Now you don’t see it, now you do
Posted on
February 22, 2015 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Jim Murphy in today’s Sunday Mail:
But hang on a minute. What bedroom tax?
According to Labour, the bedroom tax has been effectively abolished in Scotland for a year. Nobody pays it any more, because the Scottish Government picks up the tab. So “the poorest families in Scotland” won’t save £600 a year in bedroom tax if Labour win the election, they’ll save nothing. Not a penny. Not a bean. Not one red cent.
Given that Labour claimed all the credit for ending the policy (having furiously denied having any such plans just months before, and despite not having done anything about it in Wales, where they run the Assembly), you’d think they’d remember that.
Labour are so full of shit it is not real.
Liars, damned liars and the Labour party. No wonder nobody wants to vote for them.
First they lie that THEY ended the bedroom tax in Scotland (actually the SNP Government did), but now they want to lie to the voters telling them Labour will end it, if we vote for them.
What a corrupt craven bunch of troughers. FFS, seriously FFS!
there must be some method in their madness,or is Ternan sticking it to Murphy for some reason?
So basically, just about every word out of Slim Jim’s lugubrious gob is a porkie.
There is a lady in the local Yes group whose married daughter (on long term benefits) was a hardline No voter and Labour supporter. The daughter is absolutely convinced that it is only the Labour party that will “protect” her benefits. Nothing will shake this conviction. Many have tried and failed. So I am guessing that it is folk like her that this sort of crap is aimed at. The thing is, there can’t be that many of them surely.
Desperadoes, that’s Labour accounting unit, northern branch. A blind man can see through their bull shirt. Role on May and we can get rid of them.
Vote SNP, get Scotland.
Bwahahahahahaha. 😀
Oh jeez.
What were we all saying about liars the other day?
You really do have to remember yesterday’s lies to keep your story straight.
And they move on from one train wreck statement to the next.
Outstanding buffoonery. 🙂
“Nobody pays it any more, because the Scottish Government picks up the tab.”
Not yet, it doesn’t. It’s part of the budget, but not yet fully implemented. My family still has our housing benefit deducted, with limited discretionary housing payments available by application to aid families in financial difficulty. (My family, fortunately, is not in financial difficulty so I haven’t applied for the discretionary payment.)
“My family, fortunately, is not in financial difficulty”
Then presumably they’re not one of “the poorest families in Scotland”, which is who Murphy claimed would be making the saving.
Dear god, will no one cure us of this plague.
Roll on 7th May.
does the truth matter when the mainstream media will report his comments uncritically? That’s how he gets away with it
Miliband took a year to finally decide the despised bedroom tax might not be good idea. A YEAR!! What a weak and spineless leader. You needed an entire year to spot that a tory attack on the poorest, most vulnerable and disabled might not be a good idea. Jesus! Good thing Miliband wasn’t leader when the poll tax was crippling scotland or he might have took FIVE YEARS humming and hawing over whether that was a good idea.
Does Murphy seriously think scotland’s voters are going to believe his lies on the bedroom tax after his own boss Miliband has shown so clearly he can’t be trusted and supports tory cuts and tory austerity shoved onto scotland.
I don’t suppose our supine press corps will tackle Murphy on his latest gaff.
Milliband is keeping quiet in the South and Murphy is Shouting his Lies in the North , Milliband Needs to keep the SNP sweet and at the same time try to appease the Labour Scotland Branch, An old Tactic to try and look like the Labour Party care a F**K what happens to us , LIES it all and the people of Scotland know it, Never Forget, Never Forgive, they stood with the Tories in England and Scotland and will pay the price for their Treachory .
The British Labour Party in Scotland are a swinish multitude…..worthy only of contempt!
I thought there was a vote at WM that would have
abolished it across the UK but Labour MPs decided
to ‘abstain’ thus making sure the proposal to scrap
it failed?
So oor wee Jim says if we all follow his direct orders and vote Labour, thereby delivering David Cameron the keys to number 10 AGAIN, we can save the poorest families in Scotland around £600 from their bedroom tax.
Hmm … that would be the SAME bedroom tax that his bestest mate wee Gorie Broon introduced when he was Chancellor for council tenants of private landlords that his second bestest mate wee Davie Cameron took on board and expanded to include council tenants in social housing as well then would it Jim? 😉
they just go on about devolved issues, I wonder if Labour are hoping that the lost in the General election won’t be as server as predicted, holding more seats by the skin of their teeth and at the same time planting the seed for the long game to the Scottish Parliament election and council election to retain a hold, waiting for the SNP to f**k, unless the other Scottish parties like the socialists pick up their game, instead of bowing to the mighty SNP, all Labour has to do is cast enough doubt and shine a light on their so called achievements then it ends up in the collective thinking, I think the Rev Stu makes a mistake only focusing on the Labour Party
Any of you hear ‘Crossfire’ on radio Scot this morning? I almost fell out of bed, Labour were actually challenged about their wrong stats for cancelled NHS operations. Maybe lack of licence fees is starting to bite. I did say ‘MAYBE’.
Auld Rock
Labour’s attempts at lying become every more brazen!
Their motto … “A lie a day keeps the SNP away” … that is until each of their traditional voters has a revelation moment and sees Labour for the charlatans they are!
More lies no doubt most probably coming from McTernan and co, designed to confuse more voters.It is their way, and now worse as they get ever more desperate.
It is high time the SNP reacted,and with some bite.
These people need to be outed, and in a big way. They really are scum.
Every time he opens his mouth he adds to the (already very long) list of lies, half truths and howlers – it’s like he’s actually TRYING to lose in the GE.
Are they totally and utterly incompetent or are folk buying this sh1te?
I think this is just a further extension of the Murphy/McTernan “confusion” agenda. Most of the items raised are addressing devolved matters which have little traction in the 2015 GE election.
Truth or fact is of little consequence. If you fire these off daily and range widely enough, people ( not readers of this blog, obviously) become confused about who stands for what.
The more “controversial” these kind of statements are, the more heat they generate – and therefore they distract attention from what should be prime concerns – how a significant cohort of SNP MPs can challenge UK-wide policies and UK-wide parties and how such a cohort is virtually the only group who can pressurise the UK to affect greater devolution of economic powers for Scotland.
These pronouncements are a distraction at present – which indeed might well be the intention. But because of the compliance of BBC/MSM, they do seem to be setting an agenda.This might account for the bizarre nature of many of them.
The Man in the Jar,
I know some of my old neighbours who will only vote Labour.
You could try and convince them with the facts and truth that they are being taken for fools.
As I have said on WoS before “if you put a red t shirt on a turd they will still vote for it”
NO sense, NO vision, No future, No hope.
That is what Labour are depending on.
Gary
56% of Scots back stop and search! Another vote winner, trying to scrap it…eh Jim.
Just like your mhore boooooooze…7% back it.
A clear cause of Foot in Mouth disease, its incurable, but there is a cull due on 7th of May.
Sleekit Jim really has had a shit week.
You have to love the red tories and their attempts at historical revisionism.
Once the Welfare Reform Act was passed, the Labour Party had no intention of repealing it or any part of it such as the bedroom tax. Yet according to rabid anti-SNP Labour tribalists, such as Mike Sivier at the Vox Political blog, Labour have never supported the bedroom tax.
At the bottom of the of the following webpage is a video interview with Scottish Labour MP and then disabled shadow minister Anne McGuire, from June 2012, where she states quite categorically that Labour fully supported the WRA, and its bedroom tax, and had no intention of repealing it –
Reflections On The Mainstream’s Acceptance Of Austerity
by Kate Belgrave
link to newleftproject.org
“…I asked Shadow Minister for Disabled People Anne McGuire whether the party would reverse the welfare reform act, or even certain parts of it. You can see that train wreck for yourself in the video below. If you can’t stand the suspense, I’ll kill it for you know. The answer was No.
