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You can trust the Labour Party

Posted on June 24, 2014 by

There’s an interesting article on the Guardian today from the invariably-excellent former music journalist John Harris entitled “The crisis in the Labour party goes much deeper than Ed Miliband”, which looks at how a 280-page policy document published this month by the Labour-leaning IPPR thinktank was boiled down by the party for public and media consumption to “cutting benefits for young people”.

That got us to thinking about something, but luckily before we’d wasted too much time on thinking we discovered that Labour Uncut had helpfully already done the research we were about to embark on for us.

Because it carried a piece last Thursday compiling some tweets from late 2013.

youthbenefits

Alert readers will have spotted that that’s a list of tweets angrily denying that Labour were going to cut youth benefits. Most people will probably know that Owen Jones is a prominent left-wing commentator (also of the Guardian, formerly the Independent) and, to be fair, one often critical of and sceptical about Labour. But who are the others?

Matthew Pennycook is a Labour parliamentary candidate.

Mark Ferguson is the editor of Labour List, a well-connected website which Labour distanced itself from in the wake of the Damian McBride smear revelations.

Tony McNulty was a Labour MP until he resigned in 2010 amid an expenses scandal.

And Gemma Tumelty is a Labour activist who was President of the National Union of Students from 2006-08, and a senior officer of the union for four years before that.

We think it’s reasonable to say that those are all people pretty closely linked to the parliamentary Labour Party. All of them hotly and publicly rejected the idea that Labour would slash benefits for the young unemployed, right up to the moment when the party proudly announced it as official policy.

Do we need to fill in the rest of this article, readers, or can we go and have lunch?

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Bugger (the Panda)

oops.

Macart

No, yer fine.

I’m fancying a BLT myself and a large cinnamon laced cappucino.

ecruden

What I find particularly galling is that I highly doubt one of these people, let alone all of them, will now come out and say ‘i’m very disappointed they’ve chosen to do this. I honestly believed they wouldn’t. I rescind my links to Labour for this callous and cynical move’ etc

Capella

Pointing out how gullible these people are is pure cyberabuse. They need care in the community. Go and have your lunch!

BrianW

In my head, I can’t help hearing Rachel Reeve doing an impersonation of the guy in Vicar of Dibley.. (Jim I think?)

Q: Will Youth Benefits be cut?

A: No, No, No, No.. YES..

MajorBloodnok

Who the hell do Labour think they are? The Lib-Dems?

Bugger (the Panda)

ecruden

They have a doublethink neurone button hard wired to obviate cognitive dissonance.

Colin McGarvie

I think given how self-evident it is, you can go and have lunch. Have you used up your UK dividend of fish & chips yet?

Illy

“Is not and will not be our policy” is Labour-speak for “will be our policy very shortly”.

Or “was our policy last time we were in power”.

Where’s that picture of Anas and Gordon, with Anas saying something about how cutting corperation tax “has not, is not, and will never be” labour policy, and Gordon reminding him that they cut it twice under his watch?

msean

Lunch is fine.

jon esquierdo

Totally disorganised

jon esquierdo

Labour party one big shamble of people on the gravy train

Scott

Careful Rev you will be accused again of outing these people of having Labour leanings.
Hope you had a nice lunch.

Jamie Arriere

Labour currently have no plans to do this (Yes we do)

Labour will not put this anywhere near their manifesto (Do you think we’re as stupid as Libdems?)

Labour will throw their hands up in the air and say ‘Look at the mess we’ve inherited’ (which we sowed the seeds for last time)

Labour will implement policy saying ‘We have no choice’ (Yes we have choices, but we can’t be arsed researching them, and we’ve made our decison ages ago)

Ergo, don’t vote Labour

benarmine

Someone the other day, cant recall who, said that if Labour lost in 2015 they were finished for a decade, I think they’re toast. There appears to be no-one of integrity in the whole stinking edifice. Why vote fake tory when you can have the real thing?

