Grumbling Tummy

The BBC has a comprehensive round up of quotes from various politicians and political commentators where is it obvious who’s being partisan. However, one stands out from the rest as it is from an unbiased academic with no axe to grind.

JOHN CURTICE, STRATHCLYDE UNIVERSITY POLITICS PROFESSOR

The real problem is Wendy Alexander’s leadership more broadly was not much of a success.

Her performances in First Minister’s Questions against the First Minister Alex Salmond were widely criticised for being rather weak.

Secondly, her attempt to push the Labour Party where it is in a position where it said it wanted a referendum on independence and it wanted a referendum quickly, contradicting Gordon Brown’s position, that undoubtedly weakened her position.

Thirdly, in truth the lesson of this story is that Wendy Alexander actually mismanaged dealing with the problem of her leadership finance campaign once the story first emerged.

But my favourite comment so far was from fidothedog in response to my earlier Tribute to Wee Wendy blog post:

There is a point that without Labour to mock, the flaws of the SNP will be exposed. Although they have some, I am sure that it would take some serious fuckwittery to get to the level of Wendy & co in New Labour.

I just love the way that she gets caught, lies, gets exposed, then go’s on the attack, gets shown up for lying again, hauled up before the committee and then leaves.

Oh and whilst leaving denies all wrongdoing, blames everyone else and acts like a spoiled twat.

Still I see a book deal or somesuch aka Levy, puker Prescott, Pasha Blair etc etc.

Wendy Alexander needs to ask herself who placed the first dagger in her back. Who was involved in the initial leak about the dodgy donations? Could it perhaps be a New Labour insider? Perhaps not everyone in New Labour thought she was leadership material.

Let’s give the last word, for the time being, to Nicola Sturgeon, Deputy First Minister:

It’s not partisan, it’s not party political, it’s simply a decision taken based on that independent report.

“But clearly this event does signal the deep disintegration now happening to Labour north and south of the border. The key point is that they are disintegrating from within.

So Wendy, perhaps the deepest stab wounds were done with a New Labour partisan dagger “before thee”.

Technorati Tags: John Curtis, Nicola Sturgeon, Scottish Parliament, Wendy Alexander

In light of the resignation of Wendy Alexander as the Leader of the Labour Group in the Scottish Parliament, I think this is an opportune moment to come up with a tribute. Rather than use the usual  NuLabour type spin that we’ve all become accustomed to, I thought we’d do it in song!

Enjoy ….

I just couldn’t believe her blaming the SNP for a witch hunt. If anything, the top people of the SNP called off the attack dogs and were working hard to keep her at the top of the NuLabour dung heap. She was fighting a more effective campaign for Scottish independence than the nationalists could ever manage at this point in their grand plan!

Let’s see if any of the NuLabour MSPs want to step into the role of Leader of the Political Wilderness Party. Can’t wait to see NuLabour being decimated in Scotland… long overdue if you ask me. There are one or two of that lot who are skilled politicians and could give Alex Salmond a run for his money, but I don’t expect we’ll see any of them putting their name forward for leader until it looks like NuLabour are turning around their fortunes… so that will be a decade or two then!

My Gran would have been so proud to see the SNP doing so well. She and my grandad voted SNP for years, even during the times when they were nobodies in Scotland. It is just sad that she is only here in spirit .  At least her spirit observed me putting the cross in the correct place at the last elections.

Technorati Tags: Scottish Parliament, So Long Fairwell, SNP, Sound of Music, Wendy Alexander

Poor wee Hazel Blear’s has had her laptop stolen. Normally I’d feel a load of sympathy for someone in this predicament, but not this poison chipmunk (insult borrowed from the NewPortCity blog). Maybe there is some sort of Conservative conspiracy operating this week to get all the NuLabour gingers thrown out of office! I’m just waiting to see some innocent ginger being caught in the cross fire… watch out Chris Evans.

We’re told there were a couple of low level government documents that aren’t really that up to date and have a classification of sensitivity that doesn’t even merit the slightest concern. Surely, the same rules should apply to her as to those civil servants that picked up the “British Rail” sandwich packs and put them away, all the time thinking they were top secret dossiers? Weren’t they instantly suspended pending an investigation? I’ve scoured the news websites, but can’t see any such announcement about wee Hazel.  I’m betting she won’t be doing the honourable thing until she gets pushed of the Brown Express as it leaves Shit Creek Station on the way to Extinctionville!

If she used it for constituency work then there must be data about private citizens on there surely? Could well be a breach of the Data Protection Act here, but where’s the toothless and worthless Richard “ICO” Thomas when you need him? Sounds like a big cover up is going on to keep her in a job.

Hopefully, Davie-Boy Cameron will really hammer home this issue at PMQs this week. Of course, Gordie will mumble something incomprehensible then throw us a clever curved ball about him still having a Home Office Minister, and one at that who doesn’t spitting out dummies and throw rattles out of the pram. Should be an interesting one if I can stay awake.

