Know what you’re voting for
There’s been much discussion in the press lately about Jim Murphy’s plan to change the elusive Scottish Labour “constitution”, a document almost nobody has ever seen and which most people didn’t know even existed until a few weeks ago.
Naturally we were curious to have a wee look, so when we stumbled across a page on the Electoral Commission website which said it held copies of party constitutions and provided them on request, we thought we’d take a shot on the off-chance. We weren’t at all surprised by the reply:
“the Commission does not hold a constitution for the Scottish Labour Party per se, since they are not separately registered with us. The Labour Party is registered for GB as a whole.”
But then an alert reader asked the EC a smarter question.
The reader in question told us that they’d “sought clarification on the legality of a candidate standing for the Scottish Labour Party on a different constitution from the UK Labour party”.
This is what they got back.
“Dear XXXXX,
Thank you for your response.
A candidate cannot stand for an accounting unit during an election; only for a registered party. An accounting unit, Scottish Labour Party for example, may appear as a description of the registered party on the ballot paper. The Electoral Commission does not regulate the content of campaign material. A party may present themselves under an accounting unit if they choose.
Kind regards
Jack Goodman
Guidance Adviser
Party and Election Finance
The Electoral Commission”
That’s pretty unambiguous. No matter what Jim Murphy might claim about making policy without consulting Ed Miliband, he’s talking hogwash. Any candidate standing under an official Labour banner this May – as all Scottish Labour candidates will be doing – is legally representing UK Labour, and therefore UK Labour policies.
Now, we’ve of course known for a long time that “Scottish Labour” was a label rather than a party. But it’s perhaps worth bearing in mind that any candidate standing on the basis of a claim that the Scottish branch office makes its own policy won’t just be lying to voters, they’ll actually be breaking the law.
Is there any scope for testing this in court, should any Red Tory be daft enough to try it on?
So can the BBC be done for complicity?
Say it ain’t so Joe!
All Scottish ballot papers have to, legally, list the factual party names. That is why all ballot papers in Scotland must state ‘Labour Party’; not the fictional and non-existent “Scottish Labour Party”.
Great Stuff, the truth at last. I wont hold mt breath though waiting for Murphy, Dugdale, McDougall or McTernan to come clean and issue a public apology for their deception. Or for this to be picked up and investigated further with searching questions put to those named above by the MSM and the de facto Slab publicity department at Pacific Quay.
Stu, no one can touch you. Brilliant!
Concise and devastating as ever Stu. They must absolutely hate you.
Stu, has anyone made a Freedom of Information request to Labour for a copy of their Scottish branch’s ‘constitution’?
He really is a serial liar or completely deluded or both. Aided and abetted by our wonderful media. Well done Rev. We need to get this out there.
But as we already know (esp Indy Ref purdah) the law does not apply to Unionist politicians.
And on the off-chance a Judge sides against a Party/Government they just rush through a new ‘law’ to ensure it doesn’t happen again (Workfare test case).
I’ve read that response a couple of times and it seems to contradict itself.
Is it just me being thick?
Get it in The National, Richard ! – and pay the man.
The only way this Truth will make it into the MSM, is when Police Scotland arrest him! 🙂
Hoo haar!
Scottish Labour did declare itself anew.
“We are not red, but white and blue!
Then Murph jumped up, and quoth he loud,
“We’re truly Scottish, pure and proud!
Follow your spirit, and upon this charge,
Cry, God for Harry, England, and St George- no! Wait! Oh, crap.”
so who do we complain to if they do, and what are the penalties for such crimes?
I’m sure the BBC and the Record/Scotsman etc. will be all over SLAB asking them why they are acting illegally.
Noticed this morning on BBC Radio “Scotland” that they kept referring to Labour as “Scottish Labour”. When did this start?! They do anything to try and help their Labour pals out.
Hahaha!! A brilliant bit of detective work! Proof of what we knew all along! Well done Wings for continuing to expose the shame faced lies of Jim Murphy and the Red Tory Labour Party in Scotland!
Oh, hang on a minute.. What’s that.. sure I can hear the clatter of keyboards at BBC Scotland, The Record etc.. as they rush to get that story out to their dwindling readers/ viewers.. fat chance..
So it’s just what you’ve been saying all along.. He’s nothing more that UK Labours Scottish Megaphone on Irn Bru crates..
(don’t ask.. but I’ve got an image of Jim with Ed and something to do with trombones in my head, not sure who’s pursing their lips mind.. pass the mind bleach.. P.S no trombones were hurt in the process..)
Actually I don’t think they have answered the question asked.
i.e. they have not actually stated that a registered party requires to have only one constitution governing all accounting units.
Relegated from a branch office to an accounting unit. Lying and breaking the law, would that not require multi-tasking, are they that intelligent.
“i.e. they have not actually stated that a registered party requires to have only one constitution governing all accounting units.”
“Accounting units” cannot have policies. They’re accounting units.
The BBC doesn’t care. But a whole lot of signs saying “JIM MURPHY IS A LIAR” and “SCOTTISH LABOUR IS A MYTH” appearing at every one of his photo calls would be fun…
@Louigi
What do you mean “should”? 😉
Seasick Dave
Aye, had to read it twice myself.
Although they can present themselves as Slab (accounting unit) they are still registered as one Uk, London establishment party.
So they can call themselves what they like but they are still London Labour
I didn’t understand it either, Seasick.
A CANDIDATE must stand for a registered party; but a registered party like British Labour may present themselves as an ‘accounting unit’ (Scottish Labour Party).
Seems like a lot of wriggle room there.
Ha!
Jim Murphy, head of accounting unit, attempts to ‘cook the books’.
Is a constituted, EC registered, UK party allowed to have regional constitutions which conflict with their UK wide constitution?
If there’s no Scottish Labour Party, maybe someone should establish one. We might want it come independence. There may be loads of people who would want to vote for it. Hopefully it wouldn’t admit shitebags like Murphy, Dugdale and the rest, and perhaps it would have something to say about UK Labour representing themselves with the same label.
“A party may present themselves under an accounting unit if they choose.”
Jack Goodman, Guidance Adviser, Party and Election Finance,
The Electoral Commission”
So, a Party like the UK Labour Party,
not wishing to upset any of its Scottish voters,
by making it clear to them, that Labour is based in London,
and is predominantly an English Party,
and that Scotland is just a branch of the London Party,
can use an accounting unit title, as in ‘Scottish Labour’,
on their election material including on the ballot paper.
Isn’t that so very convenient for the Labour Party,
and so very obliging of the Unionist Establishment Electoral Commission.
It’s not that the UK is not a Totalitarian State –
it just hasn’t been advertised yet.
Right, I may be missing something here (and I may well be as this is my fourth day in bed whilst my body finds new and interesting ways to keep me off work) but does the EC reply not suggest that they can do pretty much what they like? Election material is not regulated so they can say what they like there.
However, as for the ballot paper are they saying that the paper must have the following fields:
Candidate Name: Troughing B’stard
Party: The Labour Party
Description:Scottish Labour Party
So were they to do something like the following:
Candidate Name: Honest Jim
Party: Scottish Labour Party
Description: Anti-Trident, anti-fracking, pro-powerhouse Scottish Parliament
Would that be illegal?
Could make polling day interesting.
SLAB will be claiming next they have an ‘unwritten constitution’.
I’ve repeatedly said for a while now that “Scottish” ‘Labour”s accounting unit status (and all the constraints and contradictions that go with it) was a major weakness/anomaly – over 10 years ago I got in touch with journalists and the SNP to tell them after I got confirmation/clarification from a phone call to the Electoral Commission.
That the media ignore/collude to hide it was and is no surprise. Why the SNP have not tried to make more of it, both during elections and, more importantly, during the referendum campaign, is beyond my ken, and has annoyed me.
I’ve now joined SNP, mainly because they are best placed to win in East Lothian and I enjoyed working with their local activists during the referendum campaign, but I (still) often despair of their judgement and naive ‘lets play along/be nice/gentle’ with those who have and are conducting de-facto non-violent war against Scotland…it’s now time for gloves-off, starting with an all-out attack and public information campaign on the branch office/accounting unit status of all the unionist parties in Scotland.
Sorry O/T
Statment from SNP on Fracking, dont think oor Jim is going to be chuffed..in Glasgow speak its phrased get it right up yea..
link to news.scotland.gov.uk
Murphy, oozes insincerity!
Just been watchin politics scotland kezz dogface is really useless.
Wow. That is interesting. Very nice find alert reader!
““Accounting units” cannot have policies. They’re accounting units.”
All ‘subgroups’/’branches’ then.
