MRS. DUFFY WHOM I BELIEVE TO BE A NICE DECENT WOMAN IS A GOOD EXAMPLE OF THE MEDIA INFLUENCE WHICH INFESTS THIS COUNTRY.

Poor Gordon Brown; he doesn’t have the luxury of being able to tell a member of the public how wrong and misinformed they are; he is the Prime Minister and he is seeking re election so he has to humor folk and gently nudge them into seeing a different point of view with very limited time; which is what he was doing with Mrs. Duffy yesterday when he gently reminded her that lots of British people leave here to work and live abroad just like those who come here to work and live, there is no difference. Unfortunately Mrs. Duffy does not arrive at her conclusion that immigration is to blame for society’s ills from reasoned discussion and diligent study and research, the Sun and Sky TV do that for her and many others. Mrs. Duffy is not a bad person quite the contrary and I would wager that a lengthy discussion with her where reasonable explanations about immigration and other matters which the Sun and Sky TV lie about were put forward she would emerge as a nice reasonable non bigoted person; I’m quite sure her remarks on immigration drew those comments from Gordon Brown because of the frustration he feels at not having the time to spend with her and the anger at what the media do to manipulate public opinion hence the “bigoted woman” quote. He might have added ‘if only we could explain and get her to understand’ but of course the media had got what they were after by then.

I have personally been in a couple of situations where I exercised that luxury of telling people in no uncertain terms where to go and to take their vote with them; these were occasions when people had accosted me at public meetings demanding that I join them in their fight to prevent someone; less fortunate than themselves; people with learning difficulties it was from moving into their neighborhood. On both occasions I tried at some length to reason with them and eventually decided that I really didn’t want the votes of such people; and yes it was a great feeling; a liberating experience to tell them what I thought of them and boy did I relish it; the PM can’t do that which is a shame and I'm absolutely positive that he would never include Mrs. Duffy in such company; I spent lots of time arguing with them the PM had a few minutes. I can’t imagine that there are many elected representatives who have not gone through what he went through yesterday most of course without microphones attached to them.

Mrs. Duffy appears to have done the right thing by calling a truce and accepted the PM’s apology. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone then; we have all been there. I think it’s important to keep the matter in proportion and get on with the serious business of running the country; the PM’s lapse was unfortunate and he will be regretting it more than anyone; but it does not carry the same weight as the real big issues facing the country no matter how much the right wing media try to get it to grow.

Considering the events of the past couple of years of his premiership it is remarkable that he is still standing; most people would have crumbled by now; he is in fact a remarkably resilient man, a man whom I conclude has survived because of his unshakeable belief in what he believes in; his commitment to do what he believes to be right is what sustains him. The onslaught which has surrounded him has been nonstop and personally vindictive his courage and dignity are quite inspiring. I don’t believe that Clegg or Cameron would have lasted 6 months under such pressure but then again they wouldn’t have had to would they? Who springs to mind when you think about campaigns by the media to destroy someone involved in politics? Try this list and add your own if you want.

Tony Benn – Arthur Scargill – Ken Livingstone – George Galloway – Neil Kinnock – Michael Foot and many more all the way back to Harold Wilson who was accused by the media of being a Russian spy; do you spot the pattern? Gordon Brown has a temper and can swear as well as chuck things about the place when he is frustrated; if you swap the name Brown for Churchill you have a very similar man notwithstanding Winston being a serial drunk of course, why is Churchill allowed these character defects and Brown isn’t? think about that when you think about voting. Brown is a great statesman and would have been in any era; his two opponents are political pygmies compared to him, he is the man temper and all.

ONE OF THE REASONS THAT RENFREWSHIRE NORTH AND SOUTH ARE SAFE LABOUR SEATS!!

