There is a good and balanced article in the Guardian on the SNP MPs by Carole Cadwalladr. Thank goodness Severin Carrell and Libby Brooks must have been unavailable. I am struck that of those she chose to interview, Tommy Sheppard (my MP), Mhairi Black, Chris Law, Michelle Thomson, John Nicolson, Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh are all people I am on first name terms with and almost all of whom I have shared platforms with. It is quite a small community (though until the selection panel I hadn’t seen John Nicolson for 30 years).
Cadwalladr’s worry that the MPs will become seduced by Westminster has worried me too. But I don’t think it will happen. These are exceptionally strong characters and there is a self-reinforcing group of them, and they have a very active base of supporters with eagle eyes.
Naturally Cadwalladr’s article relays as fact ludicrous Labour claims that the SNP in Scotland does not implement progressive social policies (ignoring no tuition fees, free prescriptions, free geriatric personal care, land reform etc). Given it’s lack of control of fiscal and benefits policy, they could hardly do more. But the general tone of the Cadwalladr article is so far away from the simplistic “SNP evil” line which we normally see from the Guardian, that I shall hope for a while that the departure of the Blair-worshipping clown Rusbridger and his wig may see the paper return to some kind of journalistic values.
“I met Mhairi Black last week and I somehow doubt she will ever be seduced by Westminster! Listening to her speak made me feel like I was on the Yes campaign again”
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But remember Bernadette Devlin….
“…the author might as well have just stuck their tongue down the back of the SNP’s trousers”
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kilt, surely?
” my own ‘eagle-eyes’ turn once again towards MI5 and John McTernan, chief of staff to Jim Murphy, the Scottish Labour leader, who “rigged” last year’s independence referendum by creating thousands of fake No ballot papers.”
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Oh dear, not that load of bollocks again?
Can anyone tell me (Anon!, Res Diss,..?) – who is this Mark Golding?
Daniel
““Rubbish” with a first class honours degree”
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I’m happy you seem to recognise the value of a First.
Did you know that David Cameron also got a First?
ALL of you are sticking up for Mhairi Black, but NONE of you wants to defend Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh.
She really is fucking awful isn’t she?
How exactly this information came the brave anonymous one’s way? Think, man! Obviously, all the well-born British pedophiles had their eyes on her. The little nymphet had her own GCHQ file digested daily for the Mercurious Lodge. One can understand Anon1’s concerns. She was quite a tantalizing treat. But now that she’s attained menarche she’s safe. Even Prince Andrew will turn up his nose at her.
Komodo
I wasn’t drinking Tennent’s Super when I was 15. Nor was I a member of Young Conservatives, but Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh was.
Well yes, we recruited little Tasmina at age 10, but she wouldn’t put out so we expelled her from the party. No future in British public life. Kicked Savile in the balls when he went to sample the choice cuts at Allt Na Reigh. Incorrigible creature.
“Naturally Cadwalladr’s article relays as fact ludicrous Labour claims that the SNP in Scotland does not implement progressive social policies (ignoring no tuition fees, free prescriptions, free geriatric personal care, land reform etc). Given it’s lack of control of fiscal and benefits policy, they could hardly do more”
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Reading your above article on governments doing more, I’m reminded of Robert Reich, who was a intern in the Ford admin, he then went on to serve in the Carter and Clinton admistrations.
Reich realised that in America, there just wasn’t the political will to do more to help its citizens,especially the less fortunate, big business had infiltrated the Senate the policies were being designed with the richest 1% in mind, in a way the US had become a plutocracy.
Reich realised that globalisation, also contributed the the lowering of salaries in the US, a prime example of this was the iPhone, an American icon product, but only 6% of the iPhone is made in America, the iPhone, isn’t even assembled in the States it’s assembled in China, at a significantly lower cost to Apple.
I think Craig will be disappointed if he thinks the Guardian will return to some sort of journalistic values. Have you read it lately? Full of pseudo feminist, transatlantic click bait rubbish.
Lysias
“I think Craig will be disappointed if he thinks the Guardian will return to some sort of journalistic values. Have you read it lately? Full of pseudo feminist, transatlantic click bait rubbish.”
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You are the Transatlantic Sage and an avid reader of the British press.
Have you any comment on your friend’s comment?
Quelle surprise!
Deflection from the brave anonymous one. Faced with questions and challenges he has no answer to, because he knows he is on swampy ground and has not got a leg to stand on, our resident forelock tugger tries to deflect the discussion elsewhere with some peurile playground level name calling of someone else.
I’m reminded of the occasions during transit, when we were coming back from Europe to the UK on leave during the IRA mainland bombing campaign in the 70’s. Apart from the standard checking under the coaches for bombs etc. everyone was also silently playing the game of watching the civilians in the vicinity and who you were travelling with to suss out who you would not want to be anywhere near if something kicked off. The sort of person who would barbecue their own grannies to save their own skins with no thought for their fellows and associated responsibilities of fellowship.
No wonder he wants to remain anonymous.
Incha, Dave. Nothing like using my comments to shoehorn in your army ‘heroics’.
@ Anon1:
I’ve retired. A man needs his rest and things to amuse himself with, hence my regular reading of this blog. Not the quality of it mind- it’s very good, but the pontificating that goes on in the comments sections. Lots of high opinions and inflated egos. I doubt there’s much follow through though. Armchair warriors, armed with nothing but the trusty keyboard.
