I am delighted to say I can offer my full and unreserved backing to the SNP manifesto, launched today.
Key points are:
1) No Trident missiles
2) Full reversal of Tory benefit cuts
3) £118 billion of extra spending over the parliament for investment and to end austerity
4) Reversal of NHS privatisations
5) 50p top rate of income tax
6) Raising the minimum wage to the real living wage, and ending public sector pay caps.
There is of course much more and you can read the full manifesto here.
It is absolutely plain that there is a broad consensus among progressive parties in the UK, and that under Corbyn, Labour has regained the right to be considered a progressive party. Of course detail is not precisely the same, but Corbyn and the SNP are recognisably motivated by similar values of social justice. That is why I continue to urge Corbyn supporters in Scotland to lend their votes to the SNP in order to return the maximum number of anti-Tory MP’s to Westminster.
The bad news Craig is that the manifesto wasn’t covered in the MSM in the way you have. Their first item was, “2nd independence referendum”!
Exasperating.
Aye.
I wrote this in response to a comment on an earlier post which can be found here: https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2017/05/paxman-pushes-100-tory-agenda/comment-page-2/#comment-682409
My point was that we know the principles of all the candidates based on past form. Do we vote according to reality or according to propaganda? based on what we know, hose principles do we want to elect?
“To be fair, this election is all about Brexit.
Is it?
It’s a weakness for Corbyn
More so than May? Really?
The general features of the landscape are visible, but I’m not really sure how a shadow government not privy to the specifics of the negotiations can be expected to lay detailed analysis of their plans at this point except to explain what their principles are. Corbyn and Labour are doing that.
And so are May and the Tories. They are starving the NHS of funds to turn opinion against it in order to sell off the infra-structure and turn it into the American model of an inefficient and exorbitantly expensive business. The NHS is a spirit of endeavour, not an enterprise. So no, on just that one aspect, leaving aside the environment, air pollution, fracking, nuclear energy, renewable energy investment, jobs, housing, homelessness, zero hour indenture-ships, corruption, greed, economic mismanagement, illegal war, immoral arms sales to murderous regimes such as Saudi Arabia, economic apartheid, criminal negligence with public safety, lying, profiteering, murderous foreign intervention, chronic inequality and so on, no, it isn’t all about Brexit.
…he can’t seem to find an eloquent and succinct way of explaining how his approach would differ from the Tories
The mote is in your own eye. The apparent lack of principle of a failed ideological experiment against the principled and coherent strategic investment in all our futures is precisely the point.
And I suspect that you’re right on the whole. Vote for whomever can win who is not a Tory. They’re a known quantity and they’ve made a balls up of everything they’ve handled since 2010, without exception.
Sigh, I have issues, I first read as reneged…Phew.
Quite right.
You’ll never guess what came up when I went to check the spelling, first duckduckgo hit? …Renege ‘One of Tony Blair’s last acts was to renege on a promise etc ‘free dictionary’.
The world is working for me, not against. Cheer up Ishmael.
All except number 1 are things the SNP could do in Scotland but haven’t. They have the power to top up benefits, they have the power to set tax rates, the NHS is devolved, they can set a minimum wage.
Why does the SNP want Westminster to do what they aren’t prepared to do themselves?
After point 1, if things go wrong points 2,3 to the n…. are irrelevant.
Top up benefits ? With what ? Already mitigating for the Tories bedroom tax.
Tax rates ? +/- 3p. That’ll go far. No say on NI or Vat, the real money spinner. With the Rape clause party currently lying about “the highest taxed part of the UK “?
NHS is Barnett related, and when the Tories get their wish of handing their NHS over to the insurance industry, NHS Scotlands funding will be obliterated.
The Scottish living wage ?
You must fair fly through a packet of Rennies Fred !
The Scotland Act gave the Scottish government the power to set a top rate of income tax at 50%, they have full control over income tax. They have the power to do everything on the list except number 1 in Scotland. They can raise income tax and end austerity if they wish. They have control over the NHS in Scotland, that has been devolved since 1999.
They are only standing in 69 seats it is a manifesto for a party which knows it isn’t going to be forming a government so they can say anything they like, in Scotland where they do have the power they do something completely different.
Fred, fred, fred ,fred, fred..
“end austerity” pmsl. Semantics of a sycophant.
NHS Scotland has been a separate entity since 1948, devolved now, but is funded primarily through Barnett ‘consequentials’.
What would YOUR reaction be if the top rate was set at 50% ?
The manifesto of the multi-coloured Unionists isn’t a long read is it ? Say no to self determination. (shut up, and speak when you’re spoken to)
“Fred, fred, fred ,fred, fred..”
Defo, defo, defo, defo.
‘“end austerity” pmsl. Semantics of a sycophant.’
Ad hominem of a Natzi knuckledragger.
