One more twist of the corkscrew
The Herald, 1 June 2014:
Scottish leader Johann Lamont will be joined by former prime minister Gordon Brown at the event.
We’ll let Johann’s rather shaky grasp of the UK and Scottish population sizes slide on this occasion – she taught English, not maths or geography. The important thing is that the No vote in the referendum assured that benefits would remain a central, shared and uniform facet of British life. Right?
Here’s Jim Murphy in today’s Scotsman:
I don’t want a one-size-fits-all welfare state within Scotland.”
Oh, sorry. Our mistake.
Under a Labour government, apparently the welfare system will be a postcode lottery according to who’s in charge of your local council or – alarmingly – local businesses who might have a vested interest in a regime of punitive workfare sanctions. But only in Scotland. Thank goodness for new powers, eh, readers?
Oh Jeez.
The ink barely dry on the ballot papers and I’ve lost count of the BT/WM statements and pledges that have been flushed doon the crapper.
I’m seeing a pattern forming.
The plan of action is clear. No Unionist MPs in 2015. No Unionist Councillors in 2017.
“I don’t want a one-size-fits-all welfare state within Scotland.”
Yeah, what he wants is a manipulated (ie favour your friends), divide & conquer welfare state.
…just until he has hopefully eliminated the competition, then it’s full steam ahead on his neoliberal right-wing agenda for one and all.
Meet Mr Murphy, your transparent neighbourhood political fraud.
It was always Labour’s policy (at least the MPs in Scotland) to rip power away from Holyrood and transfer it to their crooked mates and fellow crooks in the “Rotten Boroughs.”
They don’t give a monkey’s that they are rotten and corrupt. In fact the worse they are the fewer the number of voters will be as a they apply the apathy factor at the local level. Incompetence is a useful tool for them and will be made mandatory.
Just as long as they keep their snouts in the trough and their feet on the golden yellow brick road.
Meanwhile all of Labour’s criminal crew, especially in Glasgow and surrounds, are cheering on the isolating of Holyrood and allowing Labour to return to being the Lucky Dip Party.
They are off down the Dirty Coo ‘n’ Cilla to get their trebles up.
The most galling thing about the aftermath of the referendum is the way they were actually allowed to get away with the jam tomorrow promises and lack of detail. Oh for a time travel machine to let us go back and vote with the knowledge we have now…
(Well I say “we”, but Wings readers obviously knew fine ages ago.)
“I don’t want a one-size-fits-all welfare state within Scotland.”
Breath taking arrogance.
Do we give a Monkey’s Cuss what he wants?
If that man ever comes close to making decisions on behalf of Scotland…
Coincidentally, at the moment I’m reading ‘The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists’. Murphy must be using large sections of it as an Operating Manual.
Murphy is a Blue Tory so welfare will ultimately be outsourced to private companies like SERCO, CAPITA and G4S.
Labour want power closer to the people because they control many councils so they get the powers which can be dictated from Westminster through London Labour. How transparent.
They didn’t want the Scottish government to control everything through independence even although that would have brought power closer to the people where we can decide how to distribute it.
Scotland has a small enough population that a central government can work for all on big issues while the councils micro manage.
And here’s a horrendous portent of what’s to come from ‘pooling and sharing’ from Devon NHS.
link to opendemocracy.net
OK, I know NHS is devolved in Scotland, but what goes around comes around in this cursed union.
I know others ask this question but I think I’ll jump on the band wagon as well now.
I wonder how all our NO voting compatriots are feeling now that the TRUTH is coming out about the *ahem* promises made by Gordon Brown and Better Together. Now if only someone had had the foresight to actually tell the TRUTH during the referendum things might very well have been different now wouldn’t they. Oh wait a minute someone DID tell folks the TRUTH it’s just too many folks were too deaf to hear them I guess!
