RENFREWSHIRE SNP's RUNNING TOTAL

Here's the SNP record already - is it any wonder they are back in bed with the Tories in Holyrood. What did they sell to get the Tories to save their budget ?
Think Trump, Think Aviemore, Think Souter.

Savage cuts in warden services to elderly.

Closure of Nurseries in poorest areas.

Closure of Sports Centre in poorest area.

Cuts in out of school learning.

And the latest from your CARING SHARING SNP ADMINISTRATION.

The closure of the Digital Inclusion Project this was set up under Labour to provide free access to computers and internet access to the less well off in our society.

The unemployed, the elderly, the disabled and those with special needs will suffer which is becoming all too typical of the SNP.

Three full time and eight part time staff will lose their jobs.
The SNP have of course refused to honour Labour's gaurantee of no compulsory redundancies while Alex (the spiv) Salmond is busy trumpeting that his Govt. will close and amalgamate Govt. bodies and promises, and, yes you've guessed it he says "we will do this wihout compulsory redundancies"

Is it not about time that the SNP fearthearts in Renfrewshire started talking to Alex (the spiv)

There will be more of this to come.

SNP DUPLICITY IN RENFREWSHIRE OVER WARDENS

Renfrewshire Council's Scrutiny and Petitions Board met today and one of the items on the agenda was the petitions against the changes to the Warden service, there were 9 petitions and the SNP/Lib. Dem. majority on the board ruled every one of them 'out of order' all those signatures, all that effort from the elderly campaigners thrown in the bin.

What has happened here is that the SNP/Lib.Dems. without consultation, introduced charges and savage cuts to the warden service to residents of elderly complexes, they then refused to accept any arguments or petitions, they have put in place a petitions board which is a sham, it is a con.

They have made it possible to carry out savage cuts and also made it possible to avoid peoples complaints for a year after the cuts, that's their sly rules.

Let me remind you of what they have told the elderly residents,

' cutting the number of wardens will lead to an improvement'

' doubling the workload of the remaining wardens will lead to an improvement '

'removing the overnight warden and replacing her with a panic button will lead to an improvement '

This is politics SNP style, meanwhile the vulnerable elderly are waiting with trepidation for the hit, I was with them this afternoon and they are completely demoralised, they feel betrayed by the SNP and are frightened for the future, as one 90+ old lady said to me "a panic button is all very well but, in the middle of the night when you are worried and scared it can't make you a cup of tea and sit and chat to you" The Nats. should be hanging their heads in shame.

THE HARRY MARGOLIS !

Do you think that the 'Polis' are a special case ? entitled to more money ? better conditions ? if so why ? What about Firefighters ? Nurses ? Soldiers ? Plumbers ? yes plumbers and Sewerage workers, if they went on strike they would kill more people than armies.
As Woody Allan once said, " not only is there no God but you should try getting a plumber on weekends"

There is this argument about Police pay which I think is getting a bit muddled as some people think they are special and should get xyz etc. I don't agree, if they should get their pay rise backdated then fine but, only because their argument is right, nothing else.

The Police is a job like any other and they should be allowed to strike, I expect Free Marketeers to support me here, what is the point of going into a job and then saying hey ! I'm special, this is dangerous when you knew that before you went in.

I still can't get my head round the Police demo. I thought it was hilarious, the Police demonstrators said there were 20,000 and the Police on duty said there were less, force of habit I suppose.
They thought that they had everyone on their side until the demo passed a group of Anarchists who started shouting and calling them " a bunch of overpaid lazy b------s - hilarious.

What wasn't hilarious however was that a well known BNP leader was marching at the head of the demo. with the full blessing of the organisers. Who came up with that idea ? was it a deliberate provocation ? it looks like it and it certainly lost them my support.
This was stupid and crass by whoever was responsible and they will have a hard time living it down, I think and hope that this has lost them a large amount of public support, they deserve to lose it.

WIDDECOME UNFAIR

That bundle of right wing prejudices Ann Widdicome has resurfaced with another example of why Christians get a bad name.

This time she has put down an amendment which states that expressing criticism of homosexual conduct should not be classified as stirring up homosexual hatred.

Ms. Widdicome is a right wing Tory and a devout Christian, so devout in fact that she swapped from C.of E. to R.C. over the issue of women priests, surely the longest running case of sexual discrimination ever.

She want's to give bigotry am exemption when it involves gays, when it's them you can say what you want, a lovely woman.

This is the same woman who, when in the Home Office under that other caring chap Michael Howard thought it proper to have young women prisoners who were pregnant chained to the bed while in Labour, it's difficult to write that, stand back and consider what was going on, and further consider that she thought it OK.

