tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-42469496092962073662024-03-05T05:01:56.949+00:00Citizen SmartWhat it says on the tinAlan Smarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08238599957331198637noreply@blogger.comBlogger158125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4246949609296207366.post-74632449067911479082018-11-01T05:50:00.002+00:002018-11-02T13:08:12.054+00:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Grouse Beater</b></span><br />
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>The Deleted Evidence And The Central Issue</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As soon as I read the <i>Grouse Beater</i> blog on the GMB Union's role in the Glasgow equal pay dispute,<b><i> "<a href="https://grousebeater.wordpress.com/2018/10/28/gmb-a-cockney-clique/" target="_blank">GMB - Cockney Clique</a>"</i></b>, late on the evening of Sunday 28th October, I knew it was problematic. Indeed, pretty much knew it would end up near exactly where it currently is: <i>Grouse Beater</i> suspended by the SNP, more than a few others also in the soup for sharing it, and the rest of all arguing about it among ourselves.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So I tried to help <i>Grouse Beater</i>. Within an hour of me reading the article, and only a few hours after the problematic article had just appeared, I made the first of three comments to the readers' comments section of Grouse Beaters blog .</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I got a response directly for <em>Grouse Beater</em>, but as I felt it wholly inadequate, I made this further comment 12 hours later.</span><br />
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<span style="clear: right; display: inline; float: right; font-family: "arial"; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: left;">I got another response from Grouse Beater shortly thereafter, but as it was even more inadequate than his first. I then made this third, and what turned out to be my final comment</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Shortly after this third comment was posted by me , it was deleted by <i>Grouse Beate</i>r without response. And were my other two earlier comments, along with<i> Grouse Beater's</i> own two replies to them. Fortunately though, I had prudently screenshoted all three of my comments, though I did not the foresight to also screenshot <i>Grouse Beaters</i> replies.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">So these are facts. Provable, undeniable facts.</span></div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Grouse Beater </i>Near Certainly Did Know</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">But I am also asking readers to believe me when I say, in the first reply by<i> Grouse Beater </i>to my first comment, he told me he did in fact know Rhea Wolfson was Jewish when he started writing his blog. I specifically mention this, as I have subsequently seen several of<i> Grouse Beater's</i> defenders, ( but not, to my eyes, Grouse Beater himself), assert that Grouse Beater simply did not know Rhea Wolfson's religious background when he wrote the article.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"><br /><span style="font-family: "arial";">But, this aside <em>Grouse Beater</em> - real name Gareth Wardell, exposed pretty quickly in the near immediate wake of the controversy - now tells us all, as he had told me in one of his deleted replies, that he was raised in a Jewish family. Therefore, he claimed, he could not be anti-Semitic. Well, anyone. Sadly can be anti-Semitic. Certainly anyone, including people who are not remotely anti-Semitic, can make an anti-Semitic remark, write an anti-Semitic sentence in a blog, add a gratuitous anti-Semitic section to an otherwise largely problematic free article. Just lose all sense of perspective in pursuit of an angle, and morph into the language and territory of the anti-Semite</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"><span style="font-family: "arial";">But. believe me, if you are brought up in a Jewish family you will near certainly know someone called <i>Rhea Wolfson</i> is near certain from a Jewish heritage. Not knowing, is about as likely as someone brought up in a Muslim family not knowing someone called <i>Mohammed Sarwar</i> is a Muslim.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">But <em>Grouse Beater, </em>who until outed claimed he lived in California not Edinburgh<em>, </em>did know a very specific quote from Hitler's <i>Mein Kampf</i>,.And he did chose to include it in an article on an industrial dispute in Glasgow in 2018. Part of a 5 paragraph section headlined "<i>Hitler's View</i>"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">nb. The second paragraph above is a re-write by <i>Grouse Beater</i>, and different from what he initially wrote. I believe it was principally re-written as a response of sorts to my first comment on <i>Grouse Beaters </i>blog</span></div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>My Judgement</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Now, make of all this as you wish. But here is what I make of that:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">1. Post publication edits and re-drafts of blogs are real easy. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">2. This article needed much more than the tinkering with one single sentence.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Because, the specific focus of the article was an attack on present lead official of the GMB in the Glasgow Equal Pay dispute, Rhea Wolfson. And the very specific inclusion of 5 paragraphs headed "<i>Hitler's View</i>", including a very specific paragraph centered on a distasteful quote from Mien Kampf, about Jewish trade unionists, forms part of <i>Grouse Beater's</i> attempt to do that.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Because Rhea Wolfson is Jewish. And <i>Grouse Beater</i> will near certainly have always known she was Jewish.</span></div>
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<b><span style="color: blue; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Who is Rhea Wolfson?</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Now, I have no particular flame for Rhea Wolfson. I have never met her. Only vaguely heard of her by reputation, and now through reading a little more about her in the wake of the <i>Grouse Beater</i> row. And, it confirmed, what I think near anyone who knew anything about the dispute or the GMB would likely have known for ages: Rhea Wolfson is a member of the Labour Party. And something of a high flyer. A prospective parliamentary candidate for Livingston , and she is only 28 years old. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">And I also found out that she is a Corbynite. Now that did slightly surprise me, as, by reputation, the GMB is run by "right wingers". "Blairites", if one feels the need to divide Labour Party members into two fixed camps. But the GMB certainly is not "Corbynite". </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Then I found out a bit more, through my personal contacts with some real well sussed Trade Unions activists. And found this out. 28 year old Rhea Wolfson got the job, despite being a Corbynite, not because of it. She got the job, because she was good , real good. And the GMB needed someone like that to come in and sort out the mess it had got itself into back in 2005 when it had in effect signed off on a discriminatory pay deal with then the Labour Party ran Glasgow City Council, more or less to "keep the men happy"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">And at that time Rhea Wolfson was a 15 year old schoolgirl.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">But in <i>Grouse Beaters</i> article, you would think she was the villain of the feast. The main person responsible for near all the GMB and the Labour Party have messed up on in a 15 year period. But near the opposite is reality. Rhea Wolfson is<span style="font-family: "arial";"> about the first GMB official over that 15 year period to do her job properly. To put the interests of the low paid workers she represents, at the top of the agenda. Explain to them, that as well as being victims, they have power, Power to put the solution to their long overdue case at the top of the agenda. The very top. Power<span style="font-family: "arial";"> to rattle cages. Power in particular to rattle the cages of the one body that can deliver them justice; Their employer. <i>Glasgow City Council</i>. A council which now has has an SNP administration. An SNP administration elected on an unequivocal pledge to settle the long running dispute.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">17 months ago</span></div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>"Hitler's View"</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">But rather than tell us any of this this, Grouse Beater includes a five paragraph section on "<i>Hitler's View</i>" </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"><span style="font-family: "arial";">And quotes a section of <i>Mein Kampf </i>on "The Jew" and trade Unions written in 1923. In Bavaria. By an Austrian fascist. About an equal pay dispute in Glasgow, in 2018. A section he refuses to remove having been informed, early and politely how problematic it will prove, not least to him.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">And aside from Nazi Germany, <i>Grouse Beater</i> also tells us that "<i>there is a strong rumour her (Wolfson's) GMB male colleagues advised against striking</i>" </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">That ( if true) would be most likely be these GMB colleagues who had messed up the entire dispute for near on 15 years.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">But, in <i>Grouse Beaters</i> article, these "<i>male colleagues</i>" are the relative GMB good guys, It is 28 year old Rhea Wolfson who is the real villain. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">28 year old Jewish, Rhea Wolfson.</span></div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: "arial"; font-size: large;"><b>The Nub of the Matter</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">"<i>Unfair, you are a disgrace to the cause, <a href="https://ayewecan.blogspot.com/2013/05/my-brother-ian-smart-is-not-racist.html" target="_blank">worse than your brother</a></i>" I hear <i>Grouse Beater's</i> band of defenders shout increasingly loudly. ( I paraphrase, but have had this posted on my fb timeline already. By the usual self-appointed <i>guardians </i>of the <i>nationalist</i> (sic) flame - every one a man.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">No, It is many of these types who are the Yes movement's equivalents of my brother and a few other lost the plot obsessive Unionist bloggers. Because both can see no further than a single cause, An as consequence their entire narrative on every issue has become so obsessed with<em> the cause</em>, nationalist plots, unionist plots, CIA plots, MSN plots. That THEY lose the plot. Start quoting from <em>Mein Kampf</em> in a blog about a Glasgow Council Pay dispute and doing so in an article focussed upon a Jewish Trade Union official. And in so doing, lose the argument, when they started with an otherwise unbeatable hand</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">So I have not been unfair to <em>Grouse Beater. </em>I have actually been kind to him. ( so far) Pointed out to him as quietly as I could how problematic these paragraphs in his article were. Suggested to him an easy course of action, a damage limitation plan. And one that will save everybody a lot of angst, not least him.. