Curious George and the lost spirit of honesty.

Following last weeks own 'special' brand of stupid from Dumfries and Galloway Labour MP ickle Russell Brown (above), attacking SNP Culture Minister Mike Russell for a book written 11 years ago. One would have rightly thought, that after sense prevailed, and intelligent people who had actually read the book, acclaimed it as an honest warts and all assessment of Scotland after 18 years of Tory rule, and as a condemnation of decades of Labour incompetence in running civic Scotland, the fuss would have been consigned to the bin marked, 'further puerile Labour rubbish'.




Alas and alack no, as has been mentioned elsewhere, this week brought forward the spectacle of Baron George Foulkes of Cumnock (seen above lying in a near comatose state, in the back of his Ministerial limousine, after being arrested for drunk and disorderly behaviour in ThatLondon) through the keyboard of his well nourished Gollum, Kezia (when will she drop the dale from her name?) Dugdale (yes I know boo hiss, what a sexist blah blah-tough) proferring the following motion to the Scottish Parliament:

S3M-03621 George Foulkes (Lothians) (Lab): That the Parliament calls on the Minister for Culture, External Affairs and the Constitution to retract his derogatory remarks about parts of Glasgow, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Stirling and Lanarkshire, made in his book, In Waiting: Travels in the Shadow of Edwin Muir, in October 1998; in particular calls on the minister to retract the comments that imply that Glasgow is too dangerous to get out of a car and that tenement closes are covered with the bodies of unconscious drug addicts, that describe the flag on Edinburgh Castle as “an awful mutant tablecloth”, that suggest that Dumfries is full of “skinny, ill-dressed women”, that Aberdeen is inhospitable and that Stirling is undesirable, and believes that it is against the interests of Scotland to have a minister who is responsible for promoting Scotland and its culture to be seen to continue to hold these views.




Now to just drop a further bogie into Kezia's slimfast Muligatawny soup, let me just proffer the following review from The Glasgow Herald (as was) dated December 9 1998, under the heading:

BOOK of the DAY

reviewed by

Vi Hughes

On page 18 weighing in at 409 words, fighting out of Neil Wilson Publishing for a reasonable £9.99

IN WAITING: TRAVELS IN THE SHADOW OF EDWIN MUIR

by Michael Russell

REFRESHINGLY, Michael Russell, chief executive of the SNP, speaks also as a private person as he looks at Scotland in these past few months before the birth of its Parliament. His new book is loosely based on Edwin Muir's Scottish Journey of 1935. Russell conducts a sort of dialogue with the famous poet and thinker that enriches and deepens his own book.
His aim was "to escape from the straitjacket of day to day politics and to indulge in the luxury of visiting and thinking about the country and its people, trying to learn from them what my country is about, and what it wants to be". Russell travels the length of the country. Unlike Muir, his work did not allow him one sustained period of travel, but his various sorties to different areas, by car, train, bus, or ferry, at least allowed him to observe the failings of Scottish transport services, particularly in outlying regions.
He starts with Edinburgh where he has only a day to spend . . . no chance of emulating Muir's unsurpassed portrait of that beautiful and exasperating city. He talks to two unemployed teenagers, inarticulate on the topic of Scottish politics, a vinegary lady in the Botanical Garden cafe who thinks that London is the place for "the Parliament", some "mean-faced old men" in a pub, and lastly, thank goodness, meets John, a joiner, who really cares and looks forward with hope to a new life after May next year.
In Kirkcudbright, a visit to his old school inspires reflection on the failing state of education. In Glasgow and Lanarkshire his writing gains force, fuelled by a mixture of anger at what the ravages of industrialism have done to people's lives, and concern at how little has been done to repair that damage. Muir's description of the devastated areas, quoted in the book, shocks him with its relevance to conditions today.
The book contains the inevitable bit of Labour/SNP knockabout and, alas, some shallow anti-English stuff. There are also one or two misunderstandings about Edwin Muir. But in expressing his own humanity and compassion Russell acknowledges that his party has no monopoly on such feelings. It is this belief that lends a positive note to his conclusion - that the new Parliament could and should help evolve "a politics of ideas and principles . . . " that would "serve Scotland much better".

Now the above is a warts and all copy and paste of the original review, I could have taken out the comment about "shallow anti-English stuff." But, I'm not into covering up honest warts and all analysis, or selecting or burying quotes out of context. I would add that Vi Hughes who reviewed the book is an Australian author of quite excellent childrens literature, and may not have understood that Mike Russell is English born....

Anyhoo, back to the Baron, this lover of all things liquid and bi-legged, is without doubt one of the most effective tools the SNP have on the path to Independence. His rambling comments are of great value for followers of Scottish politics, deliberately!

However, this week, probably in response to the above motion, or as is more likely, as a means of informing the parliament, just exactly how much public money the Baron and Ms Dugdale have cost us Dr Ian McKee submitted the following motion.


S3M-03628 Ian McKee (Lothians) (SNP):

That the Parliament, mindful of the answer to question S3W-17445 by the Minister for Parliamentary Business on 10 November 2008 that the cost of answering a parliamentary question is £98.51, notes that at least one member has asked over 1,000 questions in this parliamentary session, costing a total of over £100,000, and that if all members followed this example that the cost to the taxpayer would be nearly £13 million, or £26 million in a full session, and therefore requests all members to consider whether their question is really necessary before incurring yet more public expense.


So in addition to his numerous members motions (ohh missus) the delightful Baron has cost the Scottish taxpayer £100,000 with his consistent line of Parliamentary drivel, all driven by his belief that the SNP must be as corrupt as his beloved Scottish Labour party. £100,000 spent so far proves that he's still drooling on the leather seats of his ministerial limo...Keep up the good work George, deliberately.