The Man in the Jar says:
The thing is, there can’t be that many of them surely.
theres not that many of them left
you just need to look at the polls to see that
they have been lying for decades its nothing new
only difference is now we have somebody exposing there lies
thanks rev
Labour are spewing out so much crap at the moment, I can’t keep up with it. This is obviously their strategy.
Labour’s denial of their plans to scrap the tax in the link you provided is more to do with their competence rather than what is now their current policy. Jackie Baillie effectively stole Ed Milliband’s thunder by coming out with this announcement when she did because the announcement to scrap the tax was to be a major part of his keynote speech to Labour Party conference in 2013 just 10 days after this story was published. As it is, because of Baillie letting the cat out of the bag earlier than Milliband expected and the subsequent will they won’t they confusion, he had to announce Labour’s plans to scrap the tax in a pre conference statement.
O/T
Labour’s retiring Great Grimsby MP, Austin Mitchell, has dismissed claims he said the party could retain the seat at the election even if its candidate was an “alcoholic” or “paedophile”.
Mr Mitchell, who is to vacate his seat in May, was quoted making the comment in an Independent on Sunday interview.
link to bbc.co.uk
[…] Now you don’t see it, now you do […]
Thurr awe leeries (gas-lichters). See referenced article, fae someday a few days back.
Like it or not they appear to be setting the pace with a wide variety of “misrepresentation” while we are left to react through Wings and others. Not that I wish to devalue this. Rather the opposite! The SNP however, must become much more proactive on its own behalf and take up the cudgel of change with its own agenda while exposing that which is palpably untrue. Will they do it? I am less than optimistic that they will. There is simply no point in the belief that there will be future consequences for the Labour party as a result of their current reprehensible tactics. History doesn’t support this belief, not least due to their shameless revisionist approach to the subject – aided of course by the usual culprits Upcoming polls will show whether they might pull it off AGAIN!
The Scottish Labour Branch office showing why they are unfit to be part of government and why electing any of them to represent Scotland at Westminster is a wasted vote.
If you cannot remember what your own policies, campaigns, actions and announcements have been then how can you hold anyone else to account?
Unfit to govern or provide an effective opposition by themselves.
Scattergun desperation from Murphy and McTernan. As always the unionist media is only too happy to help.
I posted a comment yesterday on a post from L-A or Nana of Curran being interviewed whilst out canvassing- she made the comment about Baillie pressurising SNP on bedroom tax. I picked up on this bit but the interviewers didn’t.
Personally I think the hooha about candidates being followed whilst canvassing comes from Curran. Fact is that if that’s the only way that voters can speak to a candidate then it should be expected & isn’t that exactly what canvassing is about?
I never realised that she was such a delicate flower that she needs protection from voters asking questions. She’s turning into Murphy with every passing day.
Murphy, as well as being an ambulance chaser, an expenses chancer, a horrid neo-con warmonger, appears to be a bit of a thicko.
The Tories want to own Scotland, as their birth right.
Labour will sell Scotland for a peerage or knighthood- wait!
They did.
@allan thomson
I do not really understand your post. The FM gave a major speech last week down in London opposing austerity, and was on QT as well. The SNP also put out numerous press releases detailing SLAB’s deceptions. They can only do so much.
Stu
Confess now, you have somehow inveigled your way onto Murphy’s team and it is you that is setting these up for Murphy, who doesn’t appear to check anything before he launches into it.
Sinky says:
Labour’s retiring Great Grimsby MP, Austin Mitchell, has dismissed claims he said the party could retain the seat at the election even if its candidate was an “alcoholic” or “paedophile”.
____
Couple of slight corrections Sinky.
He is claiming he was misquoted and what he actually said was Labour would retain the seat even if their candidate was a
“raving alcoholic sex paedophile”
These obnoxiously arrogant Red Tory bastards really need to be wiped out. Absolute scum of the earth. What makes his comments even more abhorrent is the fact that, as we all know, the Labour Party has had members and candidates who are paedophiles.
Absolute scum of the earth.
This has got to be a priority what they say and what they do on billboards with all due respect leaflets are a waste of time all the ones I get as probably most folks go in the bin each constituency must be a target I am and I urge everyone that’s interested to push this to your local SNP -Green -RIC -SSP candidates and all others who were involved in the YES campaign last time to learn from last years mistakes
Jomry…you are exactly correct. Murphy says anything and the Media repeats it the following day. Day in and Day out.
Murphy showed what he could do with this 100 towns campaign.
The British Media then set him up and told him to piss over Scotland every day.
The day after, the Media pisses over Scotland again….big time.
Disgusting bare faced hypocrisy given their Westminster leaders did not vote against this tax.
If this is what they say publicly imagine what they say on doorsteps?
All councils have the funds in place for the specific purpose of mitigation of the Bedroom Tax and it is the responsibility of Councils to implement and control the plan which was a decision of The Scottish Government from which the Labour Party abstained
The facts are there for anyone to see because it was my plan
I was also the one who called for a halt to Fracking until all evidence was collected advised and consulted upon
I also introduced 600 hours of nursery places for our kids
Modesty forbids that i go on to inform Wings of all of the Policies which i and my Government have put in place for the benefit of the people of Scotland
See how easy it is to claim you did shit DIM JIM i just did it
Just coz you say it don’t make it so
The days of Labour fooling all of the people all of time are nearly done
That’s politics JIM but not as you know them
@Robert Graham
Billboards cost a hell of a lot more than leaflets though, and there will still be people who will ignore them. I disagree to an extent with your view about leaflets, a well designed and produced leaflet can catch voters’ attention, and it also has the advantage of bypassing the MSM and their bias.
muttley79
Correct. The media favour our opponents, the SNP have an active press room but if the MSM won’t publish not much we can do that but we can now take the information to the public by using social media which sadly is still in its infancy but expanding.
I’m not one to gossip but I’ll tell you this:
Citizen Kane has a new name.
Co-worker who has done work in JK’s hoose tells me live-in security guards remove your cell-phone when you enter grounds – no open or surreptitious pics, no calls.
Should you hide one and then make a call they confiscate the phone and wipe all calls.
My confidante saw everybody subjected to same pat-down.
On walks or trips out of Bin Laden-like living enclosure there’s always a guard in the big jacket 20 yards behind.
Ms Not Included in Best 100 Scottish Books has acquired all the paranoia that goes along with being mega-wealthy. A sad case, and a very sad person.
MORPHOLOGY is the study of how things are made up and put together…sometimes in unbelievable ways.
MURPHOLOGY is the study of how a desperate politician makes things up and puts them together…always in unbelievable ways.
Perhaps, they (Labour) really do want to lose the election. Britain is in debt up to and beyond it’s eyeballs. If they win they will cut “deeper than the Tories”, this will alienate any support they have left, thereby quickening Labour’s demise.
On second thoughts, going by their present performance, they’re not that bright.
@ Sinky & Stoker
Don’t know why you guys are so worked up about Austin Mitchell’s comment.
He was probably just stating a fact !
I was going to say that I was not suprised by the Morph-Smurf coming out with something like this, but was innocently going to say that I was suprised that the Record/Mail did not pick it up as they are based in Scotland . . . . .but then I caught myself on . . .
who is making the press complaint? Is there a Q ?
Will there be some point in the future when everyone knows that Labour are full of crap?
I assume we can expect a hard hitting front page from the National exposing this latest Murphy lie which is being fed to the electorate??????
When will they propose to ban Boom and Bust economics?
Well, just one click takes you to this at the “record”. link to dailyrecord.co.uk
Clearly they need to do some catching up on their recording
Considering it was the Labour Government, in which Mr Murphy was a Minister, who introduced the bedroom tax (for private lets)it is a bit rich for him to say he will abolish it. The Tories continued and extended the scope of the tax.
Taking Mr Murphy’s pronouncement as a whole the pattern that emerges is of a person who does not know anything about Scotland and what is going on here.
