"Is it alright if I have a look around? "

I am completely overwhelmed that the man who is the nearest Scotland has to a Nelson Mandela figure has noticed my case and blogged on the legal aspects of the closeness of the government and the judiciary. 

Many thanks Mr Hamilton, Nationalist, Patriot and Harley rider.


Click on his name to take you direct to his blog.

Ian Hamilton QC

Caledonian Mercury a-go-go.

Huzzah, let celebration bells ring out throughout the land, at last a brave new dawn has arisen in the Scottish media, for today we witness the launch of a brave new hope in being able to say the words 'Scottish' and 'Journalism' without thinking of them together as an oxymoron. Ladies and Gents behold the Caledonian Mercury.

Rather fittingly they have chosen to launch  this free to read on-line newspaper on the 251st birthday of Rabbie Burns. The Burnsamentalist's among us will know that Burns, as well as being our National Bard, was a political pamphleteer in rhyme, given to venting his spleen and railing against his critics in the then dead tree press. "Thou eunuch of language....thou pimp of gender...murderous accoucheur of infant learning...thou pickle herring in the puppet show of nonsense."

After decades of a piss poor, wishy-washy, advertiser led, subservient media, content to take perfumed press releases from the establishment, than do any actual pukka reporting, is this finally a chance for that rare thing, an independent voice in Scotland  unbiased, unprejudiced, equitable and impartial?


Obviously there are as many expectations on the Mercury's founder and editor, Stewart Kirkpatrick as there are on poor Barack Obama's shoulders. No pressure there then Stewart. Thinking Scots of all flavours have been keen to see a Scottish media that doesn't treat readers as an afterthought easily swayed by insulting propaganda, as peddled by most of our main stream media.  Those of us of an Independence bent are not asking for a pro-independence media, merely a level playing field, where journalists do the work free from the pressures of owners and editors with a political agenda.


Of course, the Mercury isn't the first free on-line newspaper in the country. I don't know if it was the first, but certainly the best example, is the estimable For Argyll which as it name suggests focuses on news and events in Argyllshire. Refreshingly, it's not afraid to take a common-sense approach to both local and International news. Their campaign against the international shipping magnates using Loch Striven as a nautical free boat park is a splendid example of their proactive stance.



The For Argyll model I am convinced is the way our local news should be presented, opposed to the advertising laden blatts which constitute this nations local press. Do any of our local press contain more than the usual 'pages of shame', wherein we can find out who is in and out of court, followed by a letters page of green ink using moaning mentalists?


So in an age where our TV news looks as if it has used 'The Day Today' as a training manual, here's good luck and best wishes to Stewart Kirkpatrick and his team of 'fantasy football' journalists. 

Leak all about it.

Odd isn't it that the two charming CID officers I spoke to in Dumfries yesterday said they wouldn't be talking to anyone about them charging me with Breach of the Peace? Yes, that's Breach of the Peace, not the pukka incredibly serious charges of blackmail or extortion.

But hey, another day, another 'exclusive' for Paul Hutcheon of the Sunday Herald writing again in the Herald........

black·mail

Pronunciation: \ˈblak-ˌmā(ə)l\

Function: noun

Etymology: black + ¹mail

Date: 1552

1 : a tribute anciently exacted on the Scottish border by plundering chiefs in exchange for immunity from pillage
 

2 a : extortion or coercion by threats especially of public exposure or criminal prosecution b : the payment that is extorted

blackmail transitive verb

black·mail·er noun

ex·tor·tion

Pronunciation: \ik-ˈstȯr-shən\

Function: noun

Date: 14th century

1 : the act or practice of extorting especially money or other property; especially : the offense committed by an official engaging in such practice
 

2 : something extorted; especially : a gross overcharge

ex·tor·tion·er \-sh(ə-)nər\ noun

ex·tor·tion·ist \-sh(ə-)nist\ noun

Breach of the Peace

Offence: When one or more persons conduct themselves in a riotous, or disorderly manner, anywhere, which alarms, annoys or disturbs the lieges (other people).

