Wendy Alexander, 2007:
“It is a journey that I am determined will end with Scottish Labour back in power at Holyrood.
To get there we must win back the trust of the Scottish people. And to win that trust we must listen to them and show that we have listened to them by reforming our party.
We will not stand by and let the SNP fail the people of Scotland by ducking their real responsibilities of government because of their obsession with independence.
That is our job and we will do it to the best of our ability. But we will not be aggressive for the sake of it. We will be constructive in opposition, and we will give credit where it is due.”
So: listen, reform, don’t just bash the Nats. Got it. How hard can it be?
Johann Lamont, 2011:
“In her first interview since her election on Saturday with 52% of the vote, Lamont, 54, said the party had to admit ‘nobody was listening to us’ at the last Scottish parliament election, when Alex Salmond and the Scottish National party trounced Labour to win Holyrood’s first overall majority.
She said Scottish Labour had ‘to get back to basics [and] recognise the scale of the defeat’, and reorganise the party.
‘There is a very clear message,’ she said on BBC1 Scotland’s Politics Show. ‘The message we didn’t listen to in the last 10 years, over the drift of the vote away from Labour: that people want a party which will speak up for Scotland and act in their interests.'”
Oh, sorry. Okay, got it this time – listen and reform. Listen and reform. Right.
Jim Murphy, 2014:
“If Labour wants to win we must first change ourselves.
The Scottish people want change – they couldn’t be clearer. They also want better and many want Labour to be part of that improvement. But when they look at us – they think we’ve not listened. It sure looks like that from where they sit so who can blame them?
I want to apologise because twice Scotland has said they didn’t think we were good enough to govern in Scotland – in 2007 and 2011. We didn’t listen to them. That has to change.
I’m not here to kick the SNP today. I want a different type of politics were the Scottish Labour Party doesn’t shout at or about the SNP but instead listens and talks to Scotland.
I know that Scottish Labour has to change if we are to govern in Scotland again. I know that I first have to take on the responsibility of changing the Scottish Labour Party before we can have the privilege of changing Scotland.
Let’s be honest, it’s our vision for Scotland. Or more truthfully – our lack of vision. We have been rejected. Now we have to change.
No-one can say that voters chose to stay in the UK by chance. But the greatest achievement of the referendum was not the result – it was the mandate for change. Scots want change. And – again – they’re right. We need change.”
Well, alright, maybe for the last seven years we completely forgot to listen, reform, or stop just bashing the Nats. But honestly, what are the chances we could screw it up THREE times, eh? Go on, give us one more chance. We’re totally going to listen this time round. And change. Did we mention change?
Aye, right!
Labour doesn’t mean that they will change; they mean it’s Scots that have to change. They don’t mean they will listen, they mean we have to listen to them. Because they’re Labour, they’re right.
Labour is consistent.
They lie, they lie, they lie.
I’m sure I heard Sarah Boyak on GMS on Tuesday with the “listen” message as well.
Has anyone got a tape measure handy?
I’m only asking cause I want to measure the length of Murph the Smurph’s nose now and then measure it again in a few weeks time. I just have a sneaky suspicion that in a few weeks time we will find said nose a good deal LONGER than it currently is. 😛
Changing the Scottish Labour Party? But there’s no such thing. It’s a branch office, and he’d be branch manager. And as such, he couldn’t go against what Westminster Head Office want, viz. “One Nation”. Dream on, Mr Murphy.
Jim Murphy had a good go at SNP bashing this morning on the Andrew Marr Show for someone who is promising to change. The Labour Party in Scotland sounds like an abusive partner who is always promising they will change if we would just give them another chance.
Susan, from what I hear he had a lot of help from Andrew Marr.
Labour are a Westminster party.
That is the beginning and the end of it.
People in Scotland realise that, its what they learned from the
referendum and it’ll inform their vote going forward.
Now they need to realise that Holyrood isn’t able to protect them from the wilder machinations of Westminster politics (of which Labour is an integral part) and that independence is the only way.
If they were Labour they might listen but they’re not. The heid yins are all Fabians and they are eugenically programmed to be right, which is why JoLa could categorically state that the rest of us are genetically incapable of politics.
When the Labour boss is not a Fabian you might have a chance of their words having meaning, otherwise it is all means to ends exactly in the same way that the Fabians joined / infiltrated the Labour Party to get their message heard at the start of the 20th century and Brown and Blair infiltrated New Labour just to get power, power, POWER.
It’s so funny how the minute a new post appears, everyone drops the previous thread and rushes over to it! I hope that doesn’t make us sheep? 🙂
No matter who is in charge,it will still be London Labour. It’s not just a catchphrase,it seems to be a truth according to the ex section leader. Don’t think it will change.
Nothing in this world could make me vote Labour again, ” EVER”
hand in hand with the Torys was the last straw……….. the end.
I would like to know how old spud is actually going to enter holyrood providing of course he wins the leadership battle!
hopefully he loses whatever ward he contests.
That would be fun wouldn’t it?
the Scottish red tory leader having to accept a seat via pr
in sure ms sturgeon would have a field day with that one.
ive seen the opinion polls giving the snp maybe up to 54 seats in may but does anybody know how many seats 52% would win in the Scottish parliament elections???
@ handclapping
You missed Murphy?
Power, power, power.
They’re not going to listen or change are they?
Damn stupid question.
You would have thought that they could manage at least ONE from a list of three!
Of course what they mean by listening is “find out what crap we need to say to con these sheep”.
Like all those before with rightwing views, its always the people who are the problem and have to be made to change into what the politicians require them to be. That’s the very definition of rightwing.
Murphy will start with a Stalinesque purge of the Labour Party in Scotland. Then we’ll enter a period where Westminster will start directly over ruling Hollyrood at the behest of Murphy’s crew. They will stamp the Scottish Government into inaction where only what is acceptable to the unionist will proceed.