So what is my request to the thief… please, please give this laptop back to wee Hazel, but do it through a major news organisation that will exam it before handing it back to the NuLabour spin machine. You have a chance to reveal the truth to the world on this and be a big hero. 

Technorati Tags: data loss, DPA, Hazel Blears, ICO, theft

Luke Akehurst, a Nu-Labour activist and councillor, has endeared himself to the blogosphere – NOT! What has he done, I can hear you say? Well he made this suggestion on his blog in response to the David Davis resignation over the civil liberties erosion:

Maybe instead of Labour fielding a candidate in Haltemprice & Howden we should find a Martin Bell type candidate – preferably a recently retired senior police officer, or a survivor or relative of a victim of a terrorist attack, to run under the following 5 word candidate description: “Independent – for detaining terrorism suspects”.

An idea so immorally abhorrent that his blog post has been deluged by comment after comment decrying his stance. Rachel, one of the people passing comment and a victim of the 7/7 bombings, made a strong case for why this view was so wrong. There is also other touching stories about terrorist atrocities in the comments, all made by people equally outrage with Luke’s idea. Well worth a read through.

Last time I checked the police force weren’t too happy with Nu-Labour, so I can’t see an ex-copper being that happy to stand up for the immoral goings on of the last weeks or two. Perhaps Luke should ask Jacqui Smith about her big day out at the Police Federation Conference! I wonder if the other ass-hole she was torn on that day has healed up yet?

One of his supporters even tried to suggest someone like Colonel Tim Collins, as a candidate. Newsflash Luke’s supporter, he’s campaigning alright, but alas it will be on the side of freedom, justice and liberty… and oh, that’s David Davis’ side in case you are too stupid to know what’s being hinted at here.

John Smeaton’s name was also in the frame on various blogs for a short time. I sent a strongly worded email to the Smeato to say why this was a VERY, VERY bad idea. Hopefully many other people did likewise and ensured he saw sense in this matter. It is being reported that he has now declared no interest in opposing David Davis.

So, in the spirit of the NewPortCity blog, I present to you Luke Akehurst…

Even better, he followed it up with this blog post, where he tries to say where he leads with ideas others follow. Personally, I don’t think using the views of a Daily Mirror article as proof that this is a good idea is a sound strategy to defuse this issue.

Since Luke is struggling to find someone, may I suggest we dig up one of the 7/7 victims and use the dead rotting corpse in the anti-Davis marketing campaign. Proof positive that 42 days is needed. The grave diggers have been busy and we’ve managed to find you a suitable 7/7 victim.

Technorati Tags: 42 days, 7/7, Colonel Tim Collins, David Davis, David Davis for Freedom, Jackie Smith, John Smeaton, London bombings, Luke Akehurst, politics, terrorism

I see David Davis has launched a campaign blog. Find it here.

Now to see if the media actually engages in this important debate around our freedoms, liberty and the growth of the surveillance society.

p.s. I’d like to point out that I’m not a Tory, never have been and never will be in the future! This really is an issue that rises above political allegiances.

Technorati Tags: David Davis, freedom, liberty, surveillance society

The 2007 International Privacy Ranking shows the UK to be of the world leaders in the surveillance society – a real eye opener.

From the report:

• World leading surveillance schemes
• Lack of accountability and data breach disclosure law
• Commissioner has few powers
• Interception of communications is authorised by politician, evidence not used in court, and oversight is by commissioner who reports only once a year upon reviewing a subset of applications
• Hundreds of thousands of requests from government agencies to telecommunications providers for traffic data
• Data retention scheme took a significant step forward with the quiet changes based on EU law
• Plans are emerging regarding surveillance of communications networks for the protection of copyrighted content
• Despite data breaches, ‘joined-up government’ initiatives continue
• Identity scheme still planned to be the most invasive in the world, highly centralised and biometrics-driven; plan to issue all foreigners with cards in 2008 are continuing
• E-borders plans include increased data collection on travellers

The one saving grace is that Scotland fairs much better in the analysis than our counterparts in England and Wales:

England & Wales

• Inherited constitutional and statutory protections from UK Government and many of the policies
• National policies are not judged, e.g. Communications surveillance, border and trans-border issues
• Councils continue to spread surveillance policies, including RFID, CCTV, ID and data sharing, road user tracking
• Few democratic safeguards at local government level, even though local government may be more accountable to electorate because of smaller numbers, decisions do not appear to be informed by research, prototyping

Scotland

• Inherited constitutional and statutory protections from UK Government and only some of the policies
• National policies are not judged, e.g. Communications surveillance, border and trans-border issues
• Stronger protections on civil liberties
• DNA database is not as open to abuse as policy in England and Wales
• Identity policy is showing possibility of avoiding mistakes of UK Government
• Scottish government appears more responsive and open to informed debate than local governments in England

Today has also seen Elish Angiolini, the Lord Advocate, voicing her opposition against the need for the proposed forty two day detention without charge limit, which  will be voted upon on Wednesday at Westminster. The BBC has an interesting news report around this issue.