Scotland's independence day

On the day that Broon, fluttered his eyelash, gave big Barak a comehither wink and proclaimed himself the big man on campus, an American journalist wrote something akin to a piece of journalism, we in Scotland have long given up on. An impartial article. Read on and applaud.

* For lurking dependence junkies, be aware that you are being insulted, you just don't know by how much.


ONE OF THE most interesting politicians in Europe these days is a Scot, and I don't mean Gordon Brown. Alex Salmond is the first minister of a devolved Scottish parliament, a creation of Tony Blair's Labor government designed to take the wind out of Scottish separatist sentiments.

A few years ago, however, a ranking member of the British royal family, whose members aren't supposed to get involved with politics, committed an indiscretion by telling me that he thought devolved parliaments were a terrible idea because they could break up the United Kingdom. The Welsh would stay with England, and maybe the Northern Irish, he said, but the Scots probably would not. Salmond, the head of the Scottish National Party, is banking on the royal being right.

After centuries of fighting the English to maintain independence, the two thrones were united when James VI of Scotland became James I of England in 1603, after Elizabeth died childless. In 1707, the two countries were joined under one parliament - the one in London. For the next 300 years, Scotland helped build the British empire, contributed more soldiers per capita to Britain's wars than any other region, invented more things, and had more than its share of prime ministers. Edinburgh became the seat of the Scottish enlightenment, a remarkable burst of creative energy in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. But something of William Wallace, Robert the Bruce, and the independence of yore lingered in the Scottish heart.

Ten years ago, Scotland got its own parliament back, with limited powers. Defense and diplomacy are in London's hands. The Scottish National Party won the election of 2007 by a whisker. Some thought the Scottish Nationalists' minority government would fail, but it hasn't. Neither has Salmond, whose rapier repartee is often on display in the parliamentary put-down that Britons love.

On a recent visit to Edinburgh, I met the first minister in his office in the new Scottish parliament, a startling architectural statement in the tumble-down modern style. An economist by training, Salmond is a big admirer of the late John Kenneth Galbraith and began quoting some of his work from memory.

His plan is to get a referendum on Scottish independence before the people sometime next year. Polls don't show a majority of Scots ready for independence yet, but Salmond believes that they do want the choice. Getting a bill passed on a referendum will be difficult because neither Labor, nor the Tories, nor the Liberal Democrats want any such thing. During my visit, the Scottish edition of the Times of London revealed that in the 1970s the British Labor government went so far as to redraw the boundaries of North Sea oil to deprive Scotland of much of it, and even contemplated stirring up separatists movements in the Scottish isles of Orkney and the Shetlands, should Scotland go independent, to deprive Scotland of even more oil.

Salmond says the nations he looks to for inspiration are Ireland for its lower corporate taxes, the recession notwithstanding; Norway for its stewardship of oil revenues; Finland for education; and the region of Catalonia in Spain for its emphasis on cultural identity. In general, "I tend to like the Scandinavian societies," he said, for the way they balance freedoms and social responsibilities.

Salmond's independent Scotland would keep the monarchy and the English language, although efforts are being made to keep Scottish Gaelic alive. Salmond himself uses old Scots, the language of Robert Burns, when he feels the need to tweak colleagues in the British parliament in London where he also sits. "They know they are being insulted, but not how much," he says.

The SNP's nationalism is based on citizenship, rather than on ethnicity, religion, or language, and is pro-immigration; quite different from many national movements.

Scotland's two biggest banks, Royal Bank of Scotland and Halifax Bank of Scotland, are in deep trouble, but Salmond hopes that even in recession Scots would prefer to have the "same economic teeth" that other nations have, rather than "hang on to the United Kingdom treasury."

Scotland's near neighbors, Ireland, Iceland and Norway, all became independent in the 20th century. Salmond is hoping that Scotland will come into its own early in the 21st.

H.D.S. Greenway's column appears regularly in the Globe.

Rockin' Roddy Piper Hoo haaa!

Excuses unionist parties might come up with against a free vote on an Independence referendum. Part One.

Soooo, in a rather straightforward interview in 'The Politics Show' (North Britain version), wherein MSP Mike Russell Minister for Culture, External Affair and the Constitution (CEAC) posited the suggestion that Holyrood might actually do the nation a service and remind the people that politicians are free thinking individuals, not entirely tied to slavish devotion of their pary and have a free vote to determine whether or not Scotland should hold an Independence referendum.

This brought witless cant from the desperate Unionistas.

Cue Steerpike, deep within the bowels of his Eastwood bunker, "Naw, he's ra minister fur breaking up Britannia."

Followed by Don't ravish Tavish, (adopt regulation plums in mouth, the poor boy makes Betty Windsor sound common), "Oh no, how frightful, we're only interested in getting us poor Scots out of this dreadful recession, dontchaknow?"

Then Bella, the shadow shadow First Minister / Secretary of State for Scotland. " Stop chuntering, your obsessed, let's get on with panning Brown over his recession."

I look forward to the other heavyweights on the Scottish political scene weighing in, and denying a free vote to all MSP's, particularly, TheWendy, Jackie the Hutt, Baron Foulkes and Duncan McNeill. And of course, how could I forget Iain 'Giggety giggety goo' Gray.






Addendum

TheWendy, "Let the people have their say on this matter"


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ipd8JzfUr-E

Russell Browned off at gnome jokes.

Ickle Wussell Bwown MP for Dumfries and Galloway seen above wiv a big man, has well and truly scraped the barrel of political intrigue in an attack on Mike Russell Minister for Culture, External Affairs and the Constitution.

Someone has pointed him in the direction of a passage in a book Mike Russell wrote ELEVEN years ago, before he was an MSP called 'In Waiting: Travels In The Shadow Of Edwin Muir', in which he retraces the steps of the Orkney poet and author took through Scotland in the 1930's, about Dumfries.