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">But did he listen? Is he even capable of listening? I fear not. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Because now suspended from the SNP, facing likely expulsion, he still sits with that offending and wholly unnecessary "<em>Hitler's View</em>" section unaltered one his blog . Save the re-arranging of a single sentence.. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Because he can do no wrong, He is a champion of <em>the cause</em> against the MSN. Apparently he <span style="font-family: "arial";">is the victim of an MSN plot, even though the first time anyone in the media heard about this plot is when the self indulgent and obstinate, ill informed, out of touch Gareth Wardell, who as <em>Grouse Beater</em> was claiming to be living in Malibu, handed it to them on a silver plate some time Sunday evening /Monday morning 28-29 October. At the very time I was trying to helpfully save him from himself. Until he deleted me!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">And , even now even when Rhea Wolfson has herself said it, the notion that a Jewish Trade Union Official might be genuinely offended by <em>Grouse Beater</em> in effect comparing the trade union she works for to the Nazis, seems beyond his comprehension. No, it is all because she is a <em>Labourite</em>, She is faking it. It is all just an MSN plot. One Nicola Sturgeon is in on.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">That Gareth Wardell , retired Edinburgh theatrical producer, our pal, could have posted something both dumb and anti-Semitic, and most likely unconsciously, impossible, So should stand his ground". Is made of "<em>sterner stuff</em>" . And because similarly minded echo chamber bloggers, from <a href="https://peterabell.blog/2018/10/30/crying-wolfson/?fbclid=IwAR2ZowtbxWCtD1bpp19HnBJByUPfLkDnSCx7x8FVxmCn3KwgxGzyTkQyA9o" target="_blank">Peter A Bell</a> upwards, tell him he is right. Are even running a campaign for him. And in terms that are both laughable and insulting to the entire independence movement, SNP members in particular. Read this hyperbole from "<em><a href="http://www.barrheadboy.com/loyalty-is-a-two-way-thing/?fbclid=IwAR3-ZCsL-5SHKLsr0PatWceaXkw4qDtVIRm1XbAGm8pQHIvwg8EHDn0dYbQ" target="_blank">Barrhead Boy</a></em>". </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7iQbjEk0m9EN-7l8kpt0n4h8xXdYECZE6VrdftFcbJ4oMJ4GmubmsylNtVC1HlN2z1UP8QLxi2-ZbTy43ol231svVPV3PMx9CAGBY80cr_B_ziSeTheFm7Y7lripYOUTHKdppaDI-S70/s1600/SmartSelect_20181102-060948_Chrome.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="860" data-original-width="710" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7iQbjEk0m9EN-7l8kpt0n4h8xXdYECZE6VrdftFcbJ4oMJ4GmubmsylNtVC1HlN2z1UP8QLxi2-ZbTy43ol231svVPV3PMx9CAGBY80cr_B_ziSeTheFm7Y7lripYOUTHKdppaDI-S70/s400/SmartSelect_20181102-060948_Chrome.jpg" width="330" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">And, to anyone thinking of foolishly buying into this, some serious questions. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"></span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">What did introducing a </span><span style="font-family: "arial";"><em>Mein Kampf</em> quote on "The Jew" add to our knowledge on the Glasgow Equal Pay dispute?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"></span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">And who did it particularly offend?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"></span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">And you want to back a campaign to defend the right to keep it there?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"></span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">And you genuinely think this is any way to win independence for Scotland?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">People, Yes minded bloggers</span>, <span style="font-family: "arial";">are really going to spend these months, crucial months for the independence cause running a "<em>defend the Grouse Beater Campaign</em>", essentially against the SNP?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"></span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">They are actually going to appeal to Yes campaigners in an already over stretched indy movement crowdfunder market to help pay for it?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">When the whole row could more or less be ended at any moment by a "<em>sorry, I called that one wrong</em>" plus a 30 second "paste and delete" job of five wholly irrelevant paragraphs on "<em>Hitler's View</em>" by <em>Grouse Beater</em>? The guy who gratuitously started the whole row, handing Labour, who were totally on the back foot of the Glasgow Equal Pay issue, a propaganda gift in the process/.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"><b><span style="color: blue; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></b> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"><span style="font-family: "arial";"><b><span style="color: blue; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Anti-Semitism</span></b></span></span></div>
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<strong><span style="color: blue; font-family: "arial"; font-size: large;"></span></strong> </div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"><span style="color: black;">But keeping them there, and despite Rhea Wolfson and many, many more having said they find them offensive, would that be a<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "arial";">nti-Semitic?</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Yes. Absolutely.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"><br /><span style="font-family: "arial";">But not in the classic, evilest of forms. But anti-Semitism, none the less, Because, having firstly wrongly and unfairly targeted her as the villain in the GMB, , in order to undermine Rhea Wolfson further, <i>Grouse Beater</i> , gratuitously plays "<i>The Hitler card</i>". And how he plays it is subtle. And, giving him the benefit of the doubt, maybe even a sub-conscious play. But play it, he does.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Because implicit in all of this, why the entire "<i>Hitler's View</i>" section is there, is an attempt to show, Rhea Wolfson, a Jewish trade unionist, is unaware of the lessons of history on Hitler's treatment of Jewish Trade Unionists. So must be generally unaware. And a hypocrite with it.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">And, were Rhea Wolfson anything other than Jewish, <em>Grouse Beater</em> would never have played his "<i>Hitler Card</i>". Would never even of thought of it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Yet when this is suggested to him, <i>Grouse Beater</i> digs in, still digs in . Insists his "<i>Hitler's View</i>" five paragraphs, including the fourth one with the <i>Mein Kampf</i> quote in it, stay in. And all five paragraphs are still there, are still all there (as I write around 7 am on Friday 2nd November) .Even when it had been politely pointed out to <i>Grouse Beater</i> how problematic, and unnecessary they are five days ago, And in a five day period in which these friendly warning have been proven entirely predictive. And that, in my judgement, is because in<i> Grouse Beater's</i> mind, they are central to his argument. Central to his article that that targets Rhea Wilson.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Anti-Semitism, 2018, Yes Movement style.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">And , just as easily, No movement style too. This could have been a trade Unionist who is an SNP member and happens to be Jewish getting targeted. And it could have been some Labourite blogger under investigation. For just going way over the top. Crossing the line</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Because anti-Semitism is still out there, in even some of the most "<i>liberal</i>" of places. In every party. And it is, as in the past, if much less brutally, used to score a political point over a political opponent. And needs to be faced down, called out. Without fear or favour, And in a non partisan manner, And not excused, explained away, just because the offender is making other points you agree with. Just because he is a chum. A "good guy"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So well done Neil Findlay the senior Labour MSP who raised this matter with our First Minister. Scotland's First Minister, not just the SNP's. My First Minister.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And well done the SNP, for responding so decisively and unequivocally..</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">And that <i>Defend the Grouse Beater</i> crowdfunder campaign?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">I can think of a thousand more worthy causes. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"><br /><span style="font-family: "arial";">And one is the Glasgow Equal Pay Campaign.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: x-small;">Alan Smart, the author of the<em> AyeWeCan</em> blog, was born in Paisley Renfrewshire in 1959, and has a 1st Class Honours Degree in Modern History and Economic History from Glasgow University. He also has a Teaching Diploma in History and Modern Studies. He was Chairperson of Scottish Labour Students 1981-2, and President of NUS Scotland 1984 - 86. A former Head of Current Affairs at Scottish Television and thereafter Head of Broadcasting at the Scottish Parliament, he is currently a freelance Musician. As <em>Citizen Smart</em> he was heavily involved in the largely successful 2013-4 Anti-Bedroom Tax Campaign and wrote and performed the "<em>Bedroom Tax Song</em>", a parody of Matt McGinn's/Adam McNaughton's "<em>Jeely Piece Song</em>". As of this moment he is working with fellow musicians on a project to celebrate the life and times of John Maclean. </span><span style="font-family: "arial";"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">A member of UNITE Communities, and since 2016 a member of Clackmannanshire SNP</span>.</span></span></div>
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Alan Smarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08238599957331198637noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4246949609296207366.post-89827052217367855132013-06-18T09:25:00.003+01:002013-06-18T09:30:24.426+01:00The Bedroom Tax: SNP - Earn The Right To Be Free<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">I see
SNP supporters and others are enthusiastically sharing an article from <a href="http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/tenancies/snp-government-would-axe-bedroom-tax/6527348.article" target="_blank"><i><b>Inside Housing</b></i></a> reporting Alex Salmond's pledge to
abolish the Bedroom Tax in an independent Scotland, Good news. But
