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Wings Over Scotland


One thousand louder

Posted on January 05, 2015 by

We had to extend our festive semi-break for a day to deal with some administrative matters, readers, but it’s just as well, because the thing that happened today would have defied our best attempts at either analysis or satire.

1000louder

That’s a real thing we didn’t make up. Saints preserve us.

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jimnarlene

They can promise the moon but, they’ll deliver sod all.

jimnarlene

Forgot to add, as we all know; Scottish Labour, does not exist.

handclapping

This’ll be to cover all the slabbers going mental after the wipeout in May?

Morag

Um. Totally uncosted because they have no idea what the SNP might pledge. No idea what else they might have to underfund or de-fund to pay for it.

They’re apparently boasting that they’ll use money from the mansion tax collected in SE England, which is really going to endear them to English voters even if it isn’t true. Presumably it’s actually a Barnett consequential of increased spending on English NHS.

And in any case, even if money is provided in that or any other way through the block grant, it’s not Labour who gets to decide if it’s spent on 1000 nurses or not. NHS is devolved, so the money would be the Scottish government’s to spend as they see fit.

In other words, Bain Principle. We hate the SNP. And now time for a rousing chorus of “Anything you can do, I can do better.” With apologies to Lamb Chop.

Have I missed anything?

heedtracker

-over and above anything SNP pledge? Now that’s an offer you can’t refuse Scotland. Pity its all just more red tory/BBC/Murphy fraud but you never know.

ian

It’s not about US at all with Labour. It is all about THEM.

Vacuous. Ethically and morally bankrupt. Their focus is all about POWER.

call me dave

Murphy and Dugdale must have proof read that statement and it makes perfect sense …..to them! 🙂

ian

It’s necer about US with Labour and all about them. All about POWER. Power at ANY cost. Ethically bankrupt, morally corrupt.

Stan

If Labour are really going to try and play that game with every pledge the SNP make I can see the potential for a lot of jiggery pokery in the next few months.

wingman 2020

It matters not a jot what they say, or whether they will actually deliver, or how it is funded.

It only matters to Labour if the statement on the poster has a net gain of votes.

The strategy is to to throw as much mud to the wall – on the basis that some of it will stick.

CameronB Brodie

I drive a Ferrari. 😉

[…] One thousand louder […]

Barbara McKenzie

I’m trying to find the words to describe this horror. The line between desperation and lunacy is finer than I thought.

SLAB can only define themselves in terms of the SNP, and are openly declaring a commitment to political oneupmanship, rather than responsible leadership, or finding rational, affordable solutions.

wingman 2020

This is another desperate scrabble for something to beat the SNP over.

How do we know its desperate? The ridiculous premise that ‘whatever you do, I will raise the stake’

There are some idiots around who will use this statement to argue that Labour is better for the NHS.

But this kind of political advertising is great news… because it confirms that Labour in Scotland are going to continue their decline… simply because they don’t understand how to speak to people.

Labour in Scotland are incompetent, lost, and desperate. It’s embarrassing.

handclapping

And not only that, but what are the chances of 1000 extra nurses being available?

wingman 2020

Had they removed the word ‘anything’ from the poster, I might have believed that it had been written by someone partially competent in advertising.

handclapping

@CameronB
But you’ld need the Tory Road to Austerity to drive them all on.

Bob Mack

We promise Scotland extra powers after the referendum almost like a federal state !

Think we all get the point.

thomaspotter2014

Is a Scottish Labour Election ‘Pledge ‘the same as a ‘Vow ‘then?

heraldnomore

‘If they spend a fiver we’ll spend a tenner’ – what happened next folks, anyone remember?

Alex Clark

It looks like the script writers for Slab during the referendum have not lost their jobs after all.

Not Insurgents but Incompetents!

Albalha

Not to mention Wales/NI share and Barnett eligibility.

SNP response

link to snp.org

heraldnomore

Which juts reminds me – I came across an item the other day mentioning that 2016 marks the 30th anniversary (can’t remember the actual date but I’ll look it up if you wish) of the writing of The Constitution of the Scottish Labour Party.

It was followed by a note that said SLP was disbanded in 1979.

Is that the same constitution Murphy’s working with?

Stoker

CameronB Brodie says:
I drive a Ferrari. 😉

Well, i drive 2, beat that!
🙂

heraldnomore

1099 Red Balloons anyone?

Maybe a wee video of Nena, please…

Lesley-Anne

Look out folks, Labour branch office in Glasgow have found the words to this wee ditty. 😛

link to tinyurl.com

Thepnr

@thomaspotter2014

There are 3 Pledges to a Vow, and a Scottish Pledge is worth only 90% of an English Pledge.

jules

They think we are all very very very stupid.

handclapping

“At Westminster, I pledge to do the best for Scotland, and to fund an extra 1000 NHS nurses in Scotland.”