If you ever wondered what a constitutional crises looked like well we’re living in one.
They’ll go for a Labour Scotland rebrand but The Vow’s just another fraud. They stood shoulder to shoulder with the Tories, the Lords, the BBC, the Daily Heil, the Torygraph and so on and all of them together annihilated democracy for Scotland, they thought.
As well as not listening, as well as not reforming they now have the glorious title of being in bed with the torries. The torries are bad that we all know, but for Scots Lab to get into bed with the torries, thats worse, thats slapping everyone whomever voted for them, a right smacker in the face, the type of slap that leaves patterns of fingers on the skin, it stings and we know it. Scottish Labour for me, has single handedly caused me not just to mistrust scotslab, but to mistrust politics in general. Good riddents to them.
Red torys changing?…..probably less chance than that English king who parked his arse on the beach and tried to stop the tide coming in!
They sold the jerseys a long time ago…..Time for a red card…
this reminds me of a song , “sorry seems to be the hardest word”
Perhaps not to say but definitely team it.
They are not sorry they are doing what they do best, obey there Westminster boss.
The Labour Party are a symptom of the last throws of an empire. Hide their head’s in the sand and hope it goes away. Which most of there MP’s will be doing in May.
Good to see Darling has seen the writing in the wall and getting in first.
He really knows when the end is nigh and is getting his CV in quick before the other MP’s do to the RBS etc.
For me , and I have posted similar before .
SLab since the Advent of the Scottish Parliament ,and whilst they were in power up to 2007 ,have merely operated as a nodding dog for WM . At no time did they ever challenge anything coming from WM , nor did they behave with any real effort to help Scotland . Pretty hopeless in my opinion .
SNP have been very good at introducing new leading policies , some of which WM eventually follow/copy ! I’m ref to Smoke ban , min alcohol price , maybe drink/ drive limit .
Some may not agree with everything they do , but be assured SNP are doing it in the best interests of Scotland and it people, can the same be said of SLab .
OT I got a Akers Bilk signature Banjo from Santa many moons ago ! Bizarre .
Drumroll please, here is a quote from Paul Sinclair, on Alastair Darling, the Labour MP, who accepted the filthy lucre of private health care, and who flipped his house. He also resigned as a lawyer, so the Faulty of Advocates could not carry out an investigation on him. Sinclair says:
Scotland will wait awhile until we find another champion like Alistair Darling. The greatest human being I have met in politics. 😀 😀 😀 😀
I am reminded of an old Polish guy who worked in our stores. One of his “sayings” was.
“I tell you once, I tell you twice, I no tell you second time!”
(to Lionel Richie Three Times a Lady..)
You’re once, twice, threeeee times a Liar..
Funny thing is though, there will be folk out there that believe the Pish that comes out of Jim’s mooth.
I predict we’ll get the Daily Record doing another VOW on behalf of their chums in the Labour Party Branch Office in Scotland. Maybe get Gordon out of his casket to say a few words.
Can’t wait..sigh
The great value of sites like this is that the mainstream media in Scotland are not going to point out the repetition – they just expect us to forget what has gone before.
At least Iain Gray doesn’t seem to have bothered listening, which is refreshing. Maybe the acoustics aren’t very good in Subway?
Funny how since the referendum it has been the *ahem* losing side that has been on the rise whilst the *cough* winning side is on the wane all the way down to their own complete and utter destruction. Long may their in fighting and self destruction continue, it certainly has brightened up the post referendum blues a lot of us have been feeling. 😛
It matters not one iota what Murph the Smurph, or any other *ahem* candidate says about *cough* reforming the Labour party in Scotland there is only one certainty in life here in Scotland and it is this … the Labour party in Scotland will NEVER change. It will remain from now until eternity what it has always been … a branch office of London. There is absolutely nothing that anyone from Labour can say or do t change this.
The dinosaurs that are currently allegedly working as our elected officials are not working for US they are purely working for THEMSELVES. Until they get to the root bottom of this attitude Labour will always be the party of the people for the people by the people PROVIDED that the people in question are millionaires, rich bonkers bankers etc. The “people” in question are most certainly NOT those from the working classes or even the middle classes.
Murphy is talking as if this was his inauguration speech. What exactly DO the other two candidates think? Hitherto I had hoped that he would win, so that SLab can die quickly, but I’m beginning to wish that he’ll lose, just to see that smug expression wiped off his face.
From today’s Daily torygraph ” MPs to escape expenses investigations after paperwork destroyed by Parliament
House of Commons authorities have destroyed all evidence of MPs expenses’ claims prior to 2010, meaning end of official investigations into scandal”
Beam me up , Scotland!
Tackety Beets: The smoking ban was passed in 2006, so not an SNP bill. Labour -Lib Dem administrations also introduced “free care” for the elderly and repealed Section 28. SNP supported these but didn’t instigate them.
In contrast, Labour in opposition voted against free prescriptions and abolition of student fees because they are simply too politically sectarian.
Handclapping 10:51pm
Fabians-I recall during the campaign that DUGDALE is also a member.
The Labour party in Scotland reflects the predicament we ordinary citizens have and that is success will only come when free from London rule.
On Saturday morning I was in the RS McColl newsagents in Perth High Street and they were giving away Free copies of the Daily Record.Is this a local initiative or across the chain? Anyway, I took one and found it a suitable home nearby.
I watched million pound Murphy on the telly news tonight. He sounded comically insincere.
Here’s a thing.
People keep quoting the 2010 election and the huge Labour majorities then in relation to the SNP’s difficulties in winning many of them. I don’t think those results provide a valid yardstick. At that election Scotland went out to try to stop a Tory Government. Whichever candidate was likeliest to beat the Tory got huge support.