It’s not as if the the EC will be holding them to task about it.
These minor infractions on the legal process are always overlooked, depending on who the perp is, of course.
The Scottish Labour Constitution.
Makes me think of my dog
when he goes for a sniffing session in the garden
and moves his bowels while he’s there.
Then, as happens, it begins to rain heavily
and in he comes with an accompanying shake , or two.
A little later, I go out to retrieve his deposit,
now rain lashed for a while.
A clean lift is impossible.
Such is the Scottish Labour Constitution.
There you are – and I didn’t need to use the word ‘shite’ even once!
The UK Labour Party’s constitution states its members cannot be members on any other party which means if Jim Murphy and his 39 pals are members of a separate Scottish Labour Party (with its own constitution), then they must all be expelled from Ed’s party. It’s a farce. An Orwellian farce.
So what I read the response as saying is that although the Labour Party in Scotland can use campaign material with ‘Scottish Labour’ and they can request ‘Scottish Labour’ to be the name they use on ballot papers, they cannot have separate policies from the main party or this would be considered a different party.
So this is made even clearer when you consider the attempt by Murdo Frazer to create a new Tory party that would however vote with the Westminster Tory’s, why didn’t he just, ask the Tory party in Scotland to have a separate set of policies from the main party and change their name to ScotCon or something?
Because he knew this would be illegal, so he needed to create a separate party, if he wanted to have separate policies.
In other words, we have now got clear evidence that the Tory party is more honest and treats the Scottish people with more respect than the Labour party.
Some people in he Tory Party knew they needed to change to win back lost voters, so they were honest enough with the electorate and had a vote on it.
Ruth won and so the Tory party remains in Scotland.
Jim Murphy and others in the Labour Party also knew they needed to change to win back voters, however they have went down the normal Blairite/Labour route, which is to lie and deceive the people of Scotland.
C’mon you shrinking band of Labour Party voters, what more do they need to do to you before you straighten up and tell them that your ass has had enough of the Labour Parties kicking?
Ps. If my dog met Jim Murphy,
he would bark and look at me,
telling me something was wrong.
You can’t fool a dog’s nose.
@Jackie g – excellent news. Me and other SNP members have been saying to the SNP they have to make a clear statement on fracking and this is a big step forward.
Wait for the Murph and Deputy Dug to claim credit
Proud Cybernat says:
28 January, 2015 at 3:16 pm
SLAB will be claiming next they have an ‘unwritten constitution’.
Which Jim Murphy will amend, using invisible ink.
They don’t even mention Scotland in their postal address. Scotland the country does not exist:
Headquarters 290 Bath Street, GlasgowG2 4REUnited Kingdom – See more at: link to scottishlabour.org.uk
@luigi
😀
liz says:
28 January, 2015 at 3:30 pm
@Jackie g – excellent news. Me and other SNP members have been saying to the SNP they have to make a clear statement on fracking and this is a big step forward.
Wait for the Murph and Deputy Dug to claim credit
Of course! The Red Tory abstention on the fracking bill at WM was all part of a cunning plan to force the SNP’s hand. Big Jim sure knows how to sort out those nats!
PS forgot to say – brilliant news about proof of an ‘accounting unit’ which means we can ask Murphy to explian about how he’s going to have different policies.
Please have a wee swatch at this episode of Scotland Tonight, featuring bullish Morph, not long after being installed:
link to youtube.com
I am attracted still to the idea that Murphy is just the warm up act.
Gordo will be along soon, while Slapstick Murphy steps behind the curtain out of sight.
It’s inconceivable that Gordon Brown will not play any part
in GE15 in Scotland.
Unless, he’s too upset at his local Tesco in Kirkcaldy closing.
So are you saying all these signs are for a made up phantom Party?
link to tinyurl.com
Oh, neatly done.
That’s a beezer. 🙂
Scottish Labour? Who they? 😀
I’ll write Jim’s new SLAB constitution for him.
Policy 1: We will follow all London Labour’s policies exactly.
Policy 2: We will do so with a smile.
There, that didn’t take long.
So ‘hypothetically’ if someone was to ‘form’ a “Scottish Labour Party”, register it with the EC and lodge an indecently honest right wing constitution, then Murphy, Dugdale, Curran and McTiernan would be in a bit of a pickle. Good job no one would do that then, eh?
So could we create and register with the Electoral Commission a small ‘Scottish Labour Party’, and then object when the UK Labour Party tries to mis-represent itself as our new ‘Scottish Labour Party’
@David
Sounds like a plan.
So Labour in Scotland can falsely campaign under the title of Scottish Labour, but can only legally stand as a registered member of the Labour party.
Doesn’t that some up Labour perfectly.
can we please have a WOS moratorium on that B%stard M*rphy,ahm fair sick of the sight and sound of it all.
As an East Ren constituent this “accounting unit” biz will have us all breathlessly waiting for the MP to be in touch directly 🙂
Luigi says:
The Red Tory abstention on the fracking bill at WM was all part of a cunning plan to force the SNP’s hand. Big Jim sure knows how to sort out those nats!
Yes it is a clear statement from The SNP at last.
There will be a public consultation before anything is decided, that is as it bloody should be..not like the Labour Party who would tell us 5 minutes after the energy companies had banked the cheque and 3 min before Scottish Power etc had started drilling under the hoose..
Now that, David Wallace, would make life interesting.
😀
😀
😀
Surely then the Lib Dems and the Conservative & Unionist party can’t precede their name with ”Scottish” either then?
@ Luigi
PC: SLAB will be claiming next they have an ‘unwritten constitution’.
Luigi: Which Jim Murphy will amend, using invisible ink.
You can just imagine it:
Dim Jim: Where’s Clause 4? I’m gonnae change it.
Deputy Dug: There, Jim. It’s right there.
Dim Jim: Where? Ah cannae see an effing thing.
Deputy Dug: That’s cause we use the invisible ink, Dim.
Dim Jim: But how is anyone meant to see what we stand for?
Deputy Dug: Why would you want anyone to see that, Dim?
Dim Jim: Aye–good point. Shit!!
Deputy Dug: Whit’s wrang, Dim?
Dim Jim: I think I might have changed Clause 42.
Deputy Dug: Clause 42? What’s that, Dim?
Dim Jim: SNP Bad.
So what do we call them now? Accounting Unit Labour (Scotland) UK (AUL(S)UK)?
re the fracking moratorium in Scotland: – (know what you’re voting for)
In particular Mr Ewing MSP set out that the Scottish Government will:
• Undertake a full public consultation on unconventional oil and gas extraction
• Commission a full public health impact assessment
• Conduct further work into strengthen planning guidance
• Look at further tightening of environmental regulation.
Labour triple lock?
Busted.
If there is no “Scottish Labour Party” registered, maybe wingers should set one up.
If the name was officially registered, no other labour party could legally use the name.
That could cause some fun!
Could I stand for the English SNP if I lived in England?
Assume this means that “co-operative” included in some labour candidates affiliation is as meaningless as “Scotland”, i.e. both are controlled and funded by London labour!
In essence devolution means do as I say not as I do!
All credit to Scottish Greens, they are a separate entity from the uk entity (I bet they are relieved after Natalie’s performance on Sunday!).
Do the same standards apply to the liberals and tories?
D McD
If I make a cheque out to Scottish Labour Party whoe cashes IT in?
And, SNP deliver on fracking!!!!
GIRFUY, Slabbers and ("Tractor" - Ed)s to this country’s people.
The North British accounting unit of London Labour needs to do the decent thing, and just pull the coffin lid over themselves.
Think not what your accounting unit can do for your country, think of what your country can do for your accounting unit.
Looking forward to hearing that on a Labour PPB
manandboy
Thought Kirkcaldy tesco was of historical signifance, the eggs were bought there, were they not.
Another empty shop on the high street, shame really Kirkcaldy High Street used to be known for its shopping.
jackie g says:
28 January, 2015 at 3:54 pm
Yes it is a clear statement from The SNP at last.
There will be a public consultation before anything is decided, that is as it bloody should be..not like the Labour Party who would tell us 5 minutes after the energy companies had banked the cheque and 3 min before Scottish Power etc had started drilling under the hoose..
And don’t forget the sudden appointment of a Red Tory monkey as a member of the board (non-exec of course – far too dangerous to give a monkey a vote).
And London doesn’t give a fig, illustrated in ‘Yes Minister’ – it’s also funny.
“The only way to understand the Press is that they pander to their readers’ prejudices.
The Daily Mirror is read by people who think they run the country.
The Guardian is read by people who think they ought to run the country.
The Times is read by people who actually do run the country.