Fantastic, Jim. Its a winner.
/* Jim wakes */

Stoker

That picture up above could be doing with the caption:

‘There there Mr.Murphy – time for your meds’

James Caithness

Just heard part of Millibands speech. He says we will have to decide which government we want to work for.

I was under the impression that the government worked for us?

Doug McG

I’d like a promise of a rose garden.

galamcennalath

It might catch a few gullible Scottish voters, but it will lose vast numbers of English Labour votes when they come to the conclusion it will be English mansion tax which will pay for it!

That’s the big problem for WM2015 Labour and their MSM buddies have … They are running two campaigns, one to save their skins in Scotland and another to try to appeal to ‘Middle England’. MEnglanders what to see Scotland screwed, not bought with a 1000 nurses! The two battles are on the same see-saw, gain in one, means losing on the other.

And, like the Tories, England always comes first.

Ken500

Fiscal autonomy/Idependence would mean Scotland would have an excellently funded NHS and Education system. No more Unionist lies.

Ian Downie

I remember Murray pledging to spend a tenner on Rangers if Celtic spent a fiver. Not a great system. Nicola will destroy that kind of debate. They really are struggling.

Albalha

And of course they’re all over the shop on free school meals as well. Today they oppose their introduction in Scotland.

But this from 2012,for example, maybe they reckon voters are truly stupid.

link to labourlist.org

Peter Mirtitsch

Not a problem…

Dear Nicola Sturgeon,

Please pledge to provide an extra million hospital beds, and then throw the next election so Labour can get in then be forced to provide the extra 1000 over and above the SNP pledge.

Thank you for your attention..

A yesser…lol

Truth

Oh dear. What with this and Dugdale in the National today, the word desperation comes to mind.

While I’m on the subject of the National, Carolyn Leckie’s article today is bloody brilliant!

Anne Meikle

Already the media are leaving out the ‘over and above what snp spend’ and announcing labour will bring in 1000 new nurses. Funny how its always a round number eh? what about 1010, or 950.. it’s almost as if they just plucked the number, uncosted, out of thin air. What a craven embarrassing poster.

Schiehallion! Schiehallion!

Is this a Record?

Stoker

heraldnomore says:
“If they spend a fiver we’ll spend a tenner’ – what happened next folks, anyone remember?”

Aye, things went ((((( BOOOOOOOOOOM )))))

Albalha

And from the Guardian, 2013, on Labour support for universality and free school meals.

link to theguardian.com

Lanarkist

You would think they would know by now to avoid “pledges” or “vows” or promissory notes this close to an election.

I seem to recall the last two instances of this tactic back firing somewhat,

Scottish Labour, in for a penny… , might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb!

Hold out for a better offer, they are getting quite desperate now!

Training Day

We underestimate the great brains behind Labour at our peril.

See, by opposing free school meals for P1-P3, they calculate that malnutrition levels will rise among kids.

With the money saved by denying weans food, Labour can then employ 1000 extra nurses to treat the malnourished bairns.

Murphy is a genius!

bjsalba

Maybe before doing that, we could fund more home care to free up the 16,000 beds they say are occupied by people who cannot go home because they would not be able to take care of themselves?

It just might be a tad more cost effective.

Marie clark

Hells bells,is it me or is it them.

Heraldnomore, aye I remember that for every fiver they spend we’ll spend a tenner, and that really worked out well, didn’t it. Look at the god awful mess they are still in today.

I’m pleased that the SNP have called them out on their figures not making sense. Must be using Danny Alexander’s calculator, he’ll no have much need for it it the near future.

SLAB really must believe that our heads do button up the back. We learned a lot of hard lessons during the referendum and I hope that they won’t go to waste. The SNP need to hound them on a’ the shite they spout.

By the way, will Lurch have had a word wae deputy dug yet. or mibies it’s Millipede that will be having a word wae Lurch aboot mansion tax tae fund a’ this.

Aye roll on May 7th, Karma really is a bitch.

Roboscot

If this is an election pledge for this May then it’s fraudulent as a Westminster Labour government has no control over how the Scottish government allocates its budget. If it’s for Holyrood in2016 then it’s a bit premature.

Paula Rose

Can’t wait to see how many extra nurses the SNP will fund if they win the General Election…

Rusty Shackleford

‘Scottish’ Labour are reminding me more and more of the DUP: protect cushy expenses provided by the union at all costs and blame everything on ‘themmuns’*

In Labour’s case the SNP, as opposed to Catholics, gays and Muslims with the DUP.

Valerie

Greg Moodies strip in the National today had a nursing theme! The nurses in Sunnyvalley, were helping cardboard cut-out Carmichael.

