I couldn’t put it better than or as well as, Leah Gunn Barrett:
This was published in the December 30th Edinburgh Evening News. I wrote it in response to Ian Murray’s regular Thursday column, which was full of the usual drivel about how an English Labour government will be good for Scotland.
Ian Murray promises Labour will go into the 2024 election year with a positive policy platform that will put Scotland’s interests first. When have we heard that one before?
He says, presumably with a straight face, that Keir Starmer has changed Labour into a credible alternative to the Tweedledum Tories. He HAS changed Labour – but only into Tweedledee.
Labour’s ‘big idea’ this holiday season is to crack down on ‘dodgy’ sweet shops to revive UK high streets.Meanwhile, it clings to the myth that governments are like households – that they must reduce ‘debt’, slash deficits and prevent new investment that could make people’s lives better because ‘there is no money’.
Labour either doesn’t comprehend or wilfully ignores that a government with its own central bank and currency can make the necessary public investments in health, education, transport and a green energy revolution that will lead to full employment without inflation. That’s what a competent government should do, but the last time a UK government acted in the interests of the people was under the post-war Attlee government.
Instead, we’re asked to believe that another round of austerity while changing nothing of substance – no electoral reform, no renationalisation of public services, no more money for the NHS, no reigning in of the financial services casino – means our lives will improve.
My new year’s wish for Scotland is that we locate our spine and put the failing UK out of its misery.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Well said Leah
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Has Murray heard of Misfeasance in public office?
“It is a form of misconduct, and it occurs when a public official, public servant or public body knowingly and willingly acts to cause loss or harm to a third party. For example, this could be through causing a person financial loss, damage to their reputation or personal injury.”
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‘Ian Murray promises Labour will go into the 2024 election year with a positive policy platform that will put Scotland’s interests first.’
Scotland’s interests FIRST? Really? So if in government in Westminster, Labour vows to put our interests FIRST – so suck it up England, Wales and NI; suck it up London, Merseyside, Teesside, East Anglia etc. etc.! Labour will be ranking you second or third or …? Or are all interests, including Scotland’s, to be put equal first in Labour’s policies – making his remarks meaningless?
And this nonsense from a politician who I seem to recall refers (in terms) to the importance of solidarity with folk in England who are just like us in Scotland when opposing Scotland’s self-determination!
One unsurprising aspect of Mr Murray’s expression of priority is that he hasn’t based it on class or on poverty or on other forms of disadvantage affecting people in the nation-state that Labour may soon come to govern! Ironically, he’s opted (no doubt pretending for perceived electoral advantage) to base it on prioritising the interests of one nation! The Labour Party leadership – no longer even intellectually coherent!
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Labour haven’t got a clue. Tory policies. Illegal wars, redundant weaponry, HS2, Hickley Point, reducing the £270Billion funding Covid over two years. Much of the funding wasted on non regulated illegal contracts by Westminster politicians and their associates.
Labour/unionists, building empty shops and offices, instead of schools & houses. Not funding the NHS properly, cutting the budget. Not funding Education properly wasting monies. ConDems cut Education funding £6Billion from 2015. £48Billion. Scottish Gov has to mitigate the cuts.
Wasting £Billions on nuclear putting up decommissioning costs. Not taxing the wealthier more. £Billions lost in tax evasion. Taking Scottish monies and wasting it. On borrowing and spending more in the rest of the UK. On useless projects of no value. Tax revenues falling in the rest of the UK. Scotland has to make up the deficit of Westminster mismanagement and corruption.
The UK the most unequal place in the world. No cohesion. The best countries in the world to live are more equal and cohesive. The unionists parties do not have a clue. Their decisions are corrupt, wasteful and totally mismanaged.
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Labour/Tory council in Edinburgh since with their coalition, took power from the SNP, have been wrecking the city. The rubbish is everywhere, on the streets in overflowing street bins, many with no lids, horrendous graffiti on historic buildings etc, road works galore with no reasons given, and pavements replaced for NO good reason whatsoever, while neglecting other pavements and roads in a horrendous state. The barriers and other tools etc are left there for months way past the date they had on the sign saying ‘traffic would be stopped/redirected’ until such and such a date, they even have cameras taking pics of people as they walk by in some streets where the contracters have their gear and it’s n absolute mess. I have photos of some of it.
The masses of barriers they had left on roads and pavements for literally months are a huge hazard to all of us, they were tidied up so as not to be strewn across pavements and onto major traffic/bus routes any longer, not all removed though, and deep holes they had dug in the roads etc were mysteriously repaired just in time for Christmas, at least some were.
I would like to know why they have been blocking roads and pavements and who is getting the contracts because it’s way OTT.
Labour and Tories are not stupid, they will continue to make sure the capital of Scotland, where tourism is a big deal, is a mess for all to see, a dive, poor, neglected, not functioning etc, and they will blame the SNPGov. Then if they can they will sell off our cities lock stick and barrel to chnage them into Charter cities, an absolutely terrifying thought.
I really hope people are not fooled into voting for any English party in Scotland because they will wreck our country, reducing it to a third world dive for the plebs, and a playground for the rich. Perish the thought.
Ps my sons think I am paranoid but I do think that the city being visibly and obviously trashed in the past couple of years is being done to undermine the capital and to portray Scotland as a dysfunctional mess. Put nothing whatsoever past the BritNat state.
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Oops sorry typos.
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O/T I watch VERY little BBC TV output nowadays – a bit of drama like Shetland which hardly justifies the license fee!
However, tonight (Saturday) I’m thoroughly enjoying BBC Alba’s broadcast of the ‘Hoolie in the Hydro’, the huge concert in front of 10,000 folk in Glasgow held earlier in December that was wholly devoted to Scotland’s traditional music. Wonderful!
It got me thinking – why was this not on BBC 1 Scotland or BBC 2 Scotland? Does BBC Scotland broadcast any such celebrations of Scotland’s talent and culture? And if not, why not?
Could it be it wishes to put Gaelic in a box, another box – even tho’ this concert featured songs and conversations switching easily, naturally between for example Gaelic and English? Might it be uncomfortable broadcasting talk of and celebration of a distinctive heritage? Might it be the risk of having to broadcast the remarks of one young singer expressing her pride in being part of this wonderful Scottish community, indeed of being Scottish?
Glimpses of the huge audience at the Hydro showed it to include a substantial proportion of younger people. For future viability, is the BBC, including BBC Scotland, not keen to appeal to just such a demographic? But then BBC Scotland’s pandering to Unionism is at variance with what polls tell us about the views on Scotland’s future of the majority of younger Scots! Perhaps far too much positivity about Scotland on display at the Hydro for BBC Scotland?
So well done BBC Alba! And tho’ a non-Gaelic speaker, I’ll be tuning in to its late night Hogmanay party as has now become the norm in our house at this time of year!
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