The SNP did well in the seats it held and did badly in most other seats in which another candidate was better placed to frustrate the Tory vote. I even know feckers in my SNP branch in Argyll who voted for Alan Who?, our LibDem MP, to keep the Tory out. This resulted in a significant under performance on the SNP
figures and no progress
The 2010 result does not however record a true picture. What the SNP needs is probably better judged from the 2011 Scottish election result which I think is much nearer the present state.
A very significant proportion of the Scottish electorate now have abandoned Labour and many will see little point in a London Labour Government. On present figures most Labour seats will fall to the SNP and it is entirely possible that the hue of the London government is of little consequence anymore to many if not most people.
Others will be determined on revenge.
Six months is a very long time in politics however
Every single Westminster election I can remember seems to have ended up with the SNP polling at least 5 points less than had been indicated by the polling in the run-up to election day. 2010 was nothing out of the ordinary in that respect.
The usual reason given is that the party is squeezed out in the last couple of weeks by the TV concentration on “the three main parties”. Of course that includes who is invited on political programmes and included in formal debates. There’s probably a lot of truth in that.
We’re six months from the election right now so I think these polls can really only be seen as “very encouraging” and not relied on to produce estimates of seats won. If they’re showing similar numbers two weeks out I’ll get a damn sight more excited.
But even so, I generally expect that last-minute fall-off. It seems to happen every time. So the great thing about these gee-whiz numbers isn’t so much the numbers themselves, but that they still leave the possibility of a damn good showing even after that fall-off.
I would have no difficulty distributing free copies of the Sunday Herald
Sorry! Sorry! Sorry!
Soundbites from all three of these Labour politicians. No of them were ever truly sorry for anything other than their lost votes.
Looks like Murphy’s successor (after he wins) will most likely be saying the same thing. You want to know who should really be sorry? Those that continue to support Labour and vote for them.
If their not sorry yet they will be. People, get a grip on reality.
Henchman MacDougal on BBC24 there with his classic BetterTogether waffle, “have to have conversation with Scottish people, each other, then some others…” That was Lamonts only answer to anything they didn’t like actually mentioned out loud, lets have a conversation. Big BBC boost for Flipper though.
Murphy says ‘I first have to take on the responsibility of changing the Scottish Labour Party…..’ So has he got the Leadership job then?
The only real change they can make is adopting a Home Rule stance. In fact, go for independence and they may become government.!
Alistair is getting out before his boss gets rid of the hol, if he ever gets in that is, Darling wants his string of deid rodents round his neck and his place in the Thames Retirement Home where they get paid £300.0 per day instead of the other way round. Whatever way good riddance.
Auld Rock
Get the BBC – simples!
“The song remains the same”
AYE…..London Calling by The Clash.
Murphy complaining that YES haven’t had the decency to curl up in a corner and greet – don’t they know they lost? It really seemed to irritate him!
@Doug Mcg 11:40 – you’d think HMRC should have something to say about that. I thought you were supposed to keep records for 7 years for tax purposes. Maybe MPs are above that – after all, normal rules re fraud etc don’t seem to apply to them.
Barontorc says:
Get the BBC – simples!
I thought we WERE talking about the BBC Baron. 😉 You mean to tell me we are NOT talking about the BBC. 😀 Well in that case I agree with you … GET THE BBC! 😛
Labour, about themselves, for themselves, nothing else, fk the people it’s about the party.
The party’s over for Labour.
Maybe, and this might be a novel idea, but maybe, they could make a promise, or, a pledge, or, a “VOW”, to listen, now there’s a thought
Do you think Biar Mcdonut might give me a job cause i know how to run these campaigns now, Bash the Nats, Lie, Bash the Nats, Lie, and if that’s not working bring in a few bleating celebrities and then Bash the Nats
Policy? we dont do that in the Labour Party, we just criticise everybody else and then Bash the Nats
and then we win, get over it accept it or we’ll tell the BBC on you, and they’ll Bash the Nats
What does it matter what he says? Mr Murphy is only using this as a staging post for his assault on the prize he thinks he deserves; leadership of the Labour Party (UK) and then the post of Prime Minister. Mr Murphy is only interested in his own best interests. The current plan is move to Scotland and become as remote as possible from Mr Milliband’s group. If, as everyone is predicting, Ed loses the next GE then Murphy will make a bid for the leadership untainted by any connections to Milliand. If Milliband wins, then Murphy might well control a large section of MPs giving him the power to ask for a plum government post. Labour in Scotland returning any more than 30 MPs in the GE will make Murphy the leader in waiting.
I see the Daily Turd on Saturday printed another one of those yon PLEDGE/VOW thingies it’s so fond of –
Jim Murphy launches leadership bid with an apology to the people of Scotland for Labour’s failure to listen
THE MP – who hopes to be elected new Scottish Labour leader – pledges that his party will change and no longer take voters for granted.
https://archive.today/qc7k9
The power of TV is that very few are aware of
the true power of TV.
TV can change the way we think without us knowing it.
That is why television is so important to governments as a propaganda tool and to advertisers to sell their products.
The Murphy team are bhouyed by the No result in IndyRef which was achieved primarily through the power of TV.
Simply by watching one-sided TV, 2 million people in Scotland were persuaded to pass up on the chance to be Independent and very prosperous. This included large numbers of intelligent, well educated and successful people.
Murphy’s team know the power of one-sided TV.
What they don’t know is the mind and the mood of the Scottish people. But Murphy fancies his chances and so does McTernan and they’re betting on the telly giving them a double.
It’s going to be up to the Scottish electorate and their resolve to punish Labour for sleeping with the Tories throughout the long Referendum debate and then doing the Tories dirty work for them.
In Scotland, the electorate feel betrayed and cheated.