The Daily Mail is read by the wives of the people who do run the country.
The Financial Times is read by people who own the country.
The Morning Star is read by people who think the country ought to be run by another country.
The Daily Telegraph is read by people who think it is.
The Sun readers don’t care who runs the country as long as she’s got big tits.”
No mention of the Scottish Branch papers – just regional press to London.
link to youtube.com
Is it worth producing a document (whether paper format or electronically) that basically lists every lie, deceitful act or broken promise by the Labour Party over the last 3 years. Seriously, just passing something like that to all the folk in Scotland, and leaving them to read and ponder over it, may do wonders.
A lot of folk (Unionists) don’t want Yessers rabbiting in their ear over failed Labour policies, but if given something to read in their own quiet time, could shift many votes away from Labour (and possibly even for good) might be something to think about.
Maybe we should crowd-fund copyright for the name “Scottish Labour” to stop them using it.
Ach, they have probably got that one well covered (somewhow).
Did anyone at any time ever think that Murphy was talking anything but utter bullshit?
There are. apparently, only 15000 of us continuing to buy
THE NATIONAL! Great pity. After all the slagging of the MSM on this blog it would be a tragedy if the paper should fail from lack of support
Does that extend to printed material leaflets/poster ect.
Now, we’ve of course known for a long time that “Scottish Labour” was a label rather than a party. But it’s perhaps worth bearing in mind that any candidate standing on the basis of a claim that the Scottish branch office makes its own policy won’t just be lying to voters, they’ll actually be breaking the law.
Sorry Rev which law are they breaking?
I read the response from the EC as stating that whilst technically there is only the Labour party they can, if they want to, describe themselves as ‘Scottish Labour’, and they can also tell as many lies as they want to without sanction because the EC don’t actually regulate campaign material.
I’ve just emailed Scotland@Labour.org.uk (says it all really!) to request a copy of the Scottish Labour Party constitution as described by JM Esq.
Not holding my breath but I’ll let you know what happens…
Yeh Gordo will be along like a clap of thunder from the 1980,s: ” This is not their parliament! This is my parliament, how dare they try and steal my party’s votes. We delivered the vow!”
Labour Party Rule Book 2013
Chapter 9
Rules for Regional Boards and European party units
Para 2.
Full copies of the rules and standing orders that have been approved for each of the regional boards in England and for the Scottish and Wales Labour Parties are available from the respective RD(GS). Such rules may not conflict with the model rules approved by party conference.
In other words if the Scottish region constitution/rule book does conflict with the main Labour constitution it is invalid.
Jim can propose changes to his regional constitution/rules but only the NEC can approve them under Para 1. of the same chapter.
The rules for English regional boards and the Scottish and Welsh executives, including procedural rules for meetings and for the election of members of the board or executive, standing orders committee and auditors, shall be determined by the regional board/Scottish or Welsh executive and approved by the NEC.
Please,please,please wingers you must get scotland out of this nightmare ,my country is being run by fools and liars.Whats happened to the basic principles of honesty,decency and integrity.I’m having to watch this horror show unfold from afar(france)and its doing my head in.
[…] Know what you’re voting for […]
Oddly, the Cooperative Party does appear to be a separate and registered organisation…
link to en.m.wikipedia.org
They could have done something similar with Scottish Labour, but chose not to.
So if there is no such thing as Scottish Labour registered with the electoral commission then perhaps someone (Stu) should register an new party called Scottish Labour with them, then they could dictate to Jim Murphy what Scottish Labour policies are and he would have to invent another name for his branch office.
As we always knew, there is no “Scottish” Labour party, now let’s kill off the mythconception, once and for all.
What a brilliant question for Jim Murphy:
When are you going to register “Scottish Labour” as a proper, independent party?
as someone mentioned above (beachthistle I think), SNP play pretty nicely when it comes to the political game and that’s frustrating. Given the following: a) Wings can raise money for worthy causes b) Wings is not beholden to a party or corporate interest, c) wings can call on people to be activists, and d) political material in election campaigns doesn’t need to follow particularly strict rules (it’d probably just want to avoid being defamatory), does this give us some ideas on how we, the readers, can damage the Unionists?
Parties registered with the Electoral Commission with Scottish or Scotland in their names:-
link to pefonline.electoralcommission.org.uk
Scottish Democratic Alliance
Scottish Green Party
Scottish Democratic Party
Scottish National Party
Scottish Socialist Party
Scottish Unionist Party
Scottish Voice
Scottish Reformists’ Party
All Scotland Pensioners Party
Free Scotland Party [FSP]
Scotland Against Crooked Lawyers
Solidarity – Scotland’s Socialist Movement
NOTHING for ….
Scottish Labour
Scottish Liberal Democrats
Scottish Conservatives
No parties exist with names anything like those.
@ Ianl – Au secour mon brave! We are all working like beavers building and securing our own dam. The charlatans are falling to bits every day. Honesty is cleansing like a good dose of Harpic doon the porcelain. It may be rough but it works. That is what is happening just now. 🙂
Also interesting, and perhaps relevant to this discussion, that there used to be a Scottish Unionist Party, which was run in parallel with the Tories at Westminster, before it was clearly subsumed:
link to en.wikipedia.org
Clearly, Scottish Labour does not function in this way w.r.t. Labour at Westminster.
jimnarlene says:
“there is no Scottish Labour party, now let’s kill off the mythconception”
Wee Blue Book Too – The Truth about Unionism and the British State
Rev, I would like to congratulate you and the alert reader for their efforts on this one. The vacant look on Murphy’s face says it all. They really don’t have a clue, do they?
fred said –Murphy oozes insincerity. Is Insincerity another word for shoit
@ANS
Tesco isn’t directly on the high street, it’s just to the North. It does also contain a main post office, which will either be lost when Tesco closes or require relocation.
Stuart,
Will you please, please, please stop putting up photos of Murphy – I come on here to escape his face on BBC. I am starting to feel stalked.
The Electoral Commission stated that it does not regulate campaign material.
Who does ?
Eh, wait a minute – maybe Accounting Units can have policies i.e. accounting policies. Let me give a couple of examples
Stock Management – MPs are valued on a FIFO (First in First Out) basis when it comes to preparing them for transfer to the House of Lords
Depreciation – the value of a Labour MP is written off over the period of a parliament, meaning that by the time of an election everyone knows they’re fuckin worthless.
Not sure you interpreted the law quite correctly. Each candidate stands on his/her own basis, and can do so on whatever manifesto they wish. In 2010 plenty of Labour candidates signed the NHS tuition fees pledge despite the explicit direction from the party not to. All the Electoral Commission can do is ensure that those who wish to be a party nominee have authorisation from an appropriate officer of the party and use a registered description – in this case, Scottish Labour Party candidate. So while Murphy’s pledge is meaningless, it’s hard to justify that it would be illegal.
Jim Murphy in that picture above reminds me of someone link to dollarstrilogy.wikia.com
@Hobbit
Re Scottish Unionist Party. The name appears to have been revived, but the current registered entity would appear to be no relation to the old party, or the current Conservative Party.
The Scottish Labour Accounting Unit may be developing policies like whether to charge the full cost of pencils, pens and stationery in the month of purchase.
Controller Jim is also well on top of expenses. He likely takes a personal interest.
Re:Crisiscult:
“as someone mentioned above (beachthistle I think), SNP play pretty nicely when it comes to the political game and that’s frustrating. Given the following: a) Wings can raise money for worthy causes b) Wings is not beholden to a party or corporate interest, c) wings can call on people to be activists, and d) political material in election campaigns doesn’t need to follow particularly strict rules (it’d probably just want to avoid being defamatory), does this give us some ideas on how we, the readers, can damage the Unionists?”
I like this thinking – I would get behind this.
I find even the tag “accounting unit” to describe (Not)Labour in Scotland a bit laughable.
Surely to have an “accountancy unit” you have to have some money to deal with. Where is their money? Even with their Poundstretcher BOGOF membership offer they can’t have much more than two washer to rub together.
Does this mean ” The SCOTTISH Labour party could be registered?” Just a thought!
Bob W
Yeah , live along the road, but when morph was doing his piece and being ignorant as usual, the guy didn`t like him no answering,so went to tescos just up the lane,bought some eggs, went back down and the rest is history 🙂
So what’s the correct name then?
The Labour (North British – Scotland Sub Branch Accounting Unit) Party?
crisiscult says:
naw, for me he is a ringer for the Rev Jolly, without the laughs of course.
gavin lessells – only 15,000 copies of the National being sold?..
Says who? last night the doom merchants were claiming it was “only” 15,000 – 20,000.