That poster for the fictional SLab beggars belief, but hey, with this and their criticism of free school meals, we are off to a good start this year!

Alex Clark

O/T Would Labour consider scrapping Trident to make way for a deal with the SNP?

Thinking of coalition maybe, all bases being covered.

link to archive.today

James Munro

I wouldn’t want to credit the North British Labour Party with anything but I think they are attempting to neutralise the NHS debate by making this ridiculous promise. They couldn’t give a damn about the NHS to thier nursing staff.

Murray McCallum

Maybe this is part of their drive to reduce “Scottish” Labour overheads, e.g. by ending any need for a glossy manifesto and ending the need for any serious research or thought?

The “Scottish” Labour “manifesto” will simply be on a sticker – “what the SNP say but better”.

As well as having no money, it betrays their lack of any serious political thought for a couple of decades beyond “SNP bad, Labour better”.

AndyC

Now if they had promised another snap referendum……
My turn to get my coat.
Didn’t buy the National today coz that wee scroat Dugtail woz all over the cover. Are they deliberately trying to lose sales or is there something subliminal going on?
They’ve done a lot of this lately including that letter from the Nobut urging us to accept the result and ‘move on’
We get enough of their pics and shit in the unionist rags.

Patrick Roden

This pledge is reported in the Daily Telegraph and as you can imagine a lot of English voters were not happy that the Scots were yet again going to get more than their fair share.

Now didn’t the plan to introduce the mansion tax, not cause a bit of a stir with some celebrities, appearing on TV to complain, (I seem to remember Sol Cambel arguing with a Labour cabinet member) did the Labour MP’s ever say that the money raised from this tax would be given to Scotland?

Jim Murphy said that he would make policy for Scotland and that Ed Milliband would first know about the policies when he read them in the papers.
So did Ed discuss this with Jim or did he first hear about it when he read it in the Telegraph?

If the South of England kicks up enough of a shit-storm, and it begins to look like Labour are losing votes because of this, then Ed will be forced to slap Jim Murphy down publicly and Murphy will have to keep his trap shut and suck it up (collective responsibility)

This might turn out to be a very entertaining spectacle! 🙂

Les Wilson

Listening to “call Kaye” this morning and the BBC are once more raising anything they hope they can help Slab to hit the SNP with. Totally transparent electioneering on behalf of SLab when trying to belittle anything the SNP does.

This is one place they can test public reaction to help them find good policies for Slab.So past their sell by date,we really do need shot of this State “Pravda”.

Iain Gray's Subway Lament

Another day, another VOW. 😀

Pretty telling that ‘scottish’ Labour are too scared to even mention that it’s Ed Miliband that the scottish public are supposed to trust with this VOW.

There will be no way for Labour to hide Ed Miliband from scottish voters for the next four months no matter how hard they try.

BrianW

Does this mean the BBC in Scotland is going to get a 1,000 more Jackie Birds to spread the Gospel According to Labour Branch Office in Scotland at peak viewing times..

i can’t f’n wait.. sigh..

merida

Once again Jim Murphy seems unable to distinguish between what is a UK issue and a devolved issue. No wonder Kezia et al get in such a muddle when their ‘so called’ leader is so confused. Promising anything in relation to the NHS in the context of a UK election is plain stupid! Jim Murphy, the gift that keeps on giving.

ClanDonald

So if Labour win the election in May how are they going to implement this pledge? Is the Labour govt in Westminster going to write a cheque to the Scottish Govt for £30m every year so that the SNP can employ an additional 1000 nurses?

But wait, that would mean the SNP are employing 1000 more nurses than the SNP planned. Then what about the Labour promise to employ 1000 more nurses than the SNP… erm…

Lollysmum

The timimg of this post is spot-on Stu. A same day response to the lies which completely trashes Slab promises.

It isn’t just SNP that needs to call out Slab on their lies though. We all need to call them out whether that’s online, via Twitter & Facebook.

Stu called on Nicola on Twitter to say she would employ all Scots as nurses just to see what Labour’s response would be 😉 I quite liked that idea but I don’t think she’s daft enough to try it.

Molly

I appreciate it’s just a sound bite from Labour but given we were told repeatedly for the last 2 yrs how Scotland will have the oldest population ever and the most immigrants ever and the most expensive services ever, I’m pretty sure there is a ‘workforce planning ‘dept somewhere in Scotland who can tell you exactly how many nurses are required.

Given the Scottish Govt have ring fenced the health service , I’d be more worried if I were Labour that perhaps some unhappy council workers, teachers and the Police might wonder why they don’t need 1000 more staff ?

X_Sticks

jules says:

“They think we are all very very very stupid.”

No, they know that ~55% are.