Mike Russell wrote:

'The centre... has the usual chain stores and the usual complement of skinny, ill-dressed women in their 20s who seem to hover around cheap Scottish shops like importuning wraiths'

Cue indignation and demands of "apologise", "resign" from Ickle Wussell and his friends at he Daily Retard.

Now having visited Dumfries, I can only say that Mike Russell is being kind to a large number of women in the town who would love to think of themselves as skinny. The celebrated Galloway chassis is much to be admired, having been well ahead of the curve in the acclaimed pre-obesity days...

Now as a bit of a cultural anorak, I've been able to do something that neither Ickle Wussell and his friends (including our beloved AM2) have been able to do, that is err read the book. So intrigued with this revelation that a Minister of the Scottish Government would 'cruelly taunt' the unfortunate 'skinny woman' of Dumfries I sought out the offending chapter...and here it is.

"Dumfries deserves more than a casual glance, however. I find a parking space on the Whitesands-still alovely riverside spot despite the acres of tarmac dominated by the car. The River Nith in Dumfries is unlike most rivers in Scottish towns because it gives the impression not of gentle descent but of untrammelled power - and it bursts its banks on regular occasions, requiring radio alerts to careless commuters whose vehicles are about to sink beneath the waves. I don't think I have ever been in Dumfries without seeing a sandbag, kept in readiness for the regular inundations. The town centre - with its back to the river - has the usual sprinkling of chain stores and the usual complement of skinny, ill dressed women in their early twenties who seem to hoever around cheap Scottish shops like importuning wraiths. These are the marginal people of Scottish society, existing on poorly paid part-time jobs or inadequate benefits, living from night out to night out. They are as much victims of poor living conditions as the unemployed that Muir saw hanging about on street corners 60 years ago. "

So not really an attack on skinny lassies. However, the chapter continues and contains a fascinating parallel between the fortunes that divide the people of Scotland.

" I talk to two of them at the mouth of the Vennel - the alloway that leads up to Burns Square. (Ironically opposite the Labour Party office) Both are unemployed, both are single mothers, and both are curious that there might be some ulterior motive for me seeking them out - perhaps a social security enquiry. They have remarkable little sense of grievance against the society that has done precious little for them - the poverty of their ambition is irking. They want not much more than a decent house (and they are doing their best to make their own council homes into that desirable state), clothes and toys for the 'kiddies' and the money to have a drink and a laugh with their friends. One - Janette- has never voted and doesn't think it worth the effort. The other - Susan- has voted Labour all her life but 'disnae see anything changing.' She might vote SNP, more likeley than not as she thinks about it, because she knows her benefit is under threat. They are both unsure about the what the new Parliament will do for them. Perhaps give them more money, perhaps pay some attention to child care. Perhaps evne help them get a job. And they have at all about what they want from the Parliament. The question hangs in the air and they seem disinterested in answering it. There are thousands of Jeanettes and Susans the length and breadth of Scotland who are perhaps not in the direst poverty, but for whom there is little chance of a better life short of winning the national lottery. And thousands for whom politics is not even of casual interest and for whom a new parliament has a vague association with Scottishness and themselves, but no association with anything that they might actually aspire to.

But there are also thousands of Sallys. Working in an upmarket chain store she is ambitious, about to get married and political in the sense that votes and tries to think about what choice would be best for her future. She has voted Tory in the past - some people still do- and might again, but they aren't Scottish enough for her and she giggles at the thought of William Hague in a kilt. She wants prosperity, peace, jobs, and although the government won't and shouldn't do itat least it should help.

Thousands of Sallys to counterpoint thousands of Susans. The world split between those who want something and are out to get it , and those who started with a losing hand and can see no point in not going on and playing it. The wannabes meet the have-nots for the great gameshow of our time, and politicians know little or anything about it.

So afraid have Labour and their toadying chums become of the possibility that Mike Russell might just deliver a referendum for Scotland ,which will end the gravy train for Ickle Wussell, sooking at the public teat since the 1980's, that they are left desperately scrabbling around looking for anything that might delay the inevitable.

One final question for Ickle Wussel Bwown, why if you are so outraged about this 'slur' on Dumfries why did you say nothing about it for ELEVEN years?

Mundell in a muddle.

On the face of it Tory MP David Mundell has an easy-peasy life. A lovely large salary, a great expenses package, lots of gorgeous cash to spend from Lord Ashcroft and the Tory party's slush fund for marginal seats, free flights in private jets up and down to thatLondon, then there is the open to interpretation 'Sponsorship or financial or material support' from blue chip company Caledonia Investments plc who 'support' David's constituency office. Add to this his rather extensive property portfolio; a flat in London, a flat in Edinburgh (a legacy from his days as an MSP), a flat in Moffat, and a home in Moffat where his estranged family live. It's all so terribly, terribly comfortable.

Of course his supporters would defend him as a busy, hard working local boy made good, once a Lib Dem councillor, he hopped neatly cross party into the Holyrood gravy train and emerged as a Tory MSP, then et voila yer actual genuine Tory MP.

My what a job he's made of it, he's never out the local papers across Dumfriesshire, Tweedsdale and Clydesdale (an area roughly twice the size of Luxembourg) if there's a bunch of old dearies wanting a photo of their committee members snarfing down a bit of home made Battenburg David's there fork akimbo, need an MP to belm at the camera when someone's cat goes missing, who you gonna call? You guessed it. He's got petitions a-go-go about trains, pubs, Border TV, post offices err that's about it...No wait he visits lots of sunny places on fact finding missions. Last year he visited Afghanistan, togged out in shades and armored vest he looked so macho, in a sort of tellytubby meets Rambo kind of way...The fact that poor sods, sweltering in the heat fighting for fuck knows what had to act as a human body shield to David and his Westminster posse,must have gone down great with the grunts. David also went on another fact finding mission to Rwanda, with his daughter. Again.