I would not trust any figures from a rival newspaper or the BBC if that is indeed where this latest one came from!
@spout
You can, but there are rules that Stu would need to follow. See link to electoralcommission.org.uk
Good Headline from RT.
link to rt.com
Really great work! Ofcourse the red Tory boys and especially the Pacific Quay liggers will be fully aware of all this giant fraud. DO the red tory party have any scruples left at all or is Murphy/MacBloater/MacTernan etc dragging the whole lot into the sewer.
@Les Wilson
No. It’s too close to the name of another party (The Labour Party) and in any case, it is already a registered description of the Labour Party. In any case, why would you want to be tainted by association?
Please can we stop referring to that name, I think that name should be banned from further use on this website. As has been categorically proved, they do not exist and do not have a constitution.
I propose that the only term that should be used is
Labour Party In Scotland Accounting Unit : LPISAU
Obviously I would be happy to accept a general consensus but I won’t recognise that other name at anytime in the future
National figures were in the Graun, 15k paper plus another 3k digital. But publishers not worried and planning election run in, with new asst ed, and new columnists. Onwards, but buy the bloody thing….
Thank you to the SCOTTISH National Party for putting a halt to this fracking abomination.
Labour’s betrayal on this matter will be remembered forever.
Rev if the name Scottish Labour Party is not under copyright laws (& I doubt it)why not Register the name under WOS & see how the Electorial Commission deal with it.
& any other variation thereof ( new scottish labour)
Another great article Rev. Maybe a Labour supporter (we know you have a wee keek at this site) could tell us the differences in policies between London Labour and Jim Murphy,s London Labour!
Scandalous that STV does NOT have the news from the Scottish Gov. about a moratorium on fracking. I’m sick to the back teeth of the Scottish Mainstream Media! They would rather spin any Unionist story, and they do, than give us Scottish news that affects Scottish people.
We really need lots, lots of SNP MPs heading to Westminster in May.
Is that an old photo or has Creepy Jim been at the Grecian 2000, it can’t be Just For Men as he isn’t one he’s a creep
Deference to difference. Indifference to deference.
There’s a difference between Brown and Murphy which explains their respective values as a campaigning figure.
The difference is in deference.
Brown gets it by the bucket load from Labour voters and ordinary punters.
Murphy hardly gets any from anybody.
The time to make best use of Stu’s ‘Scottish Labour’ material is now, while Murphy is still being projected as the saviour of Scottish labour.
Once Gordon Brown takes over, it will become immaterial.
‘Cos he’s the saviour of the world.
Through a wider lense, the picture includes the historic relationship of deference
between the Scots and their Imperial Masters.
The lowered head, doff the cap, tug the forelock,
a slight bend of knee and back.
Even today, let a titled gent loose among ordinary scots
and you see it break out, like applause,
only it’s different, it’s deference.
If we’re going to be Independent, we’re going to have to do something
about deferring to those we defer to.
For example, I wonder if Fergus Ewing deferred to the Duke of Buccleuch
while recently discussing the Duke’s proposals
for coal bed methane recovery near Dumfries.
The proper way to address a Duke in person is ‘Duke’.
I’m sure it’s clear what the deference issue is.
NICOLA STURGEON – every time she mentions the red tories should refer to them as “The UK labour party” (posh title) or London Labour (everyday polite title) or red tories (nickname – used where possible)
Thus when at FMQ’s she can refer to UK Labour party representatives every single time when speaking directly to MSPs e.g Kezia Dugdale “the UK labour party leader within the Scottish parliament” .
It would get right up their nostrils and reinforce on telly etc the fact that labour represent London interests.
@ Carol 5.12. I know where I would like to see his photo, but Shanks dont do Satire or Transfer Print.
Scottish Labour Party is closer to observing the rules than is “Alex Salmond for First Minister” as we saw the SNP use in the last election. That name was chosen to make the first in an alphabetic list.
Murdo Frazer talking shite on Bbc news ( we want to save those jobs at Grangemouth ) Grangemouth is NOT DEPENDANT ON FRACKING. Is core operation is Oil/Fuel. Another political distraction.
@Phil Robertson – Que?
Proud Cybernat says:
28 January, 2015 at 3:16 pm
SLAB will be claiming next they have an ‘unwritten constitution’.
Will Jim re-unwrite it then?
@David says:28 January, 2015 at 3:46 pm:
“So could we create and register with the Electoral Commission a small ‘Scottish Labour Party’, and then object when the UK Labour Party tries to mis-represent itself as our new ‘Scottish Labour Party’”
That, David, depends on just who you mean by, “We”.
I’m SNP so I cannot do so but what of, “Labour For Indy”?
I’d hazard a guess there may well be more of them than in the Labour Party in Scotland Accounting Unit. Registering themselves as Scottish Labour would certainly take the wind right out of Murphy’s sails.
Phil
It may have been chosen to move the SNP alphabetically to the top but if, as many Onionists claim, Alex was so unpopular would it not have been a two edged sword?
It was factually accurate though….we got Alex as First Minister.
Rite who left the door open again, Phil Robertson your no welcome to this party.
@JBS says: 28 January, 2015 at 4:02 pm:
“So what do we call them now? Accounting Unit Labour (Scotland) UK (AUL(S)UK)?”
Don’t know about anyone else, JBS, but I intend to just continue calling them what I have always called them. I’ll not use the term here, though. It isn’t yet past the Watershed Time. So the Kiddies are perhaps still up and reading.
Phil Robertson
They should run with “AAA Scottish Patriotic Socialist pro business anti austerity, pro Trident Anti Nuclear, pro Fracking, Anti Fracking Left, Right and Centre Scottish Labour Party”.
Just Dinnae mention Jim on the ballot. Or Ed. Or Kezia.
In fact, why not call it the Scottish National Labour Party and pick up a few confused folk first thing in the morning.
Public Meeting on fracking and unconventio…
on at 7.00pm.
Public Meeting on fracking and unconventio…
on at 7.00pm.
Has Jim Morphy claimed the Scottish fracking moratorium as all his own work yet?
Hi Phil Robertson!
I knew Labour had a few wee Keeks!
@JLT says: 28 January, 2015 at 4:22 pm:
Is it worth producing a document (whether paper format or electronically) that basically lists every lie, deceitful act or broken promise by the Labour Party over the last 3 years.
Sorry JLT, I have three computers, a PVR with a big HDD, an XBOX with a big disk and two big portable external HDD.
There just isn’t enough disk space to write down all the Labour Party lies and transgressions.
The Murph & Darling at Westminster today so there will be meetings of the Scottish Labour MPs. We will find out in due course their line of attack.
@ianl says:28 January, 2015 at 4:40 pm:
“Please,please,please wingers you must get scotland out of this nightmare ,my country is being run by fools and liars.Whats happened to the basic principles of honesty,decency and integrity.I’m having to watch this horror show unfold from afar(france)and its doing my head in.”
Whoa! There, IanL, Your country, Scotland, is being run by the SNP Holyrood Government. The whole UK is being run by the de facto parliament of England under the guise of being the United Kingdom Government. The United Kingdom is a Kingdom, (a royal realm), and is also a political union.
The problem of the country of Scotland having to work within the constraints of the UK is well in hand and being dealt with in as quick a time as we can legally manage.
I think the correct title is –
Party Accounting Unit (Labour) And
Regional Office Scotland, England
OT: Tesco superstore in Kirkcaldy to close! Gordon Brown to immediately rush back from where ever he is to plead that Tesco and Kirkcaldy are Better Together!
O/T but re the fracking..
I note that Murdo what’s his pus Tory says that the SNP is more interested in political posturing than making decisions based on scientific evidence..
Bit like the Tories Political Posturing with the “Vote Blue Go Green” slogan..
Not so green now are we Murdo advocating Fracking.. sigh..
Another excellent article, thanks.
My thoughts on the previous topic are simply that our 40+ SNP MP’s would have the power to bring down any Red or Blue Tory government over the next few years via ‘No Confidence votes’any time they decide to.
If they did this two or three times I am sure WM would be delighted to finally get rid of the disruptive North Britain once and for all.
O/T sorry
Live Independence Broadcasing The Common Weal Policy Unit debate about Syriza Starting Soon link to tinyurl.com @Common_Weal
I think the electoral commission have already said that they wont allow anyone else to register the @Scottish Labour Party’ because it has been already been used regularly by Labour in Scotland,
However, that self same EC didn’t see fit to enforce the purdah rules, nor does it think it necessary to correct the lies and misinformation we are having shoved through our doors or beemed into our living rooms, so like some on here I think we need to start playing Labour at their own game, and creating our own Scottish Labour Leaflets that will contain direct quotes by Labour MPs / MSPs / Advisors eg McTernan.
