WHAT IS THE GAELIC FOR "GET A GRIP STURGEON">

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Meanwhile at the Queen Elizabeth, domestic staff go without mops, wards go without enough nurses and doctors are overworked caring for more people than they're supposed to on their shifts. Don't worry though, the SNP are spending millions of your cash teaching people Gaelic.

The common theme? Staff doing the best they can despite SNP under-funding, under-resourcing and poor management. When will they take responsibility and fix this?

RECORD LOW STUDENT NUMBERS DUE TO SNP COLLEGE CUTS

 Local MSP Jackie Baillie has hit out at the Scottish Government’s college cuts following the publication of new figures which show that the number of students in Scotland’s colleges has plummeted to the lowest level on record.

The official figures show that there are 152,000 fewer college students since the SNP took office in 2007. Student numbers at West College Scotland, which has campuses in Clydebank, Paisley and Greenock, have been slashed by more than 7,000.

The figures were released by the Scottish Funding Council, the Scottish Government body that distributes cash among colleges, as SNP Finance Minister announced a further real terms cut to college funding in his draft budget.

Jackie said:

“These figures are absolutely shocking and demonstrate the massive scale of the SNP’s cuts to colleges. Since the SNP came to power and set its sights on college funding, Dumbarton has lost its own campus and student numbers have been cut by over 7,000 at West College Scotland. “Part-time courses have borne the brunt of the cuts. Second chance learners, new mums returning to work, workers attending night school and people with learning disabilities have all paid the price of the SNP’s austerity. This will have a huge impact on the economy and the skills available in the local workforce for years to come unless we start putting money back into colleges.”

MASSIVE DUPLICITY FROM STURGEON AND THE SNP OVER TRIDENT.

Revelations emerged today about Nicola Sturgeon’s oft repeated cost of Trident being too expensive at £160 Billion Pounds revealing her disingenuous calculating methods, an SNP trait it seems. Embarrassingly for her it was a question asked by one of her own stooges. SNP MP Steven Paterson yesterday inadvertently exposed her duplicity when he asked the following question at Westminster “How much do the government currently estimate the replacement nuclear deterrent weapons will cost, including the boats themselves, the missiles and the ongoing lifetime maintenance costs”?

Minister of State Philip Dunne replied on behalf of the ‘Ministry of Defence and Defence procurement’ as follows.

“As we made crystal clear in the SDSR, we have recalculated the cost of manufacturing the four boats, which we now estimate will be £31 billion, and we have added a £10 billion contingency. We have no intention at this point of replacing the warheads; the decision on that will be taken later. Therefore, I urge the hon. Gentleman to focus on the £31 billion commitment for the submarines, plus the £10 billion contingency, as the cost that is relevant today”. This display of mendacity from Sturgeon does not have any bearing on the moral argument for or against nuclear weapons, it is however important when we come to consider her own integrity, highlighting as it does her willingness to leave out the same financial tests for other military costs, remember she is arguing about costs here not ethics.

When she and her equally duplicitous colleagues discuss defence spending do they insist on knowing the cost over 40 years of maintenance/replacement of RAF Airplanes? Likewise Navy Ships and Helicopters, what about the cost of Army equipment like Armoured Vehicles, Tanks, etc. Why does Nicola Sturgeon not apply the 40 year cost test to them as she does to Nuclear Weapons?. The reason is that she feels the need to deceive people because her argument on nuclear weapons is unsound, she does not have enough confidence in the moral argument and has to obfuscate about the costs to strengthen her position.

As was asked today, would she furnish us with the costs of 40 years of maintenance for Prestwick Airport? the bill for Gaelic Language signage across the country over 40 years?, or the maintenance over 40 years of the various Forth Bridges, they seem to favour yearly figures for such matters, how long can they get away with such indefensible ‘Janus faced’ behaviour?.  Scotland deserves better.        

WAS PETER RACHMAN (LOOK HIM UP SNP FOLK) REALLY SCOTTISH ? PETER "MAC" RACHMAN PERHAPS.

Below for you SNP "socialists" information are the names of 7 SNP landlords who refused to support the Labour amendment designed to ensure that all rented houses were “inhabitable”.  