You have to consider just what kind of a person this is, sometimes words are not enough to describe people who are capable of such actions. She complains that the Govt. did not provide enough time to debate this and advises people to remember at the next election that the Govt, was denying free speech.

I hope that at the next election that people will remember that people like Ann Widdicome are still in the Tory Party and vote accordingly.

Unfortunately and embarrassingly the amendment was seconded by Jim Dobbin Labour and a handfull of Labour MP's supported it, if this was my MP I would work to have him/her deselected. We in the Labour Party are opposed to bigotry and prejudice it is not our job to promote it, these Labour MP's should be ashamed, I hope their CLP's follow my advice.

THE ENERGY MIX AND THE SNP 'BIG WIND'

About 18 months ago I attended a conference on Energy, the platform panel consisted of I think 8 speakers all representing various sources of energy plus some people from friends of the Earth and Conservation groups.

We had Coal, Electricity, Oil, Petrol, Nuclear, Bio fuels, Wind Wave and Solar etc. there might have been more but I don't think anyone was missed out. It was a fascinating meeting addressed by real experts with some very well informed audience participation.

The audience were equipped with small computer devices to vote on questions, just like 'ask the audience' on who wants to be a millionaire, these votes produced a remarkable consensus among everyone there.
Some quite predictable like conservation ( everyone for) pollution (all against) At the end of the meeting the big question was put.
'which method should Scotland take to secure our energy future and comply with pollution issues'

Several combinations were put and one suggestion was 'a combination of all' This won the biggest majority of all votes cast that day by a considerable number. That is to say that almost all delegates agreed that Nuclear had a part to play in supplying our future energy needs.

The Scottish Govt. are posturing over this issue, they intend to prevent any Nuclear stations in Scotland knowing that we will get Nuclear powered energy from elsewhere, this is more hypocrisy from them.

They have got this wrong and I think the Scottish people will not back their stance, in fact I will watch closely and so should you for the 'U' turn when it inevitably comes.
Salmond (the spiv) has already accepted that Scotland will accept Nuclear waste but continues to try to milk populism on this.

When his lips move you know he's etc.

THE FEARLESS GLASGOW HERALD PART 2

The Herald's SNP cheerleader IAIN MACWHIRTER wrote the following in an article about donations which he described as secret.

" They (Labour) are morally uneasy because they know that business-men aren't stupid, they haven't become rich by throwing money around. Donating to politicians is all about influence, about buying into the inner circles of decision making"

I wrote to the Herald asking if he included Tom Farmer and Brian Souter but I got nowhere, some people have written to me to try to wriggle out of answering by saying he was only referring to secret donations, which are of course not illegal.

Note he does not preclude his statement by saying ' business-men who donate secretly are not stupid etc'

I ask again does he mean business-men per se or only Labour donors ?

Let me ask further is he saying that £950 buys influence with Labour but, £500,000 can't buy influence with the SNP ?

A CLASSIC MIGHT HAVE BEEN, AND A TRAGIC GENIUS.

One of the things which had an iron grip in our house believe it or not, among eight brothers growing up in a Paisley housing estate was chess, we all played, some of my brothers were quite good and won school tournaments, I was rotten at it, no patience, that was the only thing I had in common with Bobby Fischer, no patience.

Fischer has now died and I am thinking back to his famous days when he turned the world of chess upside down, he was one of the few Americans that we liked because we reckoned he was so 'out of it' that he was really a citizen of the world and Mars.

Fischer turned the stern world of chess into show biz without knowing he was doing it, he beat Karpov and then went AWOL, he came back years later for money and played and beat Spassky, an incredible achievement.
A story surfaced yesterday in the Guardian which was consistent with Bobby's bizarre life, back in 1977 there was a famous strike in London now referred to simply as 'Grunwick' the teller of the story was a journalist covering the picket lines.

Thousands of police ensured that bus loads of 'scabs' got through every day except, one day a woman picket through herself in front of one of these buses, the driver stopped and they didn't get through.
This act of trade union heroism was carried out by a certain 'Regina Fischer' yup ! Bobby's mother, don't ask how this came about, I haven't a clue but I would love to know more.

The great 'might have been' IMO would have been Fischer V Karpov, another off the wall genius and great chess champion who won and lost against a multi million pound computer, no other player was game enough to try this. alas we were denied that contest. Just as we will never see great football teams from the past compete with the present, or tennis players do the same.