For instance we can create a leaflet telling Scots that Labour will bring in legislation if they win the G election to stop Scots being small minded racist bigots, (or whatever that odious cretin McTernan said)
If Labour complain we will simply reply that we have learned from Labour and the EC that political leaflets can be filled with lies and false claims, but that we can source our quote as being said by someone within the Labour Leaders inner circle.
I think this idea has wings 🙂
O/T Just had the misfortune to see the Scottish Libdem Party political broadcast and it is dire. So much worse that the BT eat your cereal effort. There are three versions and we get Willie Rennie, the branch office foreman cut and paste in to the scenes. There is a scene near the beginning where an elderly man “doffs” his cap! Who would ever doff their cap to Willie Rennie???
His part is filmed in the freezing cold and you can see his breath in the cold air. There is one Scottish interviewee whose breath can be seen, out of context with the others- terrible editing and directing. The script is the essentially the same but Willie adds a “SNP bad” snide comment for good measure.
There is also a Welsh version!!
All three can be seen here:
link to libdemvoice.org
These opposition parties are comical!
OT,
Wonder if Jackie Bailey will show her face at FMQ tomorrow, if not then the rumour about McTernan wanting her out, will certainly ring true.
@ Betty Craney 5:13 pm:
The Electoral Commission stated that it does not regulate campaign material.
Who does ?
Betty check out link to wingsoverscotland.com
It’s their Human Right you know.. I take from it that the parties can basically do what they want and say what they want. If I’m picking that up wrong then sorry 🙁
If I were to register the Scottish Labour Party as an organisation with the electoral commisssion coule I stop the UK party from using that name
@Phil Robertson
Scottish Labour Party is closer to observing the rules than is “Alex Salmond for First Minister” as we saw the SNP use in the last election. That name was chosen to make the first in an alphabetic list.
Yes it was chosen for that reason, and what you really can’t stand is that it worked, big time. But not just because it was first on the ballot paper – mostly because Alex Salmond is head and shoulders above most other politicians in any country of the UK and the Scots had the good sense to realise that. As you people keep saying – you lost; get over it.
A few months ago I spotted no Scottish Labour Party on the list of official registered parties so I thought it would be fun to register it first. I downloaded the form for setting up and registering a party but it droned on about accounts and suchlike so I let it lie. Here is the link for anyone interested 😉
link to electoralcommission.org.uk
Very good
Laughing as I read this
Highly unlikely that the Electoral Commission would accept an application for a new party to be called “Scottish Labour Party”.
See bullet point 2.
What names can’t we register?
Under PPERA, we will refuse any party name that:
• is the same as another registered party’s and already
appears on the same register
• is likely to result in voters confusing it with a party that is already registered
• is longer than six words
• is obscene or offensive
• is not in Roman Script
• is likely to amount to an offence if published
• contains certain prohibited words
– for example, ‘None of the above’ is not allowed
could mislead a voter about the effect of their vote – for
example, ‘I abstain’ would not be allowed
• could contradict or hinder a voter’s understanding of any
instructions about the voting process – for example, ‘Put a
cross here’ would not be allowed
link to electoralcommission.org.uk
@ Dan Huill 7.23, we pride ourselves on accurate information on here, now you stop spreading rumour or you will be severly dealt with, an you dont want to visit Paula Rose,s dungeon when she,s in ah bad mood lol
link to upload.wikimedia.org
This should be our union flag until independence.
@ Patrick Roden. Its not whether Jackie Baillie shows her face or not,its if she,s allowed to speak at question time.
O/T
SNP Surge ‘Is Real’, Says Pollster Lord Ashcroft
His views come after a Sky News projection said the SNP could increase its number of Westminster seats from its current six to 53.
Not sure if this link will work…
dlvr.it/8HPQtm
Here’s a thought. Although the Scottish branches of Lab, LibDem and Con do not exist as parties, I suppose there is nothing wrong with them having an annual meeting and calling it a Conference.
However, at these Conferences they all pass motions on policy. What’s that all about? None of these entities are allowed to have branch specific policies. They only have one set of policies in their respective UK party manifestos. So what is the status and validity of resolutions adopted by each branch meeting?
Are they wasting their time, or is it an elaborate plot to pretend they have a Scottish voice? Or, more like, both!
ronnie anderson says:
28 January, 2015 at 7:51 pm
…who says we don’t want to visit?
@Calgacus says:28 January, 2015 at 6:07 pm:
“Thank you to the SCOTTISH National Party for putting a halt to this fracking abomination. Labour’s betrayal on this matter will be remembered forever.
As I’ve often pointed out the parliamentary party should be trusted for it is their good work running the country and our good work out on the streets, and on the social networking sites, that has got us to where we are now.
It is like the story of the young bull and the old bull standing together on the hillside looking down on the browsing herd below.
The young bull said, “Let’s charge on down the hill, crash through that fence and service one of those heifers each”.
The old bull replied, “Nah! let’s both amble on down the hill, open the gate quietly, get a drink at the water trough and service the whole heard of those heifers at our leisure?”
I’ll put that another way – don’t go at it like a bull at a gate. Take your time and open the gate first.
When is Murphy going to hold a public meeting, he has to break cover sooner rather than later. It’s his Party that desperately needs the votes.
The mountain of questions we need answers to is growing by the day.
And we still don’t even know if he is going to stand as a Labour MP at this years GE.
Jim Murphy, man of mystery.
Never mind the Bollocks of ‘Party Accounting Unit’, we’ve known for ages that ‘Scottish Labour’ does not exist other than in the voices that Murphy hears in his head.
More to the point, Murphy is a UK Labour M.P. and shadow cabinet member and is bound by the party whip of Westminster. Therefore it has always been fantasy that he has ANY leeway to diverge from UK Labour policy. He can’t re-write any ‘Constitution’ that never existed in the first place. So why don’t those pimps masquerading as ‘journalists’ challenge the talking cadaver?
The msm know it, Milliband knows, the fucking dogs in the street know it, but this fantasy is spun constantly by the BBC and the yellow press. What we need is a crowdfund to challenge this misrepresentation of who and what these imposters are. You can’t sell toilet paper as a jaguar so why are we being sold this shit as shinola?
They haven’t always been the “Scottish Labour Party”, that was originally a party stared by Jim Sillars and Alex Neil (I wonder what happened to him). So the usage of “Scottish Labour Party” by the “Labour Party” in Scotland must be relatively recent. Who knows, perhaps Mr Sillars or Mr Neil still own the rights to the name “Scottish Labour Party”, now that would be interesting.
Except in 2011′ it said, Alex salmond for first minister?
@caz-m, 8:12pm.
Mr Murphy has not made any comment on whether he will run for Westminster or not, is because he doesn’t yet know himself. He is waiting for the opinion polls in his constituency to show the possible outcome, if it looks like he is going to lose he won’t stand and he will then blame the poor idiot who takes his place for losing a safe seat. Mr Murphy will not go through the public humiliation of losing his seat, he will join Brown, Darling and others who are running scared.
Maybe proudest ever Scot Jim is planning to hold a refrendum on the issue.
Question posed thus :
Should Scottish Labour be an independent party?
Yes
No
Can he count on your vote?
O/T
STV have had a “Fracking Debate” by-pass. No mention of it on the 8 O’Clock news there and they are NOT discussing it on Scotland Tonight.
I think STV are feeling sorry for Scottish Labour and giving them a breather tonight.
Question. – Do we continue to call them Scottish Labour?
@galamcennalath
“…at these Conferences they all pass motions”
Presumably this is not as in my doctor’s definition of the word “have you passed a motion recently?”
Mind you, in the context of the “Scottish branches of Lab, LibDem and Con”…same thing really?
Well who would have thought it. Seems to me that henceforth and publicly they should be referred as ‘the Scottish Accounting Unit of London Labour’. Sums them up really.
O/T along with what was said earlier above SNP surge no flash in the pan – Sky news.
link to news.sky.com
@ ronnie 6:27pm – funny you should mention Shanks and transfer prints. Last time I went through Schipol the men’s urinals had an imprint of a blue-bottle strategically placed for aiming at. Worth considering before we all get to old and have to sit? 🙂
@Les Wilson and crisiscult
Like I said the other day, it is definitely Matt McConoughey’s character out of Wolf of Wall Street.
Just picture Murphy with a Dwayne Dibley mullet.
link to i.ytimg.com
rusbase.vc/media/upload_tmp/tumblr_n31wz0bmzz1twhg2ho1_400.gif
Sorry for going OT about fracking (nice article by the way)
The BBC article (archive here) states
“Full control over fracking is due to be devolved to Scotland after May’s general election.”
