Owner: agentmancuso URL:http://agentmancuso.blogspot.com Join Date: Sun, 03 Sep 2006 14:12:23 -0500 Rating:1 Site Description: Mainly thoughts about politics in Scotland, from a Liberal perspective. Site statistics:Click here
Hung Parliament Quandary 1970-01-01 00:59:59 The spectre of a hung parliament being the outcome of the next general election is looming in the air again. Liberal Democrats traditionally tend to get a bit uneasy about this, or at least tend to get portrayed as uneasy about it. I agree with the opinion taken by Process Guy, commenting on an intriguing article by Matthew Paris in The Times, that this presents us with an opportunity, more than Read more:Parliament
Votes at 16 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Nicol Stephen has signalled his support for lowering the voting age to 16:
Mr Stephen said he wanted to be positive, helping young people rather than "demonising and blaming them". He added: "The time's right to reduce the voting age to 16."There is a body of support for this idea is growing:
The SNP, Greens and Scottish Socialists already back the idea, which was also endorsed by the independent Read more:Votes
More racist rubbish from Labour 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Several Scottish Labour
MPs are quoted in The Herald today as demanding restrictions be placed on the number of Bulgarians and Romanians who come to work in Britain after these countries join the EU. Apart from the fact that free migration of labour is one of the key purposes of the European project, it is shameful to see such Labour stoop to such blatantly populist racism again. I know times are Read more:rubbish
Red Waltz goes on 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Tommy Sheridan had been given 7 days to pay the £2203 rent due for a Glasgow SSP office by a crack legal team representing his former Collegues in Permanent Revolution. The stay of execution ends today. Will he pay? Will he feck. Instead he has issued what I believe is known as a counter-writ for £57,698:
Mr Sheridan's solicitor told the SSP that if it did not comply "an action of payment will Read more:Waltz
Imitating Westminster 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Journalists are slowly working their way through Mike Russell's new book. In The Scotsman:
Murdo Fraser, the Tories' deputy leader, said: "We welcome Mike Russell's conversion to progressive Conservative thinking and his adoption of Tory policy on areas concerning economic and public-finance matters."Full marks to Mr Fraser for trying so hard; it must be difficult to concentrate when your own Read more:Westminster
The Roses of Success 1970-01-01 00:59:59 I've belatedly come across the following Tim Ireland video. It takes a while to load, but it's worth the wait, I can guarantee it!
Thanks to liberalneil Read more:Roses
, Success
Andy Kerr on Buckfast 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Health Minister Andy Kerr has added his voice to the weary cyclical finger-pointing at Buckfast Tonic Wine:
The long-running feud between Buckfast and the Scottish Executive was re-ignited last night after Health Minister Andy Kerr branded the drink a "seriously bad" cause of anti-social behaviour.This is the worst kind of lowest common denominator populism from Labour. The idea that any
Bush's Useful Idiots 1970-01-01 00:59:59 In his excellent and enlightening article in the current London Review of Books, entitled 'Bush's UsefulIdiots
', Tony Judt analyses the apparent collapse of liberalism in the USA, primarily amongst the liberal intellectuals formerly opposed to the imperialism of the Reagan administration. Judt describes the position adopted by these 'fallen' liberals in the following terms:
what distinguishes
Calderglen Country Park Objections top 9000 1970-01-01 00:59:59 The token 'consultation period' over Labour's attempt to sell part of Calderglen Country
Park in East Kilbride to private housing developers has now ended. According to St Leonards Community Council, a total of 9014 written objections are known to have been sent to South Lanarkshire Council. It's a fantastic achievement to have involved so many local people in the campaign, and Labour can't
Do Israel and Palestine have a right to exist as s... 1970-01-01 00:59:59 In response to the suggestion that "Israel
and Palestine
have a right to exist
as separate states."
No, I don't believe they do. I don't think these, or any other, states have 'rights' of any sort. Furthermore, I think the problem in Israel/Palestine is greatly exacerbated by this kind of confusion. Only individuals have rights. And while it is common practice to speak of states as though they
A New Union? 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Mike Russell, former SNP MSP for South of Scotland, has caused considerable discomfort to Alex Salmond with his latest publication, Grasping the Thistle, reviewed in The Sunday Herald today. In it he
proposes a "New Union
" in which the SNP accepts Scotland's position in the UK and argues for additional powersFurther:In such a New Union all of the matters reserved to Westminster would be devolved
Last Orders for Bigots 1970-01-01 00:59:59 The tide of public opinion in Scotland is turning slowly but remorselessly against the redneck tribalism of the Old Firm:
REGULARS at a venue once described as "the best rangers supporters' pub in the world" have been banned from singing hate-filled sectarian songs, it emerged yesterday.