big deal?</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Because
the very earliest this can be done is 2016, and more realisticall<span style="font-size: medium;">y</span>
it will be 2017-18 before any law changes are enacted. So over four
years from now. Does anyone really think any but a tiny minority hit
here and now by the Bedroom Tax will survive by then? So a near
meaningless pledge. And a real cheap one, given the numbers by then
involved</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">So
tokenism. As token as the pledge from all SNP Councils
(and some Labour ones) not to evict any council tenant for bedroom
tax arrears in year one of the tax, And note, this pledge only apples
if a tenant “co-operates”, however that is defined by a Council
official. But, co-operation or not, it takes about a year to evict
someone anyway.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">And more
fundamentally, many of the Councils committed to this pledge have
near no social housing to evict anyone from. SNP Argyll and Bute for
example has not a single council house – all transferred to local Housing Associations years ago, and all Housing Associations are
completely exempt from local council non-eviction pledges. </span>
</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">So SNP
folks and others, you are being sold mince here. Scottish mince –
but mince.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">What the
Scottish Government can and must do, beyond the extra £5m already
allocated to advice welfare advice services centres, is as follows:</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">(1) Increase
significantly the <b><i>Discretionary Housing Paymen</i></b>t (DHP) funds to
Councils over and above the £10 million allocated by the Westminster
Government to help those worst affected by the Bedroom Tax. The
Scottish Government can legally top this fund up by up to one and a
half times, so immediately the fund could rise to £25 million –
near on half the amount Scots are set to lose as a result of the
Bedroom Tax </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">(2) Increase by a similar or greater amount <i><b>central grant
funding to social landlords</b></i> to enable met to more realistically
carry, and in some case write off debt incurred by their Bedroom
Tax affected tenants, Many of these tenants simply can't pay, and
<a href="http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/tenancies/tenants-fail-to-pay-the-bedroom-tax/6526972.article" target="_blank">widely available statistics </a>are now showing they are not paying in
significant numbers </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">(3) Give serious consideration to <b>The <i>Govan Law
Center</i><a href="http://govanlc.blogspot.co.uk/2013_02_01_archive.html" target="_blank"> proposed amendment </a>to the Housing Scotland Act</b> which would offer
enhanced increased legal protection from eviction to tenants in rent arrears incurred as a
result of the Bedroom Tax. And SNP whips could make a start by
telling its committee members who control the Scottish Parliament's
<i>Public Petitions Committee,</i> which meets on Tuesday 25h June to consider
the GLC amendment, to allow the main petitioner, Mike Dailly,
Director of the Center to speak to his own petition. Hardly a radical
idea. Kind of a self-evidently sensible one. And totally cost free.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">But the
first two elements of this three part package, they would cost.
Around £50 million would be my estimate, much the same sum as calculated b</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">y</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> <i>Shelter
Scotland</i> and the <i>Scottish TUC</i>. Not a trivial sum. But a findable
sum for sure. Less that 0.1% of the Scottish Government's total block
grant. A block grant SNP and previous Labour administrations have
succeed in underspending by this amount and more in near every year
since devolution.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">So do
this Alex, and poor people – real poor people, amongst the poorest
in Scotland - might warm to your pledge to abolish the Bedroom Tax
altogether come independence: The final step in a process you will
have already started with them. And can start tomorrow.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">In the
words of one of my recent songs, “<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrPMXchZnMw" target="_blank"><b><i>Earn the Right to be Free</i></b></a>”!</span></div>
</div>
Alan Smarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08238599957331198637noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4246949609296207366.post-53407372869120408302013-05-28T13:20:00.001+01:002013-05-28T13:20:05.002+01:00Margaret Curran's Strangly Disfunctional Memory <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVC3A5x6JFaBxHb-GXMtKu9ReAhPn6X3wB3DFpoBqW44ypvpNWVtTo6Rwb0HjZKyLZnJ9-PoZCNaTTloeD1HJJGEyX6SVMXL6HhQIZBBt8PAwZznsHX1iGpDLe_N5hdDKlR0Tw6k_dN9o/s1600/ofc298-209x283.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVC3A5x6JFaBxHb-GXMtKu9ReAhPn6X3wB3DFpoBqW44ypvpNWVtTo6Rwb0HjZKyLZnJ9-PoZCNaTTloeD1HJJGEyX6SVMXL6HhQIZBBt8PAwZznsHX1iGpDLe_N5hdDKlR0Tw6k_dN9o/s200/ofc298-209x283.png" width="147" /></a></div>
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<i><b>DEREK BATEMAN ( BBC Radio Scotland):</b> What do we make of Denis Healey admitting that when [North Sea] oil was discovered, Labour – a Labour government,
ahead of a referendum, interestingly, on the constitution of Scotland –
misled, deliberately misled the Scots about the value of oil?</i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>MARGARET CURRAN MP, Shadow Secreta<b>r</b></b><b>y of State for Scotland</b><b>) :</b> Well, Derek, I
don’t know anything about that, those times, I don’t know the basis on
which Denis Healey said that, I don’t know the argument, I don’t know
the papers around that.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i><b>DB:</b> But you’re the shadow Secretary of State for Scotland! You’re a senior Labour figure, I mean, he was a Labour chancellor.</i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>MC:</b> I know I’m getting on a bit, but I wasn’t around in Denis Healey’s days.</div>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
Oh yes she was.</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
Unless
it was another Margaret Curran I met who was Secretary of Glasgow
University Labour Club, the biggest in the UK, when Healey was Labour
Chancellor in the Callaghan Government. This would have been in 1978, two
years after Healey had made global front page news and labour movement
noteriety after he went to the IMF for a bail out in exchange for huge
public spending cuts.</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
Indeed not only did 20 year
Margaret know who he was, but was sufficiently angry with him to be
calling for his resignation. Because, difficult though it may be to
imagine, Margaret was at that time was a prominent supporter of the
Labour left opposition . And her, "not around" line is as
credible as David Cameron claiming he was "not around"
when Thatcher introduced the Poll Tax: As credible as would the current
Secretary of Oxford University Conservative Association claiming in 30
years time he was "not around" when George Osbourne slashed
welfare budgets. </div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
So what is it about today's Scottish
Labour Party that makes decent enough people, spout such
untruths on Scotland's national radio station? Deny their own past? Be
"not around?" </div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
I think on this one it is
obvious. Because Margaret well remembers that, in addition to being in
the middle of an economic crisis in 1978, the Labour Party in Scotland,
and grassroots activists like her in particular, were under immense
political pressure from the SNP, which with 11 MPs at Westminster and
opinion poll rating s touching 40% threatened to wipe Labour out
whenever the next UK General Election came around. It had already near
done it in the Council elections on May 1977, where for the first time
in decades Labour had been swept from office in Glasgow. Or were you
'not around" for that either Margaret?</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
Like, me she
will certainly remember spending the best part of the Spring of 1978
campaigning for Donald Dewar in the knife edge Garscadden by-election,
where the SNP started as clear favorites to take Labour out in one of
its west central Scotland heartland seats, a success that would have
left every last one of them vulnerable. The SNP rallying cry at the
time? "<i>It's Scotland's Oil</i>", backed up by detailed proposal on how a
national oil fund in an independent Scotland could transform our country
and deliver prosperity and social justice for folks in places like
Garscadden and beyond. Folks like Margaret indeed.</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
Scottish
Labour, with an able candidate in Donald Dewar, set about the
nationalist claim with some gusto and effectiveness, and as a
participant, I went along with this, genuinely believing the SNP claims
were way over-hyped. I am sure Margaret then was little different from
me in this respect. </div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
But we now find - 36 years down
the line - not only that the SNP was correct, but that the entire
Labour Cabinet at the time, Healey, the Chancellor of the Exchequer
especially, knew this but decided not to tell anyone, including Labour
activists like me and Margaret.</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
Now I am long out the
Labour Party, and have been lied to so often by Labour that I feel I am kind
of immune to being shocked or outraged. But this one is so close to the
bone, so central to my first experiences of serious political
campaigning that it has shocked even me. "<i>I spent all that time, all
that energy, money I barely had, took all those early morning buses to
Drumchapel, missed out on all these social events, that Elvis Costello concert in Edinburgh,
to campaign on a lie, a lie known to the people who led that campaign?</i>"
And not just the 1978 Garscadden by-election, but the 1979 Referendum
too. Our best argument was denied to us - by our own side.</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
But Margaret was "not around". </div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span class="st"><i>Y</i></span>et
she most certainly was. Because I do remember, even if she chooses not
to. At that time Glasgow University Labour Club, with over 300
individual members, was the largest in the UK by far. It was "on the
circuit". Everyone who was anyone spoke there - Tony Benn, Neil Kinnock,
Michael Foot all regulars, as were all the leading lights in the Labour
Party in Scotland. And Margaret, as Labour Club Secretary was their
first point of contact, the facilitator. But according to her"not around". Maybe she organised it all on the internet!</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
One
other detail I must mention before I conclude. Margaret was a leading
light on campus in the "<i>Labour <span class="st"><i>Y</i></span>es</i>" campaign for the 1979 Referendum.
