Scotland’s ‘jolly fat man’ Alex Salmond writes to Muirfield over men-only policy, is this cheap politicking to secure the ‘women’s vote’, what next Nicola Sturgeon demanding men get access to join the Girl Guides?

Dear All

Scotland’s ‘jolly fat man’ Alex Salmond has waded into a ‘battle of sexes’ over golf membership at Muirfield, home of the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers.

Muirfield operates as men-only club.

In Britain in a number of places there are also clubs strictly for women only.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/dec/23/katharine-whitehorn-column-womens-clubs

Should women be allowed women only clubs?

Yes, if likeminded people wish to get together for some mutual activity that is entirely their own affair.

Should men or boys be allowed to join the Girl Guides?

As part of Salmond’s protest, he will not attend the event next month, citing his opposition to Muirfield’s membership policy.

He won’t be missed.

Salmond said:

“The R&A should have had a good think about this, and again perhaps politely behind the scenes suggested to Muirfield that the public profile of being a single-sex club would be difficult. I don’t think it helps the game to have the suggestion of a bias against women, and the greatest tournament on this planet, played on arguably the greatest golf course, should have this impression that somehow ladies, women, girls, should be second-class citizens. I don’t think that’s right.”

Does he think men only Rugby clubs are wrong or what about women’s netball clubs?

You could go on and on, but just because a group of men get together doesn’t mean that they are discriminating against women.

It just means a group of men are getting together.

Muirfield in response to Alex Salmond’s tripe have said:

“As a club we conform to the Equality Act 2010 and any change in the membership would be for the members to decide. The club welcomes women to play either as visitors or guests year round with full use of the facilities, as will be the case throughout the championship. The club is privileged to have been asked again to have its facilities used to stage the Open, allowing golf in East Lothian and Scotland to be showcased throughout the world.”

Is this part of the independence strategy to appeal to the ‘women’s vote’?

Jackson Carlaw, Tory deputy leader, said:

“At least we will be spared photographs of him [Mr Salmond] sprawled like a beached whale beside the greens.”

Despite his stance, the Scottish Government’s tourism minister Fergus Ewing will attend the event; apparently his sense of this ‘outrage’ doesn’t match Salmond’s, but then we shouldn’t forget that the senior SNP leaders love their freebies.

Stay tuned for any possibly announcement from Nicola Sturgeon about SNP outrage about the Girl Guides operating a female only policy.

Another barmy, badly thought-out and ill judged blunder from Alex Salmond, who is becoming increasingly bizarre and divorced from reality as he sinks much like his failed SNP crony ridden independence campaign. 

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

Scottish independence: SNP front, Yes Scotland are to focus their campaign on austerity as cost of living soars by 25%, SNP grudge, grievance and malcontent won’t win over the Scottish people, rather poor politics, and shows Yes campaign is a complete shambles

Dear All

Having completely failed to garner support with their “positive” campaign, the pro-independence Yes Scotland group has turned to playing the Scottish National Party’s age old game of grudge, grievance and malcontent.

The SNP has already lost the argument for Scottish independence quite some considerable time ago, now they are focusing on Conservative-led austerity measures as part of a patchwork of complaints to try and scrap together a vote.

Austerity hurts but we should also remember; that the Scottish National Party cannot even get its own members to come and campaign for them.

Austerity isn’t just confined to money.

The basic cost of living has soared by 25% since the economic slump began in 2008; one of the reasons is that there are too many people in Britain. We have lost control of our borders and the political class is seeing the rise of people power in such parties as UKIP.

Social policy think-tank the Joseph Rowntree Foundation says families are facing an "unprecedented erosion of household living standards" because of rising inflation and flat lining wages.

In an independent Scotland, the Scottish National Party plan to allow mass immigration, will that make living standards better or worse for ordinary Scots?

It will make their living standards worse and condemn a generation of young Scots to poverty and a lack of a future.

Yes Scotland say that they will distribute about half a million leaflets to highlight what policies that “Scotland” has opposed but Westminster has pushed forward. When Yes Scotland talk about “Scotland”, they are talking about the SNP, and they don’t speak for Scotland.

The Yes Campaign is a failure, it is badly thought-out and knee jerk, and this tactic is said to be "third key strand" of its campaign.

One of the things which I find laughable and used by the Yes Scotland group is that a majority of Scottish MPs opposed the Chancellor's austerity cuts, higher VAT rate, welfare cuts and the bedroom tax.

The Labour Party isn’t in power so naturally they oppose the cuts, however, it should be mentioned that the Labour Party leadership is committed to continuing with austerity in the event of them gaining power in 2015 Westminster election.

Katie Schmuecker, the Rowntree foundation's policy and research manager, said:

"Our research shows the spiralling cost of essentials is hurting low-income families and damaging living standards. The public have told us their everyday costs have soared above wage levels, driving up the amount they need to make ends meet."

Having a taste of what the unemployed suffer apparently doesn’t appeal to them.

Peter Kelly, chairman of the Poverty Alliance added:

"Combined with cuts in benefits and frozen pay for many, it is little wonder so many Scots are turning to food banks or payday lenders. Such a situation is both unacceptable and unnecessary. When the Chancellor turns the screw on those living on benefits or working in low-paid jobs he is doing nothing to help them or the economy. There is a need for an urgent rethink on welfare policy in the UK. But there is also a need for more to be done to help those on the lowest incomes in Scotland right now."

One of my new ideas is for there to be a separate Scottish DWP autonomous of English system but still linked in, to change welfare.

