Professor John Robertson OBA
In the Sunday National today, the above, and:
The German Doner Kebab empire – which has family links to Anas Sarwar – has been advertising jobs at below the minimum wage, the Sunday National can reveal.
In April 2024, before the full horror of Labour’s betrayal would be exposed, I wrote:
I fear Labour in Scotland are going to campaign as if they’re kind of leftist. The media are going to cover the tracks between them and their London HQ and some voters are going to swallow it.
I don’t think I’ve seen words so detached from reality, so ‘down a rabbit hole‘, since I last read Lewis Carroll (1959?).
What’s this go to do with his mum?
Just this, from last year:
ANAS Sarwar has been branded a hypocrite after it was revealed his family’s wholesale business still does not pay staff the living wage.
Sarwar relinquished all of his shares in United Wholesale (Scotland) six years ago after criticism of its wage policies, but his wife, mother and children all continue to benefit from the profits of the firm.
Sarwar said in 2017 he had received assurances his family company wanted to transition to a “real living wage” for employees, but one role recently advertised by the firm requires someone to work a minimum of 45 hours per week between Monday and Saturday as a forklift operator with pay of just £10.58 per hour.
This is below the Scottish Living Wage – which is estimated to be £10.90 – and only 16p per hour over the minimum wage.
https://www.thenational.scot/news/23848488.anas-sarwars-family-business-still-not-pay-living-wage/
And Sir Keir?
This:
KEIR Starmer has said that he won’t tax the super rich more in order to redistribute to the poorest if prime minister.
https://www.thenational.scot/news/24051567.keir-starmer-wont-tax-super-rich-redistribute-poor-pm/
So, it’s not real is it?
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
”Living Wage ? Nothing to do with me , Guv . I washed my hands of any responsibility when I passed on my family shares to …my familiy ! As the leader of Labour in Scotland (sic ) I am totally powerless and I have no say over what is a private business – just as I have no say over Grangemouth , which the Scottish Government have total responsibility for …read my lips !”
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“I fear Labour in Scotland are going to campaign as if they’re kind of leftist. The media are going to cover the tracks between them and their London HQ and some voters are going to swallow it”
Labour have been a party that for a long long time has adapted itself into what it thinks the voters want depending on where they, the voters, are within the UK.
So Labour HQ are desperately trying to appeal to the kind of voter who:
…..Supports Brexit.
……Wants, as Brits, all of the so called ‘illegal’ immigrants deported but they tend to see all ‘foreigners’ or those that they deem to be non British as fair game for deportation.
…….They also want to see people on Benefits lose their benefits and be made to work (especially work in those jobs that the ‘others’ used to do , as in ‘foreigners’ aka EU Nationals , as now since Brexit a lot of those ‘others’ aka EU Nationals went back to their own countries in Europe due to the hostile environment created by Brexit).
So as these kind of voters respond to cruelty aka no mercy upon ‘others'(usually those less fortunate than themselves) then Labour responds and so adopts that strategy as their main focus and priority , which Labour then disguises as something else, like say ‘Growth’ being their main objective.
That’s because Labour assume that the way to sustain power is to adopt the same strategy and policies as the Tory party and also similar to Farage’s latest pseudo political party Reform UK.
Labour in Scotland are more akin to being subject to a ‘split personality’ in that they pretend they are more left wing, in what they say they support and what they say they will do if in power in Scotland, but their leader in Scotland then condones and justifies the very much right wing actions of Labour HQ.
Anyone in Scotland who watched and heard Anas Sarwar state last year in the GE campaign that Labour would invest “hundreds of millions in Grangemouth Refinery to save jobs for the workers there” and then after Labour won the GE, that did not happen, indeed the opposite happened, and then when Sarwar was challenged on this recently , as in upon this broken promise, his repeated response was a weak defence in that all he kept saying was “It’s a private company”.
It was a private company last year when he, Sarwar, said Labour would invest in it and save the jobs there for the workers.
Labour in Scotland also expect us to believe that they have all of the answers and that decisions made for Scotland would only be made by them in Scotland as the next Scottish government.
Alas that particular ‘cat was let out of the bag’ when Henry McLeish revealed that is most certainly not the case, as he confessed that a Labour FM takes instructions from the Labour leader at Labour HQ and so Labour here in Scotland are not autonomous and free to take Scotland down a different path to that of Labour HQ.
They need clearance from Labour HQ.
It was also revealed very recently in a FOI request that Anas Sarwar had in fact had no correspondence with Keir Starmer on either Grangemouth or WASPI women.
Yet in the 2024 GE campaign The Daily Record had a front page headline that declared “Sarwar would stand up to Starmer” (on Scotland’s behalf) , of course the real question that needed to be asked about this particular headline was ………..
‘Why would he need to’ ?
As that headline suggested Keir Starmer would be acting in such a way that his decisions would damage Scotland if he were to become the next UK PM !
Of course we all know why that DR headline was published last year.
It was to dispel any notion that Sarwar took instructions from Labour HQ or that all Sarwar would ever do was comply with Labour HQ instructions, the irony of course being that this is exactly what Sarwar has done since Labour won the GE last year, and the 37 Labour MP’s who won Scottish seats have also complied.
(Labour Alloa & Grangemouth MP Brian Leishman is one of the 37 labour MP’s elected last year in Scotland, but he has to appear to be a rebel since his party has let down his constituency, as has he too , because he made the same promises as Sarwar did to Grangemouth Refinery workers, yet as Grangemouth workers have been let down very very very badly, still Brian Leishman is a Labour MP ???? ).
