I was in Labour, but I didn’t inhale
Below is a short extract from an interview between Margaret Curran and BBC Radio Scotland’s Derek Bateman on Good Morning Scotland last week.
The whole thing is very much worth a listen, but this bit jumped out.
BATEMAN: What do we make of Denis Healey admitting that when [North Sea] oil was discovered, Labour – a Labour government, ahead of a referendum, interestingly, on the constitution of Scotland – misled, deliberately misled the Scots about the value of oil?
CURRAN: Well, Derek, I don’t know anything about that, those times, I don’t know the basis on which Denis Healey said that, I don’t know the argument, I don’t know the papers around that.
DB: But you’re the shadow Secretary of State for Scotland! You’re a senior Labour figure, I mean, he was a Labour chancellor.
MC: I know I’m getting on a bit, but I wasn’t around in Denis Healey’s days.
Margaret Curran was born in 1958. Denis Healey was Chancellor of the Exchequer from March 1974 until May 1979. During that period Margaret Curran was, therefore, between the ages of 16 and 21. We’re pretty sure that qualifies as “around”.
But perhaps, like many young people, the teenage/early 20s Margaret just wasn’t interested in politics? Let’s take a closer look at her Wikipedia entry:
“She first became politically active in the Glasgow University Labour Club in the late 1970s, where she was associated with Johann Lamont and Sarah Boyack. She held several posts in Labour student politics, including secretary and vice-chair of Glasgow University Labour Club, and chair and secretary of the Scottish Organisation of Labour Students. She was involved in the unsuccessful campaign to elect Hortensia Allende as Rector of Glasgow University in 1977.”
You’d imagine a the chair of the Scottish Organisation of Labour Students would have a pretty fair idea of who a Labour Chancellor was and what he was up to, no?
There is, of course, no great surprise in a Labour politician trying to feign ignorance of one of the most shameful episodes in the Scottish party’s history. After all, we’d be quite willing to believe a student activist wouldn’t be privy to the details of the McCrone Report cover-up at the time.
But to continue to pretend knowing nothing eight years after it was all over the papers, fully aware that nationalists have been using it as a weapon ever since, when one is the shadow Secretary of State for Scotland, is either unbelievably incompetent politics or a gross insult to the intelligence of Radio Scotland listeners. Let’s have a quick poll.
[poll id=”26″]
Results this time tomorrow night!
So use this one instead: “The UK – A Voluntary Union or Capture by…
Can’t we tick both?
Aye, Margaret Curran thinks Scots are idiots because Margaret Curran is an incompetent idiot.
What else could she say. Any other answer would have landed her right in it. I don’t know much of this woman. From the little I do know, my impression is career politician who will say and do anything to score points over the SNP or to advance her career. Her constituents or country are of no interest. But I could be wrong.
Tsk, you really should stop using that Terrahawks pic every time you mention Curran.
Oh, sorry.
Maybe she thought the entire Labour cabinet at the time was just Mike Yarwood in disguise.
Perhaps the most revealing point here can be reduced to a simple sentence. On the basis that she “wasn’t around” at the time, Margaret Curran claims not to know the truth about the Labour government’s deception of the Scottish people in the late 1970s, but even today, she herself is happy to deceive the Scottish people about this same period by spreading the lie that Thatcherism was all the fault of the SNP.
Of course she knew about it. I’m just a year younger and I knew about the issues surrounding oil and the growing movement for independence. There had always been the attitude around that Scotland was too poor (etc) but the production of oil just off our coast blew that excuse out of the water. The SNP went from (I think) 2 MPs to 11 in 1974. The British government, and the establishment it represented, was in a panic, and it obviously buried the bad news (for the British state).
Now if an ordinary Scottish/English lad being brought up in Lancashire was aware of the issues regarding Scottish nationhood around that time, you can be sure that a politico in the Labour Party was. And how has she fought her way to shadow Sec of State for Scotland without being aware of the McCrone controversy?
Nah, she is just playing ignorant and hoping that most of the Scottish public go along with her story of ignorance.
Scottish Labour politicians have been telling lies to the people of Scotland for generations, that is what they do. Simples!