Somewhere PWC and cohorts are raising a glass of champagne saying “Bravo Jim, to our first part of the plan complete…’place the thought out there’. Next thing, we make it a ‘common approach’..but that can wait till after new year,ching ching”
Stu and peeps, we are doing it again! If we use their language we are giving in to the oppressors. Look how Gaelic and Scots have been marginalised and how Scotland too.
We must talk of our social security system to remind them that if they dont carry out their promises we carry out ours to revolt. Welfare, benefits still carry the connotations of Lady of the Manor bounty which can be cut. Social security carries the threat of social insecurity if cut.
Language is important. After being duffed up in 1066 how come the English aren’t speaking French? It is plausible to talk of transfering welfare to Clackmannan but if you talk of transferring social security to Alloa you’ll get a more questioning response, which is what we want
Yes, Labour and the BBC , STV, Sky, etc are all pushing for devolved power to the Councils etc. They won’t get into Holyrood for the foreseeable future, so their answer, is to get power anyway possible. Well Jim Murphy, we can see through your outrageous little plan!
The pool of talent running Labour councils has already proven to be hopeless. Giving those same councils the responsibility for sharing this finite financial resource would end in disaster for every Scottish citizen.
Big Jim, pooling and sharing to destroy Scotland, aye right!
This is what Labour thinks:
UK – All power
Regions – No power
Regions of the regions – Some power
This highlights my belief that Labour are hell bent of removing power from Holyrood and handing it to the local Labour councilors. A frightening prospect judging by the standard of local Labour councilors I have had the misfortune to meet. They would have us fighting each other in the streets if they thought it would bring back to them even a grain of support. The message must be to return as many pro-indy MP’s as is possible to represent SCOTLAND and not Labour. Labour now realises that Holyrood is the ever enduring reminder that Scotland has importance, and that their Holyrood experiment to kill the independent mind stone dead has gone terribly wrong, they now intend to shut it down, but can only start the process once in power.
Universal food banks.
The Labour/Unionists were advocating paying lower benefits in the North, but subsidising London S/E with borrowed money.
Are SLab not being a wee bit presumptious here anyway, assuming they’ll hold control of councils in the future? Will the electorate continue to vote Labour in local elections now that they have experienced the new fashion for Red Tory/Blue Tory council coalitions, anything but the SNP? Jim Murphy should watch out: there’s a good chance their unholy alliances have alienated Labour council support too.
The SNP have more councillors than any other party. If that trend and opinion polls continue this could be a policy that ends up with Labour still out in the cold…or worse, they could form a coalition Government in Holyrood only to find they have given everything to SNP Councils
…but we wouldn’t laugh at that
A return to the Poor Law, where local businessmen may determine the diet, haircut and morals of the poor.
Very angry. Very determined
Murphy, who spent day after day standing in a soft drinks crate saying absolutely nothing of consequence. A mish-mash of right wing ramblings like those above. Oh, and of course ‘SNP Bad!’ What he thinks or says is of little importance. Labour in Scotland, by acting as the front for Tory Unionism in the referendum, is irreversibly damaged. It wouldn’t at all surprise me if Murphy will become no more than a bystander as the new political reality of Anglo Scottish politics unfolds.
Roll on WM2015.
Councillors in some cities do enjoy the benefits that “arm’s length organisations (aka ALEOs) bring them. Makes sense to devolve spending, you know, it’s trickle down economics.
link to heraldscotland.com
From the little I caught on GMS, he’s still prattling on about funding that council devolved welfare provision with a 50pence top rate of tax. So that’s £8.4millionish (unless these top earners dodge tax or leave Scotland) split between all the councils in Scotland.
What sort of welfare provision will that fund? Soup kitchens?
Will this devolving of powers to labour lackies kill nationalism stone dead ?
OT slightly. SNP Membership now at 100,000.
Huff Post,updated today,Friday.
link to huffingtonpost.co.uk
Jim McGovern, Labour Party is the MP for Dundee West. He is a controversial some say bad mouthed character prone to verbal gaffs. He is besotted by devils, witches and Nazis and alleges that the nearly one thousand SNP members are descended from Hitler and his ilk.
