Having spoken alongside Mhairi at a few meetings, and much admired her, it is rather strange to find her in danger of becoming an object of cult veneration. Just as with Nicola Sturgeon, it seems the shock of seeing the coherent and intelligent articulation of views outside the narrow consensus manufactured by the corporate media and political class, really does strike home to people. They almost never get to hear such views put; Mhairi is being given a hearing because of her youth in her position, but the marginalisation and ridicule will soon kick back in. Above all, Mhairi should remind us of how the Labour Party has completely sold out those they used to represent, and abandoned the task of proposing an intellectually compelling alternative to trickledown.
Jeremy Corbyn and the small group around him are of course an honourable exception.
You will recall that I managed to fall asleep on the platform in Perth while Mhairi was answering a question, embarrassingly revealed when the chairman passed the question to me! It really was nothing to do with Mhairi, I was exhausted. The question, as it happened, was asked by Joanna Cherry, who also just made a first class maiden speech.
The Labour Party has finally woken up to oppose something the Tory Party is doing, in the new draconian and unnecessary anti-union legislation. This is not because they really want to protect workers; the only thing that has motivated Labour to action is a threat to their own funding.
The Tory anti-union proposals are shocking. Criminalising peaceful secondary picketing is an infringement of the right of free expression and undoubtedly open to challenge under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
The proposal that not just a majority of those voting, but 40% of the qualified electorate must vote yes for a strike to go ahead, is beyond belief, coming from a government who have an absolute majority on the basis of the votes of just 23% of the electorate. The hypocrisy is absolutely stunning.
The part of the proposed legislation I do support is on party political funding by unions. It should be by opt-in not opt-out. A majority of members must vote for a donation to a political party. That seems to me absolutely right and fair.
Precisely the same principle should be applied to company shareholders, of whom a majority should specifically have to endorse a political donation by the company. Where a shareholder is institutional, that shareholder must too base its vote only on a vote taken by a majority of its own shareholders specifically in each case, or its members if a mutual.
So if Tesco wants to donate to the Tory party, that must be specifically approved by a majority of Tesco shareholders. If Aviva is one of those shareholders, Aviva can only vote for Tesco to donate, if a majority of Aviva shareholders vote to do so. And so on down the chain ad infinitum.
That would be entirely fair and strike a massive blow at the corporate state/political party nexus. Then more real people like Mhairi would be able to become prominent in public life.
A Node:
“Please don’t give in to the obnoxio us creep, Mary.”
the mods deleted 2 of my swipes the creep today because they like his input on Greek debt, a subject on which he is a shill for genocidal manipulations of the European Central Bank.
aka Habbabkuk 4.54 today
Syriza has yet to play the trump card which will put the ECB into a flat spin panic, the nationalisation of the Greek part of the European Central Bank:
http://www.voltairenet.org/article188066.html
Not only obnoxious to Mary, but a nasty shill for European Bankster embezzlement of sovereign state assets.
Fred
Well said, Sir.
But you have to remember that most people on here are forever a’whorin’ after false gods (or goddesses in this case) 🙂
2 / A Node:
“Please don’t give in to the obnoxio us creep, Mary.”
the mods deleted 2 of my swipes the creep today because they like his input on Greek debt, a subject on which he is a shill for genocidal manipulations of the European Central Bank.
aka Habbabkuk 4.54 today
Syriza has yet to play the trump card which will put the ECB into a flat spin panic, the nationalisation of the Greek part of the European Central Bank:
http://www.voltairenet.org/article188066.html
Not only obnoxious to Mary, but a nasty shill for European Bankster embezzlement of sovereign state assets.
Nevermind.
Well said, Sir.
Habbkuk
You are the weakest link.
Giyane
“..the nationalisation of the Greek part of the European Central Bank”
___________________
What on earth are you talking about, old chap? Is there no limit to your silliness?
Giyane
If you weren’t so obviously certifiable I’d be a lot more “obnoxious” about you as well. 🙂
And, ladies and gentlemen, that single line tells you all you need to know about the character of the individual who posted it.
