The winners take nothing at all!

Let us go back a few weeks to the bells and whistles from the mainstream media as they championed the No vote.
No sooner had the film crews packed away their Union is pure dead brilliant hats,as the last bowls of JK curry were being wiped from the highly polished bowls with Fortnum and NAN bread.
Dickensian Dave came out in front of Number 10 to say,
“We respect the decision of Scots but we are going to be evel”
Eh?That wasn’t the deal David!
The ink hadn’t even dried on the NO votes and Dickensian Dave had decided to deceive the people of Scotland on the
“everything is possible under Devolution” ticket?
Which quickly became the
“nothing is possible under Devolution unless we say so”
which isn’t really what we signed up to according to the “Vow” but did we expect anything different? Did we? Did we really?

On a daily basis each and every vow,promised,pledge,pitch or whatever you call it!
In turn was broken,dropped like a hot potato and kicked into the long grass in spectacular style,without the slightest bit of embarrassment or even a slight blush from those of the highly polished brass neck brigade.
Aye,the great clunking fist of Gordyzilla vanished and became a toaty teeny furry glove of Gordon the Go for your ermine.
The vow that became a pledge,became a petition which if truth be told it’s a pleading letter asking for the scraps from Cameron’s table?
From “as close to Federalism as can be in the Union” to as far away from Federalism as man on the moon in less than 36 hours?
An impressive feat even by their low and despicable standards,to be honest that’s saying something considering the form of ex and current Governments.
I can’t say I was surprised by the speed at which the “Vow that never was” started to unravel but what did we expect,especially if we look at the track record of people like Gordon(I will give you a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty) Brown and Dickensian (The NHS is safe in my hands) Dave.
To be fair if we look at the track record of previous Prime Ministers they aren’t really renowned for their honesty to the electorate so we shouldn’t be surprised at their contempt for us.

What we should be surprised with is the speed of the unraveling of every ticket the No camp fought their campaign on,like “pensions are safe” spiel which they were touring old folk homes and sheltered housing complexes preaching,while at the same time they knew the UK pensions pot is in serious risk from Westminster mismanagement.
The other big-ticket they loved to shout about was Europe,which is now looking like we are going to be out of Europe before Christmas because Dave is refusing to pay Uk’s international debts?
Now is it me or did the Nay team not say that Independence would put our membership of Europe in jeopardy?
Honestly you couldn’t make it up?

Even if we ignore the vow,pensions and Europe we have those other muckle elephants in the room!
Like The NHS for example which we are well aware is in crisis down south,even though the whole line up of Vanilla parties were saying “Our NHS is safe in the Union and only Independence puts it in jeopardy”
A Union factoid which we have recently found out isn’t exactly true with TTIP and the reduction in funding for our NHS,but lets not let hard truths get in the way of a good snake-oil pitch ?
Then we have our Resources that we were told was about to run out and finite?
Funnily enough by the same chap who has just been given the contract to Frack the central belt for Shale Gas?
You couldn’t make it up eh?The collusion and blatant corruption of the British state is astounding and should be criminal in a healthy society,but there again rUK is anything but a healthy society if truth be known and “state” describes the state of the Union perfectly.

Needless to say the People of Scotland are no fools and weren’t going to accept the shenanigans from those who would do harm to Scotland.Within days the yes camp had reorganised and re focused their sights on other routes to self-determination.While at the same time the NAY team started to self implode and retreat to their bunkers in disarray,unable to fathom why the pesky Yes camp wasn’t giving up on the dream and getting back in their boxes as predicted by the merry pranksters.

All the While the No parties are hemorrhaging support,Yes Parties are seeing their parties membership quadruple in numbers with eager little beavers ready to use all the knowledge they have learned.The reality is yes activists have been cutting their teeth in the fruity world of street politics,manning stalls and knocking doors which makes them highly experienced in all factors of electioneering .
Lets just say you can be educated to the highest level and have been mentored by the biggest Political brains in the political world,even then you wont touch the standard of education you will get by being out there in the brutal but highly enjoyable world of street politics.
The winners took Nothing at all and the losers might be the winners after all
As this goes to print I have just witnessed Plaid/Greens and the SNP might be kingmakers in the 2015 General election.

The Scottish Labour leader and deputy has resigned and they are taking no prisoners on their way out

Who won the Indyref again?

Theres Something about Labour

Theres Something about Labour.

Theres Something about Labour

Well what can we say about Labour in its current incarnation? Have you ever seen the likes?

Most folk in political parties have this thing called ambition and the pinnacle of that ambition is to lead the party they feel the closest affinity to. So you can only wonder why the Northern Office of the Labour Party, otherwise known as Scottish Labour, are having such difficulty finding a new head honcho at the top table — one that will potentially become the media darling of the clique that is the Labour-party-influenced Scottish media.

In normal circumstances (or in any other nation in the world) people would be lining up to announce themselves a candidate to become the next leader. But not in Scotland. And certainly not in Scottish Labour, whose bright young (and old) things are lining up to say, “Not me, I don’t want the job.”

How bad must things be inside the Red Tory Northern Division if none of the chosen ones of Blue Labour want the job? They would no doubt rather resign and become a branch manager at the nearest ASDA before they’d pick up the purple (formerly Red) flag and run with it.