At the time of the Westminster expenses scandal JIm was listed as the ninth highest claimant in Westminster.
And on the subject of appetites, Mr McGovern has come in for some stick locally over his expenses claim at Westminster, having disputed auditor Sir Thomas Legg’s order to repay £5,224, but with eyebrows particularly raised over the MP’s claim for the purchase of a £106 toaster. A correspondent to the Evening Telegraph asks, “But how would one grace such toast? Butter made from unicorn milk? Scrambled dodo eggs? Or maybe just humble old caviar.”
April 2013; Taxpayers landed with £27,000 legal bill for MP’s £23.90 expenses claim:
Jim McGovern tried to claim the fare from his Dundee West seat to a Labour party meeting in Glasgow by saying it was the first leg of a two-part trip to Westminster. But the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) rejected his expenses claim, arguing the detour was unconnected to McGovern’s official work as an MP.
Last month, in the first case of its kind since new legislation was brought in after the 2009 expenses scandal, McGovern appealed IPSA’s decision to a tribunal and lost. IPSA has now revealed its bill for defending McGovern’s appeal was £27,000 – which ultimately falls on the taxpayer. McGovern’s costs were met by his union, the GMB. IPSA said each side in the appeal had to pay its own costs, and it would not pursue McGovern for its £27,000 bill. The SNP last night called for McGovern to reimburse IPSA for its legal bill. What a petty minded person. He appealed and lost and should foot the bill.
link to caltonjock.com
Devorgilla
That is a frightening read. The NHS in England is doomed. Why don’t they do something. Get organised and use their bloody votes. It spells out the future of the NHS Scotland. Our budgets are cut continually so we can expect some drastic cuts if this carries on.
the Victoria era revisited.
better together my fat hairy arse.
@jack Murphy – the date on that is from October.
Is it definitely updated for today??
Just to reiterate The British Labour Party including the mythical wing known as Scottish Labour remain the real enemy of the people of Scotland.
They do the Tories bidding in Scotland under the guise of International Socialism.Rapscallions to a man and woman.
Strange how a one size fits all policy is ok for UK. One size Trident. One size fracking – but no sovereign fund here -. One size wars. One size parliament deciding on EU. The list is probably endless.
Decentralisation on the scale of Murphy`s plans is a recipe for disaster and a race to the bottom, one council gets away with something the rest will follow.
Gawd I just love that Murph the Smurph and his pooling and sharing of welfare and benefit resources to the local councils. Of course we must always remember that when good old Murph talks about sharing via the councils we should realise he means LABOUR controlled councils. In doing this he is ensuring that all future Labour M.P.’s get their basic financial training in the councils where they can fiddle like Nero with the locals benefits to their, councillors, delight and benefit and NOT to the benefit of the electorate.
“We should devolve not just to councils but also to local coalitions involving councils, business, charities and other government agencies like the NHS.”
So they defraud us of Scottish democracy and we end up with an even weaker democracy still run by our bankrupt, royals worshipping neighbour but they want devolution around and excluding Holyrood for Scottish councils, business, charities and other government agencies.
Be very surprising if YES Labour voters in Glasgow and Dundee for example fall even more fraud via Murphy and co. Even on its own, Vote Labour or else BBC propaganda is pretty powerful so it could be very tight. The real vote Labour pressure will be belching out of Pacific Quay/Daily Rangers from next Feb, right up to a vote Labour May GE polling day. violent UKOK SNP is toxic hysteria not seen since the last two weeks of their great British referendum shyst.
If they lose a lot Scottish MP’s, they know its the beginning of the end for the UK again and that’s just not going to be allowed to happen. There are still an awful lot of proud Scot buts ready to save their beloved teamGBness, no matter what.
boris,
the MP’s claim for the purchase of a £106 toaster. A correspondent to the Evening Telegraph asks, “But how would one grace such toast? Butter made from unicorn milk? Scrambled dodo eggs? Or maybe just humble old caviar.
