Save our Scottish Police from the SNP, Conservatives and Labour plans

There is a massive campaign brewing here in Scotland and the political parties are lining up on one side or the other.

The SNP put forward proposals to scrap the current eight Scottish Constabularies and replace it with just one.

The cost will be at least £92million and cost between 3,000 - 4,000 frontline police officers.

Both the Labour party and Conservatives have joined the SNP and now all three also want to create just one fire service as well. Labour also want to centralise care and NHS services.

Although the Liberal Democrats are often against centralisation, the proposals by Alex Salmond, Iain Gray and Annabel Goldie just don't make sense in many areas of Scotland - especially in the rural communities and the many islands that make up this great country.

Their expensive proposals must be stopped.

You can watch Tavish Scott and Charles Kennedy explain why below.




You can sign the online petition HERE and like the facebook campaign page HERE.

Labour run Haringey Council - the truth about the cuts

I tend to keep my eye on the political situations in the areas I have worked for the last decade, after working for Lynne Featherstone MP as her head of office immediately after the 2005 general election for eighteen months, Harinegy is one of those on my watch list.

In 2006 we were just 94 votes away from taking control of Haringey Council, unfortunately in 2010 that goal slipped, but the silver lining was Lynne holding her seat and then going on to become a Minister of State.

Haringey Council run by old Labour for years has never been shy of blaming other people when they have had to make cuts, so this year when they announced they were having to slice £60million from the budget, everyone wondered who's fault it was.

The Labour Councillors blamed the new coalition government.

The Daily Telegraph journalist, Andrew Gilligan decided to look at the books, rather than just believe the hype.

Long-suffering readers of Haringey People, Haringey Council's taxpayer-funded propaganda newspaper, used to know what to expect. Smiling Labour politicians at new Sure Start centres, holding shovels. Happy multi-ethnic children in eco-friendly wigwams. Page after glossy page on how their brilliant council had turned this grimy chunk of north London into a municipal Shangri-La, one composting bin at a time.

Now, however, to the consternation of local residents, Haringey People's world has suddenly and dramatically darkened. Uplifting articles about new fairtrade procurement schemes have given way to vast pieces printed on sinister black backgrounds and illustrated with tottering piles of pound coins.

"The government cuts are a hammer blow to the people of Haringey," says a grim-faced council leader, Claire Kober, in the rag's latest issue. Overnight, it seems, evil Tory cuts have transformed Avalon into Hades.

Photo: Demotix/melpressmen

In Andrew Gilligan's article he really does look at everything the Council published, and then looks behind the closed doors and investigates the figures in great detail, leaving no stone unturned.

Last week, in rowdy scenes, Haringey voted to close four residential care homes and six old people's day centres, halve park maintenance and cut three-quarters of its youth service: hammer blows indeed, at least for users of those services, and a tale repeated across the country as local authorities struggle to come to grips with the spending cuts demanded by the Lib-Con coalition.

The article goes on.

Haringey says the £60 million was their estimate before they knew their full grant settlement, and the £46 million was publicised before some last contributions from Whitehall came in. They insist there is "no question of our having exaggerated the impact of these unprecedented cuts".
Yet the story doesn't end there. According to the council's own budget papers, the cut in its Whitehall grant next year will actually be £27 million – less than half the amount it initially claimed.

So, if the council's grant is going down by only £27 million, why is it cutting £41 million? Well, a few months ago (coincidentally, just as the anti-cuts campaign was getting up steam), a mysterious need to spend an extra £26 million next year, described as a "change and variation" figure, popped up in Haringey's accounts. Without this, the budget would be more or less in balance without needing many cuts.

We asked the council what this £26 million was for. They said it was partly inflation – which you'd think they might have allowed for already – and partly because they expected there to be "increased demand pressures" on their services over the next three years.

Service demand may indeed grow as the economy continues to stutter. The population is also getting older, and the elderly are a big part of council budgets. But, according to its own figures, Haringey is budgeting for 85 per of the "increased demand" over the three-year period to come in the first year alone. And though "changes and variations" are, insists the council, annual events in its accounting process, it just so happens that next year's is unusually large – though Haringey denies front-loading to make the squeeze look worse.

Even ministers admit that a lot of money has been taken away from councils this year, and it seems clear that some cuts have been forced on Haringey. But the actual amount needed is anyone's guess. It could be the council's £41 million. Or it could be as low as £10 million. Local government finance has been more or less deliberately designed – by Whitehall as much as town hall – to be hideously complicated, to frustrate real accountability and to allow everyone to blame everyone else.

