THE SNP'S WEE BRIAN, BIG WULL AND POSH AND BECKS MACLAREN AND THE SCOTTISH BLUEBELL MATCHES.

No one really likes to say ‘I told you so’ but sometimes it is inescapable. This morning I saw the beginning of chaos in the snp which I had been predicting after a referendum defeat, this thought crossed my mind when I looked at the headlines in the Scottish morning papers today, there pictured in all their awfulness were snp Councillors Brian Lawson, Mags MacLaren and Will. Mylet, brought to us courtesy of amateur photographer and amateur politician Kenny Maclaren snp who wielded the camera. It took a while to get the head round what they were doing and it turned out they were burning a report on devolved powers for the Scottish parliament which displeased them, a publicity stunt if you will. We have all heard the saying “there is no such thing as bad publicity” a saying which usually applies to charlatans and self publicists, like the snp for instance, I doubt if these 4 hapless idiots would concur with that saying right now. As the country awoke the snp had already condemned their actions and by afternoon they had all 4 been suspended from the party, I wonder if Ms. Sturgeon has ever heard of Harold MacMillan’s answer to a reporter who asked and I paraphrase “what worries you” ? to which ‘Supermac’ replied, “events dear boy events”. The person who should have been left holding this first of many babies is of course wee alex (Del boy) salmond who with rat like cunning saw what was coming and ‘done a runner’ he now counts his money and plays golf while the useful idiots that he marched up and down the hill deal with the hopping mad fall out caused by him.  

One of the most disturbing aspects of this affair is the snp’s murky past. This has been a constant embarrassment to the snp, their tactic of choice in dealing with these matters is denial, abuse and evading the issue. The sight of politicians burning writings that they do not like of course brings back memories of when such behaviour by nationalist mobs led to catastrophic events. I was tempted to hurry over to the railway station to see if the trains had suddenly started running on time. What we saw here was the snp behaving execrably in public, people who are regular attendees at council meetings will not be in the least surprised, I urge the public to attend these meetings and witness their conduct.

Renfrewshire has the reputation of being one of the worst behaved council’s in Scotland because of their antics which have been going on for years. They are also seen as an snp “fundy” stronghold meaning that they are strongly in favour of nationalist fundamentalism, they regard themselves as having been betrayed by people like salmond, Sturgeon and Swinney who persuaded members to adopt a gradualist approach to independence only to lose convincingly, they are livid and out for revenge. Internecine warfare and dirty tricks between the ‘fundies’ and the ‘traitors’ looks more than likely and “them that dies will be the lucky ones” (Long John Silver). The increase in members to the snp could easily turn out looking like a Gadarene Rush when the new recruits realise what the party they have joined are really like. This is only the start.      

THE SNP FUNDIES v THE SNP FEARTIES, CLEAR THE FLOOR.

Two months after the referendum and as I predicted we see the first snp splinter group flexing it’s muscles, I thought it would have happened sooner. Next door to Nicola’s coronation we saw the another meeting by the Radical Independence Campaign (RIC) ready to rumble now that they have lost and how long will it take before the new members realise that people like Swinney, Sturgeon, Constance, Matheson, Brown etc. are in essence apolitical?. A mixture of women in grey skirts and men in grey kilts, they would slip seamlessly in to any corporate or bank boardroom, this could be entertaining. It could be great fun, all those new members to win over plus all the many fundamentalists who were persuaded to toe the line and did so grudgingly only to see themselves beaten anyway, they have a score to settle with the leadership and their supporters who "sold the jerseys".  And what do they see now? An snp government and cabinet bristling with revolutionaries right?. What they see is an established snp leadership made up of gradualists and time servers armed now with membership of NATO, the British Monarchy and right wing policies to please the capitalist bosses. How many of the new members from God knows where are going to buy the tactics and policies which failed?, the clue is in the name ‘radical’.  