Cheers for that!
It was even funnier than the Wee Ginger dugs blog regarding Wullie Rennie that i read this morning.
106 pounds for a toaster..I am still wiping away the tears.
@Boris.
Hopefully we Dundee Westenders can make sure McGovern IS toast come May.
Jack
I think that Huff article is still a bit dodgy from its original miscalculation back in Oct. That said membership is over 92K so the 100K may well happen before long.
It appears ‘Eggs’ Murphy can’t wait to submit all social policy to the foreign corporations pushing the TTIP.
British Labour support corporate socialism, i.e. Fascism.
i could wax lyrical on this subject.
imv localism = fiefdoms.
that centralism in organizing and PAYING for the welfare state, is the best way of doing a welfare state, was acknowledged in the 1st place to prevent localized welfare set ups.
deserving/undeserving poor and the workhouses were rightly seen as the evil that UK should move away from.
the common weal/good is clearly @ the heart of the setting up of the welfare state.
aka known as clem atlee’s dignity not charity.
again see the work of professor allyson pollock.
and there is also pamphlet explaining the original set up of the NHS which equally applies to the setting up of the welfare state in general.
Handclapping, had the English won the Hundred Years War power would have moved from London to Paris and England would probably have ended up as a French speaking province.
Thanks to the Franco-Scottish alliance this never happened, they were defeated and lost France but kept their language.
liz at 2:09 Yes the date is October but it has been partly updated today.
To quote:”Updated: 3 hours ago”.
@Devorgilla
The hearing aid ploy has been tried elsewhere in England with the suggestion that only the severely impaired should get NHS aids, it was turned down but the conversation has started.
link to opendemocracy.net
@YESGUY
“better together my fat hairy arse”
Dear Mr YESGUY due to the size of your arse your operation has been postponed until you are of standard size. Definitely not one size fits all.
GE – Labour out. local government elections – Labour out. Get the troops out voting. This Labour Party subsection leadership camapign seems to have go on forever.
The reason for Jim’s stupidity on this one probably comes from his campaign team. Guess who is Co-chair of the team?
Answer: James Kelly MSP. Here is what he says on Jim’s campaign site: link to jimmurphy.scot
“I am supporting Jim for the Scottish Labour leadership because I think he has the right priorities at the right time for Scotland.
Too many working families in our country struggle to get by. They end up having to rely on food banks or pay day lenders. That just isn’t right. Jim’s plan to give nearly half a million low paid Scots a wage rise is exactly what is needed. Making sure companies awarded Scottish Government contracts pay their employees the Living Wage is a good way of tackling poverty and low pay.”
What he means is that Jim has right WING priorities for Scotland.
Minimum wage £8 by 2020, that’s less than inflation per year.
Jim and James will eagerly campaign on the Rachel “tougher on Austerity than the Tories” Reeves welfare manifesto in the GE2015.
@fred blogger
I lived through the setting up of the welfare state and what that meant then is not what welfare means now. I was proud of our welfare state then, it gave us dignity.
Wikipedia has :- Welfare is the provision of a minimal level of well-being and social support for all citizens and in the way used by Labour it is how low can you go.
While it would be good to recover the old meaning I think it is a battle lost just as with “gay”. When you think on the battle that we still have to fight to recover the word “independence” to mean making your own choices from the Better Together pounding to make it mean scary, it behooves us to be careful in our choice of words.
I can now wish you a gay day
Aye Spud, bypass the Scottish government and give powers to the wee shouty man fae Glesga, don’t think so.
Just watching yesterday’s FMQ
“Paucity of ambition” pretty much says it all for the opposition in Holyrood
little bit grumpy
Anything uttered or written down by Jim “My-Brain-is-made-of-Polystyrene” Murphy is a result of the random movement of atoms and should be rejected as worthless.