Things are so bad inside the Blue Labour Northern Division they’re going to export the charisma-void-and-milk-crate-botherer Jim Murphy up to Holyrood, in hopes he will lead them out the wilderness like a modern-day Moses.

One might say Murphy is the “Moses of the red roses“ without the burning bush and tablets bit. To be honest, I think the only thing Jim “the messiah” Murphy could part would be his hair, and even then I’d want evidence.

To be fair, at least Murphy is taking his new potential role of Messiah and Saviour of Scottish Labour seriously.  He’s apparently having his 40 days in the wilderness in preparation. Well, he’s not answering his phone and no one has seen him, so that could be the only answer, couldn’t it?

Then we have Mr. Eh-eh-eh-urrm Neil-Fifi-Findlay as second contender and the last lefty on the shelf — Labours my-dad-voted-Labour choice in the Quest for the Full of Holey Grail, or what’s commonly known as the proverbial poison chalice. A man who happens to be the shadow Health Minister and unlike Jim “the messiah” Murphy didn’t have a one-man-and-a-juice-crate roadshow where he went and talked down to a town near you. Aye, give Neil his due. He didn’t say to a member of the electorate that her backside was bigger than her argument and he didn’t get all “poor me its an outrage” over some miscreant lobbing poultry at him.

That doesn’t make Neil any less complicit in the Better Together “scare-old-people-and-make-stuff up” campaign, or, what’s more commonly known as “Project Fear” by those in the know. That’s what makes Mr Findlay’s campaign pitch of social justice all the more galling when his party could have stuck to its core values and supported a Yes vote, as Mr. Keir Hardie aspired to when he formed the Labour party.

Sadly, the party decided to form an alliance with the Conservatives and conspired to deceive and scare the people of Scotland about the “Boogeyman of Independence.”

Then we have the final contender, and the one I can honestly say I was shocked, stunned and a little bit amazed to hear announced. Sarah Boyack, who funnily enough is an unelected list MSP, isn’t known as one of the leading lights of the Labour party — which says it all about the ferret-in-a -thunderstorm strategy of New Blue Labour.

I can only assume at the meeting held at Scottish Labour HQ there were several rounds of pass-the-parcel, followed by deciding rounds of musical chairs to wheedle out the last candidate for the job as the new illustrious leader of the groovy gang. Either that or they had one of those step-forward-who-wants-it moments where everyone but Sarah Boyack stepped back.

Who would have thought losing would be so much fun?

Land of Opposing Stories

It seems as if the Bettertogether contingent have had “projectfear” replaced by “project foot in mouth” if last couple of weeks are anything to go by,who would have thought after their recent win in Dunfermline the Unionist pact would immediately fall from the crest of their election wave and get washed up on a political desert Island like an old bit of driftwood tangled in seaweed with their heads buried in the sand.
During the by-election in Dunfermline it was “we will scrap the bedroomtax” and in less than 10 days the Labour council in Ayr are sending out Notices of eviction for bedroomtax arrears,that’s some leap to be promising an end to the bedroomtax in Dunfermline to be changing direction by throwing people out in the street in within the grand total of 10 days.
Lest we forget the council tax freeze that they were also brandishing about in leaflets around Dunfermline,which was changed by the following Sunday and had been demoted to
“The freeze is unaffordable” which made the bedroomtax backtrack a relatively long-held principle in Labour election pledges and chosen ideals?
As my Granny says“they change their minds like I change my socks”

Talking of driftwood I see George Gallous way is planning on doing the rounds with the “No respect” roadshow spreading his own brand of hypocrisy for the princely sum of £12.50?
(Half price if you are over 65 and accompanied by both parents)
He’s all heart is Mr Galloway who believes in respecting every Nations right to run its own affairs except his birth Nation,as is his other conflicting internal battleground of “Westminster is full of crooks” so he’s going to head North in his Union Jack boxer shorts and tell us were betterTogether being governed by these crooks and supporting successive right-wing Governments who put the pound before peoples needs?
George being the Grand old duke of the dichotomy thinks that Respect is only a one way street if his latest bombastic article in the Scotsman is anything to go by,where he claims“Scotland would have to compete with Cameron’s race to the bottom” and follow Thatcherism Ideologies?
George tends to forget we haven’t elected a Tory Government in Scotland for many years and us Scots just arent built that way,in the words of Alex Salmond“rocks will melt with the sun” before we elect another Red or blue Tory Government.
He also said the Unionist catchword of the week “Scots Mp’s leaving Westminster would leave Labour with an Everest to climb for election” which isn’t really true when you realise that our votes don’t really amount too much in the Westminster first past the South East popularity system.
Even if it was true(which it isn’t) when is a political party more important than the benefit of a nation and what kind of mind decides his country’s fate on such a whim and misplaced loyalty.
George also tends to have selective memory syndrome when he talks about his old party pals as if the are a people first socialist party with Keir Hardie inspired ideals and core values,sadly they aren’t as is evident by Rachel Reeves:
“Tougher than the Tories on Benefits” announcement.
All the while Labour say nothing on Grangemouth,tax avoidance,Social Housing and the many other things Labour could be doing at the moment rather than jumping on the benefit bashing bandwagon to appease the right middle vote.
This is what Labour should stand for

