Steven Purcell and our national gift of meiosis.

It appears that the Media House attempts to control the Steven Purcell story is in danger of blowing a tyre and plummeting down the ravine labelled 'No Chuffing Chance'. 

For the first time in living memory the Hootsman actually defied convention, alleged threats of legal nastiness and reported yer actual bona fide-oops-Labour-in-the-shitter-news. News, which I hasten to add that the blogosphere has been voraciously whispering les gros mots about, behind cupped palms, since Monday evening, that Mr Purcell's stress, has been attributable to an alleged pharmaceutical dependency. 

Jack Irvine's task was made even more Herculean when STV reported today that Mr Purcell went AWOL from Castle Craig Rehab centre on Sunday afternoon and told their gobsmacked audience that our dear chums at Lothian and Border were called in to poke about the bushes looking for a rather lost, bewildered and somewhat dis-inhibited Mr Purcell. If Castle Craig were a psychiatric institution, rather than a 12 step addiction centre, most patients would have been sectioned under the mental health act, and there would be no need to call police for a patient, unless of course when there is a significant danger of self harm.

As much sympathy as I have for any poor soul dependent on medication, legal or otherwise, to get through the day, I honestly feel, the time-line to Mr Purcell's implosion needs further investigation from our doughty press pack. 

Just exactly was said at Gordon Brown's table to Mr Purcell at last Thursday's Labour fund-raising dinner at the Glasgow Hilton, when according to all the impartial Labour supporters and Rangers manager Walter Smith, who were in attendance, that Mr Purcell was 'at the top of his game'? What was it that made him, a few short hours later, express a desire to get the flip out of Dodge? Were the raffle tickets so eye blisteringly expensive that Mr Purcell, according to Paul Hutcheon, had to be 'escorted' home? Who were the MSP's with whom he had 'convivial' talks on the Friday morning? Did they not notice anything untoward in his presumably agitated state? Is Mr Purcell paying for Media House representation, and Levy &McRae defamation specialists from his own pocket or could it be that the Labour Party or friends of the Labour Party are dipping into their own deep pockets? Who overruled the rather expensively assembled 'Team Glasgow' who wanted to come clean and fess all?  How long has Mr Purcell, suffered from this alleged dependency, did he ever self medicate in the Council Chambers or whilst on Council business? Does Glasgow City Council have a mandatory drug testing system for its employees, does this apply to elected members or merely officers and other lower paid employees? Where exactly did Mr Purcell procure the pharmaceutical in question?  

One presumes, with a desperate desire to be truthful and transparent, that the new leader of Glasgow City Council will immediately instigate an investigation into these and sundry other questions of nefarious goings on at the City Chambers.

Naturally, in a normal independent country, a free press would be asking these questions rather than swallowing the cheap party line of praising some chap down on his hunkers and predicting his meteoric return a few weeks after defeating his inner demons.


Come on the press pack, you can pursue other people with great vim, gusto and template cut and paste reporting, how about doing some actual digging and living up to the once exalted title of 'journalist'?

The Daily Record is a big fat liar and other observations.

Our delightfully jolly Tartan overlord Alex Salmond and Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill yesterday appeared before the Scottish Affairs Select Committee (click link for video) at Westminster in the rather sterile sounding session, 'Scotland and the UK: cooperation and communication between governments'. I suppose it's nice to see Westminster adopt 'Government' over 'Executive'.

Anyhoo, the media have jumped all over the Tartan overlord and Kenny MacAskill or Mahatmacaskill ,as Tom Harris likes to think of him, for the comments they made in committee on the release on compassionate grounds in August 2009 of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi. 

Foremost in our brave Scottish media was Magnus Gardham of the Daily Record, aka the Labour Party in-house journal. Magnus at his most excoriating best delivered the subhead, 'Kenny MacAskill: I've no regrets over decision to release Lockerbie bomber.' 

The Daily Record much like the rest of the British tabloids and American media have been completely vituperative in condemning MacAskill's decision, much like the blessed Lord Foulkes, whom Tom Harris describes as shouting from a sedentary position during the nominations for the Scottish Politician of the Year Awards, "He's still alive."

There appears to be some desperate wish on the part of the Labour Party and the tabloids for Megrahi to remain alive, not on humanitarian grounds, but merely to embarrass MacAskill. Some have even gone so far as to deliberately mislead their readership with flagrant lies, deceit and propaganda.

