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.
Thepnr,
“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.”
How can 50 SNP MP’s hold the balance of power against 550 opponents?
The illegal Iraq war vote was won because the official opposition voted with the government.
Any issues of any meaningful benefit to Scotland would be voted down by the different coloured Tories voting together.
We should perhaps go back to the mantra of an SNP majority from Scotland at Westminster means Independence.
We can’t achieve anything at Westminster while playing according to their rules.
The level of lies is in proportion to what is at stake.
The GE15 Campaign has sunk so quickly to such a low level,
here in Scotland in particular, as to beg the question
‘Why are we not seeing a ‘normal’ campaign?’
The answer, as many know, is that there is nothing ‘normal’
about UK politics at this time.
The Union is in crisis. And everything with it. The Unionists have nothing which can be authenticated going for them, so they are reduced to fantasy – hoping to catch the votes of those who live in the unreal world of celebrity gossip or TV soap operas.
We are now engaged in the politics of panic.
The Establishment is now desperate to hold onto its ill-gotten gains and it’s grip on power – even as it feels it slipping from their grasp.
The media simply don’t know what to do.
The BBC in particular have dropped their shitty knickers on the floor
and are desperately trying to bluff their way through.
Fat chance with Murphy as their campaign icon.
Can’t wait till May 7.
The phrase, “Scottish Labour Party”, is a description owned by the Labour Party and registered with the Electoral Commission.
In the 2009 European elections it didn’t appear on the ballot paper at all because after all the fuss Labour made about, “Alex Salmond for First MInister” on the 2007 ballot paper all registered descriptions were banned from ballot papers and the, “Scottish Labour Party” disappeared from view as did the “Scottish Conservative Party” and the “Scottish Liberal-Democrats”. They could only use their true names on the ballot paper, Labour Party, Conservative Party and Liberal-Democrat Party respectively. Bit of an own goal that one.
Of course that didn’t go down well as the fiction that there were Scottish versions of these parties disappeared from view.
So the, “The Scottish Parliament (Elections etc.) Order 2010?, allowed all parties to prefix their name with the word, “Scottish”, in Scotland making the magical mystery disappearing Scottish Labour Party party reappear again on the ballot paper without breaking the registered description rule.
Just because the advertising says there’s a Scottish Labour Party doesn’t make it real.
@ Marcia Thanks for the link McColm trying to drive a wedge between Nicola & Alex re the Marr interview. I dont remember her saying that Alex was’ent consensual in politics.
As I said today Nicola & Alex should do a tour of the Nth of England,now tout sweet given that rubbish in print.
Dr Jim,
“half the time theres not even an opinion it’s just “everything bad wur doomed””
No we are not doomed.
We had a chance after 300 years and we will have another one after another 300 years.
And if we say No again, we will have another one after another 300 years.
But we will be the only country in the world to become independent by only holding a referendum if and when our imperial masters allow us to hold a ‘legally binding’ one.
Rock
Holding the Referendum in September has set a democratic precedent for Scottish Independence, and probably a legal one too. In other words the only democratic and legal route to Independence is via another Referendum.
One exception to that is if the SNP in their 2016 manifesto include a ref for any reason, they are voted in, ask for another section 30 order and are turned down. Then they either hold another ref anyway (subject to court challenges), or consider the possibility of UDI with their 50+ MPs signifying some authorisation, but that would be a last resort.
Internationally though, in ordinary circumstances there’s a very good chance UDI would not be accepted, and that could drag on for decades.
If on the other hand, 50+ or even less MPs hold the balance of power, a deal is accepted by Labour to let them govern, then the SNP are in a very powerful position to push for more powers – not independence as that requires another referendum or really extraordinary circumstances, ones that would be accepted internationally.
Desimond,
“This is but a wave…the tsunami cometh”
A tsunami of 50 against 550?
We will be washed out by that mob. We are vastly outnumbered. Have we just not seen how dirty they played as ‘Better Together’.
It is like playing football with just a goalkeeper in our team and 11 players in the opposing team, and that being perfectly within the rules.
We can never win at Westminster as long as we have to play by their corrupt rules.
yesindyref2,
“If on the other hand, 50+ or even less MPs hold the balance of power, a deal is accepted by Labour to let them govern, then the SNP are in a very powerful position to push for more powers”
What do we read on this website every day?
Murphy is a liar. Curran is a liar. Baillie is a liar. Darling is a liar. Brown is a liar. Dugdale is a liar.
Do you seriously think we could trust Labour on a single word they utter or even sign?
They would govern, go back on their word and then blame the SNP for letting the Tories in. It would be history repeating itself.
I would like to see 59 SNP MPs elected to Westminster in May.
But we have to go for independence by other means, going back to the old mantra of an SNP majority means independence. Playing by their rules will never work.
Just spotted on FB, Miliband coming up here to pledge “Home Rule Bill” within the first 100 days of a new Labour govt.
Last week, I remember a fight being reported denying Home Rule had ever been mentioned!
Think the Glasgow folk are trying to find out the venue to organise a welcome party, cos Skeletor should be there.
They continue to spin on the fracking, but no-one is buying, its SO insulting
Rock
Taking the Sky News projection, Labour would have 282 seats, the Tories 270 seats, the SNP 53, Lib Dems 20 and UKIP two, other parties will represent 23 seats. = 650.
If Labour want to govern they have no choice but to ally with the SNP 282 + 53 = 335, a majority of 20, even without PC and Greens. The SNP won’t ally with the Tories. Clearly the SNP can withdraw their support at any time, which leaves Labour out of power. The SNP have a strong hand.
Apart from having election after election after election, the only other alternative is for Labour and the Tories to ally and form a government. Good luck with that. I think there’s more chance of the man in the moon having green cheese on toast, a very rare bit indeed.
Is it possible that we actually have carpetbag chancers here in Scotland picking up whatever they can from Scottish affairs and sailing under the banner of the ‘Labour Party’.
If Murphy spouts forth about issues that are not of the official UK Labour Party, just what’s going on?
Having supported the ideal of a labour social system for over 30 years until I could take no more misrepresentation, my eyes are now wide open. Murphy and co are shysters. Give them the bum’s rush pronto.
i thought we already had home rule? what’s he on about? I’m confused…
Valerie (and paul)
“Scotland Home Rule Bill”. I like it. I don’t think Miliband has thought this through or knows his history, including the progression from “The Government of Ireland Bill 1920”
link to legislation.gov.uk
(which was known as the Third Home Rule Bill) to the “Northern Ireland Act 1998”
link to legislation.gov.uk
and its successors which added to it.