Not forgetting Johan Lamont who declared with a certain smugness and self-assurance the she didn’t say“Something for Nothing Nation” in her usual whiter than white way,using the “it wisnae me” evasion strategy.
Only to be sat later that same week with head in hands at First Ministers Questions While the First Minister read out her “something for Nothing” speech and revealing another one of the downfalls of dancing the Dichotomy.
It doesn’t stop there though as it seems like the GMB union will support a no vote as was said by their leader over the weekend:
“If Scotland became independent in September 2014 there would be a loss of 40 labour MP’s at Westminster – a major blow for the Labour Party achieving the return of a Labour government in the next General Election on May
7 2015, throwing doubt on the rest of the UK and its future political direction.”

uncannily enough its an almost direct quote from George Galloway,but even more strange is the GMB’s decision to put a political party before the democratic rights of its members.Not only that they passed this directive to its members without asking them,which sort of defeats the whole point of a Union if you ask me,whats the point of a union if it’s not working in the benefit of its members but in the interests of a political ideology.
Basically a union that has no concern or care for its members wishes is no longer a Union and becomes a strange gentlemen club,while waiting for ermine rewards and in reality are as bad as the corporations they claim to oppose.
I cant see why the Unions are so sycophantic if you look at Labours track record on the poorest in society with such heinous policies as Workfare,atos,esa and the capricious bedroomtax.
Remember also that Labour didn’t repeal Thatcher’s anti Union laws,also Labour abolished Clause IV which really meant Labour were no longer a true Labour party and had lost its core principles.
Its a very strange set of affairs if a Union are supporting a right-wing party agenda over the chance to construct a more equal society with workers rights at its core.
There again as the last statement has proven the GMB aren’t interested in what is best for their members but whats best for the Labour Party and be damned to the rest of us.

We Deserve Better

The only way is Yes

Fright Night…………….Ghosts of St Kilda

In a hut on a small Island that used to be called St Kilda,a man old before his time writes a letter with his last rasping breaths,summoning all the strength he has left,he scrathes his last word with trembling hands,his breathings heavy,the rasping is louder,he raises his head to observe the last flickers of the candle to his right and his head drops for the final time.
he slumps for the last time as he slides from his chair to lie almost cross like on the bare and worn floor ,eyes wide but blank and lifeless,his time has ended,hes gone,all that remains is a letter flickering in the fading light.
This is his final letter:

In 2014 Scotland voted No in the Independence referendum and decided to stay within the United kingdom,somehow I don’t think we realised what kind of future they had in store for us,for if we did why would we have chosen the Union and believed the snake oil salesmen who promised us a land of stability and a safe future.
Neither of those promises were true!
Before the Christmas of the Vote passing to give Westminster full dominion over us the cracks started to appear and people started to have suspicions that maybe we had made the wrong choice on what was in our best interests.I can also say that the smiling face of Unionism became the scowling face of the local Governor who instructed us of the next sacrifice of civil liberties we would have to take as a condition of the One Nation agreement,which wasn’t really an agreement but a compliance treaty which would strip Scotland of all parties of dissent and its powers of devolution.
No more  “best of both worlds”  from the Prime Governor of North Britain,just
“Time to live in the real world”  while he instructs us that we will be subject to new powers and the new measures needed for the good of the One Nation,the only problem with the new One Nation was it wasn’t good for either Nation as we were soon to find out.

Within weeks of the NO vote a draft was passed that Holyrood wasn’t fit for purpose and all powers should be held at Westminster,in place of Holyrood there would be Governing offices in every major city In Scotland who would enforce and implement Westminster’s policies and laws.
By February 2015 all police forces and Emergency services were being run from these Governing centers under the command of METcorp and responsible only to METcorp command,in turn the Scottish NHS would be put under Westminster control and be subject to the new privatisation program.
This would subject us to the ability to pay healthcare parliamentary act giving Corps full control of all health insurance and Hospitals under the guise of making health pay.

The Barnett formula was scrapped and replaced with new governorship allowances which was a fraction of the old budget,which in turn meant the money was reduced dramatically under the guise of a centrally run emergency service command structure who would allocate the appropriate response through their chosen private contractor.
In March 2015 the workfare program and bedroomtax go into full effect in Scotland and mass evictions are enforced by the Newly formed Westcorp security service,people are thrown out into the snow and onto the street clutching their children close and safe from the blood soaked boots of the WSS stormtroopers who have an “ask once” compliance directive.
Those who comply are shipped to the newly formed work camps and those who resist or refuse to comply are put in other trucks,no one knew where the other trucks went but we all had our suspicions and as reality dawned we all knew they took the right choice.

That was only the beginning of our problems though as the Westminster General Election of 2015 was upon us and in a serpent like twist of fate the Conservative Party gained the majority of seats and went into an alliance with UKIP under the agreement that UKIP got the Deputy PM post.
UKIP also got environment,welfare and the Home secretary posts to sweeten the deal,the few libdems who kept their seats also joined the alliance,leaving a Labour minority and a spent force in Parliament.
By July in 2015 all benefits were canceled and the new work camps were put on-line through the rest of the UK supplying the materials and infrastructure needed for the new shale gas extraction sites that were planned throughout southern England.
Little did they know that Fracking wasn’t a safe method of extracting shale gas and in turn collapsed a shelf under southern england sinking the Norfolk broads and everything south of the Watford Gap to the bottom of the sea,that in turn poisoned majority of England’s drinking water making it unfit for human or animal consumption.
The massive surge forced Chemicals into all water courses as far north as Leeds and made clean water the most valuable commodity overnight so Westminster and the Corporations acted in the way any Capitalist does in a supply and demand scenario and thought profit,it was all about profit by then as people were nothing more than meatsacks and a commodity to be profited from and traded like everything else was in the Corporation owned One Nation Kingdom.