@Stoker
So even a “raving alcoholic sex paedophile” would win Grimsby for Labour
I know one former Slab MP would be a shoo-in, then
@ Author_al says:
Double plus good.
Murphology it is then.
A new word for the Oxford English Dictionary.
I see Derek Bateman want to expand Newsnet;
link to derekbateman.co.uk
@ One_Scot says:
22 February, 2015 at 8:25 pm
“Will there be some point in the future when everyone knows that Labour are full of crap?”
I suspect that that dawning will happen after Labour has been laid to rest.
The corpse of Labour is not yet still and cold. After that happens all the “poisons” will exudate and then the forensic examination will begin.
But not until then, the MSM have too much riding on them just now.
@Stephen Armstrong
“The British Labour Party in Scotland are a swinish multitude…..worthy only of contempt!”
Stephen….No, I won’t have that. Swinish they may be, worthy of contempt certainly, but a multitude? Nah. Those days are long gone.
Cadogan Enright says:
Well, just one click takes you to this at the “record”.
GTF and click it yersel.
Lamont resigned, inter alia, because she was told to ‘button it’ on bedroom tax until her partyt leader, Milliband, had had a chance to think about it. ‘THink about it’ being a euphemism for ‘seeing whether it was wortyh his while to support or oppose it’. Funny how Labour are only opposing the bedroom tax days a few weeks before the GE. Took him a long time to make up his mind.
O/T I urge everyone hereon to read the new Indy online mag, ‘Enjoy The Silence?’ put together by blogger, James Forrest (Commentisntfree). Excellent articles from many erudite voices seeking change for the better.
@Stoker 8.50 – I see you don’t do humour. 🙂 have a nice evening.
Anyway my complaint and most enjoyable letter to the editor is away .. . .
If we have published anything that is factually inaccurate, please contact the editor on 0141 309 3000, at readerseditor@dailyrecord.co.uk or at The Readers Editor, One Central Quay, Glasgow, G3 8DA and, once verified, we will correct it here as soon as possible.
Daily Record website is published by MGN Ltd. a subsidiary company of Trinity Mirror PLC, which is a member of IPSO, the Independent Press Standards Organisation.
We adhere to the Editors’ Code Of Practice as enforced by IPSO who can be contacted for advice at IPSO Halton House, 20/23 High Holborn, EC1N 2JD. Website link to ipso.co.uk email advice@ipso.co.uk Telephone: 0300 123 2220
Dim Jim skill set.
Appear on every media outlet(preferably in a football top)
Announce a new initiative every day (best to copy anothers and claim it)
Take the credit for the work of others.
Suck up to anyone who can influence your career / earnings
Don’t waste too much time on the “little people”
Always be ready to jump ship it the going gets tough.
Rev Jolly voice in public. Raging Bull voice in private.
After Chris Cairns ‘Heart of Glass’ we now have ‘Chameleon Karma’
as the ever morphing one’s lies come back to bite Labour in the arse.
@Les Wilson 6.06
I am with you on this. I grow increasingly frustrated that we are less robust in challenging their lies than I feel comfortable with. We almost always have the answers; this site brilliantly provides them. Why aren’t we nailing their deceptions more effectively? Are we not playing into Unionist hands in not challenging their nonsense?
I’ll hold my hands up to not knowing what we should do. If we had a trustworthy MSM we’d be in a better position, but we don’t.
I first wrote this blog note many months ago warning of the folly of moving defence dependence of the country away from conventional forces to nuclear. I do hope the chickens do not come home to roost. There is still time to do as the Americans wish. That is to give up Trident at the time it becomes obsolete in 2017 and transfer UK dependence on nuclear cover to the USA. It is preferable to be protected by a 2000+ warhead umbrella s opposed to the 60+ the UK might be able to gather for use, if when needed. Which would be a once only option since it would be taking the country down the road of mutual destruction. Unthinkable but!!!
The money saved could be diverted back to the replacement of conventional weapons systems , getting the UK’s conventional land and sea forces back to optimum levels allowing their rapid and effective deployment protecting the country.
O/T: link to caltonjock.com
Yew Choob’s latest, Jilted Jim:
link to youtube.com
Enjoy. 🙂
OT – Brussels f*in Sprouts and Macaroni pies.. wha’s like us FFS
link to scotlandoffice.exposure.co
OT – Breaking News:
Labour UK has Trouble at mill in its Northern branch office.
@Cuddis
I am with you on this. I grow increasingly frustrated that we are less robust in challenging their lies than I feel comfortable with. We almost always have the answers; this site brilliantly provides them. Why aren’t we nailing their deceptions more effectively? Are we not playing into Unionist hands in not challenging their nonsense?
I’ll hold my hands up to not knowing what we should do. If we had a trustworthy MSM we’d be in a better position, but we don’t.
The answer to your questions is that the British establishment control the MSM: hence the media are by and large extremely hostile to independence, the SNP etc. We are nailing their lies as much as we possibly can. But it not in the interests of those who oppose independence for us to succeed, so they make it as difficult as possible for us to reach as many people as we would ideally like to.
In regards to your second question, we would be playing into Unionist hands if all we did was go on about their lies, that it what they want us to do. They want independence supporting parties and supporters to get angry about their lies because then we would neglect the issues and policies which really matter. Why do you think Darling and co basically said we were Nazis in the referendum campaign? They wanted to divert attention away from getting our message across about the benefits of independence. Thankfully Salmond, Sturgeon and co did not get into a slagging contest with them, as it is a complete waste of time and effort. They are already trying to goad us once again, with the same faces attempting to provoke and smear us, namely Curran, Alexander, Murphy and Hothersall, to name just a few.
Good fodder for Mhari on Question Time.
Smurph and Labour founded the Bedroom Tax in its original form,
Miliband instructed Lamont to stay silent for a full year on the new extensive Tory version, until he could make up his mind on it, even though 81% of those penalised by it were disabled?
Labour running the Welsh Government retain and maintain the Tax.
Smurph deliberately lies to the press, who let it go unchecked,
that he will save Scots £3,000.00 over the next parliament
by quashing the Bedroom Tax that SNP have already negated????
Smurph/Labour are compulsive liers and the media are happy to
promote their every lie on a daily basis.
@ Cuddis
They’re being nailed all right. Forget the MSM.
The SG can’t get a squeak past them and don’t think they haven’t tried, but with no way to ensure their protests are heard, they’re left with canvassing and their party and governmental websites.
No, they’re being nailed by the Rev, NNS, Bella, WGD. They’re also being exposed by you and an army of other posters on line, on FB, on twitter, who are also backed up by an army of new members giving their time to canvas doors from the SNP, SSP and Greens.
In three years the establishment lost some 26% of their support using just these means. Don’t fret it Cuddis, the message will be getting through loud and clear. 😉
@Cuddis (9.04) –
IMO, you identify the answer to those questions in your final sentence:
‘If we had a trustworthy MSM we’d be in a better position, but we don’t.’
One small example. Yesterday morning, Shereen Nanjiani was doing her thing with guests who all sounded young, hip, clued-up media-savvy types.
The last item they discussed was the Guardian having to publish a correction pointing out that Tony Hart died six years ago.(Synchronicity at work here – Hart was of course, the popular artist on whose show the wee ‘Morph’ character first appeared.) The apology was required because the Guardian recently ran an online article which appeared to ‘announce’ his death.
So – the talking point was, basically,‘should online versions of newspapers have to publish apologies’. This was the morning AFTER this site highlighting the trouble the Record has just run into with its infamous ‘Vow’ intervention, and clear instruction from the complaints authority that the Record must ensure that its online edition is amended accordingly.
So, did they discuss the issues which have landed the Record in the mire? Did any of the guests even allude to their woes?
How many guesses do you require?
There is NO WAY that the people in that studio were not aware of that finding and its implications – media-types would’ve been blethering about it non-stop yesterday after all the social media buzz on the Friday night.