Didn’t we cover this in the fracking article on Monday that this was NOT being devolved? I wouldn’t normally take an archive of the BBC site but it’s nice to have the page recorded before someone edits it.
Phil Robertson says: 28 January, 2015 at 6:31 pm:
“Scottish Labour Party is closer to observing the rules than is “Alex Salmond for First Minister”.
Then, Phil, you no doubt can quote exactly what the rule is that Alex Salmond is alleged to have broken?
I seem to remember the London Labour Party in Scotland did indeed attempt to have it declared against the rules and even against the law. I also seem to remember that they failed. Care to confirm or deny that?
Thing is The Rev Stu quoted the regulations that are being broken. As usual there is always some London Labour Party in Scotland numptie dashing in and making spurious accusations that are totally without substance.
I’m getting on a bit now but in all my life I have never come across a more lying, underhanded bunch of useless political reprobates than the present members, elected and unelected, of the London Labour in Scotland boorach.
@ Robert Peffers
As analogies go, that was a humdinger.
I’m still picking mince out of my keyboard. 😀
O/T Interesting letter just appeared on the Guardian website.
Look at the author, grand coalition anyone?
• You mention four scenarios, but miss out the most obvious and most European one. This would be a grand coalition of the two largest parties, which would be a stable and effective coalition. The leader of the largest party can be prime minister and the other deputy prime minister. Labour can take health and education and the Tories Home and Foreign Office. They can toss for the Treasury.
Meghnad Desai
Labour, House of Lords
Why does JM always look like a rabbit in the headlights?
Just a wee note about FOI’s to save any embarrassment. The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, and its England and Wales equivalent, apply to ‘public authorities’ and political parties are not one of them. However, the Government and its Departments are. ‘Public Authority’ does not just mean Local Authority.
If an MSP or MP has had correspondence with a ‘public authority’ then that could be the subject of a FOI request.
So you could send a FOI request to the Labour lot but they are in no way obliged to respond. It might be possible to send a request to each Government Department and ask for all correspondence they have had with the Labour Party regarding that Party’s Constitution since ‘date of your choosing’, or however you would like to word it. Do not ask for copies as they can charge you for them. Simply ask for all correspondence, etc. and say it can be submitted to you in electronic format at ‘your email address’. You do not have to say why you are asking or where you live, your email address and your name are sufficient.
The really good thing about using FOI legislation is that Tony Blair introduced it and he hates it, as no doubt do many of his chums, have fun!
@ clootie 8.09 You jist put on a appointment,Dans wiz ah threat of punishment for rumour mongering.
Second thoughts – lets just call them the Scotch Labour Party. It is who they are.
Thanks to SNP we in Scotland have a moratorium on fracking DESPITE Labour’s best efforts to help their Tory pals yesterday. 37 Scottish Labour MPs did not even vote..I wonder why? If they were under any illusion we would be grateful for their pathetic little fig leaf amendment they have a rude awakening coming in May.
Does this mean LFI can form a “The Scottish Labour Party”???
As The Scottish Labour Party does not currently exist as a political party?
Thepnr, “They can toss for the Treasury”
That’s a beauty, in so many ways…
@Robert Peffers,
Aye Robert amidst all the lies and cynicism we must remember the SNP are the only party that puts the Scottish peoples interests first.
Yes, they’re an accounting unit. No, not a separate party. Yes, to say that they’re separate, with different policies is a lie. However, party political statements aren’t subject to advertising standards. They are subject to other laws, as we’ve seen in the past. For an entire country to be subjected to claims they have their own ‘Labour Party’ even outwith elections may well prove to be in breach of the law. At least, if tested, it will ensure they stop making the claim and revert to referring to themselves as the ‘Labour Party’ or at least admit that ‘Scottish Labour Party’ is no more meaningful than ‘Glasgow Labour Party’
Below are all the relevant Political Parties, followed by a list of their “Registered Descriptions”.
(Descriptions that wrongly imply a separate Party are obviously not seen as misleading…)
I believe any new Parties cannot cause confusion with any existing name/description.
link to pefonline.electoralcommission.org.uk
Scottish National Party (SNP)
=============================
Scottish National Party
SNP
Scottish National Party (Leader – Alex Salmond)
Alex Salmond for First Minister
Scottish National Party (Scotland’s Party)
Alex Salmond (Leader – Scottish National Party)
Giving Scotland a Voice in Europe
Scotland’s Team in Europe
Strong Voice for Scotland in Europe
Make Scotland’s Mark in Europe
Scottish Green Party
====================
The Green Party Of Scotland
Scottish Independent Greens
Scottish Greens
Second Vote Green
The Ecology Party
Scottish Socialist Party
========================
Scottish Socialist Party – Save Our Schools
Scottish Socialist Party – Save our services
Scottish Socialist Party – Save public services
Scottish Socialist Party – People not profit
Scottish Socialist Party – Free public transport
Fight the cuts
Scrap council tax
Free school meals
Stop the war
Independent Socialist Scotland
Make greed history
Citizens not subjects
Labour Party
============
The Labour Party Candidate
Labour Party Candidate/Ymgeisydd Plaid Lafur
Scottish Labour Party Candidate
Labour Party Candidate
Y Blaid Lafur
Scottish Labour Party
Labour Representation Committee
Labour and Co-operative Party Candidate (Joint Description with Co-operative Party) Ymgeisydd Llafur a’r Blaid Gydweithredol
Welsh Labour Llafur Cymru
Welsh Labour Candidate Ymgeisydd Llafur Cymru
Welsh Labour Party Candidate Ymgeisydd Plaid Llafur Cymru
Glasgow Labour
Conservative Party
==================
For real change in Europe
Scottish Conservative and Unionist
Scottish Conservatives Vote No to Independence
Local Conservatives
David Cameron’s Conservatives
Ceidwadwyr Cymreig Welsh Conservatives
Conservatives: Vote blue, go green
Conservatives: Stop the hospital cuts
The Conservative Party Candidate
Conservative Party Candidate
Welsh Conservative Party Candidate Ymgeisydd Plaid Geidwadol Cymru
Conservative and Unionist Party
Liberal Democrats
=================
Scottish Liberal Democrats
Welsh Liberal Democrats Democratiaid Rhyddfrydol Cymru
Liberal Democrat Focus Team Tîm Ffocws Y Democratiaid Rhyddfrydol
Scottish Liberal Democrat Focus Team
Liberal Democrats – for a fairer Britain Democratiaid Rhyddfrydol – Am Brydain Decach
Liberal Democrats – for a greener Britain Democratiaid Rhyddfrydol – Am Brydain Fwy Gwyrdd
Liberal Democrat Democrat Rhyddfrydol
Focus Team Tîm Ffocws
Nick Clegg’s Liberal Democrats
London Liberal Democrats
Democratiaid Rhyddfrydol Cymru – Welsh Liberal Democrats
Welsh Liberal Democrats – Democratiaid Rhyddfrydol Cymru
Re Robert Peffers
LOL …that’s why I only said in the last 3 years! …And yet, it might still take a couple of Gigs of your Hard Drive.
However, there must be something we can do. People out there are aware that something isn’t right with the Labour Party (especially the Branch Office). However, as much as this may feel like the referendum all over again (as in trying to pass folk the facts), I think it would easier to give people the whole caboodle on Labour, since folk will find the facts simpler and easier to lap up. It’s not as if we are trying to convince them of currency union or being in the EU. This would just be a case of giving folk the facts about Labour’s deceit. There would be no debate on it, because the facts are definitely there! It would very difficult for Labour to deny (though they would try) about huge embarrassments such as saying the NHS would be safe in the UK, not voting on repealing the bedroom tax, not voting to end fracking, wanting to keep Trident, etc.
These are things that people could intake quite easily, and also accept as easily. Launching something that utterly condemns Labour a month before the election could blow the Branch Office away!
It’s a thought…
@Macart says:28 January, 2015 at 8:35 pm:
“As analogies go, that was a humdinger. I’m still picking mince out of my keyboard
Sorry about the mince, the old ones are still the best ones. That one’s been around longer than I have and that ain’t yesterday.
Coming on late so sorry if someone has said this already – if money has been solicited and receipts issued in the name of a non-existent entity called “Scottish” Labour, would that not constitute fraud?
Thepnr says:
Look at the author, grand coalition anyone?