The only solution according to the New Westminster who had now relocated into the Lake district restricted zone was to construct massive piping systems and take water from Scotland as “they had plenty and wouldn’t miss it”according to the Prime Minister and his Northern Nation Prime Governor.
The workcamps came into their own when they started the aqua extraction program,but to me it was a chance to get out of this unbearable situation I had found myself in,as soon as we were at the new rural camp I would escape and head North!
The chance came on the first night as they only sent four Wss Officers with us and the overnight camp backed on to a forest,later as it got cold the Guards huddled the fire and six of us took our chance.
They didn’t see us and we slipped into the night and in turn on to a boat and sailed into an unknown future,at least we would have a future unlike those who were left behind.

All that water being drained from Scotland’s water tables caused a collapse in the Eco systems and turned the once beautiful forests and glens,into an arid dry dead land like the surface of a far off distant moon.
Those who could leave for the Nordic bloc did and those who couldn’t had to move into either Mucklecity 1 or Mucklecity 2,which were 2 cites that used to be called Edinburgh and Glasgow before the 2017 Eco disaster which turned the majority of Scotland into a dead zone and the worlds largest open Quarry mining site.
After all there was nothing left except Minerals and metals,no animals or plants grew in the old Lands of Scotland anymore,it was what you could call a Nature exclusion zone due to the heavy mining and pollution from the mucklecities.

We landed in St Kilda soon after and renamed it New Alba in honour of the land we left behind,we managed for a while but one by one they all passed over and finally im the last one left.
It all ends here……..Im all thats left……
Time for me to join the Ghosts of St Kilda…………..

Grangemouth through the looking glass

Most are aware of the Grangemouth situation which has been prevalent over the last few weeks and the outcome of the “rescue plan” as announced by Ineos,Unite and many others including Westminster
What started as a matter of one man became something which gave another man the opportunity enact a situation which held Scotland to ransom by threatening to close Scotland’s biggest industrial site unless the workforce complied to Ineos demands of new contracts and pension settlements,basically saying that unless the worker’s and their unions capitulate Ineos will close Scotland’s oil refinery with immediate effect and send Scotland into the dark ages before Boxing Day.
The reasons for these Dickensian type ultimatums were allegedly that Grangemouth was running at a loss which is strongly disputed,as a senior accountant stated in the Daily record last week which alleges Ineos are making a 7 million a year profit this year,6 million last year and that “he wouldn’t have signed off Ineos accounts” which makes most raise an eyebrow at the very least.
What is even more unusual is the £134 million cash injection from Westminster to Ineos claims of loss making and infrastructure demands.Especially when Ineos had just wrote off £390 million pounds worth of equipment and infrastructure from Grangemouth,which meant they were released from loans of £464 million to other Ineos companies.
In turn that made Ineos a cool profit of £69’000’000 net on the write-offs,while at the same time pleading poverty and holding out the begging bowl for more taxpayers money from Westminster,all the while declaring their workers need to accept new contracts or lose their livelihoods.
In all honesty it’s looking as if The Grangemouth situation was ideological and not financial as we were led to believe and there seems to be a pattern if you delve deeper down the rabbit hole.

Follow the White Rabbit…..
Lets look at Ineos and their track record from conception 15 years ago to become the United Kingdoms largest
privately owned company in such a short time span and how it correlates with the Grangemouth situation.Firstly the rise to dominance was no mean feat in itself but lets look at Runcorn as a prime example of how it all works in Alice’s Corporate land.
In 2001 Ineos bought the Runcorn chlorine plant from ICI in what was described as a Northern Rock 120% mortgage deal in a 350 million dollar agreement,which in all reality meant Ineos were paid to take the plant off ICI’s hands,then Ineos demanded £65 million in taxpayers money because the site in a bad condition,whist at the same time asking for extra Government money to keep the site open and running at an acceptable level.
Then with what seems to be the Alice in Corporate land ethos the workforce were cut from a number of 2013 at the time of takeover down to a number of 938 by 2009,also the wage bill was cut from £63,000,000 in 2001 down to £38,000,000 by 2009,which with inflation and the rise in the cost of living is a massive cut in annual salaries to the workforce.
Some might say “This is how capitalism works” or “they have to be competitive” but I disagree strongly with that if we correlate it with Execs salaries/dividends from 2001 and the rate of the last known dividends in 2009.
Which becomes even more apparent when we look at the total directors remuneration,which in 2001 stood at £302,000 and rose to 679,000 by 2009 according to records
So as is evident by what we can see at Runcorn that corporations have a work model of buy cheap,get free money then cut workforce and maximise profits for those chosen few who sit at the top table.
Basically its an ethos of those “who have” need more and those “who have not” get less