So, IMO, what we’re seeing there is a deliberate two-fingered salute from the BBC, via the very first media/current-affairs discussion programme to air after the revelation. So blatant and shameless, it’s beyond chutzpah – it’s the equivalent of John Boothman and that McQuarrie guy waving their bare arses at PQ protestors from the highest floor of the building.
It’s as if people like Prof. John Robertson of OWS (who so irked the Beeb hierarchy with his report about bias) simply don’t exist. This site doesn’t exist. Reasonable, responsible independence supporters are a myth. The sanctity of the MSM institutions is inviolable, and no criticism, however well deserved, will even be acknowledged.
Their maxim appears to be ‘Never apologise, and never explain’. Fair do’s. But, given the treatment we’ve endured from these characters? ours could justifiably be ‘Never forgive, and never forget.’
PS – Apologies Prof John Robertson – UWS, not OWS! 🙁
Frankly labour will do anything to stop the SNP. Nothing they do or say shocks me anymore.
link to twitter.com
“allan thomson says:
22 February, 2015 at 6:45 pm
Like it or not they appear to be setting the pace with a wide variety of “misrepresentation” while we are left to react through Wings and others. Not that I wish to devalue this. Rather the opposite! The SNP however, must become much more proactive on its own behalf”
Exactly so. Labour manage to put out a different press release every day and the compliant MSM print it without questioning or evaluating.
The SNP need to be getting their own press releases out on a more regular basis and setting the pace.
Murphy is delivering to us a master class lesson on winning arguments that don’t exist. The SNP do not need to give them credible responses because the electorate are doing that on each and every subject raised by Murphy, a job which MSM should be doing but the Scotland MSM is part of the Labour Mafia (Scottish branch).
Although many people in Scotland have become engaged and informed, Labour have not raised their game and are targeting those who are not engaged and will just accept what they are told. The Scottish branch of the Labour party have become a farce. GE 2015 is a contest between Scotland and her interests v Westminster. The Scottish people seem to be settling on the idea that a Scottish party will represent their interests best.
Jack straw,Malcolm rifkand
dispatches Monday
Two former foreign secretaries are exposed for their involvement in a new “cash for access” scandal.
Jack Straw and Sir Malcolm Rifkind offered to use their positions as politicians on behalf of a fictitious Chinese company in return for payments of at least £5,000 per day.
Mr Straw, one of Labour’s most senior figures, boasted that he operated “under the radar” to use his influence to change European Union rules on behalf of a commodity firm which pays him £60,000 a year.
And he claimed to have used “charm and menace” to convince the Ukrainian prime minister to change laws on behalf of the same firm. Mr Straw also used his Commons office to conduct meetings about possible consultancy work — a potential breach of rules. And he suggested that his Commons researcher had worked on his private business matters, raising further questions.
Sir Malcolm, who oversees Britain’s intelligence agencies on behalf of Parliament, said he could arrange “useful access” to every British ambassador in the world because of his status.
Almost half of MPs declared outside earnings in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests for 2014
The MPs who topped up their salaries with £1,600-an-hour second jobs 22 Feb 2015
MPs’ second jobs: How we crunched the numbers 22 Feb 2015
Ex-ministers Jack Straw and Sir Malcolm Rifkind brag to business about their political contacts 22 Feb 2015
The rules on MPs’ outside earnings 22 Feb 2015
Sir Malcolm also described himself as “self-employed” and had to “earn my income” — despite being paid £67,000 by the taxpayer for his work as an MP. The disclosure that two of Britain’s most senior politicians are embroiled in a new “cash for access” scandal highlights Parliament’s failure to address the issue which has plagued British politics for a generation.
Sir Alistair Graham, the former chairman of the Westminster standards watchdog, said it was “shocking” that two experienced MPs responded to the approaches in the way that they did.
He expressed concern that Sir Malcolm was “so willing to sell himself” with his “enormous range of contact lists”. He added that it was against the rules for Mr Straw to attempt to negotiate a business contract in his Commons office.
More than five years ago, David Cameron warned that lobbying was the “next big scandal” and promised to tighten the rules — a pledge which has not been properly enacted. Over the past few months, reporters approached 12 MPs asking if they would be interested in joining the advisory board of a Chinese company.
They were chosen because of concerns about their business activities.
Sir Malcolm Rifkind says he’s “self-employed” despite £67K MP salary
Six of the 12 did not respond and one said his contacts were not “for sale”.
Mr Straw and Sir Malcolm agreed to enter discussions with the fictitious Chinese company looking to expand its business interests in Europe.
Last year Sir Malcolm registered earnings of £69,610 — more than £1,600 an hour — from his work outside of Parliament, while Mr Straw earned £112,777 from his outside business activities.
Analysis by this newspaper of MPs’ overall earnings showed they made more than £7.4?million from outside work in the past year. The Chinese “company” wanted to form an advisory board.
Undercover reporters met Sir Malcolm at the fictional firm’s Mayfair office in January. Sir Malcolm, who served as foreign secretary under Sir John Major, described the access he could offer.
He said he could meet “any ambassador that I wish to see” in London. “They’ll all see me personally”, he added.
“That provides access in a way that is, is useful”.
In a second meeting, Sir Malcolm suggested that he would be willing to write to ministers on behalf of the company without declaring the name of the firm.
Sir Malcolm’s offer to write to ministers without “nam[ing] who was asking” is likely to cause concern because of the rules governing interests when communicating with ministers or officials.
Sir Alistair said it would be a “clear breach of the code of conduct if he’s not explaining that he’s acting as a consultant on behalf of a particular company when he’s seeking information”.
During a discussion about the former minister’s availability, he disclosed that he had a lot of “free time”.
The undercover reporters met Mr Straw at his office in the House of Commons.
The MP explained how he had helped ED&F Man, a commodities company with a sugar refinery in Ukraine, change an EU regulation by meeting officials in Brussels.
He also claimed that he had overturned a law in Ukraine that would have hindered the commodities firm operating a factory they had recently refurbished.
The law made their activities “completely uneconomic” and so Mr Straw took company representatives to see Mykola Azarov, the then Ukrainian prime minister, in September 2011.
“It’s a combination of sort of charm and menace?…?I mean he [the prime minister] understood.”
On Sunday night it was reported that Mr Straw will refer himself to the Parliamentary Commissioner.
Mr Straw and Sir Malcolm denied any wrongdoing. A spokesman for Mr Straw said: “He has always conducted himself, in whatever capacity, in accordance with the appropriate rules.”
He said there was “nothing inappropriate” in him using the “knowledge and experience” he has acquired as an MP after he stands down. The spokesman added that Mr Straw “has always been full and frank in any work carried out on behalf of ED&F Man” and had declared his role with the firm to Mr Azarov and the European Commission.
The spokesman said Mr Straw’s use of the phrase “charm and menace” would have been “colloquial and a purely conversational description of the approach he had adopted”.
Asked about Mr Straw boast that he operated “under the radar”, his spokesman said: “This was a reference to his preferred strategy of affecting a change to regulations by discussion and negotiation, rather than conducting a high-profile public campaign.”
The spokesman said Mr Straw used his parliamentary office to hold the meeting “to save time” because of his “busy schedule”. The spokesman added that the work carried out by the researcher for ED&F Man “is not paid by the public funds”.
Mr Straw said that when he mentioned the £5,000 fee he was giving it as an example and not as part of a negotiation.
Sir Malcolm said he believed the “firm” had sought his help as a former foreign secretary rather than as an MP. He said: “I have never undertaken, nor would I undertake, any lobbying as an MP on behalf of any private organisation from which I was receiving remuneration.”
He insisted that when he said he could write to ministers he was only offering to obtain information that was “already in the public domain”.