Calling it the “Scotland Home Rule Bill” definitely invites direct comparisons, with the highest common denominator being expected. That’d be further than Smith, he might as well just go for Devo-Max – it’ll save all those negotiations with the SNP to put him in power.
Rock
We don’t have to trust Labour nor do the SNP, they would have up to 59 votes they can vote “aye”, “nay” or abstain with.
@Rock
Whilst I sympathise with your sentiments about Westminster being an unfair playing field for Scots and the rabble of liars who call themselves MPs, I would caution against any mention of independence by means other than referendum. As has been pointed out on previous occasions on this site, the UDI route is fraught with legal issues and is a huge vote loser. If the SNP tried that, they’d be pushed out of power toot sweet and probably spend another 20 years in the wilderness whilst Labour destroyed everything that has been carefully built up at Holyrood.
The only viable and unarguable route to independence is by referendum. The SNP will call one when they feel they have the public support to win it, at which point it goes into the manifesto so that they can obtain a democratic mandate to hold it, and indyref2 kicks off. The earliest that could happen realistically is 2020, but more likely 2024 – if the SNP can hold onto power that long.
In the meantime, parking the SNP’s tanks on Westminster’s lawn is the best way to ensure we transfer as much power from Westminster to Holyrood as possible. Every single power granted to Holyrood since 1999 has been as a result of Westminster fear of the SNP. Devolution was supposed to kill nationalism stone dead (boy, did they get THAT wrong), but instead it has allowed the SNP to build a power base in Scotland and chip away at the Westminster establishment. Most unionist MPs would privately – but never publicly – admit that Blair devolving power to Scotland was a strategic blunder and set the nation on the path to independence. How long that path is, is largely up to us. (Blair had little choice as he inherited the policy from the much loved and respected John Smith – and it was, paradoxically, Donald Dewer who in large part made it a runaway success). Since the SNP took charge in 2007, they have extracted more and more power from Westminster by playing the long game, working bloody hard, and being phenomenally well disciplined and organised. That’s why they are head and shoulders above the Usual Suspects.
On the point of 600 MPs versus 50, I’d also point out that most votes at Westminster split along party lines, so in reality it’s usually circa 280 votes on each side with the remaining small parties and independents to float based on their political priorities. A block of 50 MPs is therefore a very big prize to land for Tory or Labour politicians trying to drum up support for their Bills. The usual backroom horsetrading will take care of the rest; the SNP will extract concession after concession for Scotland from virtually every piece of business that lands on the Commons floor – and in the lifetime of a parliament, that’s a hell of a lot of business.
Also, don’t forget that the biggest beastie of them all, Alex Salmond, will be returning as part of the SNP team. Salmond is a once-in-a-generation politician; brilliant, committed, a talented negotiator, formidable debater, expert on House rules and procedures, has a phenomenal recall of facts and figures, and is utterly ruthless. He’s worth 10 Camerons and 100 Nick Cleggs. Although he won’t lead the Westminster group, he’ll be there as a mentor, party elder and organiser – a wartime consigliere. If I were a Labour or Tory MP, I would be shitting myself at the thought of a block of SNP recruits trained and directed by Alex Salmond.
I doubt we’ll get 50 SNP MPs, probably more like 35 – but it will be like sending 35 Spartans to fight against a few hundred badly organised conscripts.
Ed Milliband
HomeRule speech
“Jim’s getting to grips with the problems in Scotland’s NHS with his plan for 1000 new nurses.”
bfh—labour pledged 1000 more nurses than SNP,so that statement is a lie
I see our Ed is promising delivery of ‘Home Rule’ bill within 100 days of taking power, hmmm.
Which would of course be a good thing but for a few minor niggles. Firstly of course there’s Ed’s/Labour’s/the Establishment’s definition of Home Rule. Doesn’t quite jibe with most people’s accepted definition. Secondly, there’s Westminster’s infamous SASC and the vested interests of WM party politics, the entrenched reticence of the HoL and leave us not forget the endemic corporate influence within WM politics we’ve all come to know and love.
They’ve also made it abundantly clear that their idea of the maxiest devoest, most potent devolved governance in the world is somewhat different to pretty much everyone else’s.
Last but by no means least he’s forgetting we have a slight trust issue going on with our media and political system. Or to put it another way I for one, simply don’t believe a word they utter on pretty much any subject. They do have a fairly spectacular record of using and most certainly abusing the electorate. I don’t believe they’ll deliver any damn thing of use to the Scottish electorate unless they are held to it by enough political and legal leverage.
In short, if you want the maxiest devo ever, then send down as many pro Scotland, SNP MPs as is humanly possible. Our contingent of MPs which we send down represents the interests of the Scottish population in a partnership. The representation we’ve sent down to look after those interests for the past several decades haven’t just proven themselves ineffective, they’ve proven themselves to be a detriment to those interests and the well being of their own constituents. Repeating the same experiment time after time, with the same formula and expecting different results would seem to me to be an opportunity wasted. An exercise in utter futility really.
So I suppose we could take Ed at his word, accept his definition of Home Rule and trust to the ‘good will’ within the Westminster system of governance to deliver ‘the most powerful devolved parliament anywhere in the universe’. Or perhaps, just to make sure mind, we help Westminster along a bit and send down some proper representation in the shape of thirty plus SNP MPs to help them focus on the true meaning of Home Rule and partnership.
Might be best eh? 😉
By way of reassurance, I’m neither a troll nor a fool regarding Jim Murphy. I’m also well aware of the nuances of the discussion regarding the status (or otherwise) of what’s being referred to as the Scottish Labour party. I’m simply reading what’s being quoted in this particular article and focussing on what’s actually being said.
Why? Because no-one from British Labour is contradicting him. If he was just making these public pronouncements on his own, someone senior would have stepped in by now to contradict him (“Well, although we admire Jim’s dedication, we’re very much one nation, one party, etc, etc”).
As Grouse Beater says (12:11am):
” 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?”
I think Head Office IS orchestrating this – the “tell ’em anything, Jim” strategy. An announcement in the Spring? Just in time for the final stretch of the campaign? Guaranteed to get blanket coverage. And possibly win back swaying SLAB voters.
THAT’S where the deceit lies.
Oh and @ronnie anderson 11:11 pm
“@ Shuggy 10.58. Ah canny be arse’d tae answer you, dont be to suprized if somebody else carve’s you ah new arsehole.”
I see you speak fluent Murphy.
If ever I need a new one, I’ll send you an application form.