April 27 2010 7:30 PM to the Methodist halls in central Paisley for an election hustings the circus was in town. I have attended hustings meetings before as a panellist and as a member of the audience and I can say that as a part of the democratic process they have been rendered useless. Years ago they were a vital part of the electoral process but they have been used as an arena for bad behaviour and bullying; in this part of the world that is down mainly to two parties the Scottish Socialist Party is one but by far the worst is the Scottish Nationalist Party and their out of control supporters. Labour and the Tories and their supporters have over recent years drifted away from such meetings because of the conduct of some groups; it becomes clear quite quickly that these particular groups have deliberately ‘packed’ the meeting with their supporters and the whole thing becomes worthless.
Last night the meeting was reduced to farce just as it started; three of the candidates were in the audience rather than on the platform two of them not having been invited; one independent just sat there bewildered another from the SNP Mr. Doig just sat there and a third; independent Mr. Mack who has ‘previous’ used the situation to berate the organisers for excluding him and was after some quite funny ranting and raving invited to join the platform; fuming with synthetic rage and wearing what looked like one of Del Boy Trotters discarded suits he brought some much needed levity to the proceedings. The situation regarding the SNP candidate Mr. Doig I’m afraid remains a mystery which only he can explain; sat there looking in rude health and chatting to those around him while an SNP candidate from the neighbouring constituency; the truly wretched Ms. McLaren took his place on the platform had everyone baffled; it is difficult to believe that he could have been any worse than her still; it takes all kinds right?

The Tory was typical of what you get from them in an unwinnable seat; a retired police dinosaur who played the race card by suggesting that the lack of housing was down to an uncontrolled immigration policy for which he was surprisingly and rightly booed and shouted down. The SSP guy was my old friend Jimmy Kerr who gave his standard stump speech about the Socialist revolution, he was passionate and genuine as always; his problem was that he only had the one speech and every time he got the floor he made the same speech again so we got it about 6 times; he’s a likeable muddle headed guy is Jimmy. Mr. Mack is hilarious but unfortunately for him he is not trying to be funny; an impossible hurdle to overcome for anyone let alone one as challenged as Mr. Mack, he has never learned the difference between people laughing with him and people laughing at him. He started by claiming in strong tones that he was “A Marxist” then started reading approvingly from an article in The Daily Mail oops! He also made the strenuous point that all the economic problems we face are the fault of MP’s and councillors expenses all £140 or is it £150 trillion of them, Paisley has a long tradition of legendary characters such as “ta ta bella” “Ding Gray” and “Cuthbert” Mr. Mack is carrying on that fine tradition. The Lib. Dem. Candidate was anonymous and irrelevant.

Last but not least was Wendy Alexander who took the place of her brother Douglas unavoidably detained in London; she was by far the brightest one there and the only one capable of speaking on every subject with any authority. She was also the one who was targeted for abuse by the ‘meeting packers’ she clearly scares them considering their reaction to her. Here is another strange thing which I saw from the nats; as I left at the end of Wendy’s closing speech I walked to the back of the hall where most of the abuse was coming from and discovered a group of SNP hecklers actually directing their abuse at her from behind some large pillars; that’s right they were actually hiding; as I said earlier It takes all kinds right?

CAN SALMOND GET AWAY WITH THIS ONE?

SALMOND! In this case I have deliberately dropped my usual description of him as a spiv, this is very serious. We were told that Scotland was a compassionate country by Kenny MacAskill as part of his reason for granting the release of the Lockerbie bomber, a release which I agreed with but not for the SNP’s reasons. Notwithstanding the inane idiocy of McAskill’s comments (people can be compassionate not countries) we now have the quite incredible statement from Salmond that had Thomas Hamilton the man responsible for the Dunblane massacre survived he would never have been granted early release under any circumstances. The cybernats are going nuts on various sites because of this blunder; huge attempts are being made by them to confuse the matter by rerunning the arguments about whether the bomber was guilty which is not the issue here.