Vestas

I have to disagree here – Labour List is utter drivel, hardly surprising when you realise Derek Draper & Blue State Digital were behind it

Illy

“Why vote fake tory when you can have the real thing?”

link to static.fjcdn.com

Sinky

No wonder 43% of Labour voters think Ed Miliband is a liability and that was before his photo op holding front page of The Sun “This is our England” World Cup special.

According to recent YouGov poll, just 11% of Labour voters think Miliband is a strong leader, and 51% say he is weak.

Only 16% think he is “an asset” for his party; 43% believe he is “a liability”. A mere 14% think he “looks and sounds like a prime minister”, while 70% disagree. Just 21% think he is “up to the job”, while 60% do not.

Stevie

red tory yellow tory red tory yellow tory red tory blue tory tory tory tory tory tory tory

twisted but Westminster is what it is

Helena Brown

Have a nice lunch add something liquid to it, you deserve it.

desimond

Lest call them Simon Labour…cue 3 denials and then watch the populace be crucified

Juteman

Attacking ordinary members of the public. Shameful!

galamcennalath

A nicely assembled vision of the chaos within the Labour party.

It should only matter in one way to the current debate here …. EVERYONE, especially those telling us they will vote NO, needs to realise Labour will not win in 2015!

Because, if the polling research is to believed that outcome gives a good solid swing to YES.

Widespread acceptance that Labour will not form a government at Westminster in 2015 is probably sufficient at this stage to generate a Yes win!

desimond

Im astonished!

When did Seth Rogen start pretending to be an editor of Labour List?

And btw…who the hell has a picture of themselves in a shirt and tie on Twitter of all informal places, says it all about the clone factory that is New Labour?

RosiePosie

OMG, I would be mortified if I was them. Maybe Wings should contact them and ask them if they’re OK – with the knives sticking out of their backs.

joe kane

Work 35 hours a week but only get paid 25 hours a week at the minimum wage – or young people can live off foodbanks and scrounging out of skips.

Don’t you just love British Labour Party international socialism and its neoliberal economic policies deliberately designed to create mass unemployment in the first place!

@UKlabour compulsory 35 hr a week youth job, paying 25 hrs as UK wide Jobs Growth Wales
refuted
24 June 2014

mary vasey

Buggar the panda, love your doublethink neuron analogy lol 😎

Maybolebuddie

Lets not criticise the Labour party leaders in Scotland and Westminster to hard, we want to keep them there, they are doing a great job for the independence side.

heedtracker

Even Harris’s colleague Steve ” do you agree Scotland can go fuck itself” Bell of the Guardian, was very hurt by labour policy and that dude has one very serious mancrush for probably not future PM Milliband.

link to theguardian.com

desimond

This morning when she (Rachel Reeves) announced a watered-down version of the policy she’d previously condemned, the Tories stopped condemning her and instead the employment minister Matt Hancock tweeted “Dear Rachel, imitation is flattery & all that, but you’ve just announced a weak & more costly version of our policy”.

link to bbc.co.uk

M4rkyboy

Lunch is for Wimps.

Les Wilson

Truth is that the problems with Labour is not simply Miliband, after all someone writes his scripts.

The disarray is at the very heart of the labour movement, they have lost all their values, people are seeing that.
They have no real talent in their ranks, no real ideas and are constantly shown as hopeless.

That is why we WILL get a Tory government again, possibly with UKIP, god forbid.English voters will have a quandary as to who is less worse to vote for. The whole system is in disarray and unfit for purpose, we in Scotland NEED TO RUN!

desimond

@galamcennalath

I see your logic but sadly in reality the thought of Labour forming a government is even more of a reason for any reasonable Scot to vote YES?

As for their voters in scotland, I reckon they have abandoned policy over party and are simply ‘ABS’ now, Anyone but SNP, and they’re happy to welcome the chaos and division that follows.