RogueCoder: If the SNP tried that, [UDI] they’d be pushed out of power toot sweet and probably spend another 20 years in the wilderness
The problem lies with the many non-Scots who voted No for the simple reason they do not consider themselves Scottish or Scotland is a separate nation.
Some did it purely for selfish reasons – not wanting to lose their study grant, research grants, pension, whatever the scare was that they believed.
Salmond led the softly, softly approach and almost reached the ideal, but next time around we shall have to think of how better to convince the population to be fearless in pursuit of their rights.
Salmond saw his route as radical. If only it was.
The Pnr says
Matey …they wanted us in the Union, then they get our baggage too! In fact, my belief is that by keeping Scotland in the Union, it may only highlight even further that the Union is dead as the people and the parties squabble over who has the right to govern them …even if it means a Labour/SNP coalition governing the country known as London!
Effijy says
Good one LOL. May need rolls and rolls of wallpaper to cover the list of Labour’s sins.
Valerie
I wondered what Kaye thinks of the wording of that bill?
“I don’t think he used the words “Home Rule”.
Can someone please ask her to clear that one up. Or has Ed mispelt or simply miswritten or mislegislated?
Ronnie Anderson says
“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.”
Best I can do Ronnie,
I hope you’ve got a good aim . 🙂
link to tinyurl.com
______________________________________________________
Patrick Roden say
“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.”
Political pigmys who knew that while he was on the scene they were hidden in his huge shadow.
________________________________________________________
btw O/T
what the hell has Willie Rennie been drinking now? in the (laughable) PPB last night he’s seen chapping hunners o doors (snigger)saying “we’re listening” big mistake pal because if you came to my door with that comment I would say, listen to this then Rennie, fuck off and don’t come back,
He even had the brass neck to say “when the SNP go too far we’re listening”
Ok Willie, we’re all ears,
Tell us all about these “excesses” the profligate SNP have visited on the poor people of Scotland
Maybe you upset at the SNP pissing money down the drain paying off the councils for the loss of bedroom tax that you and your pals voteds to keep?
Could it be that your annoyed that the SNP are willing to defy your glorious leaders betrayal of Students and gift them the same ludicrously extravagant present of free university education that you were able to take advantage of?
(is there such a thing as university courses for clippies?)
Maybe your pissed off at the SNP for sitting on the fence re the fracking debate while you and your Labour buddies took such a clear and unequivocal stance and resolutely abstained on the vote!
THE VEIN THE VEIN!!!!!
how about we talk about your persistant habit of asking ridiculous questions at FMQ’s where you raise your eyebrows in a facile attempt to make you look like an incredulous father listening to a fantastical story about why your child didn’t do his/her homework, when your about to get your arse handed to you by a girl? (snigger Nicola I love you)
______________________________________________________
MoJo says
“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….”
Why dont you ask them?
We’ed be interested to hear the answer too. 🙂
_______________________________________________________
Ronnie Anderson says
“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.”
Best I can do Ronnie,
I hope you’ve got a good aim . 🙂
link to tinyurl.com
______________________________________________________
Patrick Roden say
“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.”
Political pigmys who knew that while he was on the scene they were hidden in his huge shadow.
________________________________________________________
btw O/T
what the hell has Willie Rennie been drinking now? in the (laughable) PPB last night he’s seen chapping hunners o doors (snigger)saying “we’re listening” big mistake pal because if you came to my door with that comment I would say, listen to this then Rennie, fuck off and don’t come back,
He even had the brass neck to say “when the SNP go too far we’re listening”
Ok Willie, we’re all ears,
Tell us all about these “excesses” the profligate SNP have visited on the poor people of Scotland
Maybe you upset at the SNP pissing money down the drain paying off the councils for the loss of bedroom tax that you and your pals voteds to keep?
Could it be that your annoyed that the SNP are willing to defy your glorious leaders betrayal of Students and gift them the same ludicrously extravagant present of free university education that you were able to take advantage of?
(is there such a thing as university courses for clippies?)
Maybe your pissed off at the SNP for sitting on the fence re the fracking debate while you and your Labour buddies took such a clear and unequivocal stance and resolutely abstained on the vote!
THE VEIN THE VEIN!!!!!
how about we talk about your persistant habit of asking ridiculous questions at FMQ’s where you raise your eyebrows in a facile attempt to make you look like an incredulous father listening to a fantastical story about why your child didn’t do his/her homework, when your about to get your arse handed to you by a girl? (snigger Nicola I love you)
______________________________________________________
seems like tinyURL is playing up I tried to make a url tiny
and the result would have gone to the moon and back TWICE!
Is Wee Wullie as dopey as Jim Murphy is creepy?
@ John King
Wait whut now?
Did he actually say this? – “when the SNP go too far we’re listening”
What an arse.
I’d like to know what he means by that? Does he mean like instgate tuition fees too far, or maybe help bring the bedroom tax into legislation too far? Does he mean shaft the people for expenses fiddles too far over decades perhaps? Or does this ‘too far’ include involving your electorate in illegal wars, under the table arms deals, rendition and torture type of too far? How about denigrating and othering half of the populace of your own country whilst selling their sovereignty? Would he consider any of those things to be going TOO FAR?
FFS, could somebody tell this embarrassment of a wee nyaff that his idea of too far and ours is wildly fucking different.
Milliband coming to Glasgow today to campaign with Murphy – picked a great day for it Ed.
The bribe to Scotland is ,full home rule, within 100 days of being elected as PM.
He’s offering us a crust and calling it a Pizza.
From SG statement:
“Scottish Energy Minister Fergus Ewing has today announced that there is to be a moratorium on granting consents for unconventional oil and gas developments in Scotland whilst further research and a public consultation is carried out. The decision comes days after the UK Government voted against a moratorium.
Last Friday, following the publication of the Smith Command Paper, Mr Ewing wrote to UK Energy Secretary Ed Davey requesting that the UK Government do not issue further licences in Scotland as the powers over licencing are due to be devolved.”
This says what it’s all about. The Smith proposal for powers over fracking have not (yet?) been honoured. So Fergus Ewing is going as far as he can at the moment. Once power over this is devolved, I think we can expect an immediate ban. If power isn’t devolved, then this will be a prominent election issue.
You might think that Milliband by touting for the PM’s job, is going to upset his pal Dave over at No.10.
Not a bit of it, it will please Cameron no end if the whole of Scotland votes Labour. Cameron knows his enemy isn’t Milliband, it’s Nicola and the SNP.
So Scotland, if you want to make David Cameron extremely happy, just vote Labour in May.