On the subject of £10 million, there's one last nugget from the Haringey Council paperwork. As part of its budget process, the council was obliged to assess the impact of each cut. This has been buried pretty deep, but once you find it, it turns out that just under, well, £10 million of the cuts next year – nearly a quarter – are assessed by even the council itself as having nil, minimal or even, in a few cases, beneficial impacts on service users. In other words, it is at least possible that Haringey might have needed few, if any, "hammer-blow" cuts.

But that might not have made such a good headline in the Haringey People.

Well done to Andrew Gilligan to not just believing the hype coming out from Miliband and his cronies across the country.

You can read the full article here as I have only used two extracts.

They have left this country paying £120million per day in interest alone on the debts they left behind, it really is time that they and their councillors in Haringey started taking some responsibility for their actions instead of trying to blame everyone else around them.

Ed Miliband is forced into a reshuffle Balls-up

Veteran Labour politician  Alan Johnson MP has resigned today as the Shadow Chancellor for personal reasons after just three and a half months.

In a statement, Alan Johnson MP said:

"I have decided to resign from the shadow cabinet for personal reasons to do with my family."

Today's announcement follows several recent gaffes by Alan Johnson when discussing tax and economic matters, including a recent in an interview when didn't know the rate of National Insurance paid by employers!

Rumours are rife in Westminster about why Johnson has gone.  Guido has more details.

So, Ed Miliband is forced into reshuffling his titanic team - Alan Johnson is replaced by Ed Balls, previously the shadow home secretary.  Mr Balls' wife, Yvette Cooper, takes over at home affairs, Douglas Alexander becomes shadow foreign secretary and Tessa Jowell becomes shadow Cabinet Office minister.

So, Balls gets a promotion - Gordon Brown's left hand man gets what he wants.

Liam Byrne, the Labour MP who left a note on his desk in the treasury saying "there is no money left" when Labour were kicked out of Government is made shadow work and pensions secretary.

It is somewhat astounding that someone who can be so flippant finds themselves promoted.

The other strange thing about this new look cabinet, it is just like the Gordon Brown cabinet, full of people denying they had anything to do with forcing us into the position we are in now where we face paying £120million per day in interest alone, enough to build a new school every hour!

Stephen Williams, Co-Chair of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Treasury Committee, commented earlier on the resignation of Alan Johnson MP:

“I wish Alan Johnson good luck for the future.

“The decision to appoint Ed Balls as Shadow Chancellor shows that the Labour Party is now determined to carry on with the Gordon Brown economic plan that caused so much trouble for this country.

“Ed Balls isn’t just a deficit denier, he’s a deficit enthusiast.”

Well done Stephen Williams MP, great line.

Labour's one trick pony Ed Miliband appeals to Lib Dems (again) - my response

Ed Miliband takes over the leadership of the Labour Party thanks to the Union votes after the Labour MPs and members turned their back on him and he declares this the new generation Labour and that New Labour is dead.

Since then he has denied the last thirteen years happened and blames the Liberal Democrats and Conservative coalition government for absolutely everything he can.

Including the introduction of student tuition fees, the disgraceful 75p pension increase, the complete waste of money introducing ID Cards, the fingerprinting of children, the illegal war in Iraq, doubling the 10p basic rate of income tax, selling off the UKs gold at the lowest price for 20 years, the major tax credit bungle, not standing up to the bankers and leaving us to pay off debts including £120 million per day on interest alone.

Now he has scrapped all of their policies and swapped it for a blank sheet of paper.

He has appealed to Liberal Democrat members and voters to join him and his lack of vision, not once, but four times in as many months.

He claimed today that thousands of Liberal Democrats had joined Labour since May, yet thousands of Liberal Democrats have not left since May, in fact we have seen an increase in our membership so more nonsense from him.

Philip Hammond MP, the Transport Secretary (Conservative) said;

"Most Liberal Democrats understand that we have to address the fundamental economic challenges this country now faces before we can build the progressive society that we all want to live in and until Ed Miliband has a credible plan for dealing with the deficit he's not in a position to make a pitch to anybody,"

That is exactly the point, the other option in May was the supposed rainbow coalition, but Labour included caveats such as they would work with the SNP for example, so that option was doomed before it started.

 Yes, the Liberal Democrats could have not bothered with either party and left the Conservatives to operate as a minority government, but given the childish behaviour of the Labour Party they would have voted against everything they ever proposed meaning nothing would have happened and we would have faced a second general election in 2010.

I don't think the voters would have stood for that either.

Yes, I agree with Nick - going into coalition government was the right way forward for the country and the media and Labourites are gloating over our national poll ratings of 8/9% yet on Thursday night in Oldham East & Saddleworth we once again polled over 30%, not just a poll but real votes in real ballot boxes.