Anyone breaking the rule on bigoted songs will be barred from the Louden Tavern in Glasgow's East End.
The Read more:Bigots
The End for Sheridan 1970-01-01 00:59:59 The News of the World have been supplied with a taped conversation in which Sheridan
admits both to visiting Cupids, and to his intention to deny it in court. You can listen to it here if so inclined. He's denying it's genuine. But then he would, wouldn't he. It sounds pretty convincing to me.
Hat tip to Holyrood Chronicles.
More Trouble for Labour Council 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Audit Scotland have made further accusations against the disgraced Labour
council in West Dunbartonshire:
An £8m school improvement fund has been frozen by local authority officials after Audit Scotland found councillors broke the law in distributing the money.
The finance was to boost schools in West Dunbartonshire, but has sparked criticism in the area for the way so much of it appeared to be Read more:Trouble
, Council
Auditors Condemn Labour Council 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Labour-dominated West Dunbartonshire Council
has hit the headlines for the wrong reasons again:
A council faces the threat of takeover by a Scottish Executive hit squad, after a watchdog delivered a devastating assessment of poor management and political leadership. West Dunbartonshire's councillors and officials are heavily criticised by Audit Scotland in a report saying there is a culture of Read more:Labour
, Condemn
Labour defies residents of East Kilbride 1970-01-01 00:59:59 It looks like the Labour
cartel running South Lanarkshire are going to press on with their determined effort to cut up part of Calderglen Country Park expressly for the purpose of selling it to a private housing developer, named as Cala Homes in today's Herald. It must be costing them a tidy sum to get their hands on the park.
The whole system of planning consultation is brought into ridicule Read more:residents
Walk about a bit 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Neil Woollcott asks Are we making children lazy?
Yes, we are. Not so much by giving them a free bus pass, as by the unhelpful example we set. Taking the car for even the shortest of journeys is the default option for many people. Increased reliance on out-of-town shopping malls can't be helping either. Encouraging people to walk a short distance every day would do far more for the nation's
Coming down from the (Blogging) Mountain. 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Over the past week or so I've been pondering the amount of time I spend blogging. In a little less than three months, I've made just over 100 posts. Net result number one: it has become impossible to find the time to read anything more concrete than other blogs. I mean actual books, as opposed to virtual ephemera. Net result number two: my family no longer recognise me.
So a change of tack is Read more:Blogging
, Mountain
Socialist Conspiracies 1970-01-01 00:59:59 I know socialists love a conspiracy theory. Here's one to consider. The Socialist
Worker faction of the SSP was (and is) deeply opposed to Scottish Independence. They went along with it for tactical reasons, because they calculated correctly that the SSP would take more votes away from the SNP than from anyone else. Earlier this year, the SSP announced they would be taking the admirably
Another small step for Northern Ireland 1970-01-01 00:59:59 The Independent Monitoring Commission has now said in the conclusion to its latest report (pdf):
PIRA has undergone the largest and most substantial change. It is not the same organisation that it was three years ago. Three years ago it was the most sophisticated and potentially the most dangerous of the groups, possessed of the largest arsenal of guns and other material. It is now firmly set Read more:Northern
, Ireland
New Scottish Blogging Roundup 1970-01-01 00:59:59 A new weekly roundup of Scottish
political blogging has been started by Doctor Vee and Curious Hamster. Very welcome it is too. Read more:Blogging
Salmond calls in the Inquisition 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Prior to Mike Russell's new book seeing the light of day, Alex Salmond went through the draft with a red pen, marking sections he deemed inappropriate:
The notes, which the Sunday Herald possesses, are broken down into code. Salmond marked key passages with "VD", which stands for very dangerous, while other paragraphs were given a "D" for dangerous. A third category, "RH", stood for relatively Read more:calls
, Inquisition
Bournemouth Blues 1970-01-01 00:59:59 David Cameron's attempt to abandon his party's Thatcherite past is running into the sand on Bournemouth seafront:
Edward Leigh, Conservative chairman of the Commons public accounts committee, claimed that at least 100 Tory MPs wanted plans for tax cuts set out immediately. He warned: "If the Conservative Party does not promise tax cuts then it's nothing." Mr Leigh said the Conservatives would Read more:Blues
Any future for the Tories in Scotland? 1970-01-01 00:59:59 An interesting post by Cicero today reflects on The Strange Death of the Scottish Conservatives:
Once, the Conservatives stood for a distinctive policy- "The Union". The idea that despite the legal, educational and cultural differences, despite the fact of government being devolved to the Scottish Office, the government of Scotland
was in no way legally distinct from the government of the United Read more:Tories
Progressives for a Minimal State 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Tim Worstall has an excellent article on the relationship between progressive politics and the state here, written in response to a Guardian piece by Derek Draper, a disgraced New Labour lobbyist. Draper's main assertion is that:
Progressive politics is about one simple idea: that the power of the state can be harnessed for good.That's certainly one simple idea.