The snp government consists of the same people who crushed what I prefer to call ‘the real snp’ nut cases and head bangers for sure but commited to independence or, as they would have it ‘freedom’. This mob who are now licking their wounds and planning treason will not be willing to agree to the same old gradualist tactics that salmond and the right wing sold them, their promises failed and the big hairy bearded whisky sodden foul mouthed violent snp shock troops are bloody angry and the snp male shock troops are just as bad. I reckon there could be some internecine jiggery pokery ahead and “them that dies will be the lucky ones” (Long John Silver). At this stage I expect there to be a minimum of at least 2 snp parties on the go within 2 years, The snp liberation front for Scotland and The Scottish Liberation Front, just like Judea in Monty Python. Stand aside everyone the ferrets are entering the sack.   

A POLITICAL GIANT PREPARES TO LEAVE THE STAGE.

Interesting reactions in the Herald’s comments site to Gordon Brown’s decision to retire from front line politics. 32 years in Parliament, Prime Minister, Chancellor of the Exchequer,  victor of the referendum, ender of Alex Salmond's Career holder of a 30,000 majority but. Some Herald readers it seems 'kent his faither' and they try to traduce his achievements with obnoxious criticisms, these are the cretins that we associate with the phrase which welcomes visitors to Scotland, “you’ll have had your tea”.  Scotland must have some of the meanest nasty pinch faced characters in the world. He is regarded world wide as one of the great statesmen and politicians of our times except in the country of his birth by the knuckle dragging nationalists. No doubt they are ‘boaking’ in to their sporrans at the memory of ‘Irn Broon’ kicking their ‘erses’ at the climax of the referendum where he strode the land swatting nationalists like flies and looking like a giant among snp pygmies.

The truth of the matter is that these people are actually pretty dumb and do not see how toxic and embarrassing they are. The fact that Brown has strode the political stage for such a long time and to such effect is not what winds them up the most. He is renowned worldwide, he is one of the cleverest men of his generation, He is 100% solid Labour and 100% solid Scottish. The hatred felt for him by nationalists comes from that last point about his Scottishness, they simply regard anyone who is not a Scottish nationalist with hatred and when that great Scotsman Brown is opposed to nationalism their rage becomes unmanageable. I hope he will be around for a long time to come and I hope he will continue to cast his giant shadow over Scottish nationalism and it’s totalitarian and racist ideals.   

WE'RE SH**E AND WE KNOW WE ARE.

Do you ever like me stop and wonder at the gullibility of the average supporter of the Scotland football team?. The player pool available for international matches has only two above average players Brown and Fletcher (not Darren). Neither of these two however would get in to the English pool of players and neither would any other Scottish players either. Despite this almost 60,000 of them attended the match between Scotland and England at Celtic park last night to witness what a predictable drubbing was dished out by the English. Yes I know a 3-1 defeat does not seem like a drubbing but that is what it was, this was an under strength England playing at half pace and they should have scored double the goals that they did. Scotland played it was a cup final and England played it like the friendly that it was and Scotland still couldn’t land a glove on them if you will pardon the mixed sporting metaphors.

Rooney and Wiltshire alone are worth as much as any 6 or 7 of Scotland’s best players, international football is now an embarrassing farce and it needs overhauled. We ought not to be seeing countries with populations of 3 or 4 million people playing against countries of 60 + million. International football should be hurriedly sorted in to leagues like domestic football and teams like Scotland, Ireland and Gibraltar for God’s sake would be in lower leagues from England, Brazil and Italy thus avoiding humiliation. Scotland can of course  always produce players like Law, Bremner, Johnstone, Baxter, Souness and Murdoch but until we can come up with a way of producing them at the same time as each other we will continue to be regularly gubbed. Our sporting press however will continue come what may to wind up the idiots with fancy tartan dress outfits who cause us humiliation by telling them that, this time we are real contenders, garbage, utter garbage..    

SCOTLAND'S FOOTBALL SHAME.

