The resignation of Steven Purcell

Well, well, well…. Who would have thought it?

Steven Purcell, leader of Glasgow City Council and rising star of the Scottish Labour Party has resigned from both his position as Leader of the Council and as a Councillor.

The importance of the events of last week cannot be over estimated. This is a huge issue which is likely to continue shaking Scottish politics for months to come.

Let's recap:

Late at night on Monday 1^st March, it became apparent that The Herald had a scoop: Stephen Purcell was going to resign from his post as Leader. This appeared on Tuesday’s edition of The Herald. The reason, we were told at the time, was stress and exhaustion as reported by the BBC News.

On the topic on the stress of high ranking public officials and politicians I side with this view. Or if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

Except of course, that this has nothing to do with “stress and exhaustion”.

And there are two reasons to be sure of that:

First, we have the fact that Mr Purcell felt necessary to use the services of Peter Watson, Scotland’s top libel lawyer.

Second, Mr Purcell is employing Jack Irvine, allegedly Scotland’s answer to Max Clifford. Mr Irvine, a former editor of The Sun, is a PR professional whose job is to control media coverage of a story in order to protect his client’s interests.

As a long-suffering Glasgow council-tax payer, I hope I am not paying for any of this.

If that was not bad enough, we have the bizarre coverage by the Scottish media.

First, the BBC’s blog Blether with Brian was heavily “moderated” from the start.

From the very start, other online media outlets pulled the plug on online comments.

Under the disguise of well-wishing choreography, the papers hint that more is to come.

Speculation on Wednesday was rife as to the potential causes for Mr Purcell’s sudden departure and his using of the country’s top libel solicitor and top spin doctor. The Scotsman and The Herald continued to run with the story. Even the SSY wrote about it.

On Wednesday afternoon, it is made public that Mr Purcell had checked in at a re-hab clinic in the Borders.

On Thursday, The Scotsman reveals what everyone suspected but dare not write.

And on Friday, when everyone is in agreement that the Sunday newspapers are going to have the full story, it is made public that Mr Purcell has now resigned as a councillor.

In the meantime, the Labour party appears very quiet.

Whilst messages of goodwill and recovery have been made, political support for Mr Purcell is not existent within the ranks of the party.

This, by a long way, is not over: Sunday will only be the start. 
As another Scottish Labour failure said not so long ago: bring it on!

Update Saturday 6 March 2115h:
Now Mr Purcell has left the country.
The Daily Record. 

Can't wait for the newspapers tomorrow -if they are allowed or have the balls to print anything.  BBC Scotland's coverage of the most high profile political story since the Scottish elections has been a disgrace and further evidence of its Scottish Labour bias. Apparently Purcell's shocking resignation does not merit being included under the Scottish Politics section.

Another viewpoints worth reading here and here.
A somewhat different take from a Ranting Rab (no relation).

If Joan McAlpine was chief editor of The Herald, and if The Herald were not so biased towards Scottish Labour, then it would be worth buying it every day. Alas, we buy the Sunday Herald and that's enough. But will the SH have any substantial reporting about this story tomorrow? Paul Hutcheon, not for the first time, broke a top story, his sources must be very good. Does he have more to tell and will he be allowed to publish everything?

We shall wait and see.

When in a hole, stop digging

In the end, only four MPs will be prosecuted by the Police.

Full details of the story can be found at the BBC News website.

The extent of the immorality of these scumbags, the four that are being charged and the many that are getting away scot-free is beyond comprehension. But surely the top prize for conceit, the number one award for guilt-free theft has to go the the RH Jim Devine MP.

I almost choked on my fish and chips watching this interview in Channel 4.
The Labour member of parliament for Livingston admits to submitting false receipts. But wait, things can only get better: he did so on the advice of a Labour whip.

Under questioning by the C4 presenter, Mr Devine refuses to disclose the ientity of the Labour whip who alledgedly advised him to submit false receipts. I trust Mr Devine will not be as shy under interrogation by the Metropolitan Police.

But here is the interesting thing about Mr Devine's explanation: he claims he moved money around but did not benefit financially himself. So who did? Were there any bank transfers between Mr Devine's "communications" and "staffing" accounts and a bank account of a third party, let's say a Labour party bank account?

This is only the start.

The lost decade

Sometimes I wonder why I blog when I enjoy more reading other people's bright and illuminating writing. Perhaps I should just post links to articles and blogs, like a policeman managing traffic at a busy intersection.

Over the last few months, Iain Macwhirter has written brilliant stuff for the Sunday Herald, particularly about the underlying causes of the financial crisis and the inability of the political class to confront the powerful financial services lobby, in particular the banks. He even seems to have stopped his partisan attacks against the SNP. Who knows, maybe one day Iain and other Herald journalists will see sense in Scotland becoming a normal state within the EU as opposed to remaining as an appendix of England…

This article about the imminent demise of the Labour party in the UK is poignant, coming from someone that used to be a party member while at University.

Sunday Herald

A few days ago, my father-in-law made the mistake of mentioning politics during our weekend visit for tea and biscuits. I went onto a rant about the lost decade and why Labour only has itself to blame for their forthcoming electoral disaster. I don’t think he will make such a blunder again and will stick to football and the weather from now on.

For the vast majority of working class Scots like my in-laws, a Tory government is synonymous with public service cuts, mass unemployment and the hated Poll Tax (in Scotland first). The Conservatives is “their” party. The party of the rich and wealthy. The party that will screw the working class living in (former) council houses. Labour is still, believe or not, the people’s party for the vast majority of working class Scots.