He's also Dave Cameron's 'Man in Scotland', he's the Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland, and as such, this is what caused him to appear on my radar, when he appeared on Newsnicht last week, and the following conversation between Dave and Glen Campbell took place:

Glenn Campbell: "The talk in this
interview is about the issue of
addressing unfairness - perceived
unfairness - within the union.
Would a Conservative Government
then look again at the proposed
cuts to the Scottish Budget over
 the next couple of years if
you were in a position to do so?

David Mundell: "Well I think it's
inevitable as when we head into
these difficult financial times,
when there is going to have to
be restraint in spending, that
there is going to have to be
restraint in spending in Scotland. 
And I think it's unrealistic to
pretend otherwise...
it's a sort of fiction that 
Alex Salmond and the
SNP promulgate -
the fact that Scotland
could beexempt from
the financial difficulties
and constraints that
the rest of the United 
Kingdom will have to face."

Soooooo, Mundell of Kandahar and Moffat is ok with Labour's plans to raid Scotland’s budget and in the process fuck up health, education, housing, environment, culture, enterprise and transport by introducing the first pukka cut in Scotland’s public expenditure since the Tories in the 1990's?

If Westminster under either Broon or Cameron takes money from services in your vast constituency Dave, who will you complain to, the Scottish Government or your pals in Westminster? We know who your constituents will blame.

Naturally this admission of being ok with taking money away from Scotland might embarrass him a little bit with his former Tory MSP colleagues in Holyrood, who, oops, voted unanimously for the SNP budget. However, fear not, because there is little love lost between Mundell and Big Bella's boys. Fergusson, can barely stand to talk to him, Councillor Peter 'I'm just big boned' Duncan, the former sole Tory MP in Scotland and Fraser Murdo or is it Murdo Fraser all hate him after he briefed Dave boy Cameron on the intellectual Tory behemoths in Scotland.

So the news this week that Dave Cameron has invited the redoubtable auntie Bella to don the tartan trews (she's comfortable with slacks) and join his cabinet team as a de facto voice from within Holyrood, really leaves poor David Mundell looking like a bit of a cock.

It's just you and me now, Satan.

STEERPIKE



JIM MURPHY

A thought occurred after watching Jim Murphy's performance on the Politics Show (North Britain version), when Glen Campbell gave Murphy's backside the cleaning of its life, just who he (Murphy) reminded me of, not just in physical appearance, but manner, speech and aura.


Steerpike is a character in Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast series, a ruthlessly ambitious kitchen boy, he is the definitive Machiavellian schemer full of inate native cunning, ruthless and willing to justify any and all means to reach his end.

Peake described him as follows:

If ever he had harboured a conscience in his tough narrow breast he had by now dug out and flung away the awkward thing - flung it so far away that were he ever to need it again he could never find it. High-shouldered to a degree little short of malformation, slender and adroit of limb and frame, his eyes close-set and the colour of dried blood, he is climbing the spiral staircase of the soul of Gormenghast, bound for some pinnacle of the itching fancy - some wild, invulnerable eyrie best known to himself; where he can watch the world spread out below him, and shake exultantly his clotted wings.

His body gave the appearance of being malformed but it would be difficult to say exactly what gave it this gibbous quality. Limb by limb, it appeared that he was sound enough, but the sum of these several members accrued to an unexpectedly twisted total. His face was pale like clay and save for his eyes, mask-like. These eyes were set very close together, and were small, dark red, and of startling concentration.


Now that to me sums up Murphy both physically and his persona. There's a lugubrious quality to all that Murphy says and does that suggests that there's something dark lurking beneath the surface of his supposedly optimistic words and gestures.

Of course I could be completely wrong and Murphy is a lovely decent chap or perhaps not...

The Scotsman Editor Gilson Leaves With Immediate Effect. End is Nigh....

According to ABCe Scotsman.com has dropped from four million unique users a month to a mere two million. Oddly enough this drop in unique users coincides with this paper's virulent Anti-SNP bias on every page. All of which makes this great breaking news all the more welcome. It also makes Alan Greenwood the online editor's assertion that, "The Scotsman and Scotland on Sunday, and by extension scotsman.com, advocated support for the SNP at the most recent Scottish Parliamentary elections." absolutely fucking hilarious....


=BREAKING==NEWS===BREAKING===NEWS===BREAKING==NEWS===== Breaking news, 8pm. The Scotsman editor has apparently stepped down. In a memo issued by the paper's managing director, Michael Johnston, Mike Gilson has "relinquished his position with immediate effect". Johnston continues: "Further announcements will be made in due course. The company has no other comment to make at this time." With sister title, Scotland on Sunday, soon losing its editor, Les Snowdon - to become sports editor at the Daily Mail - speculation will be rife that The Scotsman and Scotland on Sunday titles might be brought together, at least under a single production system.


=======FURTHER==BREAKING==NEWS==JOHN=MCLELLAN==NEW==EDITOR.


John McLellan has been appointed editor of The Scotsman, succeeding Mike Gilson who left the post yesterday.
The current editor of the Edinburgh Evening News and a former Scotland on Sunday editor, McLellan takes over on Monday. It is understood the other main titles in the Scotsman Publications' portfolio - the Edinburgh Evening News and Scotland on Sunday - will have their own editors, but that McLellan will have some operational 'responsibilities' for them.


John McLellan took over the Edinburgh Evening News paper in 1997, having been its deputy editor for the previous four years. He subsequently spent three years as editor of the Scotland on Sunday before returning to edit the News for a second time in 2004. Born in Glasgow in 1962, he was educated at Hutchesons’ Grammar School and Stirling University. He now lives in Merchiston with his wife Trish and three children.

Will he continue with the myopic, narrow unionist bias, personified by the woefully inadequate Gilson?