Will that feeling withstand the persuasive power of TV for 7 days a week for 6 months?
Or will too many voting choices be changed again by the power of Television?
It’s the same old song but with a different meaning since you’ve been gone. (Isley Brothers c 1970). Let’s move heaven and earth to keep the Dark Lord and his death eaters out of Scotland.
The comments about the SNP underperforming at UK General elections.. that’s always been true in the past.
But this time around there is a big difference.
It’s not going to be so easy to fall back on their usual message – ‘a vote for the SNP is a wasted vote’, or ‘a vote for the SNP will let in the Tories’, when they are seen as one and the same.
This time around, a vote for Labour is the wasted vote – when it comes to more powers for Scotland – the dominant issue here.
They are offering the weakest devolution package around – even less than the Tories.
After promising ‘near federalism’ !!
The image going around says it all.
DEVOLVED POWERS COMPARISON
That message needs to be hit home hard.
Labour IS the weakest link. Goodbye!
Why Labour are unfit to sit in government as helpfully illustrated by Alistair Darling.
http://www.newsnetscotland.scot/index.php/scottish-news/9838-frustrated-darling-to-quit-as-mp-as-labour-woes-continue
In an interview in the Financial Times, the Labour MP who represents Edinburgh South West, spoke of his “frustration” that the party had not used the recent referendum result as a springboard.
“My frustration is that we actually won,” he said. “You can’t say it often enough. We made the arguments, we had confidence in ourselves.”
His words.
So according to Darling the referendum was all about the personal political gain of the Labour party, not constitutional change, not democracy for the Scottish electorate, but Labour’s own political agenda.
That man, that party sold Scotland’s democratic rights for party political advantage.
Remember those words ‘WE WON’. This is why Labour aren’t fit to manage a public cludgie never mind safeguard your futures. They stabbed us in the back for personal gain.
Where’s Wendy into oblivion
Lamentable Gone
Next for the chop – the fall guy liar Murphy – set up to fail, North and South of the border.
Labour/Unionists never change their spots they have failed Scotland forever. The feeble Fifty. Most of them can’t count or read a balance sheet. Never have so many been promoted above their capability. Murphy/Dugdale.
No one believes a thing that they say any more. They have had chance after chance. They blew it. Illegal wars, Trident, Bank fraud and tax evasion. Most of them should be in jail. Lie after lie and corrupt administration. Half of the country are on tranquillisers to deal with the situation.
The SNP adminstration listens to the people and carries out their wishes. Simple really.
The have tried personal attacks on Salmond and Sturgeon likening them to every dictator in history but real people see though all the bullshit and the result is labour have joined the tories as a hated entity in Scotland and one which should be eradicated, hell mend them.
Sir Jeremy told the civil servants: “There is a very, very long way to go. We were reminded only last week that the economy as a whole remains about 4 per cent below the size that it was in 2008. “Five years on from the bottom of the recession we have still not even near recovered all the output we lost in that terribly deep recession that we suffered in 2007-08. “Those are really daunting numbers that just show the size of the challenge; there is no alternative.” Sir Jeremy said that rebalancing the economy away from financial services and more in favour of manufacturing was “much easier said than done”. He made clear that the cuts introduced by Chancellor George Osborne had not gone far enough because the deficit was still rising.
http://caltonjock.com/2014/11/03/sir-jeremy-heywood-warns-cuts-you-aint-seen-nuthin-yet/
When I read the title I thought it was a reference to the Led Zepplin album……..
This contained a track called celebration day..
Buy the album Jim.
It’s the only way you will experience one.
@ David Stevenson 11.45
Thanks for correcting , I should have verified facts first .
Power of TV may well be underestimated . Remember how we all complained about the amount of NoThanks pics were in the background whenever the Ref was being discussed .
Mr Derren Brown comes to mind .
A former BP executive criticized for his role in the Texas oil refinery explosion which killed 15 people in 2005 is to become the first chief executive of the Civil Service. The controversy at BP arose when Mr Manzoni was blamed by an internal report for failing to heed, “serious warning signals” prior to the Texas explosion.
Mr Manzoni ran about half of BP’s global operations before moving on to Talisman Energy, a company heavily involved in fracking in the US, which was fined over dozens of health and safety violations.
http://caltonjock.com/2014/11/03/sir-jeremy-heywood-new-civil-service-chief-executive-appointed-track-record-failure/
Labour are listening to the electorate – in England. And they are changing – to move closer to UKIP.
Nothing Murphy can do about that, but we all know Westminster’s propaganda wing aka the mainstream media will tell us otherwise.
As the post clearly shows, Labour does not listen and they never will. Reading Spuds statement, it is the Scottish people who must change, not Labour.
Wind and pish, is all we will hear from them; ad nauseam.
It’s utterly depressing that politicians can get away with this shit over and over again. For as long as the media act constantly as a life jacket for the Labour party, bouying them in all manner of political storms, a rather large portion of the electorate that are virtually unreachable by alternative media (the older generation mainly) will continue to fall for the bullshit they are being drip fed every day.
Ronnie Anderson
Enjoyed the day out in George Sq yesterday, meeting our Catalan friends who are also fighting for Independence from an overpowering, bias government.
Also a mention for wee ginger dug who turned up for the photo shoot. The dog was the star of the show. See you on Wednesday Ronnie, I owe you a pint.
Uh. Since you like this:
“The more it changes, the more it’s the same”
Or
“Blag me once, shame on you. Blag me twice, shame on me!”
Of course the SNP vote will be squeezed as the GE approaches by the lack of UK wide TV coverage (and its biased coverage when it does occur).
However, I do not expect it to be quite as severe a squeeze as in the past for at least these reasons:
* there is correctly much greater expectation that no party will have an overall majority this time, as it happened last time, and is the bookies’ favourite to occur again this time.