Generally, it would appear the Scottish Government and the Scots Law establishment are far better at balancing the need for surveillance against the rights of individual privacy and human rights in respect of the true threat. Seems like another reasons in the tick box for Scotland to be independent and bring even more common sense to the issue without interference from London!

Does anyone still believe we live in a free country?

Technorati Tags: privacy, Scots Law, security, surveillance

Green tax my ass! The latest proposal to make Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) increases for cars that are up to seven years old is a stealth tax. Yes, if we could have seen the tax coming seven years ago then maybe we wouldn’t have bought a particular model of car, but alas not enough of us have a crystal ball that works in a green tax way.

Get yourself over to the Unfair VED e-Petition on the No10 Downing Street website and get it signed!

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Remove the unfair and unjust retrospective Vehicle Execise Duty levy (back to 2001 year vehicles) as announced in the Budget on 12/3/08.

You know things aren’t right when even Green Peace say this isn’t a Green Tax! Mr Brown take the fingers out your ears and stop the “la la la” to hear what people are saying about your government. Feel free to give me a call and argue how this is a green tax.

It really is time for a change of government at Westminster. Alas, the only change we’ll get is to switch over to that other crowd, the Nu Conservatives! Five or ten years down the line we’ll be switching back to “New New New Labour” to fix the stuff the Tories have buggered up. Anyone for more “Seesaw Margery Daw”?

Technorati Tags: Conservatives, Downing Street, e-Petition, Green Peace, green tax, Labour, No10, Seesaw Margery Daw, stealth tax, Tory, VED, Vehicle Excise Duty, Westminster

.. then it looks like I’d be voting for a democrat this time around!

90% Chris Dodd
89% John Edwards
87% Barack Obama
86% Hillary Clinton
84% Joe Biden
77% Dennis Kucinich
76% Mike Gravel
74% Bill Richardson
49% Rudy Giuliani
41% John McCain
31% Mitt Romney
28% Mike Huckabee
26% Tom Tancredo
21% Ron Paul
17% Fred Thompson

2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz

Technorati Tags: Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz, US Election

Following on from my last post, there are a few open e-petitions that you may wish to sign to show your support for our brave Gurkha “soldier citizens”.

1. Petition to: grant widows old and new of the gurkha regiment the same status and …

2. Petition to: give all Ex Gurkha soldiers and their families who have served our country …

3. Petition to: enact legislation to give the Military Covenant a full legislative framework …

Now get your ass over to these petitions and put your name to them. Show these morally devoid politicians that the rest of society wishes these brave soldiers be shown the respect they have earned.

Technorati Tags: Downing Street, Gurkha, No10, petitions, politics, soldier

I cannae believe the Labour Government and the Tory opposition’s views on the Gurkha soldiers who served in our armed forces before 1997, but who aren’t good enough to be citizens of the UK. This is a complete disgrace and should be fixed NOW!

Gordon Brown presented some technicality during PMQs, that made a big deal of 1997 when the Gurkhas moved from Hong Kong to the UK after Hong Kong was handed back to China, or some bullshit along those lines. This is a moral argument Mr B, not some technicality to squirm away from the nation’s moral duty. Now is the time to honour those who would have given their life for our country. Yet another example of the morally devoid / corrupt government IMHO – scumbags!

Technorati Tags: army, Conservative, Gurkhas, Labour, politics, PMQs, Tory

Forth Road Bridge and Tay Road Bridge tolls are officially gone. Yee-haa!

Now we’ll see that the bridges are not the major traffic jams generators claimed by some folk. However, Dundee wasn’t ever that big a deal, but I predict it will now be so easy to get out of Edinburgh without waiting in massive tailbacks! We’ve already seen how much the A8000 was the contributing factor to southbound traffic jams since it was replaced by the new dual carriageway road.

Another success for the SNP lead Scottish Government.

Technorati Tags: Dundee, Edinburgh, Forth Road Bridge, Scottish Government, SNP, Tay Bridge

Just as well Barnze lives in Nottingham, as he’d be bang in trouble if he was north of the border! The Scottish Government is looking for comment on their “Consultation on the Draft Cat Welfare Code of Practice: A Consultation Document issued by the Rural Directorate of the Scottish Government“.

Having said that, Section 5 has an interesting sentence:

It may be necessary, in the event of incurable illness, old age or, more suddenly, in the event of an accident, to arrange the euthanasia of your cat

So if the wee felines have a “little accident” then euthanasia is the answer!

But, he’d be getting gang rapped at “Her Majesty’s Pleasure” in Barlinnie Prison based on one of the next sentences:

The cat’s welfare must always come first.

Just bite down hard on the pillow mate and think of England .

[Source: The Register]

Technorati Tags: Barnze, cats, cat welfare, humor, humour, Scottish Government