Tasmina Ahmed Sheikh - Richard Arkless - Ian Blackford – Lisa Cameron – Calum Kerr – Angus Brendan McNeil – and last but by no means least we have Michelle (Arfur Daly) Thomson. 

WHY WE MUST FIGHT TO PRESERVE THE NHS - READ THE ARTICLE BELOW.

Dr Zoe Norris GP working in the NHS- The Nurses Who Made Me a Better Doctor Posted: 07/01/2016 10:09 GMT Updated: 07/01/2016 10:59 GMT - I am a doctor, trained for 10 years, highly qualified. But I wouldn't be half the doctor I am today without nurses. From my first days on the wards as a medical student, with no idea about the human body, nurses have helped me. To a few days ago when I didn't know which dressing was best to put on a leg wound, nurses have helped me. This is a small, unworthy tribute to all the hard working nurses in the NHS. It involves a lot of cups of tea.

I learnt to trust nurses implicitly as a junior doctor in paediatrics. It was my first job. Paediatric nurses are unflappably calm and infinitely cheerful. They can talk in a soothing voice in the face of terrified parents. They can distract the whole team during the tense care of a tiny newborn, while handing every essential piece of equipment over at the right time. I watched them work and learnt so much. During a busy night shift, I was run off my feet. It was winter, and there were five poorly children waiting to be assessed, as well as a whole ward to care for. The only other doctor was on the special care baby unit, looking after a poorly newborn. Then another phone call - another admission. A poorly three-year-old girl with a fever at the local walk in centre just next door. Could they send the child round? I took the details, jotting them on a scrap of paper and carried on. I vaguely registered two worried parents walking past, carrying a blanket wrapped child. The nurse went to take some details, check the basic observations. She came back barely thirty seconds later.

"Zoe, I need you." 

I gestured at the piles of papers in front of me, halfway through admitting another patient.

"I'll be there in a second."

"No, Zoe. I need you now."

One look at her face was enough. She looked sick. I dropped the papers, grabbed my stethoscope and went to the bed. She - ever the professional - was back to smiling, chatting with the parents. I looked at the small head poking out of a blanket. I didn't understand. She added in "I'll just let Dr Zoe have a little look" then removed the blanket. The small head extended to a small body, a deathly colour, and covered in the rash every nurse, doctor and parent dreads. Meningitis. It was everywhere. I tried to follow her lead, keep my voice calm, but inside I was thinking "Oh God, oh God, oh God". As I ran to get help, I could hear her gently telling the parents that we would need to move their little girl soon; that there would be a lot of people but not to worry, we would look after her.

Over the next hour, I worked alongside a whole team of nurses to try and save this little girls life. They were amazing. When I felt like a spare part amongst the senior doctors, they guided me. As she was whisked off to intensive care, I felt so wrung out I was ready to drop. I had another eight hours to work of my night shift. I just wanted to curl up in a ball and cry. Instead I was hugged. I was force fed tea and biscuits. I was supported for the rest of the night. I couldn't have finished that shift without those nurses.

On Boxing Day on the medical wards, I had worked non-stop since 8am. It was 4pm when I finally made it to ward five. They had been waiting for me for six hours. I had rung to let them know I was finally coming. When I arrived, ready for complaints and recriminations, there was a hot cup of tea on the desk, a pile of drug charts each with a post-it note stuck on. On this was written exactly what each patient needed and the name of their nurse. When they realised I hadn't eaten all day, the Quality Street were duly passed over, some toast rustled up, and I had my first chance to sit down for eight hours. I was so touched by their kindness. They didn't know me from all the other doctors in the hospital - they didn't have to make my day that bit easier, but we were a team.

In A&E, when I was scared of the abusive drunks, the nurses stood with me and put them in their place. They joked about teaching me how to be assertive. I think I learned...

In return, I rolled up my sleeves and helped clean the patient covered in bloody faeces after a huge bleed from their bowel. I cleaned the trolleys if my patient was sick on them. I made the tea.

In surgical on-calls, I covered all the wards. Randomly, the nurses could put catheters in female patients, but not in male patients. So they got me instead. Except the urology nurses with 20 years experience knew a hell of a lot more about putting in male catheters than I did, even though they had never been allowed to do one themselves. As I learned on the job, each time one of these experts stood at my shoulder, talking me through the procedure. When things went wrong, when I couldn't get the catheter in, when the patient was bleeding and in pain, they kept me calm and made quiet, confident suggestions. Little tricks to try that you only learn with experience. All I had was the title "Doctor". They had all the knowledge.