However, after 12 years of Labour rule –or was it New Labour- we can now assess what has been achieved. And, sadly for traditional Labour supporters, we know that things have not got much better.

If anything, things have got worse, and the current crisis will only exacerbate it.

Income inequality is now wider than 1997. People in higher incomes have done very well of Labour’s spell in power.

Poverty.org.uk

ONS [pdf, 800Kb]

IFS [ppt]

The working class have remained working for stagnant wages that prevented them from buying assets. These assets became more expensive as middle and higher earners accumulated financial assets and property, keeping them out of reach of lower income households.

Wealth distribution is now more unequal than it was in 1997.

Higher earners have accumulated a higher ownership of assets than ever before, namely property and financial assets thanks to the very generous tax breaks offered to them. Lower and lower-middle earners have not been able to buy assets, as prices keep escalating out of their reach. Thus the poor have stayed poor whilst the rich have become even more richer. The gap is now wider than it was in 1997. (Gini coefficient, ONS, wiki)

Hansard

WSWS

Social mobility is now more restricted than it was in 1997.

Access to tertiary education is now more expensive and difficult for families in lower incomes after the increase in tuition fees and the abolition of grants. Oxbridge and first tier Universities remain the preserve of privately educated, middle-class or wealthy families and any changes in access remain statistically non-significant.

Access to good state schools is now dependant on ability to buy property within schools catchment’s area, which is out of reach to any families in average incomes.

So Labour, the party that looks after everybody, the party that is on the side of the have-nots, and in favour of wealth redistribution has been a catastrophe for the very people it ought to have looked after.

It has been very good however to those in higher incomes who have been able to accumulate property (tax relief of interest), financial assets (tax gross up and relief on pension contributions at marginal rate, etc.)

And this is without mentioning the lies over the Iraq war, semi-privatisation of NHS, Post Office closures, etc, etc.

I am not advocating a vote for the Conservatives but anyone on average incomes who believes that Labour is going to be good for them needs to have a reality check. Sorry.

The rule of the law -for some

It is quite extraordinary what is happening in the UK in the last few months.

A few weeks ago, we woke up to discover that our elected representatives are more corrupt than any of us ever imagined. To its credit, The Daily Telegraph provided great and unpartisan coverage of the scandal. They are all, the vast majority, at it: Labour, Tories, LibDems and even the SNP. Milking the system for their own benefit.

I wonder how the Police and HMRC would react if I told them that I forgot to declare rental income from an old flat, or if I told them that I was getting tax exemption for items that had nothing to do with the rented property. Would a very sincere apology suffice?

They would probably let me know that “ignorance of the law is not excuse” or less likely they would intimate “ignorantia juris non excusat”.

Today, we woke up to find out that a newspaper has been breaking the law repeatedly and systematically, and that it is settling with the victims out of court trying to conceal the matter.

The Guardian reports that the News of the World, a British tabloid, has been tapping into mobile phones and landlines of public figures, with a view to get “exclusives”. [BBC]

The Metropolitan Police has decided that there is no case to answer and that further investigation is not in the public interest. Once again, the Metropolitan Police is not going to take any further the investigation of alleged crimes. [BBC].

So the question is:
- When is an alleged crime not deserving of a police investigation?

Answer:
- When the alleged criminal has more power and more means than the vast majority of citizens.

Thus, News International and particularly News of the World are left off the hook.

I see a pattern:

1) Insolvent banks are saved and bail out by the taxpayer, despite being private companies, because they are deemed too big to fail;

2) Politicians are immune from prosecution despite overwhelming evidence of tax fraud;

3) A powerful newspaper is spared a police investigation into alleged criminal conduct on an industrial scale, because it has the means to pay off its victims.

Thank God things could only get better.

Campaign struggling to start...

Well, the campaign to stop shaking hands with the less-than-honourable members has not made the impact I was hoping for… never mind.

I honestly think it would be a historical event if it were to catch on and spread all over the UK ahead of the European election on 20 June.

Any way, if you have a blog and want to spread the word, perhaps it is not too late.

http://trenator.blogspot.com/2009/05/dont-shake-hands-campaign.html

I have posted in The Independent, The Guardian, even it that Guido Fawkes blog (apologies Tom & Graeme, I thought this could get traction that way...) and other blogs but nothing is happening.

BBC censorship of Speaker's criticism

Sometimes I cannot help thinking that the BBC’s reputation for objectivity, neutrality and high journalistic standards is more a myth than reality. Particularly when it comes to criticism of the Scottish Labour party. In Spain everyone if full of how great the BBC is and how it should be a model for all public broadcasters. I used to agree. Now, after living in the UK for over 10 years, I am not sure. Myth, perception and reality intermingle.

Yesterday, I posted the below text in the Blether with Brian blog.
To my amazement, it has been removed as it apparently breaks the house rules on defamation.

Can anyone let me know what is in this post that is defamatory?

I have posted it again with a toned-down version, let’s see if it makes the cut…


========================
Brian,

The Speaker of the House is not a mere class rep.
The Speaker is supposed to lead.

If the less-than-honourable members have been up to no good, it is the Speaker’s job to tick them off.

Michael Martin was an awful speaker: inarticulate, mumbling, discourteous and with a tendency to gag people down. Nothing to do with class or background or accent: all to do with competence.

Michael Martin committed far too many errors to deserve any sympathy:

1) He was the main force behind the push for exemption from the FoI Act. He wanted the expenses system to be kept secret and wasted thousands of our tax money on legal fees.