What is happening here is that Salmond was asked a question which he didn’t see coming and rather than stick to the declared SNP position which he fears is a vote loser he quite shamefully jumped ship. This is the measure of the man; no matter what the issue is; no matter whether the answer is a conniving cop out or a blatant lie the answer you are certain to get from Salmond is the one which he thinks is politically expedient. Whether it’s drowned fishermen or dead soldiers his concern is always “what’s best for me” The mawkish drivel trotted out about Scots compassion and sympathy was a lot of nonsense from the start the SNP are firmly facing both ways here and not for the first time. The SNP position was that any prisoner can be considered for compassionate release; Salmond has now ripped that to bits for political gain; he simply and instinctively acted like the charlatan he is. Will Salmond now explain which of them is right McAskill or him I think we should be told but I doubt if we will.

CAMERON; THE POSH TORY WIMP.

David Cameron is a wimp! He lacks moral fibre and lives in fear of the old style Tory bigots who still contaminate his party. He is paralysed by them over Europe and their antagonism directed at Gays. He professes to be sympathetic to the Gay community in an increasingly futile attempt to secure their votes. He has just crumbled again when he failed to take action against a junior shadow defence minister who compared the dangers of gay sex to the dangers of serving on the military front line.

Julian Lewis Tory MP had explained he opposed lowering the age of consent for gay sex from 18 to 16 for the same reasons that those aged under 18 in the armed forces were not sent to the front line in places like Afghanistan. This eruption of intolerance comes hard on the heels of a similar outburst of homophobia from his Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling who expressed support for narrow-minded owners of B&B’s who refuse to accommodate same sex couples.

We hear the cries of the Tories saying they are not the same old party but every now and then one of these backwoods characters blurts out the grubby truth. They are not being honest and are continually fighting to keep the lid on these odious and very traditional old Tories who are still closer to the soul of the party than Cameron will ever be. Ben Bradshaw, Labour's culture secretary, commented: "If Tory front benchers can get away with such homophobia when they are being extra careful during an election campaign, imagine what would happen if they were in government - free to let their outdated prejudices reign."

What do we learn from this? 1/ they have not changed and they have no intention of doing so. 2/ Cameron is a man of straw; he is powerless and unwilling to reign in these grubby pedlars of prejudice, can you see him dealing with a world crisis when he hasn’t the courage to deal with a couple of unknown Tory MP’s; can you see Merkel, Sarkozy or Putin trembling before him? he is simply not fit to lead, think on.

IT'S TIME TO EXPOSE THE SNP TARTAN TORIES - NO MORE HIDING FROM THEM.

One of the worst political insults that can be levelled against someone in Scotland is to call them a Tory; or a Tory sympathiser or accuse them of once voting Tory or having someone in their family who is a Tory; no matter how far back. Quite frankly it is a dreadful thing to say about someone; the ignominy and disgrace can follow you to the grave and your family can be shunned and reviled when tainted in such a way.
It is important therefore for the reasons stated above that a person should be very careful about making such a grim claim against someone; the very thought of such an assertion is enough to make decent folk shudder and plead innocence; “honest it wisnae me” they would cry.

Taking my own advice about the vigorous and robust nature required of such heinous charges I offer the following information. I believe it is in the interest of the majority of civilized citizens of Scotland to shine a light on the deeds of those who would give succour of any kind to the party of Thatcher, Tebbit, Hague and the well-heeled toffs of the ‘Bullington Club’ N.B. dear reader; what follows are facts or if you like “chiels that winna ding” as the third rate old Ayrshire plagiarist once described them; I know that what follows will be hard to take; particularly for those who were duped into supporting the SNP but I feel for the sake of truth and decency that the facts have to to be told.

In the last year David Mundell sole Scottish Tory MP has voted for the Tory Party in 95 votes.

Angus Robertsom SNP MP has voted for the Tory Party in 98 votes.

John Mason SNP MP has voted for the Tories in 99 votes.

Remember this quote? “We Scots did not mind Mrs. Thatcher’s economic policies all that much” (Alex ‘the spiv’ Salmond) leader of the SNP and Scottish first minister. These two SNP MP’s have voted Tory more often than the Tories only Scottish MP!!!
I feel further comment would be superfluous; I can feel the hurt of decent Scots. betrayed and lied to yet again by the SNP, ochone ochone but; you can say “ah didnae ken” all you like because “ye ken noo”

Believe me it pains me more than it does the hapless and wretched SNP voters to have to report such a pitiless deception but they have the right to know, lest they make the same mistake again.

