Author Archives: the45

I have a "Special Deal"

The Perma-Tory hell of Brexit

Our beloved leader has cast aside his bestialist ways and got us a super deal which gives us “special status” within the EU. Not that the deal amounts to much, it just tinkers around the edges of immigration policy and benefits. But the PM’s biggest achievement is the exemption of the City of London from any EU regulation. How’s that for light touch regulation? Paul Double, the City of London Remembrancer, will be pleased.

Now we are expected to decide whether we want to stay in the EU in a referendum which is to be held on the anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn, the timing is against the wishes of all of the devolved parliaments and assemblies since the referendum campaign will overshadow the May elections. The referendum will continue to dominate the agenda until then and it will provide a free platform to UKIP which may see their first MSPs at Holyrood.

This referendum is all about the tories and the advance of UKIP who have outflanked them on the right. The tories have always been split on the EU, some tories split from the main party to form UKIP. Tory party grandees fund UKIP and it is they who are driving the anti-EU agenda.

Before we get lost in the EU referendum let’s remember that UKIP want to abolish the Barnett Formula which they conceded in their 2015 manifesto, “…will result in substantial reductions in funding for Scotland.” But hey, that’s OK because we will have some super new powers of our own to compensate for the shortfall. This places UKIP up there with the red tories who want us to raise income taxes in order to mitigate for tory cuts. But they are purple tories after all.

So what would the UK be like if the result of the referendum is to leave?

Well the first thing to go would be those pesky Human Rights that are forced on us from the EU. That would be the end of freedom of speech, we wouldn’t be able to complain about being tortured or having our privacy invaded. The tories would be able to do as they please once the shackles of the European Court of Human Rights are thrown off. We would have no right to life, no right to freedom, no right to property and definitely no right to protest. Goodness no, that would never do.

The next thing to go would be those irritating employment laws, you know the ones that protect the employees from the worst excesses of the employers? So out would go union laws, we won’t be having any of those. Then the tories will make it even easier to get rid of people and as for holiday entitlement, ha ha ha. Pay would be driven down, unless you are a boss of course, and those working conditions would be, how should I put it, improved.

Once you have been booted out of your job and you become “no longer economically active” well, what use are you? You may think that all those National Insurance contributions counted for something but you were wrong. There will be Universal Credit if they ever get the computer system sorted out, but IDS will make it impossible for you to claim it. If you are unable to work through sickness or disability IDS will make you jump through all manner of hoops before declaring you fit to work, so you get nothing. The new benefits regime will be called Work for Freedom.

Did we mention pensions yet? The tories will reduce the state pension but not too much, they do rely on the silver vote after all so it will be nice and subtle. Those other benefits like winter fuel allowance and free TV licences will all have to go, after all we need to pull together now that there’s a war on, spirit of the blitz and all. Didn’t we mention the war? We’ll get to that. The bus passes will have to go, but then pensioners are not economically active so why do they need to get around? As for those company and private pensions, all that lovely cash sitting around is just too tempting to resist, Gideon already has his greedy eyes on that honeypot. After all there is a war to pay for.

Oh yes, the war. Well it turns out that nuclear weapons are no deterrent after all. The £167 billion which was funnelled into arms companies didn’t prevent the war. Well it wouldn’t would it, because war is so much more profitable than peace. If there’s something a tory loves it’s money and cushy non executive directorships, both of which can be had by the bucket load if only the house votes for war.

We’ll need someone to do the dirty work, boots on the ground so to speak. There weren’t many volunteers so the tories re-introduced conscription. Now all our youth must serve in the armed forces, but only working class youth of course. There are lots of exemptions so if you have enough cash your son/daughter will not have to join the slaughter discipline enhancing institutions of the armed forces. Before you know it they will be off to the sand pit with sub-standard kit, made by the lowest bidder, to fight in a perpetual war which cannot be won.

Back home in Blighty there will be fear, lashings of it, all over the MSM. We need to have fear to keep the people in their place you see. There will not be any facts, good lord no. We can’t have the plebs making informed decisions can we? That would never do. The media will do the government’s bidding because they are one and the same. All part of the same establishment because that is what tories stand for: the few at the expense of the many.

Liar Carmichael

The liar’s reward

The Orkney 4 are safe in their burrows tonight after judges ruled that Alistair Carmichael, the lying Liberal Democrat MP for Orkney and Shetland, could not extract punitive damages from them for having the temerity to challenge his election. He will now have to stump up the cash himself. But let’s not fool ourselves here, the only winners in this case are the lawyers who stand to make somewhere around £300000! How can it be that such a phenomenal sum of money is required to bring our elected representatives to account?

The liar’s fundraiser currently stands at £14595, there’s been a wee flush of activity since the decision of the judges. It’s interesting to have a look at the donors, you get a view into the mind of the yoon. So let’s take a wee peek shall we?