If Labour have any sense (…I know, I know …it’s kind of pushing it), they will have learned what happened to the Lib Dems, and steer totally clear of any sweet whisperings from Cameron or Gideon. In my opinion, if Labour climb into bed with the Tories, then personally, it’s game over for Labour.
I can see Tory backbenchers gleefully ripping Labour backbenchers as new Tory policies are implemented, thus implying that the Conservatives have been correct all this time when it came to charting Britain’s path.
Plus, if the Tories (the Blue ones) did manage to implement severe austerity while having the other Tories (the red ones) tied to their hip, then places like Scotland, Wales and the North of England would never vote Labour again. It would be perceived as a massive betrayal.
Personally, it would just be political suicide. I just can’t see a ‘Grand Coalition’.
What happened to the Libs should be a warning to all.
So Lurch is fronting a sham ‘party’. Who’d have thunk?
Re. fracking. I wonder if British Labour thunk about the wider ramifications of failing to act to constrain fracking in the UK?
In recent months fracking has received attention as an apparent means through which the UK could reduce carbon emissions in an effort to combat climate change. Terry Hathaway takes issue with these claims, arguing that they rest on a highly select focus on the available data, with the United States being far from the exemplar that advocates of fracking have made it out to be.
link to blogs.lse.ac.uk
Cameron B
According to Tessa Munt (libdem) , Unite and GmB ‘weighed’ in on Monday night asking Labour not to ban fracking so looks like they were pretty much looking after their own interests.
@ Archie ( not erchie ) feel free to send me to Paula Rose,s dungeon for posting inacurate information.
Anybody got ah photo of the murph with his mooth opened wide send it to Shanks of Barrheid, I,ll Email them an tell them whit to dey wie it.
@ Ronnie,
Good point about Bailey bud, I will never forget both Bailey and Lamont sneering gleefully when the First Minister announced he was standing down, nor Baileys completely ungraceful behaviour in his last ever FMQ as leader.
Won’t it be just lovely, if both of these bitter lying nobodies, get ousted by their own party?
Great article Rev. I’m not sure how many there are now but there were 657 accounting units of the labour party back in 2009. So I presume there is one for each CLP.
How many of them have specific written constitutions? How many of them can rename Clause 2 “Clause 4” and then try rewriting it?
657 eh? How to make a Scottish voter feel like his accounting unit is special.
How do accounting units even work in this context? Presumably it’s like a filter… part of the East Renfrewshire AU, which is part of Scottish AU within UK lab political party.
@JLT
I totally agree with you, assuming SNP were the third largest party I’d put my money on there being a second election in 2015 as I just couldn’t see Labour and SNP agreeing on a “vote by vote” support basis.
Also, for the same reasons you stated about a coalition with the Tories, many English Labour voters might see a coalition with SNP as toxic.
If there was a second election the results in Scotland could be very interesting and I believe SNP could return with an even bigger share of the Scottish vote.
All this is just speculation, of course. Intriguing though.
OT/ Ian Taylor, who gave large sums of money to BT after a meeting with a few Labour Party big wigs, is connected directly to a company who wished to frack in at least 22 sites in Scotland.
link to frack-off.org.uk
Please don’t all laugh at once. James Kelly is coming to sort the SNP by running the Labour Campaign.
link to dailyrecord.co.uk
You can’t Discount an Accounting Unit.
Can’t wait until Labour are held accountable in May
Can our supporters who joined Labour, in order to infiltrate them
get their money back under the Trades Descriptions Act?
How many filled in a Form that stated they were joining a
Scottish Labour Party and not the North British Accounting Unit.
So what’s to stop us from starting a Scottish Labour Party, if there isn’t one already? We could run on the sort of policies that a socialist labour party would have adopted.
And God help anyone who tried to pretend they were part of this new Scottish labour if they weren’t. Or issued campaign material purporting to be from the actual (new) Scottish labour party. Surely that would be against the law?
Just visited RT’s website and saw the headline on this page :-
link to rt.com
It reads –
“Nae fracking here! SNP govt imposes shale gas moratorium in Scotland”
You have to give them great credit for that wee use o wir ain Lallans leid.
The SNP`s announcement on the moratorium on fracking was clever political stuff. This was in the pipeline probably well before the uk vote.
The fact that morph and his accounting unit buddies were caught out as well with their lies and doublespeak must have had the SNP rolling about the floor p*ssin themselves.
Apologies as this is a wee bit off topic. We are back from a break in Lanzarote and our self catering place was full of people from Norway. We spoke at length to one gentleman in a wheelchair who had MS.
He had followed our Indyref closely and said he knew we would not be allowed to leave the UK and believed Westminster would always rig any future referendums. We had a good chat about his life in Norway and he told us Norway’s health service had paid for his annual three week break in the Canaries including wheelchair adapted transport from and back to his home and this also included three therapy sessions per week in the Canaries.
Archive link to the DR article on James Kelly that James posted above.
link to archive.today
JLT says:
28 January, 2015 at 4:22 pm
Is it worth producing a document (whether paper format or electronically) that basically lists every lie, deceitful act or broken promise by the Labour Party over the last 3 years.
I have a 30 meter long roll of wallpaper we could use to write
the above list, and then we could just staple on sheets of A4
when we run out of space.
Every time I hear the phrase, “Accounting Unit”, applied to the headquarters head underling at London Labour in Scotland’s Branch Office I get a wee mental picture of Bob Cratchet from a pen drawing in a very old Dickens Novel I had as a boy.
It included Tiny Tim in the picture – now who could we imagine as Tiny Tim?
The first one who suggests Jackie Bailie gets excluded.
BBC Scotland’s disconnected Sarah Smith on Scotland 2015, presenting the issue now with, among others, Jackie Baillie, claims, “Labour will ban fracking with a veto in their area, while the SNP offer a moratorium until the people’s views are heard.”
Erm, what? Run that by me again.
Even if the SNP win 50+ seats, they will achieve absolutely nothing meaningful at Westminster.
The 550+ unionist mob will see to that.
There is no way Labour would make a deal with the SNP to remove Trident or to grant home rule to Scotland.
Even if the SNP had held all Scottish seats now, fracking would have got the go ahead.
It would be great to have 50+ SNP MP’s but we are deluding ourselves if we think we will get any meaningful concessions.
I don’t support UDI, but I don’t think Scotland has any chance of becoming independent by any other means.
Grouse Beater
Baillie can be incomprehensible at the best of times but that is utterly indecipherable.
OT – Manandboy – 3.29 – Tesco’s in Kirkcaldy’s not closing? Can Kirkcaldy get any sadder? Another anchor with the glorious past let adrift.
And just a question, is the east of Scotland still there? All I hear from over here is Glasgow. And I used to think that it was the People’s Republic of Glasgow that was the rogue element in all this.
I don’t usually do this having given up on mainstream news broadcasting – but checked out tonight STV teatime news on iplayer to see how they covered the fracking moratorium decision at Holyrood today.
I clicked on the Edinburgh ‘UK’ edition – but got the ‘International edition’ which did not mention the fracking moratorium at all – instead running with the Tesco closures as top story .
This was the second story after the fracking headline on BBC Reporting Scotland on BBC ( I checked) .
Interesting that the world is watching Scotland today and we can’t even manage to cover a major political decision such as this on our our TV channels…… are they short staffed or did the boss reckon it wasn’t the sort of news the public wants to hear….( !) I’d be interested to know if anyone watched the STV teatime news live to see if the fracking story was edited out for the ‘international version’
or never there in the first place….
Re the story link at the top of the article – headline “Jim Murphy to rewrite Labour’s constitution for Scotland”. “The new Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy plans to rewrite his party’s constitution to stress that Labour will run its own affairs in Scotland.”
Sorry folks, but the way I read it, he’s not (in this article at least) saying he’ll change SLAB’s non-existant constitution, but that he’ll ask for the BLP’s current constitution to be amended to add a clause giving more authority to the Scottish branch.
Reports in other media seem to have used the phrase Scottish Labour constitution – whether out of incompetence or collusion I don’t know.
Does anyone else read it this way or a meringue?
@Rock
Even if the SNP win 50+ seats, they will achieve absolutely nothing meaningful at Westminster.
I see it a little differently. With 50+ MP’s in Westminster the SNP would hold the Balance of Power on any issues voted on in the HoC.
Basically the SNP would decide the result of these votes, that in itself is power.
If the largest party forms a minority government then without the cooperation of the SNP it is certain that none of their proposed policies can be implemented unless a substantial number of the opposition cross over to the other side. That too is power.
Caught the start of Scotland 2015and Sarah Smith stating the SNP want you to believe that fracking has been banned but it hasn’t. we will explain.
So immediately went on the twitter for Scotland 2015 and said we know what a moratorium is!