Arrest: Common law powers of arrest.

Notes:
This offence can take place anywhere i.e. a house, a public street or a private office.

Riotous: There is normally an element of noise, or 'rowdiness' or 'brawling' which is clearly causing concern to other members of the public e.g. swearing, challenging people to fight.

Disorderly: There is a more subtle element. The behaviour doesn't have to be noisy but still of a nature that would cause concern to other people. Examples include: 'Peeping Tom' type behaviour, persistently following someone, delivering 'threatening' letters and 'streaking' or 'mooning'.
To prove a Breach of the Peace the most important things to prove is that someone was Alarmed, Annoyed or Disturbed by the incident.


Thank chuff I didn't email in the buff!

Tie up the knocker and say I'm dead.

Dear all, apologies for the lack of posting this week, I have been suffering from ill health. At times I've been wavering between a bright light at the end of a long tunnel and the manly need to call for a priest, minister, mullah, rabbi or mother. Yes, I've succumbed to the dreaded MAN FLU!!!

Ladies of my acquaint have been sympathetic, nodding gently when I've complained about the weight of my eyelids or whenever a local cow stares at me in a strange manner. Some have gently mopped my fevered brown with their scented hankies....hang on a sec, I'm delusional, I'm dreaming, I've been pilloried, castigated and humiliated for daring to whimper whenever beset by a bout of sneezes. They can be quite inhumane the so called fairer sex.

Obviously male chums commented how I didn't have long for this planet and that it was nice knowing me, others made the obligatory swine flu jokes...

Which got me thinking.

What happened to the great Winter Swine Flu pandemic that was going to see dead bodies being piled high in the streets? 

Where were the citizens wandering through shopping centres jingling warning bells in front of them? What became of the huge X's daubed on the double glazed doors of victims throughout the length and breadth of auld Scotia?

Naturally, when Swine Flu raised its ugly head last Spring, our invincible Health Secretary, Nicola Sturgeon, took all criticism on the chin, and michty me what a chin, without fully identifying the financial implications for NHS Scotland budgets, manfully shoved risk assessments aside and heroically ordered copious amounts of the H1N1 pandemic vaccine, somewhere in the region of ten million jabs. 

 

Obviously costs involved in transportation, storage, staffing implementation, etcetera will have to be worked out later. Getting 'big pharms' jabs into our peoples veins, regardless of the supposed benefits of taking the vaccine, was a priority and far outweighed the risk of being perceived as the photo-op seeking Health Secretary who forces her compassion on unsuspecting NHS patients whilst the nation sneezes, splutters and whinges, as normal. 

To date Scotland has had about 70 Swine Flu deaths. Obviously the real danger has been the much quoted ‘underlying health problems’. This lovely phrase seems to imply that the patient was already ill with something ghastly and the Swine Flu helped finish them off. The fact remains that this is an illness that has killed far less Scots than regular flu. At what cost?

Naturally, there are those who have been voluble in their criticism of this culture of cajoling, pressuring and insisting that vulnerable groups take an untested vaccine. The most vocal critics have been the advocates for expectant mothers, who have discovered several cases globally where babies whose expectant mothers had taken the vaccine have died. In spite of this jolly Jackie Bailley, she of the sexiest voice in parliament, has been quick to condemn the redoubtable Ms Sturgeon for failing to personally ensure that all pregnant women are vaccinated…

We're told that the immunisation programme take up has been fantastic. The advert of some bloke sneezing in a lift has no doubt had benefits to Scotland's health causing many of us to avoid lifts and take the stairs instead. 

So far nearly half a million people in Scotland have taken the vaccine, nearly 10 per cent of the population, of those 105,000 are health and social care workers, who work with the vulnerable and were obliged encouraged to take the jab.