So Ed, we are all getting bored of your repeated requests to join your blank page party, we remember your record over the 13 years despite you repeatedly forgetting about it - you are a one trick pony and your trick of asking Lib Dems to join your party is wearing thin. 

Ed you need a new trick, maybe you should do the same as your Deputy, stay silent and say nothing until you have something to say.

Nick Clegg's Liberal Democrats in by-election meltdown?

No, we are not. 

Despite the best efforts of the United Kingdom's media pack, the Labour Party with their new leader Ed "I know nothing of the last 13 years" Miliband and even some whingers in our own party to destroy us during the Oldham East & Saddleworth by-election, they failed.  They all failed.

Our share of the vote went up, only a small increase, but it went up.

Am I disappointed?

Of course I am.  I'm gutted for Elwyn Watkins and every single one of the campaign team, who gave their all, trying new techniques and some of the old favourites to take the seat from Labour.

The public never really see and understand the sheer determination and work rate party workers and volunteers put into a by-election - yes, for many of us it does become personal, but that's because we believe. 

We believe in our candidates, we believe in our policies, maybe not all of them but then none of us ever join an organisation because we believe in every aspect of that organisation do we?

I joined the Chelsea FC Supporters Club because I passionately believe in my team, I don't agree with what Roman Abramovich is currently doing at the club, especially getting rid of Wilko or the fact the players have become a little nonchalant.

Politics is exactly the same, I don't agree with some of the policy decisions made now we are in coalition the same as I disagreed with some when I started delivering leaflets twenty plus years ago, but it is a compromise, just like life.

The majority of voters in Oldham East & Saddleworth didn't vote last night and that makes me angry, people have died in this country to ensure we have a vote within our democracy and yet some people never vote - often the loudest complainers afterwards and that is a sad state of affairs.  I hope that changes after May once the referendum on fair votes has taken place, a great step forward in reforming our politics.

The media have been almost obsessed with the Liberal Democrats during this by-election, predicting doom, gloom, the collapse of our vote, the party going into meltdown, Clegg's resignation, the collapse of the coalition, the end of the world.  Okay, not the last one, but that was the general direction of their mood, spiralling downwards.

Once again they were wrong.

When will the media start reporting on the news and using facts not guess work and their own wild predictions?

The Conservatives suffered the worst in this by-election, losing over 7,000 votes since May, a drop of over 13% in the share of the vote.

Also, a note of warning for Ed Miliband who no doubt is going to be smug about the result - just remember Ed, more people voted for the coalition in this by-election than voted for Labour.  You aren't out of the woods yet.

You may have forgotten what Labour did to this great country and the people who live here over the last thirteen years, but they haven't.

The by-election had been called after disgraced former MP, Labour's Phil Woolas was found guilty by two High Court judges of knowingly lying to voters in a last-ditch bid to hold his seat at the General Election.


A mixed week for Miliband - one former MP jailed, one found guilty of fraud and an election hold.


The result of the Oldham East and Saddleworth Parliamentary by-election:


Lab 14,718
LD Elwyn Watkins 11,160
Conservatives 4,481
UKIP 2,029
BNP 1,560
Green 530
Monster Raving Loony 145
English Democrats 144
Bus Pass Elvis 67
Pirate 96
48.06% turnout

Labour HOLD.

Why won't Eric Illsley MP quit today?

Earlier this week, on Tuesday Eric Illsley, MP for Barnsley Central  pleaded guilty to dishonestly claiming £14,000 of parliamentary expenses.  There were three charges of false accounting, where Illsley admitted to dishonestly claiming payments for insurance, repairs, utility bills and council tax at his second home between 2005 and 2008!

In a statement issued by his office, Eric Illsley said:

"I would like to apologise to my constituents, family and friends, following my court appearance, for the distress and embarrassment caused by my actions that I deeply, deeply regret.

"I have begun to wind down my parliamentary office, following which I will resign from Parliament before my next court appearance.

"I will be making no further comment."

So, former Labour MP (stood in May 2010 as Labour candidate) Eric Illsley is winding down his offices and will resign as an MP before his next court hearing.

Very noble some may say.

But why is he waiting, why not resign now?  Why was yesterday's statement not in fact his resignation announcement?

If you read the BBC's Nick Robinson's article you see very well Eric Illsley's attitude to Parliamentary expenses, and it isn't pretty.

He is the only current sitting MP to have been charged in relation to his expenses.