I do not advocate the Scottish DWP being under the control of Holyrood. The Scottish system would run slightly differently, with emphasis on ‘a hand up as well as a hand out’. Years ago I wrote the DWP doesn’t work properly; it doesn’t help the very people it is supposed to, Iain Duncan Smith promised much, and spectacularly failed to deliver on all of it.

Another part of the problem is social mobility, this has various factors which affect it, however, lack of education is a real problem for many at the bottom of society; therefore I would open up schools to create a network of community colleges, run by councils and bringing in strands of funding from various sources, DWP, higher education and business.

Councils would play a big part in providing training opportunities so that unemployed people could find the vocations that best suits their talents.

And then there is the issue of the ‘underclass’, special measures would be put in place to help them get back into society in a meaningful way.   

If you are under the impression that because the SNP/Yes Scotland are going to be out this weekend delivering 500,000 leaflets and that represents a big deal, it doesn’t, 200 Yes Branches, say 10 people turn up.

They are handing out 250 leaflets each.

Will the “third strand” work?

No!

Complaining without providing solutions is meaningless, people tune out.

These people are so short sighted and stupid that they just lurch from knee jerk reaction to knee jerk reaction, another fail, how many more before Alex Salmond gets the message, the answer is No!

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

John Swinney plays politics with public sector pay as Alex Salmond and the Scottish National Party try and build public sector ‘vote caches’ for indy campaign, won’t work, but the end result is further cuts to services and budgets in Scotland

Dear All

There is a campaign for Scottish independence on the go.

It maybe a botched campaign, a failed campaign, a campaign on its knees, but Alex Salmond is still trying to see if Scots will back him.

What the ‘jolly fat man’ of Scottish politics fails to realize is that the independence campaign is fact already over; the major battle of the mindset of Scots has already been fixed.

The answer is No!

It’s No yesterday, No today and still No on the 18^th September 2014.

As part of the ‘bribe’ culture that the Scottish National Party is running, most noticeably with the bedroom tax, Scottish workers are to be tempted by John Swinney, who just  might not follow George Osborne's controversial move to end automatic annual pay rises for the thousands of public-sector workers.

The promise of ‘jam today’ but the reality further down the line is that the jam is going to be removed elsewhere.

The idea is quite simple, the SNP hope to try and create ‘vote caches’ by a temporary measure to protect the living standards of Scotland's 570,000 civil servants, teachers, nurses, prison officers and police officers.

The other part of the idea is to try and set a mood that there clear political water between Holyrood and Westminster in the run-up to the September 2014 independence referendum.

But what is given with one hand will certainly be taken away with the other, and that means cuts to services and cuts to budgets.

People at the bottom of society, the most disadvantaged will be worse off, their waiting times for help will increase or it could be the services they depend on will simply be phased out or scaled back drastically. The public sector would be buying into a pig in a poke, their workloads would dramatically increase.

And it would come as yet to unknown cost to the taxpayer in Scotland.

Down in Sunny England, George Osborne is heading towards what we have seen in Spain, Greece, Italy, and in a host of other countries around the globe, protests in the streets, think ‘winter of discontent’ but running all year round.

The Tories are on a collision course with millions of public-sector workers across Britain by planning to cut another 144,000 jobs in 2015/16.

If they think this will see them into another term, it is barmy thinking, the gag of national unity government with the Lib Dems taking the flak as Tories stand back and use them as a human sandbags is wearing thin.

In his Commons statement on his spending review yesterday, Mr Osborne said continuing austerity would see another £11.5 billion shaved off UK Government spending for the 2015 election year.

We are all in this together is exactly true, UKIP, the new kid on the block will possibly do well, the worse things get, the more people will be looking for someone to blame. If you are a Tory MP in Westminster, you must rightly fear for your seat at this point.

As to John Swinney, his line when asked if he would follow suit in his September was:

“We'll set out our approach to public sector pay in the budget as we always do but when you are undergoing a process of public-sector reform it's important to take your employees with you."

The question becomes how is this paid for, cut to services, cuts to budgets and people not being replaced, less staff equals more work, it isn’t going to be nirvana at the work place.

Trade unions have been quick to brand the Coalition's move to end automatic pay "nasty", "deeply unfair" and "scapegoating" public sector workers.

And they are right, banking brought the West to its knees but the people responsible not only have committed the crimes, but they have also gotten away with ‘the loot’.

As part of the spending review for 2015/16, Osborne announced these measures:

A new welfare cap to include a range of benefits but not the state pension;

Stripping expatriate pensioners in warm countries of the right to claim winter fuel payments;

New rules on benefits such as a seven-day wait before claiming and producing a CV;

Ensuring 100,000 non-English speaking claimants take up language lessons with the state picking up the £100 million annual bill.

The Chancellor claims the UK was "moving out of intensive care and from rescue to recovery", what the questions remain about the ‘quality of life’ for the many.

Spending plans for 2015/16; which see some Government Departments face another 10% cut in their budget;, this cannot continue to go on.

Some areas have been spared such as schools and the NHS in England, overseas aid and the intelligence services.

Ed Balls, Labour Shadow Chancellor, said the new round of cuts represented a "comprehensive failure" of the Coalition's economic strategy, saying:

"This out-of-touch Chancellor has failed on living standards, growth and the deficit, and families and businesses are paying the price for his failure."

How many people must be sick of ping pong politics, it is time that people took their vote and moved it elsewhere so that they actually get elected representatives that do represent them.

How many times do we have to go through the cycle of boom and bust followed by attacks on the public sector?