Mad Hatters Tea Party……
Shortly after in 2011 Ineos moved to Switzerland for tax purposes saving them £100,000,000 a year in corporation tax and a total saving of £395,000,000 by 2014.What is even more unbelievable is that Ineos were given the approval to move by its lenders after a structure review,even stranger still its lenders include Loyyds and the Royal bank of Scotland who funnily enough have received massive bailouts from the public purse and in turn were owned in part by the taxpayer?
So as it turns out we are subsidising Ineos to make as much profit as possible while laying off workers or stripping them of their rights and pension allocations,only our inverted system would promote,finance and endorse such actions against its workers without care or concern.
To me thats a strange way for a public majority owned company like RBS to behave and goes against working in the interests of its majority shareholder.
Which is basically the treasury and in turn us who are living in this Neo Dickensian nightmare,because after all is said and done we bailed out these banks who were happy to take our money in the first place.
Strangely enough in that same year Ineos who were allegedly in debt managed to buy into BASF in a 50/50 project called Styrolution which would bring two sectors of the petrochemical sectors into one company,that would put the supplier and the end-user of Petrochemicals under one umbrella and in turn make Ineos the UK’s largest privately owned company all the while allegedly being a loss making enterprise?
Which brings us up to date as Ineos are now looking to buy Styrolution outright in a deal with BASF that would see Ineos having full control and no doubt full profit that is estimated at 6 billion euros a year,Which makes Grangemouths alleged losses if we are led to believe(which I don’t) as a couple of pennies in the Ineos Corporate purse.

I’m only scratching the surface here but as you can see the United Corpocracy isn’t working for us and we deserve better than the likes of Ineos dictating our workers rights and setting us back 100 years as a society.Saying that it’s still an ongoing situation so it may be returned to,even more so if what we are hearing about the Grangemouth workers discrepancy in contract settlements is proven to be correct.

The truth is out there

Poll-itics…………..The Art of Deception

A current theme in the Political arena is the consistent use of polls and the validation of their chosen direction,by using them as a reason to create new policies or convey the publics opinions.
You will also notice that members of Parliament regularly come on television stations quoting that”the public opinion is supportive according to recent polls” which isn’t really the case as this is only a microcosm of the publics opinion and from a small chosen demographic.
As an example lets say they asked 1001 people their opinion on benefit cuts in Kensington they would get full support and justification,where as if they asked the same question in Glasgow they would get the exact opposite result and no support for their policy and in turn rejection to their cuts.
So as you can see it’s not what the poll says,but how the questions are asked and who they are asked too,which basically means if a government want a desired result they send their chosen pollsters to certain places and in turn fashion the poll to their desired outcome.

Lets not just take my word for it though;Lets look at the evidence of poll accuracy.
Way back in 2011 during the run up to the Holyrood elections,we were repeatedly told that “Labour were coming home” at 20 points ahead and the assertion that the SNP would lose many of their seats giving Labour an overall majority?
Then the day came to pass and The SNP won the elections with an overall majority,sending a message that the polls werent only wrong they were drastically incorrect in their assumptions of a labour landslide.
In the aspect of fairness lets use another example from another Nation and focus on the last Election to choose the president of the united states,where we had a certain Mr Mitt Romney being neck and neck in the polls and that “it was going to be a close result” and
“Romney might be the next president” that turned out to be a landslide victory for Obama which flew in the face of all the reporting and polls on the run up to election day as it did in the 2011 Holyrood elections.
By those two examples the act of using polls to predict election outcomes is akin to throwing some Ogham sticks or deducting the result by whether Taurus is in Pisces over a rising moon in the third quarter of Libra,which in other words is as accurate as playing darts wearing a blindfold if you see what im getting at?

Judging by the evidential facts on poll accuracy the unions assumptions about people’s voting intentions on independence are ridiculous and invalid as a debating point,not to mention using them as a premise for opinions or policies.
Every time we switch on a Political program which is aimed at the Scottish demographic,we have the usual suspects with sheets of white paper in hand crowing
“The polls say there is no support for Independence” or the other favourite
“Why haven’t your ratings changed according to polls”
Then warranted by the power of the poll they denigrate and insinuate that the Yes campaign is no more than a small bunch of woad warriors standing in a field shouting “freedom” while the rest of Scotland is allegedly singing “roll out the barrel” and “knees up mother brown” draped in Union jacks in a frenzy of sycophancy.

In reality these polls are inaccurate to say the least and fabrications at their worst if you actually go and speak to the average person on the street,in truth the consensus of the majority of people I have met lately are either “Aye,im voting Yes” or “I was undecided but now im going to vote yes” and very rarely do you hear “Im voting NO” and not once have I heard “Were better Together”
If there was this great swathe of BetterTogether aficionados all declaring their undying love for Westminster,I would no doubt be chased up the road on a regular basis,or at the very least be sent away with a flea in my ear and told “NO,now be gone Separatist”
It’s actually quite the opposite and that makes the premise of using polls as an indicator like trying to find the winning lottery numbers by staring into a bowl of warm milk,to be fair though staring into the milk would give you a more accurate idea of an outcome than relying on the pollsters and their jiggery pokery slight of hand predictions.