Former Labour MP David Chaytor is serving an 18-month jail term after pleading guilty to dishonestly claiming expenses.

There is an online petition you can sign calling for Eric Illsley MP to resign immediately, I'm signature 1990, I'm surprised more people have not signed this.
 
It is an absolute disgrace that these Labour and former Labour MPs have shafted the public for years ripping people off, claiming money they had no right to whatsoever, on top of larger salaries than most of their own constituents earn.
 
Eric Illsley should resign today and not receive a penny more in salary or expenses.

My response to Ed Miliband's request to join him and Labour - their lies, hypocrisy and arrogance

Labour really do not learn, do they?

Repeatedly, various Labour folk are inviting Lib Dems, sometimes angry Lib Dems to join the Labour Party.

Now Ed Miliband, their new leader (who has been around and part of the previous government for years) is trying to entice Lib Dems to join him in the new re branded Labour Party.  We've heard all this nonsense before though.

Ed Miliband has already laid out the welcome mat for Lib Dems back in August, it didn't work back then.

His brother David, also tried to invite me and other Lib Dems in September to join the Labour Party - you can read my response to him HERE.

Before that we had Derek Simpson of the UNITE Union trying to get Lib Dems to rip up their membership cards and join Labour, I explained to him why I wouldn't be doing so.

This is the Labour Party that they wanted me to join, the same Labour Party who;

through their reckless borrowing have left us with huge debts and daily payments of £120 million (yes, that is correct per day), that's just to cover the interest payments on their loans!

think it's acceptable for their deputy leader, Harriet Harman MP to personally insult other MPs!

are close to bankruptcy themselves with debts of £20million!

were proud to introduce tuition fees for students!

were complete hypocrites over NHS Direct - Labour planned to scrap it and replace it with a 111 service yet criticised the coalition for doing the same!

took us to an illegal war in Iraq wasting billions and billions of our taxes!

raised pensions by just a mere 75p a week!

So, when I think back over the last thirteen years and the damage Labour did to this country, no, I will not rip up my membership card - in fact I have just renewed my membership, with an increase in my monthly direct debit - nor will I leave the party and join Labour.

Already the Lib Dems in Government have achieved;

restoring the earnings link to pensions

taking 900,000 people out of paying income tax from April 2011

the ending of child detention

the scrapping of the third runway at Heathrow airport

Four major achievments in just six months, you can read more about what the Liberal Democrats have achieved through being part of the Coalition Government HERE.

The more Labour target us to join them, the more they target our voters the more determined we will become to fight their lies, their hypocrisy and their arrogance.

Labour's Alan Johnson MP: We should be proud of our brave and correct decision to introduce tuition fees

Back in September, Labour's Alan Johnson MP gave some advice to the newly elected Labour leader Ed Miliband via The Independent.

"We should be proud of our brave and correct decision to introduce tuition fees. Students don't pay them, graduates do, when they're earning more than £15,000 a year, at very low rates, stopped from their pay just like a graduate tax, but with the money going where it belongs: to universities rather than the Treasury."

So, what does Aaron Porter and the NUS say to that?

Or are they still silent on what Labour say/do just preferring to attack the Liberal Democrats and Nick Clegg specifically?

Labour have failed the people of Glasgow according to Bill Butler MSP

Last week the Scottish Government published a report on the City of Glasgow which found evidence of
poor diet, increased anxiety and ill health.

Now, two years ago during the Glasgow East by-election there were hundreds of stories describing the deprivation, the shorter life spans and many other health concerns of the residents of Glasgow.

So I was a little surprised to see this press release in response to the above mentioned report, from the Scottish Labour MSP for Glasgow Anniesland, Bill Butler, which quoted him as saying;

"This report shows that much more needs to be done to fight poverty and should serve as a wake-up call to politicians. We need a relentless campaign to raise expectations, drive up living standards and encourage people to live healthier lifestyles.

"In this context, the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition's decisions to cut programmes that will hit the poorest hardest is absolutely disgraceful.

“Many of Glasgow’s communities are still struggling to recover from the last Tory government and further cutbacks will condemn too many vulnerable people to a hard life, ill health and an early death."

 I have never heard such a hypocritical rant from a Labour politician for a while now.

The Labour Party ran the Scottish Government for eight years from 1999 to 2007, they ran the Westminster Government from 1997 to May this year and have run the City of Glasgow Council for around 40 years.

So why did Bill Butler's Labour Party not solve the problem during that 40 year period?

I will explain why, because Labour didn't know how to solve the problems so just threw money (and continue to do so) at the problem areas and hope someone somewhere will sort it out with no one person responsible for reviewing the work of the schemes that just hand the money out.