Politicians for Hire: Channel 4 Dispatches 8pm
@scotsbob
If you look at the RSS feed from the SNP you will see the daily press releases as they become available. Typically half a dozen a day, all very up to date, and often attacking Labour transgressions.
The problem is, the MSM ignore most of them!
link to snp.org
Thanks TJenny
Tomorrow nights reality tv…
‘Straw and Rifkind in latest cash for access scandal’
Politicians for Hire: Channel 4 Dispatches 8pm tomorrow.
Its pretty sneaky stuff but it could work. Someone told me on the phone tonight they’d heard all about dentist problems Aberdeen and its really really bad. Just watched BBC Scotland news online and they’re really going big on the Scottish women involved with those teenagers going to Iraq. We are being frightened, harangued, worried, creeped out by shills at the BBC etc and all to make us vote SLab and save teamGB, again!
Questions like the why and how of IS and Iraq, are long forgotten by our imperial masters but one major and catastrophic player, former PM Gordon Brown is now going to save Tesco Kirkcaldy. So vote SLab.
At least everyone at Pacific Quay is working with a bit more subtlety at their Project Fear 2.0.
O/T Latest publicity stunt from the Labour branch office manager is calling for knighthood for John Greig and Billy McNeil for services to the British establishment during the referendum campaign.
Murphy’s scatter-gun approach means that people will just remember his name and nothing about any of the so called policies which won’t be subject to any scrutiny by the BBC/STV or Sky.
Turns out the warmongering fools and Iraq/Trident cheerleaders Jack Straw and Malcolm Rifkind are up to their neck in a sleazy corruption scandal.
The Labour/Tory dirtbags slithered around for EVEN MORE cash than their already massive expenses claims.
They both sounded so honest and trustworthy too.
LOL 😀
I was told when I was a young whippersnapper that Malky R bumped a friend of the family out of a few grand after he done his whole bathroom up in his swanky Edinburgh hoose. Crook then and crook now.
Gordon Brown’s “Kirkcaldy Vow” seems a bit staged does it not. Gordon rides into Kirkcaldy town centre and saves the supermarket.
What a man.
Now Vote Labour!
Lololol.. Surely they’re just having a laugh with us now.. Priceless.
I also like how the Sunday Mail have thrown all their journalistic integrity and rigiurous fact checking prior to sending the story to the printers.
Brilliant non story from Labour trumpeted by the Dialy Rags lesser Sunday sister.
Headtracker at 10.44
The Aberdeen Dental story relates to the Dental School.
THere were problems with a number of patients’ treatment at the dental School carried out by dental students. I think it was twelve patients in total. The problems were sorted and none of the patients lodged a complaint.
That was the gist of the report on the news last week.
Labours “right” to rule
link to independent.co.uk
O/T Jack Straw has been suspended from the Labour party.
link to twitter.com
Now the knives will be out and I don’t think he will go quietly
I suppose after rendition flights, illegal wars etc a little bit of dodgy income is nothing in comparison.
The Westminster world!
link to order-order.com
Are there high-class prostitutes who can charge £5k a day?
Wouldn’t be surprising.
But ‘prostitutes’ are selling something private which needn’t trouble other folk. They don’t do shit like this:
link to youtube.com
If you can’t be bothered clicking, it’s footage of Jack Straw, Foreign Secretary, being interviewed just after the start of the invasion of Iraq. (Sorry, I haven’t pinpointed the date.)
Please check out his message to the people of Iraq at 4.00 mins – “..we want to see your suffering come to an end.”
Class act eh? Five grand a shift? Who says you can’t get a bargain these days?!
The media are portraying the Scottish Labour high command as saviours of one thing or another.
Gordon Brown is the saviour of Kirkcaldy,
Jim Murphy is the saviour of hunners of things,
Shadow Foreign Secretary, Douglas Alexander is going to save us from all those nasty foreign countries who want to do us harm.
Scottish Labour, looking out for YOU!
O/T
I see Ed has suspended Jack Straw, Oh Ed, I just love it when you get really angry and decisive. No messing with you mate.
Jock Scot – always a pleasure to spread the Yew Choob productions far and wide, and you’re all just getting better ‘n better all the time. 😉
Hopefully meet up with you and all other Wingers at the next night out, in Glasgow or Edinburgh?
Is that you Camie?
It’s the Smurph here!
No. I’m no wearing a fitba tap the day.
See as we done yer dirty work fur ye at the Referendum,
gaunnae dae us a favour an gie us a couple of Knight Hoods?
Naw, ye widnae o’ heard o’ them, they were fitbaw players 50 years ago, but they never played fur England.
Aye I know you generally get a couple of £Million for them
but have you any idea how many Ginger Bottle deposits that wid take?
Dae I get anything back on they Auld Trident Missiles?
Go on ye ken we will follow all yer instructions if we get into power, Trident, Bedroom Tax, £30 Billion more Austerity cuts,
and we’ll kick the erse o’ Scotland fur for another 5 years tae its your shot again.
Well if that’s yer attitude Labour will investigate who
has been asking for these Knight hoods, and we will stop this from happening, as it is not in the best interests alcohol induced sectarianism.
Anyhow whit did ye call me fur? I’m in the middle o’ an expenses claim?
McTernan! He pure done the durty on me so he did!
Labour bedroom tax vote no-show”
The Scottish National Party called on the Scottish Labour Branch to explain the absence of their MP’s at a vote in the House of Commons which would, with the support of the Labour party have scrapped the Bedroom Tax.
The surprising feature of events was this was an opposition day debate initiated by the Labour Party yet 47 Labour MPs, including 10 Scottish Labour MPs, failed to turn up for a vote that was lost by just 26 votes.
SNP spokesperson for Work and Pensions Dr Eilidh Whiteford MP said: “Today we could have been talking about how the Bedroom Tax had been scrapped, but instead the question on the minds of many Scots is – where were they? Labour MPs need to explain their absence. There can be no excuse for a quarter of Scotland’s Labour MPs not turning up for a vote to scrap the Bedroom Tax that was there to win.
Missing MPs: http://www.publicwhip.org.ukdivision.php…
Douglas Alexander, Gordon Brown, Brian Donohoe, Frank Doran, James Hood, David Hamilton, Ann McKechin, Jim Murphy, Pamela Nash, Anas Sarwar.
The vote: link to parliament.uk
Labour in a “shambles” over the Bedroom Tax:
• Ed Miliband announced that the Labour Party would scrap the Bedroom Tax if they won the general Election in 2015. but a full six months after the tax had been introduced.
• Labour’s position has been extremely confused –Johann Lamont and Anas Sarwar appeared on TV at the same time in September 2013 and presented conflicting views:
Lamont failed to commit Labour to abolishing the Bedroom Tax, Sarwar did. But adding to the confusion a Labour spokesperson subsquently said, “we are not writing our next manifesto today and, as with everything, we will have to take a view of the fiscal position nearer the time.”
• Meantime Jackie Baillie, taking charge of matters said on Good Morning Scotland a day after, “Yes we will abolish it. My understanding is you can expect an announcement on that very soon” only for a Labour source to tell BBC Online that Ms Baillie had, “gone a bit too far.”
• Jackie Baillie MSP went ahead and introduced a motion in the Scottish Parliament asking that the Scottish Government scrap the Bedroom Tax, (which was impossible since welfare is not a devolved matter.) Crazy lady.
Margaret Curran MP having responsibility in Westminster neglected to ask Secretary of State for Scotland Alistair Carmichael to include a similar request in the Scottish Business day at Westminster.
The SNP government pressed ahead with measures finding finance which was allocated to local councils so that the effects of the Bedroom Tax would be reversed in favour of tenants in breach of the rule.
Finance has been added by John Swinney providing similar funding for another 2 years.
The extra money has been found from within finance already allocated to Scotland by Westminster which is a bit of a nonsense that would have been avoided had Labour Party MP’s turned up for the vote in Westminster.
The extra money will have been diverted away from other deserving welfare matters.
