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Quoted for bare-faced cheek

Posted on February 11, 2014 by

Anas Sarwar in the Sunday Post, 9 February 2014:

“Labour won’t look to switch powers over inheritance or corporation tax.

We do not want a race to the bottom on corporation tax where big business benefits and the workers on the shopfloor don’t. That might be nationalist politics, Conservative politics, not ours.”

Oh, Anas. Cutting corporation tax isn’t Labour politics? Are you sure about that?

“Corporation tax fell under [Gordon] Brown, from a main rate of 33% to 30% (1999) and then 28% (2007), and from 24% to 19% for small businesses.”

But it was just those two times, right?

“We have cut corporation tax twice and I want to go further. We will reduce the tax again when we are able.” – Gordon Brown, 30 April 2008.

We suppose you have to admire the audacity, if nothing else.

“The speech had been proceeding for perhaps twenty minutes when a messenger hurried on to the platform and a scrap of paper was slipped into the speaker’s hand. He unrolled and read it without pausing in his speech. Nothing altered in his voice or manner, or in the content of what he was saying, but suddenly the names were different.

Without words said, a wave of understanding rippled through the crowd. Oceania was at war with Eastasia! The next moment there was a tremendous commotion. The banners and posters with which the square was decorated were all wrong! Quite half of them had the wrong faces on them. It was sabotage! The agents of Goldstein had been at work!”

Those damn agents, eh Anas? Where’s a memory hole when you need one?

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Linda's Back

In Herald to-day head of CBI quoted as saying return of Labour government and EU referendum was causing uncertainty for business.

Now Barclays CEO has said that Barclays can cope with independence if Scotland votes Yes.

I trust that Lloyds and RBS come out with the same sensible statement very soon that it will be business as usualafter independence otherwise the uncertainty will force me to move my overdraft to Barclays.

Croompenstein

Oh Anas full of wind and pish he’ll just accuse you of being racist that’s his get out

FlimFlamMan

@Linda’s Back

I really hope it’s not business as usual when it comes to the financial sector; most of what it does is parasitical. Let that side clear off to London and leave basic high-street/commercial banking behind, either regulated as a public utility or just plain nationalised.

Salt Ire

Funny you should quote that at the end. I was just commenting on BT’s FB page how I liked a quick trawl through their comments for my two minutes hate. Modded of course.
I’m rubbish at this Gandhi stuff some days.

Another Union Dividend

Agree it shouldn’t be business as usual but neither should it be threats to move if we exercise our democratic right to be like any other modern progressive European nation.

Wayne

Every time I read Anas I swap it in my mind for a more anatomically oriented noun. Is it just me that has this constipated form of thinking? 😉

What will he be telling us next, that Miliband doesn’t really take inspiration from his idol, Thatcher? That Labour really do have a joined up policy on further devolution for Scotland in the event of a YES vote, or better still that independence is just about the ‘trivial’ and ‘wee things’, none of which matter compared to the overwhelming imperative of keeping the union, for no other reason than to prevent Scotland veering into oblivion?

How far Labour have fallen that someone such as Anas can progress as he has.

Grouse Beater

You don’t have to be an Oxbridge don to spot the lack of intellect in Scottish Labour’s machine politicians.

They’ll rue the day they resisted unanimity on Scotland’s democratic exclusions to seek instead conflict and denial.

Murray McCallum

Mr. Sarwar lacks credibility and fills all sane people with incredulity.

Anyone listening to his mutterings needs to think; am I sane?

Ken500

‘Conservative policies, not ours’ ?

Miliband wants to be Thatcher.

twenty14

Poor little Anas

Nick Heller

I’m sure that Anas is hoping that one day he will be able to swap reading out dreary yet fantastical speeches intended to confuse understanding for perusing the menu cards in the House of Lords.

link to thescottishscaremonger.blogspot.co.uk

Croompenstein

skillfully reported by Sekond Hande on BBC Scotlandshire..
link to bbc.scotlandshire.co.uk

Ian Brotherhood

David Cameron: ‘We’re wetter together.’

Paul Kelly

Anus should get his party to shell out for a flux capacitator for him. Then he can fuck off back to 1984 and apply for a job at the Ministry of Truth!

ronnie anderson

Sos we still under the Ddos

Chris

Watering down of labour’s proposals will only convince more of the electorate to vote yes.

I note the Sunday Post article refers to Labour’s proposal for the devolution of more power to Local Authorities. Such changes should not be entrenched in any Scotland Act but should be for the Scottish Parliament to legislate for under its current powers. The fact that Labour want to hamstring the Scottish Parliament in such a manner shows the flaw in devolution, i.e., “power devolved is power retained”. I wonder if this is Labour’s plan- tie increasing powers to the Parliament with loss of its current powers over Local authorities thereby ensuring no change.