The only true polls i all honesty are the online polls because they show a more accurate representation by default as they cover a wide demographic of people and are also very hard to manipulate into a desired result,which is probably the reason why most of the polling companies don’t use an open online polling method to gather their data as it can’t be controlled and cajoled to gain the desired result.
Once compared with others its a great way to see the disparity between people’s true feelings and the numbers that the Tommy cooper poll appreciation society release,to the glee of the Westminster old boys brigade no doubt that seem to hold all aspects of our National press and Broadcasters firmly in their velvet gloves.
Dont just take my word for it though;Take a look at the online polls for yourself!
Another way to gage a sense the mood of the Nation is to ask your neighbours how they are voting and what their thoughts are on Independence,which will give you a small insight into the true intentions of the people rather than the selective polling program that is employed by the powers that be.In my case when I polled my neighbours and the result was 80% yes,5% no and 15% undecided which sort of flies in the face of the official polls we see being brandished by BT,BBC and STV on a regular basis.
Polls are like moles,who live down dark holes,,which is all we need remember when we see the Usual suspects lording it and announcing with glee
“The polls,the polls,its true as our polls can prove”
While they conjure the white rabbit from Westminster’s Top hat

Things that make you go………..YES!!

With 11 months to go I believe its time to take the initiative and take our message to the People of Scotland on the benefits of becoming an independent nation,for too long have we listened to diatribe from the mainstream media and Westminster pointing out the negative and ignoring the positive cases for Independence.
I believe the game has changed after watching Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond give passionate speeches at the SNP conference in Perth,both were inspirational,evocative and full of principled policies on what we can achieve with our own self-determination as an independent Nation.
Speeches that brought a tear to the eye but lit a fire in the belly and no doubt shook the timbers of Westminster whilst rattling a few cages in the Uniontwist media wings.

Nicola Sturgeons speech laid out the SNP’s view of an independent Scotland after the 2014 referendum if(which there will be)there is a Yes vote,and in turn give us an idea of the contents of the white paper which is basically going to be a “people before profit” society and a brave new country where the needs of the many come before the greed of the few.
Finally it seems like we are going to have Country where our old don’t freeze in the winter and people are encouraged and helped into work,rather than victimized and bullied into work as it is now.
A country of a living wage instead of the minimum wage and an education system that believes in nurturing our talent,not burdening them with debt and tuition fees,a fairer society who helps rather than hounds and doesn’t inflict pain on those who can’t defend themselves with Capricious policies like the bedroomtax.
A social security that actually does what it is supposed to do,by securing you through the help of society which is what it should be,not the Westminster option of Denigration and deprivation by reducing Peoples benefits and forcing them to rely on food-banks to survive.

In Westminster we have the Tories refusing to act on excessive fuel prices from energy cartels and Labour claiming that they might freeze bills for 18 months if the climates right?
Meanwhile We have Nicola sturgeon stating that in an independent Scotland the SNP will cut bills year on year and put an end to fuel poverty,now that’s what I call a policy which benefits the many over the greed of the few and shows the direction Scotland should be going,will be going if we are at the helm of our own affairs with a Yes vote in 2014.We are such a resource rich Nation that we could control our own destiny rather than leaving it in the hands of people who can’t be trusted to do the best for Scotland’s People,that alone is a good enough case for independence,but bear with me I shall lay out the other cases to say Yes!

First lets look at services like the NHS and our Royal mail which under the Westminster system are there to be profiteered from and privatised ,where as on the other hand in an independent Scotland we will keep our NHS in public hands as Bevan prescribed,also in an Independent Scotland we would have a renationalised Royal mail which will keep our universal mail delivery service in public hands free from excessive charges and exploitation saving thousands of Jobs in the process.
Then we have our education which under the Westminster system it’s not “what you know” but “what you can pay for” and a growth of Free schools who will no doubt be sponsored by large corporations at the detriment of the balanced education that our children deserve.
Where as in an independent Scotland our education system will be free to all and at a standard which nurtures and encourages every child’s potential no matter their background or parents bank balance,in other words there will be no tuiton fees saddling our Young with a lifetime of debt and no Kentucky fried Schooling from Companies and corporations.

Then we have our resources and National wealth which under the Westminster system those resources are squandered on wars,weapons and vanity projects like HS2,while they have a stagnant economy who spend obscene amounts of money on weapons of mass destruction,while promoting unsafe technologies like fracking to extract gas with no care or concern for the publics well being or opinion.
Where as in an independent Scotland we would be the 6th richest country in the world and our resources would be used wisely for the benefit of future generations similar to what the Norwegians have in an oil fund,in turn that revenue being spent on injecting wealth into our Nation would make dramatic improvements to everyone’s standard of living,not feathering the nest of the chosen few as it is under the Westminster system where the pound outweighs the people.Neither would we be wasting billions of pounds on unwanted Trident Nuclear missiles while we have areas of our country where the child poverty rate is higher than parts of the the third world.
Do we want a culture where weapons of death are worth more than investing in life?

Then we have representation(or the lack of it)that we have under the South East centric Westminster first past the post system,where in all honesty our vote doesnt really count for anything if you look at how it’s represented in the UK electorally.The prime example is todays Conservative/Liberal Democrats coalition government who very few voted for but still we live under their governance with their Neo Dickensian policies and profit first ideology.
Its about choices;Do we choose to be Nuclear free without WMD’s;Do we choose to invest in our youth;Do we choose to help not harrass;Do we choose to live in a country of celebration not degradation?
if we were Independent we would get the Governance we voted for and a much more representative state of Parliament by using the Proportional representation system of electing our MSP’s which basically means we get who we vote for and not who the South East vote for.
We can have Elected Governments;Not Rejected Governments

Where have all the good left gone?