Duplicitous lying bastards and the lying liars who tell lies.

Just in case any of my chumrades have missed this article by George Rosie and the normally reviled Magnus Linklater (just the once). Although I hear that Rosie and Linklater shafted the Scottish Review of Books who were supposed to have the exclusive.

Read on and gnash your teeth in anger...


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article5728477.ece

Documents detailing secret government plans in the 1970s to prevent Scotland laying claim to North Sea oil have been seen by The Times. They show the extraordinary lengths to which civil servants were prepared to go to head off devolution, which was seen then as inevitably leading to independence.

The proposals included suggesting to Labour ministers, for whom devolution was a manifesto commitment, that progress towards a referendum should be delayed, in the hope that enthusiasm north of the Border would wane.

Treasury officials also advised that the boundaries of Scotland's coastal waters should be redrawn and a new sector created to “neutralise” Scotland's claim to North Sea oil – a step that was taken.

One Treasury official even proposed that a local campaign for independence in Orkney and Shetland should be encouraged so that Scotland would be denied access to more than half the North Sea oil. The idea was that the islands would prefer to throw in their lot with London rather than Edinburgh.

Among those advising Labour ministers was Sir David Walker, who is investigating the banking crisis for the present Government. As assistant secretary at the Treasury, he wrote in May 1975 that “progress toward devolution should be delayed for as long as possible consistently with honouring the government commitment to move down the devolution road and containing the SNP lobby in Parliament”.

Sir David's advice was heeded. It was another four years before the Scots were allowed to vote on whether or not they wanted an assembly in Edinburgh.

The documents – letters, memorandums and briefing papers from the Public Record Offices at Kew and in Edinburgh – show that some civil servants were alarmed by the threat that devolution posed to North Sea oil revenues, which were servicing Britain's external debt.

One paper, by Graham Kear, under-secretary at the Department of Energy, suggested that the Northern Isles might be hived off from Scotland. He wrote: “If Scotland and the Orkney and Shetland Islands are both regarded as states, separate from the rest of the United Kingdom, median lines can be drawn to divide the United Kingdom Continental Shelf between Orkney & Shetland/Scotland and between Scotland/England.”

One way of doing this, according to civil servants advising Anthony Crosland, the Environment Secretary, would be to realign the subsea border between Scotland and England, so that it ran northeast instead of east.

Mr Kear's doubts were shared by his political boss, Tony Benn, the Energy Secretary, who wrote to Ted Short, the deputy leader: “There is general agreement that energy policy – its formulation and execution – should be a function reserved to the UK Government.”

Mr Benn told The Times yesterday that he had favoured Scottish devolution. “I have always taken the view that power was too centralised,” he said. “I think you have to determine what it's appropriate to devolve. On the question of ownership of natural resources, that has to be seen as an integral part of the country.”

"A culture of greed, unethical behaviour and indisposition to challenge."

So, Sir James Crosby, (twat above) has resigned as deputy head of the Financial Services Authority, because a nasty whistleblower (Paul Moore) put out a release about Crosby's contribution to creating the credit crunch in his previous post as boss at Halifax Bank of Scoland.

He sacked Mr Moore, who was the then head of risk at HBOS, who had been trying to warn the board that the bank was piling up unacceptable levels of risk. DOH!

The Beeb have the full text on their website, my but it's veh long so, as a favour to my newfound chums here in Mentalist Central

Here's the common sense extracts (the best bits) that those of us without a golden parachute, or a degree in toxic rich front loaded diversionary funding tactics might begin to comprehend...


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7882581.stm


2.6 In my view, as an experienced risk and compliance practitioner, the problem in finding the real cause of the banking crisis is being made more complex than it needs to be.

2.7 I believe that we are missing the wood for the trees and that the key solutions to prevent such an event happening again are simpler than we think. In relation to policy changes, I make some short recommendations that the Committee may wish to consider in section 4 below.

2.8 But let's start with the cause and this fairly obvious proposition: even non-bankers with no "credit risk management" expertise, if asked (and I have asked a few myself), would have known that there must have been a very high risk if you lend money to people who have no jobs, no provable income and no assets. If you lend that money to buy an asset which is worth the same or even less than the amount of the loan and secure that loan on the value of that asset purchased and, then, assume that asset will always to rise in value, you must be pretty much close to delusional? You simply don't need to be an economic rocket scientist or mathematical financial risk management specialist to know this. You just need common sense. So why didn't the experts know? Or did they but they carried on anyway because they were paid to do so or too frightened to speak up?



2.22 To mix a few well known similes / metaphors / stories, the current financial crisis is a bit like the story of the Emperor's new clothes. Anyone whose eyes were not blinded by money, power and pride (Hubris) who really looked carefully knew there was something wrong and that economic growth based almost solely on excessive consumer spending based on excessive consumer credit based on massively increasing property prices which were caused by the very same excessively easy credit could only ultimately lead to disaster. But sadly, no-one wanted or felt able to speak up for fear of stepping out of line with the rest of the lemmings who were busy organising themselves to run over the edge of the cliff behind the pied piper CEOs and executive teams that were being paid so much to play that tune and take them in that direction.

2.23 I am quite sure that many many more people in internal control functions, non-executive positions, auditors, regulators who did realise that the Emperor was naked but knew if they spoke up they would be labelled "trouble makers" and "spoil sports" and would put themselves at personal risk. I am still toxic waste now for having spoken out all those years ago! I would be amazed if there were not many executives who, if they really examined their consciences closely, would not say that they knew this too.


2.24 The real problem and cause of this crisis was that people were just too afraid to speak up and the balance and separation of powers was just far too weighted in favour of the CEO and their executive.



3.3 It follows that there is a natural tension between the need to raise legitimate challenge on the one hand, and the likely reaction of those individuals who are the subject of the challenge. There is also the risk that the individual who raises the challenge will be criticised for the style or tone of the challenge.