I cant believe i hate them more than the Tories but there it is, thats how bad they are now.

donald anderson

I used to be on a UKleft forum and left in disgust at the blatant Londoncentric Britnationalism, not least from Owen Jones himself, the boy preRevolutionary of Welsh parents, then at Manchester yoonie. Apparently he wrote a book called Chavs and appears on the Sunday Hallelujah slot debating waffle with grown ups. He was upset at the thought of a Scottish Socialist Republic, as it would “leave the English WC to the Tories”. I told him his Labour chums were the Tories in Scotland.

desimond

BTW, last nights London Standard guest page:

Ed Balls writes “A Mansion tax will make a better housing market for us all!”

If youre looking for old Labour values, theyre in the Charity Shop bargain bin along with some Stanley Baxter ’78s.

joe kane

This is the same Rachel Reeves who hotly denied she had claimed in an infamous interview to the Guardian that she would be tougher than the Tories on welfare (13 Oct 2013). After her BBC Sunday Politics interview with Andrew Neil (22nd Jun 2014) we’ve finally found out what her views actually are.

Labour fully supports the Tories failed £12.8 bn Universal Credit scheme which doesn’t work, but yet constantly criticises it and Reeves said she was going to “pause” it if elected, which is Labour-speak for “continue”.

Labour churn out so much spin, aimed at different audiences, it’s difficult to come to an understanding about what they actually believe in and what policies they support and why.

Murray McCallum

That Rachel McVey MP may keep changing her appearance but she consistently despises folks struggling to get by.

Frankie goes to Holyrood

Meanwhile, moving on without “Labour”….

…the #masscanvass of the Radical Independence Campaign took place on Sunday and was reported in the Guardian:

“Scottish independence campaign: mass canvassing in Glasgow’s Gorbals”
link to theguardian.com

Defo

Slightly O/T, so apologies Rev.

Someone has to do it, so I held my nose and dipped into the cesspit which describes itself as ‘The Scotsman’, fished around in the shite, and came up with this..

From the horses mouth.

link to scotsman.com

Nothing we didn’t know already, but nice to hear it from the insider perspective. Cara Hilton & Kezia Dugdale spring to mind.

MekQuarrie

They look like ‘ordinary’ Mums and Dads to me… :-/

joe kane

Labour claim its plans for 18-21 years olds will save £65 million a year.

I’ve been told that putting the welfare state beyond the reach of young people in order to save £65 million amounts to just 12 hours worth of UK national debt.

Don’t you just love Westminster austerity.

DaveDee

O/T excellent speech by Former lieutenant commander in the Royal Navy, SNP councillor for Glasgow’s Partick West, Feargal gives his reasons for strongly advocating YES to independence for his adopted country.

link to youtube.com

.

Chic McGregor

Was at the Kirrie schools debate this week. No filming allowed. No questions from adults allowed. No expressions of disapproval were allowed.

Jenny Marra Labour MSP, without a hint of a blush, told the kids that the best chance they had of getting rid of Trident was to vote no.

No no no...Yes

@ BrianW 1:19 pm

“In my head, I can’t help hearing Rachel Reeve doing an impersonation of the guy in Vicar of Dibley.. (Jim I think?)

Q: Will Youth Benefits be cut?

A: No, No, No, No.. YES..’

Hey, thank for the shout!!!

No no no...Yes

@Chic 2:24pm

Trident comment by JMarra

Did the YES person counter this statement?

BrianW

@No no no…Yes says…

Took me a wee while to get that one..lol.. %-)

dennis mclaughlin

You gotta love this lyin’ shower of cunts who revel in their dark arts…LIEBOUR….They deserve their forthcoming wilderness years as proof of the electorates trust in a totally corrupt political movement.

[…] « You can trust the Labour Party […]

heedtracker

Jim Murphy told an STV debate audience a couple of weeks ago, that the last Labour government had scrapped nuclear missiles and would scrap Trident if they win the referendum. That was a debate with Blair Jenkins, who let that major slither past but it was at the end so maybe getting a sum up ready. Even so it was a spectacular lie from Murphy, even for him.

Unless ofcourse Blair and Brown did scrap nukes but don’t remember them ever doing it.

No no no...Yes

Slightly O/T, but still on promises..

