Scotland deserves better, so.....

......On polling day…….May 2016

…what chance Labour voters will hold their noses and vote Tory, just to give SNP and independence a bloody nose and to luxuriate in the ‘morning after headlines? Imagine that! ’SNP fail at the polls. Proof independence is off the agenda’. 

But various comments and murmurings indicate this might happen in an effort to lessen the SNP hold. Would a Tory ‘bounce’ then enable Labour to ditch a failed leader with a view to regrouping in time for next year’s local elections and beyond? 

Ok Labour has more than ‘lost its way’. What does it stand for? Is it sufficiently left wing? What does printing its manifesto so late in the day say about its organisational, strategical capabilities and its view of the voters? Who truly knows, since the Labour Party doesn’t! 

But that shouldn’t make the Tory Party worth of a vote, not even a protest vote. 

And Lib Demmers? They too know their credibility is so far gone, thanks in no small part to firstly Cleg, but most definitely due to Carmichael. Maybe LibDemmers could switch votes to Tory; they’ve done it in the past. So take a moment Labour LibDem voters and weigh it up. 

Post war 1945, would a Tory Govt have enabled, struggled for and set up an NHS? No way! They would have knocked down any suggestions as being..’too expensive, post war’. There are many on the right who would argue and still do that Attlee’s government were wrong to bring many of our largest industries under state control: coal mining and the railways. But they were left-wing, manifesto pledges that Labour made and kept. And Bevin as Foreign Secretary helped start de colonisation:  India, Pakistan, Burma, Ceylon and Jordan, whilst Churchill (and the Tories) hummed and hawed with him asserting he had not come to oversee the dismantling of the British Empire.

So how can you possibly vote Tory and (further) abandon your commitments to socialism, equality, solidarity?

But  if post war is too far back, too historical, what of now? Take 2014 and just one pledge: for ship building on the Clyde: allegedly ‘secure’ within the Union. Where are we now with that? That’s what the Tories do to you, to me, to Scotland; say one thing, do another. How could you possibly vote for them, even with a ‘tactical’ tag attached to your votes? There may have been food rationing long after the end of WW2, but it’s only with Tory, propped up by Lib Dems,  that we saw the need for food banks, now a very visible sign of the failure of Tory policies.

And if that doesn’t stick in the craw, think of the young, vulnerable refugee children, abandoned by the Tory party last week. How does that sit with the Attlee government’s commitment to the UN? Take that into consideration along with various, current Tory positioning : T May, Home Secretary; her recent speech on ‘human rights, workers’ rights; the Government’s  relationship with junior doctors.  

But wait, a smarmy speech yesterday, Wed 4^th May from Cameron and an apparent change in Tory policy towards child refugees? Watch for the details, as they play the numbers/age/country of origins game.

Tories don’t change their ways, but they want Labour Lib Dem voters to. So, weight it up, please.

Endorsing Tory party dictate as passed from Westminster via one solitary MP, then on to Davidson, won’t benefit Scotland.  

A vote for the Tories will only prolong austerity, and weaken the next Scottish Government’s ability to challenge and mitigate Tory policies. Policies that include furthering neo liberalism and the continuing transfer of monies, resources to the private sector away from the public sector.

Scotland deserves better. 

And with this vote and emerging inde parties, such as RISE, and hike in popularity of the Greens, there could be a real ‘bounce’ in our Parliament, headed up by a strong Government, that takes us even closer to independence.

Selma Rahman

Really Mr Hamilton!

Dear Mr Alex Cole Hamilton, Lib Dem Candidate,

You recently sent me a personalised leaflet, seeking my vote later this week. 

Now call me an old cynic, but photos of yourself and the sitting Councillor, Robert Aldridge, didn’t exactly scream empathy or understanding with myself as an older woman. 

Couldn’t you think of portraying at least one older woman on…. Wait a minute. You did and that was exposed as a ‘untruth’. Remember that older, voting woman leaflet? Discredited? Discarded? Gone to the big shredder in the sky?

Alright, let’s move on. With austerity continuing to decimate people’s lives and well-being you chose to highlight ‘5 points to combat pollution’. 

Mmmmm, I’m not convinced you’re seeing the bigger picture here: perhaps some policies to ensure improving education, from nursery upwards;  routes into employment; apprenticeships? 