When alex salmond waxed lyrical about what a wonderful country Scotland was he resolutely avoided any mention of ugly issues such as racism and sectarianism, he was of course and still is an habitual and devious liar. The present controversy about certain footballers deciding to play international football for countries other than the country of their birth reminds me once again of Scotland’s disgrace when it comes to the twin evils of racism and sectarianism. It is difficult to find a more hypocritical stance than that taken by people who willingly encourage and support footballers who decide to play for Scotland who were not born here while levelling criticism and abuse at a couple of footballers who do exactly the same thing by deciding to play for Ireland despite being born here in Scotland, I refer of course to the Irish internationalists McCarthy and McGeady, what kind of an idiot is Gordon McQueen who actually encouraged Scottish fans to abuse both these players despite he himself  having played with players for Scotland who were not born here?. Is big Gordon an idiot, a bigot, a hypocrite or is he a mixture of all three?. Incidents like this give the lie to those who claim bogusly that Scotland is not a country infected by these issues and they are still mainly directed at Irish Catholics, and McGeady and McCarthy fit the bill nicely.

During the Jock Stein years at Parkhead Celtic brought unprecedented glory to Scotland by being one of the dominant teams in Europe and over a period of about 6 or 7 years they won the European cup reached another European cup final and contested semi and quarter finals regularly, there was not a team in Europe at this time who did not fear coming to Glasgow to face that mighty Celtic team. It is also my contention that Celtic did not get the credit or respect that their achievements deserved because of the aforementioned twin evils of racism and sectarianism in Scottish society, this was and still is down to their history of being an Irish Catholic institution in Scotland. The 11 players who won the European cup were all eligible to play for Scotland and indeed they all did so, and here are the stats. Ronny Simpson 5 caps, Jim Craig 1 cap, Tommy Gemmell 16 caps, Bobby Murdoch 12 caps, Billy McNeill 29 caps, John Clark 4 caps, Jimmy Johnston 23 caps, Willie Wallace 7 caps, Steve Chalmers 5 caps, Berti Auld 3 caps and Bobby Lennox 10 caps. Check it out, Murdoch, Wallace, Chalmers, Lennox, Johnston, McNeill etc. dominated Europe but were not considered good enough for Scotland, are there people out there who think these guys actually were not good enough?. These eleven players could have gone to the world cup as Scotland’s first choice players and based on their ability to do so well in Europe where Man U, Liverpool, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Ajax, the Milans etc etc played they could have made their mark and done very well indeed. Can anyone explain that?, perhaps McGeady and McCarthy got the impression that they, like the players I have spoken about were not welcome.   Oh just a thought did I mention one Jimmy McGrory?, he got 7 caps, ken?.              

WHAT ELSE LURKS BEHIND THE SNP'S FETID TARTAN VEIL?.

Billy McAllister snp councillor has been suspended for making alleged bigoted anti homosexual remarks. The snp will be hoping that their actions here will divert people from their squalid record on this issue. In 2011 snp MSP John Mason moved an anti Gay motion in Holyrood. Alyn Smith snp MEP bravely broke ranks at the time and said the following "What is in the small, mean, angry heads of bigots is a matter for them. I never asked for their approval, but I demand equality". Congrats are also due to snp MP Pete Wishart, who back then actually had some principals, he described the snp's John Mason's move as a "nasty little anti-gay marriage motion", this repellent motion was supported by snp MSP's Bill Walker (remember him?), Dave Thompson and Richard Lyle. The snp's record on Gay rights is appalling. Wee Holy Brian Souter, persecutor of the gay community Bankrolls the snp and they got him a Knighthood for his generosity. A motion which still stands at Holyrood I believe condemns the snp for doing business with the virulently anti gay Mormon Brigham Young University In Utah America. They (the snp) had a squalid little agreement with the American Mormon Peddlers of bigotry and hatred to employ their students as 'interns' for snp MSP’S at Holyrood. The shyster salmond also hawked what passes for his ‘principles’ around various ‘Christian’?, groups to find loop holes which would allow him not to offend them over the issue of Gay adoption rights. If Mr. McAllister's actions shine a light on the snp's dirty little secret it would be a good thing.

NEIL FINDLAY LABOUR MSP PUTS THE LEFT VISION FORWARD.