Which leaves us with some awkward questions. What are we going to do with the remaining nine million jabs? In our haste to appear to do the right thing did we forget to include a get-out-clause with our suppliers? Have we received all our doses in one go? Are there more to come? Can we sell the unused ones back to our supplier? Will we stockpile the unused vaccines in the hope that Swine Flu will come back stronger? Or will we either donate or sell them to impoverished countries where the ‘epidemic’ is gaining momentum? 

In the meantime, I'll be a brave little soldier and toddle off to my death bed.  

For clarification the photograph below is not Angus Robertson modelling his latest hoodie.

"Quarrels would not last long if the fault was only on one side." La Rochefoucauld.

Paul Hutcheon, Aileen Orr's bestest pal of the Sunday Herald, writes in today's Herald again. Accusing me of alleged extortion. I understand that when police are asked to investigate such accusations, particularly from such a high powered 'victim' they are duty bound to look into allegations. 

As of this morning, I have had no contact with Lothian and Borders Police, whom if they can get up the lane through the snow drifts to the house, are welcome to come in for a coffee and a chat about these 'allegations'. We've got shortbread, bring your own sugar.


I'm genuinely surprised at Paul Hutcheon's role in all this, not that he seems to be doing a Herald journalist out of a job, in his hasty attempt to make this an FMQ question again, but with regard to the conversation we had, when he suggested that me contacting the alleged victim was from a 'humanist' perspective (his words not mine). If he meant was I still deluded into thinking the recipient was still a friend, who had indicated that he would help me out, and that's all I was looking for, then he was right. 

Someone leaked  emails to Paul Hutcheon that were privy to only two people, unless anonymous men in grey suits employed by sinister forces elsewhere, have hacked either of the computers the emails were on, then the leak can only have come from one person....and it wasn't me.

So if this concerted attempt at bullying an individual by government and an ever so compliant media succeeds I suspect you won't be hearing much from me. Files in cakes always welcome... 

Addendum 15th January 2010

Sometimes it's rather difficult to read the Scotsman without a gaping maw at the plethora of errors therein. The latest attack on me by the Fourth Estate, as Ecclefechan boy Thomas Carlyle coined them, is a doozy. 

Tom Peterkin of the Hootsman eagerly laps up Paul Hutcheon's sloppy seconds and reports that "that the police have launched an investigation into alleged "distortion".

Now I'm not entirely sure and it would take a better legal mind than mine to come up with the definitive answer, but is 'distortion' much of an alleged crime? Is Tom talking about distorting sound waves, images or harmony, what can he mean? Hey maybe he means contortion?

The poor feller goes onto create further confusion by accusing me of making "unfounded claims about the sex life of a married Labour MP ."  Err who? Which Labour MP are you talking about Tom? I didn't make any claims about the sex life of any married Labour MP. As you visit the blog quite a lot, 10 times in the last day, from the Johnston Press IP address195.59.102.211 perhaps you'd like to show me where the allegation can be found?

PPS. Jings feller, egg and your face must be in close proximity...

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...

Ouch, just when you thought it couldn't get any worse....

'The truth is, Peter, we have spent ten years working with this guy, and we don’t actually like him.
'We have always thought that the longer the British public had to get to know him, the less they would like him as well.’

Douglas Alexander talking about Gordon Brown to Peter Watt, General Secretary of the Labour party between 2005 and 2007 in the run up to the election that never was.

Read more: http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/news/article-1241989/Peter-weve-spent-10-years-working-Gordon-dont-like-The-public-know-like-too.html#ixzz0cCJ5pYAn

BNP hail successful conclusion of der masterplan.

Rumours abound that the one eyed leader of the British National Party...no the other one... Nick Griffin,  exploded in a moment of orgiastic delight when he witnessed the above image from the Dundee Satellite Receiving Station, which shows the Britain has indeed become all white.

We gotta get out of this place...

Soooo first there was the massive floods that hit us in November, then the big freeze with added media hysteria popped up, next we'll have the thaw with resulting burst pipes and insurance mayhem, then finally when it's all melted - we'll be back to the err floods.