I don’t know what the “updated 3 hours ago” on that article refers to (the ads?), but the text is unchanged from its October publication, which was a mistake. The Huff Post had merely latched on to a rather hysterical miscalculation being shared on Twitter, without checking on its accuracy.
I imagine when the SNP membership really does reach 100,000 we’ll know all about it because Peter Murrell won’t be shy about telling us. When we have a verifiable source from inside SNP administration it’s worth talking about it, until then, assume it’s apocryphal I think. The target was supposed to be 100,000 before the May election, after all!
Re my post at 2:03 SNP membership now 100,000.
I’ve checked the SNP on Twitter and it isn’t mentioned.
Perhaps the Huff Post is just overegging their story.
Just have to wait and see.
Rev has just Twittered I just sent WordPress a support question and got a reply from a “Happiness Engineer”.
In olden times he might have got a reply from a “Gay Engineer”. The words we use to discuss things are important for the connotations they carry for others as well as ourselves.
It’s just an old article with a mistake that was pointed out at the time. I don’t think it’s actually been updated despite that note at the top.
handclapping
i gaily accept your salutations for this day.
The only thing missing from Murphs devolved welfare powers the re introduction of the Parish & the Poors Hoose.
Does anyone recall the Tories trying to kill Labour in Strathclyde Region (water ownership vote) by gerrymandering all local authorities in Scotland?
Jim’s learned a few tricks methinks. “We really don’t like being overseen by this Scottish Parliament, so let’s by-pass it.”
Easy to argue against – Scotland is a small nation and can deal with a more centralised approach when necessary. The UK isn’t one nation.
Tony Blair names Henry Kissinger as his role model.
@jimnarlene –
Aye Spud, bypass the Scottish government and give powers to the wee shouty man fae Glesga, don’t think so.
Aw I dunno jimnarlene fills me with a warm glow this one
link to youtube.com
Morag, our branch has added 200 members in the last two weeks, if this situation is the same throughout the country we could well be at the 100,000 members now.
going by the performance…
local councils (amusingly many are Lab/Con coalitions) are unfit to run the limited finances they have.
Holyrood runs its affairs as it is legally obliged to balance the books – councils have no such onus and therefore cannot cope with the responsibility.
e.g. in a population of 5 million – why do we need 32 education authorities – replete with the tiers of highly paid management structures.
Large cities of comparable populations do very well with just one.
O/T
Yesterday i watched the Devolution Committee from Holyrood. John Swinney was in front of the committee after Carmichael. The contrast was obvious to all. Swinney was confident, articulate, relaxed and had a superb command of his brief and the committee itself. Carmichael sounded like he had been dragged kicking and screaming to the committee room, which he probably had.
Next i listened to FMQ’s. Nicola’s competence, confidence and enjoyment in the slapping down of some, evidently, ill thought out questioning was inspiring.
I know some folk have been questioning the SG approach to Smith and ‘councillor gate’, as i have. I tell you what though, in this SG we have the most competent, intelligent and determined team fighting for Scotland. I have no doubt they know exactly what they are doing.
Helena, I think we’ll get an announcement when the 100,000 is reached. Peter Murrell hasn’t exactly been backward about tweeting membership numbers up till now, and I don’t think he’d simply forget to tell us if the advertised target had been reached.
Might be pretty close though, judging by the reports from various branches.
@No no no…Yes
“Tougher than the Tories on Welfare” is a promise that works for Labour in England.
“Tougher than the Tories on Welfare” is a promise that will ensure extermination of Labour in Scotland.
And yet even seeing their imminent annihilation in Scotland the Labour Party members of Scotland still accept Better Together is best.
Even Lemmings if somehow told of the catastrophe if front of them would turn aside and yet members of the Labour party in Scotland (mostly good public-spirited citizens)still want to be told what to do by the likes of Murphy McTernan McDougal Brown Baillie Darling Curran Alexander Wilson Murray Findlay who in turn are told what to do by the millionaires of London Labour.