Andy-B

Here we have John Swinney pointing out that very fact you mentioned Rev, when he tells SLAB’s Neil Bibby, that Gordon Brown has cut corporation tax twice and wished to do so again. Oh the hypocrisy of SLAB and their Westminster masters knows no bounds.

link to youtu.be

fairiefromtheearth

The greatest tool a goverment can have is the control of its own monies, lets not get into the trap of borrowing monies when we can print it ourselfs intreast free, you should be down with that Rev is usary not a sin?

TheGreatBaldo

Surprised you missed Anas’s ‘Wisdom of the Broken Watch’ 🙂

ronnie anderson

O/T ,Wonce again Chruachan Dam is in the spotlight,again we are subject to the whim,s of Westminster,on the exspansion to produse more electricity,green and clean and renewable,roll on Independance.

fairiefromtheearth

Anas isent even right twice a day so a broken watch is more accurate than him 😉

HandandShrimp

The biggest critic of Anas is Labour’s own record. It requires nothing further to set his words straight.

alexicon

O/T.

Oh Danny boy!

The malice telling us something we already knew.

link to dailymail.co.uk

TheGreatBaldo

For those who may not have seen it on Twitter…

John ‘Aussie Twitter Army Shame’ McTernan, (the campaigning strategy genius who declined to try an outflank the SNP to the right in 2011)

Has come out with an absolute classic….

“British citizenship is a thing. <b.British nationalism has been invented by the SNP"

link to twitter.com

James D

Max Keiser giving Alex salmond and Scottish Independence a doing – link to maxkeiser.com

In an effort to push his own particular Bitcoin agenda he doesn’t quite get the natural sequence of events involved in achieving independence.

Ananurhing

Anas poor Sarwar….Ah kent his Faither.

gerry parker

Anas.
He doesn’t need to talk sense, he’s got lodsa money.

ronald alexander mcdonald

The slow death of the Labour Party in Scotland. They should have changed after 2007. They had to change after 2011. In fact after 2011 they did the worst thing imaginable. Hoodwinking the electorate that they did change, with JoLa in charge.

“Events dear boy events” as Harold MacMillan said has already overtaken their deception, with the Falkirk fiasco and JoLa being told to GFT with even discussing the devolution of income tax.

To cap it all we now have Ed Milliband confirming the continuation of Tory policies. More austerity with a Maggie Thatcher love in! All bodes well for a YES vote.

heedtracker

13 years in Westminster office Brown’s Labour had and they left us with what, debt, debt, PFI, more debt and super rich City boys showering themselves with money they dont earn. Talk about had your day Anas/Gordon/Alistair and all the rest too. Its like listening to comedy bank robbers pleading to get the keys of the banks back.

fittie

This looks like Sarwar telling holyrood Msps no more financial devolution –hes talking orders from london labour

Les Wilson

It is rich, coming from a little rich boy who will run to daddy when the time suits, and that is coming fast!!

HandandShrimp

Max Keiser is entertaining and on a number of issues his heart is in the right place but I do think his financial advice should be taken with a wee pinch of salt. He is convinced that the pound is finished so obviously a currency union in his book is barking.

Oneironaut

Ahh, Mr Sarwar, the undisputed Zen Master of Bare-faced Cheek pokes his head above the parapet once again…

Wonder if New Labour will stuff him and Miliband down the Memory Hole after independence and claim that they’re the party of the working class once again and all that previous stuff never really happened.

And we all woke up and realised it was all just a strange dream… 🙂

Tony Little

OT. Just listening to a very negative Max Keiser on RT tv. Personal slights on Alex Salmond as well as falling the proposed Independence “Not Independence” because , BoE, Sterling etc. What about the EU Max?

Also seems to be talking mince about RBS as well.

HoHum, I thought he was a serious journalist, but all IO heard was the usual “Cannae do it” shite. Very disappointing.

Tony Little

EDIT: Seems I’m watching the re-run Sorry guys, 🙁

Taranaich

I don’t see anything here which contradicts Sarwar’s statement. After all, he did say that Labour has not changed at all in its entire history.

Marcia

Hair today gone tomorrow. Trump has been trumped with his legal challenge against the offshore wind turbines now blown away. Shame ain’t it. 🙂

Thepnr

@Marcia

Yes to Trump BT and Anas will be blown away. as far as possible I hope.

Grouse Beater

Rev – spmthing worth noting:

Apologies for the interjection, but a worthy heads-up:

I’m listening to the Keiser Report, (Max Keiser) on RT Television – a long discussion on Scotland keeping the pound. Keiser is not complimentary about Salmond’s love of bureacracy, [his term] but his conclusion is, we should create our own krypto-currency, dump the corrupt Bank of England and let the debt ridden RBS go where it wants so that Scotland can become “truly independent.”