What has happened to the Left in the Westminster arena of politics and why have we seen a successive move to the right from New labour/One Nation Labour(whatever they are called) and is this the end of the Left in UK politics,are they on the way of the Lizar and the Dodo only to be seen in the annals of History.
Will the left be thought of as a past political system while the right one party state denigrate Socialism and caring for the many over the few as a quaint idea from the past,you know those ridiculous ideas like a fair days pay and free at the point of use healthcare?
I know the Labour faithful will no doubt say
“We had to be relevant” and “it’s what the public wants” and in response I could say:
No you didn’t and im still to meet a member of the public who supports Thatcherism policies!
Since Kinnock the Left has been usurped by another branch of Elitists who have no idea how a man or woman on the street live and that’s why we have seen an ever-increasing lurch to the right,how could you expect them to do any different when in reality most of them are from wealthy backgrounds or Labour blood lines who decided Socialism was only for others as they publicly educated their children and in turn created Anti Socialists by default.
Who would have thought these proud and honoured members of the old Labour establishment would have bestowed a generation of Purple party,One Nation and a One party state of politics in Westminster?

The Not as bad as the Tories fallacy
I couldn’t disagree stronger with the “they aren’t as bad as the Tories” mindset or the other great excuse for discarding all you believe in statement of”What choice do we have” which is defeatist and a betrayal to the founding principles of the Labour Party in all honesty.
People are so quick to forget the 13 years of Labour governance which castigated the disabled and poor with policies like workfare,esa,atos and the horrendous Bedroomtax,and lest we forget that Labour were willing to spend squillions flattening the middle east and taking us into illegal wars.
How many people could that money have helped rather than light up the middle easts skies and turning it into the worlds biggest car park I ask you,and how many people could have been homed and fed if they had enacted true Socialist polices or even Ethical policies for that matter?
Even in opposition they have been impotent while aiding and abetting the other two parties with their capricious Dickensian policies that hurt the poorest in society,all the while ignoring the true menace of Large corporations and the wealthy by ignoring tax avoidance.

Lets take Social security as the first example and how they abstained or voted with the condems on issues like workfare and the Bedroomtax which beggars belief in all reality,secondly we could look at the Royal Mail privatisation which Labour could have stopped if it had the social conscience to state they would renationalise it as the SNP
(So much for the tartan Tories jibes) have done in Scotland.
Sadly Labour wouldn’t or didnt want to for ideology reasons commit to that so instead they threw their potential voters the fish head policy of freezing the price of energy bills for 17 months,and that’s “only if the climate is right” whatever that means?
A true Socialist party would have announced a renationalisation of the utilities and told the money men in the city,who are no doubt shareholders in these Companies to sling their hooks and give them all a basic rate to buy their shares back.

Even if we look at housing you can see that Labour isn’t working anymore by its refusal enact in 13 years of Government,or even announce for the future post 2015 a major social housing program that would have replenished the stock and employed thousands of people.
Not to mention all the apprentices that would have been trained in the process and enabling future generations of skilled people,curbing excessive rents from Landlords who in turn milk the state which pushes the housing benefit bill through the stratosphere and in turn fuels the Tory rhetoric on the bedroomtax.
Sadly they just ate at the Westminster trough as they do now without care or concern for the many,and encouraging the obscene greed of the few!

The end is Nigh
Well for Socialism in any form it is as far as Labour are concerned I think if you look at the last labour conference,where strangely there was no red to be seen and the rose had been replaced by what suspiciously looks like the old tory logo but with purple and blue.Even the background to the main stage was blue which must have had Bevan doing backflips in the halls of Valhalla,you could see the ghosts of Labours past screaming from the afterlife“Nooooo,nooooo and noooo to tory blue” if you see things the way I do.
Then we have the reshuffle of Purple Eds cabinet and enter the young pretenders from the Oxbridge elite with a spring in their step and menace on their minds at which dastardly plans they could outdo the Tories with in the coming weeks from their swanky new offices.
Who would have thought that the first major announcement from the new rich on the block would be“We will be tougher than the Tories on benefits” which could only be described as Anti Socialist and as far from core Labour values as I am from the third quadrant of the Dagar moon system.

Worse still Labour are in alliance with the Tories in Scotland as part of the bettertogether campaign which is also a great betrayal to the core principles of the Labour party our Grandfathers knew,and no doubt Keir Hardie would be ashamed at how they are denying the rights of self determination for the people of Scotland in cahoots with the Conservative Unionist Party.
Lest we forget that this alleged bastion of Socialism are enacting and enabling the capricious bedroomtax with their Tory cohorts in councils they preside over,and let us also never forget That it was Labours idea to inflict the worlds most expensive bus route on Edinburgh with their idea to have a tram system.
Which funnily enough it seems as if they haven’t learned their lesson by as they are going to continue with the worlds most expensive Hornby kit,which sort of sums up the mindset of the Labour party we have now if truth be told.
Finally we have the infamous PFI projects under Labour where they sold perfectly good Hospitals,and in turn primed NHS privatisation for their Tory cohorts when it was their turn to play dress up as the ruling party
in Westminster’s hall of mirrors.
Where have all the good left gone?