The "<i>Labour <span class="st"><i>Y</i></span>es</i>" campaign mind, not "<i><span class="st"><i>Y</i></span>es for Scotland"</i>, the all party
campaign, where those pesky "nats, liberals and commies" were also
involved. But her direct university and Labour club comrade and friend,
Johan Lamont was not. She was a leading light in the "<i>Labour Vote No</i>"
campaign. <span class="st"><i>Y</i></span>ou read that right: Johan Lamont, in 1979 actively
campaigned against the ever so modest measure of devolution her own
Labour Government offered the people of Scotland.</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
Go ask Johan. Or maybe she was "not around" either.</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
But believe me, they both were, and very much so. Key Labour student activists, earmarked as <i>ones to watch</i> by Helen Liddell the then Scottish Secretary of the Labour Party, situated in <i>Keir Hardie House </i>just
5 minutes walk away from Glasgow University. And Margaret and Johan,
even in these days were on relaxed first name speaking terms with
Donald Dewar, John Reid, Brian Wilson, Robin Cook, John Smith, George
Foulkes, Bruce Milan......the list goes on. "Not around?"
They were part of the show.</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
Which comes back to my initial question. Why is Margaret denying this?</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
Simple
to answer: Because she needs to. Without that denial, her credibility
and the credibility of her entire generation that is now running the
Labour Party in Scotland is shot. They were mugged. We were mugged -
because I was part of it too. Scotland was mugged. Poor working class
people in Garscadden were mugged.</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
Some folks learn from history.</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
Others deny it. Repeat it.</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
One is the Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland </div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<b>Alan Smart.</b> Glasgow Univesity Labour Club, 1976-82. Chairperson Glasgow University
Labour Club, 1980-81, Chairperson of Scottish Organisation of Labour
Students, 1981-82. President NUS Scotland 1984-86, (elected on Labour
Student ticket)</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<b>Margaret Curran:</b> Glasgow
University Labour Club, 1975-80. Secretary Glasgow University Labour
Club. 1978-79. Chairperson Scottish Organisation of Labour Students
1979-80)</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
For Margaret (That history degree she got don't seem too have done her much good) :</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<b>Denis Healey.</b> Chancellor of The Exchequer, 1974-79. Deputy Leader of the Labour Party 1980-83.</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
Here in full is what Dennis Healey told <a href="http://www.holyrood.com/2013/05/still-raising-eyebrows/" target="_blank">Holyrood Magazine in May 2013</a>:</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<b>Footnote</b>:
Many have commented that, with the exception of the bold Derek Batemen
on his BBC Radio Scotland programme, and unlike the rest of the media,
including STV, BBC Scotland's coverage of this major admission by
arguably the most important Labour politician of the late 1970s early
80s period has been near non existent, especially on TV. There may be
many explanations for this. Here is a possible one:</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<b>John Boothman</b>,
Present Head of News and Current Affairs, BBC Scotland: Chairperson of
Strathclyde University Labour Club 1979, Chairperson Scottish
Organisation of Labour Students 1980-81. Chairperson of the National (UK)
Organisation of Labour Students 1981-2. Around at the time? For sure.</div>
</div>
Alan Smarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08238599957331198637noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4246949609296207366.post-58869190148614718532013-05-20T10:40:00.004+01:002013-05-20T10:42:53.549+01:00Galloway - Plays the Sectarian Card Once Again<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i>"I’ll tell you what would happen when an independent Scotland proved to be a chimera. Scots would turn inwards, turn on the English and turn on each other. First they would come for the ‘unionists’ as they describe people like me. We would become a ‘fifth column’. Soon other scapegoats would have to be found. Catholic schools, judging by the cyber-nats-speak, would have to succumb. Then it might be the immigrants, brown as well as white who would be ‘taking our jobs’, ‘our houses’, ‘marrying our women’ and the rest. We would become an embittered people, the very opposite of the Scottish internationalist we have been for so long"</i> <a href="http://redmolucca.wordpress.com/2013/05/19/scotland-farage-and-me/" target="_blank">George Galloway, Red Molluca, 19th May, 2013</a></blockquote>
<br />
Sound familiar? The same shit spouted on Twitter by my bother Ian Smart in his disasterous Twitter foray barely a week ago. I am just waiting for Jack McConnell to directly join in: He is supportive enough to re-tweet their musings.<br />
<br />
Because it is no co-incidence that these old chums spout the same smear. Their evidence-free and baseless assertions come from failed generation of Scottish Labour activists who, having delivered near nothing - but managing to enrich themselves in the process - will now spend their later years attacking all things nationalist. The irony is though, nationalism was a horse they themselves were happy to ride, until the good people of Scotland clocked they could do better than be led by these self-serving poseures, who only played the card to gain them some tactical leverage in their internal battles within the Labour Party. Self-determination for them always meant to be on their terms and within parameters of the British labour movement.<br />
<br />
This more than anything else explains their later day extreme unionism, so extreme that even the <i>Better Together</i> campaign has all but disowned them: I do wish though <i>Better Together</i> would just do this in quite unequivocal terms. Tell them this is just unacceptable. Slap them down, so as the rest of us can have a sensible debate on Scotland future, uncontaminated by these sad and time-warped sectarians. How about it, Alastair?<br />
<br />
Because as I said in <a href="http://ayewecan.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/my-brother-ian-smart-is-not-racist.html" target="_blank">my last blog about my brother</a>, this stuff really is the gutter. The politics of Enoch Powell: Stir up a sectional fear for a cheap headline and narrow political gain, not remotely thinking through the potential implications and consequences of your spoutings. <br />
<br />
Galloway's latest article is written under the pretext of defending Nigel Farage's right to free speech, following the over-zelous harassment of him by members of the <i>Radical Independence Conference</i> last week in Edinburgh. Now you can view this incident in a number of ways, and certainly I can think of better ways of combating UKIP in Scotland than confronting its leader having a quite pint in a Royal Mile pub. But Galloway don't just make that point, but rather goes into altogether murkier territory, which amounts to a smear on the entire national movement in Scotland.<br />
<br />
We are told "<i>cybernats</i>" - and I presume I am one - are " <i>the mirror image of the Faragists</i>" But he get worse..... <br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"I<i>t was once said that anti-semitism was the socialism of fools. So too is the idea that Scotland broken from the rest of this small, island of English- speaking people will somehow lead to some kind of progressive beacon of hope for the world"</i></blockquote>
<br />
So a man who has spent a lifetime dodging the unsupported smear that he is himself anti-semitic, equates supporters of independence, and the left leaning ones in particular, as being little better than anti-semites. Just how low can you go George?<br />
<br />
I am kind of aware Galloway's stock in Scotland is now about as low as Farage's - that 2% of the vote in Glasgow in the 2011 Scottish Parliament elections took some doing. But I am also aware that beyond Scotland, near universally amongst people who have never worked with him, he retains a significant cult following. So for their benefit, it might be useful to end with a simple list:<br />
<br />
<b>Parties in Scotland who support Scottish Independence</b><br />
<br />
The Scottish National Party<br />
The Scottish Green Party<br />
The Scottish Socialist Party<br />
The Socialist Workers Party<br />
The International Socialist Group <br />
Solidarity<br />
The Scottish Republican Socialist Party <br />
<br />
<b>Parties in Scotland Who Oppose Scottish Independence</b><br />
<br />
The Scottish Labour Party<br />
The Scottish Liberal Democrats<br />
The Scottish Conservative Party<br />
UKIP<br />
The British National Party<br />
The Scottish Defence League <br />
The Orange Order <br />
<br />
Figure that out..........</div>
Alan Smarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08238599957331198637noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4246949609296207366.post-7589510849990412682013-05-20T08:15:00.000+01:002013-05-20T08:24:30.756+01:00We've Earned The Right To Be Free<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Alan Smarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08238599957331198637noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4246949609296207366.post-13616892776782180062013-05-07T23:29:00.001+01:002018-11-02T04:00:44.303+00:00Ian Smart, My Brother<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: small;">My brother Ian Smart is not a racist.
