issuing up to 97% of money as credit’s euphemism for the debt to enslave ….
…. instead of serving the greatest debt we will ever owe each other in being our societies in communities of families and friends with fellow folk here in our social home in the geographic Isles that house our family of friendly people in our nations as elsewhere wherever we and our forbears go and went – like it or not – overseas to in an all continents of our diaspora to bring all our pasts in the present homecoming as biding to vote for our futures.
Curran is no more different than the rest of Labour wedded to their cringing as grievanced vexed victim’s stock kidology playbook response when thinking they have or are about to be caught by their own doing left undone by getting their retaliation in first. They’re undoubtedly better together in getting their own back by pissing increasing into their own wind of windy in boomeranging back rhetorical revenge.
Has Miliband got a another shadow Scottish Secretary in mind, or will she be the last, like thon unelected – or “unelectable” as wee Dug Alexander put it – North Britisher GB of GB? Let’s wait to see who’s bright idea combining 1st Ministers’ with future English, Norn’ Irish, Scottish & Welsh Secretaries as yUK cabinent members is shall we?
Keith [ Indion@KeithMMVII ]
@Ronnie
Well said lol.
Perhaps of interest – there is to be a referendum in Berlin on the re-commualisation of electricity. Activists there told me that had the vote been held on the same day as other elections they would have won but the government moved the referendum date to day when it is the only vote, therefore lower turnout and they probably lose.
The idea of setting up a non-profit energy company to sell power to the public sounds very interesting. It would force the private companies to compete for our business or go bust, and there’d be none of the expense of nationalising the existing companies.
The only obstacle I can see is the private companies would go whining to the EU about it being anti-competitive or having an unfair advantage or something.
I would imagine Curran’s lawyers will be suing for libel (unless she actually is a liar).
If so, put me down for a 10 spot for the defence fund.