So it’s a final farewell to the poll tax. Well, I say “farewell”, when “consigned to the bin where it always belonged” is more appropriate. The Scottish Government has announced that local authorities can no longer chase up people for outstanding poll tax debts, debts which date back 25 years. It’s a wee ha ha get it up yese from a departing Alicsammin to the British Labour cooncillors who were rumoured to have been heard licking their lips as they relished the prospect of punishing the poor who had turned against them.
Labour cooncils are beelin, because they had decided to use the increased voter registration in order to penalise people who registered in order to vote in the referendum, despite the fact that everyone, their granny, their granny’s dug, and even their granny’s dug’s British Labour cooncillor, agrees that the poll tax was malign, unwanted, and unjust. It’s better for the party when people don’t bother to vote. British Labour understands this as contented aquiescence and not alienated despair. But now large numbers of people are once again engaging with politics, and this threatens to reveal just how hollow the party’s apparent dominance in Scottish Westminster seats really is.
Making the lives of the poorest even harder in order to punish them. It’s the typical small minded vindictiveness that we’ve come to know and love from the British Labour party as they complete their transition to a fully fledged right wing party, proponents of the belief that there can be no representation without taxation. They’ve become the party of net curtain twitchers, tutters, tskers, and the very worst small minded Presbyterian self-righteousness straight from the Victorian kailyaird. The British Labour party in Scotland has turned into the Sunday Post. It’s even got Daphne.
But that’s unfair. The Sunday Post had the graphic talents of that genius of ink, Dudley D Watkins. British Labour scrawls on the backs of fag packets. In lipstick, it appeals to women voters. Dudley D drew fantastic imagescapes of the Scottish imagination. Labour draws the blank look of Johann and the bankbook of Blair.
David O’Neill, president of Cosla, was raging about the poll tax soor grapes ban. There are fewer things more amusing to watch than a pursed lip in search of a pout. David ranted that it was “the oddest decision ever to come out of the Scottish government”. Odder than Jock McConnell’s decision to wear that kilt, odder than Jock’s decision to allow Westminster to keep its paws on £1.5 billion because he couldn’t think what to spend it on, odder even than North Ayrshire cooncil’s decision to sign contracts to spend almost £430 million in PPP payments for new schools that cost £88 million to build. David O’Neill, leader of North Ayrshire cooncil, has a peculiar definition of oddness, but then he’s a British Labour timeserver.
David moaned that no one had consulted him about it before the decision was announced. Because it’s only right and proper in the odd world of British Labour that when you want to slap down uppity wee gits who are on a bigger power trip than a car park attendant during a bus strike, you tell them about it beforehand in order to allow them to get their excuses in first so they can appear pre-pouted in the TV studio.
Naturally, this doesn’t hold if the car park attendant uses his or her awesome power to ban Audis, which is merely an act of social and moral responsibility. This is because Audi is German for “I have a very small penis and a need to over-compensate.”
The news about Labour’s shock and dismay at being refused the right to chase after ancient debts with the zeal of a witchfinder general came on the same day that pay day loan company Wonga announced that it was writing off £220 million in outstanding debts owed by thousands of clients who never had any realistic chance of repaying, and who never should have been given loans in the first place. Wonga has promised to change its business model and check clients’ ability to pay before authorising a loan, and has issued an apology for the distress its lending behaviour has caused. British Labour in Scotland has less of a social conscience than a pay day loan company. That’s jaw dropping, but admittedly only in a universe without Johann Lamont or Jim Murphy in it.
Our universe is far odder than that. We live in a universe where the puppets in the Wonga advert can lecture Labour from the moral high ground. And these are the people who claim to be the political heirs of Mary Barbour and the Glasgow rent strikes. Labour no longer believes in peacefully challenging authority in order to defeat an injustice. They believe they are the authority, and for a very long time they went unchallenged. That’s changed now.
Over the course of the past few years, I’ve come to the distressing realisation that I loathe the British Labour party in Scotland even more than I despise the Tories, and it’s not because I’ve got any more right wing. It used to be common knowledge, by which is usually meant something that everyone believes because no one has ever bothered to contradict it, that people get more conservative as they get older. Apparently it’s something that occurs naturally to humans once they discover that they have a use for a nasal hair trimmer. However, this hasn’t happened to hundreds of thousands of people in Scotland, many of whom do have suspiciously hairy nostrils now that I come to think of it.