Entailed within Magrit’s long, long-established idiocy is her implicit but damn obvious belief in the idiocy of other Scots.
Hence Magrit Curran is an idiot, who also happens to be incompetent.
Plausible Deniability Aye Right.
Of course she f****ing knew. Like Sunshine on Crief I’m just a year younger, and was active in Student politics at another Glasgow seat of Higher education in 77, 78 and 79. Having been politicised by the two 74 elections, and the dramatic advance of the SNP, and growing up in North Highlands where everyman and his Uncle was travelling miles every day to work at Nigg, Invergordon or Ardersier (and Kishorn) it was pretty clear that Oil, and the SNP’s very clever marketing campaign “Its Scotland’s Oil” was hitting home very hard. People could see an alternative, and one that did not involve a Labour Tory see saw every four years.
The Labour kids in Glasgow did not like it one bit. Not one bit at all. If I was called a Tartan Tory, class ("Tractor" - Ed), and f***king teuchter once I was called it a hundred times. (It took me years to understand why they kept asking which School I went to as well). Taking out my copy of the Red papers on Scotland, and pointing to the sections where Gordon Brown was highlighting the real differences between Scotland and the rest of the UK was just an invitation to be asked if I really believed that the people of Bristol were less important than the people of Bathgate. Sound familiar?
Someone needs to ask Curren if she was out on the streets of Glasgow in 79 campaigning for Devolution. I know I was, but if she was there, I’d suspect she was out fighting for a no vote, like almost all Labour student people I knew.
This is the woman who gave the stark warning that independence would mean the end of devolution.
She’s as sharp as a sponge.
@sunshine on Crieff.
The SNP had 7 MPs in 1974. After that it increased to 11.
Then we had that World Cup in 1978 when that bunch of tits let us all down, the media had a field day, the SNP stupidly dropped their Oil Campaign, and things began to get flakey.
Regarding (or should I say ‘anent’; a word that the dopey tossers in our Church of Scotland seem now to think that nobody understands?) the Curran interview, an interesting point was brought to her attention that she had in the past described herself as Irish. She agreed that this was true.
Why didn’t Bateman then ask her what she thought of an independent Ireland, and shouldn’t it come back under the wing of the British State as it would then, according to her views regarding Scotland, naturally be better off and would be protected from a possible future banking crisis?
He could have skewered her there and then.
Just a complete two faced interview.She basically contradicted herself throughout the interview and then when Tom Devine came in she tried to agree with him even although in an academic way he was saying she was wrong. And to be honest she probably left that interview having no idea what she said or if it made sense or not.
It was rambling nonsense.
Like all scottish-based Westminster Labour politicians, the only thing she cares about is self preservation, and her answer proves that. They’re choking on their lies. It’s also a good example of how the party comes first and always to the apparatchik.
I have less respect for Labour than I do the Tories, and I fucking hate the Tories.
As I mentioned in another comment, someone should nail down Tony Benn and get him to tell us exactly what cover-ups he was involved in during the 1970s regarding Scottish Independence. I think you would definitely be on to a vote winner, uncover the whole damn lot of them and let the people see who they are dealing with here.. they would sell their sole as well as their country to line their pockets. Lowest of the low.
She doesn’t think Scots are idiots. She’s a politician, she thinks all voters are idiots.
@Dee.
Good posting and a very good idea.
(PS. It’s soul, not sole. That’s part of your shoe. But it’s a typo I guess))
The question should does she hope Scots are idiots?
Answer, Yes. that’s what Labour always hopes for!
I think she has been promoted beyond her level of competence. It seems to happen to most of them eventually.
She’s a buffoon. It’s a pity Derek Bateman didn’t ask her if she’s read The McCrone report in 2005, after it was kept top secret for thirty tears under the instructions of the Labour Govt.
Could the referendum question not be multiple choice too?
A Do you agree 100% that Scotland must be Independent?
B Do you disagree that Scotland should be part of the Union
This is the wuman who told the Holyrood magazine she would not be bothered if Alex went under a bus. And would not be enquiring as to the name of the driver. Unless to give him a reward. I made the last bit up, but she possibly though it.
The two are not entirely mutually exclusive!!