Never mind about the DEVO nano nonsense, are any of the Westminster parties going to publish their 2015 Election manifesto commitments(guarantees) regarding the Barnett formula BEFORE the referendum?

Robert Louis

This deceit by the Labour party perpetrated against young adults, is similar to the way in which they mislead over tuition fees. Johan Lamont when asked on tuition fees always says ‘we oppose upfront tuition fees’. The key word there is UPFRONT. No tuition fees are currently paid upfront, but are in fact paid back later via a student loan. Such is the deceptive nature of Labour.

The end result of course is EXACTLY what Labour wants, many young people and students actually think that Labour oppose tuition fees for students, whereas it was in fact Labour who first introduced tuition fees (all the Tories did was increase them). The last time I heard a policy from Labour it was that they thought the upper limit should be 6k and not 9k. The only political party to actually honour its manifesto commitment to abolish tuition fees was of course the SNP.

It is that kind of deceptive behaviour by Labour that shows them as the charlatans they truly are.

BrianW

I was looking at the title of the article “You can trust the Labour Party”…

If you were to replace the word/phrase Trust with something like.. “You cannot be serious” (said in 80’s tennis player style) I think it works.

bookie from hell

curran supported the cuts on sunday politics

dennis mclaughlin

Robert Louis…..’charlatans’ as in Lying Bastards ? .

Bugger (the Panda)

Desimonf at 2:04 pm

If youre looking for old Labour values, they’re in the Charity Shop bargain bin along with some Stanley Baxter ’78s.

I like that.

Lesley-Anne

Sorry for going O/T here but funnily enough it is sort of still on topic because it concerns the Labour party. There was a *ahem* hustings held in Gretna last night which was ostensibly a “Q and A” session between YES and NO. Well that is what Labour want you to think it was all about, the reality was something entirely different. Unfortunately I was not up to attending. Come to think about it it’s probably just as well, don’t think I could have kept my mouth shut at the disgusting behaviour that ensued. 😉

link to tinyurl.com

Labour, after last night’s performance have yet again confirmed what we all already know, they are the biggest bunch of foul mouthed COWARDS and LIARS in Scotland’s political world!

As you can read, the *cough* hustings were kept quiet, never advertised and it was only by chance some YES supporters did manage to get along. Labour controlled, Labour chaired, Labour supplied questions, Labour supplied abuse, Labour supplied shouting down of YES supporters. Ever get the impression Labour were kind of upset that YES supporters turned up last night?

galamcennalath

desimond says:
I see your logic but sadly in reality the thought of Labour forming a government is even more of a reason for any reasonable Scot to vote YES?

I find it hard to believe so many Scots still see an acceptable future, and future salvation, from Labour. It is evidence those voters are just not looking closely at what Labour are saying and doing.

Yes, I’ve made the same journey from hating Tories while thinking about Labour in a fairly neutral way, and now I hate Labour and simply think the Tories are England’s problem, not Scotland’s!

I have posted before saying I have one teeny weeny reservation about independence and that is … some of the unpleasant and unacceptable elements of Labour will still be with us after independence. They will have the cheek to stand for Holyrood and some Scots will be stupid enough to vote for them. Scotland needs a new centre left party to completely replace them. And, for that matter, a centre right party to replace Conservative Unionists. However, every MSP elected in the post-Independence election of 2016 needs to be totally committed to building a new Scotland. How many from the present ScoLab meet that spec?

Black Douglas

Sorry for O/T

More pooling and sharing.

link to bbc.co.uk

We share oil barrels and they pool radioactive barrels in return.

Better together! I think not.

Brian Powell

heedtracker.

I didn’t see that program where Jim Murphy said Labour would scrap Trident if they won the Referendum.

Do you think it would be worthwhile writing to Ed Milliband and asking if this is now official Labour policy?

If you could point me to the program, so i could see it and and would also write to Milliband.

It might be slight of hand, in that, they are getting a replacement, which might have a different name, but still he shouldn’t get way with that.