"THE LORD GAVE MOSES THE RAINBOW SIGN, NO MORE WATER FIRE NEXT TIME" (OH MARY DON'T YOU WEEP --- NEGRO SPIRITUAL)

OK the Lord in the song was referring to the flood and what would happen next if they didn’t behave themselves. It chimes nicely though with the Icelandic Volcano which the grasping money chasers are pleased to call an ‘act of God’ when it suits their insatiable greed. The planes are back in the air so; how would you have felt about getting on one of them over the last couple of days? Those ‘end of the pier comic leprechauns’ Walsh & O’Leary would swear an oath for your safety what more do you need? You see; the arguments surrounding whether they should have been grounded for what some call too long and others say too little are now raging with some determined to blame this on Gordon Brown who else? Taking into account what he gets the blame for; with his apparent power I would be tempted to call a plague of boils or locusts down on my enemies. There appears to be two very significant positions here; the Government backed by scientists and various experts, B.T.W. am I the only one who has just learned a new word “Volcanologist” obviously one who studies volcanoes right? and clearly someone who knows a lot more about such things than the man/woman in the street or for that matter the boss of BA Willie Walsh and the boss of Ryanair O’Leary.

Here is where the political issue comes in and like most political questions it’s a Socialist V Capitalist quandary. Sat at an airport with no planes flying people would have had plenty of time to decide who they found reliable in this argument. On the one hand we have the Government backed by the scientific agencies acting in the interests of safety with no discernible ulterior motive; nothing in it for them at all other than to get travel systems back to normal. On the other side of the argument we have Willie Walsh of BA and O’Leary of Ryanair; the kind of guys who would gladly poison their parents to be eligible for the orphans outing.

My daughter has just told me about the trials and tribulations of two Scottish sisters from San Diego who were desperately trying to return to Scotland for the funeral of a third sister who was a close friend of my daughter and died suddenly 4 days ago; as delays lengthened the prices rose as people got more and more distressed; they it seems were fortunate to pay £1,600 to fly to Edinburgh via Frankfurt while some of the last ones to get a ticket paid $6,500; there should be a law against such abuse but; this is the capitalist world we live in; this is market forces at their most efficient and their most merciless; it’s not a pleasant sight. This is the Conservative way of life; people in distress are not to be helped or pitied they are to be exploited, be warned.

Walsh of BA rumour has it blames the Govt. for not allowing BA to fly people through ash clouds despite safety warnings from the Civil Aviation Authorities and other scientific experts. Airline companies are making noises about Govt. compensation while denying the same to abandoned passengers; our Jewish friends call this “Chutzpah” while Glaswegians call it “brass neck” I wouldn’t give these hustlers a wooden nickel, they are the market champions; ruthless and completely lacking in principle; their philosophy is ‘Laissez – Faire’ the survival of the fittest and all that self-centred ‘bulldung’ I say let them sink or swim then; and if they don’t make it? good riddance to them.

A BENEFIT FROM ICELAND IS THAT SOME REAL FLY MEN ARE BEING PUNISHED.

Air Travel is one of the nastiest polluters of our environment, the amount of gas and contamination spewed out of an engine which propels a massive machine carrying hundreds of people through the air at hundreds of miles an hour is enormous. Poor old Mother Earth has been subjected to this abuse for a long long time not only from aircraft of course but the air travel industry somehow for me epitomises the worst of the greed and lack of concern for people and the environment that is motivated by the pursuit of more and more wealth (capitalism how are ye) I sometimes have to remind myself that Ryanair is not a caricature and it’s owner O’Leary is not a fictional character created by Armando Iannucci, a flying Malcolm Tucker if you will, it is a real airline and O’Leary is a real person; how did it ever come to this?

Very low-cost air travel defies belief; the fuel; the airport runway costs; the staff costs etc. would lead me to stop and think before buying. The elephant in the room is of course for a braying rapacious capitalist company, how do they make their profit? The answer it would seem is by charging for as many extras as they can dream up, many of which are foisted on an unsuspecting travelling public, at least Dick Turpin wore a mask right?