Murray McCallum

This type of soundbite / advert is very much from the Better Together school of appealing to low information voters.

HandandShrimp

That has to be one of the most mental pledges I have seen for some time (ever)

snode1965

on STV news tonight Murphy was grilled on his 1000 nurses pish. The reporter asked him where he got his figures from. Que that blank look, the one that translates as, “your no meant tae ask ME relevant questions.” Raise the eyebrow and tilt the hied. Its like watching a second rate panto same!!????

Stoker

@ albalha,

Is there a specific reason why you included a direct link to the unionist rag The Guardian?

Do you realise when you do this you are aiding & abetting in the survival of these rags by helping them gain more advertising revenue?

If you don’t know how to ‘archive’ just say the word and i’ll try and help. By ‘archiving’ you also prevent anyone changing the original wording of the article you want to show.
😉

ScottieDog

FFS it’s like a boots price match.
Just remember to read the small print at the bottom of their add.
You couldn’t make this shit up.

heraldnomore

Shit, for 30th anniversary read 40th! I live in a time warp and am ten years younger than I might otherwise be.

Mind you I age faster every day, being in Scotland, and listening to all the Labour guff.

Michael

I thought they brought in a big boy from Westminster to make them electable, some one to bring stability, a real heavy weight politician to take on the SNP upstarts.

If this is the best their professional Westminster saviour has to offer, just how bad would it have been if a 2nd rate labour MSP had got the job.

We have nothing to fear from jimbo

Can you imagine if we had a free and impartial media just how far they would have sunk in voters eyes.

Chitterinlicht

Christ they must think we are really stupid

Or

We are really stupid and could never run an independent country.

Smith

The easiest trick would be for the SNP to pledge that they’re going to fund 1000 more nurses than anything Scottish Labour will fund.

Bingo: infinite nurses.

AndyC

If they keep promising this n’ that to us Scots, how long will it be before the English want independence from Scotland?
Keep it up you morons.
P.S……I thought politicians were supposed to have a modicum of intelligence?

Barbara Watson

Is this not just a copycat of the SNP manifesto from 2010? They pledged an extra 1000 police officers, which they did achieve. Watch for more of the SNP policies being brought forward as Labour ideas.

Labour must think we’re all bloody daft, do they honestly think that we will all forget what happened on their watch with the economy? Do they think we will all forget what they did during the referendum? They are unelectable as a government and could never be trusted.

Valerie

You would think whoever took money for that advert, would just say the basic, if it’s an advert for Labour, is it a good idea to even mention SNP?

Never interrupt your enemy, when they are making a mistake, just pass the popcorn!

starlaw

Why labour should want 1000 nurses baffles me. I seem to remember hospital closures under labour governments. Where do they propose putting all these nurses.

Jim Arnott

I just heard the SNP are going to recruit an extra 92,566 nurses. Can someone tell Jim Murphy and Ed Milliband. Lol

jacksg

I have an idea..

We used to have what was called a ‘cock up sheet’ basically the project managers and the staff would fill this in on a monthly basis.

This was designed to take the ‘cock ups’ and learn from them example don’t make the same mistake twice!

We should have a SLAB ‘cock up sheet’ for the next four months i would need to use my extensive admin skills keeping track of it as judging by today’s standards it will be a bloody long sheet..

Paula Rose

Perhaps the SNP should stand across the UK on a platform of promising Independence to the kingdom of England?

Ryan frampton

I see your thousand nurses…. And raise you a thousand nurses.

Stoker

@ AndyC (6.46pm).

I said at the very beginning that i wouldn’t be going anywhere near ‘The National’ and then, in its pilot week, i decided to give it a chance.

I even kept the contact details to obtain promotional leaflets from it and was prepared to go around as many villages and small towns in my area doing leafleting, door to door.

But before that week was over they ran with a large picture of Crash Broon, with accompanying article. That was enough for me.

It’s not hard hitting enough for my liking and i can’t shrug off my suspicions about it coming from a Unionist supporting stable.

I don’t buy national newspapers but was still prepared to give it all i had to help it flourish for the cause but not anymore.

Some people were rightly saying, in the beginning, to give it a chance because some people were complaining about its lack of whatever but there can be no excuse for not being hard hitting enough and employing writers with a bit more bite.

ffs, They even failed to include the Shetland Isles on their front page silhouette map of Scotland.

I don’t trust it and i’ll leave the promoting of it to those who do.
They will have to become a lot more hard hitting to convince me.
😉

[…] One thousand louder […]

PictAtRandom

Haud on a minute. This means there’s a new variable in the Barnett Formula known as “SNP”.

Alan Gerrish

Marie clark says:
5 January, 2015 at 6:35 pm
Hells bells,is it me or is it them.
SLAB really must believe that our heads do button up the back. We learned a lot of hard lessons during the referendum and I hope that they won’t go to waste. The SNP need to hound them on a’ the shite they spout.