The Labour Party like to operate by blaming everyone else for their mistakes, whether it be the previous Tory Westminster government (thrown out of power back in 1997) or the new current Lib Dem-Tory coalition government which has been in power a mere 6 months.

Just look how many ministers over those 13 years were Scottish MPs and yet they failed the people of Glasgow who despite being let down by Labour over the years continue to ignore the problems thrown at them and continue to thrive within their communities.

Bill Butler needs to accept he has played a part in the issues contained in the report he has casually thrown out comments to.

Phil Woolas MP loses court case over his election

So, Phil Woolas MP has lost the controversial court case and the high court judges have ordered a re-run.

A specially-convened election court - the first of its kind for 99 years - was set up in Saddleworth in September to hear the charges against Mr Woolas.

Phil Woolas is described on the Labour website as;

He is Minister of State at the Home Office responsible for borders and immigration.

I suspect that Ed Miliband, Labour's leader is wondering now if he should have made Woolas the shadow minister for immigration (that is his correct job) given that he has now been found guilty of knowingly making false statements about Mr Watkins (Lib Dem candidate) in campaign literature during the general election.

From the BBC (and many other sources);

Mr Woolas was accused of stirring up racial tensions in his campaign leaflets by suggesting Mr Watkins had pandered to Muslim militants, and had refused to condemn death threats Mr Woolas said he had received from such groups.

Mr Woolas ran a "risky" campaign, the court was told, designed to "galvanise the white Sun vote" because he feared he faced defeat on poling day.

The former minister was also accused of making a false statement that Mr Watkins had reneged on a promise to live within the constituency prior to the election.

Declaring the May poll result void, Mr Justice Nigel Teare and Mr Justice Griffith Williams said Mr Woolas knew all three statements were untrue, and was therefore guilty of illegal practices under election law.

They said:

"In our judgment to say that a person has sought the electoral support of persons who advocate extreme violence, in particular to his personal opponent, clearly attacks his personal character or conduct.

"It suggests that he is willing to condone threats of violence in pursuit of personal advantage.

"Having considered the evidence which was adduced in court we are sure that these statements were untrue. We are also sure that the respondent had no reasonable grounds for believing them to be true and did not believe them to be true."

The case was brought under Section 106 of the Representation of the People Act.
This makes it an offence to publish "any false statement of fact in relation to the candidate's personal character or conduct" to prevent them being elected - unless they believed it was true and had "reasonable grounds" to do so.

Labour and the Unions are hypocrites on the cuts within the CSR

Yesterday morning I had been at the Scottish Liberal Democrats HQ attending a meeting.  Afterwards I headed down Princes Street and was passing when some of the speeches to the massed protesters (not 20,000 at this point, nearer 2,000) were taking place.

I have never heard so many hypocrites, one after another.  All the union spokespeople were complaining bitterly that their members will be affected in one way or another by the outcomes of the Comprehensive Spending Review.

I am all for the unions standing up for their members rights.

What galls me is the sheer hypocrisy of it though.  None of these unions were lambasting Labour in the last thirteen years for spending money like it was going out of fashion, were they?

Not one union leader has complained about Labour plunging the UK into debt over recent years?

How come all of the union leaders and members are happy that the UK is spending £120 million, per day just on the interest on the amount the previous Labour government borrowed?

Sorry guys, but you laughed at Vince Cable and the Liberal Democrats when they pointed out to you that Labour's borrowing was getting out of hand.

Now you sit back and have jumped on the bandwagon to complain about the cuts, yet you remain completely silent about the positive aspects of the CSR.

I am sorry but the Labour politicians and union leaders are nothing more than a bunch of hypocrites.

Ed Miliband MP lays out welcome mat for Lib Dems and concedes defeat in leadership race

This evening I have begun to wonder if the Labour leadership race had finished because Ed Miliband MP seems to have a lot of spare time on his hands talking to Liberal Democrats.

Instead of making up stupid stories perhaps he should concentrate on persuading Labour Members to vote for him.

Aha.

Now I get it, he is admitting he has lost already and therefore conceding defeat in the Labour leadership race hence why he now has time to start talking to the media about made up stories about the Liberal Democrats.

Yesterday we had the nonsense about the supposed defection to Labour of Charles Kennedy MP - to which Charles has responded that he would;

"go out of this world feet first with my Lib Dem membership card in my pocket"

Today we have Ed Miliband MP saying that;

"I also know that there is widespread unhappiness among Liberal Democrat MPs. I think the idea that everyone is hunky-dory with what's going on is wrong.