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OCT
2014

Wednesday 22ND

posted by Morning Star in Features

There’s an open goal if we offer a programme of radical change, says NEIL FINDLAY

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As Scotland enters the post-referendum era with a new First Minister in waiting and a political landscape still reverberating from the decisive rejection of independence, the Scottish Labour Party now faces a number of challenges.

While the media focuses on the growth in membership of the SNP and the Greens — not without its challenges — or the creation of yet another new left party (what a novel idea that is), Labour has to respond and respond quickly to the new terrain.

For some the answer lies in the further devolution or independence for the party in Scotland or some other bureaucratic or organisational changes.

Necessary though organisational change is, the most pressing response required is a political one.

And I would argue — following the massive turnout at the referendum — that anyone who thinks that we can take on the SNP from any other position than firmly to their left needs to re-enter this world from cloud cuckoo land.

So, in setting clear red water between Scottish Labour and a Sturgeon-led SNP government, the party should consider the following policy options:

-Committing in principle to a policy of full employment. It is the most basic need of human beings to have the wherewithal to provide for themselves and their family

-Establishing a national house-building programme to build council houses and social housing on a grand scale

-Setting up a living wage unit in the Scottish government that would use grants, procurement and every lever of government to raise the minimum wage to the living wage

-Re-democratise local government, financing services and freeing councils to set their own taxes again and be held to account for doing so — and begin reversing the 40,000 job losses across our councils

-End the social care scandal by making social care a rewarding, fairly paid career and ending the indignity of short-timed care visits — following the best practice in the sector

-Create quality apprenticeships and new college places that set young people up for life — 130,000 places have been lost under the SNP

-An industrial policy that promotes manufacturing and new sustainable jobs

-A wholesale review of our NHS — recruiting enough staff and rewarding them to ensure we have an NHS for the 21st century; ending the increasing spend on the private sector

-Build a charter of workers’ rights with new legislation on the fatal accident inquiries and strict liability, devolved health and safety, new legislation on equalities, the living wage and blacklisting, and a commitment to an inquiry into the miners’ strike

These are policies that will have an impact on people across Scotland — especially those who have been victims of the Tory class war on the poor and who those who have been left behind as the SNP try yet again to be all things to all people.

We should remember that the SNP is vulnerable for that very reason.

It has not protected the NHS. It has failed to use its powers of procurement to enforce the living wage.

It has made no commitments on workers’ rights beyond talk about partnership. It has taken no action on blacklisting. It still sees economic growth in terms of cutting taxes on big business and the super-rich.

Even its most recent policy announcement on a land and buildings transaction tax trails behind that already announced by Labour.

Labour proposes an annual tax on mansions while the SNP will simply impose a tax when properties are sold.

Those on the left should remember this. The SNP is not a social-democratic party. It is a nationalist party that is at the same time populist. It seeks links with the trade union movement — but also with big business. Its economic policy documents show it to be essentially neoliberal, ultimately defending the privileges of the market.

This is the open goal for the Labour Party. Policy is the key to our future success — let’s start to build that radical policy programme now.

Neil Findlay MSP is the Scottish Labour Party’s front-bench spokesperson for health.

TIME FOR COMMON SENSE TO BREAK OUT COMRADES.

At times like these we need the unions, that is why they are under such attack from the right wing Tories, UKIP and the snp, the former two do not try to hide their hatred of the trade union movement and the latter one, the snp try do to hide their hatred of the Unions but their hatred is such that it is impossible to disguise it. I think this is a prudent time to once again paraphrase the immortal "Reg" the leader of the 'people's front of Judea' or was it the 'Judean people's front' when I ask you to have a look at the poster below which speaks for itself and say "OK then what else have the Unions ever done for us, tell me that, just what?.

(if your eye sight is like mine, left click on the poster to increase it's size).  

HERE IS SOME INFORMATION THAT THE TORIES, UKIP AND THE GUTTER RIGHT WING PRESS WOULD PREFER YOU NOT TO SEE.