It is necessary to refer to only one of these sting extras to put this company into perspective. Mr. O’Leary and his airline it would seem are considering charging travellers to use the toilet when flying, £1 to ‘spend a penny’ since you ask; families beware; have enough £1 coins for the children and don’t let them drink fluids for a few hours before boarding. Some are threatening to just wet the seat and others to urinate in the isle, some may in fact be forced to do just that because Ryanair have removed toilets to cram in more passengers and each plane apparently has only one loo, it sounds like the journey to and from Hell. What passengers should do was suggested by someone in a paper I read today. They should collect and keep their plastic drinks bottles and carry a funnel and use them for the toilet they should then be deposited in a large container as they leave the plane; the sign on the container should read “we at Ryanair are pleased to take the piss” I remember arguing against deregulation and privatisation when Thatcher was selling off everything to her friends, well I told you so didn’t I? Privatisation makes some already rich people even richer and the price the rest of us have to pay is the emergence of the likes of O’Leary and Willie Walsh, being second generation Irish I am ashamed.

As I watched mother earth display her awe-inspiring power from Iceland I couldn’t help but think on Walsh and his vicious union busting policies, he can’t bully nature though, also the unacceptable face of capitalism O’Leary (B.T.W. I heard O’Leary is fond of showing people his watch which he proudly proclaims was sold to him by his dad on his death bed) Notwithstanding the plight of those who are stranded by the volcano eruption it will be a comfort to many who have been exploited by such people that mother nature is kicking their butts.

Is it not about time that the con men and spivs who took over rail; air travel etc. under Thatcher were relieved of these services and the state restored some honesty and decency to the nations travel arrangements?

IT DON'T MEAN A THING IF IT AINT GOT THAT SWING (DUKE ELLINGTON)

Today I read about the death of a Jazz great; the guitarist Diz Disley.
He was part of my youth and provided me and many of my friends with great entertainment he comes into the category of people whose demise while very sad also reminds me that I am getting on a bit as well. Some time ago I wrote about the passing of George Melly and then Humphrey Littleton and mused about them playing and partying together somewhere in the afterlife along with others like Spike Milligan, George Shearing, Ella Fitzgerald, Oscar Peterson and others more or less of the same generation and all Jazz greats and; all of whom I was privileged to see perform live except Peterson, in Disley’s case on several occasions with the mighty Stephan Grappelli.

I was introduced to this kind of music by my late great friend Davie Spiers who was a great fan as well as a very fine musician and a friend from way back of Disley, Davy regarded Diz Disley as one of the top Jazz guitarists and also one of the craziest characters he had ever met which is quite something for Davie to say considering the life he had led as well. Round about the eighties Disley teamed up with the legendary Grappelli and began a 10 year partnership which sold out concerts in every venue they played worldwide. Leaning heavily on the music and traditions of the famous and fabulous “Hot Club of Paris” where Grappelli was partnered by the guitar marvel Django Rheinhart they regularly ripped the roofs off venues everywhere as they introduced swing Jazz to a whole new audience, they were a force of nature when they were in full flow and never to be forgotten.

Dizley was also a talented cartoonist who sold his work to major newspapers and magazines but his mission in life was music and serious partying. Melly tells of returning from a gig with the Mick Mulligan band when their mini bus had a serious crash and landed in a kind of swamp field; several were badly injured and Dizley got free from the wreck and made off, having alerted ambulance services he returned; waded out to the van and dragged himself up and poked his head in the smashed window where he said to the others lying in disarray, (with apologies to our Chinese friends) “you no wully, me bling ladda” One of his favourite quotes was “ I always carry a generous supply of brandy with me in case I get bitten by a snake which I also carry with me but, I only drink to steady myself and sometimes I’m so steady that I can hardly move” I like to think of these guys round a big table somewhere with supply of gargle and plenty of music, some might say that sounds like heaven, I’m off to play some of their music and have a wee sherry in his memory, do yourself a favour and look him up.