Right on, Marie. As soon as I heard it on the state propaganda organ tonight, I thought right away: “Ah smell shite”. Yet without the pre-referendum WoS training, I would probably just have accepted it; Thanks Rev”!

Trouble is, and having spent Hogmanay with too many Daily Mail readers, how do we educate the uneducated to spot such obvious baloney? They still won’t buy the National ‘cos it’s no’ got enough games, gossip and foreign sport articles, so we need to keep our campaigning efforts going as never before in the run-up to the GE.

Still, given that Murphy has compromised himself so early on in the campaign, I look forward to it all coming unstuck in due course, particularly when the London Labour guys twig what he is claiming about spending “their” tax on.

Paula Rose

(Sorry bit O/T, anyone got good links about the Barnett formula they could post on ‘The union of the snakes’, FAO a commenter called HYFUD – I’ve not quite got to grips with my etch-a-sketch thingy re copying and pasting ta)

liz

They put that statement up on twitter earlier today and then people piled in and asked how they were going to fund it.

Hence the hastily arranged – from the Mansion tax 97% of which will be raised in SE.

You can almost hear Ed screaming and wondering how he’s going to explain that to the English electorate.

Thing is I don’t think Murphy realised how much scrutiny he is going to be under in Scotland.
He could witter away as a back bench opposition MP and no-one would pay much attention, now he needs to back up every claim he makes, except on the BBC of course, that’s a given

Valerie

@stoner, be fair! That issue with Shetland missing from the map on the front of the National, was fixed in 24 hours, when people contacted them.

They went out on a limb, and they are giving space to some good Indy writers, still 100% more than any other paper, so that’s good enough for me.

There are other subtle things they are doing, like referring to the Union, which I like, as many of us still ask ‘Better Together’???

Today, Greg Moodie, and a good piece on the delay with the warships contract.

fred blogger

slab pledge; shirt buttons soon to be accepted as new currency.
oh yes, the pledge, aka the vow, now where were we?
i’ll raise them, 500 matrons.

Valerie

Sorry, stoker! My tablet called you stoner ‘blush’

no no no...yes

There was me thinking that the pantomime season was about to finish.First it was Kezia,we will work with the SNP, and now Jim and his painting by numbers economic fantasy. Laurel and Hardy don’t have a look in with this pair.

H

Roll up roll up what ever the SNP say we will top by a thousand fold, get your £1 a year membership here to Branch office Scotland we would say anything to win, how are going to find the funding? oh right free bus passes and free prescriptions might need to go and council tax freeze please, all in all this is a general election not the Scottish election those kind off promises are NP for Westminster seats how the Scottish budget is spent

Molly

Stoker re The National – it’s got Kezia Dugdale some attention ( not in a good way ) over at Guido !

Albaman

The B.B.C. always state that they must show a “balanced ” account, o.k. Fair enough, who is going to “balance” J Curtis views, is he the ONLY one of his type in Scotland, I don’t necessarily think he is bias, ( course he is !!!) I just like a counter view now and then.

galamcennalath

There is one simple come back to anything NBLabour dream up, claim, or offer … “Remember what they said during the referendum campaign, and you still trust them?!”

One_Scot

SCOTTISH LABOUR ELECTION PLEDGE

‘We will say what ever shit, vow, pledge or any other crap we want to keep our pockets full of Tax payers money, because we know BBC Scotland and the media will let us away with it, and we know there are still plenty of clowns who will vote for us no matter what we say or do.’

Alex Clark

@liz

Wonder if Jim Murphy has realised yet that what Labour have offered him as “Scottish leader” is a poisoned chalice on one hand and a polished turd on the other.

Will he drink from one or just eat t’other?

UncleBob

This is just childishness.
I once worked beside a wifie who had done everything more then everyone else.
Her baby was the longest, blondest EVER recorded at the local hospital. Never knew such data was kept!!!!
She also knew the answer to every question and always had the biggest and best everything.
She, like Murphosa, was a sociopath. She thought her shite was the sweetest smelling shite ever and if anyone had been to the moon she had been twice and had been invited back there to instruct them on how best to be moon dwellers.

Lesley-Anne

Stoker says:

CameronB Brodie says:
I drive a Ferrari. 😉

Well, i drive 2, beat that!
🙂

I’ll see your two Ferraris Stoker and raise you a Ford F650 (I eat Ferraris for breakfast!) 😀

link to f650pickups.com

Stoker

If that campaign soundbite/poster or whatever it is is genuine, it could mean that their £1 membership gimmick hasn’t worked and they’re now having to face reality.

