Here is an easy to understand statistic from the Israeli invasion of Palestine and the crimes that the Israeli's continue to commit.
No. of illegal Israeli settlers on Palestinian land: -
19 72 - 11, 00 - 20 09 - 571,000
This number continues to grow as Palestinians lose their homes, farms and villages to the brutal Israeli invaders. Use the number in the title block to register your protest!
It is easy to forget that some people are worse off than ourselves sometimes, when all this SNP, Libdem, Tory misery and treachery surrounds us we can easily forget about others; this is the case with the beleaguered people of Palestine. They continue to suffer under the lash of their Israeli occupiers who treat them as sub humans and destroy their homes and steal their land. Here in Renfrewshire we have a chance soon to touch base again with the Middle East catastrophe which the Palestinians suffer daily. The pain never goes away for them as the Israeli Govt. tries to destroy them and their country, it has become one of history's great crimes, racist and fascist in nature and being perpetrated by Israel whose people suffered from similar crimes in massive numbers, are they suffering from collective amnesia? On Wed. November 3rd. 20 10 at Ralston Community Centre Allanton Ave. Paisley PA1 3BL at 6 PM a meeting will take place sponsored by the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign. The organisation owes no particular allegiance to any party and all are welcome.
One speaker will be Ali El Awaisi who is a survivor of the Mavi Marmara; the ship which was attacked while carrying medical supplies to the Gaza Strip. Heavily armed and highly trained Israeli Commandos attacked the ship which was carrying peace activists and slaughtered some of them. Here is a chance to hear firsthand what happened and what continues to happen while Governments; our own past and present included wring their hands and do nothing. The image of Palestine which the world sees is that of a teenage boy throwing stones at an Israeli tank, why? What makes a young boy go up against a tank armed with stones? Is it safe to say it must be something serious, come along to this meeting and hear it from them! Ask questions if you want, you will get the chance to hear answers which are not filtered through the Murdoch opaque TV screen or distorted by the sycophantic cowardly British media who tremble before their American masters, see you there.
No one could blame the working people of Renfrewshire for feeling a wee bit sorry for themselves: we face a future of savage cuts by the Tory/Libdem British Government, cuts I would remind you which were described by Renfrewshire Council's SNP leader Derek Mackay as "about right" backed up by his coalition partner and enthusiastic supporter of her Libdem colleagues in the Govt. Eileen McCartin Libdem, a woman who believes in nothing except what is good for her personally. Times will be getting hard and these two and their lumpen SNP/Libdem supporters will continue to swindle voters while Mackay tries to avoid the fact that he is one of the useful idiots along with McCartin who are forced to support the Govt. She because her wretched party are part of it and he because he doesn't have the bottle to go up against big Eileen who has him by the shorts because without her the Renfrewshire cabal breaks up. Remember this lot folks when you next step inside a ballot box, between Westminster and Renfrewshire there exists a coalition of Tory, SNP and Libdem and none of them give a damn about working people and their families. Did you vote SNP? Libdem? even Tory? Well think about it hard, you got stitched up by people who have no idea of honesty or decency: don't let them do it again.
The above two comedians are insulting our intelligence. Until the SNP candidate for Holyrood Derek Mackay and his advisors decided that picking a fight against SPT might be spun and manipulated into something which might reflect well on him no one knew much about it. Except that most people had a vague idea that it was made up of many councils and provided transport services to Strathclyde, in many cases they were cheap services because of the economies of scale which SPT enjoy. Evidence of this can be found by anyone who cares to check the attendance and involvement of Renfrewshire Council’s representative on the SPT Libdem Cllr. Marie McGurk. Prior to them coming up with this spurious dispute she was mainly conspicuous by her absence and no one at the SPT knew her. She is now referred to by Derek Mackay as an excellent representative for the council, what kind of standards are they Derek? Or for that matter Marie?
Cllr. McGurk may well have been at some meetings and may well have slept through them which might explain her lack of any impact but; more often than not she would be absent; I wouldn’t be surprised now though to find her attendance has improved since she was publicly humiliated for her terrible attendance record by the Labour Group and the fact that Cllr. Mackay wants to use this for publicity. You cannot avoid the point that what the SNP and Cllr. Mackay are now regarding as some kind of disaster inflicted on Renfrewshire by the SPT was never referred to or mentioned by Renfrewshire Council’s delegate to the STP Cllr. McGurk until her SNP paymasters told her to start singing their song.
Cllr. McGurk is a pleasant enough woman who wouldn’t recognise the SPT if one of their busses ran her over. She is there as part of the coalition jobs hand out, she enjoys the benefits of being part of the SNP/Libdem cabal on Renfrewshire which provides her with funds and a delusion of power. Like her colleagues in the Libdems she is a political nonentity but they; like her enjoy that feeling of power and of course the money. She will now have to say what she is told to say at SPT meetings, write letters written for her by the SNP describing herself as the “outraged Cllr. McGurk” and generally jump up and down attacking SPT when told to by Derek Mackay. She has no choice! her and the other Libdem Cllrs. took the 30 pieces of silver and now they have to earn it that’s why they now support removing busses from school children, closing swimming pools, having the worst teacher pupil ratios in Scotland and of course supporting the Tory / Libdem cuts by the Government as demonstrated by the SNP candidate Derek Mackay who said at a full council meeting recently “the cuts are about right”
This farce will run and run as long as they think they can profit from it, if they decide it’s a busted flush at some point they will pull the rug from under Cllr. McGurk and leave her swinging in the wind. By then she will have made herself the No.1. enemy of the SPT and her only comfort will be that chimera of power and of course the money, don’t forget the money. Does anyone believe anything anymore that is said by the SNP or Libdems?