One thing is certain, although George Osborne clearly enjoys fucking it into the poor under the cover of austerity, he might be laughing on the other side of his face, if people say vote UKIP. 

And UKIP is able to tap into their voter base.

As to any proposed ‘standing up for Scottish workers’ crap, there is an independence campaign still on which is running on fumes, post 214, watch out for a remarkable change of  “it's important to take your employees with you” by the SNP....... just fade away!

Austerity is set to continue!

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

Edward Snowden who exposed the massive secret US government surveillance programme continues his flight to freedom, our Russian cousins say he has not entered Russia, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is quite adamant about that!

Dear All

The US of A is spying on all of us, even their ‘allies’ are not immune, in the Land of Free and home of the Brave, television presenters on some American news channels have called Edward Snowden a punk.

Mr. Snowden has outed the biggest spying operation by the US in recent times, are they looking at master spies, yes and no, they are looking at everyone regardless who they are.

After Snowden spilled the beans, he decided to come out and declare himself as the source of the leaks to the press.

Then the US decided to come after him accusing him of being a traitor.

Is Edward Snowden a traitor in the original sense as we understand treason?

Absolutely not, he is a whistleblower in the good old tradition of standing up for what is right.

8 people so far have been charged under the Espionage Act, people such as Bradley Manning, Manning’s trial is an affront to justice. He exposed not only wrong doing but also cover up, how does that make him a traitor?

So, Me. Snowden is now globetrotting, seeing the sights and walking the Earth, his travels have taken him to Hong Kong, which the Americans have been spying on and then to China, subject to cyber attack by the US. Currently it is said he is enjoying the sights and sounds of Mother Russia.

And what must be laughable, the US is upset because the Chinese and Russians who have been spied on for decades by the US aren’t playing ball and arresting him so he can be shipped to America and placed in Federal custody.

Even President Obama has criticised Russia and China after fugitive Edward Snowden left Hong Kong for Moscow.

President Barack Obama said the US was pursuing "all the appropriate legal channels" in pursuit of him, so they are ruling out a kill squad just yet?

It is a bit hard to murder someone for telling the truth and drone strike in Russia is out of the question.

US Secretary of State John Kerry has said it would be "disappointing" if Russia and China had helped him evade an attempt to extradite him.

That is an outrageous statement by Kerry, our Russian cousins are hamstrung by the rather obvious fact that Edward Snowden is an innocent man, and arresting known innocent people is just not on.

Can’t do that, it would be an affront to the Russian justice system.

Edward Snowden’s journey isn’t over yet, he has applied for asylum in Ecuador.

The Ecuadorians are fast making themselves known for standing up for human rights and justice; sadly, their American counterparts have been less successful.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said he did not believe Hong Kong's reasons for letting him leave.

As if Hong kong gives a shit.

Also in an act of pure pettiness and against natural justice, the US has abandoned any pretence of rule of law and revoked Mr Snowden's passport.

What happened to innocent until proven guilty?

The Americans appear to have gone straight to sentencing and punishment.

At present a game of cat and mouse is in play, on Monday, a seat was booked in his Snowden’s name on a flight to Cuba.

Cuba is a stopover and said to be a great place for a holiday, and they are another group of people which America has taken the eternal huff with since the US trying to take over Cuba via rebels trained and funded by the CIA. The ‘Bay of Pigs’ disaster was rather embarrassing for the American people and government.

30-year-old IT expert is wanted by the US for revealing to the media details of a secret government surveillance programme.

Given the way the world operates at present; is there a need for such a programme?

They are spying on their own citizens under the guise of ‘war on terror’.

I would say no.

The information that Snowden had access to was obtained while working as a contractor for the National Security Agency (NSA).

Who are they supposed to be protecting?

The people or the political class!

He is charged with theft of government property, unauthorised communication of national defence information and wilful communication of classified communications intelligence.

Obama briefly mentioned the case at the White House on Monday, telling reporters:

"What we know is that we are following all the appropriate legal channels and working with various other countries to make sure that the rule of law is observed."

I think that Obama is kidding himself on if he thinks that the countries who are victims of US spying are coming to help him enforce his idea of perverse law.

I think Mr. Snowden will like Ecuador, given his work in IT; he should be able to get a decent job and get on with his life.

He will go down in history as possible one of the greatest Americans who stood up for American values when the country of his birth abandoned them.

Now that America is transferring men, equipment and resources to the Pacific, we can only hope that they do what has been so disastrous for them in the Middle East. Clearly American policies need a major revamp from ‘war’ to ‘trading’ coupled with humanitarian assistance.

At present, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says that Edward Snowden hasn’t entered Russia, looks like this is a bit of a mystery or could it be that the Russians are just using some tech speak to rip the utter pish out the Americans!

You have to like this current Russian crowd in Moscow.

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

Scottish independence: Alex Salmond will be politically dead on the 19th September 2014 after the independence result is read out, download the George Laird 'craved in stone' video, the game's over for Salmond

Scottish independence: Two “special” people, Nationalist MSPs, Bill Walker and Nicola Sturgeon share a moment together, one allegedly beat up his former wives and the other covers up allegations of abuse in the SNP, Nicola “cares” about social justice, but just in public, privately, it's a different story if you are working class!

Dear All

Bill Walker was elected to the Scottish Parliament as a SNP MSP.

The SNP has admitted it was warned about his domestic violent past three years before he was elected to Holyrood.

Information about Bill Walker was also presented to the constituency office of the deputy first minister Nicola Sturgeon in February 2008.

This was done by a relative of Walker's third wife.