She is an idiot for thinking ALL SCOTS are fools!
I personally think it’s a good thing individual’s like curran getting exposed in this manner given that the people she is trying to convince that she is has no knowledge of her party’s damaging past gives a insight to evan those of modirit political awareness to render her not worthy of that special thing called a VOTE !!!
Tris – Scottish Labour seem to think the Peter Principle is a framework to follow, rather than an unfortunate reality that should be avoided.
Stu, I think Magz was just trying to be the next in your “*Labour politician* Is A Liar” series. She’s certainly worthy of it.
o /t Jim McColl making interesting headlines in tomorrow’s Hootsman. link to twitpic.com
It is everyone’s right to be stupid and ugly but stair heid rammy is abusing the privilege
@Bill C
Now that’s truly fascinating. The Scotsman hit rock bottom last week with its Friends of the Scotsman idea. This was a transparent effort to get its pages filled by having other people & organisations write for them – for nothing. This is normally known as ‘advertorial’ and in most respectable publications is flagged up by ‘Advertisement Feature’ or similar. The Scotsman’s attempt to get round even this by dedicating pages to what their ‘friends’ wished to see in print struck me as the mark of a truly desperate newspaper. I had it marked down as the last attempt to scrape the barrel.
But perhaps they are going to make one more. We’ve not seen a pro-Indy splash like this since Eve first suggested apple pie for tea. But there it is. Is this maybe the Demascus moment when the Scotsman realises it might actually gain a few sales by being less biased?
I’m not holding my breath, but you never know.
Aiyee!!!!! My eyes!!!
Jeez, give us a warning next time before you post something that scary, some of us have delicate constitutions
@kininvie
“I’m not holding my breath, but you never know.” I’m glad you are not holding your breath, we need all the YES votes we can get. Wee smiley thing.
What should we expect? This woman couldn’t complete her first sentence in her first press conference in a by-election campaign without lying.
She’s a truly unpleasant individual – remember that stuff about if Salmond fell under a bus? Vile.
I am the same age as her, and unfortunately as it turns out, Johann Lamont was at the same school as me at the same time, although It seems that very few of those who I was also at school with remember her, she was pretty anonymous, other than someone remembering her copying their homework…Obviously some habits die hard, as she still reads form someone else’s script.
But undoubtedly both Johann and Margaret would remember Healey and co.
They would also undoubtedly know and have been aware of the arguments over oil at the time.
Curran would obviously know about the McCrone report, how could she not know? It has been well circulated since it came to light.
So she is well and truly being ingenuous….A posh word for being a bloody liar!
Disingenuous?
That photo reminds me of the schadenfreude scene from ‘The Raiders of the Lost Arc”.
Both. She’d also be right in thinking most Scots are idiots, too. If she wasn’t correct, the Yes camp would be miles ahead in the polls, and we aren’t. The primary reason that’s not the case is because most people here still believe the utter pish that Westminster spouts, i.e. can’t afford to go our own way, despite members of that same government admitting that they have lied regarding an independent Scotland’s true financial position and still the majority of the population here believe what they say. The only conclusion you can come to is that the majority of our country are fucking morons.
Frau Blucher (Whinney!)
Ms Curran, if you are reading this, now that you have been made aware of the report, what are your views on this deception which has been carried out on the people of Scotland?
Ms Curran, if you are reading this, now that you have been made aware of the report, what are your views on this deception which has been carried out on the people of Scotland by your very own party?
After her ‘devastatingly honest’ revelation that she would have literally manned the barricades for Scotland’s good – how do we come to terms with this politically very involved student activist, who it seems was somehow myopically deaf (if that’s possible) as ‘It’s Scotland’s Oil’ was being shouted from the rooftops.
She’s been rumbled as a person who’s far removed from the truth and with the skin of a rhino to boot!
Would any sensible Scot give this character power in any form whatsoever?
Slaughterhouse – Paddy power is shortening the odds on a YES vote, but you can still pick up 3-1. The money’s going on YES. The Status-Quo NO is going no where.
The phony campaign will be over when all the facts are published, by the Scottish Gov., in the autumn white paper.
It even seems the Hootsman is feeling the cauld draft of realism!