2) When it was clear that this was going to come out, instead of saying sorry, instead of showing contrition or remorse, he calls in the Police to investigate the leak.

3) When a couple of backbenchers raise the issue, he shuts them down in the most childish and discourteous manner. (Hoey)

4) When another backbencher raises the issue of the no-confidence motion, again the mumbles, fumbles and shows why he should have never been the Speaker in the first place.

All this after having had a number of years to do something about this mess.
So, you understand that most of us have no sympathy for the shop steward that became one of them. Good riddance.
======================

Don’t shake hands campaign

Since the extent of the expenses scandal became clear, I have been flabbergasted at the dishonesty and the lack of morality of the vast majority of MPs.

Today, I propose that the public takes a stance.

I know I am a total nobody in the blogosphere but I think this is worth trying. If you can spread the message, perhaps it will catch on and set a global trend. With the European Elections campaign in June fast approaching, the least-than-honourable Members will be out and about campaigning to get our vote. Before we give them our vote, we should give them a piece of our mind.

What I am suggesting is that elected politicians are given the cold shoulder by the voting public.
I advocate that we should not shake hands with them, let alone let them kiss our babies for that arranged photo-opportunity.

Before we do such a thing, we are entitled to ask:

“Do you have a clear conscience with regards to your expenses claim?”

Alright, the answer is obvious: many of them do not seem to have a conscience; but still we should ask this and other questions. For example:

“Have you claimed for any personal items such as furniture, luxury
carpets, garden maintenance, pool cleaning, TVs, pet food, etc?”

“How many times have you flipped your home since becoming an MP?”

“How much have you claimed under the expense system?”

Just look them in the eye and watch their face.

If they are not elected yet, then we should be asking what expenses they are intending to claim on. I personally think that travel and mortgage interest should be enough for anybody on a £63k salary -nearly three times the national average before perks.

Then, after listening to their answer, and remembering at all times that they are highly skilled at lying and deceit, we will decide whether we want to shake hands or hand them over our precious baby to be kissed.

Be wise.

When in a hole, stop digging

Perhaps, there was a point in Michael Martin becoming the Speaker of the House. Maybe the toffs needed to be told by a Glasgow shop steward without any academic qualifications. Maybe the point needed to be made that anybody can raise to the top, even someone like Michael Martin.

But it has not worked and it has backfired.

Instead of the Man of the People, instead of keeping his feet on the ground, he has become the worst of them all. It tends to be the case that those who find wealth without risking their own, and with little effort or application, become easily accustomed to their new found riches.

The Labour Party stalwart, the man from Springburn, only the other day whinged like a spoilt kid against the pro-Tamil protesters outside Parliament. If The Daily Telegraph, not a traditional ally of socialist guerrillas, writes that these was one of the most polite and well managed demonstrations seen in Westminster, I for one will believe it.

Michael Martin however, in his chauffeur-driven car, complained bitterly during one of his interventions that his car had to drive around the square because of the pesky protesters. Pity the man.

Today, amazingly still in the job, he put out a statement with the s-word. Once upon a time, “sorry is the hardest word” worked as a journalistic cliché. After the empty apologies of the bankers, and the unsincere apologies of the least than Honourable Members, sorry does not mean anything. He said today he is “profoundly sorry”. [statement]

I, and any other person I speak to, am very clear that they are only sorry they got caught out with their pants down. They are not sorry about what they have been doing, they are sorry it became public, despite the Speaker’s best efforts to prevent disclosure at a cost of thousands of pounds in legal fees.

But today, when an MP raised the issue of a motion of no confidence, he dismissed it out of hand. If he had any morals, he would stand down but what can we expect from the man who furnishes his home, and gets his wife and her mate taxied around at our expense?


The BNP are obviously loving this and I would be surprised if they don’t get a few MEPs at the European Elections in June.

I remember the “Things Can Only Get Better” campaign (watched from The Clansman pub in Barcelona), followed up in the book, and since living in the UK since January 1999, and I have met many a Labour party activist who sincerely believed that the party would clean up politics, tackle the causes of crime and focus on education. And what we got was the privatisation of the NHS, tuitions fees, the Iraq war, sell-off of Royal Mail, and a perverse infatuation with the banking industry that has landed the UK in an absolute mountain of household and national debt, and a banking sector that is mostly insolvent. And then this.

Then, they complain when the public say they are all in it for themselves, and that they are all, save a handful of exceptions, a bunch of thiefs.

Labour and the lost moral compass

There is a massive scandal engulfing British politics. It relates to the expenses system operated in the House of Commons, the British Parliament. It turns out that our elected representatives are milking the system and claiming for everything under the sun: not only mortgage interest but food, newspapers, toilet rolls, home furnishings, gardening, porn movies, swimming pool clearning, horse manure, anything and everything you can think of.

This story has been led by The Daily Telegraph, also known as The Daily Torygraph , since last Friday. When it started last week, I was a bit sceptical. I thought it was just the start to the campaign for next year’s General Election. I wrongly assumed the newspaper would only publish embarrassing revelations about the Labour party and would leave Conservatives MPs in peace. In case you are not too hot on British politics, this newspaper is a bastion of Conservatism, a proper right-wing, Euroskeptic, anti trade union, free-market newspaper. Nothing wrong with that: everybody is entitled to their own opinion. Apart from the crass Europhobia and its unrepentant Thatcherism, it is/could be a decent newspaper I would buy every now and then. But I don't.