MANY THANKS FROM 'NELLIE' 'DUMBO' AND 'COLONEL HATHI'

Here is a cheery little lesson for all of us. How many of you/us when asked to sign a petition or write to an MP or such like say “what’s the point they won’t pay attention to me, what difference will it make?” well; some time ago I wrote an article about some countries attempts to make it easier to kill elephants; a petition had been started by a group called AVAAZ which means “voice” or in some languages “song” I asked people to sign up; OK so who doesn’t like elephants, what’s not to like? For confirmation that your ‘AVAAZ’ can be heard; read on and thank you to anyone who signed up, you can make a difference no matter how great or small the numbers if you believe in the cause then do it.

“Elephants - with elephants at risk, 500,000 of us worldwide empowered the African Elephant Coalition with our support -- and, after a nail-biting close vote and final push with partners on the ground, won protection for elephants at a UN Endangered Species session. The head of the Species Survival Network said “the petition, no doubt, made a difference and helped achieve the right result for elephants everywhere."

• Read the AFP article about the close vote and victory for elephants: http://www.avaaz.org/cites_decision_afp

A VERY WORTHWHILE PROJECT - SPREAD THE WORD.

The email below is self explanatory and worthy of support; please help by attending the meeting or spreading the word among anyone who would benefit from such an enterprise.

Dear Councillor,

I’m writing to ask you to consider supporting me in contacting the deaf community in Renfrewshire.

I’m hoping to reach as many deaf sign language users as possible to invite them to the WRVS Café in Paisley on 21st April at 6.30pm where I’ll be facilitating a meeting that may result in the start of a Deaf forum in Renfrewshire.

Having grown up in a deaf family, I’m aware of some needs of the deaf community and would like to support them in starting something that will give them a voice in our community.
If you will pass this information on to any deaf individual or group with contacts in the deaf community within your ward, I would be most appreciative.

Please see the attachments for some more info or contact me if you would like any more details

Yours sincerely

David Moir
6 Grahamston Crescent
Paisley

WANTED ! A NATIONALIST WITH A BACKBONE, ONE WHO WILL FACE SALMOND (THE SPIV) - SURELY THERE MUST BE AT LEAST ONE?

"Oh there's a fella doon the road that I avoid
he's wan o them they call the unemployed
he says it's aw because o me
he cannae get a joab when I've got three,
Three nights an a sunday double time"

Song, I'm looking for a job -- Matt McGinn.

McGinn's hilarious but serious song could have been written for Alex (the spiv) Salmond who is about to depart Westminster with a redundancy or resettlement pay out (call it what you will) of £65,000. He has been trousering 3 salaries; paid for by you and me for 3 years, MSP, First Minister and, the one which causes him to sneer the most, MP. Honestly, we have been paying him as an MP as well, he can’t walk through the entrance at Westminster without security challenging him because nobody knows who he is, his visits to the House of Commons are as rare as a “rocking horse’s s***e”.

The £65,000 is to help him ‘resettle’ following the end of his ‘nice little earner’ in Westminster; this payout is designed to assist MP’s who have lost their jobs while Alex (the spiv) has lost only one of his 3 jobs; being such an immoral degenerate he has; after much agonising decided to say “jist gies the readies” a true Scot. If ever there was one eh? It is often said that flitting house is one of the most traumatic things in a person’s life so let’s hope the £65,000 will sustain him through his ordeal.

Billy Connolly, a far greater Scot. than Wallace (not the Lisbon Lion) or Bruce, a guy with plenty of smarts despite his public persona once memorably said that Andrew Carnegie the great Scottish/American millionaire and Union busting thug gave money away as silently as a waiter falling down stairs with a full tray of glasses; Salmond (the spiv) it seems has learned from the ‘fly wee Fifer’ his minders say he will give an undisclosed amount to charity but; he did not want to say how much he will give to charity because "he does not want it to look like he is using it for electoral gain" (the spiv) commented "For the last three years I've put all of my gross Scottish Parliament salary (the smaller one) into a charity helping youth cases in the North east of Scotland – that's over £50,000" (he doesn't want us to know that though right?)