Jackie Baillie and her cronies claiming credit for the changes is beyond the plae and needs to be challenged by the Scottish government in parliament and in the press.
@TJenny –
Counting House, Glasgow, Friday May 1st.
If you’re not there I will stamp my feet a la Paula Rose.
Legerwood says:
22 February, 2015 at 11:03 pm
Headtracker at 10.44
The Aberdeen Dental story relates to the Dental School.
I know but was taken aback by the BBC Scotland Project Fear version I got tonight. Can our BBC and all the rest of them make Scots so creeped out by SNP Scots.gov Scotland, even Murphy’s SLab Westminster crew keep their seats?
This is certainly the cunning UKOK BBC plan. There is a middle Scotland just like there’s a middle England but with 8% of their target audience, they can tune and focus their hard core vote Murphy SLab propaganda.
Wonder what next week’s BBC says “Scottish NHS is shite” will be?
O/T The actor who plays Jamie in Outlander was pro-Indy. Still no sign of it being broadcast in the UK, though there are rumours now that Amazon Prime might get it.
link to cumbernauld-media.com
liz says:
22 February, 2015 at 11:09 pm
O/T Jack Straw has been suspended from the Labour party.
link to twitter.com.
A Vote for SNP lets Tories capture the easy money in parliament when it’s Labour Turn for it.
How dare this Straw chap try to make a few bob on the side before it’s his turn.
New Labour of course will be working behind the scenes to cover as much as possible, and call an embargo on the Truth for the next 100 years. Just like they did at Dunblane.
Two stories stood out today for me in the English media.
One was of Tory fruitcake Liam Fox telling us that the British Government should Arm Ukraine with heavy weapons so they can fight back against Russia.
Liam, we don’t have enough weapons to give to our own army never mind the Ukrainian army.
And another was that the UK Nuclear Power Stations could come under attack from drones carrying missile.
But missing from all these reports of drone missile attacks was, what about attacks on our Trident submarine fleet based on the Clyde.
They seemed to have forgotten to mention the couple of hundred Nuclear missiles stored at Coulport/Faslane that could also be attacked by drone missile attacks.
Not wanting to frighten the locals I suppose.
In Brotherhood:
Are there high-class prostitutes who can charge £5k a day?
Erm, yes, well, dollars certainly. That will include chaperone for the day, and sex servant for the night.
Here’s a story that circulates by the generation.
In BBC high command head honcho’s office there’s a safe. Not so long ago, BBC, under attack as every from the latest incumbent of Westminster, had to get rid of its director general. He left a note saying the safe should only be opened in extremis, when all diplomacy had failed with a new government administration.
The new director general, both curious and frustrated by the locked safe, swirled the combination lock and opened the safe. To his disappointment it contained only one slim file, with a few A5 papers in it.
The papers turned out to be BBC Chairman’s expenses from a previous year, he by then a member of the government.
Among the expenses was … expenses of a few thousand Euros for a hooker while on BBC business in Europe.
Sssh!
When it comes to sex the BBC is pure as the driven snow, and I don’t mean Dan.
Caz-m:
Tory fruitcake Liam Fox telling us that the British Government should Arm Ukraine with heavy weapons so they can fight back against Russia.
Fox has connections to armament companies.
The Straw Scandal should seal the election for the Tories again.
Labour have absolutely no talent and no idea about running the country. If Scotland Votes for Labour in May, for the 11th General Election in a row, since 1970, we will have our 7th Tory Government in place without ever voting for them.
Vote SNP, get rid of Westminster Corruption in its many colours!
@jimnarlene
“Vote SNP, get Scotland”
Love that 🙂
Sadly I don’t think the penny will ever drop for a lot of New Labour voters. They are like those people who refuse to change energy suppliers, due to some strange sense of loyalty, even when it is shown that they are being taken for mugs.
I remember watching QT just after the referendum and there was a Scottish woman who said she would have voted no even if there were no new powers offered for Scotland. To me that just beggars belief. How do you get through to people like that? They seem so set in their ways and so stubborn that they refuse to even consider the possibility that there might be a different way of doing things. Come the election I can see these people voting out of spite and I expect a big turn out not just from the people who voted yes.
New Labour have had their chance and they blew it. It is time for a new direction and a new vision.
Grouse Beater
“Fox has connections to armament companies.”
And I bet you he has connections in a lot of other companies.
London has got to be one of the most corrupt Cities anywhere in the world. From Government to finance, it’s rotten to the core.
Ian Brotherhood – I’ve put the date in my diary – see you all there.Yipppeeeeeeee 🙂
@Grouse Beater –
🙂
‘Executive relief’, eh?
And we all paid for it!
“The Straw Scandal should seal the election for the Tories again.”
Straw is a sleazy, avaricious, despicable, runt, but if you think the tories are cheering tonight then you’re living on another planet.
The cretinous coward Cameron made Rifkind Chairman of the Intelligence Committee. Something that they presumably didn’t want the public to think is a joke job. So now they both look complete and utter fools as Rifkind is caught sleazing it up with a fictional Chinese company.
Labour and the tories could hardly look much worse right now with two of their previous ‘highest fliers’ caught neck deep with their snouts in the trough over a sleazy corruption scandal.
The usual sleaze apologists will try and gloss over it and they will just end up looking as dishonest and revolting as Rifkind and Straw. There is no way on earth the public will think this is anything other than anger-inducing sleaze from Labour and the tories. It will only deepen the public’s already massive mistrust in westminster and confirm to them that the westminster system is broken and corrupt from the bottom to the top.
WGD I meet Paul in the Counting House this afternoon,he thanks everbody for the donation from the Invergowrie raffle.I will be meeting Thistle in Maryhill foodbank & give his donation to the Livestream.
Many Thanks to Pete the Camera & Briandoonthetoon for the badges for the foodbank, last but not least many thanks to Mrs Irene King for selling raffle tickets £ 100 .
Ian Brotherhood: Executive relief’, eh?
🙂
And there’s more at BBC Scotlandshire … but lips and zips are sealed.
In this chunk of shite, sorry, ‘testimony’ to the Chilcot Inquiry, Jack Straw explains that the threat to Britain from Saddam’s WMD was such that his own office staff were equipped with protective clothing, and he personally inspected it – so ‘real’ was the threat.
I ain’t kidding – it’s here, at 5 mins 20 secs:
link to youtube.com
Well, Straw and Rifkind are in deep doodoo.
To my mind, they have ended their political careers on a squalid low. They will be referred to the MP Standards Committee.
Nevertheless, I don’t have the patience to wait for the outcome, or for others, Labour or Tory, to fall face down in the pigs sty. I want my country’s liberty now!
Just in case anyone’s feeling sorry for Jack Straw –
CH4’s Alex Thomson gently attaches the former ‘Foreign Secretary’ to his own petard:
link to youtube.com
@ Ian Brotherhood Now did we need to know that.What the Forgein Office staff get up to in their Laytecs suits,as for the gas masks , wiz there cabbage on the menu that day,Did Jack clain it all on his expences form lol.
Straw and Rifkind eh?
Who knew?
Couldn’t happen to two better guys.
OT
This article in the Independent from a few days ago appears to have slipped in under the rradar.
UK set the Benchmark for US torture in the Middle East.
No bloody wonder much of the US torture report was redacted.
Jack Straw and Malcolm Rifkind caught in a cash for access sting by channel 4 and the Telegraph
OH JINGS!
Not another Westminster corrupt scandal. What are these low lives on? Another slime ball corruption geared to killing innocent people the world over, and especially in the Middle East. The election can’t come soon enough to get rid of some of them. Wasting £Billion of public money to line their own pockets. Breaking every rule in the book and just getting away with it.