The Labour party hasn’t aged at all well. The British Labour party has suffered an explosive outburst of nasal hair which has propelled it rightwards more quickly than a missile over Baghdad. It’s the self-serving sneeze from those whose nasal hair is rooted in a nose in the trough.
During the referendum campaign independence supporters were lectured by certain supporters of the Union for our supposed fixation on the “narcissism of small differences”. Insisting that Scotland is a different political space to the rest of the UK is an example of such narcissism, they told us. But there is no greater example of the narcissism of small differences than is to be found in the British Labour party and its attempts to portray itself as something different from the Conservatives. The party has wholeheartedly adopted privatisations, PPP schemes, foreign wars, benefits caps, and austerity cuts. And now we have discovered that a pay day loan company has more of a conscience about the effects of aggressive debt pursuit on the poorest in society. I wonder what Mary Barbour would have said.
Wee Ginger Dug 
Wonderful. This writing keeps me going. Reading these critiques gives me the will to live in a political culture that is a morass of lies, deceit and doublespeak.
Reblogged this on pictishbeastie.
[…] Labour, wonga puppets, and the moral high ground. […]
Once again, Paul, right on the money.
“a wee ha ha get it up yese from a departing Alicsammin to the British Labour cooncillors” .
I think there’s going to be a lot of get it up yese, heading Labours way in the upcoming elections.
Reblogged this on From Here To There.
Nailed it Paul.
There is no difference between any of the parties who consider WM their natural haunt. You couldn’t put a fag paper between any of them and as if to underline the point our referendum showed just how well all three got on together when they were crapping on Scotland’s chances of being a successful independent country. All three of them and Labour leading from the front poured scorn on the very idea of Scotland having its own cultural and political identity. Plain fact – there is no Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat parties, there is only the Westminster party, the establishment. Lip service to rosettes and a meeja bandwagon every five years does not a thriving democracy make.
Apparently the Tories are expecting a resurgence of support from Unionists in Scotland, following wee Ruthie’s (apparently “brilliant”) referendum performance.
This would be from Labour party No voters, I guess. A tragic political scenario has unfolded in our country already, to be compounded at next year’s Westminster elections, when the Labour party’s Scottish electorate would rather vote Tory, than re-elect their own sad bunch of snouters.
I guess, as you say, they are interchangeable, so it won’t really matter when we are “represented”-not, by Tory MPs again.
Now that’s a Doom as should scare the fellowship of the greasy pole; come the psychostasis, to be found heavier than Wonga.
Please let it happen in real life on Friday 8th May
I am not able to move off my seat for the power of your article.
Well said Paul. Their moral degeneracy continues apace. I look forward to Salmond being released from the shackles of office. I hope he calls you for a speech or two! There will be a reckoning for Labour and it will be both painful and joyful to see. Was Labour for years, canvassing etc. Jings helpmaboab! Maybe PC Murdoch can lift the lot of them.
Great thought transposed to paper as usual!
A quick thanks for all your efforts to date. The trauma of the No result will have hit you harder than most, I hope you are back smiling and aware how much you are loved and valued by so many of us who are less articulate!
Iain
Actually it was the opposite. I had no naw-trauma. My partner’s death just a short while before the vote put it all into perspective. Naebdie’s deid, we came out of the referendum campaign stronger than we went into it, so let’s all just pick ourselves up and get on with the business of kicking British Labour in the balls, building a new Scottish media, transforming Scotland into a country fit for the 21st century, achieving social justice, and redecorating my new living room because I really CANNOT live with that wallpaper.
Gaun urself big man, sincere condolences, glad ur still on it, the movement needs ur writing, im no sycophant but that article is the berries n just what the doctor ordered for a weary rationalist. Onwards n upwards muthafuckers!
Isn’t that just the way of it…. tear stips off that wallpaper WGD!!
Wonderful piece
During the next GE campaign, if I hear a canvasser shouting ‘vote Labour to keep the Tories out’, I’ll try to refrain from sticking his megaphone up his arse.
Somehow Juteman I think that just might be a tad difficult for me. I am well placed at a mere four feet ten inches to reach that place.