As I type the discussion has moved onto Dominic Frisby’s book, “Why Scotland Can Become the Richest Country in the World.” (Frisby is interviewed.) He praises Scots for clear financial thinking “prudent monetary control in their bones,” Adam Smith, and so on, and so forth, and wants Scotland to free itself from the state. He suggests (wryly) a “Jockcoin.”

The unanimity is, tell England to keep its debt.

Might be worth you having a look if you can, open a new thread with a link, and let readers form their own opinion.

Warm regards
Grouse Beater

liz

Everything has gone quiet again.
Is WoS under another attack?

liz

Ah sorry I couldn’t see any comments after HandandShrimp @7.21 for a while.
Seems OK now.

Caroline Corfield

O/T there was a massive attack on european based servers on Monday,

link to bbc.co.uk

I wonder if this is part of our problem?

chicmac

The irony is that AnSa only ever raises questions, the most common being, ‘why is he?’.

chicmac

“Everything has gone quiet again.
Is WoS under another attack?”

BOO!

FlimFlamMan

@Another Union Dividend

Agree it shouldn’t be business as usual but neither should it be threats to move if we exercise our democratic right to be like any other modern progressive European nation.

Absolutely. Unfortunately those threats, baseless or not, will only increase as the Yes position strengthens.

I’ve said before that I’m English and I don’t even live in Scotland, so my thoughts are worth whatever they’re worth, but I’m a (somewhat) foreigner who sees potential in — and wants to start a (very small) business in — an independent Scotland.

When the threats to leave are given attention by the media, how many questions are asked about people who might want to come to an independent Scotland? There are several billion people living outside Scotland, and it would only take a very very tiny percentage to make up for those who will leave, even if all the threats are real.

In a sense it doesn’t matter, since the real capacity for prospering, and creating a better society, is to be found in the vast majority of people who will remain after independence, and in Scotland’s fundamental infrastructure. But there are undoubtedly people currently outside Scotland who will want to participate and contribute. It’s another answer to the threats.

@HandandShrimp

Yes, Kaiser is usually okay when digging in to fraud in the financial sector — or used to be, I’ve not really paid attention to him in a long while — but he’s way off base when it comes to the fundamentals of economies and currencies. A goldbug and apparently a bitcoinbug as well now.

FlimFlamMan

@Grouse Beater

Good grief, has Keiser started making more sense since I stopped listening to him? Although there’s no need for the ‘crypto’ part, that’s just a technical implementation detail of ‘currencies’* like bitcoin; using cryptography to limit creation and validate transactions. Just having a Scottish currency is where the benefit lies.

* Bitcoin lacks the characteristics of a currency; it’s a commodity.

Paul

The peoples party do it again they voted against a SNP motion to stop more cuts on welfare.The Labour party don’t you just love them, wonder what Sarwar got to say about that?

Jimbo

We do not want a race to the bottom on corporation tax where big business benefits and the workers on the shopfloor don’t.

Can Anas identify with workers on the shop floor? I don’t believe it. Has he ever had a real job?

Corporation tax fell under [Gordon] Brown, from a main rate of 33% to 30% (1999) and then 28% (2007), and from 24% to 19% for small businesses.

Was that the start of a race to the bottom on corporation tax? Did Anas’ family’s big business benefit while their workers on their shop floor didn’t? Did Anas pity the workers, or was he pleased, that thanks to Gordon Brown, his father paid less tax? Was he actually aware of what was going on around him, or was he by that time already living in his Mitty/Nixon type world?

Ian Kirkwood

FlimFlamMan
Very good point about the attractiveness of iScotland. There is absolutely no doubt that the ideology of social justice is something a lot of people, inside and outside the UK find appealing. The current UK pathway is going nowhere and appeals only to the short term elitist view which will lead to crash and burn of the economy and value system which Britain was built on.
It is up to the people of Scotland and it’s supporters to follow a different path. We all need to ask the question, what is the alternative?

Grouse Beater

@Flim Flam Man

Keiser is a TV satirist with a daily show that requires a lot of turn-over in material; it’s his job, “schtick” to talk fast in pithy well-honed phrases and sharp dialogue without going into too much detail, and that’s all I expect of him.

Then again, Paxman, for all his intellectual bruiser, politician bating image doesn’t often rise above that level. Start with an extreme hypothesis to provoke discussion, push it a few times, sound querulous, open out the discussion, and when the studio manager signals, draw it to a conclusion.

As far as the currency issue is concerned – we should listen carefully. There’s is no doubt having the corrupt Bank of England with its own agenda hold sway over us is an uncomfortable situation. Salmond derided exactly that past times.

No matter how much we argue independence means integration with neighbour states to a greater extent than ever before, in trade, in natural resources, in military security, I suspect the majority of people feel having our own currency is the ideal.