"I am not going to start predicting who is going to defect and when they might do so, but I think there is a real chance for us to show that this coalition is going in the wrong direction as far as Lib Dem MPs are concerned - and as I say, the welcome mat is out."

So I am therefore not surprised that Ed Miliband MP, David Miliband MP and even Derek Simpson of Unite have all tried to intimidate and cajole Liberal Democrats to join Labour.

I am however amazed that any of these three chaps have the gall to attempt to persuade Lib Dems to defect given their behaviour towards not only Charles Kennedy  during the Iraq war but the Party over the last thirteen years, but then when did hypocrisy ever stop the Labour Party or Unions before.

Just look at the illegal war in Iraq that Labour MPs supported and voted for and yet now those in the Labour leadership race are distancing themselves from the decision to go into war. Hypocrites.

Let us also remember that it was Labour that stopped the rainbow coalition government being formed because of their refusal to work with the SNP, also in reality bringing so many parties together would not have had a balanced or steady work flow to achieve anything whereas the grown up approach of both the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives has already seen dividends.

Also, how many Lib Dems would have been unhappy about us forming a coalition with Labour/SNP/Plaid/Green/DUP etc etc?

Don't get me wrong, I am not in favour of the Conservative Party (nor ever will I be) and I will be doing everything in my power over the next nine/ten months to beat them in every constituency and region across Scotland to get Tavish Scott as First Minister and the Liberal Democrats as the Government of Scotland.

There will be policy announcements and changes that my moral compass doesn't agree with, but very few people join a political party because of just one individual thing, as even Ed Miliband very well knows.

I wasn't overly happy about the VAT increase - but I would rather justify that than the murder of innocent Iraqi's.

I am a Liberal Democrat, proud of being so and proud that we are in government now achieving real results like scrapping ID cards, ending child detention, voting reform, an elected second chamber and taking 900,000 out of paying any income tax for starters.

I am however, very unhappy that we are having to waste time sorting out and paying for the Labour Party's frivolous attitude to spending public money (and their own) over the last thirteen years.
So, no I won't be wiping my feet on Ed Miliband's welcome mat, he can shove that request up where the sun don't shine!

Two jobs Lord Foulkes to quit Holyrood

Labour Peer, Lord Foulkes who is also an MSP is to quit Holyrood in favour of the House of Lords, but not until May next year at the Scottish elections.

In the Scotsman Lord Foulkes said:

"I have made it clear my name is not to go forward even for an allegedly 'unwinnable' seat."

Lord Foulkes has apparently, with others been disappointed by Holyrood.

"Up until now, Holyrood has, for various reasons, disappointed some of us who were among the founders of the institution."

 Surely though as one of the founders as he states he should have influenced changes to improve it?

But he is happier now he has seen the calibre of the candidates from all parties who are putting their names forward to stand in next years elections.

"I see among the new candidates being selected for all parties great hope for the future and the opportunity for it now to really fulfil its potential."

Lord Foulkes was elected to Holyrood in 2007. As well as being a life peer, he has also previously served as an MP.  When Labour won the 1997 general election he was made a junior minister in the Department of International Development before later becoming Minister of State for Scotland.

SNP spend £1million on ministers limos

As hundreds and thousands of us face tightening our belts and watching the household spending the SNP ministers carry on living a life of luxury at taxpayers expense.

A total of £929,899 has been spent on ferrying around ministers and senior government officials, and a further £65,759 on private hire vehicles.

The cost of running and maintaining a 25-car fleet, plus staff costs, had increased compared to previous years.

The SNP finance minister John Swinney was criticised earlier this year for making a 200-yard journey to a television studio in a chauffeur-driven limousine.


Perhaps he like other ministers should learn to put their left foot in front of the right and then carry on as before, it's called walking.
 
Ironically the figures were unearthed by Labour's Lord George Foulkes who himself had claimed, according to the SNP £27,576 for his taxpayer funded trips to and from London, over £15,000 of which went on flights since his election to the Scottish Parliament in May 2007.


It is great to see Labour and the SNP are as hypocritical as each other.  STV have the full story and figures.

Derek Brownlee MSP fails to become Conservative candidate for Dumfries

The Conservative MSP for the South of Scotland, Derek Brownlee had recently thrown his hat in the ring to become the Conservative Party candidate for the Holyrood seat of Dumfries, currently held by Elaine Murray MSP of the Labour Party.

This seat at the next election will be a top target for the Conservatives so selecting the right candidate is key.

Unfortunately news reaches my little blog that last Monday the count took place to select the next Conservative candidate for the 2011 election, but Derek Brownlee didn't win.