Eric Holford

Eric Holford

First up is Eric who obviously got caught up in the media propaganda, but the lying Liberal Democrat admitted that the document was false back in May 2015. He must have missed that nugget of information. Notice how he blames the SNP for this “attack.” He just doesn’t understand that lying to the electorate is wrong! This is a theme which is repeated throughout the fundraiser. Take Robert Moss for instance:

Robert Moss

Robert Moss

Why is it accepted that politicians lie? Can we not aspire to something more than having self-serving liars representing us? The whole purpose of the Representation of the People Act was to allow politicians to be held to account. Unfortunately it seems to be flawed as it gave the liar Carmichael enough wriggle room to keep his job. The yoonery continues with Robbie:

Robbie Thomson

Robbie Thomson

This is a common thread too, the petitioners are scum for wanting to hold their MP to account apparently. Why does he think that? I think that the media has a lot to answer for in this regard, they went into full propaganda mode to protect their man. All opponents of the union are denigrated, we get a good othering at every turn. Casting the Orkney 4 as scum is a continuation of this line of attack. They’ll be calling us untermensch next.

Next up we have Jill Stephenson, aka History Woman, one of the most extreme yoons there is:

History Woman 1st donation

History Woman 1st donation

History Woman 2nd donation

History Woman 2nd donation

According to History Woman it is all the fault of the Scottish judicial system, even though this is an Act of the UK parliament. The judges decided that he did have a case to answer and because the verdict was divided between the Orkney 4 and the lying Liberal Democrat that no costs should be awarded. Jill clearly doesn’t see that if Carmichael had not lied and come clean to the Cabinet enquiry, then none of costs would have been incurred. Mind you Carmichael would probably have lost his seat, and deservedly so. But what of the cost of that enquiry, reportedly £1.4 million? Is Jill happy for us to foot the bill for that? If Carmichael had been an honest man those costs would not have been incurred either. The Tories will probably see that as a small price to pay in order to keep their single remaining Scottish MP safe.

There was also a donation from Sir Malcolm Bruce, Lord of the Gowk Stane, who bunged the liar £50. Who can forget this former MP telling us that all politicians lie, and that really is the core issue of this sorry tale. Why is it acceptable and legal for politicians to lie? Is this just a feature of the Westminster parliament or does this phenomenon pervade the devolved assemblies too?

This case just goes to prove that politicians are above the law, they can lie to us with impunity. The whole system of “democracy” in this land stinks of corruption. It is a system in which politicians, both elected and unelected, syphon vast sums of money off into tax havens as this excellent article by Steve Topple describes. They do as they please while we pay the price, does that sound like a good system of government to you?

Tunnocks: British not Scottish

Tea cakes, block lists and floods

We’ve been taking a break over the festive period, recharging the batteries and letting the belt buckle out a notch. It was a nice feeling to just let it all pass by for a change. But now we’re back and there are a few things which are just asking for mention, so here we go…

Thomas Tunnocks Ltd, a family run business which sells cakes and biscuits, has been in the press because they are apparently going to drop the lion rampant from their packaging outside of Scotland. From what I know of businesses their primary goal is to make money. So it follows that this change in marketing policy is intended to make the business more money by pitching the re-branded product as “Tunnocks Great British Teacake”. So it also follows that marketing yourself as Scottish south of the border doesn’t make as much money. The question is, why?

Could it be that the relentless propaganda campaign, which first reared its ugly head as “Project Fear”, is having an effect on Scottish companies who trade in England? Is this then the positive case for the Union, where to identify yourself as Scottish is to appear to be something Other?

Alex Salmond Pickpocket

Alex Salmond Pickpocket

Othering is defined as “the process of casting a group, an individual or an object into the role of the ‘other’ and establishing one’s own identity through opposition to and, frequently, vilification of this Other.” So the Othering is obviously working, because Thomas Tunnocks Ltd feel that they have to market themselves as British in order to make more profits. Boyd Tunnock, the managing director, said, “We could have said Scottish but you’re then promoting Scotland.” So promoting Scotland is a bad thing, a loss maker for your brand.

Of course we also have to ask why the company decided to publicise this re-branding as they did, with the political element? Well the company was firmly behind a No vote during the referendum so there may be a clue there. It also says to the people of Scotland that the Scottish brand is as dead as a Jim Murphy’s political career. It says that if you want to succeed in this marvelous United Kingdom then you have to present yourself as British, not Welsh, not Northern Irish, definitely not Scottish. It says that the only culture that’s worth anything in our land is British, harking back to the glorious days of imperialism when most of the planet was under the British heel. Lovely, but I won’t be signing up for any of that. So here is my New Year’s resolution: I shall be giving up biscuits (got to get that belt down a notch or two after all.)

