Monday, 25 April 2022

The Laird Report Episode 14 The Bad Old Days of New Labour Return to Scotland

The Labour Party is being incredibly disingenuous on how it is conducting itself in the Scottish election, yet again they propose policies that they cannot implement even if they win the council elections. Is it a case they are so stupid, or is it the case that they believe the Scottish public is so utterly stupid and gullible? This isn't new, the Scottish Labour Party did the exact same thing in the Westminster election of 2015 with policies that ONLY the Scottish Government could enact. It led to one of the biggest electoral defeats for the Party in modern history. Sophistry is the clever use but false arguments done with the express purpose to deceive. The people of Scotland rejected the right wing of the Labour Party because their anti working class policies and attitudes towards representing them, and no one is forgetting that.

31 comments:

  1. Derek MacKay was once a councillor; should Anas Sarwar be a councillor too and we can just close Holyrood. What good does it do anyone anyway? Councils empty bins and fix roads. Leave the Scotland Office to do everything else.

    By the way, I was hearing on the news that Gordon Jackson QC, who was once a Labour MSP, was found guilty of allowing the identities of two of the infamous alphabet women to be worked on in a loud conversation on the Glasgow to Edinburgh train. Sentance hasn't been passed yet.

    The last chap guilty of that crime was a blogger and he was sent down for 6-months for it. Exactly the same crime.

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  2. Among the poorest members of the working class, labour is toxic.
    We have vivid memories of them.
    As I said in 2010, that lying shower of elitist rats will not be elected again until 2028,

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  3. Labour will do nothing for you. Neither will the SNP or the Tories. In Scotland, they all know each other and look after each other. Even last year when Swinney should have been removed and should have been removed, he was saved by Patrick Harvie and the Greens were rewarded a few months later. Politics in Scotland really is in a bad way.

    In England, Boris could be removed as a result of Sue Gray's report. That would be a civil-servant effectively removing a PM. Can you imagine any civil-servant in Scotland removing either Sturgeon or Swinney? There's plenty going-on up here which are worse than Downing Street parties.

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  4. I see Anas Sarwar is currently demanding a public explanation from the new Head of Scotland's Civil-Service (the chap who has replaced Leslie Evans, I cannot remember his name) into the culture of secrecy surrounding the Scottish Government.

    'Ms Sturgeon last week denied her government staged a cover-up after it said that key documents explaining the decision "cannot be located."'

    This relates to Ferguson Marine in Port Glasgow, but it could also relate to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow.

    What they all have in common is that they are the cover-up of Scottish Government foul-ups and they are costing hundreds of millions of pounds.

    If Douglas Ross's Conservative Party were any good, they would be doing this. Are they not supposed to be the official opposition in Scotland. Even more hopeless than Labour and SNP combined if you ask me. If they cannot make this stick then Scotland has entered the grubber from which there is no escape.

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  5. VG presentation this week. No repetition that I could find anyway. Not easy to do. A strong message delivered in twenty minutes. Good luck with this. It has improved every week and is now excellent.

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  6. It looks to me as if Boris Johnson will be removed one way or another. It doesn't look specifically like it was partygate that was to blame, just the obvious lack of honesty and sincerity. Let's hope the new leader will shine a spotlight on the sleaze and corruption which has enveloped Holyrood these past 10 years.

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  7. I'm a socialist and I've been voting Tory since around 2015. But lately, they are as much use as hemorrhoids. This council election in May will be the first time I'm not voting. Not one of them is deserving of our vote.

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  8. I remember the Labour administrations at Holyrood and they were undoubtedly much better than SNP who are secretive and, we all suspect, corrupt.

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  9. Sadly, lying to the public and corruption is par for the course in Scotland. Sturgeon lies are is supported by her spin machine and we don't have any worthwhile Press or Police or Lawyers who will do anything about that. Anas Sarwar is just doing what everyone else does. One Labour MSP stood up at Holyrood yesterday and said that corruption was going-on. You would think that folk would take notice, but no-one takes any notice and so I think we are all in for major problems in Scotland. Even Holyrood Inquiries are bent and so we are all in for a very bleak future.

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  10. "Ivan McKee, the SNP’s business minister, told MSPs: “There is a clear audit trail of key decisions and the basis on which they were taken. And in relation to the documents mentioned in the Audit Scotland report, a thorough search has been conducted and no ministerial response… has been located.”" - Does anyone believe this? I like when he says "ministerial response" as if there's a finality about ministerial responses and we are all must believe them. Let's hope this disgraceful episode opens a few eyes at Westminster.

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  11. Fitzhenry wrote: "The Commissioner notes the applicant’s view that keeping legal advice relating to a second independence referendum secret actively harms accountability and scrutiny and would be counter to the public interest.