On the obstetric wards, the midwives helped me through the rollercoaster of delivering babies. Learning to work alongside each other, we went through miscarriages, stillbirths, and hundreds of tears. When things go wrong in labour, they go wrong fast and they go wrong badly. Midwives take it all in their stride. Emergency buzzers are routine; nothing panics them. The good obstetric doctors know to ask the midwives when they are struggling. And with a wry smile, they are always helped.

Now as a GP, when I start at a new surgery, it's the nurses I spend time with. They give me the background on any complex patients. They don't laugh (much) when I try and bandage things. They teach me tricks for taking smears I never knew existed. When I have a bad day, they are there to support me. I try and return the favour, but it always feels like they have got it cracked and I am still learning.

Many nurses I have worked with have their own worries, their own stress. They have young children, teenagers, husbands, wives. They are struggling working long shifts for too little pay, because they love their jobs. The NHS is a massive team. We support each other every day and the patient does so much better because of this. But the team is being pulled apart and patients are suffering. On 9th January, nurses are marching to protest against cuts to NHS student bursaries. Please, support them. Please listen to them. We are a team. #bursaryorbust

Follow Dr Zoe Norris on Twitter: www.twitter.com/dr_zo

STV HOGMANAY GAVE US A GLIMPSE OF AN INDEPENDENT SCOTTISH BROADCASTER TAKE NOTE.

A constant SNP whine among many others has been the alleged UK TV and radio prejudice against Scotland more often than not accompanied by a demand for Scotland to have its own autonomous control over TV and radio. For those of you who, like me wondered what form this control would take and what it would look and sound like, we now have an answer.  Scotland, December 31^st. 2015 known to us of course as “Hogmanay” traditionally produces “Hogmanay specials” on TV from STV and BBC Scotland, this ritual has been in decline for some time and, in the case of STV this one may well have been the last. Here in all its parochial banality was a glimpse at what an independent Scottish SNP dominated TV and radio broadcaster would look like, and it was toe curling in its embarrassment.

Hosted by the queen of mediocrity Elaine C Smith we had special guest Nicola Sturgeon with another special guest Nicola Sturgeon’s mammy and, despite these entertainment riches we also had Nicola Sturgeon’s sister foisted upon us as well, plus someone called Jane Godley who appeared and sounded like a very poor Glaswegian street busker. This should serve as a warning to anyone who is thinking about flirting with nationalism, this is nationalism in control and what they are saying is we will tell you what is good and bad. This wretched programme attracted the risible viewing figure of 174,000 people, a worryingly large number considering the quality on offer. Hogmanay can only survive on TV by desperate measures, yes folks I know it’s a terrible thought but we have to beg Sydney Devine to come back.            

THE SNP ARE NOTHING BUT OPPORTUNISTS.

Here is an article by Eva Murray a UWS Student at Hamilton Campus. There is nothing I want to add to it, just read it. 

The SNP have often been described as opportunists, jumping on bandwagons at the last minute in an attempt to gain media attention from an event, campaign or if major, a boost in the polls (don’t worry I won’t be answering any serious questions with “but have you seen the polls”).

But it wasn’t until yesterday that I saw this opportunism first hand.

As some of you may know I have been involved in the Keep UWS in Hamilton campaign, set up by Councillor Monica Lennon. I got involved because I wanted to help out in a campaign & as a UWS student I knew this was one that I could possibly really make a difference in.

Over the past few months Monica along with everyone else involved in the campaign have demonstrated in all weather, petitioned across 3/4 campuses, campaigned on referendum day to make sure students knew what was happening & we even got Jeremy Corbyn to pledge his support through signing the petition. We’ve all done our bit whether that be manning the stall at the Freshers Fayre when we were getting signatures, spreading the word in the local area or letting people know online. We’ve all dedicated time to this campaign & no one has more than Councillor Monica Lennon.