No doubt after all that, in the next few weeks we'll have the first of the tabloid stories of some poor old soul found frozen to death in their sitting room by a postie who eventually noticed the pile of unopened mail and a slightly whiffy smell emanating from the letterbox. Shocked neighbours will be interviewed and claim that the poor old soul was a quiet body, maybe had relatives in Australia or such like. 

Concerned nodding heads will talk about fuel poverty and how living in front of a one bar gas fire and surviving on a tin of cat food isn't conducive to a healthy lifestyle. Politicians in a rush to be more sympathetic than their rivals will nod solemnly and deliver sound-bites laden with just the right amount of gravitas that indicates empathy but no real solution. Next winter we'll go through it all over again. Nothing will change.

Deep within the bowels of the 'Resilience Room' aka chill out zone, where were the joss sticks, scatter cushions and ambient trip-hop beats?

Cabinet Secretaries will wail at the moon, gnash their teeth and beat their bare chests, well maybe not Ms Sturgeon. "What can be done to save elderly Scots in poor health from starving, freezing and just generally stop from being neglected after a lifetime of work and paying taxes for their meagre pension?" They might be heard bleating. Whilst in an effort to look cool and rational, as if they're not in an Emergency Crisis Command Bunker, some more enlightened souls will perhaps undo the top button of their stiff collared shirts or blouse, in the case of Ms Sturgeon, the only blouse wearer in the cabinet now...

Let's face it, surviving the Scottish winter for a lot of our elderly folk is pretty much shit. There are precious few things to crow about. It's an expensive and dangerous time of the year. If you're unfortunate to be old and on a state pension you can look forward to a hike in fuel and utility bill costs, crap television with the schedule full of things you watched first time around thirty years ago, begrudged visits from the children, the cost of Christmas presents for disinterested grand weans, a wee trip to the shops on un-gritted pavements is likely to lead to a wee trip to the  hospital, which at this time of the year is like a lottery as to whether you come out or not. The winter virus, aka shitting through the eye of a needle whilst throwing up, as my nurse friends refer to it, will mean wards getting closed, Cdiff outbreaks, superbugs...nope a visit to our overfunded, beleaguered, mismanaged, consultant top heavy wonderful NHS 'trust' is not the healthy option. 

So what can we do about it? Well here's a radical suggestion that has many ups, a few downs and a heck of a lot of opportunities for some sideways action.


Some policy wonk needs to sit down with a big calculator and work out how much it costs little old Scotland every winter to maintain our elderly population to the poor standard they have become accustomed to. This calculation should include costs to the NHS, local authorities, elderly care packages etcetera, they might also like to factor in the costs to the elderly person with regard to their heating and food bills. Then when they've come up with a nice tidy overall for the cost to the public purse and a lovely rounded up price per head, they need to shop around to find somewhere that we can relocate some of our needier fellow citizens in a pleasant climate with some sunshine, blue skies and pleasant locals. 

My first thought is North Africa, by jingo, we've got friends in Libya! Average temperature November 24c, December 19c, January 17c, February 19c , March 22c. Both Algeria and Morocco suffer from similar clement weather during our winter months. However, as that suggestion might bring with it accusations of giving succour to terrorists, outbreaks of Islam-o-phobia and general racism against folk whose ancestors had the foresight to adapt to a stronger sun... 


We might look slightly closer to home, albeit probably doubling our costs, by entering the EUROZONE... 

Throughout southern Spain and the Canary Islands, there is a major crisis with the collapse of the property market. Tourist communities sit on the costas like ghost towns, resorts thrown up hastily in a cheap credit boom, put on sale and now sit empty, unloved and unbought. Hotels in the winter season put a brave face on it and try to lure holiday makers in with promises of cheap booze and class acts direct from Blighty...


An enterprising Scottish Government might arrange for starters, say booking accommodation for 1000 of our most vulnerable former tax payers at a preferably discounted rate in some of these hotel resorts, they might arrange medical and care staff through our reciprocal European Health Insurance, they might negotiate a deal with Europe's largest airline who fly direct from Glasgow and Edinburgh. They might just save some lives, save some money and bring a bit of sunshine into the lives of the most fragile members of our community. 