OK, the SNP seems to have stolen a march in certain areas, so how about detailing how you could build alliances with your MP, and MSPs, working for a better Scotland? 

Hang on. You didn’t even include a picture of your Scottish leader, your Scottish MP and your national leader. Could that be something to do with their toxicity and each one, Rennie, Carmichael and Fallon having received in excess of £35k from the JRR Trust? 

Receiving money from a Trust is one thing, but the process whereby LibDems appear to have managed a coup on the Board ensuring a pro Lib Dem bias is another. The JRRT continues to claim its primary activity is ‘fighting for civil liberties, human rights and justice’. Could your leaflet show us anything the LibDems have done in those areas? Justice and Carmichael just don't seem to go hand in hand, do they?

OK, I see you would have a problem even if you were to go back just a few years to propping up the Tories. 

No, come to think of it, it was worse than ‘propping up’. You gave them the route into government via the coalition that saw the beginning of attacks on the poorest in society, the most vulnerable, but then hey ho. ‘They’ don’t normally vote Tory and they’re not going to vote Lib Dem again, are they? 

So what about a policy then? What about that  penny for education? No mention of that in my leaflet. Do you think that perhaps your record on being untruthful, and follow- through specifically in regards promises and education is so tattered that we just can’t believe LibDems. 

But throughout that leaflet, you make great play of the 2015 results in this ward: SNP 39%, Lib Dems 33%, Con 12%, Labour12% ; the inference and assumption being that Tories and Labour voters will vote for you, even if just to keep the SNP out. A kind of 'hold your nose' job.

You do voters a great diservice with that assumption. 

You’re assuming that we’ve fallen out of love with Independence, and that we deny the need for pro Independence parties to pursue policies that fight for Scotland. 

Policies such as land and justice sector reform coupled to strong negotiating skills that secure the very best from Westminster, a government of one person, one vote, that  has no mandate here. 

You are assuming that the 2015 turn out here was a fluke; that the 24% of  Labour Tory unionists have closed minds, and are not able to see broken promises and vows. 

You need to believe that they have not watched with despair the rise in food banks, the continuing assault on the less well off. 

You need to hope that voters can’t and don’t change their minds. 

You are mistaken. 

One of the most dynamic outcomes of  2014 has been the politicisation of voters, Voters who are engaged, thinking and challenging, no longer content with old parties, old ways. 

My vote will not go to the Lib Dems or any unionist party. 

It will go to ensuring Independence becomes a reality, through the democratic process, will of the people, whilst our elected representatives from across the Independence spectrum focus  on priorities that relate to Scotland and the Scottish population.

Yours, Selma Rahman 

 PS....I resist the temptation to provide links to you and other Unionists named in this article.

s rahman edinburgh: Tax, tax and more tax.

s rahman edinburgh: Tax, tax and more tax.: Tax, Tax and more Tax. I think I’m turning into my mother! I’m shouting at the TV and responding out loud to newspaper articles, an...

Tax, tax and more tax.

Tax, Tax and more Tax.

I think I’m turning into my mother! I’m shouting at the TV and responding out loud to newspaper articles, and I hear myself/herself  say…’tax, tax and more tax?’

We hear that the Danish government is now set to confiscate valuables from migrants to pay for their upkeep in Denmark. Presumably ‘start up costs’ of a sort. Or perhaps the Danish government will call it something like…’an entry tax’.

But then, last week our PM was talking about a ‘bunch of migrants’. Bunch? Bananas? Monkeys?  Oh, you could make capital with that one. So from the rhetoric of racism to actions reminiscent of fascism, where will this end?   

Economic migrants have left (there) due to a lack of economic prospects, therefore they expect to work, earn, and contribute (here). What ‘wealth’ will they be bringing? Those fleeing war, oppression and violence tend to leave in both desperation and in a hurry. Do the Danes expect to find riches sewn up in clothes, or in shoes? Or swallowed perhaps? 

Could the thinking be that migrants and refugees have so much left over after paying the people smuggles, that there will be something available for the Danes?

Where  one goes, another follows. Think Switzerland.

And yesterday, 2^nd Feb. Labour leader, Kezia Dugdale announced that Labour ‘s vote winning, new policy in time for the May election is going to be…..a penny tax, complete with a so called progressive element. The more you earn, the more you pay. Possibly a good principle, but we have that principle and that tax already, remember.