We put so much effort into this campaign, did all we could to pressure the Students Association before they held a referendum & then along with SAUWS pressured the University to listen to students & staffs wants. At it’s lowest points we never gave up. Monica always full of ideas on what we should be doing next. When many elected representatives from the area didn’t even want to know about the campaign (until that almighty U-turn & to this day i’m yet to see any of them partake in any campaigning) we were all there with Monica talking to staff & students, spreading their views & gaining support for the campaign.

This is why it’s so frustrating, yesterday the Hamilton Advertiser wanted to do a victory photo for their campaign which has been running alongside the petition Monica set up. This was such a great idea & I want to thank the Hamilton Advertiser for covering the campaign & doing all they can to help out. 

The photo, a nice reminder to go alongside the one above from the day the campaign launched but sadly with short notice, people working & exams either underway or in the next few weeks, many of the people who had been there from the start couldn’t make it.

Who did turn up though was MSP Christina McKelvie with MP’s Margaret Ferrier & Angela Crawley who also brought along with them around 7 or 8 fellow SNPers including by-election candidate for the upcoming vote in January. None of these people have been out campaigning, openly pressuring the University for answers, questioning their colleague in Holyrood as to why Angela Constance wouldn’t even meet with campaigners, Jeremy Corbyn gave time to Keep UWS in Hamilton campaigners twice in 1 week & even signed the petition. Just saying. I had never seen any of these people out doing anything, in fact I know for a fact some, if not the majority hadn’t even signed the petition. Instead the SNP elected representatives gave wishy-washy answers such as this quote from Margaret Ferrier “we all wish UWS to remain in Hamilton, myself & my colleagues r keeping n close contact with senior representatives fm the uni”. So instead of being visible campaigning for students & staffs wants, they probably sent a few emails to Principal Mahoney then sat back & said that’s us done. Let’s be honest they were probably ignored.

And as for their “joint statement”, it’s all very well making a statement now when the hardwork is done & UWS have decided to stay in Hamilton but why didn’t you speak out sooner? These are your constituents, businesses in your area, UWS is the reason Hamilton is a “University town”. If UWS had went for Maxim would it have been “Och well we tried”? Because I know the campaigners I’ve gotten to know  wouldn’t have accepted that & even now as a SAUWS exec officer I realise that we need to take this back to the students to see how they feel about the decision because the results of the referendum showed us that this was still their second choice. This isn’t a case closed kind of thing.

Those people who turned up for the photograph I had never seen before, I have been there from the start & helped out at every Keep UWS in Hamilton event, those people have never been near. The SNP are opportunists, jumping in a photo in an attempt to gain good publicity. These elected representatives that turned up, over the past months had the chance to really make a difference, after all it was a cross-party campaign & that was made very clear at the beginning with Monica Lennon working extremely hard to make it just that but they didn’t. These politicians did next to nothing & then as the campaign celebrates a victory turned up to pose. That’s exactly what they are, posers. Finding the nearest camera to get their face in the media for something they’ve done absolutely nothing to help with.

I want to point out now that I am not attacking these people simply because they are SNP, if they had gotten involved in the campaign & made their mark then I would be thanking them too, the point is they didn’t.

Campaigns aren’t about photo’s in newspapers. Campaigns are about helping the people in question & the people you meet along the way. It’s been so encouraging seeing the cross-campus support for UWS Hamilton, for once it felt like we were actually one big Uni, standing with our fellow students putting aside the idea that it didn’t effect us directly & instead realising what was going on was wrong! Seeing students take an interest in their campus & realising that their views matter!

I know this post has all been a bit ranty & before I stop I just want to say I’m insanely proud to have been part of this campaign from the start, I’ve met so many incredible people along the way & learned so much. As a UWS student I want to say a huge thank you to Councillor Monica Lennon who without (if you haven’t realised already) we wouldn’t have even had a campaign & I really do dread to think where UWS Hamilton would be right now. If there are 2 words to describe Monica after working alongside her on this campaign they would be Determined & Inspiring. Monica’s determination to do all she could for constituents, to represent the views of students & staff was honestly incredible. During the campaign I stood & was elected SAUWS Exec Officer (Ayr Campus), before I didn’t have any real interest in standing for anything within SAUWS but Monica really inspired me & I learned that if you want to see change, instead of standing back & watching, you need to be at that table during discussions. Putting the views straight to the right people! So Monica I really can’t thank you enough for everything & I know the fight isn’t over yet but I know whatever we find out over the next few months for UWS Hamilton, you’ll have a plan! I also want to say thank you to everyone else who campaigned to Keep UWS in Hamilton, everyone at SAUWS especially President Jack Douglas & Depute President John Black for ensuring the views of Hamilton students were always voiced at court meetings, for putting up with me bringing up the Hamilton campaign at every opportunity since I’ve been elected & welcoming me into the SAUWS family, all the Councillors who’ve been working so hard gain support for the campaign, Hamilton residents, local businesses, staff, students & everyone else who saw the injustice that was happening & decided to take a stand & do their bit. I’ve spoken to some Hamilton students since & they are so grateful for everything this campaign has done!