The message is subliminal but clear :
Wur gaun back tae ‘The Parish’
Foodbanks are going to expand into poorhouses
Size XXL for Labour councils
Size 0 for SNP councils
Coming in a manifesto soon
Perhaps the Rev and his amazing WoS team might consider preparing and publishing the following, early next year:
A Wee Red Tory Book
Highlighting the lies, felonies, misdemeanors and general incompetence of our Scottish Labour MPs (and their BBC, Daily Record budies). Limited print run, available for distribution in targeted seats in 2015.
Could be quite short, it doesn’t have to be another WBB, but we need to hit them hard, where it hurts.
THE WESTMINSTER MYTH – It’s all their fault
Anyone looking at the Westminster political set-up,
and then at the Labour-dominated-for-decades Scottish Local Councils set-up,and comparing them on the basis of the following:-
expenses fiddling; cronyism – as in jobs for family and pals.
1st class well appointed working environment.
no expense spared on provision for councillors/MP’s;
generous remuneration and pensions;
guaranteed promotion if you keep your mouth shut,
talent and working knowledge not necessary,
(that’s probably enough – the rest is just more of the same and very familiar)
brown envelopes, back-handers, under the table payments,
free holidays, free home improvements, no waiting times,
regular fact finding trips abroad but always to sunnier climes. Council contracts to councillor family and connections.The list goes on but that’s enough boredom for one day.
In comparing Tory/Labour Westminster with the Labour/Tory Scots Councils – IT’S EASY TO SPOT THEY ARE JUST THE SAME.
Therefore to source political corruption and gross incompetence there’s no need to look to London; just look around you – at your local Council.
The Tory LibDem coalition are being criticised for attacking the poor and the needy. But for decades, Labour/Tory Councils in Scotland neglected the poor with the same effect – poverty, deprivation, dirty work and poor health.
And all the while brainwashing the country into believing that the Tories and Labour were sworn enemies. But that was just a trick to keep the workers voting Labour and the middle classes voting Tory, maintaining both sides in the manner to which they had become accustomed. This is a simplified view which is easily criticised, with validity, but the overview is correct.
Politics is an industry whose aim is power through a business as usual philosophy. But to thrive, it needs the protagonists to co-operate with one another.
When Labour jumped into bed with the Tories in IndyRef, it might have been a surprise to the masses, but it wasn’t to those in the bed.
Westminster working directly with the Councils?
Just twins working together.
O/T
Some of these Labour MP expenses make fascinating reading.
http://www.parliamentary-standards.org.uk
Jim Murphy spent £2149 in one year renting a photocopier. You’d think they’d figure out that buying one is cheaper.
Jim “Cookie Jar” McGovern’s flights are intersting. He flies from Dundee to London every few days and often buys multiple flights (3 or 4) for the same day. Are you even allowed to claim for flights you buy for other people? Or is he a large man, requiring four seats together?
SNP Membership 100,000?
Nicola has the final leg of her successful sell out tour in Aberdeen this Sunday. I am confident there will be an update which will show an increase in numbers since the Hydro gig!
SNP membership card – soon to be the latest must-have cool accessory – if not already.
I wonder who’ll be No. 100,000’th member?
The PR promo possibilities in that are endless. Please let SNP PR at HQ not miss that.
HandandShrimp is right in regards to local councils. SLAB have been losing ground since PR came in sometime in 2000s at the council level, the SNP have the largest number of councillors. Therefore it is a terrible strategy for Labour in Scotland, so as such we should endorse it. D:
In regards to the SNP membership, I reckon the most important thing is how many people are going to be active. There is little point in having a massive membership if it does not translate into significant campaigning at elections. Of course parties need the neccessary resources and funding, but they also require feet on the ground for campaigning.
Yet another example Scotlav arrogance – “I don’t want …”. Any chance of these characters actually giving any consideration to what we (the people they are supposed to serve) want from them rather than what they intend to impose on us? These people disgust me.