But of course you won’t; you are too clever to fall for that one.
No. May has been set aside so that Labour will get it’s just desserts for jumping into bed with the Tories to deny Scotland its Independence.
Vote for Scotland. Vote SNP.
Here ye go
have fun
link to bbc.co.uk
Seems Wee Willie Wonkie took a wrang turning and ended up in Walthamstow going by the English voices (one scot) in the broadcast, or could they just not get a Scot who didn’t just laugh in their faces when they chapped their door?
Home Rule means the same as Full Fiscal Autonomy and Devo Max!
Perhaps someone should explain this to Ed Milliband.
Obviously they are trying to redefine the meaning of Home Rule. Pathetic attempt at manipulation. I sense the same level of panic setting in with the Unionists as we saw in the last 10 days of the referendum campaign. This time it looks as if we will get 100 days of wild promises!
@ John
OMG
That was a party political broadcast by the Scottish Liberal Democrats… (speechless)
They’ll hold other parties to account will they? They’ll listen when the other parties go too far? And they’ve done such a bang up job on that score so far.
Politicians don’t hold other politicians to account. We do.
@ galamcennalath
Home Rule, much like independence is what the populace of Scotland define it to be. Westminster would argue its what the other partners define and of course. The truth is the establishment are the ones who are doing all the defining.
However it seems to me that ‘Home rule’ is just that. The populace and body politic of a partner in a relationship (business or political) utterly runs their ‘home’ and contributes fairly to the partnership. But run/rule their, home, business, governance is exactly as it says on the tin.
The meeting hoose where joint business is done doesn’t get to decide who runs what, the owner (that would be us) tells their representatives what they are willing to give/afford to the partnership.
Somewhere along the way our representation forgot what the term ‘representation’ means.
Jeeze oh! That the best advert wee willie can come up with?
It’s insulting!
Aye galamcennalath and if people fall for those promises as they did during the ref, we’ll get a 100 months and more of denial and backtracking followed by the re writing of history on a scale never before seen.
Vote for Scotland on the 7th May or consign our country to regional status in perpetuity.
Vote SNP.
Miliband to bullshit his private audience again in Glasgow. Fewer and fewer people listening to him or Murphy,
“And if you’re really good boys and girls, Uncle Ed will give you Home Rule in 100days, yes 100days.”
The really insulting part of this charade is Miliband thinks we are taking all this bullshit in.
But SNP deputy leader Stewart Hosie said: “Trying to claim that this is Home Rule could be reported under the Trade Descriptions Act for being completely untrue.
Sums it up just about right Stewart.
Will be interesting to see if the posters and décor around Miliband will say “Labour” or “Scottish Labour”.
Tonight’s SNP Party Political Broadcast to be shown on TV;
link to youtube.com
Don’g get too excited. They were discussion Home Rule for Scotland back in 1913; Government of Scotland Bill.
link to hansard.millbanksystems.com
Brian Cox: Why I’ve quit Labour for SNP
link to archive.today
The Alex Salmond interview: ‘I love England. It’s just let down by Cameron and Miliband’
link to archive.today
Listen up you sweaties!
Home Rule is what WE decide it is – okay?
If it wasn’t for the BBC, Milliband wouldn’t even be here.
It was the BBC that killed us in Indyref.
But the nation is ‘addicted’ to it.
We must find a way to kill the BBC off.
“A man’s got to know his Jimitations” – Clint Eastwood
How do you call Jim Murphy a lying scumbag without actually using those words WELL, Lesley Riddoch manages it quite well in todays National
Nicely done Lesley
Marcia @ 9.29
I tried hard to take a non partisan critical look at the SNP ppb so I could (try) to compare it fairly to the LibDem one from last night, and it took 30 seconds for me to be swept away by the analogy in “the winds of change”
The libdems are not in the same league,
god even the people they got to speak on it were hardly fulsome in their praise of the libdems the only one who came close was the young woman who thought Nick Clegg was the best leader of the “three”
WOW?
you need to get out more love.or maybe she was just starting from a VERY low level of expectation?
Well that view puts her into a very small group of people who ACTUALLY believe that,
another one thought “they get on and do the job all year? not just when they’re looking for your vote!
Wow Id love to live where he lives where we just have to put up with these clowns for a year before we get to turf them out,
The others made no reference to the libdums suggesting to me those people were interviewed on a general question without knowing their comments would be used by the libdums,
You know things are not looking good for your future employment prospects when your trying to drum up support, but don’t even dare to tell the people who your asking their support for!
I see Carney Goldman Sachs is now worried about austerity in the Eurozone. I do wonder what advice he is giving to that financial wizard Osborne.
I read somewhere that goldman sachs has placemen in almost every financial institution and government. No surprise there then.
link to globalmagnacarta.org
Whilst I am not a supporter of any extreme beliefs, be they religious, political, financial or corporate, I think it took this type of thinking to begin a reaction to the abuses the Greek people have been enduring for the past 5 years.
Even just a superficial understanding of finance shows that ‘Austerity’ is not a solution to their problems but merely a means by which the troika could support the plunder and control of Society.
How to put your foot in it – Murphy style.
link to archive.today
[warning – does contain a photograph of him]
SNP broadcast
you can just see Jim Murphy in the bushes wanting a game of footie
Second of three interviews with Alex Salmond
link to ibtimes.co.uk
So Miliband resurrects the Home Rule words yet again but no doubt the usual suspects will say 5 minutes later “we never said Home Rule”
Of course it is all academic because I don’t think Ed has a clue what Home Rule actually means. It is just more mendacious, duplicitous bull from the Bullshit Party. Reheated, stale Devo Nano from last March.
@manandboy 29 Jauary 2015 at 9:56 am
Totally agree the ENGLISH BROADCASTING SERVICE is the PROPAGANDA arm of the Establishment and a arm of the state (GB UK or whatever they call it). ENGERLAND CALLING, ENGERLAND CALLING!
@Marga says:28 January, 2015 at 10:53 pm:
“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.
Well, Marga, I’m going to make a point that seems not to have yet been though of on the conscious level. No one seems to have put two and 2 together on the matter of the larger supermarkets closing outlets right across Scotland.
Note these supermarkets were the ones that threatened to leave Scotland if the Scots dared vote for independence. Yet here we are with them quitting Scotland anyway. We have two lines of thought here. One is that they had planned to leave Scotland before the referendum and used that to influence the result of the vote. The other is that the people of Scotland reacted to their threats by shopping elsewhere because of their threats. Personally I did all my shopping, and bought my road fuel, at ASDA but now shop elsewhere.