He is worse than that. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
A racist is normally someone with a grievance,
who out of ignorance, and fuelled by urban and media myths,
wrongly blames ethic minorities who have absolutely nothing to do
with whatever their problem might be. My brother Ian has few problems, is rather well
healed, well educated and mixes amongst the very highest echelons of
the Scottish establishment. So when he asserts that there will be
some sort of pogrom against the Polish and Pakistani communities (and
presumably others) in a post independence Scotland, he is not doing
this out of ignorance or prejudice, but out of political calculation.
The calculation that if he asserts it loudly and often enough Scotland's ethnic communities and others can
be scared into voting No.
</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
This is called <i>playing the race card</i>.
It is one of the most dangerous things an individual can do in any
context, and of course normally done by politicians of the far right. But for a Labour blogger to do it in Scotland, where there is a hard worked for and commendable cross-party
and cross-society consensus against racial prejudice, and inject it into the highly charge debate on independence is despicable.<br />
<br />
No better that
Enoch Powell in 1968: Allow fair non racial immigration into the UK
and there will be “<i>rivers of blood</i>” he predicted, with no evidence and no basis in reality as events have proven. Vote for
Independence in 2014 and my brother predicts something similar for
Scotland.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
And what has been the reaction of the
Scottish Labour establishment to the gratuitous playing of the race card by one of their own? At best silence, and in the case of
old chum Jack McConnell supportive. Because sadly, Ian, the
leading Labour blogger in Scotland and a regular TV pundit on this
basis, is an outrider for more than a few of them.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Apologise and retire. All the advice I can offer.<br />
<br />
And Ted Heath sacked Enoch Powell, Johan and co please note.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b>A Postscript:</b> This is my first blog post here for near on a year, My last one below is on a similar theme. A
response to George Galloway <i>playing the Green Card</i> in a near
identical context. Same time warped and unsupported bullshit from a washed out "lefty" And hear that
silence from the Laborites on both occasions.<br />
<br /></div>
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Alan Smarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08238599957331198637noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4246949609296207366.post-52262455309419981742012-05-28T21:13:00.001+01:002012-05-28T23:33:28.889+01:00George Galloway - Sectarian<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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For the second time in three weeks George Galloway has used his column in <i>The Daily Record</i> to attack independence. No problem with that, if that is what he chooses to speak on. But he is wholly wrong, and miles out of kilter with the vast majority of Scottish socialists, including most of those who campaigned for him in last year's Scottish Parliament elections. <br />
<br />
He came, he lost, he learned nothing.<br />
<br />
But in today's column, Galloway does more than attack independence. As in his previous <i>Record</i> column, he deliberately introduces the politics of religious sectarianism to advance his case, something no one else in the Unionist camp has done.<br />
<br />
Galloway writes that, (in an independent Scotland), "<i>who knows who the finger of suspicion would be pointed at? Maybe Scottish Roman Catholics from Irish immigrant stock, with their peculiar ways, names and schools. Why not? It's happened before, Comrade Canavan, hasn't it?"</i><br />
<i> </i> <br />
And it gets worse. In an otherwise predictable attack on independence supporting Brian Souter, Galloway writes;<br />
<i><br />
"I share neither faith nor political values with him</i>"<br />
<br />
<i>Political values</i>, OK. But what has his f<u><i>aith</i></u> got to do with anything? And to be clear, they are both Christians - they DO share the same faith. What Galloway is blatantly saying here is that he is a Catholic and Brian Souter is a Protestant. And this is something George Galloway, "socialist", consciously brings up in a newspaper column read primarily by West of Scotland working class people in 2012.<br />
<br />
Quite appalling<br />
<br />
And appalling too that the <i>Daily Record</i> prints this, even pays Galloway to write it.<br />
<br />
What is going on here?<br />
<br />
And will there be an rebuke for the NO Campaign? Will any Scottish journalists raise this matter? Will the Daily Record do the decent thing and drop immediately this sectarian as a columnist<br />
<br />
I thought we no platformed fascists and racists in this country?</div>
</div>Alan Smarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08238599957331198637noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4246949609296207366.post-3777695195874554522012-05-15T10:28:00.000+01:002012-05-15T10:31:23.614+01:00George Galloway's Sectarian Disgrace<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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George Galloway's article in the <a href="http://blogs.dailyrecord.co.uk/georgegalloway/2012/05/im-scunnered-by-bigots-of-the-brigadoon-brigade.html" target="_blank"><i><b>Daily Record</b></i> on Monday, 14th May </a>can be summed up in one word - "shameful"<br />
<br />
But it requires a more detailed response. <br />
<br />
As the master debater, Galloway opens his article by setting up a straw man to knock down, citing unarmed nationalists who attacked him in less than civil terms following an anti-independence interview he gave to the <i><b>Sunday Mail</b></i>. So what does Gallo<span class="text_exposed_show">way do to temper the debate? Responds with comments which are amongst the most disgraceful yet calculated by a politician this century.<br />
<br />
Now let me be absolutely clear: Galloway has every right to comment on and participate in the independence debate. As he points out, he is as Scottish as any of us and has a long standing involvement in political discourse in Scotland and elsewhere. But it is this experience, and indeed detailed understanding of Scotland's political history, that make his comments in his <i>Daily Record </i>article so shameful and insidious.<br />
<br />
Because Galloway is an intelligent man, yet he quite deliberately plays the sectarian card. A card no one else has used, and no one else - unionist or nationalist - would be as irresponsible or desperate as to introduce into Scotland in 2012.<br />
<br />
Supporters of Scotland's independence are used to being called "<i>separatists</i>" by our opponents. And whilst a pejorative term, fair game in the rough and tumble of political discourse. But in writing in the first sentence of his <i>Daily Record</i> article that he was "arguing the case against the 'partition' of this small island" he took things beyond the pale. Because <i>partition </i> means only one thing in the context of the British Isles, as George well knows. And whilst his article does ask a number of legitimate questions of the case for Independence, throughout it is laced, and quite deliberately so, with the language of sectarianism and related smears.<br />
<br />
Let me remind readers of what Galloway then goes on to say in his Record article:<br />
<br />
"<i>The idea that if you don't believe in Scotland as a mist-shrouded obscurantist Brigadoon, you're not Scottish at all is a recipe for deep division, akin to that which scarred post-independence Ireland.</i>"<br />
<br />
So, in case you missed his "partition" smear, Galloway quite explicitly introduces Ireland and with it </span><span class="text_exposed_show"><i>The Troubles</i></span>.<br />
<span class="text_exposed_show">
<br />
He then gets even worse by suggesting a "<i>hidden agenda</i>" by his critics, stating, <i>"perhaps it's not where I live now, but where my grandparents came from, that scunners these separatist bigots?</i>" <br />
<br />
Now to explain, Galloway's Grandparents were Irish Catholics. I need to explain, because few folks know or care, despite Galloway continuous attempts to remind certain people, when playing to particular galleries. But what Galloway says here, in a mainstream national newspaper, is a quite disgraceful, and simply a slur backed up by nothing other than his own bigoted paranoia and populist opportunism: It suits his script, so why let a lack of evidence get in the way?<br />
<br />
But he does not even end there. Just in case anyone might have missed that one. He concludes by stating if things went wrong in an Independent Scotland, "<i>The bravehearts, further embittered, would turn on someone, anyone.....Maybe the immigrants, the asylum seekers, maybe even an earlier generation of immigrants from Catholic Ireland (again, like me)"</i></span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show"><i> </i>
<br />
Now I directly ask. What is Galloway doing here? ( And what is the <i>Daily Record</i> doing publishing?): Over one third of Scots are descended from Irish Catholics, many of whom vote SNP. This is not just a smear against Scotland's largest political party, it is dangerous tribalism all of us in Scotland, from all parties, and on all sides of the constitutional debate, have been working real hard to bring to an end<br />
<br />