Today however, it has been the first time in over 10 years that I have picked up a copy of The Daily Telegraph at Glasgow Airport on my way to London. Despite the flight being full exclusively of suited types, I was the only one to pick a free copy. The Daily Telegraph is not a popular read in Scotland, not least because of their Scottish Politics correspondent, a resentful, narrow-minded British Nationalist with a profound disdain for Scottish devolution.

Anyway, back to the story, I have been astounded at the lack of compunction by the shamed MPs. You see, what they did was within the rules, apparently. The rules that they themselves designed and policed. Reading these revelations made my blood boil. Had I seen any of these scumbags in the plane I would have given them a piece of my mind.

If you want to read about it, check The Daily Telegraph or BBC News.

But if that was not bad enough, just wait.

Yesterday, Tuesday 11 May, a Labour backbencher challenged the Speaker of the House about this issue. The Speaker is responsible for the office that manages the expense system. This parliamentarian raises her concerns about this mess. But this idiot, this disgraceful member of the Labour party, instead of acknowledging the scale of the problem, tries to bully the MP.

The following day, Tuesday 12 May, another parliamentarian puts it to the Speaker that he should consider the tone and the way he addressed his colleague.
The Ogre of Sprinburg declines:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8046601.stm

Right. But that is not enough.

Today as well, another of the Labour grandees, Lord Foulkes, [wiki] when challenged by a BBC journalist, instead of showing repentance, instead of apologising for the way MPs are screwing up taxpayers, furnishing their homes at our expense, tries to bully the journalist and retaliates back with a personal attack. Watch this:


The party of the people: Iraq war, backing of nuclear weapons on the Clyde (anyone remember CND?), ID cards, privatising NHS, tuitions fees, faith schools, PPP/PFI, privatising Royal Mail, infatuation with the banking industry, more tax loopholes than ever for the rich, and now this.

There is absolutely no policy difference between the Conservatives and Labour. None.

Somehow, even though I have never voted Labour whilst living in the UK, I do feel sorry for all the hardworking, if delusional, grassroots activists who can only witness in dismay how the party of the people has ended up being ruled by a spineless, warmongering, lying bunch of self-serving bullies.

The Labour party has lost its moral compass and the sooner there is an election the better.
After all, if we are going to be ruled by a bunch of self-serving arrogant twats, then I’d rather it was the genuine article. At least then we know where we all stand.

What has the Labour Party ever done for Glasgow East?

Excellent news today in Scotland: the Labour party, after decades of neglect, have been voted out. Glasgow East, one of the most deprived areas in the UK, has returned a SNP MP for the first time ever.

Congratulations to the SNP and to the people of Glasgow East.

Time is a scarce resource

Regular readers will have noticed that I have been not very active of late. There are a variety of reasons:

+ Work: the credit liquidity squeeze and the return of volatility have resulted in longer hours at work.
+ Studies: the MBA thesis on credit default swaps is also taking longer that expected. Final deadline (I have already had a couple of extensions…) is 7 December 2007, so not a lot of time left.
+ Commuting: normally I drive from the outskirts of Glasgow to Edinburgh. This month, however I am trying to commute by train. Next year, if/when I have more time, I will write about public transport provision in the UK.
+ Too much to write about: frankly, there is too much happening. I feel overwhelmed with developments in Scottish/British politics and Catalan/Spanish politics. Where should I start. Thus, I feel easier to reply to other people’s blogs, even if they are slightly bonkers. Hello John and Trevor.

If all that was not enough, to be brutally honest, the few spare hours I have I’d rather spend them with my gorgeous, lovely, pretty and extremely patient girlfriend.

It has been a few interesting weeks. I have been accused of being both “obviously right-wing” and a “far-leftist” by Iberian Notes because of this post. Iberian Notes is a blog by a north American expat living in Barcelona which regurgitates the same bile and hatred towards Catalonia and its sense of nationhood and cultural, social and political identity as the most vicious and aggressive Spanish nationalist portals like Libertad Digital. Well it seems the guy used to work for them so no surprises there.

What I did not expect when I set up this blog (in September 2003 no less) is that I would be quoted out of context by El País newspaper:

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/cataluna/Independentismo/elpepuespcat/20071107elpcat_15/Tes (Spanish)

The post the article is referring is this one: It’s time. I notice the journalist cites the comment left by Ox, but not my reply with web links, or Ox’s lack of counter-reply. I will dedicate another post to this article next week.

In any case, for the benefit of Mr Delclós and Ox, I did not equate political independence to a complete assurance of improving life expectancy; rather, the crux of the post, for anyone that wants to read it properly, is that +50 years of Labour rule in Glasgow has failed to address this and many other social issues, that a change in policy is required and that only the SNP can provide the cathartic change Scotland so much needs.

Can anyone argue back that keeping Labour in power will resolve the many social issues we face in the west of Scotland when they have proved to be incapable of doing so in +50 years?

US foreign policy: Weapons of Mass Destruction

Today, I have heard one of the most chilling programmes on the radio for a very long time. I used to work in a local radio station, and I listen to the wireless all the time, as I hardly watch much TV, apart from the news and Still Game.

It was a long day at work today, and I finished about 19.45h. On the way back, I realised that Hecklers, the new Radio 4 debate program was on. Excellent, I thought: long day in the office, but a pleasurable drive back from Edinburgh to Glasgow listening to informed opinions and intelligent debate.

But the proposer of tonight’s programme was one of the most dangerous and deluded people I have ever heard on the BBC.

Patrick Clawson, of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, argues that
it would be better to have a war with Iran than to allow its government to
develop nuclear weapons. He debates the issues with a panel of hecklers,
including George Galloway, in front of an audience at Chatham House in London.

