One for our Labour chums
Posted on
June 08, 2013 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Keep that in mind as Alistair Darling speaks at the Scottish Tory conference today.
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18 03 15 23:50
The Devo Files: Douglas Alexander (Paisley and Renfrewshire South) | A Wilderness of Peace
Showing my age, BT and the armed forces means Black and Tans.
I nearly forgot what a vile excuse for a human being Gove is. Thanks for reminding me.
Just don’t mention the legendary Free Polish Spitfire Squadrons or those other ehmm pesky foreigners.
Alex Salmond did warn Labour about the danger of joining with the Conservatives.
In many ways it would be a win for the Tories. Labour does a ‘hatchet’ job on Scotland wrecking what is left of its reputation, loses the general election, loses what could have been an alliance with another social democrat party, the SNP, alienates part of the population of Scotland.
The Tories win.
I also read in the Times ,Gove using the same words about families becoming foreigners as Margaret Curran did.
Increasingly, the Labour and Tory parties are becoming indistinguishable – the LibDems have always been hopeless caricatures of politicians.
Right now, unless the Labour party can get in touch with long sacrificed core-Socialism, they are useless to the people who need them most.
A No vote would represent a Tory victory.
Of course it would. DC is no daft. If Scotland votes No, Cameron takes the credit. If Scotland votes Yes, Darling gets the blame. Either way, Labour are screwed. Devo Max was Labour’s get out of jail card. Sadly, stupidly, they threw it away last year and jumped into bed with the Tories.
Alistair Darling is now encouraging the Armed Forces to join the No campaign.
Interesting, since some soldiers were court-martialled for taking photographs of themselves in uniform with their vehicles, with EDL flags on the side!
Just read this quote from a trade unionist outside the Tory conference.
Iain MacDonald, organiser at the Unite union, inflated a seven-foot rat with the slogan “Standing Up To Tory Ratbags”.
He said: “I’m quite shocked that Alistair Darling is in there. I’m tempted to sing to him that he’s not Labour anymore, but as a trade unionist and a Labour member I want the UK to stay together so on this occasion I will excuse him.
“He’s got a lot of work to do. I don’t know if it will be reciprocated with David Cameron coming to the Labour conference – I hope not.”
Sometimes I feel we are banging our heads against a brick wall. This guy, a trade unionist, turns up at the Scottish Conservative Conference allegedly protesting against the Tories, but is still going to vote No, and effectively supports Darling’s attendance at said conference? FFS! What is it with people like him…
@”SCED300 says:
“Alistair Darling is now encouraging the Armed Forces to join the No campaign.” I find this development disturbing if he is talking about the military taking on an official role. The Armed Forces should be neutral on the referendum. It is purely a political issue and the Armed Forces should play no part, unless members as individuals and off duty wish to campaign in their own time.
I think Darling is feeling the pressure somewhat!! He appears to be getting more and more agitated and narky as we move closer to the referendum, and we still have around 15 months to go.
Why vote Yes? Why vote to change a system that has since 1946 created the NHS and a welfare system?
Well,the NHS is being dismantled in England.
The welfare system is being dismantled across the UK.
The undemocratic political system of first past the post is wholly unsuited to a group of four nations where one is some 10 times larger than the other three and so dominates UK political and financial policies to its clear advantage.
And this imbalance has enabled a military policy that does not meet the expressed wishes of the general population
The House of Lords a breathtaking arrangement of Establishment preference.
So looking at the situation rationally, what is the point in continuing within the UK?
In regards to Darling ‘recruiting’ active service personnel he might want to be aware of the Queens Regulations in this respect
)
“Political Activities
J5.581. a. Regular Service personnel are not to take any active part in the affairs of any political organisation, party or movement. They are not to participate in political marches or demonstrations. b. No restriction is to be placed upon the attendance at political meetings of such personnel provided that uniform is not worn, Service duties are not impeded, and no action is taken which would bring the Service into disrepute.