Now on Thursday the 26th of November vile, deceitful, cowardly, bullying, smear merchant and attack bastard Montague Burton received a swift belter in the nads from the News of the World. Earlier that day, during an innocent morning, MB, aka me, had visited the parliament's information centre, SPICE to find a hard copy of the Daily Record dated Thursday 19th of November, after a senior colleague had mentioned that exposing the subterfuge and propaganda of the Daily Record therein regarding a photograph of Megrahi, might be a good story for this here blawg. I was rather dismayed and not all together surprised to discover, in a parliamentary email from SPICE, that the hard copy was in fact missing, had in actual fact gone walkies. 

Soon after the shit hit the fan and I was reviled, demonised and accused of being not only Jeckyll and Hyde...but also Walter Mitty!

Completing the blog post slipped from my mind, until yesterday. On a rare away day to civilisation, I managed to pop into the newly upgraded Mitchell Library in Glasgow, where the lovely ladies in the archive section were able to direct me to a copy of the Daily Record dated Thursday 19th of November, wherein I found the story on Megrahi where he brazenly was seen to have the temerity to still be alive, and dash it all, looking a lot better than he did three months earlier. Or was he?

Now dear reader, please have a look at the photographs below. The character in the shell-suit is Mr Megrahi boarding his flight to Tripoli. The photograph on the right and labelled 'Yesterday' i.e, Wednesday the 18th of November is of Megrahi in a suit, shirt and tie.  

                     

This photograph below is rather striking. It shows Mr Megrahi sitting with Libyan leader Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam Gaddafi. If dear reader you look closely at Mr Megrahi, below, and above, you will see that the two photographs are identical, right down to the curtains in the background, the sofa back and the flare on his glasses. The wonderful label that informs us that the photograph was taken on Wednesday the 18th of November obscures Mr Gaddafi and Mr Megrahi clasping hands together. It is transparently obvious that this is a cropped image and a picture that tells a thousand lies.

The image above although tagged by the New York Daily News as being updated on Sunday the 23rd of August was taken on the evening that Megrahi arrived back in Tripoli on the 20th of August, after Megrahi changed out of his Greenock prison shell suit into a rather tasteful suit...

So there you have it the very last blog post I'll ever do suggested by a former colleague, jings if I'm telling the truth about this, what else might I be saying that's true? 

As to my assertion that the Daily Record is a big fat liar, well no doubt they could make an excuse that this blatant attempt to decieve was an 'honest mistake', rather than a nasty piece of propaganda, which attempted to sway their readers belief that Megrahi's cancer wasn't real and that Kenny MacAskill had been duped by cancer specialists. 

Interestingly, I first mentioned this duplicity in the Sunday Times article last month. Yet not one of the illustrious 'investigative' journalists working in Scotland could be arsed looking into it. Is it a case that they didn't believe me? If so why did Tom Gordon do the story in the Herald on the Secretary General of the Labour Party, Councillor Colin Smyth being expelled from a Dumfries and Galloway council meeting, when he lifted it direct from this here blog? Perhaps the Scottish media don't like bloggers pointing out their inaccuracies and in this case blatant attempts to deceive...

Of course next Wednesday will be the, jings, fifth month since Megrahi was released. Is his added longevity down to money being no object to his care, the differences in weather between HMP Greenock and Tripoli or the comforting effects of being with your family during an illness?

Expect further frothing from the good Baron Foulkes and the boy Baker minor, who appears to be missing his school cap...

Bullying Secretary General of Labour Party Kicked out of Council Meeting

Ooh drearie me, news has waded its way through the flood waters of Dumfries that Colin Smyth, Scottish General Secretary of the Labour Party and Labour councillor for Nith Ward was kicked out, ejected, expelled, nay cast out by popular vote from a Dumfries and Galloway council meeting on Thursday this week.

Smyth's official misdemeanour was for 'offensive conduct and refusing to respect the chair'. 

Councillor Smyth and Councillor Ronnie Nicholson, the not so popular with their own members, odd couple, have allegedly a history of behaving in a rather intimidating manner towards councillors and council employees of the lady persuasion. So much so that one is tempted to think that Messrs Smyth and Nicholson might have been happier in an earlier age when women were expected to stay in, shut up and put out on demand.

One can only imagine what kind of thrill some chaps might get from trying to impress the ladies with their machismo ways.

Although the vote was put to the full council and Smyth actually had cross party support, not one lady member voted for him to remain in chamber.

Naturally when Smyth was given his marching orders...

 

Nicholson, a local low rent landlord and erstwhile leader of the Labour group flapped his arms, squawked about a bit and left in a hissy fit.

 

The remaining members of the Labour Party and the rent-a-mob glee club they invite to council meetings. Were nonplussed and did what comes naturally to such sorts.