Phrases such as “over and above anything the SNP pledge” reeks of desperation and seems more like a death rattle than a pledge.

If this is a sign of things to come from the Slabber campaign trail it proves beyond doubt they have nothing of substance to offer.

To make such statements tells me they are taking the ‘nothing to lose’ approach because its finally struck home – they now realise they’re hated with a passion in Scotland and there’s no way back.

Red Tory Traitors!

PictAtRandom

You’re all missing the grander theme:

In Jimbo’s house there are many mansions. Jimbo giveth and Jimbo taketh away.

[Meanwhile the Torygraphers are complaining about being gouged and exploited. And he seemed such a reasonable, soft-spoken chap, didn’t he?
“The childish pitch by this idiot in Scotland is to infer its a good thing to get “English cash”. I get the pitch and why he is doing it, but its blatantly shot full of holes, and crashes the rest of his “proposals”.” 😀
End of honeymoon.]

Mealer

Labour are a wheen o havering hoors.

Alan McHarg

Maybe Labour plan on employing these 1,000 nurses on “Zero Hours contracts”. Jobs for everyone at no expense! Shrewd…very shrewd

desimond

Labour…taking school dinners from the weans to fund Trident 2…whens that poster coming?

Stoker

Valerie says:
“Sorry, stoker! My tablet called you stoner ‘blush’”

Shoot, how the hell does your tablet ken me?

Nae worries, Val, i’ve been called a lot worse, trust me.
🙂
________________

Thanks, Molly, i’ll take a look.
😉
________________

LA, am oot, ur you wan o yon new Slabber employees?
🙂
________________

Uncle Bob, her name wizzny Kezia by any chance, wiz it?
🙂

karmanaut

As others here have pointed out, the NHS in Scotland is devolved. Which means that Labour have no power to tell the SNP how to spend the money raised from any mansion tax. The only situation where Labour could insist on the extra 1000 nurses would be as part of the negotiations involved in creating an SNP/Labour coalition government at Westminster.

So the only way Murphy can keep this new pledge is if we get an SNP coalition government at Westminster.

Lesley-Anne

Stoker says:

LA, am oot, ur you wan o yon new Slabber employees?
🙂

Absolutely not Stoker yon F650 is my Labour candidate eating upping machine. 😀

Macart

OFFS! Seriously?

This isn’t another one of those Labour jokes is it?

The very definition of clinical insanity… Labour in Scotland.

Swiss perspective

Well this is just total nuts. In other words, labour is saying “we’ll let SNP drive our policy”. Why not vote for SNP directly, if that is what Labour stands for?

Tam Jardine

Desperate stuff… We are starting to hear tracks from the labour greatest hits album of bullshit pledges, promises and pure mince. They have no policy except to win. And they think, just as they did during the referendum, the ends justify the means.

How is this mansion tax going to work anyway? If the rich in London know 1 thing it is surely tax evasion? How to turn a property notionally worth £3 million into 2 adjoining properties both worth less than 2M. You’d probably increase the overall value in doing so!

I can imagine it will be an easy manipulation, much like the way inheritance tax is minimised by gifting parts of estate.

It’s a general election pledge so if I was Nicola I would write to Ed Miliband and just ask him to BAACS through the extra tens of millions into the Scottish treasury after the election.

Was Jim for real when he said he would make up policies and Ed would read about them in the papers like everyone else?

I suppose there are 2 types of manifesto pledges the type you intend to follow through on and the type designed to win elections – or minimise defeat

I know it is a little premature to book the venue for the wake but let’s keep 8th May free. The former Scottish lib dem MPs can be the canapies

Dorothy Devine

Could the SNP upset them by promising several thousand more? Like a nice round figure of 10,000 – I’ll see your ten thousand and raise you one!

Jim Mitchell

It’s another sign of how desperate Labour are to grab headlines!

steveasaneilean

In my neck of the woods we can’t find enough trained nurses to fill a handful of vacancies. So where the hell are Labour going to find 1000+?

G. P. Walrus

For everything you make up, SLAB will make 1000 more things up.

Patrick Roden

@ Liz,

“They put that statement up on twitter earlier today and then people piled in and asked how they were going to fund it.

Hence the hastily arranged – from the Mansion tax 97% of which will be raised in SE”

Yes, they tried saying it would come from the mansion tax first, but it was then pointed out that the mansion tax would raise £8 million in Scotland but the cost of 1000 nurses would be £250 million.

The question is this: will Labour pledge the funds for 1000 more nurses for Scotland no matter the outcome of the next election?

Nicola should release a statement saying that the Scottish government does not have the cash to get this 1000 extra nurses, but since Jim Murphy has let the cat out the bag and revealed that the money can be available if needs be, then Labour need to let the Scottish electorate know, if this money will be available to no matter who wins the election.