Nach sinne tha fortanach gu bheil thu ann a Phòl. Sàr sgrìobhadh.
Thanks for that. Translation would be helpful for us non Gaels. Ta.
Well to be fair, it was a message left for me, and I understand Gaelic. It means “we’re very lucky you’re there Paul, excellent article”.
Gu dearbh. Nach math gu bheil e ann.
When I saw the COSLA fuckwit last night sitting,looking as if he’d rammed a pickle up his arse I laughed.When I heard him whine that A.S.should have told him first. I thought,who the fuck are you that thinks you’re more important than our parliament?When I found out who he is ,i.e. North Ayrshire boss that explained all.We will rid ourselves of these puffed up little dictators at the next elections.
On the subject of puffed up little arses, I see Cara Hilton is complaining that the SNP did not stop her shutting schools.
I watched the presiding officer after Alec had delivered his little homily, and I could almost swear she was nearly greetin’. Which party does she belong to?
Sadly she is SNP, Tricia Marwick, needs removing she is useless in the post as far as I can see.
I don’t know where she came from but she needs replaced. Since there has been a big upsurge in the SNP membership there must be a good few more folk to choose from.
She also has a very unfortunate manner looking like a soor ploom.
Also laughed when Alex got on the phone to call Kay(e) where he taught the Aberdeen cooncillor the law on poll tax and showed him up as being totally clueless
Rubbish, she is one of my MSPs and does a brilliant job.
Well maybe she is out of her depth as speaker – she needs to have a stronger grasp of what is acceptable behaviour in a debate and she does come across as disapproving which is unfortunate
I think it is the presiding officer’s job to be a disapproving “soor ploom” to all the parties. She absolutely must not show bias in favour of the largest party. It is not an easy job, and I think she does pretty well.
I couldn’t do it – especially when the Scottish version of the three amigos stand up and ask virtually the same question at FMQs, week after week. There should not be this kind of collusion between the parties not in power in a proportional representation assembly. Each party should be asking questions on behalf of their own supporters. As it is, their behaviour shows that they are united in their hatred of the SNP to the exclusion of all else. The question is why is that?
At a guess?
Because the current Scottish government’s terms in power have shown the others up for the incompetent, self serving careerists that they are. They’ve achieved more in seven short years for the Scottish electorate than the other three have with almost uninterrupted political control of Scotland for the past century. They’ve been quite publicly outclassed and shamed for the empty ideology free zones they’ve become. All parties begin as movements with an ideology and a goal, the SNP are a constant reminder of what the others quite deliberately lost or dumped in their race to become a cosy establishment hegemony, in it only for themselves.
The longer the SNP remain prominent, the more the track record of economic and social carnage of the rest, and especially Labour, becomes apparent.
I wish I could agree with you, I know members of her family and like them but I still think she lacks strength. p.s. I am a member of the SNP.
I’m getting on a bit now and wake up every morning wondering if this is the day when everything the Tories say starts to seem like eminent good sense. So far I’ve been disappointed. I’m wondering if a switch gets thrown on the day you retire, along with getting access to the special old people’s clothes shops (floral frocks and bunnets a speciality). Be a while yet if it is.
And my ageing brain seems to recall that Labour were very vocal against the Poll Tax back in the 80s. Oh, how times change!
No so against it apparently because when Alex Salmond MP was expelled from Parliament with regard to his stance on the Poll tax only 19 Labour members supported him. https://twitter.com/AddictedToTweed/status/517751342463741952
I;m the same, wondering when this starts – is it like the Mason’s?
Maybe when you hit a certain age you get taken aside and minutes later emerge complete with your wee beige bomber jacket, tan slacks and brain dead attitude?
It’s the only explanation I can think of 😉
Not sure of we get more conservative – just more entrenched… Happy to be a leftie ‘separatist’ 🙂
Thanks Paul, your satire has now surpassed Juvenal’s. Please let us know when a new crowd fund is required to keep your wonderful wee dug on the go.
“The British Labour party in Scotland has turned into the Sunday Post. It’s even got Daphne.”
Hahaha! Absolutely brilliant, Paul! Come to think of it, Murphy is a bit like Hen, is he not?