* the attempted inclusion of UKIP in the infamous debates, but exclusion of the SNP, will result in real anger if the SNP exclusion occurs, or the SNP will be included in at least one on the main debates, with attendant publicity.
The MSM and the TV broadcasters all currently report the SNP polling in terms of its ability to prevent Labour winning the GE. At some point (or appear total fools before the UK wide electorate), they will have to point out the very real likelihood of the SNP holding the balance of power at Westminster, just as the old Irish Party did in the late 19th and early 20th century.
I expect the SNP to campaign pointing out how much more valuable a large bloc of SNP MPs total dedicated to Scotland’s interests will be, rather than a repetition of the election of Labour lobby fodder, whether or not Labour is the largest UK party.
The Red Tories, Blue Tories what does it matter who wins, will also have useful traction this time.
Come on peeps, labour and especially the Scottish branch is a cult; a cargo cult for many, too much for the good of democracy.
Have I missed the bit where Jim Murphy went from being an applicant for Labour leader to getting the job? That speech sounds like he’s already in charge. Which, you know, suggests he won’t be the best at listening to people.
And if Darling is not elevated to the House of Lords, does he have a Plan B?
Just heard Glenn Campbell on radio Scotland saying that Alistair Darling is “widely seen as a figure who put a high premium on integrity.”
Hold on, Glenn. A simple question: Have you forgotten why Darling is called Flipper?
http://tinyurl.com/ac865zw
Gushing, grovelling, glowing tributes this morning from BBC Scotland for Darling. Better Together mouthpiece McDougall telling us Darling is retiring “victorious”.
Is he Blair?
As I said the other day, it’s a dangerous road for Scottish Labour to go down, claiming “victory” over the very people who have turned against you is a bad move. It just infuriates them all the more.
If Darling was on the Titanic, he would be seen fighting with women and children for the last remaining places on the lifeboats. Lowlife scumbag.
And I bet you won’t hear that last paragraph above getting read by the deep, creepy tones of Nina Spence on BBC Scotland GMS news headlines. I actually thought she was just hired before the referendum to frighten the shit out of pensioners so they would vote NO.
@Free Scotland
Darling is to integrity what Jimmy Krankie is to fashion modelling.
“Just heard Glenn Campbell on radio Scotland saying that Alistair Darling is “widely seen as a figure who put a high premium on integrity.”
TBF if I were insuring his integrity…
David Stevenson and Tackety Beeks
My memory is not what it used to be, but was not the Smoking Ban introduced by a SNP MSP*
at Holyrood but Lord McConnell reluctantly took it over, thus breaking his habit of not doing very much (except going on holiday to Italy with a BBC bird)?
*Could it have been Stuart Maxwell?
Panda;
The cult to which you refer is the continuation of UK and London Rule.
Without realising it, Scottish Labour has morphed into a willing band of slaves that worship at the feet of the High Priest Blue Tory Party, to follow their basket case economic and social model.
Labour’s only purpose is to preserve London Rule by Blue Tory; in return Labour receive careers, access to the right dinner parties and eventually a seat in the Lords. The altar is Westminster.
The sacrificial lambs are the poor.
The libations are Scotland’s oil.
The prayer is “Verily we come to thee oh Tory Master!”
@caz-m
‘Victorious’ is it?
Right up there with ‘we won’. Let’s chisel those words as an epitaph on Labour’s tomb in May. Just what do those fuckwits think they’ve won with the strategy THEY employed? A socially and politically divided country chained to a system which promotes economic carnage, corporate/political patronage and classes before masses adventurism.
There’s only one proper way to thank Mr McDougall and Mr Darling for their efforts and that is to work for the exit of Labour from Scotland at the earliest possible convenience. We’re only doing them a favour at the end of the day. I mean they’re so desperate to work from London? Let’s help them on their way.
The Daily Mash had it spot on!
“Labour pledges new way of treating Scotland with utter contempt”
Aaaaaand snap.
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/11/03/merkel-cameron-eu_n_6091982.html?ncid=webmail1
There is only one way to thank Labour and is to vote them out of Scotland GE2015, and to talk to every No voter there is and inform them that Labour are not doing it for Scotland but for themselves for the power and the glory.
What Murphy says: “concentrate not on shouting at the SNP but on listening to the Scottish people”
What Murphy means: “shout at the SNP and listen to his advisers, not to the Scottish people”
As long as Murphy, et al don’t realise that an elected party REPRESENTS the people of Scotland, is of the people and for the people, instead of saying “I know that Scottish Labour has to change if we are to GOVERN in Scotland again” then they will be rejected by the people. Its all about power, they are selfish, greedy and deceitful and will fail until they find themselves new politicians that represent the people of Scotland and look after the people’s interests instead of their own and Westminsters interests. Westminster, in whatever form, think that they have the right to RULE and not REPRESENT. This is the fudemantal difference between England and Scotland. The government in England is answerable to the crown, in Scotland its is answerable to the people. Scotland has woken up to this, well is beginning to wake up to it, it is just about persuading the 55% that this is the difference. As AS, NS and the SNP said in the referendum, its not about politcal parties, its about our basic right to have a government that is answerable to the people. Once that is understood, its just a matter of how and when. Represent not rule.
I am getting increasingly frustrated every time a Labour, Tory or a No supporter says that they won the referendum end of story. When the truth is that any win based on a lie is not a victory.
While were on the subject of Led Zeppelin,
here are a few altered lyrics
There’s a party whose sure all that glitters is gold
and they’re buying a stairway to Scotland
When they get there they know that Scots minds will be closed
with the BEEB they can get what they came for.
but…
If there’s a bustle in your hedgerow, don’t be alarmed now
its just a landslide for the SNP
and
Yes there a two paths you can go by, but in the long run
your stairway lies on an Independent wind.