Good pun earlier though, caused a slight flutter in the trouser department- like a sparrow having a heart attack.
Anon1 : I wasn’t drinking Tennent’s Super when I was 15″
Ah, a clue. She was drinking Tennents instead of champagne. Snob then.
The Guardian is also being dangerously rational on the Greek EU crisis.
I wasn’t drinking Tennent’s Super when I was 15.
It wasn’t invented when you were 15. Carlsberg Special, maybe?
Random review (from a connoisseur of falling over):
It pours a transparent copper-orange with a 2 mm white head.
The smell is like a delicious, if somewhat sour malt liquor.
Taste is stupendous. It beats the hell out of American malt liquors and high gravity lagers. Why can’t they just make stuff like this in America? How hard would that be? Are our brewers just so unskilled that they don’t know how to do it? Is there no market for decent strong lager?
Anyway, the taste is not what I expected considering how much the smell resembled American malt liquor. It’s more like someone actually took the time to craft a good tasting malt liquor, while still capturing everything a malt liquor should be. It’s like those that brewed it actuallly TASTED it before putting it out on the market. It’s got malty sweetness and surprisingly, some hops to balance it out. But it’s also got that alcohol bite that I just love in a strong, transparent lager like this. That alcohol taste’s got nowhere to hide. It has just a hint of a fusel bite on the finish with caramel sweetness in the aftertaste. It’s the way a strong lager should finish. Once, again, American macros are beaten into the dust by their European competitors. Will they ever learn?
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/53/1892/
Quality stuff!
“Naturally Cadwalladr’s article relays as fact ludicrous Labour claims that the SNP in Scotland does not implement progressive social policies (ignoring no tuition fees,…”
Speaking of which there is a petition to condemn the SNP for progressively cutting 140,000 college places.
https://www.change.org/p/scottish-government-condemn-the-snp-government-for-cutting-over-140-000-college-places?just+created=true
Now ‘ t heroic about getting pissed 7 nights a week on subsidised Carlsberg and Amstel. The Russians were just the same mind.
In any case, that’s just another weak deflection on your part.
I’ll give you your due though. That was almost funny. Have you thought of getting yourself an agent rather than sitting there in the dark handling yourself?
Granted, it is infinitely better than Special Brew, but K Cider is by far the superior drink in that department.
Still no comment on Tasmina.
I just want one of you to say “We’re really proud to have Tasmina as part of the team”. Can’t anyone do it?
Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh: was it not the famous turncoat Winston Churchill (Tory – Liberal – Tory), who said, “Anyone can rat, but it takes a certain amount of ingenuity to re-rat” (Mrs Sheikh also did two years in the Labour Party).
Not sure what all the hatred’s about, though, although it’s just conceivable, isn’t it, that neither of the two Tory parties likes the idea of the SNP talking to business? She’s a bright,pushy rightwinger and probably not as principled as Martin Luther, but her membership illustrates well the broad church approach of the SNP, and she’s stuck with it for 14 years. Perhaps the Labour Party after it has elected whoever’s next – none of the choices will widen Labour’s appeal – will have cause to regret her departure.
8.43 was not a response to Anon’s interpolation, incidentally. Crossed post. I cannot speak for ‘the team’.
Jewish press in the U.S. has become aware of the charges against Janner. St. Louis Jewish Light: In Britain, Lord Janner’s molestation trial raises hopes for closure, not justice.
Interesting passages in the article:
Also this in the Jewish News in the UK: Lord Janner quietly dropped from top positions in community organisations:
Add this to the fact that Janner was suspended from the Labour Party as soon as the prosecutor’s office said he should have been charged in the past. Doesn’t sound like they think the case against him is a flimsy one.
Very good. I particularly liked the “broad church approach”.
Also developments in the Jimmy Savile case: Jimmy Savile: BBC fears inquiry indictment over abuse failure: Who knew what and when about hints in Louis Theroux’s show, asks Dame Janet Smith. Exaro News seems not to permit cutting and pasting from their articles, so people interested in the contents of the article will have to click on the link.
The SNP MPs returned to this parliament for the most part seem to be normal people.
As opposed to the totally corrupt and out of touch bunch of pervos who sit on most of the green benches.
I’m not exaggerating when I say that at least half of our present MPs should be in jail.
It’s gone beyond a parody. It’s gone beyond a joke.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/jul/12/harman-labour-not-vote-against-welfare-bill-limit-child-tax-credits
Lysias – can you stop ranting on about the Jews for a minute? If Janner’s a paedophile then he’s a paedophile. There’s no need to keep shoehorning your hatred of Jews into the matter.
Very good. I particularly liked the “broad church approach”.
I’m so glad. The point for Little Englanders to note is that the SNP tries to represent a multitude of reasons why independence would be an improvement on government by London (and that’s not just true for the Scots). The comic-stereotype romantic nationalism punted by the lapdog media is only one, and is rather less important than the Anon1’s of this world have been led to believe. In Tasmina’s case, the prospect of living in a country where immigration of people like her relatives was to be controlled by the likes of Billy Fourteen Pints, seems to have swung it.
“Not at all. Janner is, by all accounts, a paedophile. If you raise the issue of Janner with reference to his Jewishness, however, then you are almost certainly an anti-Semite.”
If he were a muslim however it would all be to do with his culture.