@ Morag….correct… disingenuous indeed… I was lying when I wrote ingenuous
Much like Mags was with her ingenuousness..Its the Labour Truth speak.
Very disconcerting when people can lie without flinching. Barefaced hypocrisy on view for the world to see. Ah Magrit do you think we’ll let you away with this a second time? Think again.
Labour politicians are self-serving. Nothing more.
Labour have presided over areas for around 80 years. In that time when they did get into power, did they improve these areas by bringing jobs, or better housing …did they f***.
To do so, would be to improve the peoples fortunes. By putting them in better housing, better jobs, you would end up changing their perspective. One day, they might wake up, and say, ‘Labour don’t cut it for me anymore. I’m going to go with the Libs’.
Better to keep them poor, destitute, illiterate, and to always tell them that state looks after them and that they must think of the Party first – not to think of bettering themselves or raising themselves up.
Orwell was right.
She’s on a loser this time. You can’t fool all of the people all of the time. This weekend I was visiting my old dad. Long time old Labour and of the type most typified by the line, my faither voted Labour an his faither….. So much so that I’d never even contemplated asking ‘THE’ question, so private is he in his politics. But almost by accident our conversation over his medicinal dram on Saturday evening fell to the referendum and his disappointment over the behaviour of the current Labour crop. We discussed the actions of the like of Baillie, Curran and Lamont. I began to warm to his views. Also being an old BP man of some thirty odd years the Healey interview coming out as it did (or didn’t in MSM) left him feeling somewhat piqued.
Well it finally came down to the question… Should Scotland be an independent country? He smiled and toddled off to his bedroom. There was the sounds of multiple bolts being drawn, guard dogs silenced, laser grids being powered down and a wardrobe door being closed. He came back through to the living room clutching a small envelope to his chest and said I’ve a wee present for you in answer to your question. Inside was a pristine ticket stub headed Empire Stadium Wembley, the main event England V Scotland Saturday April 15th, 1967, Standing 10/-.
Vote YES
Blue Labour: Would Ed Miliband shrink the welfare state?
link to bbc.co.uk
Welfare reform has become one of the most divisive issues in austerity Britain. Now, a rising force within the Labour Party wants to silence the party’s critics and win the welfare debate – by abandoning some of its oldest principles.
Its adherents want to scale back the state’s role in welfare, reward with extra support people who have “paid in” more than others, and even take away universal benefits.
They are not a right-wing think tank, they are Blue Labour. And they are closer than ever to the very heart of the Labour Party.
@ Macart: Nice post, Macart.
I genuinely feel the tide is turning, and I hope as many people as possible hear Stairheid Rammy and her views on the “other”, and what can only be described as blatant, barefaced lies regarding Healey; the Shadow Scottish Secretary who has never heard of the McCrone report, LOL.
National Collective cartoon here: link to nationalcollective.com
@Stuart Black
My father’s old school in every sense of the word. As it turns out he was for Labour’s original founding remit of home rule a la Hardie and RCG. He’d have been perfectly happy to toddle along thinking now that Labour’s had a hand in devolution, they’d finish the job. ‘Course we held polar opposite views on that. But clearly his interest in politics of late had not been standing still. My exact question to him on Saturday was not just should we, but how much chance did he believe we had of making it happen? His reply was the ticket stub to a game where the underdogs were facing the world champs on home turf and won in style.
As for Curran? Of course she’s lying. She can’t help herself, she’s a party first, last and always type and if she sees anything wrong in her actions, its mitigated by her belief that the party is for the good of the people. She doesn’t understand that the party or parties are there to service the needs of the people. To give voice to segments of the public with no voice, TO REPRESENT. When the party or parties switch off to the needs or desires of their electorate and dictate a party’s desires and the promotion of self however… Well then you have the politically cynical and disenfranchised electorate you see today. The party post becomes a job, not a calling, a career, not a service.
An honest question:
Who has done more to harm Scotland..
1. Margaret Thatcher.
2. Margaret Curran.
I have no hesitation in voting for 2. because without our very own Labour ("Quizmaster" - Ed)s, the Tories could never have visited their devastation on Scotland.