So it is mighty strange for Labour to believe that you counter the current austerity by introducing a new tax. A cumbersome tax too, since they want the lowest earners to go through a process of' not paying' by ‘reclaiming’. 

What a ruse, since we all know just how many ‘benefits’ go unclaimed already! 

A stealth tax then on the lowest earners since they’ve got other ‘things’ to worry about and don’t ‘reclaim’.

What other things?  Well, food banks haven’t gone away. School clothes banks are now well established on the landscape. 

The UK government will challenge the recent decision by the Court of Appeal which found the bedroom tax was discriminatory against disabled people and victims of domestic violence.  So the relief felt by certain sections, disabled and survivors of abuse, is now watered down as they wait for the results of the appeal, and the continuation of the actual tax. 

Oh yes, we’ve got to use every ‘tax’ possible to raise revenues, even to the degree we invent more. 

So step up people, and pay your taxes.  We all do…

………unless your name is ‘Google’

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/......................a bunch of migrants.

Kezia Dugdale (born 28 August 1981)^[1] is a Scottish Labour Party politician and has been the Leader of the Labour Party in Scotland since 15 August 2015.
She was previously the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party in Scotland from 2014 to 2015 and has been a Member of the Scottish Parliament for the Lothian Region since 2011.^[1][2]

Can May and Scottish Government elections come quick enough?

I mean, will the outcome finally expose the lie of a 'one party state' that is now peddled about Scotland ?

It's votes and voters that install the the party (or parties) to government.
So, come  May, the electorate will demonstrate what they think of  Labour's lack of coherent policies befitting a government. Last week's  (7th January) demolishing yet again  of Labour leader, Dugdale by the FM at FMQs * exposes Labour's failure to establish a workable policy in relation to house building: actual requirement and need.
The proposed £3,000.00 from Labour would only be available to those who could afford and access a mortgage, any mortgage plus the remainder of the deposit. I think I hear the bank of mummy and daddy stepping in, again.And that's just housing.

Barking objections and criticism  across the spectrum of Government policies and performances without a planned follow up of cogent policies won't convince the voters.
I hate to think what this Thursday will bring? An onslaught about Barbours, wellies and a perceived lack of empathy with the common folk? **
Come, come the opposition, you have to up your game!

The prospects for Labour in Scotland are even more daunting when you look to Westminster.
Afterall, how would you feel if that was your HQ?
The rapid decline of UK Labour with the return to confusion over policies, internal fighting and backstabbing, the return to the fear of the loony left being whipped up by the majority of the press and media,,is not merely the death throes of a party.
It signals the long shadow of right wing rulers ruling from Westminster with less and less MPs, masquerading as socialists: a dysfunctional  rump propping up a centre that is becoming more and more distanced by the Scottish electorate on a daily basis.

I learnt much from watching and listening to the late great Margo McDonald, including listening to the taxi drivers. Just last Saturday,, in a cold, dreich Glasgow, I was told by yet another life long socialist about his falling out of love with Labour, the dilemma of who to vote for in May, a leaning to RISE, untried, untested. But his real hope....apart from living long enough to see it...was for a socialist labour emerging in an independent Scotland....and all that for far less than a tenner and a smile!

But what will continue to inspire many in the lead up to May is the visible re engagement of independence on the political agenda. For many it has never gone away. It is easy to see the continued efforts to debate and persuade, to confront areas of disagreement: finance, economic viability, EU membership and win over the doubters, Which woman approaching retirement here hasn't thought about her pension?
The more recent inferences though remind us it is not always possible to control events outwith Scotland and beyond:  voting outcomes in the remainder of the UK vis a vis the EU: oil prices and their impact on world trade.....and how such as those and others impact on us here.

But that doesn't mean the momentum for independence has stopped or gone away.

So, Come May, if they don't vote for you, your party, your policies, you can only blames yourselves, not the victors.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margo_MacDonald

http://www.rise.scot/

*Did you know you could attend the First Minister's question time at the Scottish Parliament?
Demand for tickets to First Minister’s Questions is extremely high.
Find out how to book tickets for First Minister’s Question Time at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/visitandlearn/12516.aspx

**Such derision in the press and media, focussing on (female) attire,but ignoring the contacts, sympathy and praise: with the victims and survivors, the overworked rescue, fire, police, volunteers. oh, and the new funding.