a guest post by Samuel Miller
Well that was quite a weekend. It had all the elements of the classic theatre. There was high drama, big headlines, betrayal, infighting, division, angst and spookily it had bugger all to do with Labour. There may also have been tears, but that would be hard to verify without satellite evidence. Aye, the story of the weekend, stealing the Labour conference’s thunder, was the resignation of one Iain Duncan Smith, now EX senior cabinet member and EX heid bummer of the DWP.
Link to the full resignation letter here: Letter
Did he jump? Was he pushed? Is it conscience, or was there a hint of internal strife over the upcoming EU referendum? The broadcast and print media are in hog heaven and have gone into IDS overdrive over the past couple of days. Now conjecture is peachy, but what is absolutely certain is that the Westminster government and more particularly George Osborne and the government’s budget are now in the centre of a very public, very LOUD, and very embarrassing stramash. The whole episode certainly hasn’t done George’s future career prospects much good and could throw the race for Cameron’s future replacement as Conservative leader wide open.
As for the Labour conference? Other than SNP bad, which goes without saying frankly, this from the Scottish Labour leader’s keynote speech:
“We will stand for the most powerful Scottish Parliament with the most powerful, radical Labour manifesto ever.”
I’ll leave it for readers to decide for themselves whether the current Scottish parliament is the most powerful, or the Labour manifesto the most radical that’s ever been.
Links:
Wee Ginger Dug 
Reblogged this on pictishbeastie.
[…] Spinning an exit […]
Whose exit? Can Kezia survive? Can Cameron and Osborne survive? Cameron has stated that he will mot seek a third term as leader. Can the leader of the Scottish Tories survive? The Tories have been arguing and counter arguing all weekend. We look forward to Ruth Davidson, and indeed, the Scottish Secretary commenting on latest developments to their faithful here. So far, silence. No doubt waiting to be told what to say. Watch this space: Something like: “Pooling and sharing makes us all better together.” Or “………” No doubt, readers will have their own speech bubbles.
Frankly, John, I don’t give a damn. I know very well that the shenanigans at Westminster will probably have a knock-on effect for the Scottish people, since we are still in their grasp, but watching the tory party, and present U.K Government, tearing itself into pieces over Europe, and that’s what I.D.Ss resignation was all about in my opinion, is, I believe, a further step forward in our quest for independence.
It’s been said before, but is still true and that is a divided political party can’t govern effectively, nor win elections. You only have to look back to the Major Government of 1992/1997 to realise the defeat that awaits them in 2020, if they last that long.
And that brings me to another point. Whatever the result of the E.U referendum, the Conservatives are split asunder, so what happens then? Do they stagger on for another four year, effectively being a lame-duck administration? Will they split, re the S.D.P? And if it’s a “leave” vote in England, and Scotland votes to stay, is that the trigger for another Scottish referendum?
I am well aware these questions have been posed before, and we are only in this situation, firstly because we voted No, and secondly because of a Conservative Party scared not only of it’s Eurosceptic wing, but of the threat of U.K.I.P.
As for the Scottish branch offices of the unionist parties, they are nonentities trying, and failing, to relive past glories, none more so than the Labour Party, whose U.K leader body-swerved their “party conference”, and a shadow chancellor, who, despite being in Scotland, couldn’t be bothered to attend. At long last they are getting their comeuppance for the many years they spent putting their party dogma first before the good of the Scottish people they were elected to represent. So hell mend them, and while we’ll still be lumbered with some of them come the 6th, May, lets make sure it’s as few as possible.
Thanks for the links, Macart. We were truly bought and sold of English gold.
And all to keep the Hanovarian dynasty intact. A bunch of Lords and Merchants carving up Scotland. No change there,then?
Like many I do not give a tuppenny toss about the sorry plight of the Westminster Unionist Parties.
It is a sideshow, air filling tittle tattle for the SAGs Marr’s and Neil’s pointless little Westminster Bubble shows. It has absolutely no relevance to me, and indeed the people of Scotland. You see, we didn’t vote for any of them. We chucked them out on their ears.
(But what about the 2,000,000 who voted to continue to let 590 ‘foreign’ MP’s to decide everything for us, demand the pet Unionist cyberBritnats on the forums of our Free (ahem) Press?)
No more Mr Nice Guy, this May.
Ruth Davidson will be held to account.
It is she, and Jackson, and Fraser, and Prof Tomkins who are accountable for the ideologically driven destruction of our social democratic society Up Here.