@Graeme Doing,
Couldn’t agree more Gramme, and the talent base goes much deeper and further, than those to which you refer.
I won’t provide names for fear of offence by omission, but suffice to say, we are extremely fortunate.
I cannot however, stop myself from mentioning the class act of the three candidates competing for the Deputy Leadership. Stuart Hosie, Angela Constance and Keith Brown.
Comparison to those of Labour?. Not worthy of comment.
They call us Nazis, but it is simply projection from them.
We now live in a state that is controlled by big business.
Murphy is a slime ball that would have licked Hitlers boots if he had lived in ’30s Germany.
Curran would have supplied the lip balm.
If the safety net doesn’t work and there aren’t enough jobs that actually pay a living wage,then we’ll have to go back to the land,I’m sure the lairds will be into pooling and sharing…
@ Karmanaut
Like yourself, K, I used to think it best to buy, but the reality is slightly different.
link to officetechnology.ie
“A good solution for small and large organisations alike, copier rentals provide an office with an office printer without saddling the organisation with a significant upfront cost.
To learn more about Office Printer Rental, please click here.
Aside from the initial monetary savings, renting a photocopier, printer or multifunctional printer as opposed to buying, eliminates upkeep and most supply expenses.
Your business will enjoy the convenience of the equipment without coping with the hassle of breakdowns or the fixed, periodic cost of toner cartridges and other parts that need service or replacement.
After weighing the pros and disadvantages, you might find it’s in the best interest of your company to rent an office printer rather than purchase it.
As a cost-saving measure especially beneficial to start-up businesses with limited capital, multifunction printer rentals provide company with the modern technology they will use immediately.”
On this one Murphy’s in the clear.
@ Luigi,
Absolutely Luigi, it doesn’t have to be in booklet form though. Just so long as it can be delivered via normal leafletting volunteers, like me.
There’s a thought. Who will be the 100,000th member? I’ll bet it’s all arranged already. I seem to remember they gerrymandered the 25,000th member a wee while ago – Tasmina’s daughter, or something like that.
I’d love to be wrong and it turns out to be some random punter propelled into the limelight with a bemused look on his or her face, but I’ll bet they won’t risk that.
Karmanaut
Sorry, I have to agree manandboy. A decent copier can cost tens of thousands, and that is without colour or duplex capabilities. Ownership also means you are stuck with full service and upgrade cost.
Not the best line of attack, though I do think ‘Eggs’ is a boil that needs lancing.
O/T but very interesting read on power of the media by John Pilger.
link to johnpilger.com
This is why the internet is a huge asset which will be getting targeted by governments
@ Karmanaut
The figures do bear looking at.
I lease an all singing & dancing top pf the range copier for my organisation in London with duplex, colour, scanning & networking & it costs £168 per quarter. Virtually no one in London buys a copier anymore-we used to own our own but it didn’t make economic sense & I switched to a lease.
that sounds crazy. Apparently Labour’s solution to losing in Holyrood is to attempt to gerrymander and get powers out of the Parliaments hands and into no leaning travel agents , supermarkets and financial institution.
Local supermarkets halving the run of social security. Medication time.
Lollysmum
Well spotted re. the apparently inflated price Murphy is being charged. I was paying roughly what you are. Thanks for reminding me.
Lollysmum
Thanks for reminding me what I used to pay (roughly the same as yourself). Perhaps Murphy’s apparently inflated rental charge, does merit closer examination.
Have we gone from having no scottish labour party to now having two?
@ boris,
The Dundee West M.P. is no stranger to hanging on to his cash. When he was a wee boy he used to hold a bundle of old pennies and halfpennies so tightly and for so long his fingers would go green; TRUE
@ Morag 4:32 – It’s me honey!!!
Labour now publicly stating they wish to claim their reward from Westminster for delivering a NO. They wish to emasculate the SNP dominated government to get power to Labour dominated city councils. They’ve never gotten over losing what power they had in the regional councils. Its like pissing on your chips because they’re too hot..