So as I mentioned the fight is not over, over the next few months we will see a business plan put in place for the new UWS Hamilton location to make sure it’s a viable option & of course ensure the students are happy!

We may even see the SNP elected reps helping out or maybe they’ll just carry on doing what they do best & turn up for the end photoshoot after all the hard work’s been done by someone else.

A TIME OF PEACE AND LOVE, BUT IN PALESTINE THE HORROR FOR THE OCCUPIED PALESTINIANS STILL GOES ON.

On the subject of Christmas, this is a good time for everyone to remember that Jesus, Mary and Joseph were Palestinian Jews around 2,000 years ago. Were they to travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem today they would find a Palestinian town completely surrounded by Israeli tanks and Israeli check points which control everything that happens to Palestinians in the town, it is a huge open prison. The occupiers 2,000 years ago were the Romans and today the occupiers are the Israelis. The difference between these two is that the Israelis make the Romans look like Butlin’s redcoats. This is “The Holy Land” where Palestinian lives are cheap and of no consequence, children, women, the old and the sick are being randomly shot and killed in full view of the rest of the world which does nothing.  Crimes against humanity are being wantonly committed by one of the planets greatest ever military powers against a population who are armed with stones and kitchen knives.

Hope however springs eternal and there are growing signs that the tide is slowly beginning to turn against the war criminal state of Israel, not least among their own people and their great shield America. Among the people of Israel courageous groups of people are defying their brutal government and protesting against what is being done to the Palestinians. Ex members of the Israel Defence Force are coming forward in increasing numbers to tell the truth about what is happening, the truth about the destruction of family dwellings, the arrests and torture of Palestinians of all ages and the pitiless treatment of the indigenous people.

Looming larger by the day is the growing success of an international campaign called BDS which stands for BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT and SANCTIONS against Israel. This crusade urges people to Boycott Israel in every way they can, To refuse to invest in anything Israeli and remove any existing investments that you have associated with Israel and to demand that our government introduces Sanctions against the Israeli State immediately. If this reaction sounds familiar to any of you it is probably because this tactic was significantly important in destroying the Apartheid State of South Africa. We did it then and we can do it again, remember, BDS.

 “I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round, as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys”. ~Charles Dickens --- He wasn’t talking about the Palestinians but he could have been.   

"IT'S NOT ENOUGH TO SUCCEED, OTHERS MUST FAIL" GORE VIDAL.

I think Gore Vidal could have been talking about Stuart Hosie SNP deputy leader.

When a politician starts to accuse his/her opponents of manipulating an issue for “petty political gain” the general rule is that he/she is losing that argument and is as we say in these parts ‘gubbed’. I refer of course to the man who used to be Derek Mackay SNP, the rising Nationalist wunderkind who rose without trace due to Alex Salmond’s patronage rather than any ability that he might have had. There isn’t much more that can be added to the fiasco of the Forth Road Bridge and Mackay’s calamitous handling of the events but the noise will continue and reach a crescendo as the enquiry approaches. The traffic pandemonium which has been caused by the duplicity of the SNP government is set to worsen and he is already staggering around like a boxer who has taken on one fight too many.

The final nail in his political coffin might already have been hammered in. It is generally acknowledged by the political chattering classes in Scotland that there are few awful situations that the arrival of Stuart Hosie SNP MSP and deputy leader of the SNP can’t make worse and, right on cue like the pantomime villain he arrives to champion Mackay’s cause. If ever there was an example of the paucity of talent in the SNP it can be seen in the cabinet with this guy as a complete flop, anyone who seen his car crash interview with Andrew Neil would in all honesty have to concur with that statement. He has possibly intentionally made Mackay look feeble and inadequate by his intervention where he bullishly tried to suggest that the FRB situation was not a big problem. He is conceit and ignorance personified and Mackay needs him like a hole in the head. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought it possible that 7 months after the SNP victory in Scotland at the general election they would be in such a state of near collapse. Only 4 years and 5 months to go until the next general election, will they survive until then?.           