Could it be the good people of Kirkcaldy and the East of Scotland have joined me in deserting those big supermarkets that were obviously unionist tools and that is why they are now being forced out of Scotland? You will note that not a single MSM or broadcaster has mentioned this. Remember though they too were/are tools of the Unionists and they too are losing Scottish customers by the thousands.
Perhaps the East of Scotland is quietly having much more effect on the matter than they are being credited with. Is this, perhaps, a case of the media pittin cairts afore cuddies?
Should the SNP send upwards of 40 plus mps south and be involved in a loose coalition with Labour ,one of the first things i would demand would be reform for the BBC/media.The BBC is supposed to represent all sides to the argument and remain impartial, also the media should have to adhere to the facts ,this goes for mp’s to.
The BBC website has an article about Miliband’s visit :
link to archive.today
in which he is quoted as saying
So he’s admitting that the Command Paper doesn’t fulfil the Smith Commission “promises” is he?
And although the last sentence is realistic, it’s also awfully weak. I thought the Labour Party never conceded they might not win something.
Crazycat 10.27
Don’t forget that He may be conceding to his own backbenchers on this.
Craig Leslie told where Labour would be getting the funds for extra nursing in England in the commons yesterday;
“As a member of the shadow Treasury team, I want meticulously to explain the alternative course by which we will deal with the requirement for 20,000 additional nurses and 8,000 additional GPs, and the time to care fund of £2.5 billion. First, we would raise £1.2 billion from the levy on ultra-high-value properties—those worth more than £2 million—the so-called mansion tax.
Secondly, we would raise least £1.15 billion by closing three tax loopholes. The first is that hedge funds are avoiding stamp duty by getting tax-exempt investment banks to buy shares for them. At least £500 million is lost through that tax loophole, and we must close it. The second is that many large corporations, including some of the water utilities, are shifting profits out of the UK by borrowing large sums at high interest rates via their owners’ subsidiary companies through offshore stock exchanges. That is known as the quoted eurobond exemption. The third is that many employment agencies sign up workers to umbrella companies almost at random, and exploit tax reliefs on travel and subsistence without passing them on to the work force. Between £300 million and £600 million is lost to the Exchequer in that way. Those three tax loopholes must be closed.
Thirdly, we need to take £150 million a year from a new levy on tobacco company profits. That levy has worked in the United States, and we believe it is now appropriate in this country.
The sum of £2.5 billion is a significant investment that our NHS needs. It will also provide the time to care for the patients who deserve much more than the 15-minute chunks they have been getting recently.”
The 1000 nurses for Scotland is not mentioned but I’m guessing these will come out of our % share, Jim Murphys cut.
Robert Peffers says
“Could it be the good people of Kirkcaldy and the East of Scotland have joined me in deserting those big supermarkets that were obviously unionist tools and that is why they are now being forced out of Scotland?”
I could not agree more Bob but the trouble with that is the Supermarkets in my view that did the most to influence the vote were Asda and Morrisons and while Morrisons are feeling our wrath I cant see any affect on the most guilty of all and that’s ASDA as far as I can recall Tesco kept out of it,
I don’t want to see anyone losing their jobs but I would dearly love to see Asda pay for their crimes against Scotland!
@Effijy says:28 January, 2015 at 11:07 pm:
” … A full 30 % of what the shop no longer sells will be theirs along with a Time table of Buses heading toward Edinburgh.
Why Edinburgh, Effijy? Upon ASDA threatening to desert Scotland if I dared to vote for independence they lost my business and I bought everything from them including road fuel. I never used Tesco anyway. However I transferred my food shopping to FarmFoods and by chance there was a good bargain shop within yards of the Farmfoods outlet and also a clothes outlet and electronics/whitegoods store too.
Not only that but they were about the same distance of travel as the ASDA store and I found my bill for the average month was lower than my former ASDA shopping. Mayhap the Kirkcaldy Tesco has Farmfoods and other Scottish based outlets within easier reach than a trip to the capital.
Sheesh! This is probably the biggest lie yet.
The work programme could not be further from “job creating powers”. It is founded on the idea that there are plenty of jobs, and the fault lies with the people who do not have jobs. They are lacking skills, or they are lazy, or they are in the wrong place, or they are “pricing themselves out of the market. Anything but admit that the neoliberal notion that the market always provides enough jobs for everyone who wants to work is obviously nonsense.
Is everyone aware that in this fantasy economic theory unemployment is caused by a preference for leisure over work? Folk just decide en masse that they prefer to live on the dole. I am not making this up.
This idea that devolving the work programme is job creating is the only proof necessary that Labour is neoliberal to its core these days.
It passes off an insult as a policy. I am truly tired of such insults
OK.steady Eddie. Explain home rule to us in writing in all its glory and sign it.
By the way is dim Jim on board with you, maybe he could sign it too and once you important people have put your monicker to it you could get Betty to put her official stamp on it. Then we could give it to the pope to hold it for us. Just for safe keeping.
Then again you could just be talking lies again, as usual.
Multi Word ‘Murph’ style
Home Rule
Dome Rale
Dole Sale
Dolt Sall
Bolt Sail
Bold Sain
Boll Shin
Bull Shit
O/T Great celebrations at work this fine sunny morn.
Since the referendum our unionist foreman took to referring to us (the serfs) on a daily basis as whinging jocks, increasingly ran the place like his own wee personal feifdom. Some of the guys got real pissed off and would have floored him without a second thought but sense prevailed and as part of a group effort it was unanimously decided in bothy booth fashion to explicitly and obviously whinge about the smallest and most trivial of things possible at all times.
It worked!
This morning we were informed that he’d put in for a transfer and has quietly moved on.
Please sign this petition. The horrors of child abuse can not be brushed aside by Westminster any longer.
Truly shocking crimes. Reports of abusers being in government right now.
link to change.org
@ John King
It’s not even the people in the parties for me, it’s the message behind the party that makes SNP stand out far beyond the rest. They might not admit it, but it must be hard for a Scottish Labour supporter to compare the drive of their party and the SNP and not wish that they had some of what the SNP are pushing for. I’m sure it’s been said before, but I’d love to see the results of a shopping centre ‘washing up liquid’ style test where manifesto pledges are shown to public without any party branding.
Great post @RogueCoder 3.33am
In my anti fracking group, I’ve had to keep telling them, SNP will deliver. I said they are lining up their ducks etc., but we were all still quite nervous, and lots of talk of switching to Green, and I’m very sure that would have happened around the country.