When are you going to write a book? I, for one, would love your take on the referendum-I would then pass it on to my yes mates for their edification.
I am so glad I stumbled upon this blog….absolutely brilliant. You have brilliant clarity of thought and are so lucky to be able to express yourself so brilliantly in words..love your humour too 🙂
Oops too many brilliant so..that’s why you have a blog and I don’t !!
brilliant! 🙂
Mary Barbour leaves behind a legacy that has slipped out of the greasy hands of the Labour Party. That legacy lives on. We the Yesers carry that legacy. Thank you Paul for another thought provoking and entertaining blog.
Brilliant, Paul – especially liked the reference to Daphne Broon! But in the interests of accuracy, David Neill is no longer leader of North Ayrshire Council. Since the last council election, NA has a minority SNP administration – though they do still have to cope with the legacy of debt left behind by years of Labour time-servers.
Yet another great article, you are a joy to read Paul and I have posted your articles to friends in Wales, who have thoroughly enjoyed, thank you so much. Much respect.
Speaking of Labour I saw a tweet the other day. I don’t remember the name of the originator but it made me laugh.
“Every time that I see Johann Lamont in action I am reminded that somewhere in Scotland a Scotmid is missing an assistant manager”
Many a true word is spoken in jest!
It originated here in one of Paul’s recent articles 🙂
I first saw that quote here on Wee Ginger Dug, in the 28th Sept article “Being irrelevant”! 🙂
Thanks for the info!
With absolute muppets like Lamont, Darling and the action Crankie as our opponents how did we ever lose out in the referendum. The simple answer is our excuse for a MSM both print and broadcast. It was a perfect example of “The British Establishment” closing ranks. They have no need for communications or leaders they all know the script for whenever they are under threat. They are our real enemy.
As my Dad used to say when in one of his more despondent moods “You’ll never beat the old school tie!”
You can, but you you have to play just as sneaky. In this instance, just let them be themselves over the next two or three years. If we can tough out the shit storm heading our way, they’ll put the final nail in their own political coffin all by themselves. They’ve already made it perfectly clear what they think of Scotland and the Scots. They bought their victory through fear, intimidation and lies. They used corporate gangsters, the civil service and foreign favours to pummel a section of our electorate into submission. Ain’t no way to build a successful relationship. Fear can turn to anger and recrimination in a heartbeat.
Their union, their unity is a sham built on the shifting sand in an hour glass and time is running out for them.
I hope so but don’t underestimate The British Establishment they have been at it a very long time and have had plenty of practice. Their influence while mostly invisible spreads far and wide throughout many aspects of society. There are elites within elites. An example is that those whose family title predates the English Civil War (I know it should be given its proper name of The War of the three kingdoms) they look down upon those whose title is post Cromwell. “They may have come from trade. Bloody riff-raff who let them in!” 😉
Heh, know what you mean entirely. Oh boy do I know, but that’s a story best shared over a cheeky wee dram some day. 😉
But on the bright side, remember for all that practice they’ve still lost their ‘bloody’ empire one piece at a time over the past hundred years. They don’t get their own way all the time. 🙂
Get your tinfoil Tam O` Shanters here. Two for a pound, two for a pound! 🙂
It was a guy called Sean Bell on Twitter. I stole his line – but did credit him for it. I wish I’d thought that one up myself.
I wish this could be printed in the MSM, in fact I wish all your writing could be published in the MSM.
The new media ideas flowing from the likes of Derek/Newsnet and Bella are great starting points and I look forward to seeing them flourish, but it would be good to see a hardcopy outlet come into being too. A newspaper if not dedicated to independence at least dedicated to balance and impartiality. One that would freely allow all voices to be heard. I know for a fact the technical expertise is out there, what’s required is a publisher and editorial team with the same commitment and ethos. You’d think with a willing and hungry market of 1.6 mil somebody would see the opportunity staring them in the face?
That is exactly what I want Macart – balance , honesty ,investigative journalism and allowing the readership to analyse the results.
And Paul to make me laugh , cry and ponder.
Dammit, I’ve got contacts all over the print industry from print management firms to setters and I haven’t heard a peep on the drums. 1.6 million people looking for media representation and not even a whisper. For any publisher that kind of market is a dripping roast and the last thing we need is for people to start drifting back into old habits.