2.17 At this point I want to stress in the strongest possible way that I am simply not interested in blame and I don't think it really ever works. I was ultimately fairly compensated by HBOS. What I am very interested in is the future. As I wrote once at to my boss at HBOS itself what we need this crisis to do for us is "to create a watershed here so we can move on from the issues of the past (from which we can learn but not blame) to the brave new world of the future." Although, key people at HBOS did do wrong, I am also sure that their intentions were usually good and, in a sense, they were also caught up themselves in what the Greek tragedies would call the "ineluctability of fate".

Islam profits from ethic investments

On the day that Brown spits the dummy about bankers bonuses here's an interesting factlet that we should all ponder. Apparently Islamic ethical investments have proved of far greater value than the avaricious trading exemplified by the likes of RBS, HBOS, Lehman Bros, Solomon etcetera.

Loved this

Islamic lenders are required to work in good faith with distressed borrowers to figure out ways to make payments manageable

From the san Francisco Gate.

As credit markets have imploded, triggering a global economic crisis, Islamically correct investors have seen a change of fortune: The conservative principles this small group of devout Muslims clung to during the economic heyday has insulated them from the worst of the past year's suffering.

Their renunciation of the interest-based economy kept them away from investments in financial services companies, whose stocks have collapsed, and out of traditional mortgages.

"There was a time two or three years ago that Islamic finance was considered simply too conservative," said Professor Ibrahim Warde, author of "Islamic Finance in the Global Economy" and an adjunct professor at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. "Right now, many people are recognizing that maybe it wasn't such a bad thing."

Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes, which represent benchmarks for Islamically correct investment categories, have been outperforming their non-Islamically compliant counterparts by 3 to 4 percent in key indexes. The two Amana Income and Growth funds, the largest Islamic mutual funds in the country with $1.2 billion in combined assets, have been outperforming the S&P 500 in the past year by 13 and 7 percent, respectively. (Both Amana funds also outperform the S&P index on 5- and 10-year comparisons.)

Bay Area residents who bought homes through an Islamically compliant lender in San Jose, the Ameen Housing Cooperative, don't have to worry whether their lender will work with them if they lose their jobs. Islamic lenders are required to work in good faith with distressed borrowers to figure out ways to make payments manageable - and co-op leaders say they will.

Islamic investing

Warde and other Islamic finance experts and investors caution that the crisis doesn't mean that Islamic finance is a better model than Western capitalism. They say Islamic finance, a system of ethical finance supported on an institutional level, provides unique insight into an economic meltdown created in part by financial practices forbidden by strict observance of Islam.

"I don't think there's anything miraculous about Islamic finance, or that it's a panacea," said Warde, who will be speaking at a UC Berkeley School of Law symposium on the issue this month. "But we can understand why Islamic banks did well in the current financial environment."

Renouncing interest is the high-profile element of Islamic finance that relates to the current economic crisis. For Islamically correct investors, that means there are limits to how much debt a company can have or how much profit it can derive from interest-based investments. That criterion eliminated the possibility of holding stocks in financial services companies, like Citigroup or Washington Mutual, whose stocks lost 86 percent or all of their value last year, respectively.

Avoiding crisis' practices

Islamic finance also prohibits selling assets you don't own, selling someone's debt and engaging in high-risk investments. Thus, there was no participation in practices that have been blamed for Wall Street's meltdown: complex derivatives trading, short-selling and the $30 trillion market in credit default swaps.

While Islamically correct investing is a booming industry, it hardly guarantees good returns. The Iman Fund, run by Allied Asset Advisors and one of the largest Islamic mutual funds in the country, has performed worse than the S&P 500 and others in its category, according to Morningstar, a mutual fund rating service.

But performance alone isn't the point of compliance with Islamic law, known as sharia. For the committed, investing finance with faith is about living with values.

"We don't claim to our investors that we're going to be consistently outperforming the market because we have sharia criteria," said Monem Salam, director of Islamic investing and deputy portfolio manager for Saturna Capital, which manages the Amana funds. "We're going to give our investors the best return they can (get) based on the criteria. If that means outperformance on certain indices, then great."

The Islamic principles playing out across the larger stock market are also playing out in smaller, if no less significant ways for ordinary investors.

Housing cooperatives

In San Jose, the Ameen Housing Cooperative has helped roughly 30 members buy homes without mortgages. Yet the recession has had "no impact whatsoever" on the co-op, according to board member Humayun Sohel. The reasons have much to do with an Islamic requirement that the lender and the borrower share the risks and rewards of a loan.

Ameen members pool their money to give out loans. Borrowers put at least 30 percent down, and monthly payments are based on local rental values. Monthly payments pay down debt and pay dividends to Ameen members. In its 13-year history, Sohel said, Ameen has given a quarterly dividend of at least 3.8 percent and as much as 7.8 percent to co-op members.

When the deed of transfer is finally given to the borrower, Ameen members get a slice of the home's increased value - or take a loss if the price has gone down. With the median home price dropping as much as 40 percent in Santa Clara County and many worrying about their jobs, Ameen remains confident.

Borrower loses equity

As long as the borrower is earnest, Sohel said, Ameen will work to reduce payments, though that may mean a borrower doesn't gain equity or possibly loses some. If someone cannot pay at all for an extended time, Ameen will rent the home instead of selling it and locking in the loss, which is what banks do during foreclosures.

"What we are counting on is riding out this difficult time," Sohel said.

Islamic compliance also precludes investing in things Muslims are expected to avoid, like pornography, tobacco, alcohol and gambling. Those prohibitions drew Juveria Aleem to the Amana funds. But the Oakland Web designer feels like the relatively lower losses on her investments have only reaffirmed her faith.