Integration in jey ways as the path to autonomy is the same for all countries when they attempt to throw off interference from dominant nations – however…

I can see why the Nobel laureates in economics advising our government recommend we stick with the pound sterling in the short-to-medium term so that we don’t scare big and small business rigid, or have our currency derided before we can exchange it for goods across the border. Belief in the pound is well ingrained, not an easy concept to shake off after generations of use, no matter how much our banks abuse the system to line their pockets.

I presume that when the oil reserves begin to put largesse in Scotland’s coffers we will look again at the ideal of a Scottish currency. I hope so.

theycan'tbeserious

Anus…full of shite as usual! The lavatory beckons twice a day…he’s regular as clock work!

CameronB

I hadn’t noticed this was where its happening and posted this on the previous thread. I hope you don’t mind stereo.

Did someone mention oor Anas?
link to upload.wikimedia.org

Well I just found out I am not cracked up to be a politician. I just popped out to the shops and almost ran into a couple of guys cumming out of SLabour’s HQ. I hadn’t had my dinner, so was taking a chance when I told them they were going to loose and loose badly.

Leaving them both shacking their heads and looking at each other in puzzlement, I thought I had better go back and check I hadn’t just made a complete plonker of myself. Luckily hey were, assured Fraser Nelson’s younger brother. It least he looked like him and had exactly the same silly, twisted accent. Anyway I asked for a positive case for the union, which was (as near as I can remember);

“We are better together because we can pull and share our resources to the best advantage of everyone”.

I am afraid that one or two expletive may have escaped me as I asked once again for a substantive positive case, or a reason why no. The reply was that Scotland is not economically capable.

I left him at this point, while he was still vertical, followed by a street-full of expletive and a prophesy of SLabour’s doom.

Oops. :).

Grouse Beater

I enjoyed your anecdote, Cameron.

David Martin

@GrouseBeater

I suspect the long term plan for currency after Independence is a new currency (Not plan B, but plan A+). In the meantime, keep the venerable £ and don’t scare the horses.

CameronB

Forgot this bit too.

I forgot to mention SLabour think Scotland could not cope because oil prices are volatile.

Perhaps you see why I turned the air blue

Ian Brotherhood

@CameronB –

More power to ye mister.

I hope you gave them your inimitable forearm salute.

Dave McEwan Hill

Grouse Beater

I can just see the continuous parody would be subjected to if we said we wanted to float our own currency
“Will it be tens sporrans to the groat?”
“Your money will be worthless internationally”
“Who’d lend Scotland money on the basis of a diddy wee curency”
and so on. We know it ain’t true but does Mrs McGinty?

Give our leaders credit for being several steps ahead of the opposition. The fact that we are demanding our right to continue in Sterling has our enemies on the wrong foot who are all over the pace on the issue.
It has them threatening malice against us which in the longer term backfires on them – like all the other malicious threats.
It is also by far the most sensible and stable place to be in during independence negotiations and gives us a huge ace in our negotiating hand as our resources are holding Sterling up.

And after independence any Scottish government can make a different decision.

FlimFlamMan

@Grouse Beater

Yes, Max could be very entertaining, and he probably still is; the constant goldbuggery just got a bit too much for me to take.

CameronB

Ian Brotherhood
They almost got the Crusher.

OK pop pickers, let’s spin another oldie to let Project Fear know that they are never alone. Not even when they think it is safe to come out of the bunker. 🙂
link to youtube.com

joe kane

Multi-millionaire Anas worrying about the interests of workers (not to be confused with the concept of the working class). He reminds me of nouveau riche Labour millionaires such as Blair, Brown and Darling who, unlike the workers, have all done pretty well out of their 13 years in government, overseeing mass unemployment, crashing the economy and murdering vast numbers of workers abroad.

ps
Some cheeky Ukip Wythenshawe by-election anti-Labour propaganda. As a friend says, Labour walking away from the working class only have themselves to blame that populist trash like Ukip can get away with this –
link to ianbone.files.wordpress.com

Desimond

@Jimbo

RE: Anas ever do a real job…former dentist. If i was a former patient I would honestly be sitting wondering “Did I really need all that treatment?”

Grouse Beater

For a long time during the early self-governance campaign we were subjected to comprehensive denial that England placed financial and military pressure on Scotland to sign a treaty. The distance between then and now allowed phony revisionist historians, Westminster and Whitehall to lie.

Now we see and hear exactly how it was done, history repeats itself – the same insidious threats and black propaganda. Daniel Defoe is amongst us again.

[…] for some time – Labour’s constant attacks on the SNP over planned Corporation Tax cuts when Gordon Brown slashed it twice in power and promised further reductions – but Baillie was allowed to simply talk over him and evade the half-hearted […]

goldenayr

What’s going on rev?This is coming up instead of posters names on the new comments column.

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