It’s not just a free press we need it’s an honest one.
You weave your words so well.
Another wonderful piece WGD, good to see you in such form and saying what many of us are thinking but saying it so well. AS was magnificent today on the BBC radio which will be why we won’t see it on the BBC of course. They and the COSLA cooncillors hate AS because he has all the morality they gave up to join the Labour party. He realises that it’s a hollow attempt to chase people away from voting and the electoral register. They must be really scared all these new people on the register might just vote them out of office in the near future. it seems they might be scared of democracy and that might be ASs greatest gift to us as a politician, to become a nation that is allowed to exercise democracy in a greater framework where politics is largely all about fear.
Beats me why there hasn’t been a launch of a proper Scottish Labour Party yet. Thon pretendy ‘Scottish’ Labour Party’s there for the taking. And there’s 18 months to do it – plenty of time to consign these jokers to history.
As for the election next year, they’ll get pummelled for their cosiness to the tories and their inability to deliver ‘the vow’.
Who would have believed it could come to pass that a pay day loan company has more compassion than the Labour Party! Sad times for loyal members. Surely this alone will move them.
Thank you, Paul. ( Have they even heard of Mary Barbour? Doubt it.)
I love your commentary, but as a Presbyterian I find it difficult to endorse it in its manner of including Any religion as a diaspora. We are surely passed the point of religions inclusion in politics, I think it may even rest close to laws on religious bigotry.
Hi John – I am sorry Paul’s reference to “small minded Presbyterian self-righteousness” offended you.
Of course it is your right to feel offended. But I believe in life there are things which are offensive and things we choose (or choose not) to be offended by.
As a son of a Presbyterian manse Paul’s comment falls into the latter category for me.
And I can also assure you that in my neck of the woods “small minded Presbyterian self-righteousness” is alive and kicking
I blame myself.
I blame myself for acting like a sheep and voting for a Labour party which stopped representing my views many years ago.
I could justify it by saying “Well if I dont vote Labour we will get the Conservatives which will be worse” but what I realise now is that there is no difference between them.
Defeat in the referendum does not sadden me that much because we were very close to a earth shattering win. Next time we will be better prepared for what the establishment throw at us. Make no mistake.
There will be a next time.
Brilliant Paul, many thanks, I thoroughly enjoyed that!
Loved our FM on Kay( with an E) ‘s phone-in this morning ! He really put Jim Gifford’s gas at a peep !
At the end , he back footed the presenter saying how nice it had been to see her yesterday and she was swallowing her tongue ,forcing herself to say ” and you ” ! Gave me a wee giggle !
He’s a class act and I’m looking forward to when he stands down in November and takes the gloves off .
Aberdeen local councillor interviewed on local radio today talked about ‘being out of pocket’ & ‘councils suffering a financial shortfall’. NO! Because the money was never there to lose, & any benefit from chasing non payers through the courts will result in big bills for little return. Might have to start listening to CDs in the mornings…
This is the best post indyref1 piece I’ve read so far. Less of a social conscience than wonga!!! The perfect motto for British labour.
Highly enjoyable piece. Also appreciated Macart763’s reference to the Westminster party. That is in fact what Tories, Labour and LibDem have become, amalgamated into the Westminster party. Could that be used for the UK general election against claims of voting Labour to keep the Tories out? Vote Westminster party get Tory. Or vote any Westminster party get Tory.
The poll tax era is seared into minds, and I’m really pleased AS and the SG have stepped in here to safeguard democracy. Of course Labour are against it — it’s a decision by the SNP, the usurpers of Labour’s rightful place in government and in control. Labour have forgotten the meaning of the word democracy, either that or the dictionaries they are issued with have its meaning changed.
Brilliant and thank you. Brilliant too that the SG has stepped in re poll tax. Your posts are so grounded and grounded is what we need to be. Please everyone, don’t assume it will be easy to eradicate British Labour from Scotland at the next general election. It is going to be a battle.
Brilliant blogs keep kickn “New(red Tories)Scottish ha ha Lab” makes me happy when I read these blogs.