Elsewhere, Wings Over Scotland have published a piece advising people to update their Twitter accounts with the reverend’s personal block list (which I feature on, because of this post I believe). I find this very disturbing, it plays sweetly into the hands of the press with their “brainwashed Nats” narrative. No doubt Wings is the lightning rod which attracts most of the ire from pro Union types and I’m sure that the reverend can do without the abuse (although he probably provokes most of it). But to advise your readers to block others just because you blocked them smacks of censorship and helps to drive a wedge into the pro independence camp. In short I believe that it is counter productive, and quite creepy too.

Some of you may have heard that there has been some flooding in Scotland, did you? But I’ll bet we probably all know that there has been flooding in England because there was wall to wall coverage of it on all media outlets. The flooding was caused by exceptional rainfall which our rivers and streams can’t cope with but we can’t call it “Climate Change” because that would be to brand ourselves as loonie lefties.

What we can say is, “It’s too early to say definitively whether climate change has made a contribution to the exceptional rainfall. We anticipated a wet, stormy start to winter in our three-month outlooks, associated with the strong El Niño and other factors. However, just as with the stormy winter of two years ago, all the evidence from fundamental physics, and our understanding of our weather systems, suggests there may be a link between climate change and record-breaking winter rainfall. Last month, we published a paper showing that for the same weather pattern, an extended period of extreme UK winter rainfall is now seven times more likely than in a world without human emissions of greenhouse gases.” That quote is from the Met Office Chief Scientist, Julia Slingo. I assume the paper that she is referring to is this one.

So we can say that there is more chance of bucket loads of rain during the winter because of greenhouse gasses. That being the case, we should prepare ourselves for for it, shouldn’t we? Well it would appear that Scotland has been doing more preparing than England, at least according to Dr John Robertson on Newsnet.scot. I’ll let you read the piece but the most surprising part of it was that because Scotland is more prepared for flooding then our insurance premiums should be lower. Apparently we subsidise the unprepared parts of the UK to the tune of up to £430 per year. Now that’s pooling and sharing for you. No wonder we’re Better Together.

 

Carmichael and Willie toast the lies

Carmichaels and lies

The two are now synonymous. Yes you can now Carmichael to your spouse about the amount of drinks you had down the pub. You can Carmichael to your doctor about how much you smoke. You can even Carmichael to your kids about how they don’t sell replacement batteries for that noisy toy. Carmichael and lies, the two go hand in hand. We’ve got to wonder about how many other lies he’s told? Just how many Carmichaels did the liar tell during the Independence referendum?

Now that his court case is over his party is spinning his “victory” as a complete vindication of his actions, but that’s not what the judges said. They branded him a “blatant liar”. How can anyone trust this man anymore?

Of course his party, the Liberal Democrats Scottish Branch, is right behind him, desperate not to lose their only voice in the big hoose in London. Giving the liar his full backing back in May Willie Rennie, Branch Office Manager, said, “As a liberal I believe that people deserve a second chance. I hope fair-minded people would agree that Alistair Carmichael should be given that second chance.”

The hypocrisy of the man is astounding, for Wee Willie has called for the resignation of Kenny MacAskill. He also called for the resignation of Martin Sime, chief executive of the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, because he thought that Sime is too closely affiliated with the SNP. Not many second chances there. But this is what we’ve come to expect from the Liberal Democrats as whole. Here’s Christine Jardine, prospective parliamentary candidate for East Aberdeenshire:

Justine riven with blame

Justine riven with blame

Now those are honourable sentiments, however her words don’t really match that sentiment:

Justine Blames the SNP 1

Justine Blames the SNP 1

Oh, and this lot too:

Justine goes to town on SNPbad

Justine goes to town on SNPbad

It would seem that Tim Farron was talking about his own party.

But, getting back to that liar. Let’s not forget what Sir Malcolm Bruce, or Lord Bruce of the Gowk Stane to give his new moniker, said about Carmichael, “If you are suggesting every MP who has never quite told the truth or even told a brazen lie, including cabinet ministers, including prime ministers, we would clear out the House of Commons very fast, I would suggest,” So Carmichaeling is fine for the Lib Dems. It would seem that they’re all at it.

How about the biggest Lib Dem Carmichael of recent times:

Nick Clegg's tuition fee Carmichael

Nick Clegg’s tuition fee Carmichael

But for me the biggest loser here is democracy, for this judgment shows the depths of  contempt that the people of this country are held in by the very people who are elected to represent us. That a cabinet minister can authorise a libellous leak to smear a political opponent then lie about it to the Cabinet Office inquiry, lie about it to the press and lie about it to the voters during a general election campaign and get away with it is a disgrace. This sorry episode is a damning indictment of the state of politics at Westminster.

Carmichael is a liar, he has no honour and neither does the party which holds him in such high regard. The elections for the Scottish Parliament are a few months away, I’ll bet the people will not easily forget the hypocrisy and Carmichaels of the Liberal Democrats. They are a stain on the people of this land and they need to be wiped away.