Andy-B

What the hell happened to Labour,why are they leaning so far to the right why are they pandering to middle England,isn’t it better to do the right thing. Surely if they did the right thing people would see that, and vote for them and they’d win.

Unfortunately Westminster is so corrupt and packed with self-serving politicians and Lords who are only interested in scratching each other backs, that real values have long been forgotten. Its now a case who can gain power by saying and promising anything,whilst cutting as deep as possible.

For these and many other good reasons a yes vote is imperative to Scotland, Labour for Independence, could and should one day after independence be the new labour party for Scotland.

manandboy

I’m thinking of all – no, some – no, any – no, one thing that I would trust the Labour Party on.

Frankly, it’s far easier to think of things that the Labour Party cannot and must not be trusted on,

the first being telling the truth

and the second being postal voting.

Actually there’s a whole lot more,

like the use of brown envelopes

and rampant cronyism,

but beyond these, too much to mention

and anyway, I’m sure you are all

very aware of the kind of thing

I’m alluding to.

But to get back to my original idea, I must confess to struggling a bit .

How’s about identifying somONE in the Labour Party that can be trusted. Yup, let’s try that.

Now then, Johann Lamont, sorry that’s a no on any level.

Ehm, Anas Sarwar. Anas is a smart lad, but he failed his ‘O’ Grade truth exam and hasn’t improved since. So, No.

Hows about Darling ? No.
Carmichael ? No.
Oor wee Douglas Alexander? Definitely a No.
Lord Reid? Gordon Brown? Oh No, no,no,no.

Ok> Let’e try a Tory. Anybody? No

LibDem? No.

Got it !! Patrick Harvie. I knew there would be somebody somewhere. Good on you, Patrick! Patrick can be trusted, I think, on Independence.

Sorted.

Should I have overlooked anything or anyone, please speak up, don’t be bashful. Every little helps in our campaign to find even one reason to trust the Labour Party.

Nana Smith

@Lesley Anne

Very troubling for ordinary folks who want to hear a proper debate. I think labour know they are done for so all they have left is abuse.

How the mighty have fallen or should I say are falling and failing.

heedtracker

Hi Brian Powell, this is the one, end of May, and Murphy’s “Labour scraps nukes” is near the very end. It stuck with me as I grinched on here about what looked like a Labour plant for Murphy to bounce off of, said she was now a YES! which says a lot about my powers of psephology and stupidness.

link to news.stv.tv

Jim Marshall

England footie on shortly. They think it”s not all over. It is now.

gordoz

O/T – Not much of an apology but ….

I think this is what you call a ‘tail between the legs moment’ in someones career as a ‘sharp witted lawyer’ ?

link to t.co

What is the new logo ? – No Thanks / puddin’

Dorothy Devine

OT but have just made the grave error of visiting the DT where Mrs Cochrane has a piece of annoying ordure .

I wish I had kept my promise to myself to never again venture on to the DT or Scotsman sites – they are full of contemptible drivel .

I am beginning to think the Egyptians may have a point – that’s a joke ,maybe in bad taste but a joke nonetheless.

Nana Smith

Warning from Plaid economic spokesman…vote YES

link to heraldscotland.com

Black Douglas

@Lesley Anne

It appears to me that they are trying to shut down the debate through the intimidation of Yes speakers as there are no other apparent positives for the No campaign via this tactic.

gerry parker

@ Gordoz.
Now would it be ok to refuse to accept his apology I wonder?

HandandShrimp

The political orthodoxy is that the parties of the left and the right can calibrate towards each other on policy to steal each other’s clothes on the basis that although their party faithful may be uncomfortable they will not make the jump all the way to the other party.

In Scotland this strategy was somewhat unwheeled when the SNP presented as a party similar to Old Labour and Labour in Scotland were unable to lose the New Labour clothes. The Tories have this difficulty with UKIP in England.

The benefit cuts thing is once again Labour appealing to the centre right voter in middle England. I can’t imagine the people above are happy with the direction of Labour on benefits but party loyalty will see at least 75% excusing and justifying a further lurch to the right.