But here on 14 May 2012, George Galloway, member of Parliament for Bradford West, former MP for a Glasgow Hillhead, a former Chairman of the Labour Party in Scotland , a current "proud" member of the trade union Unite, and a campaigner for a secular, democratic and free Palestine, is quite consciously introducing the politics of sectarianism into the debate on Scotland's constitutional future.<br />
<br />
In condemning the unnamed straw men from the nationalist camp, Galloway ends by, throwing down a challenge to Alex Salmond: " I<i>f he was a truly national leader rather than merely a schism-master, would slap this kind of nonsense down, but he dare not</i>."<br />
<br />
But if Galloway had even been remotely following the debate in Scotland that has been coming to a head since his self imposed exile a decade ago, he would know, (if he cared to find out) that Alex Salmond and the entire SNP leadership has consistently done this and continues to. Alex Salmond does not need a lecture on bigotry from a sectarian who sat on his hands whilst it raged in the Scottish Labour Party of the 1980s he chaired. And in Ma</span><span class="text_exposed_show">y</span><span class="text_exposed_show"> 2011 </span><span class="text_exposed_show">Salmond's SNP won 69 seats and 45% of the vote, and all available evidence shows no religious bias whatsover in terms of where the party drew its support from. Can Galloway credibly say the same about the paltry 3.3% of votes he polled in Glasgow on that same day?<br />
<br />
But I'd like end by throwing Galloway's challenge to Salmond back to the pro-union parties in Scotland, who he now seem so keen to team up with. Will they unequivocally condemn Galloway's sectarian intervention into Scotland's constitutional debate? With they tell him he is not at all welcome if this is to be the tenor of his contribution?. Will they tell him modern day Scots - unionists and nationalists - have left his dated and vile sectarian baggage behind us?<br />
<br />
I think they will. And Scotland will be a better place for it.</span></div>
</div>Alan Smarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08238599957331198637noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4246949609296207366.post-47746028906949541162011-07-04T05:57:00.002+01:002011-07-04T05:57:58.287+01:00FREE SYRIA NOW!<iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/JyTTaMgYZWk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Alan Smarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08238599957331198637noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4246949609296207366.post-56293941316083888392011-07-04T05:53:00.002+01:002011-07-04T05:53:21.197+01:00THE PEOPLES' REPUBLIC OF BONNIE SCOTLAND<iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/LnKsLV1xA8Y" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Alan Smarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08238599957331198637noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4246949609296207366.post-53659422761532484222011-07-04T05:50:00.002+01:002011-07-04T05:50:39.135+01:00FREE INVERCLYDE<iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/UP5JNwXEdFs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Alan Smarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08238599957331198637noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4246949609296207366.post-39792609033958497432011-07-04T05:45:00.002+01:002011-07-04T05:45:25.782+01:00DOLLAR PIPE BAND FOR FREE SYRIA<iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/E1w8IE0qTwE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Alan Smarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08238599957331198637noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4246949609296207366.post-78754286682412175232011-04-03T19:51:00.001+01:002011-04-28T01:26:42.961+01:00For Bill Speirs, Scotland and Palestine<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/_XgAZqOV8tc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Alan Smarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08238599957331198637noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4246949609296207366.post-89913867324702914922011-04-02T17:06:00.001+01:002011-04-02T17:12:17.908+01:00We Are The Palestinians 2011<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIkJBuQGL5Pn_lmlShjiarh4gErmaa07-_-p4pCz9fgYSycJ2kPNmkvXmksNzoXF5T-9KB0CTAnhq9gQYfOoFV7rhM7jhY4mcBjf7Cr5N3xleN4qBWc4uTT9Qold1VnzmSaWalx4pjCxA/s1600/165578_105859429488194_100001924131861_46937_2560258_n%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIkJBuQGL5Pn_lmlShjiarh4gErmaa07-_-p4pCz9fgYSycJ2kPNmkvXmksNzoXF5T-9KB0CTAnhq9gQYfOoFV7rhM7jhY4mcBjf7Cr5N3xleN4qBWc4uTT9Qold1VnzmSaWalx4pjCxA/s320/165578_105859429488194_100001924131861_46937_2560258_n%25282%2529.jpg" width="232" /></a></div></div><div style="text-align: center;">We are the Palestinians</div><div style="text-align: center;">We were the PLO</div><div style="text-align: center;">The labeled us as terrorists</div><div style="text-align: center;">for fighting for our homes</div><div style="text-align: center;">We live in refugee camps</div><div style="text-align: center;">...Our life's a daily hell</div><div style="text-align: center;">We fight against oppression</div><div style="text-align: center;">they call it Israel</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">From '48 to present day</div><div style="text-align: center;">We waited for the west</div><div style="text-align: center;">To help us win our freedom back</div><div style="text-align: center;">to bring us some redress</div><div style="text-align: center;">But with that US veto</div><div style="text-align: center;">And Israelis's pulling stings</div><div style="text-align: center;">In Hebron Gaza and beyond</div><div style="text-align: center;">were still waiting in the wings</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>And as for our opponents</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Their heads are in the sand</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>They quote to us their bible</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Claiming its their promised land</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>They call us anti Semites</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>They play on people fears</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>They lecture on fascists</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>We've been fighting them for year</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">And now we look at Libya</div><div style="text-align: center;">And all those NATO planes</div><div style="text-align: center;">Claiming that their fighting for</div><div style="text-align: center;">The freedom of our weans</div><div style="text-align: center;">But we can see their plain hypocracy</div><div style="text-align: center;">as they fly overhead</div><div style="text-align: center;">On their way to conquer Libya</div><div style="text-align: center;">There laughing at our deal</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">We are the The Revolution</div><div style="text-align: center;">we ARE the PLO</div><div style="text-align: center;">We've been driven out the Lebanon</div><div style="text-align: center;">Few place left to go</div><div style="text-align: center;">but our struggle will continue until Palestine is free</div><div style="text-align: center;">What we want’s a fair solution</div><div style="text-align: center;">We don't need your sympathy</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">What we want is revolution </div><div style="text-align: center;">We've had years of sympathy</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #38761d;"><br />
</div><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_781222690"><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: small;"><b>F</b></span><span style="font-size: small;"><b>or </b></span></a><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: small;"><b><a href="http://www.facebook.com/#%21/pages/Bill-Speirs/161351416078">Bill Speirs</a> (Paisley, Scotland)</b></span><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/#%21/profile.php?id=100001924131861&sk=wall">and for Mooney Peace </a>( Ramallah</span>, <span style="color: #38761d;">Palestine</span> </b>)<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="color: red;">Both Alive and Kicking</span></b></span><br />
<div style="color: #45818e;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br />
</span></div><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: #45818e;"> VIDEO OF SONG COMING SOON</span></span><br />
<br />
</div>Alan Smarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08238599957331198637noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4246949609296207366.post-46971201266774910372011-04-01T08:05:00.004+01:002011-04-01T08:24:50.548+01:00APRIL FOOL! And still "The Best Wee Numpty in the World"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifrZS9igxrHIu5vQW1mhjh4WOTiXA827gxOnbD2dhtrnisUSUo4xNbIM__bWk-ojuawH0lmoR48Sbz3x3adfcuwVWDQCHr7vGPZFpnakutfrDoa7-6M7k9fv3N4K29fjHNxdskjd24bHg/s1600/ecb47b93-67ff-2394-91ee-e0e679baca39.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="294" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifrZS9igxrHIu5vQW1mhjh4WOTiXA827gxOnbD2dhtrnisUSUo4xNbIM__bWk-ojuawH0lmoR48Sbz3x3adfcuwVWDQCHr7vGPZFpnakutfrDoa7-6M7k9fv3N4K29fjHNxdskjd24bHg/s400/ecb47b93-67ff-2394-91ee-e0e679baca39.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="color: #351c75;"><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Best Wee Numpty, 2011</b></span></div><br />
My name is Jack, noo Lord McConnell<br />
There wis nae problem, I couldnae haunal<br />
I came fae Arran. lived on a farem<br />
It wis the best we farem in the world<br />
<br />
But I got to leave now, cause the Lords are calling<br />