I joined SNP last year, because I had never felt as moved to join any party before. They are disciplined and strategic, and there are times we have to be patient, hard tho that is, no one wants to think we have to wait years for the prize, but we just have to work away meantime.
So many people are engaged with their country’s well being and future.
The anti fracking groups are delighted, but will be quickly regrouping to take forward this opportunity we have to make the case for a ban. It’s hugely important, and I would urge everyone to at least know your local group and give some support.
Scotland is once again in global headlines with the moratorium, being reported in lots of US papers, and down under.
O/T a bit but has anyone seen this yet?
Former Glasgow Govan MP Mohammad Sarwar has resigned as governor of Punjab in Pakistan.
His departure comes two days after he criticised the federal government for failing to enter into a new trade partnership with the US.
The 62-year-old, who became Britain’s first Muslim MP in 1997, tweeted that it had been an honour to serve.
However, he also criticised Pakistan’s “injustice and corruption” which he claimed was “deep rooted”.
Bit rich coming from him eh? he went to India on the back of serious corruption charges! no doubt daddy is returning to help Labour return to power snigger snigger..
And there’s more…
NNS are, for the moment, available, Read it while you can.
link to newsnet.scot
Before Cameron’s Cabinet got their claws on it, the Smith Commission proposals were worth having.
But they ripped all that was worthwhile out of what Smith put in,
leaving only a few scraps of questionable value.
This piece of Vow ‘asset stripping’ has been quietly ignored
by all and sundry.
Keep in mind that no one at the time said anything about the cabinet getting their hands on DevoMax first – otherwise the take up by the voters for the Vow would have been much less.
It is the ‘leftovers’ which Milliband is offering Scotland – as you would to dog sitting by the dinner table.
That’s what Milliband – and Cameron – are both doing with the Vow – throwing scraps to Scottish dogs.
Just a small thanks to the Rev Stu for all his brilliant detective work. I love Wings for its great and thorough analysis,and most certainly I miss making mycontributions. The information I glean from this site is allowing me to take the fight to the unionist camp on a daily basis on other sites. Keep up the great work you all do, and keep passing the ammunition. Thank You
@ John King Just catching up on posters, but thankee kindly I,m sure Shanks can elongate the mooth with a bit of photoshop, noo that wid be ah scream.
Re Sarwar senior -didn’t he give up his British nationality in pursuit of the Governorship of the Punjab?
Ah hear tell Millibands promised home rule within 100 days of a Labour gov being elected, did he happen to mention 100 Pipers anaw anaw.
@yesindyref2 says: 29 January, 2015 at 12:13 am:
” … 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.”
Did not someone already post that the name, “Scottish Labour”, was fairly recently registered by Jim Sillers & Alex Neil? They may indeed still own the title.
As the whole point of registration is to clearly identify the Political Party on ballot papers then the EC must not allow Murphy to register the name again so soon as that would cause confusion for Scottish voters.
Skype chat with John Drummond and Dr Mark …
Well worth an interesting hour long interview re constitutional issues.
Marcia says:
The link is coming up unavailable, funny that !
If anyone was daft enough to believe Milliband’s Home Rule offer, it would turn into the usual fudge after the event and we would end up with nothing worth having.
People need to waken up and realise that it is only because the SNP are in full flow that any offers are coming our way.
With regard to Mr Miliband’s offer of Home Rule, well look what having 11 SNP MP’s did for the frightening of Labour, they were scared witless, not that they have many of them, that they offered and had accepted their Devolution plans of 1997. How far do you think they might just go with 30/40/50 plus SNP MP’s?
I am guessing that Milibland’s ‘Home Rule Pledge’ is in response to Cameron’s ‘Devolution Mr.Sheen’ – both used to polish the turd which is the Smith Commission legislation…
Les Wilson 11.35
– the links are still working.
Something cruel within me is looking forward to Stu’s dissection of Ed’s Home Rule pledge (unless Ed has had a Damascus Road moment and has said “I have an idea, let’s offer real Home Rule”)
🙂
Why isnt Jim Murphy the one giving us Home Rule…after all isnt Scotland all his these days?
Whatever additional powers the SNP promise to fight for, Jim Murphy will promise to fight for 1000 more.
Put down your coffee cups and prepare to laugh your arse off…
link to buzzfeed.com
Even better…
Attach the Scottish Labour Party to a gig or event branding, thay way there isn’t even any chance of them pulling a “attempt to confuse and defraud the electorate” ploy to get ut back.
Hmmmm…. I’m temoted to chuck that one into gigs for change and see what they think 😉
manandboy writes, “we must find a way to kill the BBC off.” The Tories – and Alex Salmond’s friend Rupert Murdoch – have been trying for years to destroy public service broadcasting. Revealing to see manandboy backing their call.
He has escaped again.
Kezia Dugdale forced Andy Murphyto win the semi final in Australia.
This is a very bad thought.
Supposing, the last three UK Govs have each borrowed very large sums, from say, the Chinese, using Scottish oil & gas as security.
Independence would leave the Westminster Gov. very exposed indeed and the Chinese knocking on the door of No 10 demanding repayment of the loans.
This would also be the case with the ECB & the IMF had they also made similar loans to the UK.
But Westminster would not be able to pay back what was owed.
This scenario would make Scotland indispensable to Westminster as things stand.
I did say it was a bad thought.
O/T saw this on Twitter just now, this is true,it is a follow up on the Charlie Brooker piece at Christmas. link to archive.today
And for posterity, so that this article can never be wiped from the Internet…
link to archive.today
Jim Murphy is FULL mentalist overdrive.
@ Seasick Dave
Great googly moogly that’s right up there with wee Willie’s listening broadcast. 😀
OFFS! Off the pace, says the guy who couldn’t be bothered turning up to cast a vote on what could be considered one of his own flagship policies. Too busy playing keepie uppie and wearing many and varied football shirts. 😀 LOL
Meanwhilst the pro Scotland parties get on with actually making policy and government work.
IN not IS. Tsk.
Murphy’s deranged pronouncements can be explained by that archive fro @Patrician link to archive.today
@ Robert Peffers, Rober, you know very well that the folk in the east of Scotland are famous for watching the pennies, hence the closures. 🙂
@ seasickdave. Buzzfeed article by Jamie Ross ? You mean scripted by John McTernan.
@Will Podmore. Is there a connection between the BBC and public service broadcasting?
I see theres a mistake in the picture of Jim Murphy
Shouldnt it say:
Leading Labour / Charging Scotland
You can all make up your own Leading gags!
