EQUAL RIGHTS IN THE LABOUR PARTY.

If it is permissible for the PLP to challenge Jeremy Corbyn then it must follow that we, the party members can challenge those Labour MP’S who challenged Jeremy, right?. 

WHY WON'T THE SNP BAN FRACKING OUTRIGHT? - READ THIS.

The suspicion remains that the SNP are not prepared to come clean over their dealings with fracking and this recent  Herald story shows why. I have been sent posts from an SNP apologist called Gordon Walker who has been tying himself in knots in his attempts to defend the SNP’S stance over fracking, I look forward to his view on this.  

 From the Herald. ------ THE former cabinet secretary in charge of planning took thousands of pounds from a family business linked to fracking for his re-election campaign, it has emerged. Alex Neil accepted almost £3000 in donations from the family behind a leading drilling company that stands to benefit if the SNP allows fracking in Scotland.  According to official election records, Hydracrat Ltd donated £490 to Neil on March 21, and five members of the Hill family then gave a further £2420 between them by March 25. Bobby Hill, 54, the company’s director and sole shareholder, gave £485; his 80-year-old mother Jean gave £495; his wife Linda, 52, gave £470; and his sons Robert, 24, and Ross, 21, gave £490 and £480 respectively.

The threshold for reporting a donation to the Electoral Commission is £500.

Neil took the cash while Cabinet Secretary for Communities, which gave him responsibility for planning, despite controversy over previous Hydracrat donations because of its fracking links.In November, it emerged SNP candidate Neil Gray, now the Airdrie & Shotts MP, took £3750 from the firm in 2015, despite taking a public stance against fracking. Hydracrat also donated £17,500 to the SNP in 2010, and Bobby Hill gave £6500 to the Airdrie & Shotts constituency branch in 2011, though not to Neil directly. Over the last 5 years or so this company Hydracat which is linked to fracking have donated nearly £31,000 to the SNP, through the party itself, one of its branches and two of its candidates.

Central Scotland Labour MSP Richard Leonard, who stood against Neil, said: “Alex Neil has some explaining to do. People in Scotland need to know that government ministers are making decisions based on the evidence, not on who is funding their political campaigns. An SNP spokeswoman said: “Alex Neil instructed government officials months ago that any application from any donor to his campaign would have to be decided upon by another minister to avoid any conflict of interest, or suspicion of any conflict of interest. The insinuation here is a red herring." It would appear therefore that according to this SNP statement that even if Neil is squeaky clean that another SNP minister and the party itself are happy with donations being designed to avoid being declared by a company who are linked to fracking. Are their members also OK with this?. 

THE LATE GREAT AMERICAN FOLK SINGER PETE SEEGER HAD THESE WORDS PRINTED ON HIS FAMOUS BANJO - "THIS MACHINE SURROUNDS HATRED AND FORCES IT TO SURRENDER".

Time perhaps to listen to the singer. Every time a politician makes a disparaging remark about immigrants, asylum seekers or refugees they bring the day closer that another terrible incident like the one which took the life of young Labour MP Jo Cox will occur. We now live in a febrile anti Muslim cauldron of hatred because of the constant fraudulent propaganda being put out by right wing groups and reactionary racist MP’S and their fellow travellers, no one would now be in the least surprised if similar attacks are carried out again, such is the unstable nature of our society today and still, the propaganda and hate speech continues. The crime of inciting hatred is now largely ignored because it has been allowed to fester by the authorities who are afraid to enforce the law.     

The other day we saw a truly nauseating billboard displayed by the fascist Nigel Farage who is responsible for stirring up this poison. This billboard showed a large queue of what were clearly foreigners waiting to enter the UK, it was positively Goebblesesque in its conception and display and reached a new depth of racist malice, created and displayed by people who claim to be white UK Christians!. The ‘mob’ is ever susceptible to this kind of filth and no one knows when the propaganda will reach a point where some vulnerable bigot will decide to take action which will lead to tragedy. I do not accept for one minute that those who provoke such incidents can genuinely claim to be innocent of incitement. Here in Scotland we witnessed a pattern of racist hatred against English people which built up over several years which culminated in Scotland being one of the most hate filled countries in the world as we approached the referendum, this was demonstrated in the awful scenes in George Square when the Nationalists lost, some disingenuously expressed alarm and surprise at the events which took place but those who knew the truth saw it coming over a long period of time. Abusive language and constant displays of hatred perpetrated against people who are targeted for being ‘different’ will eventually bubble over and there is no telling where it will lead.         

Action has to be taken now before it is too late to put a stop to those who pedal hatred, particularly prominent people such as MP’S and leaders of political groups and ad hoc rabble rousers who are not happy unless they are abusing someone or beating up someone who is according to their twisted minds the wrong colour. That process should start with The Daily Mail, The Daily Express, the SUN, The Telegraph and the rest of that ilk. Free speech does not mean that the spreading of hatred and encouragement of racist violence should be tolerated. 

HOW DO YOU OPPOSE FRACKING? ‘BY ABSTAINING’ – SNP.

  

Unedifying obfuscation is now the default position of the SNP and their mob of supporters in relation to Fracking as they twist and turn while refusing to ban it entirely. In the course of the past year they have gone from sabre rattling against Fracking to being terrified to mention it at all, they adopted the prison camp guard’s excuse of ‘we are following orders, we can’t ban it’ when in actual fact they can ban it, so why the tissue of lies?.  

Such was the determination of the SNP hierarchy to stamp out dissent on this that they made sure that it would not be debated at their conference, so to those SNP members who are opposed to it which means most of them before they were stood on by Nicola and her guards the order is ‘whatever you say, say nothing’, or else. This deception got them by the recent Holyrood election but it helped to lose the SNP its overall majority, this in turn led to a situation which could only be described as humiliating for Sturgeon and her now minority government as she instructed her party to abstain and the remaining MSP’S led by Labour recorded a victory for banning over it’s then only supporters the Tories. It all begs the question, how long can the SNP keep going without a rebellion in the ranks, bit by bit the things which the SNP once stood for are being dismantled by the likes of Sturgeon, Swinney and Neil who chose the careerist path a long time ago.  

There is a spectre hanging over this whole business and that spectre is called Jim Ratcliffe the owner of Ineos who, with the help of the SNP destroyed so many jobs at Grangemouth. It was he who smiled to the cameras on leaving a meeting with the SNP as he stated ‘I see no problem with Fracking going ahead’ could the sinister smirking face of Fergus Ewing who was right behind him have had anything to do with Mr. Ratcliffe’s confidence?. I smell an SNP rat and that is why they are in such a mess over this issue. Make no mistake about it when a man like Ratcliffe looks at someone like Nicola Sturgeon he sees what con men call a ‘mark’.