So, what did Scotland’s unpopular Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon do?

Well, it is an old story here were Nicola Sturgeon is concerned, she didn’t do anything of note, so much for the ‘concerned citizen’ act that she regularly uses to dupe the public, Walker was still allowed to stand as an SNP MSP.

Nicola ‘cares’ about women beating, obviously, however in this case, it wasn't exactly her finest hour regarding the women who were allegedly beaten by a member of Team SNP.

Then she isn’t exactly a ‘woman of action’!

But then she isn’t exactly fast out of the blocks when it comes to further allegations of abuse in the Scottish National Party either.

Nicola is so slow and so is her husband, SNP Chief Executive Peter Murrell, Scotland's Golden and Premier freedom fighting couple, the East End of Glasgow Champagne socialists, £200k a year warriors for justice .

How odd is it that the SNP are using Nicola Sturgeon to ‘get the women’s vote’ when she is part of the story of an allegedly wife beating MSP?

Nicola ‘cares’, with every penny of her SNP Government Minister’s salary and expenses.

Have a look at the picture, two “happy” people, just glad to be together to share a special moment together.

Less special but more important is the Court where Bill Walker will face 24 charges of assaulting 4 women over a 28-year period.

Bill has been terribly unlucky with woman, 24 times over a 28 year period.

He claims that he acted in self defence in relation to three of the allegations.

That leaves 21 charges where he isn’t claiming self defence.

Bill Walker,71, has appeared at a procedural hearing at Edinburgh Sheriff Court in relation to the domestic abuse allegations, given the volume, he is going to a full trial.

During the five-minute hearing, the court was told that prosecution lawyers and Mr Martin (his brief) had agreed evidence in relation to the dates of the politician's marriages and divorces.

Hardly smoking gun stuff but the real ‘event’ comes later, as the court also heard that the Crown were in the process of citing a total of 24 witnesses.

So, we have 4 women and 24 witnesses, against a single Nationalist MSP who sits up the back of Holyrood still cheering for Alex Salmond..... because 'it's the right thing to do'.

28 against 1, it seems that Nationalist MSP Bill Walker will need a rather good story.

And here is a link about another colleague of Nicola Sturgeon who is campaigning hard for Scottish independence.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzXkbJwrN38

He is willing to give a woman a good slap if they deserve it as he says it is "absolutely right" sometimes.

I wonder if Bill Walker will be calling Nicola Sturgeon or Alex Salmond as character witnesses he needs people to tell the Court about what a great guy he is, and how he ‘cares’, maybe even Sean Connery could fly in and offer support!

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University 

Scottish independence: the thorny issue of defence comes back to haunt the SNP as a new report says indy is a risk to security and jobs, English SNP MP Angus Robertson couldn’t successfully defend a hut in a paintball game, omnishambles again for Nationalists

Dear All

Just as a good case could be made for Scottish independence, so can a good case be made for staying part of the United Kingdom.

However, although independence is a just cause, there is a little bit more to it than just the concept, you have to look closely at the calibre of the people behind it.

A think tank has come up with the conclusion that a Scottish defence force would be "less comprehensive and effective" than the UK armed forces.

Is that true as a statement?

The answer is yes, Scotland couldn’t compete with the UK defence force in terms of logistics, personnel, quality of training and opportunities.

The latter is of particular interest to young working Scots looking to have a career, the Forces isn’t just about fighting, although that is their business!

In me yoof, I used to train up Glasgow University students for the military, everyone I taught went on to become an Officer.

100% track record.

One of the “division” even told me of his “success” of shagging a bird in the showers at Sandhurst!

Apparently a “hero” at breakfast the next morning, which begs the question regarding the thickness of the walls in that place!

Love will find a way!

The Scotland Institute said in a report that Scotland would have to rely on a scaled-back defence force, this is true; many opportunities which are available to young Scots will not be available in the forces of an independent Scotland.

The Institute suggests that Alex’s Army would struggle to recruit and retain personnel, with the additional and untimely detrimental knock-on effect on jobs and economic growth. Previously I blogged on the need to adopt NATO, the cybernats on Newsnet Scotland attacked me, then the SNP went NATO, presumably they are all NATO supporters now the sycophantic bastards.

As well as NATO, the SNP has to commit to keeping Faslane as a nuclear submarine based, it is in Scotland’s interests, and importantly guarantees sovereignty and membership of NATO. Also if the Scottish Government doesn’t wish to be a holder of nuclear weapons that is fine, but when the rain falls it is better to be under the nuclear umbrella.

Defence and Security of an Independent Scotland is a big deal, however the SNP treated defence as a joke, they couldn’t be arsed doing the work, and as we have seen by Angus Robertson’s announcements, the copying of the UK defence plan for Scotland isn’t good enough.

And the embarrassment of him being nailed to wall over the Scottish Navy requirements shows how lacking in talent the senior SNP actually is, however, we should remember that Englishman Angus Robertson said that the Norwegian Navy have a good website.

Thank fuck for that, that will be useful in times of attack, we can post pictures of big ships and submarines to frighten potential attackers away. 

The report by the panel including senior armed-forces personnel, defence academics, former secretaries of defence and senior officials from the MOD, Nato and the EU.

And we have Angus Robertson!

The chairman of the panel is Major-General Andrew Mackay CBE, who commanded a task force in Afghanistan and served in the army for 27 years, he wrote in the foreword:

"I cannot see how slicing up a competent and well-established military will aid either the United Kingdom or an independent Scotland. Indeed I see very real risks to the people of Scotland, be it from the loss of jobs and the local economic impact that the inevitable removal of the Faslane naval base would bring, the huge costs necessary to start building the armed forces from afresh, the loss of access to sensitive intelligence materials and the inevitable dilution in the quality and number of the armed forces of this small island, which to date have had such a profound effect upon the course of world events."