The benefits of a few months in the sun could be huge, a healthier and slightly wealthier senior population with something to look forward to each winter, an opportunity of making new friends, rebuilding communities, ending isolation and loneliness. Many Canadians and Americans migrate to Florida every winter, they've been labelled 'Snowbirds'. They book cheap accommodation, close up their frozen northern homes, fly south and extend their lives. Why can't we adapt that basic ethos for those who ordinarily cannot afford it?

What about the strain on the countries we decide to temporarily relocate our seniors to? I hear none of you mutter. Well, as most of us accept, climate change is a reality. Southern Europe and Northern Africa increasingly undergoes regular heat-waves which result in the deaths of many seniors from heat exhaustion, dehydration etcetera. Something that rarely happens in Bonny Scotland, where the months from April to September are pretty much indistinguishable...Could we possibly reciprocate and bring elderly folk from abroad to stay in our country for a cooler summer?

 

Answers on a postcard below...

Pyle-up. No snow porn here.

So in a decision that's bound to prove as unpopular in the interim, as Kenny MacAskill's release of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, but probably won't involve armed security for the rest of his  life, Energy Minister Jim Mather has decreed that there shall be bigger, but fewer pylons running down the middle of Scotland from Beauly to Denny.  Whereas Beauly is quite beautiful, I can't see this decision having much of a visual impact on delightful Denny... 

What is interesting is the whole debate about the pylons visual impact pitted against the need for a means to carry all that lovely renewable energy to the power hungry Central Belt and beyond. Advocates against the pylons have cried out for sub-sea cables or burial underground. Scottish & Southern Energy, the company responsible have claimed both options are too expensive, yet only a few months ago announced they had more than doubled their pre-tax profit from £300 million to somewhere expected to be north of £600million, so presumably cost isn't an option to the company and its shareholders...

One would have thought, that as many of our European neighbours have opted for the sensible option of underground cables, Mr Mather might have looked at them and responded accordingly. In France there's even a system in place where they have replaced existing pylons with a rather aesthetic pylon that comes complete with a dashed attractive helix type wind turbine that feeds into the national grid as well as carrying the high voltage cables.

All this serves to remind me that when it comes to major projects that have a massive visual impact on our landscape we've missed a trick. As any visitor to the Canarian island of Lanzerote will tell you, the impact of the artist/architect Cesar Manrique has had an amazing influence on the island. Already a renowned artist in Madrid and New York, when he returned to the island in the mid 1960's at the very beginnings of the fledgling mass tourist industry. He pestered the local government that all rather go down the same route of the hideous Benidorm et al, that resort developments be no taller than a palm tree, that all houses be painted in traditional white, house shutters be green in the country and blue by the sea. He advocated the use of using natural wonders like the viewpoints and caves as alternative destinations and began creating wind sculptures throughout the island. He also persuaded the local government that all power cables be buried underground...

As a result of his involvement, Lanzerote is now a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and has become a point of reference in natural architecture. Something that Scotland has no chance of achieving. 

If only we had a MacManrique who could sit in on planning decisions, able to ignore the lobbying of big business and inform government about the adverse impact of their sometimes daft decisions.

"He who fears death cannot enjoy life"

I've probably put this up already, but don't care, it's brilliant. Following Mr McGee praising it in his Gruniad column it should could get more airplay. Rock on the Budhist boogie. Namaste

Pinch of salt?

Not that I'm the kind of chap to comment on unsubstantiated rumours..........but word reaches me that a certain cooncil official, maybe in the South of Scotland, in a rare display of initiative and foresight, realising that said cooncil was rapidly running out of salt for for the roads, contacted the people in the Welsh salt mines and placed an order for a sizeable amount of the anti-slippy salt.

A local haulage company were allegedly asked to nip down to Wales and pick up a convoy of the salt to get us through the next part of what we like to refer to as Winter. 