When The Daily Mail, The Sun, The Express, The Telegraph and the other Tory right wing media rags push out their racist and dishonest headlines which are designed to deliberately create false impressions we should look harder at what these low life journalists are saying. The article below is a good starter and it nails their lies and the contempt that they have for the truth. 

Democracy is  dependent upon an electorate that is accurately informed.

Unfortunately, UK government ministers and the right-wing press have made sure that we are misinformed about (almost) everything – here is the result. The chart is the result of an Ipsos.MORI poll examining the difference between peoples’ perceptions (mean estimates) and reality (actual) when asked questions about the UK population.

 Here is another example from the Ipsos.MORI poll (referenced below):

Teenage pregnancy: on average, we think teenage pregnancy is 25 times higher than official estimates:  we think that 15% of girls under 16 get pregnant each year, when official figures suggest it is around 0.6%[i].

Here is the reality

“With the lowest numbers recorded since 1969, the teenage pregnancy rate is proof of all the hard work of sexual health and education professionals, and the lasting legacy of the decade-long Teenage Pregnancy Strategy.
Read more at http://www.fpa.org.uk/news/teen-pregnancy-rates-continue-fall-england-and-wales#1CdvzfTmfHPWh1cR.99

Was this news on the front page of the Daily Mail.  Of course not – it did not fit their alternative reality.  It would only be on their front page if they could somehow twist the data into a moral outrage about increasing teenage pregnancy.  Even the Mail has failed to manage this – so far.

More from the IpsosMORI poll:

Foreign aid: 26% of people think foreign aid is one of the top 2-3 items government spends most money on, when it actually made up 1.1% of expenditure (£7.9bn) in the 2011/12 financial year. More people select this as a top item of expenditure than pensions (which cost nearly ten times as much, £74bn) and education in the UK (£51.5bn).

Benefit fraud: people estimate that 34 times more benefit money is claimed fraudulently than official estimates: the public think that £24 out of every £100 spent on benefits is claimed fraudulently, compared with official estimates of £0.70 per £100.

These two pieces of research indicate the gap between perception and reality in the British public:

The IpsosMORI Poll – Perceptions are not reality: http://www.ipsos-mori.com/researchpublications/researcharchive/3188/Perceptions-are-not-reality.aspx

British public wrong about nearly everything, survey shows:  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/british-public-wrong-about-nearly-everything-survey-shows-8697821.html

Also:

“Watching Only Fox News Makes You Less Informed Than Watching No News At All” http://www.businessinsider.com/study-watching-fox-news-makes-you-less-informed-than-watching-no-news-at-all-2012-5#ixzz2o2UEgHzE

These are just a few examples of government ministers misinforming the public:

David Cameron Rebuked For Making Misleading Economy Claim, Again: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/03/08/david-cameron-obr-economy-growth_n_2836515.html

Ministers who misuse statistics to mislead voters must pay the price.   http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/may/31/ministers-misuse-statistics-resign

Minister rebuked over immigration statistics:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-16730433

Incapacity benefit test claims ‘conflated figures’ – watchdog: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22720007

Iain Duncan Smith criticised over benefit cap figures:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22462265

Duncan Smith ‘clarifies’ Commons slip over benefit data: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11792700

This gives just a few recent examples of tabloid misinformation:

The Daily Mail & The Sun continue to undermine their own case for press freedom: http://www.reasonandreality.org/?p=2837

More:

The Lies of Right Wing Tories, Blairites, Free Marketeers and Neolibertarians:  http://www.reasonandreality.org/?p=2017

Some Questions for our local MP John Glen: http://www.reasonandreality.org/?p=1789

Cameron won’t make me a Minister… I’m a white, married, Home Counties Christian, says Tory MP John Glen: http://www.reasonandreality.org/?p=1494

A QUESTION FOR NICOLA STURGEON !

The snp are on the run again from a perfectly straight forward question which I have been asking them. It could hardly be more simple yet no one wants to address it from the nationalists who have gone uncharacteristically quiet.