This individual argued, in his soft American tone and paused, affable, if slightly irritating speech, that it would be in the best interests of the West to go to war against Iran rather than to allow that country to develop nuclear weapons. Patrick Clawson is deputy director for research of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. More info on the interesting views espoused by Mr Clawson here…
Don’t want to go into a tangent here... but Near East? I always thought it was Far East but never mind...

After a few minutes listening to his disparaging arguments I started to feel sick. My legs were trembling. Listening to that man gave me the creeps. I was listening to a man advocating going to war against Iran as a pre-emptive step to bring stability to the region.
Now, where have we heard this line of argument before?

Although the program is called Hecklers, it is nothing of the sort. The proposer has three slots in which he can develop his argument and the ‘hecklers’ (panellists) are not allowed to interrupt during the first 3 minutes or so of each slot. Then a bell goes off and the panel guests are allowed to raise questions. Today, George Galloway MP was always the first to speak up after the bell rang.

Whatever one thinks of Mr Galloway and his politics and media persona, it is undeniable that the man is a great orator, and one of the few MPs in Parliament willing to challenge the establishment. If only there were a few more like him, perhaps this country would not be now fighting a pointless and illegal war based on false “intelligence”. As much as I disagree with the majority of Gorgeous George’s politics, today he was top notch. He tore apart every one of the arguments put forward by Mr Clawson.

I recommend that you set aside about 1 hour of your time to listen to the program via the BBC Radio 4 website.

It shows to what extent American foreign policy is the cause, rather than the cure, for most of the ills in the Middle East and the Gulf region. For Mr Clawson, it is quite alright that Israel already has nuclear weapons pointing at Iran and other states, and that we (as in the US and the UK) are supplying conventional and nuclear weapons to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. The former is a theocracy where women are second class citizens. The regime in Saudi Arabia is probably the most tyrannical in the region, and certainly the least accountable to the population. As for Pakistan, it is a breeding ground for Al-Qaida terrorists, and a country divided between a secular or moderate population and the mullahs supporting Islam fundamentalism. What happens if the latter ever get into power and get control of the nuclear weapons supplied by the US and the UK?

Exactly this is what happened a few decades ago. In order to overthrow the Soviets from Afghanistan, the US financed and supplied the Mujaidins with training and conventional weapons. Once the Soviets were expelled from the region, they turned against the US and the West. These are the origins of Al-Qaida: US finance and training. The US trained and armed Osama Bin Laden. That is the result of US foreign policy.

You may be too young to remember: Iran was a democracy a long time ago. However, its leaders did not yield to US and UK foreign policy so the US&UK instigated a coup after Iran's elected government renationalised the oil industry; then the Shah took over and instituted a dictatorial regime. Read more about Operation Ajax in the Wikipedia. Yes, we (the US and the UK) instigated a coup against a democratically elected government to get control of Iranian oil.
The people of Iran rebelled, both the secular moderates (yes, there was a Communist Party in Iran...) and the Islamists joined forces and they did overthrow the dictator; sadly, the radical Islamists won the internal battle for government control. Then they turned against the US and against the West.

Remember the Iran/Iraq war of the ‘80s. Well, guess what: Saddam Hussein was supported by the West and supplied with the conventional and chemical weapons he used in the bloody war against Iran. We (US and UK) supplied Saddam Hussein and his regime with weapons. A few years later, the US and the UK bombarded Iraq, causing mass civilian casualties but without deposing the dictator. In 2003, we then have the illegal invasion of Iraq by the US-led coalition and the country is now is a much worst state, on the brink of civil war and engulfed in sectarian violence, than it was with Saddam in power. And now the Iraqis are turning against the US and the West.

Do you see a pattern emerging?

You can read all this and much, much more in the extraordinary, priceless, colossal book “The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East" by Robert Fisk.
Admittedly, I have not yet started reading the book. A certain master degree thesis on Credit Default Swaps is taking a lot of my spare time –about 1 year and 4 months to be exact.

So you can imagine my anger when this very dangerous man was arguing live on BBC radio 4, the moral and cultural backbone of Britain, that a US strike against Iran would somehow encourage middle-class Iranians to rebel and overthrow the tyrannical dictatorship of the Council of Guardians. It was frightening.

However “imperfect” (a word he constantly used to refer to the Non-Proliferation Treaty) the Iranian electoral system is, at least people can and do vote. The same cannot be said of Saudi Arabia, apparently the West's ally in the region, with its total disregard for human rights and lack of any progress towards democracy or a more equal society for men and women.

He also said that an attack against Iran would prevent the NPT from becoming irrelevant, even though there are “imperfections” (i.e: non-compliance) in the system. He said something along the lines of “I would hate to lose that imperfect instrument in the pursuit of the perfect instrument”. In other words: it is ok for the UK, the US, France, Israel, India, Russia and others to violate the terms and the spirit of the NPT, but not for Iran. Some hypothetical, yet-to-happen, imperfection is punished by war; current imperfections are ignored. To say this smacks of double standards would be an understatement.

We are told that Iran, according to Mr Clawson, is an “irrational player”, behaving according to an “apocalyptic theocratic view” of the world. At this point I almost choked on my chocolate bar. Is it not the President of the United States who had claimed that God had given him permission to go to war in order to prevent the threat of an Iraqi attack against the West? To me that sounds pretty much like an irrational player with a theocratic apocalyptic view of the world.