Hasbbabkuk
shill
ʃɪl/Submit
NORTH AMERICANinformal
noun
1.
an accomplice of a confidence trickster or swindler who poses as a genuine customer to entice or encourage others.
For those wondering what the hell my previous post was about it relates to a really crass post about Mary by Britain’s answer to the birth pill which the mods have chosen to delete.
@Brian
16 Jul, 2015 – 6:47 pm
Tommy Sheppard also gave a very good maiden speech last month. The following is the mid part of Sheppard’s ten minute spiel. I’ve edited into this part of his speech to try and give people in England and Wales some inkling of what’s going on in Scotland, because most people are totally brainwashed by the mainstream media:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPHvB-vDzkQ
Which he has suddenly reposted.
Habbabkuk
Since you are too lazy tp look at the link provided, here is the part that answers you question:
This proposal, called requisitioning, could also be seen as a commandeering of the Greek Central Bank for the needs of national survival. It amounts to the seizure and deprivatization of the Greek Central Bank, as demanded by the Tax Wall Street Party for the past several years. It would also constitute a partial seizure of the European Central Bank, since the Greek Central Bank operates today as a defacto tentacle of the ECB in Frankfurt. The practical outcome would be that the Greek government could seize plates and printing presses currently used by the Greek Central Bank to print €20 notes under the authority of the ECB. In the future this would be done without regard to the ECB, and could be a step towards overcoming rigid centralization in the current Eurocratic system.
http://www.voltairenet.org/article188066.html
@Dave Hansell
16 Jul, 2015 – 7:54 pm
The characters you speak of are Stasi-type vermin, as anyone who sees the posts of these creatures before the Mods delete them will testify.
Re nationalization of the Greek National Bank, b of Moon of Alabama has an interesting piece up today: Billmon: The Eurosystem’s (Monetary) Control of Europe’s Politics. Being no economist, I have no idea whether nationalization would work. But then, didn’t 2008 show that the economists had no idea what they were talking about?
Don’t feed the ____ (fill in the blank with a word I have been told not to use here).
“I’ve edited into this part of his speech to try and give people in England and Wales some inkling of what’s going on in Scotland, because most people are totally brainwashed by the mainstream media:”
Yes people should know that here in Scotland education is failing, literacy rates falling and they are cutting 4,000 student places at Fife College. They can’t get GPs to work here, hospitals in the Highlands are without staff while in the central belt they spend £843 million on a hospital not fit for purpose oh and we leave critically injured people sitting in cars in ditches for three days.
Now I know no country is perfect and all this wouldn’t be nearly so bad if Nicola Sturgeon was actually concentrating on the job she is meant to be doing not swanning around trying to stop Westminster bringing the hunting laws south of the border in line with those in Scotland.
“Being no economist….”
_____________________
A welcome if belated touch of modesty.
> The hypocrisy is absolutely stunning.
Indeed, it is remarkable that well-organised monopolies that make
large donations to their pet politicians can do so with every support
from “enlightened” opinion.
But enough about trade unions. Mr Murray saw, and protested with
courage, the unlimited power of the State in Uzbekistan with its
torture and slavery. It has proven no impediment to his endorsing the
proponents of State power at home. Anon1 has it right: as she passes
smoothly from university to public life, with no intervening period
earning a living as the little people do, Ms Black certainly has every
reason to uphold official power.
The nonsensical nature of the “Moon of Alabama” website (“where barfies gather” it says on its homepage 🙂 ) linked to by our Transatlantic Sage is well illustrated by the following bit of the article linked to:
“. the ECB was originally conceived…as a way for governments to regain monetary flexibility at a higher level. As a way to… b) outflank the Bundesbank by formalizing the joint political control of European monetary policy.”
100% the other way round ,I’m afraid.
Conclusion : beware the “Moon of Alabama” website, which purveys articles written by nutters for gullible fools.
“which purveys articles written by nutters for gullible fools.”