(Del boy) Salmond must think we are either all daft or members of the SNP, (is there a difference I hear you ask) there is an unpleasant veneer of deceit and duplicity which clings to this wretched fraud of a man. He is a disquieting character who gives the impression of malice and complete ruthlessness; an impossible man to warm to. I find it impossible to believe that no one within the ranks of the SNP is prepared to challenge his behaviour. He claims to want to avoid the accusation of chasing votes by charity donations yet never misses an opportunity to mention the money he donates to charities in the area he represents and in case anyone doesn’t get the message about what a lovely guy he is he makes sure the charity bears his name; does anyone really believe that there is no electoral gain in a politician donating money to a charity with his name on it? Our Jewish friends have a marvellous word for such brass necked behaviour, Chutzpah, look it up.

When Salmond (the spiv) behaves like this he is treating the ordinary people of his area and the people of Scotland with undisguised contempt; it is clear that he considers us all beneath him, is there not one nationalist with the bottle to stand up and say OK wide boy enough is enough.

'THROW ANOTHER PEASANT ON THE FIRE, I'M FEELING COLD' (DAVID CAMERON MP)

As the election draws closer the political parties are at great pains to sell themselves to the electorate; notwithstanding the possibility of a hung parliament it will be as always a fight between the Labour and Tory parties; the fact that we are actually talking about a Labour Tory fight is a remarkable testament to the durability and commitment of the Labour Party who have been pronounced dead and buried many many times in the last 6 months to a year. Some commentators have gone as far as to suggest that the Labour Party would cease to exist after this election others fervently wished it so. Both of course are wrong, people like me who have been party members for approx. 40 years laughed at the suggestion; I know from experience that the Labour Party is a cause, it’s a long difficult journey and well worth fighting for. I know the party, I know the members, we can bicker and fight but; that is no bad thing for a democratic party; when the chips are down we will rally we can do no other, we owe it to the generations past who fought for the freedom and representation of the working people; those past Labour members and voters to carry on and we will.

The Tories as part of their sales pitch are desperate to convince us that they have changed, they are no longer the ‘nasty party’ while the makeup of their shadow cabinet suggests quite convincingly that they have not changed one bit, they are as much as ever the party of the rich and privileged hoping to be elected to pursue the well being of the same rich and privileged class that they belong to.

Here is an example of why the Tories have not changed and have no intention of doing so, it’s a topical tale. Everyone agrees on cuts coming; the privileged rich almost destroyed the economy and the nation will gather round and pay for it; it was ever thus I hear you say and you are right. A good example of this is the firm Carphone Warehouse. This modern firm will bravely face the future and accept that times will be tough; outsourcing will be the name of the game but like good modern Tories they intend to make sure that their loyal workforce does not suffer unduly.

In an unprecedented outbreak of generosity at their place at Wednesbury Carphone Warehouse have decide to outsource their human resources staff to India; the generosity comes in with an offer to said staff to follow the jobs to India with the proviso that Indian wages and conditions will apply, all heart or what eh? Still let’s be fair they did make the offer; the staff’s response however has not been recorded or at least it hasn’t been printed.

Oh, and the generous to a fault owner of this exemplary firm? A Mr. Charles Dunstone friend and advisor to David Cameron yes the same Bullingdon boy Cameron who has changed along with his party. “The only constant is change” said the great Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky but I doubt he ever met the British Tory Party.

SNP CONTINUE TO WEAVE THEIR TANGLED WEB OVER POOL CLOSURES AND AND DEATH INSURANCE COVER FOR THEIR OWN WORKERS.

08.00 am. April 1St. 20 10 (an omen?) off to Renfrewshire Council for the regular full council meeting the circus is back in town, the now commonplace protest group gathers outside; protests are becoming more and more common the longer the SNP Lib. / Dem. cabal remain in power. Today’s protest is about a very embarrassing cut being made by the administration; perhaps I should rephrase that and say it is a cut which would disgrace anyone with an ounce of decency in them which is why it is being blithely done by the present administration who have shown already with other savage cuts that they are completely bereft of any decency and have no shame.