My eldest daughter was a member of Jim Murphy’s gang at Strathclyde University. She is adamant: “back then Jim was very Militant”, the capital M is significant.
She puts his conversion to being somewhere on the right of the Tory Party as a determined effort to win personal power.
“Jim Murphy used to believe in something, now, I believe he only believes in Jim Murphy”, she said.
However, he will win the SLAB “leadership” battle – THEY will make certain the anointed one gets to hold the poisoned chalice.
Never have we seen Scotland treated so contemptuously as an irksome colony. How the hell does London they think they can govern with such blatant placemenism at the drop of a hat, such as others have pointed to, with Murph the Magictone making such blatant assumptions so far in advance of any nomination & electoral process even amidst the fetid realm he inhabits?
He put a high price on it – then sold it.
@Craig P.
Thirty pieces of silver was the going rate.
O/T
Let’s wing over Scotland: http://www.aeromobil.com
This morning I was thinking is there any other country in the world that would describe Jim Murphy, a man who abuses his expenses to the tune of £200,000 a years, as a presidential candidate, and describes Alex Slamond, a man who wants nothings but to better Scotland, as a nazi dictator. Probably Not.
As much as I know Scotland wants independence from Westminster, unless there is some sort of alternative Scottish media output to the corrupt unionist media we have, then it will always be an up hill struggle.
A change in the way Scotland is informed is essential.
All three statements are accurate and clear analysis of the situation. The strange thing is they never get past that point. The very next day they will spend an entire interview bashing the SNP without a single solitary indication that they have changed. They are stuck in an abusive cycle they can’t break out of. I really don’t think Murphy is the person to break that cycle which is why he is the best choice for the job from our perspective.
O/T sorry but maybe not.
The Torygraph reports
House of Commons authorities have destroyed all evidence of MPs expenses’ claims prior to 2010, meaning end of official investigations into scandal .
No need to link to give clicks.
Slab are going the way of the Tories in Scotland and they don’t like it up them. That is what they get for treating the Scottish parliament as an irrelevance.
Jim Murphy is a fraud and will be found wanting if he wins the slab leadership, meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
Robert Kerr
In which case we will consider then guilty.
O/T SoS ReV,
http://www.yesparty.co.uk/#sthash.2TfkYvaz.dpuf
the books are on Amazon costs £5, for anyone wanting to collect signatures Door to Door/Street Stalls.
caz-m & myself attended the Catalonian Demo in George Square yesterday, Wings banner photos under the horses arse, with Gilian & Mark holding the Catalonian Flag, the only photo I,ve seen is when we attempted to make the their Flag holding the colour cards up ( pissed down ) so not a good photo,met many of the Catalans who live in Scotland & are Yes voters.Laim from Yes Alliance Callendar made badges, I gave a Tartan Cataloinian Flag one to Gilian, immidiatly re-named McCatalan by Gilian orders taken for Liam to post out as there was only one made.Another good couple of hours out in the company of good people,if any body comes accross any more photo’s please post up as I cant get into the Photographers page.
I see Lord Barnett has passed away
With regard to how Scottish Labour is now viewed in Scotland after misleading the voters about the referendum, I believe people will now see them in the same toxic way that they do the Tories, when they let down Scotland after the 1979 devolution referendum.
A case of history repeating itself but with Labour rather than the Tories.
http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/7th-june-1913/6/scottish-home-rule
“The Scottish Radicals, influenced by Irish example, have adopted the idea of a national parliament in Edinburgh. From every point of view that idea is undesirable. It is certainly not to the interest of Scottish people to emphasize their separate nationality. Scotland is a very little country, with a popu- lation of barely four millions, which is now stationary or even declining. The real strength of the United Kingdom resides in England, and if Scotsmen propose to take up an aggressively Scottish attitude it is within the bounds of possibility that the long-suffering Englishman may in the last resort retaliate by refusing to admit Scotsmen to any share in the government of England. At the present moment England is in the position of providing a large population for Scotsmen to govern, and it is Scotsmen who would lose if England refused to submit any longer to this arrangement.”
Plus ca change, la meme vieux merde. (Apologies to BtP and Auld A.)
Rev theirs quite a few names missing on that piece,The LISTENING politicians every leader of all political partys have said WE NEED TO LISTEN.Dey they F***, retor-hic, retor-hic,retor-hic. Westminster Champagne gives you memory loss,but helps you sleep at nite,political decissions made while consuming alcohol are not good decissions, just look at the Chancellor on budget day, glass of Best Malt Whisky ( Scottish )to hand & mooth.
I think Wendy Alexander (above) put the matter very succinctly:
“fail the people of Scotland by ducking [the] real responsibilities of government . . . That is our job”
Most available evidence re Murphy suggests he is verging on meglomania. Like others similarly afflicted he could be dangerous when desparate especially when his lies are backed by the media including BBC Scotland.
Would be best for all concerned if he failed quickly
farrochie says: “Labour doesn’t mean that they will change; they mean it’s Scots that have to change. They don’t mean they will listen, they mean we have to listen to them. Because they’re Labour, they’re right.”
How true is this. You can see it in every utterance of John McTernan as he tries to con working class Scots into thinking neo-labour right wing policies like austerity and student fees are good for us (whilst at the same time trying to persuade us that the SNP are too right wing to govern Scotland…) no wonder they’re at each other’s throats.
I guess A Darling wouldn’t want Murphy as his boss.
Fool me once, shame on you
Fool me twice, shame on me
Fool me three times and I’m probably located in Lanarkshire
9 years study at Strathclyde and no degree at the end of it. Not a great record for ‘listening’ is it?
Iain Gray’s acceptance speech;
“While Alex Salmond was studying the dismal science – economics – in the academic birthplace of Thatcherism, I was studying natural science in the academic home of the enlightenment.