@Rock says: 29 January, 2015 at 12:52 am:
How can 50 SNP MP’s hold the balance of power against 550 opponents?
It’s simple really, Rock. That 550 opponents only applies when there is no formal De Facto English coalition Government at Westminster with one of the two main parties supported by the likes of the LibDems.
When the Blue & Red Tory parties are split equally and need support to get things through then one or the other must rely upon a small party or faction in order to be able to govern. Their other choice is to join together against … just what? The answer is only Scotland”
The LibDems star is waning in the UK. UKIP actually only has two elected MPs and many of their supporters may return to the Tory ranks to attempt to defeat Labour. The only other faction looking like being a large enough one to matter remains the SNP.
So the big two English Parliament parties, (remember that if the SNP does gain a large number of Scottish seats then both Red & Blue Tories will be either wiped out or negligible in Scotland). Must either show their hands as being in cahoots for England against Scotland or fight against each other in Parliament. Remember the Westminster Parliament is actually the de facto Parliament of England and without Scottish Red & Blue Tories will be plain to even the most stupid Labour voter as being the English government fooling them as being the United Kingdom Government.
@Willy plodmore 12:13 pm
The ENGLISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION should not be allowed to transmit its PROPAGADA and ETABLISHMENT LIES into a friendly neighbouring country to create mischief and fear. Then again maybe the ancient country of Scotland isn’t one of merry ENGERLANDS “FRIENDS” yes that’s it we are just the hired help.
Hmmm, quick query.
Say Mr Mundell doesn’t make it to novelty island and the Libdems find themselves out of coalition after the GE and possibly without MPs in Scotland, just who would a Conservative government get to sit as Secretary of State for Scotland? Without any local commissioners on the books, a UK government would have to appoint someone from outside of Scotland, yes?
@ Macart
William Hague was Secretary of State for Wales for a while, despite his constituency being in Yorkshire, so there are precedents.
They could always appoint a Scottish peer, could they not?
Crazycat
Yeah, vaguely remember that, but struggling to recall if that’s ever happened here. If not then it really does send a crystal clear message to both the Scottish electorate and Westminster in May.
@ Fiona
Possibly.
A sitting member of the Lords though, in Scotland? Oh dang, I hope they’d be that stupid. 🙂
Not sure which is worse, Macart: Scottish peer or English MP? They may not have a good option, under the scenario envisaged. I suspect they might think a Scottish peer is more palatable to Scots, because they do appear to believe that support for independence is predicated on the same kind of ethnic nationalism they themselves embody
There’s any amount of likely characters who are more than capable of doing the job required; Andy Cameron, Kaye with an ‘e’, Jackie Burd, Lawrence of Arabia, Andy Stewart, Buzz Lightyear, Roy Hudd with his Emu, or the daddy of them all Gorgeous George Galloway!
That, I think is the point though. It would be desperation measure to fill the post with something other than what was the accepted norm. It would send a crystal clear message that politics in Scotland isn’t what it was and neither is their oversight.
They’d either be forced to abandon the post, as was once mooted, or place a bod in the position that would stick out like a sore thumb for all the wrong reasons.
@ G H Graham :
“Jimitation is the sincerest form of flattery” 🙂
Omg, I’m glad that Buzzfeed article came with a coffee safety warning.
That has got to be the most deluded, mentality crap yet, from the North British accounting unit manager – wild.
Meanwhile, another minion called McClymont, the local MP, says he feels let down, as the fracking moratorium doesn’t go far enough. The responses are shaping up nicely.
Plodmore: The Tories – and Alex Salmond’s friend Rupert Murdoch – have been trying for years to destroy public service broadcasting. Revealing to see manandboy backing their call.
First of all, cut the smear. Murdoch made plain he’s no friend of the SNP.
As always, you offer a facile opinion, better described as ‘truthiness.’ After a sustained assault on the BBC Murdoch has successfully remodelled it to his own image, that of a profit-driven neo-liberal corporation.
That’s why all his newspapers refused to back the SNP, and hand-in-hand with the BBC, took on the role of opponent to democratic progress in Scotland.
The BBC continues to ‘decline’ to represent and promote Scottish culture internationally.
No, the BBC is not yet a private business. Calls to destroy it only add to the pressure to turn it into a private business.
seasick Dave says
“Put down your coffee cups and prepare to laugh your arse off…”
Reminds me of this. 🙂
link to youtube.com
Will Podmore
“No, the BBC is not yet a private business. Calls to destroy it only add to the pressure to turn it into a private business.”
Now why on Earth would that be a bad thing?
I personally could not care less if the BBC continues in the guise of a private company, they can say the moons made of cheese for all I care
The difference is I wouldn’t have to pay them to spout their lies
at MY expense!
Plodmore No, the BBC is not yet a private business
You do realise you’re arguing with a former BBC executive?
Where to start?
John Birt, tasked by Thatcher, ensured BBC departments paid their way, one against the other. Borrow a pair of scissors or a pencil from one department and you pay for it out of your allocated budget. If yours ran at a loss your output risks atrophy or closure – News is paramount, unless Scottish.
BBC America is established on a pure commercial basis, including commercials every five minutes, and before and after titles and end credits.
The public hold very little sway over ‘their’ broadcaster; how it spends its budget, or squanders it, (many millions in some infamous cases) the only influence being viewing figures, the more audiences clmour for ‘hamburger’ pap, the more BBC will offer hamburger pap and junk ‘to inform, educate, and entertain.’
More than anything, if a commercial company creates a new outlet, such as 24-hour news, BBC competes, (see history of CNN) and sells its news material and programmes at commercial rates.
BBC also utilises independent productions – is now happy with product placement, allows company advertising to appear in sporting events and sponsorship, and has turned its UK programme breaks over to ‘multiple-commercials’ promoting BBC programmes, in the same style as commercial channels, and so on, and so forth.
The notion BBC is a public broadcaster died when it placed the transmission date of an episode of ‘Dallas’ into its main newscasts – top of the news; and when it began interviewing third-rate celebrities as newsworthy, and promoted captains of industry and neo-liberal economics as natural orthodoxy.
The rest of us are ‘viewers’ or ‘punters.’
It appears you have fallen for that one-way role.
“People have no idea what is happening. And they do not know that they do not know.”
Noam Chomsky.
Jackie G lost me when he/she states that Mohammad Anwar went to India on the back of serious corruption charges.
Maybe she simply doesn’t know that Pakistan and India are two different countries or it could be there is something I don’t know about this story, any information on it would be appreciated.