Though its slave rate wages, I find quite appalling<br />
But I’ve ma parly pension, then there’s Bridget too<br />
It's still the best wee country in the world<br />
<br />
<i>Yeh I love Scotland , Ma Bonnie Scotland</i><br />
<i>Where the comrades run things and wi all get on</i><br />
<i>That’s oor cosy famiies, even numpties get paid</i><br />
<i>Yeh ,its the best wee county in the world </i><br />
<br />
And noo there’s Ian, ma Grey successor<br />
I get real mad when they say he’s better<br />
Better than me, and ma best pall Wendy<br />
We were the BEST wee numpies in the world<br />
<br />
But there’s still Andy, he’s mister handy <br />
If you want thing fucked up Then he’s your man<br />
If you live near Monklands, you might well remember<br />
He was the numpty who near flushed you doon the pan<br />
<br />
<i>But he’s fae Scotland, Were aw fae Scotland</i><br />
<i>We know whit’s best for oor great wee land</i><br />
<i>Cause we’ve been told, by oor civil servants</i><br />
<i>With their own wee numpties who can always lend a hand</i><br />
<br />
And the there’s Richard think his name is Richard<br />
Don’t know whit he done, But he’s oor man<br />
To cut doon crime, by jailing half o Scotland<br />
That’s the half, who think that he’s a bam<br />
<br />
<i>But he’s frae Scotland the part of Scotland</i><br />
<i>Where the numpites, clearly understand</i><br />
<i>That the worse you are, means you're really brilliant</i><br />
<i>If you just say, yes, Jack, yes , it's your promised lan</i>d<br />
<br />
I go to go now, touch base wi Ed<br />
When I head him speak, I thought that he wis dead<br />
Whit they said wis “red” That he’d a big head<br />
But we don’t need that sort oo thing in oor wee land <br />
<br />
<i>And he’ no fae Scotland, oor Bonnie Scotland</i><br />
<i>Run by oor families, Granda, bairns and Mam</i><br />
<i>And we a get paid some, it;s just like in the masons </i><br />
<i>We run the best wee racket in the Land</i><br />
<br />
Hey I’m no Nat, But I can see this far <br />
That we’re moving forward, wi wee Eck in charge<br />
Could of done thing better, But faced heavy weather<br />
And they deserve to stay in Reekie land <br />
<br />
<i>Cause I’m frea Scotland, that’s BONNIE SCOTLAND! </i><br />
<i>Where we’re no aw numpties, or pals o Broom</i><br />
<i>And on 5th of May, when we get oor say</i><br />
<i>We should a unite , and drive these numpties oot a toun</i><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #351c75;">To be continued……….video coming soon. Oh the joys of Laboutite imposed underemployment</span></b><br />
<br />
(c) Alan Smart, 1st April, 2011</div>Alan Smarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08238599957331198637noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4246949609296207366.post-81604910814990924752011-04-01T07:57:00.001+01:002011-04-01T07:57:49.234+01:00Lest we forget<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/HuvLVXXKt6I" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Alan Smarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08238599957331198637noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4246949609296207366.post-43697037303942763962011-03-31T07:01:00.000+01:002011-03-31T07:01:06.902+01:00The Bill Speirs March<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/_XgAZqOV8tc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Alan Smarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08238599957331198637noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4246949609296207366.post-2401525234843525672011-03-20T09:03:00.002+00:002011-03-20T09:23:25.680+00:00I Am Back !<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Hi After a break of just over a year my <i><b style="color: #20124d;">ayewecan</b><b><span style="color: #20124d;"></span></b></i> blog is back - well not quite yet. <br />
<br />
I'll start posting regularly once the election campaign starts for real. But I have been so inspired by the oratory of Annabel and the Gray man that I have broken cover early.<br />
<br />
I promise fresh videos to match my two 2007 election contributions <span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuvLVXXKt6I"><b><i>The Best We Numpty in the World</i></b></a></span> and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR98VVgyGF4&feature=related"><i><b>Labour Pie</b></i></a>, both of which are still available and still relevant. Indeed, aside from the <i>King Numpty</i> himself, near all the old numpties are trying to get back in high office again - presumably to make a total arse of it for a third time, get enhanced ministerial salaries - followed by generous payoffs for pie munching induced ministerial sackings. All this, plus enhanced pension increments to help prepare them for that impoverished lifestyle poor we Jacko will have to endure in the House of Lords. <br />
<br />
Or was that the <span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: small;"><b><i>High Commissioner to Malawi</i></b></span> job? Oops GB lost in London, so that deal fell through - lucky Malawi. The last thing that poor country needs is the export of our failed numpties. Maybe though Wendy might want to have a go - she can take her weans -indeed her entire family - with her, with our blessings. The Malawis will suss her in about a month. They no longer indulge quasi-intellectual Presbyterians missionaries - the historical root cause of that nation's principal difficulties: Jacko was always more superficially palitable - he'd have come bearing gifts of Rangers and Celtic strips as part of his ongoing campaign on "<i>Scotland's Shame</i>" - himself<br />
<br />
So, I hope you can see there will be plenty to write and sing about.<br />
<br />
In the meantime check oot my wee video below which encapsulates what was and will continue to be <i>the spirit</i> of this blog. And if you want more than that - some thoughtful and entertaining non-partisan articles, in the meantime id recommend <a href="http://bellacaledonia.org.uk/"><i><b>Bella Caledonia</b></i></a>.<br />
<div style="color: #6aa84f;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><b style="color: #6aa84f;">Finally</b>,</span> you might have noticed my <b>Obama themed banne</b>r has gone, replaced by one of the true revolutionaries of our epoch. - The fab five ( the fifth being the <i>Scottish Beatle<b>,</b></i> Edinburgh born- Include <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Sutcliffe">Stuart Sutcliffe</a> from the early Hamburg days). What's more, I did not fancy having pictures of NATO freedom hunting warplanes on ma site. Would spoil the tone, and might get my blog confused with that of the <i>Israeli Government's Department of Information</i> .<br />
<br />
Until later </div>Alan Smarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08238599957331198637noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4246949609296207366.post-52672435878809798292009-12-16T00:51:00.000+00:002009-12-16T00:52:13.441+00:00Happy Christmas<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/hb2YSAVHmIE&hl=en_GB&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/hb2YSAVHmIE&hl=en_GB&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>Alan Smarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08238599957331198637noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4246949609296207366.post-79445717847343234572009-12-07T09:40:00.011+00:002009-12-07T09:56:59.142+00:00Scottish Labour's Local Government Concordat<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd8ghYzaajzTQnjZWdKckimEKhq3MYBnp28Xe75NpsqNumiupIUTyHGZRT9OPymWYQXMayu9Nqo2GnGHmzarV9ILHi6Jo3G7h7bUf4vmD2MYHfLwR_2MGKgizNN3XQ3oMBrWL8WEf092E/s1600-h/Marquee%2520002.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 150px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5412429985183860546" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd8ghYzaajzTQnjZWdKckimEKhq3MYBnp28Xe75NpsqNumiupIUTyHGZRT9OPymWYQXMayu9Nqo2GnGHmzarV9ILHi6Jo3G7h7bUf4vmD2MYHfLwR_2MGKgizNN3XQ3oMBrWL8WEf092E/s200/Marquee%2520002.jpg" /></a> Commenting on "Marqueegate", an East Lothian Council spokesman said:<br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">"It appears this application was just put through every year by habit."</span><br /></strong><br />I suspect how Labour has largely run Scotland for the past 50 years.<br /><br />PS And its all the SNP's fault for bringing this matter to public attention.....says a nulab spokeperson. Honest, that is what <a href="http://news.scotsman.com/politics/Gray-faces-inquiry-over-Marqueegate.5888418.jp">they said!</a>Alan Smarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08238599957331198637noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4246949609296207366.post-1135694713160775232009-12-05T14:37:00.011+00:002009-12-06T15:40:57.177+00:00Salmond on Cybernats<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQd5IN2bIh_RNBgNoWe3Ewj-lYldSIqggrvtE0ImXa0KiMXlK7By6yO0qd5_dZneqOFEUmxn3_WDOTkKdk2hLfwbZUoJ9oTyWf4Wk_eGsSZZXtUXcH8dpIPos-DUGj1b6fzgeMkL0YnqQ/s1600-h/alex-salmond-01.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 122px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 121px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5411763843450497026" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQd5IN2bIh_RNBgNoWe3Ewj-lYldSIqggrvtE0ImXa0KiMXlK7By6yO0qd5_dZneqOFEUmxn3_WDOTkKdk2hLfwbZUoJ9oTyWf4Wk_eGsSZZXtUXcH8dpIPos-DUGj1b6fzgeMkL0YnqQ/s200/alex-salmond-01.jpg" /></a> <span style="font-size:130%;">Alex Salmond, to delegates, SNP National Council in Perth, Saturday, 5th December, 2009:<br /></span><br /><blockquote>"The Internet Is a wonderful tool. It gives us a means to engage with the public, to motivate activists and to affirm our positive case for Scottish independence.