I will end this nostalgia on controversy (unlike me I know) I reckon the present incumbent Federer, could have beaten any former champ using a stick.

I'm glad that Bobby's torture is over and he is now resting.

HARD TIME

On being released from 2 years hard labour in Reading Gaol, standing there, a broken man, in the howling wind and rain, Oscar Wilde said " if this is how Her Majesty treats her prisoners, she doesn't deserve to have any " Not much has changed Oscar.

The yellow press in this country like nothing better than stirring up reactionary hysteria about all things to do with prison.

It's too soft, it's like a holiday camp, criminals are pampered etc. When compelling evidence to the contrary surfaces they always get away with their lies.
Just like the recent reports of 5 suicides in 1 year at Whitemoor Prison Camb. In addition between 80 and 90 suicides are taking place each year in the system not including Scotland, attempted suicides run to thousands.

Why do they do this ? is it because they can't get a good picture on their flat screen tele ? is it because their steak is tough ?
Or, is it more likely it's because our prisons are no better than human zoos where prisoners have no hope, a place where they come out worse than when they went in.

We send someone to prison who can't read, write or count and, years later we let them out still unable to read, write or count. If this was a business it would have been bankrupt a long time ago.

My personal experience of prison is that they are hellish places where prisoners are treated no better than animals. they are given no hope of rehabilitation because of a shortage of money to run the system properly.

This is a false economy because the rate of re-offending is costing a fortune, far more than rehabilitation would and, shamefully, our Govt. knows this.
That is why we are building more jails - a philosophy of despair under successive Governments, mine included, who have never had the courage to take on the reactionary elements in society.

Don't take my word, just look at the USA where punishment has become a religion, is it working ? well the USA is now the official world leader for numbers of people locked up and it's still rising, over 2.1 million, when will we ever learn ? This not a decent society and won't be until this obscenity is dealt with.

THE FEARLESS GLASGOW HERALD !

Herald journalist and SNP cheerleader Iain Macwhirter said the following in his column about party donations on 14/01/08.

"They, (Labour) are also morally uneasy because they know that business-men aren't stupid. They haven't become rich by throwing money around. Donating to politicians is all about influence, about buying into the inner circles of decision making"

I wrote with this simple question to the Herald, does Iain Macwhirter include Tom Farmer and Brian Souter or is he referring to Labour donors only ?

I wrote on the 16/01/08 and nothing has been printed. I think it's a pretty valid question but the mighty Herald seems to be afraid of it, is it any wonder that many people consider this paper a busted flush, what should we make of it ?

FREEM N MOXY FROM AMURKA BY GEORGE W.

The intrepid president has spoken and he has swept through the beautiful tragic land that is Palestine/Israel with a message of peace in our time or at least before he leaves office.
Well he is hardly up in the air and all hell breaks loose, Israel invade Gaza again and this time the score is, over the last 2/3 days Israel 27 Palestine 1 but hey, it ain't over til it's over right, well Gaza now has no water and no electricity so you better get your money on those Israelis, home made rockets and stones are no match for nuclear bombs are they.

Does anyone stop to think what no water and no electricity is like, in poor homes, in schools, in hospitals. Do people consider the fate of people who are sick and wounded being refused to leave Gaza for treatment.

Israel has created a situation which will cause them to be damned for centuries, the only hope is that the world is watching, these crimes against humanity are being watched by tens of millions around the world. Israel can completely destroy the Palestinians and they might do just that they might win a victory of that kind but at what price ? they will lose in one way or another in the long term.
Where are the good Israelis ?

KARA DRUMMOND

Kara Drummond I have pressed the wrong button and inadvertantly deleted your comment to me, please resend and I will answer you.

SOUTH AFRICA AND 'THE TIMES THEY ARE A'CHANGING'

White supremacists in SA took another welcome blow last week when a black coach was appointed to the National Rugby Team, one of the still standing bastions of white privilege and racism, not before time.

The 'Springboks' will become the 'Proteas' the (national flower) another slap in the face for the racists is that the son of a famous white player who was a supporter of the ANC will become the captain, Luke Watson son of Dan 'cheeky' Watson who was good enough to play for SA but turned them down because of their racism, his life was threatened for this. The name for this is progress.

Some white players are refusing to play under a black coach and Luke Watson could be made captain, he has been regarded as the best player in the country but the Springboks refused to pick him because of his and his fathers' opposition to apartheid but that's where race hatred leads you.

As Bob Dylan sang "you better start swimming or you'll sink like a stone for the times they are a'changing" or in the words of Dr. King "free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty we are free at last" OK it's only a game, but it's a start.