"Not only was I keeping myself spiritually clean by not engaging in that in my life, but financially, it was helping me," Aleem said. "You cannot ever truly go wrong by practicing the principles of your faith."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/09/MN2D15J4HD.DTL&tsp=1

I Spit on your Marked Registers

Guilty conscience perhaps, as Lindsay Roy suggests recount for Glenrothes.




LABOUR MP Lindsay Roy yesterday offered to hold a recount in the Glenrothes by-election to clear up the row over missing voting records.
The SNP suffered an unexpected defeat when they lost the Westminster seat to Labour last November.
They are demanding an independent inquiry into what happened to the election registers, documents that record who voted but not who they voted for.
They had been held at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court for safe keeping but it emerged they had gone missing when SNP councillor John Beare asked to see them shortly after the poll.
Nat MSP Tricia Marwick last week said an investigation was needed "to confirm that the election was conducted properly".
Roy said he was happy to co-operate with any probe, adding: "It's a matter of grave concern that the register has gone missing and I support a full investigation into why.
"However, I very much regret that Mrs Marwick has claimed the election was unfair, which is a very serious allegation.
"If her view of unfairness relates to the fact that the SNP lost, then she should accept the result with good grace.
"The SNP are obviously very unhappy that they didn't win the seat, especially when they weren't expecting to lose.
"But if necessary, I would be more than happy to attend a recount to verify the result."
But Marwick responded: "Lindsay Roy's ridiculous call for a recount shows his ignorance of Scotland's electoral system.
"This isn't about how people voted but who voted.
"The marked electoral register is an essential part of democratic process for both parties and individuals.
"Its disappearance should be as much of a worry for Mr Roy as it is for me.
"Westminster elections are Scottish secretary Jim Murphy's responsibility. I hope Lindsay Roy is asking him what he is doing to make sure the register is found."
The Scottish Court Service have confirmed that an investigation is being carried out into the missing register.
It's thought the records could have been removed by accident during renovation work at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court.
Former headteacher Roy beat Nationalist candidate Peter Grant by almost 7000 votes to win the seat.


http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2009/02/09/exclusive-lindsay-roy-offers-to-hold-recount-in-row-over-missing-glenrothes-voting-records-86908-21108945/

38% support independence 40% oppose it

We need only win once.

You-gov had it at 29% last week

What a difference a week makes.




http://www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldnews/display.var.2487786.0.scotland_on_a_knifeedge.php

Scotland on a knife-edge

POLL EXCLUSIVE: 38% support independence 40% oppose it By Tom Gordon and Paul Hutcheon

SUPPORT FOR independence has hardened in the face of the global recession, despite Labour predictions that the crisis would see more Scots turning to the Union for protection.

The latest TNS System Three survey for the Sunday Herald found support for leaving the union rose three points during the last quarter, while opposition to a separate Scottish state fell to its lowest level since the poll began 18 months ago.

The findings suggest the public has ignored Labour warnings that a breakaway Scotland would be doomed to join Iceland in the "arc of insolvency".

The poll was taken after opposition parties initially voted down the SNP government's budget on February 28. Voters were reportedly unimpressed that MSPs could not agree a budget despite the country suffering the worst recession in decades.

The poll asked 971 adults how they would vote in a referendum on whether the Scottish government should open negotiations with Westminster on independence.

Support for commencing talks on separation was 38%, compared to 35% in October, while opposition was 40%, compared to 43%.

When TNS System Three began polling on the question, shortly after the SNP entered government, opposition ran as high as 50%. The new survey shows the gap between opposition and support, which widened to eight points last October in the initial reaction to the banking crisis, has now returned to the two-point difference seen last June.

Chris Eynon, managing director of TNS System Three, said the figures may well show a protest at Scotland's lack of powers to address the current crisis and the loss of institutions such as the Bank of Scotland, despite membership of the Union.

They could also reflect a growing confidence in Scotland's ability to go it alone after initial concerns about the economy reduced support in October.

"Either way it would appear that the global financial situation has not had any damaging effect on Scottish aspirations towards independence," he said.

"At a time when the worsening financial meltdown might have been expected to turn people against the potentially riskier options of independence, there has actually been a strengthening of support to 38%, from 35% in October, with opposition similarly declining by 3% to 40%.

"Not only have figures returned to levels similar to those recorded last June, before the financial crisis hit, but the actual percentage opposed to negotiation is the lowest since the poll was first taken in August 2007."

While leading the SNP in opposition in 2006, Alex Salmond said Scotland could be part of "northern Europe's arc of prosperity" alongside "Ireland to our west, Iceland to our north and Norway to our east".

By last October, the same countries had been dubbed the Arc of Insolvency, as Iceland's banking system collapsed and Ireland was forced to slash publish spending in an austerity budget.

Jim Murphy, the Scottish Secretary, led Labour's charge that the arc of prosperity had been a Nationalist delusion, and the global recession had exposed the brutal reality of being a small economic player.

Nicola Sturgeon, the deputy first minister, said: "This is an excellent poll, demonstrating that support for independence is rising as the SNP deliver good government through measures such as freezing council tax, reducing business rates, abolishing prescription charges and delivering a record number of police officers.

"In August 2007, the gap between independence and the unequal Union was 15 points; by last November it had halved to just eight points; and now independence is running neck and neck with the status quo. It is a hugely encouraging trend."

A spokesman for Scottish Labour said: "The vast majority of Scots do not want to separate Scotland from the rest of the UK. The question wording proposed by the SNP tries to soften the reality of their hard-line approach, but Scots are cannier than that. People want us to work together to get Scotland through the economic crisis, not break up the UK."

The poll also found support for independence was greater among men than women, the middle age ranges, and those living in the north of the country.