Where is the Chilcot verdict? Being buried by unelected civil servants on their masters orders. Westminster is rotten to the core, acting against the Public interest. Lying, cheating, greedy fraudsters and child molesters. Westminster attack the vulnerable and protect the guilty. They get away with murder, above the Laws that they make. They use the Offical Secrets Act to get away with murder.
John King
LOL …you couldn’t make it up. Cheered me up no end to read about Rifkind and Straw being caught with their hands in the till. Now …being the walking calamity that he is …here’s hoping now that you know who will also be caught. It would not surprise me in the least. PS …Hope you and wife are doing well. Not seen you for ages!
@JLT
Funny you should say that,
I was looking at the pictures I took before the cavalcade in Livi last year and being the observant type finally noticed the lady in the tartan jacket was none other than Angela Constance, nuthin gets past me ye ken, 🙂
Irene’s fine but still having bother with arthritis, Im just about to leave for work, 🙁
I hate to say this about Riffkind and Straw but, they will get away with it without a stain on their character.
My reasoning
1) It will kicked into the long grass and any report, which will tut tut but clear them
2) They will plead that there is no proof of wrongdoing, and if their verbal list of services was a bit close to the bone, it was just a spot of career hyperbola. Just compare and contrast the CV of Ian Duncan Smith and he is still here destroying lives hourly.
3) The investigation will be carried out by their mates.around point 2) above.
4) They are both lawyers and know how far to go without crossing the line. That line is of course fuzzy and elastic, because they drew it up, and they will argue 2) above.
Try what they did in your employer to a representative of a foreign competitor?
The whole UK political system is completely corrupt.
Pass me a banana please.
Yes straw and rifkind will not be out on the street that’s for sure. They are in the club.
Still no news on the child abuse scandal of the 80s – there might be a few posthumous scapegoats then it will be put to bed.
You can get caught with hookers, masterbating with an orange in you mouth and still present classical music programmes to the well to do. All is forgotten when you’re in the club
@BtP – you are spot on I think – right on the money so to speak.
Every time MPs try to convince us they don’t have their snouts in the trough up pops another story that porves that they do.
These MPs have both been in Westminster for decades – they will leave with a huge lump sum and a vast annual pension for life.
Just think – if you charge £10K to give a lecture/after-dinner speech you only need to do that ten times a year to make £100K.
In addition these guys are so well-connected they will walk into 6 figure consultancy or director posts.
You kinda expect this sort of money-grabbing behaviour from Tories – it’s what they repreent afterall and they don’t really shy aay from that.
But so-called socialists?
there is nothing more nauseating than hypocrisy.
O/T
The tragic cases of young girls being radicalised and joining jihad is given wide coverage and much hand wringing today.
Cynically I see more of Wuthering Heights than adherence to a distortion of Islam.
Panda is bang on the money. A wee wrist slap at best, end of.
How and ever there’s more than one way to skin those rats. We can make them pay in the only way that counts. We cut them and their big hoose on the Thames loose.
Those thieving, corrupt, arseholes and the rest of their crew can be held to account by the public at the ballot.
@ John King .Aye ah noticed your ah very observant type at Inverwhatsit,ahv never seen that fulla before,who,s he Ronnie none other than Quintin Quale or Graeme if you prefer.
If Jack Straw can get away with turning a blind eye while assisting the USA in sending people for torture.
When he can manipulate data to support an illegal war which led to the deaths several 100,000 people then he will be pretty confident in getting away with this.
As with Iraq “I have not done anything technically wrong”
I wonder how many NO voters are squirming today when reviewing their Better Together World.
Westminster is a cesspit.
It seems that the Tories £20 million election war chest is all being spent in English marginals as they are reduced to subterfuge by earning funds in Edinburgh from a pseudo charity shop.
link to archive.today
Lol
Westminster is a cesspit of sleaze and corruption.What Mr Rifkind and Mr Straw have done probably doesn’t break any rules and,actually,proves them to be eminently suitable for the House of Lords.
He’s an MP snout up his ass.
link to grousebeater.wordpress.com
Front page of The National on unelected Labour and Tory Peers stopping votes in Scotland for 16 and 17 year olds.
First sign that House of Lords will thwart Smith Commission’s modest devolution proposals.
A wee wrist slap at best, end of.
I doubt it – on the evidence so far, added to public mood, they have trashed their reputations. The chances of them getting invited back to chair committees must be nil.
There’s not a lot get’s me fit to smack something in the mouth, but those ‘people’ hiring their ‘services’ out for cash whilst taking ours + expenses, with people starving in our own fucking 21st century streets does it big time.
These pricks epitomise Westminster and UK politics in general. Theft, graft, corruption, patronage and power. What a cocktail and people bought into this last September? They believed the charm and threat offensive? They willingly bought into being robbed, manipulated and degraded in the hopes of what? That creatures like these will stop? That somehow its all going to go away and get better of its own fucking accord?
They so need to be shown the door in Scotland.
Second chances people – May 7th.
@ Bugger the Panda Ah know ah man that knows anither man an that ither mans oan the Catering Committee of HoC/HoL,onnyhowa there,s a job gone fur ah Sommelier,an its no just smellin you can even drink it.
3 days ah week all expences payed + second home allowance + salery, dey yea want a application form.
Ma fee fur gone between, ach a couple o boxes of the good stuff, ooya the back door every week.
Closing date fur applications 8th May.
Doubt they’ll see jail time though Grouse or indeed any kind of serious inquiry. It would expose far too many roaches to the light. Losing out on chairing committees? Having some dirt stuck to their ‘good’ names?
Can’t see them losing much sleep over it.
Have you heard of Crossrail? This is where they are tunneling under London for new rail tracks, and a whole lot more, and yes we will be helping to fund it. No lack of money for London!
This article explains it all.
link to gizmag.com
BBC especially call (U)Kaye in full protection mode. Virtually arguing in favour of Rifkind/Straw – unbelievable
Just when HSBC corruption and Osbornes grubby mitts all over the Swiss deal along comes the telegraph with a labour deflection. Wonder if any tories will be named.
How long have they known about rifkind and straw and lets face it they will not be the only ones up to their eyeballs in filth.
The telegraph stinks, on the whole they are tory arses and willing to prostitute themselves for favours as seems to be the reason for the very existance of westminster. Scratch my back and I’ll ……
Rifkind’s a cousin of leon brittan, friend of George robertson so what else is the telegraph sitting on and as for straw, my skin crawls, this man put a gagging order on children who had been abused.
link to whatdotheyknow.com
Ronnie you fibber,
I never said I didn’t know who he was I had just momentarily forgotten his name whoever you are. 🙂
@BtP
Pandas on bananas – sounds like a dangerous mix 😉
Thought you only survived on bam-boo? (the red variety, I presume).
If MP’s have that type of “spare time” why the hell do we need 600+ of them plus the House of Lords in Westminster.
You really could not make this up.
Arabs for Independence
I am listening to that phone-in and I’m very surprised no one has mention how much Gordon Brown earns outside is MP work.
One of the main reasons I believe why people are turning to and voting for SNP this is May, is because the unionist referendum campaign made it plainly obvious to everyone that there is no distinction between Labour and the Tories.
They are both the same party with different colour ties, who have no interest in Scotland whatsoever.
Our only hope of creating a stronger Scotland for everyone is if we open our eyes and see the Labour party for the self serving liars they have become, and vote SNP in May.
BBC Scotland’s Call Kaye phone-in will have the usual Scottish Labour, Gordon Brown safety barriers up.
Got on morning call just after 9 am and suggested that MPs should “keep their hand in” with their profession by doing voluntary work. Lembit Opik seemed to suggest that I was just being envious of him!
I should have made the point that such companies and organisations are only willing to pay MPs such large sums because they are MPs and therefore are perceived as having power and influence.
Also, Jack Straw, “charm and menace”? Menace perhaps, but charm? The man never had any.
Macart: Doubt they’ll see jail time though, Grouse,
Probably true. They only jail the corrupt and the lethally inept in Iceland and Ireland.