The elephant in the room Read more:Minimal
, State
A Welcome to the Romanians 2006-08-25 10:22:00 Another good article on Labour's racist approach to immigration, by Neil Davenport on Spiked. Particularly appreciated is the unapologetic celebration of the contribution immigrants make to the economic and cultural life of the UK, and the making of a principled case for the wholesale welcoming of incomers:
The case for an open-door policy should be central to any meaningful discussion of immigration. People from Poland to Peru, Estonia to Ethiopia, should be allowed to come and live and work in Britain as they see fit. What is wrong with people moving around the globe in search of work and a better quality of life? Draconian controls on human movement are not only an affront to individual freedom and liberty; they also popularise dangerous Malthusian notions that society's problems are caused by there being "too many people'.
Davenport rightly dismisses the pretence that the anti-immigration discourse is anything other than racist:
Since official "anti-racism' is now a Read more:Welcome
Labour is Bad for Our Health 2006-08-24 22:48:00 A smattering of Labour
politicians have been complaining about the recent decision by NHS Lanarkshire to close the Accident & Emergency unit at Monklands Hospital in Airdrie:Dr Reid, whose Airdrie and Shotts seat includes the hospital, said the decision was "extremely disappointing".and:Karen Whitefield, Labour MSP for Airdrie and Shotts, said she was "dismayed" by the decision, which Mr Macdonald had got "very wrong"But then it's hardly a surprise. I attended one of the so-called Consultation sessions, where a couple of PR blokes pretended that the decision to close either Monklands, Wishaw or Hairmyres A&E units would depend on what the public wanted. But as Hairmyres is in the East Kilbride constituency of Scottish Health
Minister Andy Kerr, Wishaw is in Jack McConnell's own back yard, and with a Scottish election only 9 months away, there was no chance that either of these would be closing. So Monklands it had to be. It's likely that protests will continue, but it will be a
Trade Unions' Pro-Nuclear lobby paid for by Taxpayer 2006-08-23 21:26:00
The last edition of the Sunday Herald carried an article investigating the payment by British Nuclear
Fuels of £15,050 to a pro-nuclear Trade
Union lobby
group called Nuklear21. That an employer should directly fund a trade union is peculiar to say the least; that a state-owned company should hand over more than 15 grand of taxpayers' money to a trade union is obscene:
Nuklear21's expense claims were released to the Sunday Herald by BNFL in response to an appeal under the Freedom of Information Act. The company had initially claimed that it did not hold any information about the group's funding.
But this was overturned after a review by BNFL's head of taxation, David Canfield. He said the company's initial attempts to trace documents about Nuklear21 funding were "evidently not sufficient".
All very secretive. A spokesman for Nuklear21:
brushed aside criticism of BNFL paying for dinners out in Brighton. "We've got to eat, haven't we?" he said.
Very percepti Read more:Unions
, Taxpayer
, Trade Unions
A Breath of Fresh Air 2006-08-23 20:42:00
A useful antidote to the repulsive racism of the popular press in today's Independent, and Herald.
But Frank 'Redneck' Field has once again given voice to Labour's innately populist intolerance of immigrants, claiming:
eastern European migrants were taking jobs at the expense of British workersMakes you wonder why the BNP even bother standing candidates. Read more:Breath
The Problem with Labour 2006-08-22 10:25:00 Iain MacWhirter suggests that if we had a fairer electoral system, we would not get drawn into conflicts such as the present occupation of Iraq.He is undoubtedly correct in this, and his conversion to support for the immediate introduction of proportional representation for GeneralElections is very welcome.MacWhirter also asks "why does Labour
do nothing as the world burns?". The answer is very simple; despite the widespread belief that the Labour partyhas 'abandoned its roots' over the past decade, it has in fact changed very little. Granted, they have brightened up their image a bit from a cosmetic or PR angle. And the wholesale committment to socialist economic planning has been dropped. But politics is not only about economics; it is primarily concerned with the nature of the relationship between the individual citizen and the state machinery. In this respect, Labour has not changed one iota. It is still deeply wedded to the other components of socialism; messianism and manageria Read more:Problem
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