No nation has behaved more irrationally in the Middle East than the US. Supporting and arming some dictatorships; going to war against others; and doing both with some, as in Iraq. Yet, Mr Clawson, and the US political establishment, either Democrats or Republicans, are in complete denial about the havoc, mayhem and suffering US foreign policy has created around the world, especially in the Middle East.

The last point put forward by Mr Clawson is beyond surreal. He argues that an US-led attack against Iran would unite Iranians in blaming their own government for developing nuclear weapons and thus provoking a crisis. This popular rebellion would result in the Iranian regime engaging (i.e: yielding to US foreign policy) with the West. For someone who claims to be an expert in the Middle East, this is surely a joke.

But the warmongering lunatic goes on: according to him, an attack against Iran should not mean a land invasion of the country, but rather targeted, high-precision attacks against military objectives. Have we not heard this before? Yes, we have. As recently as 2003, when the US-UK coalition targeted attacks against Iraqi military infrastructure resulted in hundreds of civilian casualties and the destruction of hospitals. I also remember a certain aspirin factory in Sudan that was targeted with a combination of intelligence and high-precision weaponry.

Mr Clawson also argued that not only Iran’s population would rebel against their elected leadership following a US attack, but also that Iran’s neighbours would rise to the challenge and support US action too. This is the world of fantasy inhabited by the neocon revolutionaries in the US.

This last point was absolutely demolished by all panellists. One by one, audience members and panellists reduced Mr Clawson “lightweight argument”(quote from a former correspondent of the FT in Tehran) to what they are: absolute warmongering shite. The only voice of support came from, wait for it... an US Embassy employee.
Priceless if it was not so depressing.

What is scary about this man and his ilk is their level of delusion; their disregard for the facts about the Middle East, and the loss of human life; their arrogant ignorance of the damage US foreign policy has caused in the region in the last 40 years, 20 years or even since the ill-conceived invasion of Iraq. As with the Iraqi non-existent weapons of mass destruction, an enemy is created and the threat is hyped up in the friendly press, and thus war is justified. Their irrational minds see no flaw in this perverse logic, despite its disastrous consequences in Iraq, or in Iran decades ago.

War is still another option in the US foreign policy toolkit and the neocons have not learnt anything. And now they want to start another war against Iran. History will not be kind to these despicable people.

And the question for us in Britain is: what will PM Gordon Brown do? Will he be America’s lap dog like former PM Blair, or will he have an “ethical foreign policy”, as New Labour promised in 1997? I am not sure I want to know.

Next week, Hecklers will hopefully be less frightening and distressing. Tax specialist Richard Murphy argues at the free market Institute of Economic Affairs that Britain should stop trying to woo the foreign super rich with tax breaks.

Scottish Labour MP disgraces herself

I could not believe my ears when BBC Radio Scotland played the clip during the drivetime news. On Wednesday 23rd of May 2007, during Scottish Questions at the House of Commons, the Labour MP for East Lothian, Anne Moffat, said the following:

“Anne Moffat: Did not proportional representation give Germany Adolf Hitler? To a lesser degree, we have been given the hon. Member for Banff and Buchan (Mr. Salmond). Can that be a good example?”

Amazingly, the SNP’s Angus Robertson, let this go unchallenged:

“Angus Robertson: The hon. Lady has made her own point in her own way. Perhaps she will reflect on that later.”

And that was it.

You can read it yourself in the Hansard website. Hansard is the official transcript service of the House of Commons.

But then I kept reading other interventions by Anne Moffat MP during the session and came across this one, a reply to the LibDem MP Jo Swinson :

“(...) Is that not jumping on the Tory bandwagon? May I tell the hon. Lady that she should be very afraid of opening Pandora’s box when it comes to the Scottish parliamentary elections, because we made the amendment to introduce first past the post.”

To her credit, LibDem MP Jo Swinson, only replied:

“Jo Swinson: I welcome the hon. Lady’s intervention, and her warning, which I am sure was kindly meant.”

Certainly Ms Swinson has a sense of humour. (But more on humour later…)

Yes, you read it correctly: Anne Moffat MP (Labour - East Lothian), threatening to change the process of the Scottish Parliamentary elections to a "first past the post" system and abandon the "Additional Member System" in the regional lists.

And I hear you ask: Anne who? Exactly.

A parasite Labour MP who has not achieved anything for Scotland. This nobody is apparently threatening with bringing back the “first past the post” system so that she and her corrupt and incompetent Labour croonies can continue to lead this country to economic, social and cultural decline.

But when I thought I had read enough nonsense, I come across the following intervention by the Labour MP from Glasgow South-West:

3.41 pm (link)
“Mr. Ian Davidson (Glasgow, South-West) (Lab/Co-op): Given that time is short, I shall make only a few points. First, I ask that the investigation examines the decision to have both ballots on the same day, not only in the context of possible erection irregularities —[Laughter.] I know what I meant. [Hon. Members: “Keep it up.”] I will endeavour to do so. That is a fair point —[Interruption.].”

Erection for Election. Very funny Mr Davidson. Now will your party apologise for the chaos and the shame they brought to our country if not for your cheap joke?

Now, I am the first one to come up with a bad joke and crap wordplay, so I plead guilty in advance to the charge of trying to be funny. I wonder if this clown is really a MP or he was impersonated by a fellow called Jim Davidson. The latter is only marginally funnier I must add.

But a MP, debating the shambles of the Scottish Parliament elections in which about 140,000 votes were rejected and which made this country the laughing stock of Europe?