A GOOD, COMPASSIONATE GOVERNMENT DECISION

Gordon Brown announces a change to opting out of organ donation, a brave and decent decision, I congratulate him on it.
We will no doubt hear a cacophony of complaint from a vociferous crowd who will be opposed on various grounds, the religious flat earthers will lead as usual but this will go through because it's the right thing to do, anyone who has lost a friend or relative for want of a transplant will tell you that.

This will save lives and I reckon if God had not wanted lives to be saved he would have given us a clue by now. Take Jesus for instance, I reckon that based on what I was taught and the impression that that teaching made on me Jesus would have been first in the queue saying "take my kidney, my lung, my blood etc. to save that poor child's life".
After all we are taught that he gave his own life to save others so he would surely have given blood or an organ.

People who are waiting right now for a vital transplant for themselves or for a loved one will be saying, 'thank God or our lucky stars for Gordon Brown and everyone else who supports him on this.
I have no idea how long it might take to action this, the quicker the better but lots of people have a glimmer of hope, I say let's do it, right now !

THE NOBLE ART ? OF MONEY MAKING

The Mayweather Hatton fight despite the result being somewhat predictable was a great boost to boxing but what is about to happen in Las Vegas in April in my opinion will set it back again.

A big fight is being hyped and sold on the back of Mayweather/Hatton between Welshman Joe Calzaghe, and Bernard Hopkins of America for some kind of undisputed middle weight title which the wee green men from Mars will recognise, this is because the wee Martians know nothing about boxing.



Calzaghe has been telling everyone for years that he is a great fighter and is now saying that he wants to prove himself in America so no-one can dispute his greatness.

'It aint so Joe' the fact that you are now at the age of 35 yrs. going to fight in America exposes the cruel truth, you were never good enough for the states and this a farce which hopes to make some of the kind of money that Floyd and Ricky generated, a bad night for boxing looms.



Bernard Hopkins needs no introduction to people like me who are boxing fans he came into that category of fighters who were talked about as the best 'pound for pound' in the world, I say 'came' because now at the age of 43 yrs. he is being targeted by Calzaghe who now thinks that he can win.

Anyone who stopped Oscar Del Ahoya (without firearms) inside the distance even now at 43 yrs old still deserves respect but will Joe get that ? a Hopkins win though unlikely, would destroy his reputation and a victory would still see old cynics like me mumbling that ' 5 yrs. ago Joe couldn't have beaten him if he'd been allowed to hit him with the corner stool'

SNP - DESPERATE NASTY PEOPLE.

I suppose that readers of this blog will be aware of the latest made up stushie about my 'joke' the SNP want people to believe that I'm a sexist, it shouldn't be that difficult to check, I'm 59 Yrs. old and I've been in politics for for more than 40 of those years so there is plenty of evidence.
That is of course if anyone wants to check but they don't and they won't because they are wrong, worse than that they know they are wrong so why is this happening ?

Well I have been Wendy Alexanders election agent at the last two elections, that should give you a clue.
I will mention a couple of people who ought to be ashamed of themselves.

1st. Mr. Dinwoodie a journalist with what was once a quality paper 'The Herald' this guy recently got into bother with his erstwhile friends the Nats. because of a truly crass piece of gutter journalism by him which upset them.
His bottle as they say crashed and he had to creep back in with them hence this non story. I think he tells his family that he is a slave trader rather than admit to the shame of being a Herald journalist.

2 nd. SNP MSP Christina McKelvie, she also uses this nonsense to jump on the 'get Wendy bandwagon' she also accuses me of being sexist, she is also welcome to check over my past 40 yrs. + - but of course she won't she want's to avoid the truth at all costs.
Hear this Christina anyone, man or woman in or out of politics who uses this rubbish to attack a 3rd. party who is their political opponent is indeed in my opinion stupid and crass.

3 rd. The Herald readers who make on line comments on Herald stories, overwhelmingly Nats. Catch some of this if you want to know why I refer to the Herald as a past quality paper.
you have to read these people to believe that they really do exist.
Most were at the same pathetic game of trying to damage Wendy using this excuse.

4th. The Scottish Sun carried the story - I rest my case.

Is this the Scotland that these people want to see ? it seems like it, I'm going to check if Senator Joe Mc Carthy was Scottish.

ANOTHER AMERICAN HURRAH ON IT'S WAY

America is back on the campaign trail and much as I dislike American politics I know that the job of president is one of the most important in the world, we have just had two terms under a president who is one of the worst ever and that serves to remind us of how important it is, is the world safer after nearly 8 years of Bush ? I think not.