While Alex Salmond was an official in the Scottish office, I was learning to be a teacher in a tough school and a community activist in the biggest council house scheme in Edinburgh.
While he moved to the Royal Bank of Scotland I moved to Mozambique where I taught for two years in a country literally fighting for its life.
While he spent the eighties and nineties developing the tricks of politics in Westminster, I spent them developing my values working fro Oxfam.
In 2001 when he abandoned the Scottish Parliament I served it as minister for social justice and enterprise, transport and lifelong learning, delivering £1bn of housing investment to this city and seeing more Scots enter higher education than ever before.
We don’t need a first minister whose pride is putting people down. Scotland needs a first minister whose passion is lifting people up.”
People have changed, but Labour cannot change,
There is a rumour that the Labour party have printed off less than 8000 ballot papers for the election.
@Manzoni appointment. Anyone else refused the job. BP is one of the worse company in economic history.
Manzoni has been working for the last 6 month scrutinising UK Gov spending plans, including Trident and HS2, to get ‘good’ value for public money.
The only way to cut the deficit/Debt is to scrap both of them. Both White elephant’s not fit for purpose. No proper case for either of them. Public money pots for Westminster MP’s and their associates. Ie Osbourne’s father in law etc. Trident and HS2 are useless and just a colossal waste of public money, while austerity is imposed on Britain and people are dying from lack of basic care
Putting good money after bad, while the debt/deficit increases. There is a need for HS3, necessary and cheaper, and for the rail line from the central belt in Scotland to the North to be electrified. It is affordable and will cut rail journeys 30- 60 mins. Good value for public money.
‘Sorry’ always seems to be the easiest word for Labour/Unionists. Actions speak louder than words. They are not sorry at all.
Craig P says
“He put a high price on it – then sold it.”
Dont wrap it I’ll take it just like that. 🙂
@gillie
Printed off ballot papers?
How dinosaur is that?
The SNP deputy leader vote was available all snazzy online!
@Ananurhing:
Plus ca change, la meme vieux merde. (Apologies to BtP and Auld A.)
No offense, on the contrary. But ‘merde’ is feminine, so it should be vieille. However, we don’t say something like ‘the same old shite’. We say ‘toujours la même merde’ (always the same shite).
I know the concept of gender for inanimate words sounds ridiculous to English-speaking people. In fact, it IS preposterous. Just a legacy of our mother language.
@Desimond:
Fool me three times and I’m probably located in Lanarkshire
‘Thrice’ instead of ‘three times’ would be nicer in this context. But that further verse is a good quip!
@Robert Kerr:
House of Commons authorities have destroyed all evidence of MPs expenses’ claims prior to 2010…
Much better than a self-amnesty law.
BP are horrifying but City banks are worse. RBS, HBOS and so on all run by tory boy colossal shysters that detest socialism until they need it. But they love Flipper because all he did was throw our money at them when they finally crashed. Banks regulated properly? fcuk off we’re New Labourites.
Its important to remember just why Flipper is so popular with the far right of teamGB. He pumped hundreds of billions into private businesses then walked away or rather headed for Scotland to help destroy Scotland’s fledgling democracy but history is written by the BBC winners.
Flipper Darling and eggs Murphy are just rich tory boys. Flippers rewarded with stacks of cash, seats on the board, a knighthood and Scotland or rather the working people of Scotland will pay for it all big time. Endless war, WMD’s, giant national/personal debt, mass City fraud/tax dodging, PFI, London Olympic farce, bed room tax, ATOS, all down to Crash and the Flipper, real teamGB heroes.
Thanks again proud Scots buts.
@ desimond 10.27, here hud on a minute am in Lanarkshire, withdraw that statement immediatly lol.
“I suggest a new strategy R2….”
The recent surge in the polls got me to thinking the last time this happened. “Los tres amigos” were stirred into action and the entire MSM, business community and Westminster went into misinformation overdrive, saturating the media with “Project Fear”
As a result – we lost.
The same might happen in GE 2015 – they won’t take a strong SNP/Greens, weak Labour lying down. We face a very large well-coordinated “enemy” and fighting them at their own game seems stupid. Guerrilla warfare is the best way to beat overwhelming strength – laced with a healthy dose of misinformation
The media and MP’s use the polls to shape public opinion – so why don’t we turn this back on them. 1.6 million of us seem to be well connected on social media. We could spread the word to “misinform” our voting intentions.
Instead of answering SNP etc. – say Labour, Lib Dem – Tories even.
This will artificially inflate the labour vote and will probably be widely reported as a Labour recovery as often as the BBC can. This should hopefully calm the furrowed brow and lull them into a sense of security. A few things should fall out of this.
Eggman may be tempted to stand in a less safe seat – making it easier to bounce him.
Twopee will feel he can fight the Westminster election without worrying about North Britain and the Labour voters who would vote for a Chimp with a red rosette would be encourage to go back to sleep and they’re turnout drop back to the 30% of 2010 as they may think it’s in the bag.
For the sheer amusement – if nothing else, the faces of SLAB in May when the actual results come in (hopefully reflecting the current level of distaste for labour) and the decimation of the seats they hold would be a fair shock to the system.
The strategists in the main parties would be hung out to dry, pollsters would be dragged into various Whitehall offices, John Curtice, who’s face has become a bit too wearing on TV, would struggle to answer how this happened.
Starved of accurate information – the run up to Holyrood 2016 should be chaotic for SLAB etc – they won’t know what to trust even if they do figure it out.
For a bit of entertainment February 2015 could be “Tory” month, March “Lib dem”.
Thoughts?