In two years time, Ms. Curran and her fellow Labour trough-feeders will be telling us all she really supported independence all along.
I was thinking just how obnoxious the bitter together mob quoted were and then I thought – no – not obnoxious actually they are noxious.
Synonyms
harmful – injurious – noisome – pernicious – mischievous
Bet they’re checking on the M74 bus timetables as we speak! These folk have no moral political compass, if anything they don’t even know ‘which ways up’ anymore.
When the Hootsman dips a scrawny toe into the water – you know there’s a cauld draught building.
Macart – that’s an awesome story, and it just highlights that even the most die-hard Labour supporters aren’t necessarily unionist.
@Macart: The paragraph starting “As for Curran?”
Hammer, nail, head…
Macart and Doug Daniel
It is a shame the Labour Party have never actually asked their members what their opinion was on independence. Perhaps they were nervous about the answer?
I’m real proud of me ol’ dad this weekend.
She’s certainly not an idiot. Naive into not realising what was going on in 70’s Scotland
Lying labour activist in the 70’s possibly.
Into treating scots as idiots.
GUILTY AS CHARGED.
@Macart: And so you should be!
I’m five years younger than Curran and I can remember the talk of ‘a secret report’ which allegedly forecast the oil would be finished well before the end of the century.
If I was picking up that ‘whispered’ lie as a sixteen year old whose political involvement was nothing more than envelope-stuffing and tearing Labour posters off hoardings, are we to believe that she hadn’t got wind of the same rumour?
No way.
Difference is – along with all her other active Labour cronies of the time, she would’ve been given a nudge and wink from the leadership : tell the punters no tae get in a lather aboot this oil. It’ll be done soon enough.
They knew there was indeed a report, that it was ‘secret’, and that it said precisely the opposite of the rumour being peddled. If Curran and her ilk didn’t know the contents, it’s because it suited them not to. Deniablity handed to them by Healey, Benn, and all the other big-nobs who feared erosion of their core voter-base.
That same lie has persisted for almost forty years, and implicates every Labour high-heid yin holding office during that period – if there’s a solitary ‘fact’ that could/should sway the undecided, it’s the ‘McCrone’ scandal.
Referendum or no referendum, they should be slapped about the chops with it until their ears bleed.
My respects to your father Macart.
Are you sure he didn’t have a wee bit of goalpost or sod of turf (which in this context would be ‘foreign soil’) for you as well?
@Boorach
If he does Boorach, he’s not letting on.
Everybody in the 70s remembers Healy, principally because he was amongst the most common characters impersonated by Mike Yarwood, who was immensely popular at the time on TV. For those who don’t know, Yarwood was a better and funnier equivalent of Rory bremner nowadays.
For Margaret Curran to insist she ‘knows nothing’ appears disingenuous at the very least. Labour and Tory Governments deliberately lied to Scots about the value of Scottish oil and gas, in order to prevent demands for some of the money to come to Scotland, or indeed for full independence. Labour are STILL trying to deceive Scots around the oil, with their frankly laughable suggestions that it would be too volatile for Scots to manage.
The Labour party in Scotland, did the dirty work of Westminster against the people of Scotland in the 1970s, and they are still doing the dirty work of Westminster against the people of Scotland, as part of the Tory funded ‘better together’ campaign in 2013.
In addition, Alistair Darling was for several years Chancellor of the exchequer in London, and so for him to tell Scots anything other than the oil and gas would be good for Scotland, is frankly treacherous and an utter disgrace. He of all people, knows the value, and he of all people knows how much benefit it would bring to Scotland, yet he still argues for it to go to London.
I have nothing but contempt for the Scottish Labour cabal, who would deceive their own country just to secure their precious bl*****g Labour party in London, and their places at the Wesminster pig trough. Never forget, Scottish independence will mean Curran, Davidson, Darling and Broon, will ALL lose their jobs at Westminster.
ian Brotherhood,
“Referendum or no referendum, they should be slapped about the chops with it until their ears bleed.”
Very well said.
link to youtube.com
When my paper was written it was classified “secret” and given only a most restricted circulation in the Scottish Office because of the extreme sensitivity of the subject. I am copying it now to Leo Pliatzky, Dick Ross, Jim Hamilton, John Liverman and Stuart Scott Whyte.