The report also suggests that a post-independence Scotland would be more vulnerable to terrorist and cyber attack.

Is that true?

Well, the SNP plan to allow mass immigration and despite a rather vocal online presence with their cybernats, it is doubtful whether they could defend Scotland in a physical or virtual sense.

Labour's shadow defence secretary, Jim Murphy MP, said:

"The report shows the SNP's plans to be fundamentally flawed”.

SNP defence spokesman Angus Robertson said independence would protect defence jobs and stop "Whitehall making bad decisions on our behalf".

Well, a huge statement, but like much of what Englishman Angus Robertson says it is just hot air, bluster and assumption.

How is he going to protect military shipbuilding orders on the River Clyde?

He can’t, he has no power over whether Westminster would place warship contracts in the highly unlikely event of a Yes vote.

As to bad decisions, he speaks for a future Labour Government or possible non SNP coalition sending Scottish Troops into active operational areas?

He can’t.

In fact Englishman Angus Robertson can promise to protect Scots but the reality is, he couldn’t defend a hut in a paintball game.

In finishing his rant, Scots were treated to an increasing old story from the Scottish National Party of grudge, grievance and malcontent:

"Personnel numbers in Scotland are at a record low after disproportionate cuts compared to the rest of the UK, and Scottish taxpayers contribute far more to the UK defence budget than is actually spent in Scotland."

Sorry Angus I would rather financial resources where best deployed to protect Soldiers on the front line, perhaps you should care more about that rather than whether a few quid is spent in Scotland's backyard.

And before I forget, when exactly was the last time that Alex Salmond as the First Minister of Scotland visited Scottish Troops in the field?

Probably never!

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

New 3D camera test using camera plugin in Cinema 4d

Scottish independence: Kenny MacAskill is a very good reason to vote No in the forth coming indy ballot, the SNP cannot be trusted to run a justice system that is fit for purpose, right wing SNP Government is dismantling rights, miscarriages of justice will happen

Dear All

How would you feel if a member of your family was wrongly sent to prison due to a miscarriage of justice because someone was a better story teller than him or her?

You would justifiably be quite upset.

Kenny MacAskill has been given the post of Justice Minister in Scotland; he is Alex Salmond’s crony.

He is a man who is trying to outrun the stigma of releasing Al Megrahi, one of the biggest mass murderers, responsible for the worst terrorist atrocity in Scotland in modern times.

His tenure as Justice Minister has been an omnishambles of epic proportions, whether, it is the re-organisation of the Courts, limiting local justice or the incredibly embarrassing ill-judged fitba bill or the changes made to Police Scotland ,which removed accountability, MacAskill has fucked it all up.

Nothing but a shitty ambulance chaser!

Back to storytelling, Scottish independence depends on many factors all coming together to paint a picture; naturally justice is a key area.

And as MacAskill demonstrated with the UK Supreme Court debacle, he is beyond the task.  

The age-old requirement for corroborating evidence in criminal trials could be abolished as part of changes to the justice system.

The SNP Cabinet don’t ‘do’ Law well, human rights are another area where they are weak, they like others mistake, ‘I want with I am entitled to’.

Under the new Criminal Justice (Scotland) Bill,  MacAskill is also going to raise the maximum sentence for handling knives and offensive weapons from four to five years.

Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime, yes, it is clearly unimpressive work, not enough to get the Megrahi stain out of his political soul.

Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said:

“I have made clear a number of times that I believe that the requirement for corroboration should be abolished as it can represent a barrier to justice”.

Did he?

He must have to repeat everything because Scottish people gave up listening to him almost immediately when he took office.

MacAskill added:

“It is an outdated rule which can deny victims the opportunity to see those responsible for serious crimes being brought to justice”.

He is confusing brought to Court with conviction.

MacAskill added to his justification by saying:

“Removing the need for corroboration represents a move towards focusing on the quality of evidence rather than quantity.”

That is such bullshit, clearly he has had something prepared to parrot out, no decent lawyer worth their salt would say this, removing corroboration doesn’t improve the quality of a person’s evidence, it lowers the bar for the prosecution.

As expected, the Law Society of Scotland which describes corroboration as a “fundamental principle” of the justice system says removing it will lead to a greater risk of miscarriages of justice.

Raymond McMenamin, from the society’s criminal law committee, said:

“We believe that removing the requirement for corroborated evidence, without including sufficiently strong safeguards in the Bill, could simply result in a contest between two competing statements on oath and, as a result, bring increased risk of miscarriages of justice. The requirement for corroborated evidence is not an antiquated, outmoded legal notion but is a fundamental principle of our justice system”.

He added:

“It’s clear that the concerns expressed by the society and others about juries have been recognised as the Bill proposes a move to a weighted majority from a simple majority, but we don’t believe this is sufficient to remove the risks created by abolishing corroboration.”

Maybe MacAskill should listen to a real lawyer who obviously has an eye for detail such as Raymond McMenamin, could save more embarrassment and ridicule. 

Liberal Democrat MP Sir Menzies Campbell, who practised as an advocate depute for several years in Scotland’s High Court, also warned against the changes.

Menzies said:

“If the SNP proceed with these proposals, it will confirm that they are not fit to have the stewardship of Scottish criminal law.”