Although Derek Brownlee was not the local party's first choice, he lost out by just one vote it appears to local Councillor Gillian Dykes.

This must have been a major blow for Derek Brownlee, but at least he can continue as the South of Scotland MSP for the Conservatives.

Will the Conservatives put pressure on Councillor Dykes to move aside or will they just accept the decision and move on?

Derek Brownlee isn't the only person unhappy with the selection of Gillian Dykes, her fellow ward Councillor, Labour Councillor Dempster said the party must be “desperate when they select someone directly responsible for cutting teachers and public transport”.

From today's Dumfries & Galloway Standard;

In a statement sent out by the Labour Party, Mr Dempster said: “Only last week she tried and failed to cut even more. This ‘Cuts Councillor’ has launched the largest assault on education our region has ever seen but wants to cut even deeper.

“She is part of the administration that wanted to close ARCs and had to be shamed into dropping the proposal by the scale of outrage they caused.

“She introduced a hurtful disabled tax that is now being investigated by the Equalities Commission for breaking the law.”

The rant continued: “I am shocked that someone who has been so focused on attacking the vulnerable and elderly thinks they could represent us in Parliament.

“People in Nithsdale don’t want an MSP whose priority is to sack teachers, cut classroom assistants and increase charges for our pensioners.”

 So, it's gloves off in Dumfries, or Dumfriesshire as the seat will be known at the election on 5th May 2011.

Labour MSP Frank McAveety resigns after microphone mishap

You would think after Gordon Brown being involved in a microphone mishap creating "bigotgate" with Gillian Duffy in Rochdale during the general election that politicians, especially Labour ones would have learnt a lesson.

Well, apparently no, Glasgow Shettleston MSP Frank McAveety has been plunged into a crisis resulting in him resigning as Labour's frontbench shadow sports spokesman and also his position as the convenor of the Public Petitions Committee.

Members of the Public Petitions Committee had just finished taking evidence from Parkinson's disease campaigners Frank McAveety began speaking to his committee clerk about a girl in the public benches.
He started by saying: "There's a very attractive girl in the second row, dark … and dusky. We'll maybe put a wee word out for her."

Mr McAveety continued: "She's very attractive looking, nice, very nice, very slim," before adding: "The heat's getting to me."

The MSP added: "She looks kinda … she's got that Filipino look. You know … the kind you'd see in a Gauguin painting. There's a wee bit of culture."

Unfortunately for Frank McAveety the microphones were all still on.

Peter Mandelson's resignation forces Harriet Harman to reshuffle

Yesterday as the world watched the new Liberal Democrat - Conservative coalition government announce the full details of the coalition agreement, Alex Salmond shouting at Iain Gray or even Annabel Goldie moving deck chairs around there were two quiet resignations.

Lords Peter Mandelson and Andrew Adonis yesterday both quit the Labour shadow cabinet.

On any other day these resignations would have been major news, I have to confess I didn't even notice them despite being on twitter and having my nose in the news websites all day.

What is also surprising is the, quite honestly pathetic, reasons given for them quitting.

Labour said it was "very difficult" to act as a shadow cabinet minister from the House of Lords.


WHAT!?

How is it possible to be more difficult now as a shadow minister than when they were the actual cabinet ministers?
 
When it suited Labour to have the Government Ministers sitting in the House of Lords it seemed to work fine, now it no longer suits them, the shadow ministers jump like rats jumping from a sinking ship.
 
I am sorry this is more about Peter Mandelson retiring from Labour politics isn't it?  He realises that because of the new politics of the coalition government, Labour are now going to be out in the wilderness for at least a decade and he doesn't want to hang around that long.
 
I suppose he can look back with pride, this is the third time he has quit front bench politics, however it is the first time it was his own choice though.

Tut tut - Kerry McCarthy breaches election law on Twitter

Naughty naughty Kerry McCarthy, the Labour candidate in Bristol East - who earlier today tweeted figures from the opening of the postal votes in her Bristol East seat.

This is very clearly a breach of electoral law.

Now, to be fair to Kerry McCarthy, she has now deleted the figures but it does show despite councils and the electoral commission providing very clear advice on this that people do still make mistakes.

I remember my first count and many subsequent ones where I was made to sign a secrecy document.

Perhaps that needs to be reiterated to candidates and counting agents alike.

For those who want to know the correct wording of Section 66a, 1983 Representation of the People Act see Mark Pack's blog.

Neil Kinnock admits defeat

In an interview with the New Statesman, prior to "bigot" gate, Neil Kinnock has said it "doesn't look like" his party can win the general election.