Upon arrival, much chagrin ensued as the tired truckers were told to Ecclefechen off, as the company had allegedly been told there was no salt for them, as HM Government in ThatLondon had ordered that all salt be retained for the exclusive use of the South East of England. Also the drivers supposedly were told that the company were under explicit instructions not to sell any road grit to local authorities or the Scottish Government.

Michty, I suggest a trip to local chippy and some bulk purchasing of brine if this story is at all true.... 

Addendum


Local blatt gets most of the story, but still manages to turn it into a swipe at the SNP Scottish Government...

Happy Hogmanay, Feliz Año Nuevo ♥ Happy New Year ♥ Bonne Année ♥ Felice Anno Nuovo ♥ Frohes Neues Jahr ♥ Feliz Ano Novo ♥ Szczęśliwego Nowego Roku ♥ あけましておめでとう ♥ Счастливого Нового Года ♥ 新年快乐

As this ickle blog has bizarrely been accused of being offensive to the ladies, I thought I'd continue in the same vein with a New Year's greeting by a strong woman more than capable of taking care of herself.

It's a Wonderful Life.

This blog is now closed for the Christmas holidays. Thank you for all the support, have a restive festive, one and all.

In the meantime, here's a fave scene from the Christmas fillum.

Let it Snow! Let it snow! Let it Snow!

Press Statement

Margaret Gribbon, Employment Specialist with Glasgow based Ross Harper Solicitors said;

I can confirm that I've been instructed to act for Mr Mark MacLachlan in connection with possible unfair dismissal proceedings against his former employer, Mike Russell MSP. My client is currently attempting to use his former employers' internal procedures to appeal against the decision to dismiss him and  and very much hopes that matters can be resolved without the need for legal proceedings. 

STV news " I don't think so."

Today's article on this 'satirical website' in the SundayTimes.

Pants on fire.

Jungle bells.Yuletide felicitations to one and all.

Dear assorted media people who have mysteriously discovered my mobile telephone number, please do not tire out your fraught digits by continually pressing redial.  The number is now resting.


I will be making a statement through my legal representatives in the next 24 hours regarding the stories about me in today's Herald... 

You can all access this statement via my blog, so do keep coming back.

Any further information will be placed on the blog for all to read. 

==============================================


Update. Saturday 19th.



Legal statement in Scottish media tomorrow, and on-line here Sunday morning.





  

Ding dong merrily on high.

Interesting repercussions from my article in the weekends Sunday Times.

Having just received a phone call from Paul Hutcheon of the Sunday Herald who is doing a story for tomorrow's Herald, in which I will yet again be smeared as a vile individual, who not only accuses Michael Russell and his South of Scotland adviser Aileen Orr of being not only aware of the blawg, but also of them suggesting stories and much of the sly innuendo and tittle tattle for which I have been panned. In addition I will be accused of attempting to coerce Mr Russell into giving me either my job back or finding me a cushy number in a quiet quango.

It appears that someone has released private emails sent between myself and Michael Russell's home email address to Paul Hutcheon. I can with one hundred percent certainty, hand on heart, scouts honour, tell you that I am not the person who has released these emails, as I was legally advised that it was best to not tell the Sunday Times that Mr Russell not only knew about but suggested possible stories for the blawg as it would hinder any subsequent tribunal.

Now obviously, what appears in The Herald will be skewed against me. So I've decided to give you, my lovely readers, all 14 of you the main emails* from which I suspect I will be kebabed.

So sit back and be prepared to be bored.

* Some details of the following emails have been removed, basically names of certain individuals,

Oh one final reminder, Aileen Orr mentioned above is the SNP candidate for Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweedsdale. She is without doubt the laziest candidate the party have probably ever put up for a seat, she has done close to zero campaigning in the constituency, has done a mere handful of Activate calls despite claiming to have spent every working moment doing them. She is a great pal of Paul Hutcheon, who didn't deny receiving these emails from her. The reason, I know all this? Well, until this all blew up, I was her election agent. I may still be as I haven't received ANY paperwork regarding my employment situation.