This silliest of jokes by a MP from the Labour party, the party that rejected the recommendations of the Arbunoth Commision and the Electoral Commission warning about this very scenario (see my earlier post). Surprisinly, the BBC News website has not reported on any of these latter two interventions, and only carries a small piece on Anne Moffat’s disgraceful remark.

So this is the Scottish Labour party show in Westminster: a clown and a disgraceful, vindictive and venomous little nobody waste of space who has not digested the news that the SNP is now the dominant party in Scottish politics.

Ms Moffat, I have news for you: goodbye and good riddance.

People like you have kept this country in the doldrums for too long. You and your party have been a liability for Scotland for too long. Your stupid and braindead remarks show the kind of person you really are. I feel sorry for your constituents, being represented by such a miserable loser.

The Herald printed two Letters to the Editor in the Thursday editon. (today).
Link: The Herald - Wicked slur on the SNP

PS: it turns out thas Anne Moffat MP (Labour, East Lothian), along with other Scottish Labour MPs voted in favour of replacing Trident. Full list of Labour MPs voting in favour of the Trident system of WMD to be based in Scotland can be found on this link from the New Statesman. Shame on all of them. An insult to the memory of the Labour party.

The incompetence of the Labour party knows no bounds

Well, even in defeat, Scottish Labour has managed to take the shine of the historic SNP victory on the May 3 elections. I am referring of course to the voting and counting fiasco involving about 100,000 of rejected ballot papers, a ten-fold increase from the 2003 elections. But I will come back to this issue later.

When I wrote my previous post, at about 3am in the morning, it was looking like Labour would just squeeze in. The west of Scotland has not turned away from Labour in sufficient numbers. Fortunately, the SNP did pretty well in the regional lists in the Highlands & Islands and a solid performance in the Lothians list.

The final result of the elections, in number of seats, is:

SNP – 47
Labour – 46
Conservatives – 17
Liberal Democrats – 16
Greens – 2
Independent – 1 (Margo MacDonald, a former SNP MP)

It is worth pointing out that the SNP also has the highest number of votes, both in the constituency and regional lists:

Constituencies:
SNP – 664,227– 32.9%
Labour – 648,374 – 32.2%
Conservatives – 334,743 – 16.6%
Liberal Democrats – 326,232 – 16.2%

Regions:
SNP – 633,401 – 31.0%
Labour – 595,415 – 29.2%
Conservatives – 284,005 – 13.9%
Liberal Democrats – 230,671 – 11.3%
Greens – 82,584 – 4%

Full details of the results are in the BBC News web site.

Little mention has been made of the fact that the SNP is also the biggest party at the local council level: 363 local councillors for the SNP against 348 for Labour. The Tories now have 143 councillors, and the LibDems 166.

So let’s celebrate that, finally, after almost 50 years, Labour is no longer the dominant party in Scottish politics. Certainly it was about time!

The SNP now have the moral authority to try to form a government and Labour are licking their wounds. Their absence in the media is conspicuous. The daggers must be flying right, left and centre, and the future of Jack McConnell as leader of the Labour party in Scotland looks uncertain to say the least.

Still, Labour could not help but bring chaos to the election. Despite the concerns raised by the Electoral Commission and the Arbuthnott Commission review of the Scottish voting system, the Scottish Office, ruled by Labour MPs David Cairns and Douglas Alexander, decided to push ahead.

This article on the BBC News site is self-explanatory, even though it avoids to clearly identify the people responsible for this fiasco:

- the Labour-ruled Scottish Office for ignoring the advice of the Electoral commission to hold the local council elections and Scottish parliament elections on different dates; and

- the Labour-controlled Scottish Executive, who ignored the recommendations of the Arbuthnott Commission and other campaigners to invest more in voter education campaigns.


Another show of incompetence by our Labour masters. When will the people of Scotland, and more specifically, the people of Glasgow & Strathclyde, wake up and realise that Labour is a liability to Scotland?

Nevertheless, one could sympathise with those who argue that if people cannot read the instructions in a ballot paper, then they should not be entitled to vote. I’d rather side with Melanie Reid, who in her article in The Times, explains that it has been the poorest and most disadvantaged members of our society those who have had problems filling their ballot papers properly. Read the The Times column here.

Although Ms Reid clearly points the finger at the Scottish Office and Scottish Executive, she fails to mention that the communities with the highest percentage of rejected ballot papers are those that have been ruled by the Labour party for decades: Glasgow and west central Scotland. Why, after decades of rule by the so-called people’s party, are people unable to fill in a ballot paper?

In my own constituency, Glasgow Shettleston, the percentage of rejected papers was about 12%. This ties in with the unemployment and social poverty statistics for this area of Glasgow. That’s what decades of Labour rule have achieved for communities across the west of Scotland: people are unable to fill in a ballot paper.

Sadly, although they have lost the election, Labour has not sunk. It will take a great deal of effort, vigorous campaigning and building trust and relationships with the poorest communities in the west of Scotland for the SNP to bring about the change this country so desperately needs. Breaking the cycle of poverty and dependency will be extremely hard in Glasgow and Strathclyde. More hard work will be required. I for one am considering joining in this effort. It is time for a change. It is time to work for a better Scotland.

Another 4 years of Labour-LibDems decline?

Well the first results are coming in and it does not look good for Scotland.
Labour are holding onto their seats in their heartlands in the west of Scotland. The SNP swing predicted in the polls has not materialised and it is now unlikely that the SNP will be the biggest party.