You’re on fire today WGD! We need your incisive perspective even more post indyref to keep the fire going in our bellies so that we can stay strong for this long game…
You will let us know, won’t you, if you need to crowdsource more funds to keep this blog going or publish it more widely. Thanks again for your inspiration on this dreich day
In 1935 a book called the The strange death of liberal England was written. It argued that long before the great war, the party was being destroyed by four great upheavals. The 1911 parliament act, civil war in Ireland, the suffragettes and last the rise of the trade unions.
The not so strange death of Labour came long before the referendum. It came with the Iraq war. cash for honors, The banking crisis and finally the scorched earth tactics of Better together. But for Scottish labour – its something else all together. What we saw was a party that increasingly became hollowed out of any talent, vision or aspiration to do good. It became a ticket punching machine for those who wanted to Councillors, for councilors who wanted to be MSPs and MSPs who wanted to be MPs and finally MPs who wanted a fetching ermine trim and a royal title.
They are, for the want of a better word: Fucknuts. They are cartoonishly inept. Belligerently imbecilic. Worthless little shits who positively glowed with pleasure when Lamont & her wee pals stood outside Asda, crowing about the retailers threats to Scotland being independent. They are the daft bastards who heckled Miliband as he was trying to make a speech. They are the arseholes who stood for 3 hours solid in HoC, as they put Scotland down for the benefit of the small handful of English Tories who bothered to turn up. They are the bottle merchants who run hame after getting egged,. They are the lying bastards who said that the tories were not privatising the nhs, then begged for our help to stop the Tories privatising the nhs. They are the fair weather friends of Scots, who vote for benefits cuts, while proclaiming to stand square with the victims. They are the creeps who brought in the bedroom tax and took the credit for the ransom the SG has to pay to mitigate its effects. They voted for schools to be closed and point the finger at the SNP. They chase poll tax debts that they had in effect written off years ago, to punish poor folk for daring to vote.
In short, Scottish labour are a bunch of fannies. bawbags, and diddymen.
How in the name of god, did the party of Keir Hardie turn into this dreech shower of shite?
I dislike the tories, I detested thatcher, I thought Major was a useless and spineless cur. But I knew were I stood with them. But Scottish labour? The idea of someone as useless as Lamont being in charge gives me acid reflux. They ape a UK labour that is chasing the tories, who are in turn chasing UKIP. It makes them seem dysfunctional and swivel eyed. It increasingly makes them look insane. They are the inheritors of the Scottish cultural cringe and by god, they wear it well.
Gordon Gecko?
Hi Dave,
Not as eloquent as WGD but, fuck me, you fairly obliterated the head and the nail with your Sledgie of a comment.
Thanks for that.
David I just wanted to say how much your views chime with mine. I detest them all, they all lie but the worst of it is that Labour do the most and there seems to be no end to those who believe anything they say. Unfortunately I despair of people in this country. I watch useless bits of trash like Cara Hilton get into the Scottish Parliament, who voted to close primary Schools when in the Council and who now says it was all the SNP’s fault for not stopping the closures. There will be people who voted YES on the 18th who will go into the polling booth and vote the useless Labour Party back into opposition to keep the Tories out in May next year. Socrates was right when he said there were people who should not be allowed the vote.
wow! can I just stand here, in your reflected glory, I wish I had said that! 🙂
You just did.
Well said, David. A brilliant description of the people who allegedly work for us – morally and intellectually bankrupt. They are an enormous embarrassment, and I so hope they will reap what they have sown in 2015..
Ach, Paul,
“Labour draws the blank look of Johann and the bankbook of Blair.”
followed closely by:
“a pursed lip in search of a pout.”
and so, so much more!
C’mon, admit it, you are the new national poet, oor Rabbie, come back to inspire and save us!
My heartfelt thanks to you, Sir.
Stunning evisceration of a morally bankrupt organisation.
Thanks Paul
A propos your description of Labour pursuing Poll Tax arrears from voters who dared register to vote Yes.
Labour is a cult and, like all cults it reserves the worst vengeance for it’s own heretics.
Husband says they are a gang in the way they have gangs in the States and China.
The First Minister explained yesterday that nae coonsil cood legally collect the Poll Tax debt. There’s a statute of limitations of 20 years. He said that the claim that they would collect the debt was to frighten newly registered voters oot o the political process, to unenfranchise them. It was Labour’s attempt tae punish them for votin AYE. I think that he’s right!