Let’s see, who caused the economic crash in 2008? Was it the Scots? Was it the immigrants? Was it the poor people? the welfare scroungers, the people wearing tin foil hats?
It’s all so fecking Alice In Wonderland and childish that it’s beyond belief, yet the vermin control the media and employ an army of trolls, and sadly many people still fall for this obvious and complete garbage.
Fred
Next time you are tempted to portray all SNP supporters as Nazis, consider : Mhairi Black spoke for me and many others when she said ….
Giyane:
Rather than exploiting this – very attractive – opportunity to diss the festering world of high finance…dissing it doesn’t seem to change it much…do cast your eye over this:
http://www.disclaimermag.com/politics/the-pragmatism-of-tsipras-is-the-one-thing-holding-the-greek-political-order-together/
Which is rather similar to what I’ve come to think, personally. And no I didn’t write it. Tsipras has looked at the possible outcomes, and while Greece will be on hard tack for the foreseeable future, it’s just possible (a) the far Right won’t get too much out of it and that (b) there won’t be a civil war, or even a restored military dictatorship. It’s not his, or anybody’s preferred solution (other than the bankers, and even the IMF reckons it’s unsustainable) but it may avert a more complete disaster.
“The SNP did not triumph on a wave of nationalism; in fact nationalism has nothing to do with what happened in Scotland. We triumphed on a wave of hope – hope that there is something better than the Thatcherite neoliberal policies that come from this chamber.”
Well if there is we won’t be seeing it while the SNP’s only priority is getting independence not what’s good for Scotland.
Have you not realised how much this fanaticism over Mhairi Black resembles the fanaticism for the National Socialist leaders in Germany in the 1930’s. See the films of the rallies, oh how the people loved them, they offered them hope.
Only difference is in 1930s Germany the trains ran on time.
Here is a video of Stalin receiving a standing ovation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDFeH_NiFXk
Standing ovations went on a long time in Russia because nobody wanted to stop applauding first lest it be seen as a sign of disloyalty to the party. For this reason MPs at Westminster decided, on a free vote, not to have applause in the House of Commons but it seems it is a system the SNP want to impose on Parliament by force.
@Rob G:
“Let’s see, who caused the economic crash in 2008? Was it the Scots? Was it the immigrants? Was it the poor people? the welfare scroungers, the people wearing tin foil hats?
It’s all so fecking Alice In Wonderland and childish that it’s beyond belief, yet the vermin control the media and employ an army of trolls, and sadly many people still fall for this obvious and complete garbage.”
The reality is it was rich white males who caused the economic crash of 2008 and it’s rich white males who control the media. They have far too much power and that’s not an opinion, it’s simply a hard statistical fact. However, when anyone dares to point out this truth they are denounced as a man-hater. Even if you disagree with the SNP and detest nationalism and the far-right, racism etc., the amount of women MPs is a good thing because it is another nail in the coffin of the rich, public-school grammar educated white male toffs’ dominance. Anything that can disrupt the social order and help destroy society as it is now is a good thing for those of us relegated to the bottom who are its victims. We need to level things.
Ba’al on Greece:
“..it’s just possible… and that (b) there won’t be a civil war, or even a restored military dictatorship.”
There is zero chance of either.
Those who even hint there is are merely attempting to make people’s flesh creep. It is a mild variant of the catastrophe scenarios constantly hawked on here by some of the loopier Eminences (3rd World War over Syria, imminent economic collapse of the West, etc, etc, refer)
re Miss Mary Black.
It is amusing to see people clutching at any straw. But, hey, it’s a free country and being gullible isn’t a crime.
++++++++++++++++++
Habbabkuk says: do not go a-whorin’ after false Gods (or Godesses)!
In his speech to the U.S. Congress in 2011, Netanyahu got 29 standing ovations. (In the speech to Congress this year, he only got 26.)
I can remember the so-called economic experts repeatedly telling us in 2007 and 2008 that there was no chance of an economic collapse, that things were different this time.