Ed Milliband in Glasgow talking about ‘separate Scottish manifesto’. Is there some mileage to be had in this idea of it being illegal to have different policies under the same party banner? How can a manifesto be ‘separate’ if, by law, it has to say the same things as the UK one?
Macart says
“a UK government would have to appoint someone from outside of Scotland, yes?”
Ooh that’s a thought, send us Lord Freud please god let it be him!
Calls to destroy it only add to the pressure to turn it into a private business
Well, yes. 🙂
And that’s bad why?
re the BBC – I’d rather have a PSB than a private entity, I’d prefer either to state propaganda.
Agreed, Paula Rose
What seems obvious to me is that all of our public services have undergone a radical transformation because of the corruption of public agencies by private sector involvement. It seems to take a long time for the people to become aware of this, but I have no doubt that it has happened by design.
I do not wish to see the abolition of public service broadcasting: I wish to see it introduced, rather. We no longer have it at all, if we ever did. I am perhaps naive in that I think we did have it at one time, as I think we had a civil service which broadly served the people well. In the UK we had rather good public agencies and a private sector which was frankly crap, on the whole. For some reason we took a decision to make the former ape the latter. So now it pretty much all crap. And all crap in the same way.
@ John King
😀
Or how about a blast from the past? A reminder of the good ol’ days of Tory carnage?
Someone who had lots to say as the independence issue was discussed in the HoL?
Lord Lang perhaps?
“The Electoral Commission does not regulate the content of campaign material.”
All we have learned is that there is only one Labour Party registered with the electoral commission.
Party Manifestos are not legally binding. The accounting unit can campaign for anything it wants and publish what ever campaign material it wants…
Will, my old pal! You’re back! I’m so relieved that you’ve decided to grace us with your presence again. After all, where would we be without your sage advice and admirable insight into all things Scottish? Do keep favouring us with your little pearls of wisdom; life just hasn’t been the same without them.
RogueCoder,
“The earliest that could happen realistically is 2020, but more likely 2024 – if the SNP can hold onto power that long.”
They will have milked us dry and destroyed our welfare state in 10 years.
And, as a bonus, blamed everything on the SNP government.
Under such circumstances, it will be highly unlikely to get an independence majority.
And if the SNP government is defeated, we won’t have another referendum for decades.
I don’t support the UDI route.
But the SNP need to get radical and aggressive about our demands. The polite approach will never work when dealing with the Labour b——s (if I have spelled that right).
Robert Peffers,
“It’s simple really, Rock. That 550 opponents only applies when there is no formal De Facto English coalition Government at Westminster with one of the two main parties supported by the likes of the LibDems.”
Yes, it is simple, but opposite to what you suggest.
The 550 opponents’ mob applies in all votes where any meaningful powers might come to Scotland.
All the different coloured Tories, in government or in opposition, would be ordered to vote against Scotland.
They would need just a total of 60 MPs (out of 550) to vote against our theoretical (and hopefully actual) maximum of 59 SNP MPs.
We don’t stand a chance at Westminster, the most corrupt governing system in the world.
John King
Morrisons said prices could go up – or prices could go down:
“Morrisons: “We are neutral on the issue of Scottish independence. We have consistently said that if the cost of doing business was to change in an independent Scotland due to government policies then Morrisons would have to consider raising or indeed lowering prices in that independent Scotland to reflect those differing costs.”
Morrisons have an abattoir near Aberdeen, so prices for meat would be unlikely to go up for them.
Don’t believe all you read in the meejah!
@Rock
history does not support your argument – there is little doubt that the Irish Home Rule Party would have secured Home rule after WW1 if republicans had not rebelled in 1916 and Sinn Fein swept the board in 1918.
No need for a SF-style UDI as it is pretty obvious that the SNP has the exit route well under control.
@ Cadogan Enright
“No need for a SF-style UDI as it is pretty obvious that the SNP has the exit route well under control.”
That they do. 🙂
They don’t need a majority to do anything in the commons other than vote their conscience and upon anything which affects Scottish interests. Its what the other MPs can’t do. With an SNP majority in Holyrood and an SNP majority of MPs representing Scotland’s interests at Westminster, Scotland to all intents and purposes becomes ungovernable. Or in other words, WM has to ask nicely to enact any legislation in a country they effectively have minimal control over.
Westminster isn’t the only parliament that can kick legislation into the long grass. 😉
the liars are still at it
link to theguardian.com
Cadogan Enright,
” history does not support your argument – there is little doubt that the Irish Home Rule Party would have secured Home rule after WW1 if republicans had not rebelled in 1916 and Sinn Fein swept the board in 1918.”
Something would have happened IF something had not happened is not history, it is speculation.
History will record that we lost the referendum, not that there is no doubt we would have won IF the ‘vow’ had not robbed us of support.
Read my posts again – I have never called for UDI.
I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place. So depressing.
RE The British Labour Party in Scotland.
From Branch Office to an Accounting Unit, where next…Filing Cabinet, or perhaps Phonebox?
But seriously, it is not the Labour Party we should be worried about, it is their
CORE VOTE.
Underestimate them at your peril.
This election will not be a SNP/Yes Alliance walkover.
Do not believe the British media propaganda, the SNP will gain more votes, but Labour will still hold on to their seats….do not fall into the BRITISH TRAP!
Looks like it wouldn’t be possible to register a party under the name ‘Scottish Labour’ or the ‘Scottish Labour Party’.
As per previous FOI response from the EC:
link to electoralcommission.org.uk
I tweeted as much to Joanne Lamont ,that there was no such thing as Scot Labour ,pity she only got the message AFTER the vote
Would strongly suggest getting this out across social media, such as Facebook
Especially on Jim Murphy’s Facebook page, which is currently a shit storm of angry voters (unless Murphy has deleted)
No, just checked, he is still getting telt!
It’s about time Labour realised that we can all see that they cannot be all things to all countries.
They should now give up on Scotland and put all their eggs in the Basket south of the border.
As I see it ,, only #WMLab can decide #Policy for Scotland should Lab win the #Scottish Election 2016 in the meantime he still has to adhere to their wishes So what ever #Jimbo says is Rubbish .. Hence #Lamonts #BranchOffice remarks .. bye jimbo
wow…..done and dusted. Well done Stu
I’ve been thinking about the whole labour constitution thing and an idea has crept up on me.
Would Jim be daft enough to see what way the wind was blowing and quit the Labour Party and set up his own Scottish Labour Party ?????
He would then be free to embrace whatever policies he thinks would appeal to the voters .
It’s the only way I can see labour bouncing back in Scotland.
does the same apply for the Conservative party in Scotland