Menzies is absolutely right, Scotland needs a Justice Minister not a Salmond crony, his blunders which there are many all need fixed, and where bad law has been put on the statute books, removed, stuck down.

Law should be based on justice not popularism.

The former Lib Dem party leader added:

“This is populism at its worst. Corroboration is an essential component of the presumption of innocence and a necessary bulwark against false accusation and injustice. As the power of the state increases, the protection of the rights of the citizen has become even more important.”

When people realize in the cold light of day that protections in law to safeguard them from injustice are removed, the party responsible will crash out of power, people aren’t as stupid as the SNP believe.

The Scottish Government hopes the change will make it easier to convict rapists and domestic abusers.

High profile emotional cases such as rape and domestic abuse should not be used to create bad law; this like the fitba bill will backfire on the SNP.

The UK Supreme Court will be getting a lot more Scottish cases.

Unique to Scots law, corroboration is a necessary safeguard against wrongful conviction; it requires two independent pieces of evidence for a case to be brought to court. In previous blog posts, I highlighted that human rights cannot and should not be replaced by ‘gifts’ of safeguards which are a sham.

In their submission to a government consultation on the proposal, judges said:

“The Scottish courts have on many occasions been grateful for the requirement of corroboration, which in our view provides a major safeguard against miscarriages of justice.”

Lawyers know this is dick, and judges know this is dick, MacAskill like a blundering idiot is still going forward.

Scots law has been under scrutiny since the UK Supreme Court’s “Cadder ruling”, which I also blogged on, prior to the verdict in Cadder’s favour, I said it was wrong for MacAskill to adopt the position of the Crown, as Justice Minister he is supposed to be above it and importantly neutral. In fact he is anything but, that is why he is so poor and ultimately unsuitable for the role he is currently employed in.

Cadder was an open and shut case of a miscarriage of justice; the UK Supreme Court applied the human rights law and properly found the case against an accused man had breached his human rights. If his human rights had been fully applied, he probably would have been convicted, the Crown was being cute.

To put it bluntly even if the Crown believes beyond doubt in their mind of his guilt; they still cannot bend the rules or deny him his human rights; otherwise the whole justice system is compromised and corrupted.

Sources apparently say the government recognises the level of opposition to its plans, but it is convinced scrapping corroboration is ‘the right thing to do’.

Is this the right thing to do?

Only if you are a cretin!

And the SNP wonder why no one is backing their independence bid, it is because the Scottish people realise among other things that they need the vital protection of the UK Supreme Court.

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

Scottish independence: Scotland’s unpopular Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon says if indy ballot was held now the SNP would lose, George Laird right again, independence is unwinnable with her as the SNP’s ‘face of indy’, defeat is coming Nicola, just hang on!

Dear All

It seems that slowly but surely the truth is being dragged out of Scotland’s unpopular Deputy First Minster Nicola Sturgeon.

Scottish independence defeat is coming closer for Alex Salmond and her, she isn’t signaling total defeat just yet, but she is on the right track.

Nicola Sturgeon is coming around to the George Laird view.

Apparently Scots are not ready to vote Yes in next year's referendum because they still lack information about independence says Nicola Sturgeon.

So, what information do we know now?

Well, we know that the Scottish National Party has lied to the Scottish people.

We know they have done this multiple times.

We know that they will tell one audience one thing and then tell a different audience the opposite……. to garner support and votes.

We know that they don’t have any detail of their proposals to the Scottish people.

We know that Donald Trump said that Alex Salmond is “dishonest”, "untrustworthy” and “lacking in integrity”.

And we also know from every poll that support for Scottish independence has totally collapsed.

Yes, but there is further to fall, this is an SNP cronies campaign run by not very bright people.

Alex Salmond wrongly appointed Nicola Sturgeon to be the ‘face of independence’, that was incredibly bad judgment on his part.

Since she has held the reins, public support has deserted her campaign completely, maybe it is the fact that she left Scottish women to die.

They were unable to get cancer drugs in the Scottish NHS because Nicola Sturgeon didn’t do a good job when she was in charge.

At present Ms. Sturgeon is a woman on a mission, to stand beside a shovel to get any and every photo opportunity she can in the hope that voters will rush to her ‘cause’.

She once said that her “Nationalism” is allegedly based on social justice.

Was it “social justice” on her part to leave Joyce Juszcak Anne Fisher and June Rankin to die by not acting?

Nicola Sturgeon’s “nationalism” stinks to high heaven, and more people are getting a whiff of it, and the smell is bad, it is turning people off in droves.

Sturgeon who has led the Scottish Government's independence campaign to disaster has admitted "many" people would vote No if the poll were held immediately.

The Scottish independence campaign died a long time ago, there were various factors, one of the major ones highlighted on this blog is the incredible lack of talent in the Scottish National Party.

The SNP party isn’t a political party any more as far as I am concerned, it is a self serving clique populated with nasty vile people.

And let’s not forget stupid and ignorant.

The SNP held the Donside by-election, the election caused by the sad death of Brian Adam, I heard him speak once at a meeting, seemed decent to me both as a speaker and as a person.

A real loss for his family and politics in Scotland!

Whether the Scottish independence polling day is held today or on the 18^th September 2014, the result will be the same.

The answer is No!

No to Salmond and No to Sturgeon!

Donside is a milestone, although it wasn’t planned, but like a part of a puzzle it all fits together to show that the SNP is in meltdown, the rot started not on the streets, but in the Scottish Parliament.

It just spread out from there.  