Today’s Paisley Daily Express carries a barefaced example of a politician abusing his position of power for private political gain. That politician is the increasingly more and more distressed SNP candidate for Holyrood, SNP Council Leader Derek Mackay. It has become clear that the SNP group and Cllr. Mackay have seized on the SPT to pick a fight with and give Derek a much needed cause to champion, watch as he portrays himself as the Renfrewshire David against the Strathclyde Passenger Transport Goliath it should be good for a laugh notwithstanding the cynicism of it all. But: you should remember as the bogus causes are highlighted by him and the SNP that he and they are prepared to risk the benefits that people need get their own ends.
In his column he portrays himself as the man to fight Renfrewshire’s corner and represent the local community: the parents of children now walking 3 miles to school where their children are suffering the worst pupil teacher ratios in Scotland, the elderly who now don’t have wardens and the student teachers who can’t get a job as well as those who are about to take the brunt of the savage Tory/ Libdem Govt. cuts. Cuts which he and the Renfrewshire SNP/Libdem coalition administration supported will no doubt be glad to hear it. I can’t say it often enough and I intend to keep repeating it, he has no place to hide. In a debate at the last full council he Derek Mackay said “The government cuts are about right” A wee while ago he awarded senior officers of Rengrewshire Council, some already earning 70, 80 90, £100,000 a year raises of 23%, the people’s champion right enough!
In his column he tried to big himself up by saying the Labour Councillors on the Scrutiny Board which is investigating STP and its dealings with Renfrewshire Council tried to prevent him from speaking, a load of bull. I am one of those councillors and what we did was ask him what he was doing there as he had no expertise or experience of the subject. Anyone who is asked to address the Scrutiny Board is invited because they have a degree of knowledge or experience of the subject under examination, hence road engineers, bus company’s user groups etc. were asked to contribute, he Mackay has none of these things.
Make no mistake about this he was there for 2 reasons 1/ because being Council leader got him in and 2/ because he is campaigning for a seat in Holyrood. He saw the chance of some good publicity as you can see from today’s turgid Mackay column imaginatively called “the real MacKay” perhaps a career in literature awaits him if he doesn’t get to Holyrood? His lack of knowledge and his attempts to sound important were so wretched that despite being given a 20 minute slot on the agenda he only managed to speak for a pathetic 5 minutes where he seemed to get smaller by the second, he then bolted out and refused to take questions, despite my Labour comrade Jim Sharkey and me entreating him to stay.
Cllr. Mackay will no doubt be trying similar stunts and we will continue to expose him for the dissembling political charlatan that he is.
The first two paragraphs below are from a statement by Wendy Alexander which I agree
with entirely.
"The decision of the Scottish Government to attempt to resell land acquired to facilitate the Glasgow Airport Rail Link (GARL) is a desperate act by an administration determined to cover its own inadequacies in handling this vital transport intervention. The cancellation cost Paisley Town Centre an estimated 700 much needed new jobs. The cancellation of GARL was a political decision of the most petty and spiteful kind. It was never fully thought through. After making the decision the Scottish Government has had to employ a raft of misinformation to justify its decision and one by one these mistruths have been exposed as fallacy. The first reaction was to claim the costs had escalated - not true. Then the scaremongering of other budgets being sacrificed was used until Network Rail stepped up to offer the finance; the business case was then falsely trashed and finally to peddle urban myths such as trains running empty or no environmental benefits. Ever since the decision last September the government machine has been working overtime in doing everything it can to vilify GARL. The myths have been exposed and the Scottish Government stands accused of ripping off Renfrewshire.
Even Renfrewshire Council decided to keep the GARL legal agreement alive so a new administration could make the project work after next May. The Scottish Government's scorched earth approach would rather write off over £40 million of public money than engage in any dialogue which may discomfit them. SNP members who purport to represent the local areas where this investment would bring real benefits to their communities should be deeply embarrassed."
The charge sheet continues to grow and it looks bad for the SNP while here in Renfrewshire it looks worse: it is now difficult to find anyone here who will admit to voting for them. They are repenting at leisure their decision to join with the Lib. Dems. Without even bothering to discuss any agreement Cllr. Mackay should have taken a step back and had a long hard look at who he was negotiaiting with, he has been a member of Renfrewshire Council long enough to know Cllr. Eileen McArtin’s character. She is enjoying being deputy leader of the council and she has Derek by the throat, she gets what she wants by threatening to pull the plug on the coalition. It is impossible to pick anyone worse to have any power over you than her: I have had the misfortune of knowing her for some 12 years and I can honestly say that I have never once seen her display any kindness or compassion for anyone or anything accept what is in her own selfish interests, and it’s all done from what she ludicrously thinks is some kind of moral high ground.
If you don’t agree you should consider why the SNP Lib. Dem. Alliance on Renfrewshire Council supported the Tory/Lib. Dem. Govt. Cuts at the last full council. Think about that one carefully, the SNP who have always claimed to hate the Westminster Govt. And all things Tory supported their vicious cuts, come on! why? ask why? The answer is simple and brutal and the brutality did not come from Mackay, he was simply told by the deputy leader McArtin that she was not prepared to vote against the Lib. Dems. Who are in coalition with the Tories in Westminster, vote against the Govt. and our little arrangement is over, Mackay of course bottled it and she is now dominant.
The faces of the SNP so called hard liners were a picture as they sat in silence and let this betrayal go through council. Perhaps the treacherous Mackay and his supporters should remember the saying “revenge is a dish best served cold” and there are some particularly vicious and underhand SNP waiters eyeing his back and waiting to serve him. Remember folks when you here about more savage cuts like child benefits and winter fuel allowance for the elderly the Renfrewshire SNP/Lib. Dem. alliance Supported them.