When Gordon Brown was appointed Prime Minister a huge, no doubt orchestrated snp cacophony of abuse was directed at him and Labour based on the fact that he was appointed without a vote. They have since then continued to accuse him and Labour of being undemocratic, totalitarian, dictatorial and much more since that day, insisting that he should never have been recognised as PM because he was not voted in to that position. 3 days ago those accusations ceased. 3 days ago the snp appointed Nicola sturgeon without a vote and not one snp member, elected official, councillor, MSP, EU MP or even supporter has raised a voice in protest, not one.

What has happened to their democratic outrage? Their wrath? Their righteousness?. Is this an unprecedented outbreak of amnesia?, a massive collective head injury?. Or Is it in fact an embarrassing example of synthetic rage and hypocrisy, will anyone answer me, sturgeon must be ‘de facto’ undemocratic, totalitarian, dictatorial, right?, surely we are entitled to have this anomaly cleared up by the snp. What a way to begin a career as first minister and leader of her party, how can we the people of Scotland take seriously someone who runs away from such an obvious position of cowardice and mendacity.     

"THE OLD WILL DIE AND THE YOUNG WILL FORGET" DAVID BEN GURION.

The above quote from David Ben Gurion Israel’s first Prime Minister was his response to accusations (which he acknowledged) about Israel’s occupation of Palestine and their atrocities against the indigenous Arab peoples of that beautiful peaceful country. Well, “the old” he referred to are indeed dead as is he, but what of the young? have they forgotten?, I leave you to judge.  Today the beleaguered Palestinians and millions across the world are celebrating a victory for justice and a triumph over evil as the Westminster Parliament voted overwhelmingly last night to recognise the State of Palestine. Israel and its Zionist war criminal leaders will be livid, they will try to undermine the seriousness of this vote but, make no mistake about it this is hugely significant and a huge blow to Israel. Public opinion is changing and has been shifting against Israel for some time now. Israel’s most potent enemy is not Hamas or any other military threat it is publicity. The all seeing eye of the ubiquitous camera and the courage of the people using the cameras, the unforgiving and relentless photographic evidence, the eye witness accounts and detailed stories of indiscriminate atrocities being committed by them against non combatants is what  will finally destroy them, just as it did America in Vietnam. The iconic picture of the tiny naked Vietnamese girl fleeing in terror from the American napalm attack damaged them more than the Viet Cong ever could and Gaza today echoes that situation, how many people are there like me who instead of picturing olive groves and peaceful scenes picture a small boy throwing a stone at a tank when they think of Israel?.  

This is a small but important step forward for Palestine but there is still a long way to go. More and more people are realizing that Israel is running out of friends, more and more people are refusing to visit the country or buy its produce; they are becoming international pariahs who slaughter Palestinians at will as the past 3 conflicts in Gaza have shown. They talk about peace while annexing Palestinian land, building illegal settlements and refusing to obey the UN and the world courts. They refuse to allow the right of return of refugees, they refuse to return land taken by war, they refuse to agree to East Jerusalem belonging to the Arabs and they confine the Arabs behind an apartheid wall. The state of Israel is a match for any brutal and tyrannical country that ever existed. Eventually they will be defeated and justice will prevail. Meanwhile I urge everyone to have no dealings of any kind with them.             

WHEN YOU AVOID VOTING IT'S NOT REBELLION IT'S SURRENDER.

The heading above this post "when you avoid voting it's not rebellion it's surrender" is from my American correspondent in Chicago who keeps a forensic eye on politics in the USA and here in his native Scotland. 

Salmond is running out of time for telling lies, 'ergo' there is a light at the end of the tunnel. His latest underhand scam is to portray the people who avoided paying the poll tax as some kind of heroes or rebels he want's their votes so it's another bribe like the council tax freeze and other freebies for those who can well afford to pay. I have no quarrel with people who disagreed with the poll tax or people who protested against it, I personally was the Chairman of the Shortroods anti poll tax association here in Paisley and like most others I ended up paying it but we did not fail, it destroyed Thatcher after all. 

