tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7488826927992195485.post3523409292123763738..comments2023-09-06T09:27:43.866-07:00Comments on fazzledown: Fit for purpose?pa_broon74http://www.blogger.com/profile/01915208411019621104noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7488826927992195485.post-18138466429266122192013-09-17T02:57:59.817-07:002013-09-17T02:57:59.817-07:00True.
The press in Scotland - especially the BBC ...True.<br /><br />The press in Scotland - especially the BBC - are totally without integrity in this area. They must drink a hell of a lot of Ovaltine at night.<br /><br />In this instance, hardly anyone watches FMQ's so the initial coverage was going to be small anyway, so it was easy to bury.<br /><br />It was press bias that made me proactive in the debate, since I am a disappointingly average person, this kind of thing would inevitably turn more people away from the union if they were to find out about it.pa_broon74https://www.blogger.com/profile/01915208411019621104noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7488826927992195485.post-63621212534041111502013-09-15T15:43:41.501-07:002013-09-15T15:43:41.501-07:00The most depressing part of the whole thing has be...The most depressing part of the whole thing has been the confirmation of how biased the media are.<br /><br />Imagine if Alex Salmond had accused Johann Lamont of corruption in a similar manner and for a similar deal and it had then turned out that it was an SNP council that had bought the land and that Labour had sold the land under Treasury rules at public auction.<br /><br />The story would have been headline news for weeks with the BBC leading the charge. There would have been orchestrated calls for Alex Salmond to resign for his unsubstantiated and false allegations and the media pressure would have gone on until he did resign.<br /><br />Contrast this with what did happen. The media tried to use the story to get Alex Salmond and when it became clear that it was going to be Labour in the frame not the SNP then they buried it.DougtheDughttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02952281599715356995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7488826927992195485.post-20925788274582529292013-09-15T14:20:27.898-07:002013-09-15T14:20:27.898-07:00Thanks Tris, normally my digression make more sens...Thanks Tris, normally my digression make more sense than the main point I hope to make.<br /><br />While I was cleaning my pom poms I had a thought though, if that is the best Lamont/Labour can come up with it begs the questions, are the SNP perfect in government? I mean, no political party is, so why do Labour feel the need to fabricate stuff?<br /><br />Even Willie Rennie manages to ask the odd pertinent question (Davidson is still a gonk though.)<br /><br />Surely there must be things the SNP ARE doing wrong? Or is it the case, in Scotland we have the world's first truly perfect government?<br /><br />I really can't buy that.pa_broon74https://www.blogger.com/profile/01915208411019621104noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7488826927992195485.post-54221428506422336792013-09-15T06:48:43.130-07:002013-09-15T06:48:43.130-07:00First, let me say that I enjoy your digressions, a...First, let me say that I enjoy your digressions, almost as much as I enjoy your main points.<br /><br />What I hate about all this is that it sets Scot against Scot.<br /><br />I mean, this was a pile of rubbish to begin with. It should never have been FMQ material. It was not designed to get to the bottom of why the deal went the way it went. It was designed to blacken the name of Alex Salmond.<br /><br />As you point out, the trouble was with the buying of the land. It could almost certainly have been bought cheaper.<br /><br />That it was bought at a premium from a bloke who apparently used to be a Tory, may or may not throw some questions at the buyers of the land...which was not the SNP government.<br /><br />The businessman bloke is probably still a Tory. He certainly hasn't said that he's an SNP supporter. He has also said, I believe, that (in common with a majority of Scots) he wants more powers from Edinburgh...but that's only what Johann (Scotland deserves better) Lamont has been saying.<br /><br />He has, again I believe, said that he will vote for Independence if Devo Max is not on the ballot, because the status quo is the worst of all possible worlds.<br /><br />He advises the Scottish government on business, along with a shedload of other people who have different and no political affiliation. It's normal. The government has advisors who have Labour histories. <br /><br />OK...we do need to look at how someone managed to make around £3/4 million on a land deal, but, as I said, it was not a matter for FMQs. <br /><br />And once you start looking at the ins and outs, you find that not a single thing can be thrown at the government (or rather the legal department which deals with these things). In all matters, it appears to have acted in accordance with the law, whether our law or Westminster's regulations. <br /><br />Why is Lamont trying to blacken the name of the FM, and the current government, with lies? <br /><br />Is it because there's not a lot to say FOR the union and the only way to convince people that UKOK is by inventing scandal, because there is no REAL scandal to be unearthed? <br /><br />For heaven's sake, surely she could see that this was likely to come back and bite her arse. Yeah, the headlines look bad as a compliant press rush to make Salmond look like a crook. But even the most odious organs of the press have to draw a line somewhere in their slavish service to the union.<br /><br />And they seem to have done so.<br /><br />The trouble is that there is real hatred brewing because of the lies that are being told.<br /><br />There was bound to be division. Even people who say that they will leave the country if one side or the other wins. Most of course don't really mean it. They almost undoubtedly won't. But the enmity that is building up because of the viciousness of the campaign is frightening.<br /><br />I wonder what kind of country we will leave behind, regardless of outcome. <br /><br />I used to think that I was a Liberal, then I decided that I was a social democrat... so as the Liberal party has become a hard right organ in thrall to the Tories and Labour has decided that the only way to win power in London is to appease the right wing voters of the SE of England, I have no political home in Scotland.<br /><br />I hope that, job done, the SNP will continue to operate as a left of centre democratic socialist party, or that Labour will grow a pair and start acting like a Labour party again.<br /><br />Of course freed from the hold of REAL WORLD POWER as America's lieutenant, who knows what these parties will become in the future. <br /><br /><br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7488826927992195485.post-459078220139558292013-09-13T07:54:31.330-07:002013-09-13T07:54:31.330-07:00Hello Dean.
The thing is, these days, I should be...Hello Dean.<br /><br />The thing is, these days, I should be voting labour. I'm embarrassed to admit, when I was a good bit younger I was a bit of a Tory. I used to think you made your own way and that unions were a form of cheating, I suppose you'd call it libertarian lite or some equally naive thing.<br /><br />Now though, I totally get unions, social democracy & stuff like universal benefits and decent welfare.<br /><br />I cannot however vote for a party that is so blinded by dogma, that trades on lies and untruths. So, I vote SNP, bit of a nanny party with a penchant for draconian methods re. children and the odd knee jerk law re. everything else.<br /><br />I really hope Labour pull through, but its going to need more than root & branch reform, I think its going to need replanted.<br /><br /><br /><br />pa_broon74https://www.blogger.com/profile/01915208411019621104noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7488826927992195485.post-6293115787014812322013-09-13T07:23:44.312-07:002013-09-13T07:23:44.312-07:00Johann was elected by the party (including myself)...Johann was elected by the party (including myself) on the platform of strong leftwing credentials including:<br /><br />- reforming the party "root and branch"<br />- supporting universal welfare entitlements and<br />- pushing for significant further devolution<br /><br />As a card carrying member of Scottish Labour I often am left wondering if I'm the only member sitting thinking 'what the heck is she on about now?' and 'That wasn't her tune when trying to become leader'<br /><br />Depressing times.Dean MacKinnon-Thomsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08221192592535723681noreply@blogger.com