It costs £52Billion in debt repayments a year. £52Billion that Westminster wastes, and the debt is increasing over all. £110Billion is what Osbourne will be borrowing and spending in the rest of the UK. this year 14/15. The UK gov debt is up from £80Billion to £1500Billion since the ConDem came to power. It is up on last year and more than the £96Billion estimated. Scotland pays it’s share (pro rata) of the deficit/debt repayment but it is not used to pay off the deficit but spent by Westminster. Scotland is defrauded by Westminster. The crooks should be in jail.
The UK national debt is up from £1.4Trillion when the ConDems came to power, to £1.6Trillion.
Scotland still pays it’s way, borrows and spends less and raises, produces more than the rest of the UK. Scotland would be in surplus, with different, more affective policies without Westminster rule. Westminster policies damage the Scottish economy and create poverty.
Auld A
Thanks for the correction. As you can tell, I’m quite effluent in French.
Love that Merkel is kicking Cameron’s arse all over the place. We will now see proper businesses making threats to leave the UK, bring it on.
ye the song does remain the same : LIAR: by the pistols comes to mind
LETS GO ROUND AGAIN
Baby, I’m back
And right away I thought I’d come to you
To see if the love that we knew before
Has passed the test of time
Time, that changes almost everything
Can sometimes let us see the better side
If the feelings we once shared
Let’s go ’round again
Maybe we’ll turn back the hands of time
Let’s go ’round again
One more time
Baby, I know that you think
I will be different now
Inside of me nothing has changed
So, I’m asking you again, please
There’s no one else that could have brought me back
And no one that ever could set me free
From the memory I kept within my heart
Ronnie,
The link you supply in your post @ 9.54am, do you know the guy?
I badly want to sign this BUT i’m getting strong suspicions.
Are there any others on here who can vouch for this fella?
I think it’s worth remembering BBC and general MSM bias is not simply against the Independence Movement, the SNP or its leaders. In this case it would be interesting to note the relative airtime / column inches devoted to Sarah Boyack, Neil Findlay compared to Jim Murphy, or indeed Katy Clark as compared to Kezia Dugdale.
In other words any and all bias is strongly in favour of the establishment; the media is directly wired to the agenda of a very small, very wealthy, very powerful elite and its role is to “manufacture consent” – Chomsky’s phrase – on behald of that ruling group. Scottish Independence happens to be a highly credible and potent threat to the interests, assets and power base of that elite and therefore must be attacked, ridiculed, dismissed, caricatured, maligned or – alternatively – ignored at every opportunity.
The MSM & BBC have firmly backed Murphy & Dugdale, a conscious decision taken at proprietorial and editorial levels. There needn’t even be much discussion – such things are “understood” amongst the cognoscenti.
Fair journalistic scrutiny of candidates is crucial to a functioning democracy. Enough said.
@desimond.
Encouraging signs here though. If you scroll down you’ll see a bit of a trend wrt the Scottish Parliament results.
Still have a battle to fight in the WM elections though, a 20,000 Labour majority.
🙁
gillie
You missed out the bit about sleeping in a drawer.
I’m ashamed to say I did not sleep in a drawer–we were to poor to have a chest of drawers.
A Better Scotland is Possible
(by voting anything but Labour)
Now that’s provocative and a headline that has to make Labour voters sit up and ask, ‘Why?’
A Better Scotland is Possible
(by voting anything but Labour)
Too far – The Tories and UKIP are beyond the pale for me.
Better Scotland is possible by voting SNP/Green/SSP though
🙂
@desimond,
and here’s the link.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coatbridge_and_Chryston_%28Scottish_Parliament_constituency%29
They would struggle to change the slightest, their poison and corruption is far too deep seated.
That is the truth and the people have seen it, time and time again. They just cannot be trusted again by Scottish voters.
@Ananurhing :
As you can tell, I’m quite effluent in French.
Doesn’t matter. It was really nice to try!
And don’t worry, I’m not affluent either, in France or elsewhere! 😛
With talk like that, the Labour movement really does seem to be on the way out (certainly in Scotland). How a party has ‘changed’.
Groovy title, try some Monday ROCK.
The Song Remains The Same (Led Zepp)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4m2FhRv8xF0
Jim Murphy: “I want to apologise”.
But he didn’t, he was probably too feart he might be spoofed like Clegg who, in fairness, took it very well when it was shown to him.
Seanair @ 8.15am: You are right about the smoking ban Bill first being proposed by Stewart Maxwell then taken on by the then Scottish Executive. Thanks.
Now what do both of those speeches remind me of?
Nah! It couldn’t be … could it? … Oh! Yes it bloody well could : –
“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him;
The evil that men do lives after them,
The good is oft interred with their bones,
So let it be with Caesar … The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was ambitious:
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Caesar answered it …
Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest,
(For Brutus is an honourable man;
So are they all; all honourable men)
Come I to speak in Caesar’s funeral …
He was my friend, faithful and just to me:
But Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man….
He hath brought many captives home to Rome,
Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill:
Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?
When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept:
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff:
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.
You all did see that on the Lupercal
I thrice presented him a kingly crown,
Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And, sure, he is an honourable man.
I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,
But here I am to speak what I do know.
You all did love him once, not without cause:
What cause withholds you then to mourn for him?
O judgement! thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason…. Bear with me;
My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,
And I must pause till it come back to me”
? William Shakespeare.
Julius Caesar – Act 3 : Scene 2.
As the saying goes … “Classic”!
@Seanair 8.15
Thanks for the update .
My grey matter struggles a bit these days , overloaded !
S Maxwell connection is probably why I thought the smoking ban was an SNP initiative .
Slange .
@Stoker says:
3 November, 2014 at 12:57 am:
“The song remains the same”
AYE…..London Calling by The Clash.
Anyone else notice the newish BBC Radio Scotland’s new blurb?
They now claim to be unique, “No other station like them”.
It’s the first true thing they have broadcast for years.