THE SNP - THE (SCANDALOUS NATIONAL PARTY) STUCK IN THE MIRE OF LIES ABOUT THEIR INTEGRITY.

And the daily SNP scandal for today is one of the complete disgrace and resignation of the entire board of a charity called Voluntary Sector Gateway West Lothian. This charity which has received in excess of £1million of donations and public funding has been plagued by problems over governance.

The chair of the charity was a Mr. Willie Boyle who is an SNP councillor. The charity remains under investigation and former chair SNP Councillor Mr. Boyle has become unavailable. There is always tomorrow, another day another SNP scandal perhaps, they are “not like other parties” are they? They are much worse.   

"I'M AN EXPERT ON TRAINS, I'VE GOT EVERY EPISODE OF THOMAS THE TANK ENGINE TAPED AND THEY NEVER HAD ANY BRIDGE PROBLEMS" SNP TRANSPORT MINISTER DEREK MACKAY.

With apologies to William Topaz McGonagall.

“the Forth bridge scandal looks very sinister

and this time it isnae the fault of Westminister”.

An English train (oh the shame of it all) has been rerouted to Scotland to help to alleviate the escalating mayhem caused by the cavalier attitude and performance of the SNP Government and their hapless transport minister Derek Mackay over their mishandling of the Forth Road Bridge closure. The bill for this train and another similar train being used will of course be met by we taxpayers as Scotrail are now run by a private Dutch company who are not legally responsible for any of this and, call me an old cynic if you will but I reckon they do not do charity. It also appears that for the SNP and Mr. MacKay, ‘sorry is the hardest word to say’ as they doggedly cling to their now predictable catch all defence of “we knew nothing about this”. The lead engineer for the bridge however disagrees with them and states unequivocally that warnings were given more than three years ago about the danger of “delaying repairs” the SNP it seems either knew better or took no heed of those warnings. Mackay rightly faces accusations of trying to mislead the public. He stated that the crack on the structure was not located where the cancelled repairs were and 24 hours later he said the repairs had they been carried out would have included replacement of the spot where the crack occurred. The result as it stands is that the most efficient method of reaching Fife and further north from Edinburgh is by walking or cycling to avoid the 11 mile tail backs,  

Hard incontrovertible evidence exists that the Forth Estuary Transport  Authority who were in charge between 2012 and 2013 can show minutes of meetings held at that time which clearly state that repairs were delayed following a 65% cut in the capital budget by the SNP government. SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon’s position at the moment is that the 65% cut was the right thing to do. Derek Mackay as I write is still brazenly hanging on to his job, needless to say so is Sturgeon. Both are pedestrian, lightweight over promoted individuals who are where they are not because of ability but through the patronage of Alex Salmond, they both still bear the imprint of him sitting on them, they are what we used to call “yes men/women”. They still think that the bribe of abandoning bridge tolls to harvest votes was worthwhile just as they do with Local Tax freezes and free prescriptions for those who don’t need them, despite the state of public services and the health service. Duplicity on such a scale is bound to pile up future problems; the SNP are a shambles now and getting worse.     

THE FORTH ROAD BRIDGE IS BEGINNING TO LOOK LIKE A METAPHOR FOR THE SNP.

Is it possible that the SNP have just set an incredible world record? It has now been revealed that the SNP oil revenue forecast was 6,000 % out, yes you read that right, SIX THOUSAND PERCENT OUT. This was their biggest lie ever and it was told at the time of the referendum. " It would be bad enough if the government responsible for collecting an increasingly large share of our taxes had been out by 10% or 20%. But the First Minister was out by 6,000% On the money needed to fund our schools, our hospitals and our pensions” Kezia Dugdale. 