    "Given the fundamental importance of Scotland’s future constitutional relationship to all individuals living in Scotland, and its fundamental importance to political and public debate at the time of the request and requirement for review, the Commissioner is satisfied that disclosing this information would significantly enhance public debate on this issue.

    "While the ministers have expressed concern that disclosure of legal advice in this case would have the effect of future legal advice being more circumspect or less effective, the Commissioner acknowledges the point made by the applicant that the ministers’ own decision to disclose legal advice relating to the Alex Salmond case has already created such an environment, if the risk were there, and a further disclosure of legal advice which is of much greater public interest is unlikely to create any further difficulty.”

    Something tells me the legal profession are tired of being shat-on by Sturgeon and Swinney. Not before time. This is what happened to the RFC Administrators Duff and Phelps. They had the cash and pursued a malicious prosecution case against the Crown Office and won. Alex Salmond was another case and this is yet another. When will we in Scotland learn that we are being led by a bunch of gangsters?

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  12. And England has just shown us how to do a proper legal judgement on Covid positive patients being transferred out of hospitals and into care homes. Nothing was redacted and everything was open to the Press to report on. I wonder what kind of kind of Inquiry we will have here in Scotland? England is increasing becoming another country to may Scots but they do things there which were invented in Scotland. Scotland has just scrapped these protocols because they make us look bad. They'll wheel-out Jason Leitch again to blether some clap-trap and we'll all think that's as good as England. It's not, it's far, far worse.

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  13. Dear Anon

    Thank you for the support on presentation, I am keen to get better but need to videos on how to be presenter, any feedback is welcome as I want to make this experience as viewer friendly.

    George

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  14. I see Sanjeev Gupta is being investigated by French and UK authorities re the Liberty Steel scam. He's suckered governments for Billions over the years. None more so, relatively speaking, than the Scottish government. We'll see what kind of investigation transpires at Holyrood/Scotland Office/Audit Scotland. My experience has been that it will not be a very good one. Scotland doesn't really belong as a top ranking, serious and accountable government, does it. It's a nursery school government really.

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  15. Not much to improve upon presentation now. It's the content, honesty, authenticity and all the rest of it that will attract folk to the site. Also, the length is just about right I think at 20-odd minutes. Talking about authenticity, I thought everyone's indignation at Angela Rayner's crossing her legs routine was over the top wasn't it? She was joking about doing it with a number of parliamentarians of all parties in the Westminster gardens just days before it appeared in the press. What does she expect? Swinney for example called it 'disgusting'. I thought it was just a statement of fact and just what the Press is supposed to do for us.

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  16. Anas Sarwar stood-up in Holyrood yesterday and asked if the High Court ruling that nursing care home deaths due to Covid were unlawful, does that mean they are likely to have been unlawful in Scotland too? A good question and exactly the type of question that ought to be asked at Holyrood. Sturgeon stood-up and said: 'England and Scotland are entirely different'.

    There you have it then, a product of the 50-person SNP media department and a demonstration of why Holyrood has failed Scotland.

    Scotland is exactly the same as England in terms of the circumstances surrounding nursing home deaths and if England can sort themselves out then what is stopping us. It is either the SNP/Holyrood or it is the unhealthy grip they have on our once impartial legal service.

    Either one or the other or both are screwing us all. It's all very sad.

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  17. What has Holyrood done for Scotland in 20-odd years? There was an article in the Guardian some time ago where a journalist asked that question. It has become a political desert where nothing good ever happens. It is all bad. The journalist bemoaned the fact that we have no political think tanks and frightened newspaper and TV journalists. The SNP were given the right to reply and John Swinney replied a few weeks later. All I can remember was 'baby-boxes' and 'the smoking ban'. There was other stuff too but I am not exaggerating to say that it was so trivial I cannot remember any of it.

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  18. Whilst Labour are undoubtedly crap, no-one will do nothing for you and rip you off like a Tory. Michelle Mone (remember her?). She's now a life peer at the House of Lords and married to an Isle of Man Billionaire. She's currently under investigation and her homes have been raided in connection with £250million paid to one of her companies during the great big PPE rip-off of two years ago. Cheap PPE was re-branded to make it like the real stuff. £250,.....she could have sold Ultimo bras for the rest of her life and never made anything like that amount of cash. I wonder what will happen there? It wasn't that long ago that MP's went to jail for scamming a few thousand on their expenses.