No ifs, no buts. Vote for Ruth and she’ll privatise the NHS, reduce public spending to 36% of GDP, closing libraries, schools, privatising Health Centres, sacking public service personnel, charging for everything from Doctors’ appointments, to emptying our bins.
It is the Tory way. ‘There is no such thing as society’.
We are the elite, and if you can’t pay for it, whether it be education, health, care in your old age, or travel on public transport, you will have to do without.
New Labour ain’t much better.
I recommend New Labour’s Ed Balls’ speech at Party Conference Autumn 2014..spending cuts, difficult decisions, cuts to ‘non protected’ government departments, cuts in Child Tax Credits..it was all there…New Labour Neo Conservative attempts to woo Middle C;lass England guff.
As for the Lib Dems? Who they?
I demand to see their May Manifestos.
But given JaBa the Buts’ stuttering performance on Brewer’s wee Labour show on Sunday, I won’t hold my breath.
She is truly the Last of the Dumber Whine.
How about it, Unionists?
Tuition Fees? Council Tax rises? Bridge tolls. Means tested prescriptions, means tested care for the elderly, scrap bus passes?
1p tax and spend..on what?
APD is paying for so many things after all…
Let’s hear it for the Better Together Mob.
Manifestos Jack? All together now, “S.N.P Baad”.
Alex, to think that they’ll pay a consultancy firm megabucks to come up with what you tersely describe as ‘SNP Bad’.
Scotland the Word will speak in May.
Jack, you’re not giving either the Blue Tories or the Red Tories a fair go. They need to cut back on services to the people as they need all their money for far more important things, like supporting their Empire and the Raj mentality, and doing what their American masters in NATO (the North American Terrorist Organization) tell them to do.
They spent over £36 billion in Iraq to help the Americans kill around one million people; they spent around £26 billion in Afghanistan murdering countless thousands of people so that the Americans could build a pipeline across the country; the spent £6 billion bombing Libya and murdering thousands more people. In addition, they have been spending millions more in sending aid to the neo-Nazis in the Ukraine, sending arms and money to terrorist groups in Syria, and then joining the Americans in bombing in Syria. Now, of course, they are sending money to the genocidal Turkish government to allow them to continue their support of the homicidal maniacs in ISIL as well as proceeding with their genocide of the Armenian and Kurdish people.
They also need billions more to pay for their Trident mass murder weapons, and for high speed rails across England and the rebuilding of English parliament (though most of this, as in the case of other major projects in England, will come from oil and other money stolen from Scotland).
To maintain their position as war criminals, at the top table with the American government war criminals, it is unfair to expect them to want to waste money on stupid things like assistance to the elderly, the disabled and the poor. They also have to ensure that their bankster and corporate chums are not overburdened with paying their fair share of taxation, and to afford their sweetheart deals with Vodaphone and their ilk.
The choice for the people of Scotland is very simple. Either accept their forthcoming third world status, or regain our independence.
Guga @5.44.
Couldn’t agree more.
I find it strange that most of the leading New Labour Politicians include a wee stint at Harvard University, or some other Neo Liberal American seat of learning or Think Tank, in their CV’s.
Seems par for the indoctrination course. Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling never seem to be away from the place.
I see David Cameron has U turned on the PIP cuts, and announced that there are no further ‘planned’ cuts during this Parliament.
That weasel word, ‘planned’, again. He had no plans to cut Tax Credits in the lead up to the UKGE either.
So when a future Chancellor cuts benefits to the poor, the disabled, or the elderly frail, they can quite rightly protest that circumstances had changed from today’s climb down, that future cuts had not been foreseen and therefore not ‘planned’.
A sleazy grubby little London Establishment at its most slippery.
The thing that Ruth, Willie, and Kezia don’t get, is that May’s Holyrood election is not just about devolved issues, like Health, Education, Law and Order, and so on.
What the English Establishment gets up to Down There, has a direct impact on every aspect of our lives Up Here.
The Unionist leaders and CyberBritNats attempt to limit the debate to devolved issues, unsuccessfully in my view.
You may recall JoLa’s slip of the tongue when Trident renewal was aired during FMQ at Holyrood.
She actually said dismissively that Defence, Nuclear weapons, Foreign Policy, British Imperialism were the ‘wee things’, and that Holyrood did not have the remit to debate them.
Dugdale’s speech at the week end beggared belief.
IDS resigns over PIP cuts, and not a mention from the Socialist, and Lord (or is it now ‘Mister@) McConnell. It was ‘Ihate Nicola Sturgeon, and SNP Bad’.The playground antics of a child.