Deputy leader Anas Sarwar said:

"All over Scotland, the momentum is with Scottish Labour and in Edinburgh, Fife and Aberdeen, we have been gaining support for the SNP. Alex Salmond's obsession with referendum is costing him lots of votes. This week was an important staging post on our road back and while we know we still have some way to go, we are delighted with the progress we are making."

Willie Rennie, the Scottish LibDem leader, said his party had enjoyed "triple boost".

He said:

"Our share of the vote was up by a third, our number of votes was up and we were up to third place. As one of only two parties who saw an increase in votes in the Donside by-election, this is a solid result for the Scottish Liberal Democrats."

Nicola Sturgeon isn’t bright enough to win Scotland’s independence because she carry the people, much like Alex Salmond, the joke of ‘standing up for Scotland’ is ending.

Once the defeat comes, next up will see the Westminster campaign, if the Lib Dems rally, this reduces the chances of SNP gains, and the SNP will not be able to take Labour seats based on their ‘part time’ fighting for Scotland strategy in House of Commons.

Their continual petty dogma in the House of Commons is an embarrassment to democracy. If you vote for Lib Dems, Tory or Labour you get a full time MP.

If you vote SNP you just support a Salmond crony.

If you read the blog, I said the SNP would see my 1,2,3 predictions come to pass.

1/ The SNP will not win the Glasgow City Council Election.

George Laird right again.

2/ Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon will lose the Scottish independence referendum.

George Laird will be right again.

3/ The SNP will not win the Westminster General Election campaign in Scotland for most seats.

Nicola Sturgeon is starting to see ‘the light’, unfortunately for her; she is so far behind George Laird, and without the talent to fix her problems!

It looks like the ‘Messiah’ won’t be coming from Irvine anytime soon.

Finally, here is a piece of cybernat abuse I just allowed to be published on the blog, that way you know what you are getting when you vote for Scottish independence.

“aye you would rather get in to their arse you stinkng old perv wee boys arses to be precise why don't you take a walk of Jamaica Quay when your out cruising for arseholes, I've seen you you sick fucker”.

That is the limited scope and talent of ‘Soldiers of Salmond’.

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

Awhile ago I said that the Scottish National Party members needed training, have a watch of SNP Deputy leader in Glasgow, Billy McAllister going off on a rant regarding the bedroom tax, cool heads can fix the problem, getting into someone's face will not build bridges, poor SNP Strategy

Donside by-election special: Nats lose over 70% of their majority as 5,000 people turn their back on the SNP, Scottish Labour come close to winning the seat in SNP heartland, 13 point drop shows Scottish independence is completely unwinnable

Dear All

Have you seen the movie ‘Force Ten from Navarone’ starring Harrison Ford, Edward Fox and Carl Weathers?

Edward Fox has a line in it which aptly describes the Scottish National Party’s problem:

“You can’t expect a big explosion from small three bags of dynamite”.

This was in relation to blowing up the dam, the SNP bubble has well and truly burst.

The tide as they say has turned for the Scottish National Party, earlier this morning I watched the result of the Donside by-election.

The Scottish National Party vote share has dropped by 13% points.

Mark McDonald for the SNP held the seat in what was one of the safest SNP seats in Holyrood for the Nationalists.

This although a win, this should set alarms bells going off at the SNP HQ, the SNP flung everything into winning this seat. The senior SNP ran this by-election, everything stopped as the party used activists from all over Scotland. The majority was around 2,000 votes, well down from the epic victory of 2011.

People look at the SNP and don’t like want they see; they look at the people running it and are turning their backs on them. 

It was a win but reality is it was also a political disaster.  

Does anyone still think that Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon can win the Scottish independence ballot even within the SNP?

I have stated publicly the SNP are going to lose the indyref ballot, this was a milestone on the road to defeat, unexpected because of the death of Brian Adam, but it is a small piece of the puzzle which all connects together, a series of events that in themselves don’t mean remarkably much, but the trend is there.

George Laird will be right again, you see, it comes down to a remarkable lack of talent in the SNP ranks. If you looked at what when on, the SNP used up vast resources to win this seat, something which cannot be replicated everywhere, because effectively there is no one willing to work for the party.

That is why there is such a long run in to the independence ballot in 2014; they don’t have the personnel on the ground, even using The Greens, the SSP and assorted hanger ons, it cannot be stretched. Then there is the fact of no narrative that works; no plans, no vision and continual lying, deception and just being generally pricks!  

In an interview with the New Statesman, Scotland’s ‘jolly fat man’ Alex Salmond has been shooting his mouth off again, think back to 2010, the Westminster General Election and his claim of 20 seats. Nirvana was just round the corner allegedly in that election, remember ‘elect a people’s champion?

Come the result, he got 6, the same 6 seats that party had previously, plus the loss of Glasgow East gained in a by-election by John Mason.

Salmond said on Scottish independence:

"This is the phony war. This is not the campaign. I went into an election in 2011 20 points behind in the polls and ended up 15 in front. The real game hasn't even started. We are just clearing the ground."

What a self deluded fool he is, the Scottish independence campaign is dead; all the work done has been a complete waste of time, energy, money and resources.

Clearing the ground?

Try digging the grave to be more exact, his political grave.

 

Poll after poll and even of the doorsteps of Donside, a message is coming back, No to independence.

It’s a question of trust, and Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon can’t be trusted.

Poor people know this, and the message is filtering through to the rest of society, Salmond will tell anyone exactly what they want to hear to get their vote.

The sizeable lead for the pro-UK side in the referendum struggle is as much down to their campaigning as it is by the SNP being exposed for what they are, chancers; a poisonous nasty vile clique.