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    Replies
    1. Sick of these type of comments. Michelle Mone is a disgrace and I hope she pays the price for her cheating. I am a Tory voter and my last tactical vote was in 2017 (to keep SNP out) I also did a bit of late campaigning for the Labour candidate. I knew nothing about the Labour candidate but was told by someone in Scotland in Union he was a nice young lad. Turned out to be the most venomous, lying, devious individuals
      Labour have been getting tactical votes but as a poll showed rarely returned because Labour politicians brand all Tories as scum and SNP follow their lead. Many in Glasgow would vote Tory but sit at home because of SNP and Labour dominance. Everyone in Glasgow used to vote Labour and many still do because of habit. The best run councils throughout the UK are Conservative. The most corrupt councils are Labour. Glasgow under Labour was no exception. Contracts to their own etc etc. Sex offenders - A few Tory MPs come to light recently and glad to see the back of them. The Trans MP, I have read may have some dodgy businesses and if so needs to go too. There is your Lord Ahmed, the many Labour councils who for over a decade protected the Muslim grooming gangs and "Labour 25" now many rimes more.
      Anas Sarwar and the Hate Crime Bill also his copycat anti-white speech in Holyrood. Tory voters will not be told by their leaders what to think or do. Ruth Davidson has not forgiven us for voting Leave. Douglas Ross is doing a reasonable job attacking Sturgeon but has not yet learned to listen to his voters before he jumps the gun. Give us a break on your incessant "Tory bad" rhetoric.

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    2. That was a good reply. Mind-you, all I said was that no-one will rip you off like a Tory and if you can show me a better example of a rip-off merchant than Michelle Mone, then good luck to you.

      Your comment regarding Tory run councils being the best performing of all is true in my experience too. So, many Tories are good and honest, but some are not and those who are not tend to be protected - they shouldn't be but they are.

      I think you know that history will tell us that Theresa May's government was the best performing government we have had in this country for decades.

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  19. The war is going badly for Putin and I was reading that he may declare war on Ukraine on 9th May, rather than the hitherto special military operation. That allows him to nationalise western interests in Russian and conscript hundreds of thousands into military service.

    On the subject of Holyrood and our councils. Beware of these idiots who graduate from our councils to sit as MSP's at Holyrood. They tend to be the most vainglorious out of all of them. Derek Mackay was one but there are others that we should all look out for. Some have kept their seats on councils so as to save public money by having to elect a replacement. Just watch-out for these people.

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  20. Is it the case that everything in Scotland is paid for by Sturgeon? Everything from the Crown Office to Rape Crisis Scotland. Is it any wonder it's all in a mess?

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  21. Did you know that John Swinney celebrated 25-years at Holyrood yesterday? That corresponds with 25-years of continuing precipitous decline for all Scots. It's been a good 25-years for Swinney, but it's been rank rotten for everyone else in the country.

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  22. Regarding releasing the legal advice about whether indyref 2 would be legal or not, the Ministerial Code does indeed prohibit the release of legal advice, but welcomes it when there is an overwhelming public interest. Are we not in a situation of overwhelming public interest now? .......surely we must be?.......no? Does it not occur to any of our Holyrood opposition parties to ask for it in these terms, referencing the wording of the Ministerial Code?.....or does that require a degree of gumption absent at Holyrood these days?

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  23. Labour look set to make large gains in England due to Partygate and the Cost of Living Crisis. In Scotland, we keep on voting SNP. It is rapidly becoming the most depressing place to be on earth.

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  24. We've gone from the age of the Enlightenment in Scotland to an age where a brass-neck and a big mouth are all you need. Sturgeon herself is the superlative example of course, but that clown in Glasgow City Chambers is nearly as good.

    Another thing, it was on TV last week that it is almost impossible to bring attempted rape or rape cases to Court nowadays. Why then did they find it so easy to take Salmond to Court? Only to find out at the High Court that the accuser was probably a liar. What a feckin embarrassment.

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  25. Dreadful local election results; we have the emergence of a one-party state now in Scotland and that brings with it all the nepotism and corruption we associate already with SNP governance. The Labour and Conservative Parties had some good candidates who were all swept away in the tidal wave. Utterly depressing.

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  26. I was reading that it was John Swinney that finally approved and signed-off the Ferguson ferries contract. Just as I thought. A malevolent liar of a man.

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  27. They are saying that Russia will be driven out of Ukraine by the end of the year. The Ukrainian arms are better, better range and better targeting and so they are just picking off Russian battle groups one by one.

    It just shows you, wars are like football matches in a way and you never really know the outcome until it is over. The war trials have started in Ukraine already and this will be a lesson to all war-mongers like Putin in future that it can all go badly wrong.

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  28. I hope your health is good George. We haven't heard from you in a while.

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  29. Dear Anon

    Thank you for your concern, working on a video for today.

    George

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