I believe that it was Mhairi Black who christened Labour and Lib Dem 1p tax the ‘Union Tax’.
New Labour and the Libs are still Better Together.
They are campaigning to add even more Lib/Lab austerity to the criminal cuts imposed by Ruth Davidson’s Party Down There.
After all Davidson is standing on a Unionist ticket, a signed up Brit who is all in favour of bombing the Middle East, charging Tuition Fees and privatising the NHS; while giving tax breaks to the rich, and of course, illegally renewing WMD.
These are the issues that Scots Residents will be voting on; not the pawky little Smith Commission/ Scotland Act that trundles along the seabed of Westminster politics.
Kezia is New Labour, doubtless a fan of Hilary Benn who was applauded by the Tory Imperialist Warmongers as he(and most of the New Labour jobsworths lolling behind him) rallied the Empire to bomb Syria.
I see Chilcott is delayed yet again, and the Metropolitan Police have shut down their investigation into paedophilia at Westminster.
WE are subservient to an elite in Bush’s /Blair’s New World Order. Our votes count for nothing. Money and power talks. The Masters of War Rule. Or so they think.
We need to get out of this corrupt little Union very soon now.
I’m staying quiet here as the comments are both full and accurate and have no need for me to add anything, if indeed I could.
Brilliant again Sam and with more passionate and interesting comments from the likes of John, Alex, Jack and Guga.
During all this “finger-pointing” and stamping of non authority over tv screens, I have this one recurring thought…
Does it push us closer to Independence? Other than that.#ShrugShoulders 🙂
Personally, I’m looking forward to the show that’ll happen when Scotland holds England in the EU against it’s will.
That’ll be a news show worth watching on the BBC 🙂
Because, lets face it, there’s only three outcomes for that referendum:
Scotland votes in, England votes in. BBC gets to claim that Scotland isn’t that different from England.
Scotland votes in, England votes out, UK overall votes out. Bring on indyref round two.
Scotland votes in, England votes out, UK overall votes in. Cue the comedy of England complaining about Scotland controlling what it does. “You asked us to stay, mates :-D”
I’m almost hoping for the 3rd option there, just for pure karmic comedy value.
Naw – jist gie us independence.
Great, will check out the links later today.
One rather daft thought occurred to me at the weekend, why on earth are the english not demanding a re-election given Osbourne’s incompetence? The tories said way back that they would fix the deficit, but are taking us further into a massive hole, and england, particularly the North, as usual is a mess. The unionist parties are not just chipping away at the actual fabric of society, they are taking a wrecking ball to it.
My brother came up from Gateshead at the weekend, it sounds bad down there. Fire stations, police stations, even the job centres are being closed down, nevermind the libararies, galleries and swimming pools which have already gone. Apparently they are even sacking rubbish collectors, there is rubbish lying in the streets.
Bro and his pal took a look at the new Forth road bridge and are very impressed with how things are progressing, they did though think it would be a couple of years before it’s open, I wonder who told them that!
They can see for themselves, the difference in how things are being done in Scotland, ie properly!
SNP x2 in May.
On time and under budget last I heard. Opens later this year.
http://www.transport.gov.scot/project/forth-replacement-crossing
Another admirable piece of government by our SNP. Well done.
Bloody SNP; can’t they do *anything* wrong?
Something I don’t seem many people bringing up: but there’s no reason that when Scotland goes independent, that the border has to stay in the same place as it is currently.
I don’t think anyone outside of London/Little-England would mind an Independent Scotland taking the north of England with it.
And I could easily see the residents of those neglected areas being happy with the border being moved.
England *really* needs an “anti-thatcher” party though. Would do the country a whole heap of good.
There are some in the very North of England who would not mind a bit being part of Scotland. I found this out whilst doing the St Cuthbert’s way walk last May with my son. We spoke to lots of people in the villages after we crossed the border, walking from Melrose Abbey. It was a surprise to see Saltires on some land rovers and cars in the villages near the border. There were even SNP stickers and folk we stayed with in B & B’s were interested in what was happening in our wee country. Some volunteered that they would wish to be part of Scotland and were very impressed with the SNP and their human approach. we found that very interesting and illuminating. There is certainly much sympathy for our ideas.
Slightly off topic. Today at my health club, after a swim and a heat, I was talking to another member who had voted NO at the referendum. He is now decidedly a YES voter. I asked him why and he said that he had been so impressed by Nicola Sturgeon and the way the Scottish Government was walking the walk, unlike the Unionist partys, some of whom can’t even talk the talk, never mind walk the walk.
Now that is interesting! The Sturgeon Effect. Who knows how that may make the difference from now on.