If Jim Murphy refuses to say, then we can assume that Labour have been deliberately withholding money that was available to the NHS in Scotland, doing so in pursuit their Neo-Con Agenda, and Labour is withholding money from the NHS in Scotland and is happy to harm the NHS for electoral reasons.

C’mon you Labour activists who we know read this site, what could be any good reason why this money isn’t made available, no matter who wind the election?

blackhack

Free Beer Tomorrow, I think I’ve heard this somewhere before.

Fairliered

SNP – we will sack 1000 useless labour troughers.
Labour – we will sack 2000!

ian

Maybe Jim intends financing them himself from all his claimed expenses?

liz

@Patrick Roden, probably they didn’t realise how much it would cost and they didn’t expect to have to provide that information.

Hence £8m raised, £250m needed – oh dear!!

Jimbo

What about Consultant surgeons, GPs, etc, we need them as well, could I put an order in for 3 consultants for my local hospital and maybe 2 GPs for my local practice as we are a bit short, thanks in advance?

macnakamura

This is reminiscent of David Murray of Rangers saying of Celtic that for every fiver they spend we will spend a tenner.
In case some readers do not know, let me remind them that Rangers are being liquidated having stiffed HMRC and other creditors for millions.

Lesley-anne

Well it looks like Labour are in a wee bit of bother folks … who’d have thunk it! 🙂

Tomorrow’s Times front page has this amazing headline:

“Mansion tax to fund nursing in Scotland”

Yet apparently there are more than a couple of Labour MP’s etc who have come out totally against this mansion tax far less using it to fund Murph the Smurph’s plan to *ahem* buy an extra 1,000 nurses more than the S.N.P.

Robert Peffers

@starlaw says:5 January, 2015 at 7:24 pm:

” … Where do they propose putting all these nurses?”

Oh! easy question, starlaw, Labour will put the nurses in their new batch of PPP/PPI funded hospitals, hospices and homes for the youngsters with rickets and other ailments caused by malnutrition and starvation plus the enormously increased numbers of OAPs with Dementia.(A’h haed tae ca it dementia coz A’h canna spell Alzheimers Disease).

After all their London Labour Leaders have all promised to outdo the Tory/LibDem’s austerity measures.

Robert Peffers

Tonight I heard Dugdale speaking and she sounded like a WWII machine gun. Trouble is her tongue is faster than her braincells.

jock wishart

Anti Rangers arseholes alert. How about giving it a rest or at least get your facts right before posting. You stirred this up Rev.you should have known better, devide and conquer an all that.If you don’t watch you will have all the Scotsman posters spouting their pish on here. Oh by the way canny wait till WOS discusses the peodo scandal.That way I can comment and keep on topic.

Stoker

link to archive.today
From the link above.

The Labour Party’s shadow Chancellor, Ed Balls, states that the Labour Party “will not reverse £5 billion worth of cuts to the police, hospitals, armed forces and councils..”

Those cuts are planned for 2015/16.

Meanwhile, the Labour Party’s man in Scotland, Jim Murphy, is telling the Scottish electorate that the Labour Party “will fund 1000 extra NHS nurses in Scotland – over and above anything the SNP pledge.”

He plans to do this with £250 million taken from the English taxpayer.

There are 2 immediately obvious problems with Murphy’s lies.

(1)-The Labour Party are not going to be in power, north OR south of the border come May 2015, if current opinion and polls are to be believed.

(2)-Do people honestly believe Jim Murphy is going to be allowed to take £250 million of English tax payers money to invest in Scotland when important English services are going to be battered with BILLIONS of pounds worth of cuts from the very same Labour Party.

Voters, you decide.

Red Tory Traitors Out – Put Scotland First – Vote SNP.

John Moss

Brilliant!

Beat the SNP by bleeding all the rich aristocrats…?

How many have we got left, how many masions do they own and is there enough of them to tax to cover the bill?

Now, forgive me if I sound a little naieve, but we have Historic Scotland raising money for the upkeep of former aristocratic manisons, castles etc. And Historic Scotland can’t pay for the upkeep of all the aging and decrepit former aristocratically-owned buildings etc. So, why do I think Jim Murphy is on to a non-starter?

What am I thinking, did he not spent nine years at uni and didnae get a degree? Guess anything he thinks up shouldnae be taken seriously.

Love Jimbo, he’s a “Richard”!

John Moss

Ooops!

Just read Jimo’s announcement in detail;

“Up to 95% of the revenues generated by the Mansion Tax will come from the South East of England, and will provide an additional £250 million for Scotland.”

Guess he’s ruined Labour’s chances of ever getting control of Westminster.