It is important to replace Bush with someone cleverer (not difficult) and someone less gung ho (more difficult) much the same as we have done here in Britain.

The person I would like to see as president is the democrat Edwards but that looks unlikely, next comes Clinton who would of course be the first ever woman, she has politics in her blood and is vastly experienced and her husband was one of the best American presidents.
Obama has of course torn up the script but he will now be scrutinised and pressurised as never before. it looks like a democrat victory will provide the first woman or the first black president ever.

Obama does not inspire me at all for the candidate who might be the first black president he seems to be shy of identifying himself with African Americans and the right wing gutter press haven't started on him yet, one article ran the story that his middle name was Hussien, there will be a lot more of this to come.

The republicans look unelectable at the moment and their front runner is now Huckabee, a man who apparently thinks that God created the universe in 6 days and took a wee break on the seventh.

Many Americans support him and share his 'ole time religion' views, this does not of course make them bad people but it sure worries me, the draft dodger Bush used to say that God told him what to do and Blair said he prayed that he would get big decisions right.

At least we in Scotland do not have a problem like that wee Alex (the spiv) just talks to himself in the mirror.

WHO SAID THAT ? (MIDDLE EAST)

Who said this then ? "if I were an Arab leader I would never make terms with Israel. That is natural : we have taken their country. sure God promised it to us, but what does that matter to them ? Our God is not theirs... There has been anti semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault ? They only know but one thing : we have come here and stolen their country. Why should they accept that?"

Here is a hint, it wasn't me, I wish it had been but, I was in my pram at that time. It was none other than the first prime minister of Israel that old blood soaked thug David Ben Gurion, a writer to the Guardian quoted his biographer as saying this last week.
Ben Gurion also said when asked about the plight of the Palestinians " the old will die and the young will forget"

He knew that what they were doing to the Palestinians was a crime but he supported it and passed judgement on those who were driven out, 60 yrs. later we know that he was wrong about 'the young forgetting'
Ask yourself this, if you were a young refugee living there under occupation and the invaders brutality, would you forget ?

I think that you, like the Palestinians would swear vengeance and you would teach that doctrine to your children and beseech them to teach it to their children.
You would never allow them to 'forget' and they won't forget, until justice is done.
Yes folks this is where the sentiment about 'Peace and goodwill to all men' originated and the genocide by Israel still goes on, after all this time have they still no concience ?

UNITED NATS ? AYE RIGHT. UNITED IN FEAR.

I keep my ear to the ground in political terms, some people think it's sad but there you are, I'm an addict.
I've a fair idea of what goes on and I sometimes get involved in some pretty heated stuff, I've promised before to count to ten but I still find it difficult, maybe if I survive long enough I'll mellow, what do you think ?

In my defence I would argue that I have tried my best to speak out when I see something wrong, I don't reserve this for my political opponents and I have angered Labour Party people before, some quite high up, I've publicly crossed swords with John Reid, Margaret Curren, even Gordon Brown before he was famous, the Scottish Labour Executive etc. but none of it personal. We all survived it and are still here, that's as it should be surely.

I wonder what happens in the SNP to people like me ? I ask this because I'm unaware of any dissent in that party, Labour Party members regularly speak out in a personal capacity and are critical of policy and some members actions, I can't think of our equivalent in today's SNP.

Roseanna Cunningham has now buttoned her lip and she was the last, she won't even mention the Queen now, how cowardly is that. Margo & Jim are gone Mike Russell humiliated by Salmond cowers in a corner, Alex Neil has become the cowardly lion, the more he shouts 'put em up' the more people laugh.
Most humiliatingly of all, the real (old) SNP's raison d'etre, independence is never referred to for fear of Alex (the spiv) and Nicola.

Look at the local SNP, never any mention of being free by some date with a three in it, not a cheep from the bravehearts, cllr. McFee, once their loudest voice sits at the back mumbling to himself like an extinct volcano, such was his Holyrood failure that he is a broken man, likewise wee cllr. Mitchell another broken braveheart, is this what they fought all those years for.

Is it possible perhaps that everyone in the SNP gets along famously, everyone agrees on everything they all agree on all policy?
Or is it as I suspect that the gradualist right wing heavies have now got a vice like grip on every aspect of the party and they tolerate no dissent, would you like to be an MSP at the mercy of Alex (FFM) I think crocodile wrestling would be nicer or even worse, going in to Nicola Sturgeon with a broken pay packet, watch for an SNP MSP with a backbone and see how you get on.