I met Nicola last night after attending the Aye RIght talk on the books that have most influenced her. She was interviewed by one Clare English and she came across as extremely capable, warm, human and intelligent. She got thundering applause and a standing ovation from the audience. I watched her afterwards getting photos taken with audience members and she treated everyone with a refreshing respect and warmth. This was reciprocated by those audience members. I waited my turn and then I had the pleasure of having my photo taken with her and I have to say she is much more photogenic than me. After meeting her and hearing her talk with authority on literature and on her love of books, as well as handling questions on books that were not in her list of those which influenced her most, I realised very clearly, that with this lady as First Minister, Scotland is in a very safe pair of hands. We are very lucky to have her and her team at the helm.
Saor Alba.
And after May, could be a clear Union – Indy split. Tories and Labour competing for third place.
“The most powerful and radical Labour manifesto ever”
I beg to differ because here is what Keir Hardie and Co proposed in their 1900 manifesto:
Adequate Maintenance from National Funds for the Aged Poor
Public Provision of Better Houses for the People
Useful Work for the Unemployed
Adequate Maintenance for Children
No Compulsory Vaccination
Public Control of the liquor Traffic
Nationalisation of Land and Railways
Relief of Local Rates by Grants from the National Exchequer
Legislative Independence for all parts of the Empire
Abolition of the Standing Army, and the Establishment of a Citizen Force
The People to decide on Peace or War
Graduated Income-Tax
Shorter Parliaments
Adult Suffrage
Registration Reform
Payment of Members
“The object of these measures is to enable the people ultimately to obtain the Socialisation of the Means of Production, Distribution, and Exchange, to be controlled by a Democratic State in the interests of the entire Community, and the Complete Emancipation of labour from the Domination of Capitalism and Landlordism, with the Establishment of Social and Economic Equality between the Sexes”
(Not) Labour (Scottish Branch) 2016 are about as radical as Last of the Summer Wine (or is that Whine?).
Ayup and in my own link ATL, a nod to the post war govt.and initiatives of Clement Atlee. I’m thinking that perhaps Kezia doesn’t get out much. Maybe, if during her excellent edyookayshun, Ms Dugdale had paid more attention to history as a subject… 🙂
Labour politicians fart through their mouths. We all know that.
It is not worthwhile paying attention to anything they say.
How fechin’ arrogant are they to think they are more radical than Keir Hardie and co.
That sums them up, arrogant, self opinionated and self-serving Unionist basket cases, with a sense of entitlement.
Some very good points, Steve Asaneilan, and if Kezia thinks she is a socialist, she should study the life of John MacLean. It is quite pathetic for her to use the S word in that context.
Attlee was a strange one: he introduced some genuinely socialist measures when the UK was on its uppers financially (worse than today, actually) and he showed great vision. Looking at his Wiki entry you can also view him as an establishment figure in his declining years.
My favourite anecdote of him is when he interviewed a Labour luminary with thoughts of a better cabinet post. Attlee thought otherwise and told him he was relieving him of his responsibilities.
“But, Mr Attlee, why?”
“Not up to it, goodbye!”
The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there.
Fortunately we in S_______d, Kezia, have a future and no thanks to you and your kind.
Onwards, Scotland.
Asaneilean.
Apologies, sausage-fingers.
IDS v Osborne – It all sounds a wee bit too scripted storm in a teacupish to me.
“Well that was quite a weekend. It had all the elements of the classic theatre.”
Man, Ah cannae eat much more popcorn! My schadenfreude is overflowing. Seeing british politics in utter disarray has an feeling of karma about it. I like that.
Right rivetin’ viewing though. 😀
Watching Westminster politics these days is like watching a crash test in slow motion. Bits flying every which way.
Thanks, Sam. “The Last Scottish Parliament” – well worth reminding us of our history. ” The Convention of Royal Burghs also petitioned against the union and not one petition in favour of an incorporating union was received by Parliament.”
The people of Scotland were very much against the union of the two Parliaments and after his final speech in the Scottish Parliament Queensberry, fearing for his life, had to flee the Edinburgh “mob”. He survived but his son’s servant was not as fortunate That poor boy was cooked and eaten by the mad young Queensberry during his father’s absence.
“We will stand for the most powerful Scottish Parliament with the most powerful, radical Labour manifesto ever.”
Yer erse, Kezia!
Terrible news this morning(Tueday). Our sympathy goes out to all of the Belgium families affected.
An awful tragedy in Brussels.
Thoughts go out to the families who have suffered loss.