This is disappointing but it shows what a complex country Scotland is. Despite being in power for over three decades in the Strathclyde area, their policies unable to halt the economic and social decline of this area, Labour keeps getting elected. Well, that’s democracy for you.

In any case, and as I wrote in my previous post, the break-up of the United Kingdom is inevitable. The minute we have a Tory administration in Westminster and a Labour-LibDem or minority SNP administration in Edinburgh, the Scottish Labour party will join the pro-independence camp. For Scottish Labour, it is not about Scotland or even the UK, it is about self-preservation.

The time will come when Scotland will join the rest of the world in its own terms.

The danger, witnessing the results today, is that we could end up in a few years with an independent Scotland, or even a federal Scotland, with a perpetual Labour government. Given the state of Glasgow and Strathclyde after three decades of Labour rule, sometimes I have doubts myself about the best way to go.

People in Strathclyde will vote for a monkey if it wore a Labour rosette. Such is the state of social and emotional dependence from the poorest and unhealthiest communities in Scotland towards the very people that are keeping them in such a condition.

It will take more than a confident and positive campaign for the SNP to make inroads in these areas. I read an article in The Times a few days ago along the lines of “things have to get worse before they get any better”, referring to the French presidential elections. Perhaps that applies to Scotland: we need to be kept in economic and social decline for a little bit longer before people wake up and realise that Labour policies are failing the communities in the west of Scotland.

Perhaps the time is not now, but sure that the time will come.

Shame on New Labour

If there was any doubt, if you were so naïve to think that the Labour party had any decency left, and that is stretching one’s imagination, it was put to an end today.

The Labour party and their allies, the Conservative party, have voted today to replace the Trident nuclear weapons system based in the Clyde, near Glasgow. (BBC News)

This means an expenditure of £20m (€30m) on a nuclear weapons system, effectively Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) based about 30 miles from where I live.

I am tuned into BBC Radio Scotland (Scotland at Ten), listening to the speeches made in the Commons and I am sick to the teeth of the Labour party. They get this country in an illegal and ill-advised war in Iraq, without UN mandate, and now we get £20 billions (£20,000,000,000) in WMD. Then we complain if Iran wants to develop their own system.

I have never voted for Labour and never will. These despicable people are ruining this country, makes us more vulnerable, not less.

We have the worst train service in the EU 15, yet this Labour government will spend £20bn in WMD.
We have MRSI viruses in our hospitals, yet this Labour government will spend £20bn in WMD.
We have increasing problems with anti-social behaviour, lack of street-policing, yet this Labour government will spend £20bn in WMD.
We have underpaid, and over-worked nurses and teachers, yet this Labour government will spend £20bn in WMD.
We have areas of poverty in Glasgow worse than developing world standards, yet this Labour government will spend £20bn in WMD.

And the people that have voted for this call themselves Labour.
Labour my arse.
They are a disgrace to the proud history of the Labour movement; they are the worst kind of traitors, cowards and self-satisfying bastards on earth. 20 years ago they were campaigning, together with the CND, against nuclear armament.
Now they vote to spend another £20bn on nuclear Weapons of Mass Destruction.
What the hell has changed in 20 years? That the Bitch (Thatcher) was in power and now it is the people's party?

“Nuclear deterrent”, they call it. To deter who? Al Qaida? The monster they created and financed in the first place? And who are going to attack in retaliation? Who will press the button that will kill thousands of innocent civilians somewhere else?

Unlikely as it is, I really hope, no, I pray with all my heart, that the SNP will win the next Scottish elections on May 3. Yet, I am doubtful. I am afraid that the Scottish people are too afraid of change now. Too afraid of getting rid of the people that have governed the UK for the last decade. Take Glasgow as an example. The local Labour party has been in power in the City Council (or in the previous regional authority) for over 30 years. In all these 30 years, the so-called Labour party in Glasgow have been unable to do anything to improve the quality of life of the people living in this city. Glasgow was at the bottom of the poverty tables 30 years ago, and it remains in exactly the same position now. And they still blame the Tories, or Thatcher, or the SNP or… anybody else but themselves.

And still, what disheartens me the most is that the Labour party, this Labour party that has been unable to do anything to lift Glasgow off the bottom of the poverty league table, the same people that are selling the nation’s assets to private financiers (PPI, PFI, etc), the same people that are privatising our hospitals, the same people that sell honours for cash loans to the party, the same people that got us involved in a stupid, illegal war against a country who had no WMD (unlike ourselves), the same people that have voted to spend £20,000,000,000 on a nuclear weapons of mass destructions system… this people, the Labour party, are going to be returned to power.
That is the sad thing.

It is never wise to get into politics in a foreign country. But I have had enough. I cannot stand being governed by such a bunch of incompetent, corrupt and morally devoid people. I have always voted for the SNP since I arrived to Scotland (except a moment of weakness when I cast a second vote for the SSP…) but this time round I am going to go to the local branch and I am going to offer helping out with whatever they need.

Except I can’t do that because I am writing a thesis for my masters’ degree (part-time student as well as working full-time) and I don’t have any spare time. Damn.

I have been over here for over 8 years, now, always working and paying my NI and Income Tax, even when I was a studying. Never claimed benefits or anything from the state, apart from my 25% single person discount for my council tax. I think 8 years is enough time to get involved, even if I have a rather silly foreign accent. But I am so fed up, I am so raging at this country being held back by these despicable people that I cannot stand it anymore.

Roll on May 3 and let’s all vote SNP and kick the Labour-WMD party out of power. Let’s tell them where to stick their Trident nuclear system of WMD.
Aye, up theirs.