==================================================================================


-----Original Message-----
From: *******@******.com
To: feorlean@mac.com
Sent: Mon, 7 Dec 2009 17:33
Subject: Re: This week.

Michael

I am sending this to your Feorlean account as neither of us want the following appearing on the Parliamentary system where it could be accessed by an FOI request.

It is my understanding that you told me on the Friday morning that you would 'have to let me go'. I am unhappy about a situation where I humbly resign, as I do not accept that the blog was a sacking offence, it was something I composed outside of office hours, as a check on my parliamentary internet account will confirm, neither do I accept that the comments you refer to 'were of a serious nature'.

Yourself, Kevin Pringle and the FM responded in a knee jerk fashion and chose to sacrifice a loyal party member, employee and friend. You blindly accept the perceived 'truth' of the News of the World, rather than check the claims thoroughly yourselves and the context within which they were written.

At no point did you even begin to explain or even ask how the NOTW got my name and details. The FM's comments in Perth at the weekend basically give credibility to the belief that I was smearing opposition politicians with vile lies and that there is some great cybernat conspiracy.

The condemnation of Norman Will for having the temerity to comment on my facebook status was utterly pathetic and worthy of Stalinist practises long thought dead. Are the party aware that their is a vicious campaign to silence pro-independence bloggers and the FM's statement has gone down like a lead balloon.

You said the post on Cllrs Smyth and Nicholson were accusations of wife beating. That is completely incorrect, the images used to illustrate the post were tongue-in-cheek satire of the 1950's and 1960's showing woman being treated as less than equal.

Rather ironically, the first I knew about Cllr Smyth's dismissal was when you yourself told me about it on Friday the 20th, the day of the flooding and as we drove to Whithorn. I also have Cllr ****** weekly round-up which mentions it in detail.

If you remember correctly, it was you who told me about driving a drunken &%$^(*) ^*%$&& in Edinburgh and having to stop the car whilst he picked up some young men, where else could I have found that information?

Any comments on ***"£$ *^&%$***, came from comments that both you and Aileen made to me. Although, there is a seven Tories in a bed comment on the blog, it links to a photograph of ********* sitting on a bed in Africa…you know, humour.

The abject humiliation I have suffered in the media, both national and local (thank you for your Jekyll and Hyde comments in the Dumfries Courier) could have been prevented had you and the FM team taken time to consider the situation positively, rather than this pathetic knee jerk reaction better suited to your political rivals.

As it is your subsequent feeding me to the lions has left me virtually unemployable. As stated previously, I am looking to you as my employer to assist me in finding an alternative job, rather than let all of this sorry mess make its way into the public domain.

I intend to contest my sacking, given that although you now deny it, you were aware of the blog and even suggested possible subjects, such as the Daily Record pictures of Megrahi which I had asked SPICE for when I arrived at Parliament at 11.30am on the Thursday, for which they subsequently sent me an email claiming they could not locate the hard copies. As you will remember you said you would get them to me for putting on the blog.


I’m not trying to be a bastard about this situation, and I appreciate the kind words that you said in Friday’s email. I’m merely looking for some help from a friend in a powerful position who has not been truthful to the world about his knowledge of what I was doing.

You could have at any point told me to shut it down and I would have. I see the Courier even manage to publish my home address as justification for a letter I sent complaining about Smyth not identifying himself as a councillor when he attacked you over flooding/sea gulls/ regeneration.

As you gave me a deadline of Wednesday to respond, I will give you the same opportunity to respond to the above before I send it to your parliamentary address and cc the Presiding Officer and other interested parties.

I have recorded nothing on the telephone, I bear you and Cathleen no ill will, I only want some assistance. As you know I am loyal to the party and the government, however, I place Jane’s health and my family above that of politics. I would dearly love to walk away from this whole mess by the end of the week, if this is not possible then I will take up the offer from the media to talk about the blog.