He’s such a “Richard” isn’t he?

thedogphilosopher

The ironic mantra now oozing from the Branch Office goes something like this: ‘Voting Labour is the only way to beat those Nasty Tories.’ The same nasty Tories Murphy was seen hugging and high-fiving just a matter of weeks ago. Does it never occur to anyone in the Labour No camp that what Better Together was actually about was preserving the right of those same nasty Tories to control Scotland from London? If you voted No then you were fully endorsing English Tory rule. The only way to rid Scotland of any right-wing Tory rule (forever!) was to have voted Yes.

And look were we are now, having to deal with this puerile example of Unionist tricksterism, when Scotland should be looking forward, positively and sensibly, to becoming a fully grown-up, independent nation. Sigh. The Shame, The Shame.

robertknight

Strange – I thought that type of cr@p would be reserved for Holyrood elections, what with the Scottish NHS being a matter reserved to Holyrood.

In which case, why the blazes is SLAB bringing it up in a Westminster election? Is it because they think the electorate are as stupid as they are? Apparently…

Luigi

“Anything the SNP can do, we can do better”

Money back guaranteee?

farrochie

wingman 2020 says:
5 January, 2015 at 5:52 pm

It only matters to Labour if the statement on the poster has a net gain of votes.

Remember that Better Together maintained that their “patronising lady” video worked to create uncertainty in some people’s minds. It would have swung a few doubters. That’s exactly the tactic that Labour will use. Each of these sound bites is designed to put Labour on the front page and swing some voters back to Labour.

It’s not enough to dismiss or joke about these tactics. Our side must select the issues and lead the debate.

R-type Grunt

With the backing of the BBC this lie will almost certainly be successful. Is there no dirt on the BBC we can focus on instead?

David Anderson

Supermarket/car showroom sales pitches are just ridiculous for politics and let’s hope most people realise that.Truly desperate stuff and is enough to put you off your dinner, free or not!

BobD

well, well, eh, the SNP WILL CREATE 2000 MORE THAN THEY PLEDGE!!!!!eleventy11!1!

bowanarrow

where will all the disgruntled english voters go now? Will they maybe feel that the only way to get their revenge, on us uppity Scots, is by voting in a tory ukip coalition? A government who may hold power in westminster? it seem almost like a deliberate ploy by the establishment elite, i cant believe that whitehall is this stupid. maybe they could get themselves a mandate from the english people to undo devolution and “SAVE the Scots from THEMSELVES”.

[…] press releases yesterday had social-media satirists struggling to catch up. First came the bizarre pledge to employ 1000 more nurses than the SNP, no matter what number the SNP pledged, and to fund the […]

KennyG

Absolutely everything we now see and hear from Scottish Labour is designed to undermine and smear the SNP. No mention at all, ever, about the Greens or Lib Dems or the Conservatives anymore. They’re running scared.

Monty Faulkman

Two things stand out after hearing Thicko Murphy seemingly at odds with Diane Abbott on BBC R4’s The World at One today:

1. It’s theatre. Amateur dramatics designed to make us think that ‘Scottish Labour’ is somehow separate from head office. I even sense that Abbott actually does remember his name in real life.

2. BBC interviewer seemed to do SLab a favour at the outset by quoting the ‘pledge’ as being merely 1000 nurses and not the full ‘1000 more than the SNP’ nonsense.

Problem is, this shit could work on a few people.

Derrick

On the subject of today’s spat between Murphy & Abbott, guess who’s just proclaimed on twitter :
“The pledge is entirely real. The fight is not imaginary. Nurses will be recruited. Real politics.” ?
It must be true if wee Dunky says so…

Seasick Dave

I think that the SNP should pledge a nurse for every person in the country.

Then Labour could pledge a nurse for each nurse.

biggpolmont

A bit dangerous to promise something like that espesially when its based on the future mansion tax Property taxes are a very volatile
form of taxation and the cost of the property value may well fall .next jim will be saying that funds from the mansion tax should be put into a mansion tax fund! L.O.L

Stoker

Monty Faulkman says:
Two things stand out after hearing Thicko Murphy seemingly at odds with Diane Abbott on BBC R4’s The World at One today:

1. It’s theatre. Amateur dramatics designed to make us think that ‘Scottish Labour’ is somehow separate from head office. I even sense that Abbott actually does remember his name in real life.

2. BBC interviewer seemed to do SLab a favour at the outset by quoting the ‘pledge’ as being merely 1000 nurses and not the full ‘1000 more than the SNP’ nonsense.

Problem is, this shit could work on a few people.
___________

Correct, Monty, and these points along with others have been made in my complaint to the BBC.

You are also spot on with your last comment – this shit WILL work on a few people. I know the type. They only see and believe in the soundbites because they don’t have any capacity or will for the facts or detail behind the soundbites.

Sad and highly irritating, but very true.


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