When we are considering salmond's intention to grant an amnesty to those who did not pay we must consider what happened to those who in fact did avoid paying, what punishment if any did they receive for breaking the law?. How many non payers do you know who were charged?, I don't know a single one, all those I knew paid it despite their hatred for it, that is because they knew that it was the right thing to do. They knew that no one has the right to refuse to pay a tax which is legal and democratically levied no matter how much we despise it. If we say it's all right to refuse to pay such a tax how do we deal with the billionaires who dodge paying taxes?, is it now OK according to salmond for Michael Anthony Ashcroft, Baron Ashcroft, KCMG PC AKA "Lord Ashcroft " the multi billionaire bank roller of the Tory Party not to pay taxes?, no matter how you slice it it certainly looks that way. 

For those who refused to pay and faced charges I have respect, for those who refused to pay and went "missing" I have no respect, they abdicated their right to vote so that they could avoid paying, they sold their democratic rights, rights which were secured for them by hundreds of years of sacrifice and struggle. Mr. salmond is leaving still showing his contempt for the Scottish people, by bribing them, he thinks we are all as bent as he is.    

"You cannot hope to bribe or twist (thank God!) the British journalist. But, seeing what the man will do unbribed, there's no occasion to." Humbert Wolfe.

Here is something that never changes. Lies are told constantly by the right wing media to portray their view of the world, a spun story, an oft repeated rumour, lies and innuendo, they are all the stock in trade of the Capitalist media journalist. The result of this constant barrage of propaganda is that many people, most of them honest and decent form, through no fault of their own a consensus of opinion about societies so called 'problems' and, more importantly who is to blame for them.This supply of misinformation comes in many forms from across a wide range of sources as disparate as the BNP and SNP with the former blaming blacks and the latter blaming the English all the way to the "quality" newspapers and commentators. The table below is an example of where this can lead and then consequently lead on to division and ill informed prejudice. Don't be fooled by them, check whatever they tell you, then check it again. I read once about a young man who had left home and when his parents wrote to him asking questions about how he was getting on, what his accommodation was like what job was he doing etc. He wrote back saying that he had a nice flat and he was working as trader in child slavery, he thought this would be preferable to admitting to them that he was in fact a journalist.          

PAY YOUR TAXES, THAT'S THE SOCIALIST WAY.

This poll tax pursuit development is interesting if you want to try to gauge the grasp that the snp members have on reality. We have a group of people who dodged the Poll Tax and a larger group who paid it, most of them reluctantly. Very few of those who opposed it actually did so in the face of the law most disappeared without recourse to the barricades. The snp now in their undignified scramble to appear left wing are posturing and rattling their sabers against the injustice of the tax as we all did back in the day.

I believe 100 % in paying taxes, taxes are a sign of civilisation, fair progressive taxes even more so. That it (the poll tax) was an iniquitous tax IMO is indisputable and that gives it's opponents two clear choices 1/ pay it, and 2/ don't pay and face the sanctions, notwithstanding protest and argument. Refusing to pay and going underground is not an option because others have to pay it, it is like the strike breaker who accepts the pay rise that his work mates fought for, it's simply not on it's about unity and solidarity. How do we maintain any united front if we say to working people I hated the poll tax as well as you and I know we paid it but those who didn't pay and hid are to get an amnesty, that is not a recipe for building unity among people.

I want to see a lot more money collected in taxes but lots of people would object to who I would take it from, you probably seen them on TV from Birmingham over the last couple of days but we must make fairness our watch word and that means everyone pays what the government decides we must pay and to get multi billionaires like Lord Ashcroft and the rest of them in the net we need to be the government. When we get something like the Poll Tax or indeed The Bedroom Tax we get rid of the government we do not run and hide. I would advocate that defaulters should pay but because of the time which has elapsed I would make those payments as manageable as is humanly possible.

The snp have predictably accused others of chasing this money when the truth is that councils are obliged by law to pursue debt, snp councils will do it as well despite salmond pretending again to be ‘Wolfie Smith’. If we write to salmond and say, I don’t like that local council tax so I’m not paying it and I now know that you will support my decision, right?, aye F****n right!. This is beginning to look like another ‘Del boy’ salmond “in terms of the debate” scams.