Many people thought they couldn’t get any worse after their attack on the elderly wardens service; that attack was followed by cuts in music tuition for our schoolchildren surely that’s about as low as they will sink we said; wow! these are tough guys with claymores; insensible and inept. Then came the abandonment of the pensioners yearly outing ‘doon the watter’ “completely out of order” we shouted along with the public; no more surely no more the suffering public pleaded; then they took away the school buses, we began to think we were living under occupation by a particularly sadistic enemy of the people, no more, no more we pleaded again on behalf of the population. Is there a pattern to this I hear you ask? think ‘vulnerable’, pensioners, school kids, the weakest under attack by the SNP Lib. Dem. bullies; that’s the pattern no mistake about it go for the weakest.

Today’s council meeting saw them descend to new depths; today Labour moved a motion to have the council reconsider it’s decision to remove Death Cover Insurance from it’s lowest paid workers; those who can’t afford the council pension schemes; the most defenceless again are hit and hit hard by these bean counters; this council can’t afford to cover it’s poorest workers but it can afford to pay it’s senior officers 22% pay rises giving rises in some cases of approx. £15,000 that’s a rise not a salary. During the debate the completely hapless SNP leader Mckay tried to tell us that his council were not mean and paid good wages; is he not aware of or is he deliberately ignoring the many full time council employees who can’t survive without benefits because their wages are so low? Is it dunderheed Derek or deceitful Derek?

THE POOLS PROTESTERS

Another protest today was from the Johnstone and Elderslie pools campaign; again the Labour group moved an amendment to reconsider the proposed closures; this time we got the impression that the administration were enjoying telling them that they had no chance; the protesters were very angry and I’m sure they will remember the conceit of the SNP Lib, Dem. Cllrs. Let me give you a couple of examples of the administration’s arguments and you can decide for yourselves whether they are being honest and straight with the people of Johnstone and Elderslie.

Cllr. McKay SNP boasted of organisations in the area who supported their plans, this sounds good until you examine what he is saying and you find that he and the council are being insincere in the extreme. The SNP Lib. Dems. have a large project to expand sports facilities which impinges on present swimming provision in the area they regularly trot out that Johnstone High School PTA support their plan; Johnstone High School will get a new swimming pool under their plan so no surprise there eh? SNP to the PTA “would you like a brand new school swimming pool?” PTA “ OK let us think about this, OK we’ve thought about it we want a new pool” hence cllr. McKay’s sly claim that he had their support. Then he claimed the support of a local swimming club which he said backed the plans for increased sports facilities; well they would wouldn’t they?

And here patient reader is the thing which blows their claim to have consulted out of the water if you will pardon the pun. The SNP Lib. Dem. disdain for the people is such that they think they can get away with claiming the support of groups without ever mentioning in their pitch to them that Johnstone and Elderslie pools were too close. That’s correct these shysters never asked anyone at all if they would support the closures of these two pools; they let the people they were selling it to assume that the new facilities were additional to the existing pools, a grubby trick and typical of the SNP Lib. Dems. The local swimming club wrote to Labour and said “under no circumstances do we support the closure of any existing facilities” the SNP conned them and the other people of the area. It remains the case that no one has been able to find anyone in the area who was consulted on these matters and certainly no one who was told that these 2 pools were to close as part of their plans.

We asked the SNP Lib. Dem. administration to consult again with the information included about the pool closures and they voted that down; considering their sneaky behaviour it comes as no surprise. These are the facts of the matter and they bring shame on Renfrewshire Council and particularly the SNP who lead it, they simply can’t be trusted but this aint over yet the people of the area are infuriated at what they are now learning, it has brought the local council and local politics into disrepute and is has to be sorted; how many people who were conned into voting for this mob of chancers are now regretting falling for their deceitful claims; will they make the same mistake again?