Here they are asked to lay low for a time before they are reintroduced into public life and expenses. The dreadful Peter Mandelson is one perfect example of the breed.
@ ronnie anderson says:
23 February, 2015 at 9:17 am
“3 days ah week all expences payed + second home allowance + salery, dey yea want a application form.
Ma fee fur gone between, ach a couple o boxes of the good stuff, ooya the back door every week.
Closing date fur applications 8th May.”
Which happens to be my birthday, again.
I don’t think I could get past the SNP vetting as I have too many skeletons in the cupboard.
The other Parties, where skeletons are viewed as an asset will not win more than a handful of seats and anyway these will wiped off very soon after.
Mind you, in 3 years I could do a lot of damage and set up my own wee wine merchant’s shoppe!
@Les Wilson
Crossrail will cost about £16 billion. Central funding I believe. Presumably about £1.5 billion comes from Scottish taxes.
Is Gordon Brown saving Tesco in Kirkcaldy under his duty as the local MP or has he used is “Charity” to work out this business plan for Tesco?
We all know Gordon very rarely does things for free nowadays. They don’t call him “Flash” for nothing.
You want Gordon, then you better get your cheque book out.
In regard to the behaviour of the Westminster politicians it is not exactly a surprise. One of the key reasons I voted Yes last year was to rid ourselves of all these Unionist troughers, I wanted to have a country with a proper constitution and a fair electoral system.
Interestingly enough the MSM did a great job of keeping these issues over what kind of democracy we have off the TV and out of print. All we got was a constant does of economics happily playing to the Tory / Labour predictions of doom and disaster.
I hope all the No voters are happy with what they have delivered us.
The “Netional” hits Kiosko!
link to en.kiosko.net
@caz-m
Was trying to get on phone-in to mention the ‘charity’ work of Gordon Brown that rakes in millions.
Was also going to bring up that we have no idea what MPs do – we have only found out about the practice of ‘pairing’ that we only discovered when 40+ Labour MPs failed to turn up to vote on the bedroom tax.
Head tracker at 11.30 on 22 Feb
This week’s NHS Scotland scare stories will concentrate on creeping privatisation. See the Herald today, Monday. I believe the Daily Record may be going with this angle too and there was stuff on Facebook yesterday.
Jack Straw and Malcolm Rifkind can’t see what they have done wrong because they swim in a sea of corporate influence.
link to opendemocracy.net
“Mind you, in 3 years I could do a lot of damage and set up my own wee wine merchant’s shoppe!”
If yer lookin fur a cellerman, remember oor conversation in Freuchie. 🙂
I honestly don’t think Scottish Labour could recognise the truth if it slapped them across the face with one of their own rosettes.
The rest of the world must be laughing at all the crap that is being exposed, and heaped on the UK electorate.
I watched that programme about the kippers, and the councillor voicing her disgusting views about black people, in front of the appointed Press officer, no less. Then everyone is horrified by the Chelsea fans abuse on the Paris Metro.
I seriously want out of this Union, and away from all this filth. We are not perfect, but we will never better this country shackled to the putrid imperialist corpse.
@Les Wilson & @galamcennalath
And the rest, you should check out what else is going on
Crossrail is only part of the investment going into London
There is also another project for energy supplies (cables, gas pipe etc) in a very very large tunnel crossing London
link to theengineer.co.uk
Dig deeper ( 😉 ) and you can find all sorts of stuff going on
Undercover junk shop in Edinburgh is secret Tory fundraiser
link to archive.today
@Valerie
I saw a UKIPper try and defend that woman’s views because she wasn’t racist apparently, but xenophobic and therefore suffering from a mental illness…
Words fail me.
O/T
Nice if a little rambling piece in today’s National from Alasdair Gray featuring the Willie McCrae mystery.
Record an anti NHS disgrace. This is developing into full frontal attack of the hard working folk in the NHS dealing with budgets crippled by austerity.
Good stuff again in the Sun – but this is because they are running for a Tory victory
@Edward
I also get the impression there are absolutely no WM funded ‘national infrastructure’ project in Scotland.
London and the SE is rich enough to pay for all these big construction projects down there out of local funding.
HS2? Why doesn’t London show its commitment to the Union by starting at Aberdeen and working South to London!?
Lembit Shmembit.
Wee Caroline fair cheered up that awful radio programme did it not.
Car crash for Kay(e) as she scrambles desperately for support and has to read her ONLY supporting text twice.
Troll callers slow on the uptake today.
Satire’s dead in teamGB, look at Westminster. Straw says he’s not a crook, he was only lining up work after he quits, Milliband says MP’s should not have second jobs and its all Cameron’s fault.
link to press.labour.org.uk
Ed Miliband MP, Leader of the Labour Party, writing to David Cameron today said:
“Dear Prime Minister,
I write this letter to you not just as leader of the Labour Party but as someone who believes that we all need to act to improve the reputation of our Parliament in the eyes of the British people.”
Five grand a day Mr Straw, taste that action proud Scot buts, plus expenses.
Firstly apologise if someone else has remarked on this because I have not yet managed to catch up with all the comments. I had Radio 4 on first thing this morning and had the delight of hearing Malcolm Rifkind explaining what he had been up to. It was good to hear that both he and the Straw man had been caught peddling their wares round. I stopped listening to his excuses but what did strike me was where did the pretended Prince Charles accent go, and the one thing that got me was the panic in his voice. I then caught him on TV and again no accent, none of this pretendy Senior Statesman gravitas that he so likes to put on.
Now I think Straw is taking the pension and running as per Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling, so I can only imagine that the part time MP that is Malcom is still standing.
To give my Husband his due, he had said Malcolm Rifkind’s hand stuck under his nose when he was MP for Pentland, we were up at the local Safeway’s store and he came up and introduced himself. He said “hello, I am Malcolm Rifkind” and Hubby said, “Aye so you are” and declined the offer of the hand.
Apologies. O/T slightly – I’ve changed my tune. Let Mhairi Black take on The Death Head. Let her look him in the eye and ask him if he has profited in any way from his £200,000 expenses. She’s the one to do it.
Caz-m at 10.04 am
Apparently Mr Brown is trying to save Tesco by brokering a deal to get the Council to cut the taxes and business rates paid BT Tesco to the tune of £1 million. He is also trying to save Tesco because it has the franchise for the local Post Office. If it closes then the nearest Post Office is Glenrothes.
Now why does Tesco have the franchise for the PO – would it be because the last Labour Government closed down Post Offices and awarded the franchises to the likes of Tesco and WHSmith?
Of course Mr Brown was, as we all know, a prominent member of the last Labour Government
On the subject of troughers, i have rethought this. The SNP should put Mhairi Black forward to face the Death Head on QT. She is the right person to be there, look him in that bulging eye when he is wringing his weasle hands and uttering his weasle words re Rifkind and Straw and ask him if he has ever profited from a single penny of his £200,000 expense claims?
Murphy is a charlatan and she is the right person with more than enough savvy to expose him. they will be more scared than Mhairi. She’s a fighter. Murphy is well fragile.
@Ian B and Grousebeater
I note that these high class prostitutes are rumoured to charge £5k per day.
Also Jack Straw and Malcolm Rifkind also charge £5k per day for their services.
Surely this cannot be more than just a coincidence?!
I think the Rev Stu needs to investigate…
Nothing they say is true. Murphy is a liar amongst liars..
@muttley79 9.42 22/2
@macart 9.44 22/2
@Ian brotherhood 9.56 22/2
Apologies to all for delayed response to your replies.
All taken on board. I only caught the independence bug following the referendum and now I am obsessed. I don’t yet have the vocabulary nor impressive grasp of modern political history that fellow posters display on a daily basis (That’s why I stick mostly to humourous posts. That’s in my comfort zone). But I am getting there. Your comments will help me get a few steps further down the line.
Thanks for that.