R G L McCrone
link to oilofscotland.org
This is something that the No Camp wish to keep quiet. Its not in their interests that Scots read and understand the reasons this was swept under the carpet.
You have to read and understand this in order to question what else we are still being lied to.
Lets give Margaret and the entire present members of the Labour party the benefit of the doubt and assume they knew nothing then.
They do however know now that Scotland has massive wealth and that the Scottish people have been lied to for decades.
They know that Scotland has some of the worst social deprivation in developed world.
They now know that Scotland has some of the lowest life expectancy and highest infant mortality rates in the developed world.
They know the Scottish population would be better off Independent .
How can they justify to themselves ,let alone the Scottish population that we are Better together?
Labour do think the Scottish electorate are eejits. So do the Tories and Lib Dems, but Labour are the most toxic and poisonous in what they’re saying and the damage they’re doing.
The good point is that we have a long run in before the referendum – done by the Scottish government for very good reason. Better Together are treating Scottish people like idiots, and they rely on everyone actually being stupid, as well as feart and negative. The trouble they are already beginning to have is that, in relying on that, their campaign starts to be left with only people who are negative and ill-informed. The leaders may well be intelligent, but they’re all politicians and UK business people, out for their own gain and manipulating those still following them – the people they see as thick.
Those who’ve seen through it are just getting increasingly angry, those still following will surely begin to get fed up of being treated as blithering idiots? I mean, unless you really are an idiot, being treated like one isn’t much fun. Most people, even those who are certain NO voters, will be unhappy to find they’ve been misled and lied to, and won’t be keen to be out there touting lies, fears and negativity if they find they’re continually being refuted by facts.
It doesn’t bode well for where the NO campaign will be this time next year, or who they’ll have left to argue their case.
It doesn’t bode well for where the NO campaign will be this time next year, or who they’ll have left to argue their case.
Talking of which, where’s Broon?
Talking of which, where’s Broon?
Dunno. Do you think he’s gone in a sulk because ASLEF went (totally undemocratically) with Better Together?
Whole thing seems a shambles.
I would like to see a certain Mr Darling questioned on the recent Healey revelation. The next time he spouts off about oil price volatility etc would be a good time to ambush him.
I want to make an important point regarding the lies about Scottish oil wealth. Today, Jackson Carlaw (of the blue tories) is trying to assert that the wealth was not hidden, as a parliamentary answer was given regarding its value in 1980. This would seem all tickety boo, until we recall how things were in 1980.
In 1980, there was no internet or E-mail or Wikipedia or online news blogging or anything of that kind. There were no mobile phones or mobile internet. There was no TV coverage of the house of commons, and the only source of information was either journalists (and we all know how little they can be trusted in Scotland), or the official parliamentary record, Hansard.
In those days, to access hansard would be very difficult and costly. It was not online, but in print form, and was notoriously difficult to access and navigate. If it wasn’t in the Scottish newspapers, nobody would ever know. That is how Labour and Tory Governments got away with this lie to Scots for so long.
So, yet again, we see the unionist cabal in the form of Tory Jackson Carlaw, trying to mislead Scots, with the suggestion that the facts about oil were out in the open, as they simply were not. Although the SNP kept telling Scots, Tory and Labour MP’s in Scotland have continually rubbished everything they have said about oil, until just a few years ago. I myself grew up in Scotland, and was told at school, that the oil was very poor quality and would not last very long, so it really wasn’t worth much to Scotland. This is what Scots were told. This was the accepted view, because it was all we were told by the likes of ‘Scottish’ Labour.
It is only with the advent of the internet that I and others have found out the true wealth in Scottish oil and gas. It is the internet that has let Scots know the truth of how Labour lied for thirty years about the oil to Scots, whilst in Westminster Scots were repeatedly referred to as scroungers and subsidy junkies. Labour lied to all of Scotland for thirty years, and they should NEVER be forgiven for that. In any other country, they would be literally run out of town.
How can Labour defend the Union, when it is based on lies against Scotland???