Top Twat

So just to be clear, here's exactly what he said:

‘In England we’ve got this one-eyed Scottish idiot, he keeps telling us everything’s fine and he’s saved the world and we know he’s lying, but he’s smooth at telling us.’

Daily Mail (Scottish edition), 07 February 2009

My tuppence. To Clarkson and the vast majority of people, when talking to Johnny Foreigner about back home they refer not to Britain, Great Britain or the UK, but England and England alone.

I'm probably not alone in the experience of meeting lovely English folk on holiday, who recognise me as Scottish then, if newly arrived, ask me of news back in 'England'. The stock response of, "I don't know I live in Scotland." Oft produces bewilderment, when they realise that I don't consider England and Great Britain as being synonymous.

This is what is at the heart of the complaints and faux outrage by the likes of Baron George Foulkes von Cumnock, Iain Gray, Gordon Banks* et al. Clarkson resents a Scot being in charge of England and the other minor bits that make up 'Great Britain'. If he had refererred to Brown as a "one-eyed British idiot" the whole thing would have been dismissed in a jovial manner as 'typical Jezza, what a lad'.

*There is of course a delicious irony that Gordon Banks MP namesake is a one-eyed English ....goalkeeper.

Bashir Ahmad RIP

RIP

Bashir Ahmad 12 February 1940 - 6 February 2009

Scotland's first Muslim MSP

Founder Asian Scots for Independence

Scottish Government budget passed

Bonkers Bitchin' Broon Boy Backs Budget




Soooo it finally passed. Was this finally acknowledgement by
Labour and the Lib Dems of the error of their ways, have they
accepted they should not play politics with people’s jobs?

Naturally, Patrick Harvie voted against it and killed off any
chances of the Greens being electable in Scotland for years
to come.

Here's what it's worth …

• Continuation of the Council Tax freeze saving bill payers
up to £400

• Support for 5,000 jobs – particularly in the construction
sector

• Abolition of business rates for 120,000 struggling small
businesses

• £70 million of early investment in affordable housing

• £60 million for town centre renewal

• £40 million increase in funding for free personal care

• Over £300 million of additional spending in the NHS

• Extra funding to put even more police on the beat

• Extra funding to reduce prescription charges further

In essence we're talking EXTRA investment worth over
£1,200 for punters in Scotland passed by the Scottish
Parliament.

Consensus politics dontcha just love it?

Camel - Back and Indeed Straw

OK this is the one that did it, that drove me to abandon constructive debate with the delightful unionist dependence junkies and finally commit some nouns and verb to t'internet.

How can supporters of a party that was
founded on principles of equality
and the finer essence of humanity turn
themselves into a rabid hold-on-to
-power at any costright wing cabal.
Two instances over the last couple of
days, fetched my goat and kicked its pan in.

(1) Wildcat strike. "British Jobs for British Workers."
Ok the spin they put on it sounds weak,
but hey benefit of the doubt and all that. What he
really meant was train British workers to do jobs
in Britain. So how do they respond? They wheel out
Baron Fey of Hartlepool to tell the workers in
best Daily Mail stylee, "If you don't like working
here fuck off to foreign."
Ok I paraphrase, but that is the essence of his message.

(2) Titian. Wonderful news that an acclaimed
masterpiece gets to stay accessible within the
shores of this island. So what do we get on a
day when we should be celebrating the fact that
the Scottish Government saw fit to involve itself
in the campaign to retain the work here?
Ian Davidson Labour MP for
Deep Fried Poverty South West whining that
it wisnae wurf it. What a chundering dobber.
Anti-intellectualism went out of fashion
with Madame Mao.
Look at the benefits Glasgow has had from
Dali's Christ on the Cross. 
It has been the backbone of the cultural
renaissance of Glasgow's
economic regeneration. Does he not see now that
'Diana and Actaeon' will have a similar effect
on Edinburgh and the places it tours with the
Bridgewater Collection.

However, I digress. I'm good at that.
What really slapped a saveloy up
my goats back passage was the following.
Go on Labour, let's hear you blame the
SNP ran council. I look forward to the current
MP Lyndsey Roy of Mordor explain away
his concerns, free from the
constraints of a Labour party
gun-toting PR lovey working him by
means of cold hands up his shirt tail.













GLENROTHES BY-ELECTION REGISTERS GO MISSING

Tricia Marwick MSP for Central Fife today
(Tuesday) called for an inquiry following
the revelation that the marked electoral
registers for the Glenrothes By Election
have gone missing.

The marked registers are the only record of
who voted during the election and were
delivered to the Sheriff Clerk's Office
in Kirkcaldy by the Returning Officer
at Fife Council.
The marked registers must be kept
for a year and are made
available for inspection by
individuals and political
parties.

John Beare the Convener of the SNP
in Central Fife first
asked for the marked registers in
November and following
numerous phone calls the Sheriff Clerk's
Office finally admitted
on Friday that the records were missing.

Tricia Marwick said:

"The marked registers are an
essential element of any
election campaign.

“They allow a check of who voted,
but not how they voted,
to confirm that the election was
conducted properly.
Without these records there is no
evidence of either a fair
or unfair election.  This undermines
the confidence of everyone
who took part.

"It is almost beyond belief that a
by-election which attracted
media coverage throughout the UK,
which delivered such a surprise
result and had a much higher
turnout than anticipated now has no
records to show who actually voted.

"There now needs to be the
fullest independent inquiry
carried out.

“The registers must have
gone missing almost immediately
after they were delivered to the
Sheriff Clerk's Office because
the SNP first asked for copies
on the 19th November. I also want
to know why we were not
told that the registers had gone missing
when we first started to
make inquiries about examining them."



Shocker eh? Let's see them squirm and blame.
Make accusations of sour grapes, blame the
SNP council, anything but open their
eyes to the possibility that the Labour party
are a corrupt cabal only interested in retaining
power and privilege.