“NHS Scotland has been a separate entity since 1948, devolved now, but is funded primarily through Barnett ‘consequentials’.”
And increases in spending on the NHS in England and Wales meant increased revenue for Scotland due to Barnett consequentials, money the SNP government did not pass on to the NHS in Scotland.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/cancer-specialist-blames-snp-as-nhs-heads-for-a-precipice-nqzdrjnn2
“What would YOUR reaction be if the top rate was set at 50% ?”
I don’t earn enough for it to affect me.
.
.
Dr Anna Gregor CBE, hasn’t worked in the NHS for years, and is a rent a gob for your yoon media friends Fred.
“Ad hominem of a Natzi knuckledragger.”
Natzi knuckledragger !
“What would YOUR reaction be if the top rate was set at 50% ?”
“I don’t earn enough for it to affect me.” 77th rates not so good then ! A semi useful idiot.
Deflection. You would be screaming like a big jessie about SNP BAD driving the high earners away, and so would every yoon rag going.
Wake up Rip van Winkle the SNP have done exactly that on a budget reduced by Westminster. Mitigated the bed room tax , refused to reduce higher band, tax rises they make are subject to conditions laid down by Westminster, no student fees, free prescriptions more spent on the health service per head, spending on infrastructure roads, railways ,bridges. Time you got out your bubble.
Surely the only real point of the SNP manifesto is independence? Kim Jung McKrankie has said so time and time again. Funny how Murray does not mention that?
4 letters. Small rounded handle.
‘mon the ‘gers.
It’s Kim Jong, Manny. Jung was a noted psychologist and analyst. Was this your Freudian slip? Roflmao.
It is noteworthy that the likes of Hammond, Fallon, Hunt, Truss, Johnson and the other occupants of the front bench, apart from Rudd on Manchester, have not been seen speaking during this campaign. Not a peep. It has all been about May.
Yet Labour has been represented by McDonnell, Thornberry, Abbott and some others. Just goes to show.
Then again, are you not sick of the sight and sound of Michael Gove? They keep wheeling him out all over the place! It’s almost hilarious really since even most Tories were ignoring him after his fall from grace!
I think Michael Gove’s great. Physically negligible, mealy-mouthed, if that is compatible with the lemon he appears to be chewing when he speaks, wants so much to be Tory leader, two-faced and pedantic. He’s a dream Tory pol.
And I am not alone in thinking this…
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/may/30/standing-general-election-teachers
I like the inclusion of photos of the little ones and older children on the cover and again at the end.
While I do support this. Iv real issues in supporting other things.
Principally there is ok things about the UK system, no death penalty, the IDEA or proportional justice, even if in context of prisons this is totally regressive for a more just society.
But though iv never earned over the current tax threshold taking part in this way still bugs me. I won’t be forced to fund such immorality. Why should I be forced to? Iv put my life on hold, all of it, relationships etc. As nobody questions this.
How do people take part in what’s going on since the invasion? In such a normal accepting way. I accept nobody can totally extricate themselves but it’s a real struggle to me. I guess it’s nothing to what some face…
And I didn’t just force myself to put it oh hold, It wasn’t a thought out thing, I tried and it’s more like it quickly ground to a halt. And there are things I can simply no longer live with.
Again it not that hard, But at the same time if you consider what most people do to try and build a future within it. I’m now totally out of step. Where are all the hippy communes, lol. But seriously we are offered NO ALTERNATIVE. And that is total control, since Thatcher.
Im not advocating for others, I’m not a quaker, this is just food for contemplation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqqksUEWAW8 ‘Why I Stopped Paying Taxes’
Talkes about a Peace tax.
If you vote tactically, don’t be surprised if the politicians weave your vote into something you don’t like.
The absolutely essential thing is not to vote LibDem, because they will give your vote to the unelectable Tory party. Politicians think we will quickly forgive their treachery, same as they quickly betrayed us. I will never forgive Nick Clegg for betraying this country to Tory power. Stupid stupid stupid. That’s what a private education makes you think your entitled to do, betray your country for short-term self-interest. Fortunately in Jeremny Corbyn we have the anti-dote.
Do you also urge SNP voters to vote Labour where this is tactically useful, Craig?
I would do, Paul, but it so happens that really isn’t the case anywhere.
Oh, I thought there were a million or three Scots fled south of the border 🙂
Thank you 🙂
NATO?
Ach, the fatal linchpin.
A really desperate opinion piece in The Guardian in response to the SNP manifesto. Spinning like mad that the SNP’s power is waning.
The reality however is this. In 2015 the SNP got 50% of the vote when there was no second indyref on the table. This time, for the first time in a Westminster general election the SNP go in after calling a second independence referendum and getting a majority vote for it in Holyrood. A good showing of 40 plus seats will reinforce that mandate.