Margaret Curran ought to apologise, and plead forgiveness from the people of Scotland, instead of pretending ‘she wisnae there’.
Fortunately, all the experts reckon there is still at least half of the reserves left, so it is not too late. A YES vote in 2014, will secure Scotland’s future, and the future of all our children.
Vote YES in 2014, to secure a better future for ALL Scots.
Great post RL.
” Labour lied to all of Scotland for thirty years, and they should NEVER be forgiven for that. In any other country, they would be literally run out of town.”
The core question regarding the McCrone report is “Why was is classified as Secret”? Then continue with the why ? why ? to strip out the lies and lay bare the truth.
Aaaaand prize for scare story of the day goes to……
link to heraldscotland.com
I read that, having thought I’d clicked on a Herald View link, and thought “Blimey, this is a remarkably biased load of old pish”, and then I got to the byline. Mystery solved!
Mind you, Jackson Carlaw bringing this up again just keeps it in the news to the continuing exposure and embarassment of Labour. Which is no bad thing.
It also continues to fuel the realisation that even those former Labour luminaries (e.g. Tony Benn, John Smith, Donald Dewar, etc.) were also in on the lie and were probably just as mendacious and self-serving as the current SLab lot.
And if there is one thing the Scottish public don’t like, it’s being lied to.
@ Macart,
That piece is written by George Robertson. He also stated the following:
“Devolution will kill independence stone dead”… George Robertson.
We have friends who come from Bratislava in Slovakia. When it was decided that Czechoslovakia break up into the two states of the Czech Replublic and Slovakia our friends were absolutely against this change and were extremely concerned that Slovakia would find it very difficult to cope on it’s own and in the first few years this proved to be the case.
However, they have now completely changed their minds and a) are extremely happy that it happened in the first place and b) extremely proud of the advances that their small country has made in the interim period and this in a country with a fraction of the resources of Scotland.
No second chances it has to be YES
Robertson was my MP at one time. I had occasion to visit him at one of his surgeries with a problem. After explaining my problem for the third time and watching the look of non comprehension on his face was enough. I just got up and walked out. The man is as thick as mince!
Cracker isn’t it?
I remember that quote of Robertson’s vis a vis devolution and independence. I can’t say that his clarity of vision has improved any over the years.
That such a creature as Margaret Curran could become the Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland says much about the state of politics in both Scotland and the wider UK. Who the hell votes for these people?
If Margaret Curran wants us to believe she would never have colluded in any way that would have dishonestly gone against the people of Scotland, then surely now is the time for her to disown what her seniors in the Labour party peddled to their campaigners and the people.
She should do the most honourable thing and resign from the party or accept that she is condoning and now perpetuating untruths about Scotland’s resources and the contribution they make to the future success as an Independent country.
Wasn’t George Robertson the referee on the gun licence for Thomas Hamilton (Dunblane Massacre) along with other strange goings on in the Blair government of the day.
@The Man in the Jar
To be fair, I thought GR always looked like that all of the time. Maybe you should have used hand puppets. GR an odious man at the best of times.
The Man in the Jar
I was for a short time SNP PPC against Robertson but had to stand down as I couldn’t do that and run a small business in Argyll at the same time. You are correct . George Robertson is politically pedestrian at best and about as much a socialist as Liberace. The Burnbank Labour party branch tried to have him deselected on the grounds that he wasn’t actually Labour.
He rose without trace is the best epitaph I have heard on his political career but he is now a very rich man with directorships all over the place and the eternal gratitude of the US for being a totally compliant Secretary General of NATO
Maggie Curran and her ilk :
An Obfuscation, wrapped in Sophistry, all inside an enduring Deception.
Margaret Curran…i just know theres a cracking Anagram in there somewhere!
I found Curran’s turn of phrase interesting – “I don’t know what papers were around at the time” – as soon as she said that, it was obvious she was referring to McCrone report. Bateman lost a huge opportunity there.
Ian Smart’s brother (yes that one!) writes a devastating piece about Margaret Curran and her lack of knowledge on Dennis Healey’s revelations surrounding Scotland’s oil. Citizen Smart puts the boot in.
link to bellacaledonia.org.uk
Adrian B – Brilliant find.