By Liz S
Whether Labour are indeed holding off and so preparing to announce benefits for Scotland next year prior to the Scottish election then why wait until then as that surely will be too obvious and also too tactical ?
Yes I do know that is who Labour are politically.
Though will most of the political damage and the fallout for Labour in Scotland not already have happened by next year ?
Many of Reeves announcements, for England, were for the future so why not also include something for every nation within the UK.
It also stinks to make all of these announcements yesterday but to let the decision on Grangemouth still stand, especially when the Labour UK government announced that they will provide £600 million guarantee to the Ineos founder and Chairman , billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe , for him to build the biggest petrochemical plant in Europe, in Belgium.
Talking of Grangemouth and Ineos and then not leaving out Sir Jim Ratcliffe , the Old Trafford announcement yesterday by the Chancellor will please Sir Jim as he owns 27.7% of Manchester Utd.
Sir Keir Starmer’s Newer Labour , not to be confused with Sir Tony Blair’s New Labour, is where there is plenty of money for the few but nothing for the many.
37 Labour MP’s elected in Scotland in 2024 will not change that, as they, as MP’s, will never fight for Scotland when they have pledged 100% allegiance to the party.
Brian Leishman, also elected as a Labour MP in Scotland in 2024, is not the exception to the rule as a Scottish Labour MP, as he must now be seen to rebel against his party as his future depends upon it , more so within his now very much betrayed constituency, where I suspect many voted for him there with the promise that both he and Sarwar made in saying Labour will save Grangemouth and will invest in it.
In June 2024 Anas Sarwar was reported as saying ” Labour would put hundreds of millions pounds into a energy transition hub at Grangemouth”.
Indeed both Sarwar and Leishman told the workers there that Grangemouth was a site for the future. One wonders if they consulted with Grangemouth’s owners and the founder and Chairman Sir Jim Ratcliffe before making such a bold statement , as after the 2024 GE his opinion for the future of Grangemouth was that ” the chemical industry is coming to an end in Britain, due to high energy costs and carbon taxes” so there was to be no future for Grangemouth.
The Trade Unions response to Grangemouth closing was to hold both the UK and the Scottish government as jointly responsible for Grangemouth being betrayed by Labour, no surprise there, indeed that too was Brian Leishman’s initial reaction , which I suspect was also him instinctively trying to protect his party , Labour , and also himself, from getting all of the backlash
Perhaps some of his constituents contacted him and reminded him that it was he and Sarwar who made promises on behalf of Labour UK upon Grangemouth and not the Scottish government, hence why he has been more vocal recently against his own party at Labour HQ.
Sarwar will now tell Scotland that it is a “New Direction” with Labour as apparently “Change” has been dropped by Labour as a pledge.
Scotland has to decide in 2026 whether they will vote for slogans from Labour, which have now proven to be nothing more than empty unfulfilled slogans, or whether they will now vote for a real opportunity to see real change and a real new direction in Scotland, in us taking the first step to the majority here finally deciding to become independent from a UK that fails to invest in us as a nation and as a people.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
My dad worked until his death in 1972 in the BXL plant which made plastics from the refinery’s waste. I worked for a time in ICI’s dyeworks nearby. Grangemouth employed more workers then than the whole population of the town.
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Labour in Scotland are banking on the voters having the memory of a goldfish when the 2026 Holyrood election comes around .
They will be ably supported by the MSM who will not mention WFP , Two Child Welfare Cap , Waspi Women , Grangemouth , Welfare Reforms ( cuts ! ) and any other betrayals proclaimed by Anas ”Read my lips ” Sarwar before the 2024 GE.
By that time we will all be in awe of the benefits flowing into Scotland by the surge in ”Growth” initiated by Rachel from Accounts .
There will be Growth in Food Banks , Growth in empty shops on the High street , Growth in Poverty due to Welfare cuts , Growth in unemployment as Rachel’s N I Tax bites , Growth in advisers in Ian Murray’s Scottish Office to continue gaslighting the public , Growth in millionaires’ tax breaks as their IOUs are paid by Starmer , …..
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May I suggest that the 3 Leaders of the Yoon Parties are asked do they believe in the Declaration of Arbroath yes or no especially the part below.
“As long as a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be subjected to the lordship of the English. It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself”.The Declaration of Arbroath, 6 April 1320
If they cant answer yes then maybe they should consider a move.
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By all reports Labour are toiling in Scotland. Broken promises. Total lies and all the rest.
The reason there is no growth in the economy is because of Brexit. Scotland did not vote for it. Labour’s answer build another white elephant runway. Totally out of touch. Should be out of reach. Out in Scotland. SNP & Independence support increasing.
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Even were the Labour government to announce some shiny new investment in Scotland, how many will believe a word of it after the “Great British Energy” fiasco ?
Even were they to announce Grangemouth to be converted to an aviation bio-fuel production facility, how many years before that begins employing some of the thousands laid off and effectively abandoned ?
No amount of spin from “Read my lips” Sarwar can hide the reality that the once mighty Labour Party has lost almost everything it once stood for including their supporters in Scotland, who now await a modern Keir Hardy to come along and start a new party, with a moral compass, principles and a spine.
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