If it’s less than the 56 they got in 2015 that matters not one whit. That was a different election held in a very different context with no independence referendum scheduled. A win is a win and reinforces the mandate for indyref2 that is already there. The media and unionist parties can spin as much as they like but it won’t change things.
May or Corbyn. Section 30 or no Section 30. There will be an advisory referendum and a majority for Yes are not going to be told that it has no legitimacy. A Yes majority is not going to be told that we have to leave the EU and stay in the dismal UK regime against our will. World opinion and the EU won’t be told that by Westminster either and will back Scotland up.
Reel guid, given the unionist parties have focused solely on a 2nd referendum and ‘stop the SNP’, 40+ seats for the SNP would be great – and a good indication that ‘Yes’ would win a 2nd referendum.
It would JOML. The details of hard brexit will evaporate any small majority for No, if indeed there still is one. We’ve been in a phoney war period as regards brexit. And they can’t use the vote No to stay in Europe and the single market line any more. Or vote No to protect the NHS line that Better Together used before.
The whole Tory ‘say no to indyref2’ campaigning has been a desperate attempt to unnerve Scots into backing off from a second vote. It hasn’t worked.
It really matters to have fun imo. But measure of flippancy sometimes on this blog is now giving me a bad taste. . I do apologise if i took anyone wrong myself in the past. It’s not that I don’t know how serious these issue are.
There is no determining attitudes and intent over a blog is there. I shall pay more attention.
maybe this will help enthuse people for the coming clash of civilisations….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpSIzx0Ta0Y
I though it was pretty cool tbh!
Thoughts?
http://evolvepolitics.com/new-yougov-estimates-show-tories-will-lose-majority/
Have to say I was very impressed with the SNP manifesto, even though much of it says ‘campaign to,,,’ or along the lines ‘try to get the uk government to [develop some basic humanity]’ – I may be paraphrasing there a wee bit. It shows how much Westminster is meaningless to Scotland’s well-being, and is sad in this day and age that it should be that way.
That they suggested promoting proportional representation in Westminster (STV even) is good, though structures of government would surely need to change as well and would need a lot more detail if it was a serious commitment I would have thought. There was was an awful lot in the manifesto – social justice things that should be part of any community I would have thought. But also there was quite a lot of international stuff; trade, relations etc. They did say they would spend the money for trident on social care – I would have thought this was part of ‘defence spending’ and should be put into actual defence?
Interesting section about national media in Scotland (p.20 maybe) – control should be devolved. But then I got confused when they said a fairer proportion of BBC licence fee should be spend in Scotland – shouldn’t all of it be? Don’t care myself, have given up watching tv. Maybe I misunderstood the whole section there.
But one big thing is that, at last, a party has realised that the minimum wage should be the living wage! Wasn’t that the point of it in the first place??
Trouble is, much has to be devolved before the SNP can actually make things happen (or, obviously the simplest answer would be independence instead of all this constant pissing about) – I watched a committee meeting on corporation tax in Scotland and it made me realise what a nasty little minefield the bitty small tax powers being devolved is. You need an overarching tax policy to make any tax changes work. The SNP did say they were going to push for 50p tax uk-wide.
But it was good to see, in the manifesto, that the SNP plan to campaign & hold the uk government to account for many things uk-wide so that the people of the other nations can live in better conditions – why anyone could consider voting for more austerity when it is obviously not a solution to debt and causes harm, or vote for a party (Tory gov’t) that has been slated for violations of human rights of disabled people by the UN, or a party and leader that is obviously so incompetent (and can barely construct coherent sentences), I don’t understand. We are so powerless in Scotland to make changes for the better when the largest nation in the uk continually seems to opt for self-destruction rather than progress.
Good luck to the SNP! If they can make even a few of the things in the manifesto happen, it will still be progress. The good thing about the SNP is that you know they will actually try and put their manifesto into practice (and, no, I am not a member) – something the other parties still do not seem to be inclined to do.
We live in interesting times indeed. Fingers and toes all crossed in the hope that the Tories fail to get a majority (although the Unionist parties in NI could perhaps be enough to shore them up).
To me however, the icing on the cake would be a minority Labour government, passing law to for Westminster to finally adopt the norm that is some firm of PR. Oh, and did I say enshrine into law to force the political neutrality of the MSM. The bias of them especially has become outrageous since Corbyn came to the fore.
The PR would ensure that never again would the country be subject to an unchecked, abhorrent Tory government. It would need to be announced early on, and surely would see support from the Fib dems and UKIP.
I really do fear for the UK if these bastards get back in, but at the same time there would be no greater boost for Independance than 5 more years of brutal Tory policies.
