Tag: labour-party

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Not-for-profit water should be better but Welsh Labour mess that up too

johnrobertson834

stewartb It’s useful to have comparisons of the performance of key public services in different parts of the Union – and for a number of reasons. I’ve become especially interested in getting much better informed about what can be achieved by electing the British Labour Party to govern with devolved powers. Fortunately, we have Wales with its longstanding British Labour Party government in Cardiff to use as a benchmark. After all, we need to know what we might expect from a British Labour Party government in Edinburgh after 2026! In this context, how with the British Labour Party in power in … Continue reading Not-for-profit water should be better but Welsh Labour mess that up too

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Latest Scottish sub-poll has SNP 8 points clear and Reform ahead of Tories

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Just a sub-poll of only 122 but it comes as the SNP humiliate Scottish Labour in 4 local by-elections in Perth and in Dundee, just after an Ipsos poll puts Anas Sarwar well behind both Swinney and Forbes in the popularity stakes and two weeks after a full Survation poll showed the SNP had caught Scottish Labour in period that should normally have been honeymoon period for the latter. Con 10% Lab 24% Lib Dem 11% SNP 32% Reform 14% Green10% We’ll need more evidence for confidence in a full SNP recovery but things are looking shaky for Sarwar. As … Continue reading Latest Scottish sub-poll has SNP 8 points clear and Reform ahead of Tories

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Wales and Scotland – Labour’s double-think

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Anonymous Labour exceptionalism Where we the public are expected to believe that only Labour in Wales, and now also Labour as the new UK government, have difficult barriers/obstacles that they alone must overcome because of the failings of others but never ever is it to be regarded as a failing(s) by their own hand. Yet alternatively , Scotland, whose government has the same status as Labour in Wales, as in they too are a devolved government , are somehow , as a Scottish devolved government, those who must accept 100% liability and all blame for any obstacles and barriers that they have been faced with and still are faced with , via decisions made (imposed), by the supposed ‘Big Daddy of all governments within the UK’ as in the … Continue reading Wales and Scotland – Labour’s double-think

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A Horse-bolted-stable moment from Keir Starmer

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Anonymous We have a Horse-bolted-stable moment from Keir Starmer. Starmer is to repay (a fraction of the) money for the gifts and hospitality he has received but only since becoming the prime minister, following a backlash over donations. (mostly from both the Tory media and also the public). He has also committed to tightening the rules around ministerial hospitality to improve transparency. ( Had these freebies and donations not been highlighted by the media as a scandal then he, Starmer, would not have considered making these so called new ‘rules’ which now will allegedly limit and restrict benefits he once enjoyed as the Labour leader and others too in his party). Apparently … Continue reading A Horse-bolted-stable moment from Keir Starmer

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On impact of Westminster on Wales and Scotland, why do views of British Labour Party leaders in Wales differ so greatly from Party bosses in Scotland?

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By stewartb – a long read In December 2023, the British Labour Party’s government for Wales published its ‘Draft Budget 2024-24’. It provides the Party’s explanation for the present state of public services in Wales and the financial constraints on the government in Cardiff in its (less than successful) efforts to date to deliver much needed improvements. (Source: https://www.gov.wales/sites/default/files/publications/2023-12/2024-2025-draft-budget-narrative.pdf ) Candidly, the explanation it provides would be dismissed in a Scotland context by British Labour Party politicians. It’s an explanation that in Scotland would be ignored by BBC Scotland, STV and most of the mainstream news media supposedly ‘serving’ our … Continue reading On impact of Westminster on Wales and Scotland, why do views of British Labour Party leaders in Wales differ so greatly from Party bosses in Scotland?

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No BBC Scotland report allows comparative analysis of matters across the nations of the UK unless…

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stewartb ‘The BBC Scotland report does not mention ………………….Wales’ No BBC Scotland report allows comparative analysis of matters across the nations of the UK unless … you know what! And no British Labour Party politician in Scotland acknowledges the validity of comparing matters in Scotland with equivalents in British Labour Party run Wales. On education and the experiences of young people in Wales, the following report (March 2024) from the BBC’s much favoured, ‘authoritative’ think tank, the Institute for Fiscal Studies must never be referred to in the hearing of a potential Labour voter in Scotland! Source https://ifs.org.uk/publications/major-challenges-education-wales ‘.. there is a great … Continue reading No BBC Scotland report allows comparative analysis of matters across the nations of the UK unless…

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Is Keir Starmer “not genetically programmed” to make political decisions”

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By Anonymous I wonder whether Johann Lamont is at the stage of concluding that Keir Starmer is “not genetically programmed” to make political decisions” as the new PM. Yesterday it was reported that Labour are considering raising tuition fees to what may be £10,500 per year for English Universities. In 2020 Keir Starmer promised to support scrapping fees – during his Labour leadership campaign- but he later abandoned this pledge. (Indeed all of the pledges he, Starmer, made in 2020 in his bid to be the new Labour leader after Jeremy Corbyn have all now fallen by the wayside as in they were “abandoned” also). Which makes one wonder why then some voters in Scotland decided to vote Labour in the 2024 UK GE- … Continue reading Is Keir Starmer “not genetically programmed” to make political decisions”

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Anas clearly cannot count or read – did he mean the forgotten 4.1%?

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Pau Hutcheon in the Daily Record tells us: Anas Sarwar says the ‘forgotten 60%’ of young people who do not attend university will be his priority as First Minister. He says Scots should not be defined by their school grades. Forgotten 60%? What is his source? Clearly not this: The number of young people in work, training or further study three months after the end of the school year has reached a record high of 95.9%. The Attainment and Initial Leaver Destination statistics 2022-23 also show that the gap between those from the most and least deprived areas progressing after … Continue reading Anas clearly cannot count or read – did he mean the forgotten 4.1%?

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Given the British Labour Party’s approach to power seeking in Scotland, whataboutery is legitimate – ‘what about Wales?’

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By stewartb The logic of the British Labour Party’s messaging for the 2026 Holyrood election – that the SNP is holding Scotland back – would be open to ridicule amongst voters if it wasn’t for the support – the complicity – of pro-Union news media. The latter’s lack of critical assessment of this and other Labour negativity about Scotland is palpable. Context- and perspective-free reporting has long been a characteristic of the mainstream media that supposedly serves Scotland. Labour’s view of the UK Before and since the UK General Election we’ve been told by the British Labour Party’s leadership just … Continue reading Given the British Labour Party’s approach to power seeking in Scotland, whataboutery is legitimate – ‘what about Wales?’

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Scotland’s homeless surge is due to UK Home Office failures and not ‘failed and distracted SNP government’ as it falls among all but very recent immigrants

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Thanks to AR for alerting me to this. BBC Scotland’s report, Homeless people living in temporary accommodation hits record high, yesterday, on homelessness increases in Scotland, focusses on one case of a mother and child, the statistics indicating ‘the highest since Scottish government records began in 2002‘ and platforming Miles Briggs, Conservative Housing Spokesperson and Scottish Labour’s Mark Griffin, to say: Scottish Conservative housing spokesman Miles Briggs said the “scandalous figures should be a source of shame for SNP ministers”. He added: “After 17 years of this failed and distracted SNP government, it is clear that they are part of … Continue reading Scotland’s homeless surge is due to UK Home Office failures and not ‘failed and distracted SNP government’ as it falls among all but very recent immigrants