A Tale of Two Cities

The city of Edinburgh…..
The Athens of Northern Europe whose skyline is dominated by its castle which is situated at the Heart of this Capital city of Scotland.
A dynamic prosperous city steeped in History which leads the way in many different fields of Science,Medicine and the Arts,home of the world-famous Edinburgh Festival and Hogmanay celebrations.
Edinburgh is Populated by a wide demographic of people from many different backgrounds and home of the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood near the Old Palace at the foot of the Royal Mile.

The city of westminster
A small city within a city whose main feature is its financial district with a skyline that is Dominated by a big wheel and a clock called Ben.Westminster is a prosperous city which is also steeped in History who have led the field in Capitalism and making money from Imperial Exploits overseas.Home to Buckingham palace;The Queen and her cousin Dave in number 10 Downing street;Not to mention (many many) corgis.Westminster is populated by a small demographic from Wealthy backgrounds or members of the establishment and home to the House of Commons where most of the Laws of the land are made.

Sound quite similar in certain ways don’t they?
Well they both have wealth,Palaces ,Parliaments and lead the way in certain fields  so they must be similar right?
Wrong  im afraid because even though these two cities share similarities that’s where it ends if you look at the two cities in greater detail,the differences are even more apparent if you look at their policies and how they see their electorate.
Holyrood is interested in the well-being of the people under its Governance and it believes that the needs of the many outweigh the desires of the few,where as Westminster has no such conscience about the citizens under its Governance and believes in a Profit before people political system where cash is king first and foremost
Some might say that im being a bit harsh on Westminster,but I put it to you that im not being hard enough on Westminster if we put it under the microscope and judge its Governance on merit.
Let’s start with the basic factor of their voting systems and how representative they are to the people who live under each system.Firstly we have the first past the post system which is outdated and Very South centric on the way it was formed and the reasoning behind it,next we have Holyrood who use proportional representation which means the vote is far more representative  in its design and actually means every single vote actually has meaning.

Nothing shows the difference of the two Parliaments by their most recent actions on state-owned services in each of their respective Nations and how the respectively deal with these matters.
This week Westminster Privatised the Royal Mail at a ridiculously low price  costing thousands of Jobs and no doubt making a lot of money for certain institutions in the process,even more incredulous is that the share price rose by 38% in 24 hours which shows it was a profiteering exercise for the benefit of making profit whilst placing the good of the public and Royal Mail workers  as an afterthought to say the least.
On the other hand we have Holyrood taking Prestwick Airport back into public ownership saving 1400 jobs and no doubt adding another jewel into Scotland’s crown,even better it’s the longest civilian runway in Scotland so it opens Scotland up to many possibilities with freight and long haul from the middle east and Russia.I will also add that its the only Airport in Scotland with a direct Rail route so it opens up Prestwick to be a hub for a whole swathe of tourists who in turn spend their money in our shops and services and create wealth in society.
A true policy which puts the benefits of the many before the greed of the few.

Then we have the National Health service which is another fine example of the difference between Edinburgh and Westminster Politics if you compare the Westminster system to Holyroods on the health of its citizens.
Westminster’s  system is relying more on the private sector which tells me that in a few years there wont be a NHS in England,or at least nothing that we will recognise as a Universal Healthcare System.Which can only br described as another example of a profit before people system in an area where money should never be an issue ever if people’s health and well-being is in the equation.
Now in comparison look at the Scottish NHS which is still fully publicly owned as Bevan set it out to be with a free at the point of use for everyone no matter the cost.Not only that but if you call an ambulance in Scotland you will get one staffed with fully trained paramedics,unlike under Westminster where you will get the privatised model of two unskilled medics with 3 weeks training?
Lest we forget that under Holyrood you get free prescriptions which is another sign of a healthy society who care for their ill and disabled however they can,and another sign of people first policies from the Edinburgh System under Holyrood.

Even when we talk about basic necessities like Social security and a fair days pay they have conflicting ideas on how people should be treated in employment,or out of work due to Illness and other factors out of the individuals control.
The westminster system is to have its citizens either on minimum wage “zero hours” contracts or on the forced labour “workfare” program(Im struggling to see the Fair part mind)for your Social security which is basically modern slavery if we are going to be grammatically correct about the heinous policy.
Not only that but the Westminster system enacts capricious policies like the bedroomtax which focuses almost entirely on the disabled and ill,and if that isn’t enough the westminster system systematically humiliates our disabled and ill by sending them to an IT company called Atos to be judged(inaccurately as designed)whether they are worthy of their Social security annually.
On the other hand we have the Holyrood system and the way they would treat their citizens if they had full control of their own destiny as an Independent Nation,and how they would deal with Social security and the wealth of its citizens post 2014.
Then we can look at how Holyrood plan to deal with issues like a “fair days pay” and zero hour contracts if there is a Yes vote next year at the referendum.If the SNP had full control of the Nations wealth they would commit to making sure everyone is getting a living wage and policies like workfare,ATOS and the capricious bedroomtax would be scrapped with immediate effect.

I don’t know about you but I prefer the Holyrood system before the Westminster system due to its belief that People are the priority,and not how much that person is worth by the size of their bank balance or what bloodline they might be born into.

THE END(Unless it isn’t)