That is quite a bold statement for the former Labour leader to make, and heaps yet more pressure on Gordon Brown ahead of this evenings final Prime Ministerial debate.

Today's daily YouGov tracker poll for The Sun - shows the Conservatives up one point on 34%, the Liberal Democrats up three on 31%, and Labour down two on 27%.


Neil Kinnock was the Leader of the Labour Party when they lost the 1992 general election,  and said he would not speculate on the possibility of a coalition between the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats.

On the BBC Neil Kinnock said:

"The likely outcome of this election is more difficult to predict than any other in our political life," he added. 

So, if Neil Kinnock didn't think it likely Labour could win before yesterday, what does he think now?

Annabel Goldie in wee Borders rant (getting it all wrong)

So, despite knowing that there were no flights David Cameron missed the Scottish Conservative manifesto launch (I say Conservative as there is only one Westminster seat they hold up here in Scotland) in Melrose, a beatiful town in the Liberal Democrat constituency of Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk.

There are trains "Dave".  But "Dave" was in fact still in London.

Anyway, Annabel fell into a trap yesterday, and spent around five minutes of her speech ranting and attacking the Liberal Democrats (you know you have them rattled once they start attacking you) with a mild dose of hypocrisy and nonsense.

Perhaps a change by the Conservatives following Nick Cleggs performance on the Leaders debate and recent polling.

"If you vote Liberal Democrat, then you will get Labour." said Annabel.

Nonsense.

If on May 6th you vote Liberal Democrat Annabel, then Michael Moore will be re-elected as the hard working MP for Berwickshire, Roxburgh & Selkirk.

Annabel and call me "Dave" Cameron insult the voters intelligence when they peddle this stupid line.

She then said to John Lamont MSP - "John, you have won this seat once now go and win it again."

Nonsense.

John Lamont MSP won the seat of Roxburgh & Berwickshire - which as any person in the Scottish Borders will tell you, is entirely different to Michael Moore's seat.

Ironically, Annabel then went on to talk about the thousands of people who have lost their jobs in the recession, BUT failed to justify why John Lamont MSP is then seeking a second job and will NOT stand down for twelve monthsafterwards as the MSP.

Two jobs John and Annabel?

When thousands of people have lost their only job? 

Hypocrites.

David Cameron claims he wants to clean up politics and yet two of his MSPs (obviously already bored of their jobsas MSPs) are seeking a second job and have no intention to stand down immediately but will try and do the two jobs part-time for at least one year.

John Lamont is clearly an embarrassment to both of his leaders, Annabel Goldie and David Cameron as they are both on the record now accepting the Kelly report in full - will either of them be telling John Lamont to drop one or other, or have they changed their minds?

In fact the Kelly report states that this practice of sitting in two legislatures should end before the 2011 elections so in fact John Lamont should decide to either (a) quit as an MSP now and fight the general election or (b) quit as a candidate now and focus on what he was elected to do which was a be a full time MSP.

Annabel Goldie has constantly hassled Alex Salmond about this dual mandate issue for a while but is now on the back foot and looking rather stupid because of both John Lamont and Alex Johnstone (another Tory MSP who wants two jobs).

The only people that lose out with these "Tory two job types" are the voters who deserve a full time MP and a full time MSP - not a part time one trying to do both jobs.
 
Annabel Goldie also defended rates relief for businesses yesterday, great I hear you all cry, then why did John Lamont, Annabel Goldie and the other Conservatives in Holyrood vote against the rates relief package just last week that would have save hundreds of businesses in the Scottish Borders thousands of pounds?
 
Yet another case of don't do what I do, just do what I say from Annabel Goldie and the Scottish Conservatives.
 
Annabel went into rant and attack mode against the Liberal Democrats yesterday saying we cosy up to Labour.
 
So, Annabel Goldie I ask you this why, have you spent the last three years as Alex Salmond's Holyrood bedfellows?  You support them in so many votes instead of standing up for the Scottish people it is nothing more than shameful.
 
The Scottish Conservatives are just propping up the SNP minority Government in Holyrood, nothing more and nothing less.
 
If people want change then it is time for Nick Clegg and the Scottish Liberal Democrats - already the second party in Scotland in votes and MPs (more MPs than the SNP and Conservatives combined).
 
It is the Liberal Democrats that challenged the Labour Government and Conservatives over the Iraq war.
 
It is Nick Clegg who led the campaign to clean up politics and put forward proposals to Parliament - voted down by Labour and the Conservatives.
 
It is Nick Clegg who first demanded the right to sack your MP for the voters - voted down by Labour and Conservatives.
 
Whose Party are the hypocrites Annabel?