Mark

==================================================================================

-----Original Message-----
From: ********@****.com
To: feorlean@mac.com
Sent: Fri, 4 Dec 2009 14:47

Changing the office door locks, having Aileen demand to know if I was recording our conversation and and making ***** ********* try to find out what journalists I had spoken to is not really the best way of maintaining my loyalty. For the record, the only journalist I have been in touch with is ****** ********, after she contacted me to say she'd spoken to you at the Diaspora event.

The NOTW as part of their concerted campaign against Independence supporting bloggers, have managed to to knock out another five bloggers this week. ****** ******* is being dragged into it, after his former constituency secretary and friend, is exposed as someone who failed to condemn a racist comment on the Scotsman forum. Iain McWhirter's blog from Monday questioning just how much you knew about my blog, the accusations that the FM responded in a knee jerk reaction rather than actually look at the truth through a NOTW prism, are all gaining momentum.

****** has asked if I want to give my side of the story to ****** ******. I don't want to.

What I do want is help finding a job. It needn't be immediate, some time in the next few months, stuck in some quango, under my first name, not even in Dumfries and Galloway.

Falling on the sword is one thing, destroying my families future for the SNP is an entirely different thing.

Mark

Are you going, going to the Boston tea party?

Interesting to note that today, December 16^th is the 236^th anniversary of the infamous Boston Tea Party.

Instrumental in sparking off the American Wars of Independence, this act of revolt against the British Empire and the British East India Company was undertaken by American colonialists who donned cunning disguises as native Mohawk American Indians and dumped boxes of tea in the harbour.

Future American President, Samuel Adams worked to publicise and defend the ‘Sons of Liberty’, stating that the Tea Party was not the act of a lawless mob, but was instead a principled protest and the only remaining option, for people who suffered taxation without representation and had no other means with which to defend their constitutional rights.

A few months earlier in September, 1773, a couple of hundred miles North of Boston, a cargo ship, 'the Hector', arrived in Pictou harbour, Nova Scotia, with 189 passengers aboard. It had been at sea for two-and-a-half months after leaving Greenock with thirty-three families and twenty-five single men on board.

The man behind this scheme was the formidable, Dr. John Witherspoon formerly of Paisley. President and head professor of what was to become Princeton University. Witherspoon, had purchased 200,000 acres of land from the Philadelphia Land Grant Company, whose shareholders included Benjamin Franklin. Settlers were offered a farm lot and a year of provisions.

A glance at the names of those on board, displays many familiar to today’s Scotland.

Witherspoon, long critical of the British Empire had embraced life in the colonies and was a strong supporter of the Revolution.  When challenged that America was not yet ready for independence he replied that it "was not only ripe for the measure, but in danger of rotting for the want of it."

At the same time that a fledgling Independence movement in the Americas is gathering momentum, in Scotland professional Englishman Doctor Samuel Johnson and his loyal acolyte James Bowell were engaged on ‘A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland’. This grand tour in search of the romantic savage, came a mere seven years after the death of James Edward Stuart and the end of the Pope’s recognition of  "Bonnie" Prince Charles as the lawful sovereign of Great Britain.

The Western Isles that Johnson and Boswell encountered was a desperate place with the disintegration of the Clan system and the Clan chief’s Highland Clearances policy starting to take effect, with whisky and the wearing of Tartan still banned after the 1745 rebellion. Johnson infamously opined, "The noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever sees is the high road that leads him to England!"

As many of Scotland’s leading lights were drawn to London and the glittering prizes there, unsurprisingly few if any, took Doctor Johnson to task for such pithy throwaway comments like. "Scotland is a vile country, though God made it, but we must remember that he made it for Scotsmen, and comparisons are odious, but God also made Hell”. One wonders what Witherspoon might have made of Johnson.

Who would have thought that Scotland and Scots would have had to wait for over 200 years to get just a little bit more representation for our taxation, whereas the Yanks simply chucked boxes of tea overboard?