This SNP Bulldung must be a candidate for the ‘Guiness Book of Records”. Is it any wonder they are now retreating from the referendum or ‘advancing in the opposite direction’ as Nicola Sturgeon would put it? Can you imagine Angela Merkel, Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin, Francois Hollande and the rest of them on a conference call discussing this, following hysterical laughter, each of them would resolve to remember these clowns when it came to any question of ever taking them seriously. Who will fall to bits first, the SNP or The Forth Road Bridge?.                                                 

"RUMOURS OF THE DEMISE OF THE LABOUR PARTY ARE GREATLY EXAGGERATED" APOLOGIES TO MARK TWAIN - LABOUR WIN OLDHAM BY ELECTION.

How do the keyboard swindlers explain this? It is very hard indeed to find a more difficult scenario for the Labour Party to overcome than that which existed at yesterday’s Oldham West By Election, caused by the death of Michael Meacher who was a much loved and very talented MP. The forces lined up against Labour, ‘some shamefully from its own side’ were enormous, malevolent and mainly driven by a desire to tear down Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership. Make no mistake about it, to the right wing establishment in the UK as well as the time serving careerists in his own party Mr. Corbyn is a very dangerous man. In Corbyn’s Labour Party refreshingly, your name, your wealth and your connections mean nothing. Ability, hard work and a Socialist ethic have become the ticket to power and influence. The changes have brought about a welcome upheaval in the party ranks, our numbers have grown enormously making us the party with more members than all the other parties put together and that explosion in the membership coincided with the election of the left wing Socialist Leader Jeremy Corbyn, thus making any accusation of Labour not being a Socialist Party sound absurd.

Oldham West was a triumph for the people over their hidebound capitalist exploiters, the Tories, The Libdems, UKIP and the SNP, as well as the right wing press which now shamefully includes The Guardian. To win 62% of the vote against such hostility was a remarkable achievement and it serves to remind us that the UK is a Socialist country. As is now the norm we have the usual smears being thrown around by the opponents of Labour when we win. UKIP cry foul and bad losers are complaining about bullying and intimidation over the Syrian bombing vote, some MP’s clearly see their positions as precarious based on the fact that the massive surge in membership was down to Corbyn’s Leadership victory and they have been doing what they can to bring him down, there can be no doubt that the vast majority of Labour Party members are opposed to bombing Syria and they have a voice. For those Labour members who are new I would urge you to check the rules about de-selection of sitting MP’s. This is a long standing procedure which is perfectly legal, democratic and is the very essence of democracy. As far as the nasty and vicious emails, texts and threats are concerned about Syria I would urge people to consider which political party has the worst by far reputation for such behaviour, that is the SNP. Now consider whether the notorious SNP Cybernats would send such filth to Labour MP’s who voted for bombing, is that difficult to answer. Perhaps those who intend to investigate these matters should be looking North.     

"IT'S ALWAYS THE OLD WHO LEAD US INTO WAR AND IT'S ALWAYS THE YOUNG WHO FALL" (I AINT MARCHING ANYMORE) PHIL OCHS.

Are we going to rerun past nightmares? Is it possible that we are going to repeat past blunders? How many innocent civilians will we slaughter this time? How many children will we kill this time? How many families will we devastate this time? I find it hard to believe that despite all our experience and recent blood-spattered history that we are possibly going to make the same catastrophic mistakes again. I am distraught at some of the Labour Party names who are lining up to do this, they are ready to flick the switch like ‘gung ho’ armchair warriors, safe at home watching the carnage on their TV’s, “when will we ever learn”?  I can obviously only speak for myself but in future I will not support anyone who was complicit in such an immoral and preventable act. 

Anyone seeking to be a Labour Party Candidate will face hustings meetings and if they have been involved in supporting this sickening business I will not only refuse to endorse them I will organise as much opposition to them as I possibly can as well. Corbyn is taking the flack from the usual right wing sources while the reality is that he has got it right, Labour Party members back him by a huge majority and by the time this starts I predict that the majority of people in the country will also be supporting him as well. People are not stupid, they know only too well that we have carried out this kind of adventure before and it was disastrous, they know that it is not necessary and they will not support it. Shame on those who are baying for blood, they need to re-examine their consciences.  As for the SNP, Sturgeon has dishonourably sat on the fence long enough to decide that the anti bombing side is the one that the public will favour and she has acted accordingly in her time worn populist way, the nats. remain as always beneath contempt .