What’s this ‘racism row’ in the Scottish Tories about?
https://twitter.com/weestie97/status/869665338950115329
Many Scottish Tory candidates in the council elections with extreme racist views on their social media. Links to the BNP and Britain First etc. Links and support of the Orange Order. Tweeting exhortations to violence against political opponents. Sexism. Anti-Muslim remarks. Calling black people cannibals etc. And these people aren’t just rank and file but candidates! Some of them are now serving councillors.
You name it. The Scottish Tories have got every prejudice in abundance.
Thanks for that. An unlovely collection.
Looks good. I personally am beginning to wonder if we should have a flat rate of tax, on the understanding that 1) Those on lower incomes get a high rebate. 2) Rich fuckers actually pay it. Dodging tax and sending it offshore should be very strictly policed, and I’m really not sure it is.
Curious thing. The public sector worker in Australia is actually quite well-paid, which surprised me at first. In Scotland, as I recall, the pay is terrible, but the conditions were reasonable, pensions, holidays etc. In Australia, a public sector gig is actually sought after, and often above market rate. That won’t last long, of course.
Doubt they’ll be allowed to axe Trident tbh. But kudos for trying. I doubt it even works, and is just a useful channel for dollars to the usual suspects.
I can’t vote. If I could, I’d vote Labour in Scotland. I’d think very carefully, though, if it was a Nu Lab Scumbag, and vote for the SNP were they best placed to challenge. On the other hand, Corbyn winning, and Nu Lab scumbags having to suck it up as they whine from the backbenches, that would be amusing, too. Apparently, they will still ‘get him’ even if he wins – which tells you much about these clowns and class traitors.
The reality is Labour are challenging in hardly any seats at all in Scotland. Really just in Edinburgh South, which was their solitary win in 2015. They’re the bookies rather distant third favourites in the three way marginal of East Renfrewshire. And that’s it. It’s only the SNP that can stop the Tories making gains in Scotland.
Yes its called having your cake and eating it as ironically ending austerity is only possible following Brexit as austerity was EU policy to save the Euro. Now the books can be balanced at a later date, which again due to Brexit has already become conservative policy. Its similar to Chancellor Clarke getting plaudits for an economic recovery due to leaving the ERM which he opposed.
Due to the Manchester event coinciding with a reverse in conservative fortunes it led many to suspect foul play, but it could be just that a coincidence because an event would take some time to plan. Except some suspect the conservative manifesto was bobby trapped with the social care policy beforehand and both events seem to be working to Corbyn’s advantage! Has Brexit May been sabotaged by deep state/Remain!
Id like to imagine most of them are ok in that they have families they care about etc. Awfully obedient but yea…What iv seen so far leads me to think not “active” foul play, unless some purposefully ignored the threat. Yet obviously involved, bomb maker culture etc has certainly been promoted by the state. Learning from the big boys. Truth is still their hands are dripping with blood.
I think a real issue is people don’t question and I can’t stand the way the “british” (as they imagine themselves like a gang) are so obedient in these violent institutions & think themselves to so bloody “legitimate” in their authority, built on the notion of some fatherly state taking care of it’s little children. What utter crap. They do it for money. Bad things mostly. They just don’t look that far to see it.
This “big bad world” we live in is really just an excuse. Very few as aggressive places as here atm.
The SNP are adding to this problem…
http://eveningharold.com/2017/05/30/smug-tories-calling-an-early-election-and-losing-could-exhaust-worlds-schadenfreude-supply/#more-220877
Supplies of 幸灾乐祸 are, of course, available from China. But it isn’t as good.
lol, thanks.
Much thanks for the laugh this morning Ba’al, I think there should be a secret camera following Blair on election day, just to capture his face when the result is announced that Corbyn managed to snatch it from the Conservatives, priceless.
And what will happen when the election is over and it comes to jobs? If jobs go to Blairite’s who then carry on acting to their dear leaders agenda all hell will break loose.
Ms Phillips will have to answer to her talking down Labours prospects during an election campaign as did others, such behaviour is unacceptable as it does nothing to advance any policy debate which is far more important than anything else.
But then we have the Conservative emotion bombs hitting the headlines in double spread centrepieces, fox hunting might get raked up again, judder, judder, blah. The result being that a new candidate standing in elections gets 250 emails on that issue, but none on the NHS, this is how pernicious headline writing grabs peoples attention spans.
If the Conservatives get their way the house you thought you’re leaving your children and family, will be left to unaccountable US healthcare providers, thats what Theresa is planning and no doubt her ‘better half’ will earn himself silly on these deals, he will get handsome rewards for providing information from underneath her skirt whilst the negotiations proceed.
Mind that is questionable now, we might even get a cool and collected labour team doing David Davies job instead.
Does anyone pay attention to this? We are behind their interests! Why bother? It is a well written manifest anyway!
#7: Magic money tree
STV claiming another poll shows SNP on 50 seats. Tories on 7.
People need to ignore the polls and just make sure they vote.