Lesley-Anne

Nana Smith says:

@Lesley Anne

Very troubling for ordinary folks who want to hear a proper debate. I think labour know they are done for so all they have left is abuse.

How the mighty have fallen or should I say are falling and failing.

Only trouble is Nana NONE of the MUPPETS at the Gretna abuse night a.k.a. hustings have never been mighty in any shape or form. The two *ahem* “greats” from the NO side last night were Elaine Murray and David Mundell with an abusive supporting act from Cllr Archie Dryburgh.

Illy

“Lets not criticise the Labour party leaders in Scotland and Westminster to hard, we want to keep them there, they are doing a great job for the independence side.”

That’s the logic that New Labour use to justify keep Glasgow one of the poorest places to live in the world: They need people poor and desperate, because when people stop being poor and desperate, they stop voting for New Labour.

I’d rather competent and responsive politicians, even if that means that Scottish Independence has a harder fight, because if we had competant and responsive politicians, Scotland probably wouldn’t need to be indepentent to get itself sorted out. (And we might actually be able to trust them to do what they said they’d do)

gordoz

@gerry parker

Aye now that is a point !

Now Im only an ordinary member of the public but … I said Im only an odrinary member of the public – everybody go that.

(Is the record reporter in the house ? Couldn’t resist)

Peter

You can trust labour as far as you can trust the referees at the World Cup to be fair and impartial arbiters of the laws of Association Football.

On which topic the Fred goal should have been ruled out as he was in an offside position when the ball was played forward and scored from the subsequent cross. Under the old rule it was offside when the ball went forward and under the new rule it was offside as he interfered with play by scoring the goal. Fabulous bit of misdirection by FIFA with their line in the wrong place “gaffe”.

No no no...Yes

I initially misread the headline as “truss” the Labour Party, which was probably right enough, that’s what you do with a turkey. This one is currently getting plucked and basted, and will be roasted on 18 September!

Lesley-Anne

Black Douglas says:

@Lesley Anne

It appears to me that they are trying to shut down the debate through the intimidation of Yes speakers as there are no other apparent positives for the No campaign via this tactic.

They can try to shut down debate B.D. but they will FAIL! Intimidation from the wicked witch, Mundell the Blundell or Dryburgh the thug or any other Labourite wannabe thug will NEVER shut us up. WE are on the side of righteousness THEY are on the side of EVIL!

P.S. my partner LOVES your moniker, she’s a descendent of the original Black Douglas. 😛

manandboy

If the Labour Party move any further to the right,

They may well find themselves with a new ‘known-as’ name.

Slave Labour.

Nana Smith

@Lesley Anne

I meant the labour party in general. I wouldn’t like to find myself in the midst of a rabble like that.

Lesley-Anne

I’ve just seen this over on my partner’s Facebook page, I think it’s rather apt considering we are all discussing Labour here.

In 1979, Johann Lamont claimed Scotland would lose 30,000 shipbuilding jobs if they voted yes for a Scottish assembly. 35 years on and Johann Lamont is telling us we’ll lose 3,000 shipbuilding jobs if we vote Yes to independence.
What happened to the 27,000 jobs, Johann?

I wonder if she’ll ever find the guts to answer that question. On second thoughts forget that idea she doesn’t do answers or apologies or anything intellectual these days! 😛

John Dickson (@NkosiEcosse)

The only thing you can safely say labour will do, is everything they say they will not do. Lie, cheat, and denigrating politics.

No no no...Yes

O/T The First Minister has written a belter of a letter to David Cameron:

link to snp.org

Will STV or BBC have this as headline news tonight?

manandboy

ON THE QUESTION OF TRUST: POSTAL VOTING

link to bbc.co.uk

link to google.co.uk

As we see and hear more and more ‘dirty’ politics,

and particularly from Labour,

who introduced postal voting

and who have developed a reputation

for rigging results through postal votes,

readers may wish to alert themselves to

some of the issues involved

and which are detailed in the above links.

With 800,000 spare ballot papers to be printed

over 32 Councils – 25,000 per Council –

the paperwork has been prepared already.

