Firstly, who are these people, we'll start with Margaret Curran.
I'm so sorry, that was quite puerile, of course I meant to upload this photo.
Margaret is Labour MP for Glasgow East and Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland.
Next up is Dennis Healey, who's he I hear you ask? Well, I'll tell you, here he is...
Oh dear, not exactly a very statesman-like pose, not for Baron Healey of Riddlesden CH MBE PC - in any case - here is a more suitable image.
Dennis was Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer between 1974 and 1979, while in that job he presided over many things not limited to the beginning of the Scottish oil boom years. Recently he said the following in an interview with Holyrood Magazine
"I think we did underplay the value of the oil to the country because of the threat of nationalism but that was mainly down to Thatcher.
"We didn't actually see the rewards from oil in my period in office because we were investing in the infrastructure rather than getting the returns and, really, Thatcher wouldn't have been able to carry out any of her policies without that additional five per cent on GDP from oil. Incredible good luck she had from that."
He went on to say:
"I think they are concerned about Scotland taking the oil. I think they are worried stiff about it.
"I think we would suffer enormously if the income from Scottish oil stopped but if the Scots want it, they should have it and we would just need to adjust. But I would think Scotland could survive perfectly well, economically, if it was independent."
So, what does the former have to do with the latter?
Margaret Curran was asked about Healey's Holyrood Magazine interview by Derek Bateman of BBC Radio Scotland, it went like this:
"DEREK BATEMAN ( BBC Radio Scotland): What do we make of Denis Healey admitting that when [North Sea] oil was discovered, Labour – a Labour government, ahead of a referendum, interestingly, on the constitution of Scotland – misled, deliberately misled the Scots about the value of oil?
MARGARET CURRAN MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland) : Well, Derek, I don’t know anything about that, those times, I don’t know the basis on which Denis Healey said that, I don’t know the argument, I don’t know the papers around that.
DEREK BATEMAN ( BBC Radio Scotland): But you’re the shadow Secretary of State for Scotland! You’re a senior Labour figure, I mean, he was a Labour chancellor.
MARGARET CURRAN MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland) : I know I’m getting on a bit, but I wasn't around in Denis Healey’s days."
Remember, this is Labour's alternative to Michael Moore, the current Secretary of State for Scotland, while he's not up to much himself, for the Labour Secretary of State for Scotland to utter the things above is hard to accept. I mean, you might say she looks young enough not to remember the 1970's (although perhaps not in the first photo) but the McCrone Report which was made secret back in the late 1970's has been doing the rounds for at least five years now, has Margaret been living in a cave? (Don't answer that.) In short, its her job to be aware of this kind of thing, however inconvenient it might be.
The thing is though, as Jimmy Nail said in his 1992 hit; 'Ain't no doubt' - She's lying. (If the reference is before your time, click here for elucidation.)
Citizen Smart (real name Alan Smart - not to be confused with bat-brained Labour activist Ian Smart who is his brother) in his piece on Bella and his own blog confirms that Curran was around and politically active in the 70's - in 1978 she was Secretary of Glasgow University Labour Club (the biggest of its kind in the UK at the time) smack in the middle of Healey's time in office as Chancellor. At the time, Curran was screeching for Healey's head on a stick because she was a prominent supporter of the Labour Left Opposition (back when Labour had a 'left'.)
Her claim - not to be aware of McCrone, Healey and what Callaghan's Labour Government were saying about the potential value of Scottish Oil - is a lie.
Now, you would expect some form of reaction if an ex-chancellor of the Exchequer turned up and said the Government he represented lied profusely and energetically to stifle the democratic wishes of the Scottish people only 30 years ago. You might remember reading about the referendum in 1979 on the inception of a Scottish Assembly, which many say would have led to Scottish Independence much sooner than has otherwise been the case. It was shot down by Labour MP George Cunningham's 40% rule and in no small measure by the misinformation being ejaculated by the Government of the day which even now is still being blerted out by Maggrit "stairheid rammy" Curran and her cronies.
So why isn't it then? Well, that brings us to John Boothman; who's he then?
Shit - that's John Barrowman...
This is John Boothman:
Currently, he's the Head of News & Current Affairs for the BBC in Scotland. In 1979 he was the Chairperson of Strathclyde University Labour Club, Chairperson Scottish Organisation of Labour Students in 1980 and Chairperson of the National (UK) Organisation of Labour Students 1981.
Although Derek Bateman works for the BBC and should be commended for skewering Curran, when his interview with Margaret Curran ended, as far as the BBC was concerned; so did the entire issue.
I'm sure its not related though...
I'm sure its not related though...
Difficult to know what to say about Curren. As you have read elsewhere I've met her and spent time with her when she was a minister in the Scottish (then) Executive.
ReplyDeleteI was impressed with her grasp of the facts and how interested she was in what we were doing.
It has been downhill all the way since then.
It occurs to me that people like her are out of their depth in the argument we are having at the moment.
She's lucky that Michael Moore is also out of his depth.
I think that people like Curren, Glasgow Labour, are so used to getting away with spinning bollocks and people just believing it, that when faced with a grown up challenge, she just isn't up to the job.
Better Together is falling apart firstly because the two main parties involved in it hate each other and are vying for preference in the big, to come, Westminster elections, now only 2 years away, but also because their whole agenda is built on lies.
We are not better together. Together means more of the same bollocks that we have had to put up with for the last 30 years, and more.
More poverty, more deprivation, more division between rich and poor, more nuclear weapons, more privatisation, more money making at the top, more food banks at the bottom, more homelessness, more drugs and drink, more misery for everyday people and more exclusivity for the elite.
You have to feel for them. it's a bloody hard sell without telling a few lies.
One of my dearest wishes is that we should find a way of no longer paying for the BBC.
Strangely however, although the Tories will privatise absolutely every other thing in the country including their own grandmothers, the want to keep the BBC as a state enterprise.
Odd that!
I think many of them suffer from a form of blindness or denial. If they say something often enough then eventually they manage to convince themselves that it is true - as for any one listening? Well that seems to be beside the point.
ReplyDeleteIts really odd.
I stopped paying the BBC license years ago, no way am I funding that nonsense.
Sometimes I think people like Curran know the UK is fucked, but they still think they can fix it.
Me? I think it can be fixed too, by voting Yes in 2014.
Pa
ReplyDeleteI can't stand Currun, like Lamont and Murphy etc, they have conived to kill the Labour Party in Scotland but the members don't know yet.
I find her to just lie all the time and while I will accept Tris's view what I can't stand is politicians who say one thing but their actions betray them. Yes we want what is best for Scotland so vote NO in 2014. The two don't go together and they know it. She is a liar and a poor one at that, I just can't stand labour politicians right now and the fact they are poor politicians makes it even worse.
Bruce
I think the sad aspect of that interview is that none of us are surprised that she was deliberately misleading anyone who was listening and she was not taken to task for it.
ReplyDeleteNicely put together blog, btw!
Its a sair fecht when we're considering the extent to which politicians like Curran lie instead of the fact that they lie at all. We now seem to have an acceptable level of dishonesty around unionist politicians and the Scottish press.
ReplyDeleteThanks all for reading.