So basically they can’t wear uniform, leaflet and speak but can go a meeting and eat sausage rolls and drink tea. And to be honest most service personnel have better things to do I imagine(such as getting to the pub
I watched Goves on TV and saw Ruthie’s speech, same result in one ear and out the other, please remember folks this is the party who have only one MP in Scotland and he appears to be aductioning for the muppet show every time he opens his mouth.
The tories try to make something about their importance in Scotland they have none, and its easy to remember what they stand for, its “everything for us, nothing for you”.
When we have won the referendum and independence is ours, we will never have to think about them and all their backstabbing lies ever again.
Vote Yes and live within a more fair and honest society of our own making.
Vote NO – get nothing.
Hail Alba.
Bill C says
“The Armed Forces should be neutral on the referendum.”
They should unless the Government are intending to deploy them against the Nationalist Insurgents.
Wonder how long it will be before the National Insurgents become a threat to The UK’s National Security and need to be extinguished ?
Not long by the feel of things. What would happen should the Rebel forces try to capture the WMD’s ? They could use them against London in errr about 45 minutes.
No Fly Zone needed. Siezure of Rebel’s asset’s. Regime change.
Dail Mail, Sun, Spectator and EBC in full hate mode.
Of course it could never happen here in this day and age.
Syrians and Libyans thought that too.
Well, there’s a first. Never thought I’d agree with an oleaginous wee nyaff like Gove. He’s right though: Blue Tory, Red Tory or Yellow Tory – a No vote is a Tory victory.
@sneddon -Thanks for the info. makes you wonder what Darling is actually talking about. Is he encouraging members of the Armed Forces to break the Queen’s Regulations?
I watched Goves on TV and saw Ruthie’s speech,
The medal’s in the post!
If the armed forces are allowed to campaign, then civil servants should be allowed to speak up too!
Oooo. Dave made a pledge.
link to guardian.co.uk
Lying again. By body he means Mouth. His heart is Evil and he hasn’t got a soul.
Sneddon
My thanks also for the explanation.
Could you clarify the Queen’s position also. Is she not Commander-in-Chief of the UK forces? In an independent Scotland retaining her as Queen of Scots, she would also retain her C-in-C title for Scottish forces, in which case she loses no authority. Unlike the Westminster and BT gangs.
Perhaps HM could come out with a gentle warning to those apparently exceeding their remit!
@seanair
I’ve no idea if HRH would be C-C of independent Scottish forces. It’s one of those things, much to the despair of wee wullie rennie, that will have to be negoiated(sic) I imagine the relationship will be that similar to Canada et al As long as we’re keeping her as head of state of course.
“Alistair Darling is now encouraging the Armed Forces to join the No campaign.”
I do hope he makes himself very clear. Usually when you ask the armed forces to join a campaign, they have certain expectations.
If Cameron is going to fight “head, heart, body and soul” for the union, well I’m going to be doing the same for Scotlands independence, but I will be adding a knee, elbow and forehead into the mix.
Bring it on.
Hail Alba.
As a Nat’ i think this Tory conference has been good for Scotland, why? well it serves as a reminder of the following:
Tory (and unionists in general) hypocrisy, they decry Scottish nationalism with words like ‘poison’ yet use British Nationalism as a rallying cry.
How they misuse history: whilst i think there have been times when our service men and women have been deserving of the highest praise, there have been times when H.M. government have sent them to do things, in purely British imperialist interests that history has shown to be shameful, just ask those Kenyan’s who received compensation awards just this week or what about those loyal Gurkha troops who have been treated as second class time and time again.
And if i remember my history it was units of British Army, even if they were Scots who helped with aspects of the highland clearances,
The very clear warning for the future: If there is a NO vote, they, and it won’t just be the Tory’s, are set on changing the Holyrood voting system, and I believe that that would just be the start.
They are still lying and bending the truth: Both Darling and Gove made assertions without offering proof or unsurprisingly without being pushed on these matters by political commentators e,g, Darling, that independence would threaten Scottish jobs as British companies would no longer place contracts with ‘foreign’ companies.
Gove, (amazingly) claiming that Tory welfare policies are popular in Scotland, (well at least with his mum and dad)!
And a very timely reminder at that.