Seems it wasn’t just Tony Benn who was a Tory plant.
Labour’s central control has proven overwhelming authority over cooncils. When Broon the Loon came into No11, he was paranoid about the predictable Tory attack on Labour’s notorious Public Sector Borrowing Requirement and told local Labour cooncillors that The Only Game In Town was PFI/PPP. And they, to a man and woman, bowed low and obeyed the Great Financial Master – thus penalising generations to come by loss of public assets, worship of consortia which sold them what they wanted to sell them (whether it was appropriate or not) from their portfolio of pals’ companies at breathtaking cost (quickly re-mortgaged at a further profit as soon as the contract ink was dry)and huge loans at top market rates. The Branch Office is well-versed in such skills, and Slim Jim will readily emanate The Great Saviour of The Scots.
I must admit I am starting getting a bit bored by yet another post that contrasts one (idiotic) unionist statement with another completely incompatible (yet equally idiotic) statement.
I do actually think that in theory England and Scotland could be better together – but I believe that in practise, because of the inability of unionist politicians to think normally as soon as Scotland is mentioned, it is certain that Scotland will be better off after independence, and in all likelihood *both sides* will be better off.
@ Christian Schmidt – honey without us the rest of the UK doesn’t stand a chance, we are a generous people – they have one last chance, then we rule.
McGovern … .
I’m not bothered about the fancy toaster. What bothers me is that he, masquerading as my MP, is claiming for anything at all.
In all seriousness I can’t think of one thing that he has done for Dundee West. (Plenty for the profits of the hard drinks industry though I hear). At least Curran and Murphy haver shite for us to laugh at and hence have at least some (albeit dubious) entertainment value, but McGovern is just THE archetypal Lab nothing. With all the WM presence of Scotch Myst, how on earth can Jimmy McG be in the top ten of WM troughers? How is this even possible? How does he or anyone imagine his prodigious inactivity merits any payment of any kind at all?
Lads and lasses, here we have THE very definition of the term “trougher”.
Unfinished business.
May 2015.
Make it so.
Look, who gives a flying fishnet what he claims for a toaster. The real concern should be why he has the temerity to think that while bairn’s, in his constituency, have to be fed by their parents, through no fault of their own, by having to resort to food banks. Doesn’t seem to be at the top of his agenda.
The man is a Charlton, a parasite you name he is it.
For him to refer to the likes of me as a Natzi brings out plumes of anger and bile in me. I, like tens of thousands of other bairn’s in the 1940s, were left without a father because of the deeds of Natzi Germany under Hitler.
He name calls, but the truth of the matter is, that he, and his kind, are worse than those Natzi bastards could ever be, because he and his like, have used a democratic system, fought for by my father and his tens of thousands of fellow soldiers, conned, deluded and taken advantage of good Honest hard working people for decades through deceipt, lies and double talk.
If we don’t do something about him and his like now, while we have the chance, then we deserve all we get.
Roll on May 2015. Let’s get rid of him and his ilk.
Vote SNP. Erase this individual from our political scene.
MJS Dundee
McGovern got to westminster through the G.M.B , if my memory serves me right it was a reward for stabbing one of the full time G.M.B officials in the back .
I know that after the full time official was sacked he tried to set up a new Public Services Union and whatever had happened McGovern was involved in it .
At that time there was a lot of dirty tricks going on within the public services section of the G.M.B in Dundee
At one time I thought Westminster political parties were like Dr Who alien monsters. That is many individual bodies connected and controlled by a single evil central brain. Turns out they are indeed all controlled by a single brain but that brain only has two brain-cells to cause synaptic action.
This has become clearer over the past few years with the rise to power of such as Mags Curran and Jim, the yolk’s on him, Murphy. Mags is the one who proclaimed Scots would cease to be British if they dared leave the United Kingdom and Murphy can hardly spout two statements without one statement contradicting the other. Two more useless pr … Err! practising politicians it would bevery hard to find.