Really annoyed that they can give the SG no credit for anything.
Of relevance to this is the EC webpage about financial accounts published Aug 2012:
link to electoralcommission.org.uk
Which lists the Labour Party, but not the Scottish labour Party.
Fear not Tesco in Kirkaldy!
Gormless Broon has made a Vow;
Extensive new powers will be given to the shop while it is being boarded up!
Home Gruel, and a Near Fedup State will be given to the people
A full 30 % of what the shop no longer sells will be theirs along with a Time table of Buses heading toward Edinburgh.
@ Shuggy 10.58. Ah canny be arse’d tae answer you, dont be to suprized if somebody else carve’s you ah new arsehole.
link to cityam.com
The GMB union sent a letter to MPs before the vote urging them to oppose the amendment, saying that support for the moratorium would be “a total abdication of any moral responsibility” for the UK’s use of and extraction of gas.
Grouse Beater
Have we to work out what Jackie Baillie meant to say or will you be giving us the answer in a later post.
Because, I will have to be honest and tell you I haven’t got a clue what she was talking about there.
Is this the Idiot hour we,ve entered Rock fuck rite off wie your pish , you tried it on last week & Thepnr pulled you up,go and join the Twilight Zone.
TROLL warning People.
@Robert Peffers
“Mental picture…Tiny Tim…Jackie baillie…”
Tiptoe through the tulips and the hippos scene from Fantasia..
Wings sure does take you places.
People do NOT watch that shyte programme Scotland 2015.
I thought everybody knew that.
MoJo 10.54pm.
Regarding STV news and the Glasgow teatime version, they did mention the fracking debate in a 10 second slot, giving the SNP view and the Tory view but never mentioned Scottish Labour at all.
8pm STV news and NO mention of fracking and the same for Scotland Tonight, not a mention.
O/T
STRASBOURG, January 28 (Sputnik) — Twenty-seven delegates of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) have signed a motion imposing a moratorium on fracking across Europe.
link to sputniknews.com
Fracking will i think most probably happen, but why on earth would the SNP allow it to go forward before consultation with all relevant stakeholders and before elections that could be sensitive, any thinking government using it’s brain would do the same and the SNP are not stupid, so why the delay, well if everything were to be satisfactory in all respects if it were me i would delay as long as possible until the next referendum which we will more than likely win then the tax revenues in total would belong to Scotland why would we want to share with the Bastirts who squandered the oil revenues this might be a great opportunity for us if it proves to be safe and the Greens know it perfectly well they’re just hoping to pick up votes the same as everybody else, the Tories want it now obviously, Labour, well they just posture on everything to try and make everybody look wrong, no, i think the SNP are exactly right on this one, caution, time, slowly slowly catchy monkey.
Wee Sarah Smith had it worked out tonight, dont like her, but credit due, well sussed
Stu,
I think you may have hit something more important than you realise. The law clearly states that you can have on the ballot paper ONLY either the registered name of your party, or the description “Independent”. It says nothing of having the name of an accounting unit. The Electoral Commission is acting illegally to benefit the non-existent Scottish Labour Party.
Shuggy, whatever Jim writes with his big wax crayons on the UK Labour Party scribble pad, his assertion that he is leading a different party with different ideals and aims is complete BS. Whatever he pretends to do he will make not a jot of difference to Milipede’s desire to rule at whatever cost to Scotland, Murphy is only concerned about Murphy and playing to the gallery, I.e., those who read the Daily Herald and believe in all the BBC say, etc. Let me say this slowly…he knows that the media will report his tinkering as a major rewrite, and will say that he is reshaping scottish labour and making it shiny and glossy and irresistible…but we know he is talking pish. No one on Wings is taken in by his obvious subterfuge. London Labour pull the strings and he dances to its tune, no matter how much he pretends said strings are invisible.
@ronnie anderson
Go Ronnie, life’s bloody hard enough without twattery, you would’nt mind but half the time theres not even an opinion it’s just “everything bad wur doomed”
@Shuggy
The accounting unit known by the non de plume “Scottish Labour” does not have a constitution it has only the Scottish Labour party rules.
Jim wants a ‘Clause 4’ moment, although it’s actually Clause 2 in the Scottish Labour Party rules. Yes, I know I’m a pedant. Not in this case for some New Labour policy purpose, but to bring Scottish Labour ‘closer to the centre of Scottish life’. The strategy appears to be aimed at dispelling the myths about ‘London Labour’, stoked by the actions of the UK party during Johann Lamont’s leadership.
link to leftfutures.org
The actual constitution of the Labour party is contained in the first chapter of the “Labour Party Rule Book”.
Jim Murphy has no power whatsoever to rewrite any of the 10 clauses in this constitution. Any amendments must first be decided by the National Executive Committee of the party prior to seeking approval at the UK party conference.
I’m pretty sure that you know all this and are well aware that JM is trying to pull the wool over the eyes of the Scottish electorate by acting as if he makes the rules when it comes to Scotland.
This of course is bullshit.
@Craig Murray and Stu
I have been an election director, agent and candidate for many years – and have been to all the courses. Craig may have a point but see regulations for ‘alternative names’ page 5 and 6 link to electoralcommission.org.uk
BBC’s ‘Scotland 2015’ is dire – a pastiche of a politics programme, about as informative as a births, deaths and marriages column, the format so shallow and glib it’s painful to watch and intellectually corroding.
PNR:
Shuggy – Jim Murphy has no power to rewrite any of the 10 clauses in this constitution.
Which begs the question – did Miliband give him the nod to say what he wants if it helps to regain traditional Labour voters, but not to promise a thing that he could actually implement if ever he secured power?
Jim Murphy’s own words reported in December:
“Tony Blair rewrote Clause 4 of UK Labour to bring us closer to the centre of politics. I want to rewrite ‘Clause 4’ of Scottish Labour to bring us closer to the centre of Scottish life.”
As pointed out there is no Scottish Labour Constitution, so there is no Clause 4 of Scottish Labour. Murphy would have to present a motion or whatever to the (UK) Labour party NEC to amend Clause 2 or possibly Clause 4 of the Rule Book to allow the regional CLP known as Scottish Labour to follow its own policies.
I think it unlikely that motion would be passed. His only alternative then would be to register the Scottish Labour Party in its own right, look for donations and funding, and get all his candiates’ registrations in before 4pm on, I think, 9th April.
OT newsnet scotland down due to DOS attack.
Complained once to the EC about 6 ‘independent’ candidates in Inverclyde who banded together under the name Independents Party.
EC ruled this was OK even though they were not a party and ‘Independents Party’ was misleading some into thinking they were SNP.
@ Dr Jim dont encourage me its no often ah let go but your right about the twatterys.
On your post at 11.51 The Tories/Lab are in a all fired rush to get fracking underway in UK ( no doubt big backhanders & shares on offer ).
A Indy Scotland has no need to exploit shale gas, that will only be another option when Oil/Gas has been depleted, & we have the options of other sources of energy in IS Hydro/wind/wavepower, so the longer the SNP gov hold this fracking up the better.
@Rock
You dont need eyes to see you need vision.
Suddenly voting SNP is ‘the norm’…then its old unionists die out as more and more fresh open minds who know only this fresh minded SNP political world step in to future voting booths.
This isnt one off a surge destined to have no power at Westminster..
This is but a wave…the tsunami cometh
A quick look at EC finds
link to electoralcommission.org.uk
“A party name is the recognised name of a political party. A party has one name.
A party description is an optional addition to the party name. It may be used on ballot papers, along with the candidate and party name and emblem, to help describe and identify the party to voters. At some elections, you will only be able to use either your party name or your party description. A party can have up to 12 descriptions. You do not have to register descriptions for your party.”
So I guess if allowed for the GE to use both party and party description, Labour in Scotland could say “Labour” and underneath “Jim Murphy’s having a party. BYOB”.
You get the feeling when reading this article that the journalist doesn’t like Alex Salmond.
link to archive.today
Good to read that the present First Minister is starting to get noticed in England.
Chic McGregor says:
newsnet scotland down due to DOS attack
I noticed that, and WOS wasn’t available for a minute or two either.
With reference to James Kelly, he was photographed in today’s Rutherglen Reformer pimping Labour’s £1 membership in Cambuslang. The campaign team seems to be shrinking though. This push only had an MP, an MSP, a solitary cooncillor and an even more solitary “civilian”. That’ two cooncillors short of their last street activity….
I assume Murphy was impressed by JK’s success as co-Chair of the Vote Murph campaign for the North British branch office social convenor and reckons he can do a number on real people. I think his faith is misplaced.