<br /><br />We must use the Internet for positive campaigns, to build our case and not get engaged in the negative agenda.<br /><br />The SNP can only win and will only win on a positive agenda"<br /></blockquote><br /><p align="center"><strong><span style="color:#6600cc;">"Cybernats"- do you get the message?</span></strong><br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;color:#ff0000;">Pious unionists - is that clear enough for you?</span></strong></p><p align="center"><strong></strong><br /><br /></p><p align="center"><strong>Sunday Update</strong>: By popular request, a link to Joan McAlpines excllent article on <a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article6945842.ece">The "Cybernats"</a> in today's Sunday Times, Scotland.</p>Alan Smarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08238599957331198637noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4246949609296207366.post-14360401753034244432009-12-01T16:59:00.016+00:002009-12-03T14:33:42.217+00:00News of Moridura - and now others!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjboSFAt6453hGsSZKjT4SiALviTrZIVbEdGOFkIsMWBiku6aa3etsmCjO7lhLRM-Cf71Xtw3gOMGSsVgaPK9VmgSG4k7FACzBmtp5CRWCH5w3-MGUyEEkITg6mtqlcBz470QWXbwRKIHE/s1600/mori.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 102px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5410324726478121314" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjboSFAt6453hGsSZKjT4SiALviTrZIVbEdGOFkIsMWBiku6aa3etsmCjO7lhLRM-Cf71Xtw3gOMGSsVgaPK9VmgSG4k7FACzBmtp5CRWCH5w3-MGUyEEkITg6mtqlcBz470QWXbwRKIHE/s400/mori.jpg" /></a><br /><div align="justify">Amid the controversy that has lead to the demise of the <em>Wardog </em>and <em>Universality of Cheese</em> blogs in recent days, many will have also noticed that the highly respected <em><strong>Ancient Order of Moridura</strong></em> blog has also disappeared - gone "invite only" if you go looking.</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify">Understandably, there was some speculation that yet another nationalist minded blogger had been pressurised into a low profile/out of existence by our media friends. I can happily ( but also sadly) report that this is not the case. Rather Moridura ( Peter ) has just decided to stop and focus his energies into more conventional writing, and also - you will be pleased to learn - though concentrating on his video clips service, which is now best accessed through his continuing <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/TAofMoridura">YouTube channel.</a></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify">Nevertheless, the passing of the Moridura blog is to be regretted. It was, in my view, one of the very best. Indeed, at times "blog" did not do its posts justice - often we were treated to mini-essays, immaculately researched , cross-referenced and often illustrated by the aforementioned video clips. Peter's blog was the antithesis of the "cybernat" stereotype - always polite and ecumenical in its outlook. But nat and cyber for sure.</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify">Hopefully, <em>Moidura</em> is just taking a break and will return in some form or another in due course. One disappointment is that the blog is now closed for viewing rather than left online and open to all with a "gone fishing" note. Because, even as an archive and source of info, many of the posts are still very useful. But more than this - if any new (or old!) bloggers want to see how it should be done - and done well - they could go look at it. Or for that matter any journos who want to see how "cybernats" can hold them to account through rigorous and well researched argument rather than self-defeating abuse. </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Stop Press</span></strong><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">You can now access the blog archive without invite </span><a href="http://moridura.blogspot.com/"><span style="font-size:130%;">online</span></a><br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;color:#cc0000;">Stop Stop Press</span></strong><br />I the near immediate wake of this sad news, I also hear prominant "nat" bloggers <a href="http://subrosa-blonde.blogspot.com/">Subrosa</a> and <a href="http://advancedmediawatch.blogspot.com/">Advanced Media Watch</a> have also decided to call it a day: For their own and differing reasons, but I cant help think there is some sort of inter-relationship in all of this.<br /><br />Needless to say these two blogs will also be badly missed, up their with <em>Moridura</em> in terms of the quality of their posts and overall eccumenical, non-abusive approach. Good luck to them all.Alan Smarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08238599957331198637noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4246949609296207366.post-66168555723442608242009-11-30T12:01:00.006+00:002009-11-30T12:37:02.563+00:00Independence White Paper<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAQm6Ejo6OZa6Zf78J9so3MlwT35yll4RMBi-TFQ4lh7NUZinPb1BTd69yKPbfkjWSH1mVIj6Y-xukiNivw6MvZydQPNJXVnVRbotYuP-31T3WGLr2EosHB5FhiHRzbw9h__IeSqM0QX0/s1600/st-andrew180.jpg"><span style="font-size:130%;"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 180px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 120px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5409865961842365218" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAQm6Ejo6OZa6Zf78J9so3MlwT35yll4RMBi-TFQ4lh7NUZinPb1BTd69yKPbfkjWSH1mVIj6Y-xukiNivw6MvZydQPNJXVnVRbotYuP-31T3WGLr2EosHB5FhiHRzbw9h__IeSqM0QX0/s200/st-andrew180.jpg" /></span></a><span style="font-size:130%;">I think I will </span><a href="http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2009/11/26155932/0"><span style="font-size:130%;">read it</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"> before commenting<br /></span><div></div><br /><div>In the meantime, happy St Andrew's Day and a wee word from the doyen of Tory bloggers Iain Dale!</div><br /><strong>Scottish Parties Are Blind to the Obvious</strong><br /><a href="http://iaindale.blogspot.com/">Iain Dale</a>, 30 Nov, 2009<br /><br /><em><blockquote><em>Blinkered. That's the only way to describe the idiotic decision by the three main parties to oppose a referendum on Scottish independence, which the SNP promised in their manifesto and are delivering on today, when they issue a white paper. If there's one way to whip up separationist tendencies Tavish Scott, Iain Gray and Annabelle Goldie appear to have found it.<br /><br />The SNP have a mandate for the referendum. Perhaps I am missing something, and no doubt you will tell me if I am, but the SNP would lose a referendum of it were taken within the next year, so what have the three main parties got to lose by allowing the SNP to press ahead? If the vote is lost it would kill the SNP's electoral fortunes for a decade or more.<br /><br />The simplest path when it comes to a vote in the Scottish Parliament is for the other parties to abstain. But it looks as if they will continue to act like ostriches and use the referendum as a stick to beat the SNP with. Alex Salmond may have had a bad year, but he is not to be underestimated. As a political tactician he is in a different league to his opponents, and they would do well to remember that."</em></blockquote></em>Alan Smarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08238599957331198637noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4246949609296207366.post-63300950295202644022009-11-26T12:16:00.007+00:002009-11-26T12:40:19.510+00:00Jim Murphy's Calman White Paper - how nationalists should respond<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTs-gH4RyHNbuHka0vahUdfu3yzonlBwW8zLzQLz9AWouyIcKUUL17nrn7aGgQuUKE8BfBdkfKjpuzqfHwhmIOR9-9YhhwjmfbSA3ufEs667c6EpbuZPr1N6933FXgZZJcl-98RHkA9kM/s1600/jim'll%2520fix%2520it%2520400.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 232px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 201px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5408390178386664450" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTs-gH4RyHNbuHka0vahUdfu3yzonlBwW8zLzQLz9AWouyIcKUUL17nrn7aGgQuUKE8BfBdkfKjpuzqfHwhmIOR9-9YhhwjmfbSA3ufEs667c6EpbuZPr1N6933FXgZZJcl-98RHkA9kM/s320/jim'll%2520fix%2520it%2520400.jpg" /></a> <strong>Simply - "<em>put to to a referendum vote."</em></strong><br /><div></div><div>Because Calman is radical - in terms of tax powers, a big change from what Scots were <strong>made </strong>to vote for in a specific question on tax in the referendum of 1997. So if you want to change these powers, have a specific vote.</div><br /><div>In this regard the SNP is in danger of clouding the issue over its demands that aspects of the Calman Report over which there is "consensus" - those that relate to firearms legislation and speed limits - be implemented now. I see where they are coming from, but it's a confusing message.</div><br /><div>"<em>Give us all a vote Jim</em>" is what we should be demanding loud and clear. This is about the <em>sovereignty of the Scottish people</em>, not a cosy "consensus" cobbled together by a self appointed committee and a bunch of politicians.</div><br /><div>And of course they fear a referendum - on near anything. </div>Alan Smarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08238599957331198637noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4246949609296207366.post-7980771889336413462009-11-22T16:48:00.003+00:002009-11-22T17:11:26.978+00:00Labour's Next PEB?<p><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/AR98VVgyGF4&hl=en_GB&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/AR98VVgyGF4&hl=en_GB&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></p>Alan Smarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08238599957331198637noreply@blogger.com0