BTW has anyone taken up that Welsh tort for his use of the word poison in connection with Alex Salmond and Scottish independence? they can’t weazle their way out of it this time!
Darling’s attendance at the Tory conference has an obvious practical purpose – rather than communicate via potentially embarrassing back-channels, it’s a chance for him to sit down with the Tory high-heid yins in a quiet room (plenty to choose from) and try to work out WTF they’re going to do. As things stand they’re heading for a total doing and they know it.
‘Don’t panic Darling! Don’t panic!’
@Bill C (4.47)
‘The Armed Forces should be neutral on the referendum. It is purely a political issue and the Armed Forces should play no part, unless members as individuals and off duty wish to campaign in their own time.’
It’s dodgy, desperate stuff, but no more than we should expect from an outfit happy to take Ian Taylor’s dosh. And it’s pretty presumptuous – what if it turns out that the majority of squaddies are Yes-men? (I always thought military people weren’t allowed to say ‘No’)
Reminds me of the stushie a few years back when Strathclyde Police briefly got their testes caught in a mangle over having political posters (Labour, I presume) in their van windows. Anyone remember that?
O/t
Norway under 21s 3 Enland 1.
David Cameron. Alistair Darling, Jackie Baillie , Richard Baker your team took one hell of a beating!
The Tories have won every GE since Thatcher came to power. Just because the rosette was red doesn’t make any difference.
Many years ago I thought there was a party called the Labourtory Party – no doubt confusion with politics and science, a perversion of ‘laboratory’. Shocking though that it was actually more of a premonition than anything else . . .
Tomorrow’s Sunday Herald front page:
link to twitpic.com
Marcia
Just realised that your image is a “TWITpic” !!!!
Only fudpic or bawbagpic could beat that!
A wee something to ponder:
@Jim Mitchell and “How they misuse history”.
Lots of stuff on the Guardian about destruction of documents from Britain’s colonial past, in Kenya, Malaya, Mauritius and others.
Not only that, but UK government lawyers went on to lie about the existence of significant archives of documents. They were eventually forced to disclose most of them, but even now, some remain secret under exemption in the 1958 Public Records act. The FCO still refuses even to explain why certain files are being withheld.
Which brings me to the documents still being suppressed by the UK government regarding the setup of devolution. Yes Scotland needs to keep campaigning, loudly and publicly, for release of those. Whatever dirty little secrets are there could make a significant difference to the attitudes of many in the referendum. According to article in the Herald this year, a source in the Scotland Office said they didn’t want to release anything that would be a “gift” to the “SNP”.
link to heraldscotland.com
Not expecting Margaret Curran to have any knowledge, of course.
Given it was Darling’s mob that sent our forces into Iraq under a lie I think he has got a bit of a cheek but then if he can go to a Tory Party conference then all bets are off I guess.
The Tories are toxic and if Labour want to play in that swamp then that is their choice. I think it is incumbent on Yes Scotland to remind everyone just how close all this lot are these days.
I was reading Tom Gordon’s article in the Sunday Herald about Darling at the Tory conference yesterday. Darling apparently argued that
‘the Union meant jobs, a single market with England, a strong voice in Europe, a shared energy market, a combined armed forces, and deep cultural and emotional ties.’
What does he mean by the ‘Union means jobs?’ What does Darling mean by a ‘single market with England?’ Surely the single market involves the EU? How can we have a strong voice in Europe when we are heading out of the EU?
What does Darling mean by a ‘single market with England?
A coded message that Labour will not oppose withdrawal from the EU? Or just more squirrels?
@Cameron B
It does not make any sense to me. I genuinely have no idea what Darling is talking about.
@muttley79
Sounds like ‘One Nation’ mince, to me. Or do I smell….?
What does Darling mean by a ‘single market with England?
It’s part of the conditioning process (brainwashing), implying that the scottish economy doesn’t really sell anything of worth or in great numbers to the rest of the world. It’s the english market that keeps the scots economy afloat with their selfless sacrifice.
Regurgitate it as often and widely as possible etc, etc, etc …….