BTW, Paul, I love your writing. You hit the spot and you have a fine turn of phrase.
Posted this to FB & also to the Yes Alliance FB Group page – It’s brilliant Paul.please come and join us in the Yes Alliance.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/Yes.Alliance/
PS some of your responders need to strip out the ‘carriage returns’ on their posts!
I agree 100%. Vote YES to banish ‘carrriage returns’ from Scotland forever.
Another fantastic piece of writing .Hope all is going well with the flitting and decorating..I also love the trio of parties being the Westminster party because that is exactly what they are. I look forward to your book being published and hope that you will consider doing a tour of book signing and some readings from the book , there are many people who would love to meet you and would willingly hold meetings to hear you read or have the audience read their favourite yap ! I’m sure accommodating you and the dug wouldn’t be a problem on the tour .
What an excellent idea! Paul would certainly help to keep “their feet to the fire”.
In effect what we have now in Scotland is SCaLP – the Scottish Conservative and Labour Party. It has been bobbing about in the aether since ‘new’Labour ‘won’ in 1997, but the referendum campaign has shown it to be actually existing. With Labour MPs preferring to have Ruth Davidson on their panels than Johan Lamont (come to think of it, I probably would, too!) and with Labour MPs embracing Tories when NO won, there can be no doubt that this grouping now actually exists. By a grim irony the acronym actually describes what SCaLP’s raison d’etre is.
Another great article, Paul and it showed what a conniving and petty-minded bunch of ratbags Labour has become. Keir Hardie would be turning in his grave.
David Agnew’s description of the Labour party in Scotland made me laugh as it was so apt.
I had bought a bottle of champagne to celebrate our achieving Scottish independence after the referendum but I’m keeping it to celebrate the demise of the Red Tories in Scotland after the next election.
What an absolute shower of chancers!
Only have one problem with WGD, insulting Daphne comparing sourpuss to her.Everything else was pure dead brilliant.Wish a news paper had the cuts to print WGDs musings.
meant guts not cuts lol
Talking about Wonga puppets – Which one is based upon Johann? Is it the one that tries out skate boards and things like that?
No the worst article you’ve ever written.
Greg Moodie’s Gordosaur is no bad too.
We are legion. And we have flowed around the referendum result bought by threats and lies.
Looking forward to May. Oh Yes
I think I may cry, thats the nicest (Scottish) compliment I have ever seen,
no bad, aye, no bad,
sniff.
The Unionist Alliance
Less conscience than a payday loan.
The concept would make a great poster but Wonga would surely object to their brand being used in that fashion. Although factually true, which would be a good defence against defamement they are huge contibutors, or their owners are, to the Tories.
err defamation, defamement is French I think.
difamation is the word in French and the offence is called in French diffamation
What an eclectic site – with free French lessons now as well as Gaelic and Spanish.
My mind is truly expanding, although to be fair I already had a wee bit of Gaelic and French and I can count in Suomi 🙂
So true. All of it – and the comments.
I bet many Labour supporters are unaware, as I was till last week, that Jimmy Reid joined the SNP in 2005. Jimmy Reid is a true Scottish hero unlike the entire roster of Labour losers.
“To me, New Labour has abandoned and betrayed all the principles that were fundamental to the Labour movement in Scotland”, Jimmy Reid declared.
“I have waited a long time to see forces emerging within the New Labour party that would bring the party back to its roots. But I have been waiting in vain and with every year that passes, Tony Blair and New Labour move further to the right. They are now indistinguishable from the Thatcherite Tories.
“To me the obvious alternative is available to us here in Scotland. The SNP is a social democratic party – that means it adheres to the values that the Labour movement was based on. I want to help it in this election and in future elections so that we can reverse the damage done by New Labour.”
http://www.snp.org/media-centre/news/2005/apr/jimmy-reid-joins-snp
Reblogged this on Are We Really Better Together? and commented:
British Labour in Scotland has less of a social conscience than a pay day loan company.
We live in a universe where the puppets in the Wonga advert can lecture Labour from the moral high ground.
British Labour Party
Every interview by YES coalition should just repeat that over an over.Hope Nicola Sturgeon repeats FMQs