Is it beyond our elected representatives

to ensure that the Referendum result

is capable of universal acceptance.

With the world’s media in close attendance,

any suspicion of ballot paper interference

would do Scotland’s reputation no good whatsoever.

But it would damage the reputation

of the BT parties, acting as one,

even more.

Lesley-Anne

Just in case folks haven’t seen it yet, apparently our favourite maker of lists, Mike Daily, has bben asked to resign from his post on the board of the Scottish Housing Regulator.

link to tinyurl.com

Findlay Farquaharson

i used to respect richard simpson msp of scottish labour. even an educated former decent man like him has fell into line with the lies and sneers and smears that scottish labour now use as a strategy. i cant stomach the man now.

Andy-B

O/T.

Only a third of Scots, believe Westminster, will deliver more powers after a no vote in the independence referendum.

link to newsnetscotland.com

Andy-B

O/T.

Apologises if this has been covered, “Better Nation having a go at you and Wings. It would seem,your popularity is sky high at the moment.

link to betternation.org

mogabee

Who actually reads better nation anymore?

As for that article, it’s easy to quote someone out of context and do the dirty it seems!

Robert Peffers

@Andy-B says:“Better Nation having a go at you and Wings. It would seem,your popularity is sky high at the moment.

“Betternation”?
Who he?

CUTOMMY

Open Letter to Renfrewshire Labour Councillors
Dear Labour Councillor,
I would appeal to you to consider carefully before supporting the proposal to prohibit display of “electoral or other related campaign publicity” on council property, including “lighting columns, traffic sign poles or street furniture”.
The growth of the Labour and cooperative movements in the 19th and 20th centuries was due, in no small part, to the generations of Labour activists, including yourself, who brought the message of workers solidarity into the public domain by displaying “electoral or other related campaign publicity” on council property, including “lighting columns, traffic sign poles or street furniture”.
If you and your colleagues approve this motion to deny the right of citizens to campaign in this manner, it will be a betrayal of the thousands of activists who have gone before you, including the giants of the movement such as Keir Hardie, Aneurin Bevan, Clement Atlee and Donald Dewar etc, all of whom spent many hours bringing the message of worker’s rights onto the streets, despite opposition from the Tory press and governments of their day.
The denial of workers’ rights is normally associated with the Tory party, it will be a sad day for the movement if Renfrewshire councillors now conspire with the Tories to deny us this basic civil right.
Tom Kelly MBE
Renfrewshire Resident

R. Duncan

What a disgusting party Labour have become.

My hope is the younger voters don’t fall for the drivel like their parent do. I have confidence in them. The older ones are stubborn to the point of stupidity . No amount of evidence matters. (shakes head)

donald anderson

I just don’t understand why they have such a following among the very people they betray day in and day out. After watching their numptiness and hatred on TV I still don’t get it.Then I don’t know why so many fall for Westminster promises and rip offs neither. They can’t all be on dope or victims of sectarian brainwashing.

sausage fingered luddite

Oh dear rev. Linking people to the parliamentary labour party. We’ve been here before. Bad, nasty wings. Monstering, cybernat etc…

Chic McGregor

@No no no … Yes

“Trident comment by JMarra

Did the YES person counter this statement?”

Blair Jenkins did sort of, by saying that there is zero chance of an independent Scottish government agreeing to keep Trident.

She had asserted that Trident would be kept following negotiations.

Andrew

Hi folks,

I’m not trying to hijack this thread so apologies in advance if anyone is offended. But – any chance some of you kind people could repost this link on your Facebook or Twitter accounts to try and raise a wee bit of cash for the Yes Stirling campaign office?

link to igg.me

We’re still a wee bit short and your extraordinary generosity will make a difference as it has in the past for so many other similar worthy causes on this site.

Badger

My mother had a rather peculiar old saying
” You are better off being a thief than a liar. If you are a thief, then people know you as a thief. If you are a liar, people NEVER believe you. No matter what you say. Labour, you have told us too many lies.


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