Thursday 28 May 2009

Labour & SNP almost on shagging terms

I almost spewed my coffee when I read this, so I thought I'd share.

From The Basa over at http://www.edinburghsucks.com/

http://www.edinburghsucks.com/2009/05/28/labour-snp-almost-on-shagging-terms/

9 comments:

  1. Ah - the political class closing ranks. I like to think it shows how threatened they feel - siege mentality and all.

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  2. Is there *anyone* in scawtland who doesn't rely on the State in one form or another ?

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  3. We will win in the end. You will all go back to your real jobs next week and we will be troughing, troughing, troughing for a long time yet. Maybe less of us for a while, but we'll be back in strength again and those snouts will be deep into your hard earned cash.

    Have your tuppence worth.

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  4. Alan Wallace said -
    "My stance on Independence is if the people of Scotland vote for Independence I will do everything in my power to bring that about. If they vote for the Union, it is my job as an elected representative to support that decision to the hilt too."

    What do you mean by this though? This is a bit too fencesitter for me, I'm afraid. If a referendum is proposed, will you back it? That's the only way we're going to get a proper say. I hope you'll back a referendum, as such a thing would be NON-party political.

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  5. When I first heard of the ‘Politics without Parties’ concept, I was rather a bit dubious. To me ‘politics’ inevitably leads to ‘Parties’. Either in explicit terms or de facto as those with the same political views tend to natural coalesce. Show me someone’s position on four or five issues and I will more or less guess their position on everything else..

    In short, I thought the concept would throw up all the tired old policies, the tired old clichés and the tired old politics.

    Alan, I have to be honest with you, that above blogg has proved me right. Irrespective of the merits of your case, I see all the usual personal attacks; smears etc that have characterised the old style politics that I think most people will be absolutely sickened by. At a time when people are quickly becoming disillusioned with politics, I think we have to start looking at the issues. What on Earth has this man’s fatness or his baldness got to do with anything? Or the gender of this woman’s partner got to do with the price of fish? Instead of telling us the failings of other candidates, tell us what you actually stand for. Tell us why you think these people have got it wrong.

    One thing that does shine through is your obvious distrust of those in the education sector. Again that betrays a certain style of politics. We have seen the shortcomings of ‘profit at any cost’ deregulation in the last year or so. We have seen the taxpayer and the public sector having to at least sort out the deep economic mess that the Capitalists have left. Makes you wonder what contribution they have made to society?

    Disparaging these people because they have academic backgrounds really shows you up as an old style politician. Alan, there is no single more important job in the economy than the education of our workforce. Nothing even comes close to that. The days of the assembly line churning out widgets are long gone. The British economy and Scotland’s in particular relies in the nurturing of the knowledge-based economy. If we have an economic future we are going to have to attract the best minds into education in order sustain our economies. A second or third rate education system will leave us hamstrung in the coming years. The fact that you see these people’s education background as a weakness really should set alarm bells ringing.


    RV

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  6. Firstly - I support referendums absolutely. 5% of the electorate requesting one should mean one is called automatically. So I would absolutely support a referendum on Scottish Independence.

    RV - I never wrote that blog, it made me laugh. It made me laugh because last night those two named made me and the other representatives from outwith the main parties feel like something you find on the bottom of your shoe. They complained bitterly about us even being there as if we didn't have the right to speak. They sneered and tutted dismissively any time I opened my mouth. They acted with an arrogance that was truly breathtaking. They are a disgusting indictment of all that is wrong with our political system. As such they deserve all the opprobrium we can heap upon them.

    I don't have a problem with education. I returned to education in my 20s to get an HND and have returned again now to the OU to do a degree in Criminology. I very much value our education system.

    What I personally object to is people thinking a degree gives them the skills and knowledge to represent the public as an MP. It doesn't. It's an inadequate preparation and it's a direct cause of the insulated Westminster Bubble politicians we have today. There's only so much you can learn from a book. There's only so much truth to be found in statistics. The most important qualification for any representative is direct experience of just a flavour of life in all it's complexities. A narrow academic background cannot possibly hope to give an understanding of the wants and needs of real people in the real world.

    If we're talking about people who, after their degree have spent ten years living life, raising a family, working in industry - just struggling to put food on the table each week, that's a whole different story.

    There are far too many politicians who have no real connection with ordinary people. The greatest achievements in our social history came after 1920 until about 1970. The country was transformed as people with real life experience left the trenches, the workbenches and the coalfaces to take up seats in Westminster, forcing out the landed gentry and industrialists who were manifestly failing us all. But, since the 1970's we've seen a new class develop, a new "landed gentry" formed of people who go straight into politics from university and the result has been disastrous.

    As to parties coalescing, I'll quote a legally binding document that all JT candidates sign -

    "If the Jury Team, acting reasonably, determines that I have joined any other political party or similar grouping ... I shall forthwith resign my seat in Parliament."

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  7. There's nothing like an articulate, well laid out political argument.......

    ....and trust me I'm a doctor....

    this was nothing like an articulate, well laid out political argument....

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  8. Hi Brian,

    My wife trusted Doctors. That's why she's now got irreversible nerve damage and is disabled for life.

    You want slick, empty rhetoric? Go to a politician. We've got thousands of them all spouting exactly what the public wants to hear, but delivering on none of it. I sat beside Tommy Sheridan last night as he delivered an articulate, well laid out political argument. The trouble is, it was absolute fantasy - more money for everybody, nationalise everything, free this, free that and everybody gets a ringside seat in Nirvana.

    I'm just an ordinary man who believes the basic building blocks of democracy have been undermined. I don't have big ideas to change the world, I just want to be part of the solution of fixing the fundamentals. That means parliaments that are truly representative of ordinary people and based firmly on honesty, transparency and open democracy.

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  9. Wow! Never knew this was going on. First of all, to everyone one, I wrote that post on my blog. Sorry it disturbed some people. Interesting to hear that Alan thought it funny, it infuriated me when I was writing it and I was angry.

    @Brian Hill. It was never supposed to be a laid out political argument. That is what politicians are supposed to do, not bloggers. That was an out and out attack on two people who tried to stifle democracy. They are scum. It makes me angry even now when I read it again.

    With regard to education, the person who wrote the attack in fact fully supportive of education and teaches twice a week. However, using education which is paid for by the taxpayer as a means to get into politics, and in turn using politics to try and stifle democracy is not welcome in my country - and I will attack it whenever I can.

    I also went to the hustings, hosted by the PCS union. It was a whole load of placed questions read out by the Chair and not one punter in the audience got a chance to ask a question or question what the apprentice piggies actually said. The hustings were an insult to democracy and I made my feelings clear on the night as well.

    It was a group of liars spouting their lies.

    Now, you have to admit, if you agreed with nothing else in my post, that LibDem wifey is a hound - she can woof as well as snort.

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