The media here may try to protect, shield, cover up, defend and so support Anas Sarwar and Labour in Scotland in the lead up to the Scottish elections in 2026 , while doing the opposite to the SNP.
However much of the public are not that daft, as I think that many people in Scotland are coming to realise that with Sarwar the political ‘apple does not fall far from the tree’ in how aligned he and his party in Scotland are with Keri Starmer’s Labour HQ in WM, indeed especially Anas Sarwar.
Lived experience of voters in Scotland with Labour as new UK government….
…..still high energy bills
……still high food prices
……still a distinct lack of thousands of jobs as promised , as so far, none have been created here by GB Energy in Scotland ,as was pledged last year in Labour’s GE campaign..
……still no justice or compensation for WASPI women and apparently none will be given by Labour as the new UK government
…………broken promises to Grangemouth refinery workers
………a cut to Universal WFP to pensioners
………cuts to Benefits and amendments made to the Welfare system that will have a detrimental impact on many vulnerable people and for some it will have a devastating effect on their lives.
……….Labour still committing to uphold Brexit with no intention of re-joining the SM or CU .
Yet simultanously Labour as the new UK government have made financial pledges to increase spending on defence via Labour’s (hidden from public view) magic money tree .
Also Labour HQ’s reluctance to impact the wealth of the “Few” (Rich) while very much impacting the finances of the “Many” (poorer ordinary people aka workers) is something that much of the media may find to be a hard sell here in Scotland, in them trying to convince us that this was not indeed the case in the lead up to the 2026 Scottish elections, and so also them trying to convince us that Labour here are somehow our best option as the next Scottish government in 2026 ?????
Vote SNP in 2026 to remain as the Scottish government as the alternative would be a nightmare, worse than the one we are already having with Labour HQ as the new UK government.
Liz S
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Strange that I couldn’t find the EXACT Herald puff piece for Sarwar you photo featured, the nearest I could find was https://archive.ph/kfuOG
As with most rich individuals, particular in politics, the perennial lie is ‘transfer of wealth’, just as is Keir Starmer’s arrogant nonsense that he has to ‘tax the super rich more’ to address increasing inequality in the UK. At the risk of overstating the point, ‘Arbeit macht frei’ ?
In the Anas Sarwar lie, there is no ‘transfer’ of anything – Just the possibility of less shitty wages for knocking your pan out to pay the rent to the landlord for the house you have no chance of owning, paying the shareholders who own your leccy company a bonus, etc., etc., etc.. Even Adam Smith had a moral compass, there is no such encumbrance on Anas who will trot out ‘a private company’…
The Starmer lie is the most insidious of all, particularly given he has his very own Act of parliament bill to protect his pension, whilst feigning concern for WASPI women etc.. – This propaganda of “taxing the super-rich more” is good old fashioned gaslighting, the least anyone working their socks off on minimum wage can expect of a government is to stop the special ‘tax-breaks’ afforded the rich, who own most of the assets of the UK and will soon own the lot.
‘Arbeit macht frei’ should have been consigned to the dustbin of history in 1945, yet here we are 80 years later….
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Well said Bob.
You mentioned “strange that” you “couldn’t find the EXACT Herald puff piece for Sarwar you photo featured”.
Well here is another strange thing, but this one is on the BBC website on their Scottish Politics page.
(But perhaps it’s not so “strange” really but more predictable for the BBC).
Last week, on the 21 March, there was an article on the BBC website that was the third article on their Scottish Politics page.
However now that same article has jumped (back) to be the TOP article on that same Scottish Politics page where the headline is:
“What next for the SNP? Moving out from under the Branchform shadow”
(The article includes the same picture of Ms Sturgeon and John Swinney as before).
When you click on the headline of the article, you will then see at the start of the article, it is dated the 20 of March.
Is this another example of where the BBC are not willing to let this go for reasons that are purely political , as in to try to damage the SNP and so also , the BBC hopes, give an undeserved advantage to the Labour party, or so the BBC assumes.
The article is quite extensive (too long) and it was written by Philip Sim (BBC Political correspondent, allegedly).and the last two sentences of this by Sim ends with him writing this:
“The Crown theoretically has 18 months to move the case along to the next stage, so it is entirely possible this drags out beyond next May’s Holyrood election.
Ms Sturgeon is keenly looking forward to a new chapter. But it may be months or even years before the book is finally closed on Operation Branchform”
Yes “drags out beyond next May’s Holyrood elections” and “may be months or years before Operation Branchform is finally closed”.
This is a situation that the BBC, most of the other media in Scotland, the British Nationalists in Scotland and also all of the opposition parties both in Scotland and elsewhere in the UK (especially Labour) hope will be the case which they then also hope will negatively impact the SNP votes in all future elections.
I do hope that some normality is restored with more people, as in voters, in Scotland.
Unless some voters here are still intent on inflicting even more harm upon themselves and also upon others, in them , as voters, still falling for the same old same old guff from Labour and their client media, especially the BBC, which has supposdley lost many viewers in Scotland for their various News programmes aka NOT the news where we are.
Majority in Scotland should just vote SNP in 2026 etc etc etc
Liz S
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The Cash and carry business is also very poor at complying with UK labelling legislation for US imported confectionery.
Go into any corner shop selling cans of US imported fizzy pop and see if they have been over-labelled with UK compliant ingredients formats or not.
Guess where many of these corner shops get their stock from.
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