Salmond’s time is up!

In an attempt to re-launch again the independence campaign Salmond tells the political magazine that the bedroom tax and David Cameron's decision to hold an in-out referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union would sway voters in favour of independence.

Pathetic, there is a lot of talk about how sharp Salmond is, he and Sturgeon have had well over a year to make an impact and despite repeated attempts, it has come to nothing.

The SNP's policy of "independence in Europe" has damaged the campaign, because the SNP lied, misrepresented and treated the Scottish public with utter contempt.

The eurozone crisis is still a major concern that goes well beyond Scotland that should be a plank of central reform of the entire European Union.

To say that the issue of Europe was now a "strong positive" for the Nationalists is laughable, how much more deluded can Salmond get?

A Better Together spokesman said:

"People can see through Alex Salmond's bluster. The debate on independence has been going on for generations. For Alex Salmond to suggest this is utterly ridiculous. The truth is the more the SNP talk about separation the more people are turning away, whether it be on pensions, currency or Europe."

Scottish independence is over, the tide has turned, on last night’s result, Kenny MacAskill and Alex Neil would lose their seats, slightly higher and Scotland’s unpopular Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon would be back on the Glasgow list.

As to the rest of the result of Donside, Labour had an excellent night, UKIP although losing their deposit by a narrow margin had nearly a 500% rise in their vote. The Lib Dems staged a remarkable recovery and took third place, keeping their deposit.

And more bad news for the Scottish Tories, they were pushed into 4^th place; this is a disastrous night for them and Ruth Davidson.

Quite simply, they didn’t run an effective political campaign. You would think give that politics is their ‘business’, they would have wised up by now. They should have not fought their campaign solely on local issues tack but attacked the SNP on the issue of cancer drugs as a centre piece of how they are fighting for working class people.

Finally, you would thought that the ‘winner’ of the Donside by-election would have given a better victory speech, I thought despite winning, it was so downbeat that he would be calling for a recount, and he sounded dense even although had prepared notes.

5,000 in Donside, Aberdeen has wised up to the Scottish National Party, ‘don’t wake up tomorrow and ask yourself could I have done more’ to put these bastards out on the street.

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

Glasgow SNP Councillors stage walk-out led by SNP Deputy leader Billy McAllister, row over Glasgow petitions committee, weak SNP leadership continues to remain significant problem, the ‘curse of Hunter’ lingers like a bad smell

Dear All

Glasgow SNP had a shit leader in Allison Hunter, as someone lives in the ward she ‘represents’ I could not give her my vote in the 2012 Glasgow City Council election.

Votes are precious gifts and to give it to her would be a travesty of democracy so hard fought for.

Let’s put it this way, she wasn’t exactly an SNP activist in her ward, and she didn’t like tenements too many stairs, and she isn't exactly wonderful either if you ever speak to her.

So, she didn’t get my vote, and neither did any other of Nicola Sturgeon cronies, Mohammad and Mackie, all of whom don’t even live in the area.

Allison Hunter, a Sturgeon crony let Glasgow SNP slide into a rabble who did their own thing, instead of strong leadership, it was just woeful.

However she does have a big mouth especially when Sturgeon is backing her up.

Paper Tiger!

The Hunter ‘legacy’ is really the Hunter 'virus' in Glasgow SNP, opposition SNP politicians have staged a walk-out of the newly established committee set up to give the public a say in influencing policies at Scotland's largest authority.

The ‘new’ caretaker SNP leader of the group is an non Glaswegian outsider called Graeme Hendry, he works elsewhere so isn’t doing a leadership role full time.

Leading the walkout which was such a petty meaningless gesture was the SNP group's deputy leader Billy McAllister who recently was detained by Police Scotland as a complaint was filed against him.

SNP councillors claim as justification for the walk out that in its first year only one petition has come before Glasgow City Council's Public Petitions Committee.

Maybe there is an advertising problem, maybe SNP councilors should be more pro active in generating petitions.

Maybe Sturgeon’s part time cronies should do a better job.

The petitions committee is modelled on the equivalent at Holyrood, it takes time for an idea to catch on, not unexpected; did the SNP expect a flood?  

In what must be ranked as one of the poorest examples of politics in Glasgow, the SNP moved a vote of no confidence in its chairman.

When this failed, it was huff time at the Chambers!

And as a reaction to not respecting the will of the majority, SNP members, led by the group's deputy leader Billy McAllister stormed out, maybe they thought they would be missed.

They aren't, presumably an air of thank fuck they are gone descend in the room. 

As the chairman Frank Docherty pointed out:

 "We want to see to members of the public come forward with petitions but we can only deal with what is put in front of us”.

Another gripe from the classic SNP strategy of grudge, grievance and malcontent, is that the chairman gets £8k for his position.

What has that got to do with the price of fish?

Zero, it is an irrelevant point, how embarrassing is this walk out, I would say pretty bad, SNP caretaker leader pledge holding Glasgow City Council to account, when the SNP take the huff they just leave with their tails between their legs like ‘bitches’.

If I was part time councilor Graeme Hendry I would send them back with a flea in the ear for this stunt, or did he approve of this stupidity?

  

For the record, the SNP is pretty big on Gaelic; personally I think it is a pile of shit with limited use in the big wide world.

Council sources claim the failure of public petitions coming to the committee is not the fault of the chairman and down to all 79 councillors from across the spectrum for failing to publicise it locally.

What has Billy McAllister done to publicise this committee?

Other than complain, I googled and don’t see a lot done.

McAllister said:

"The whole point of this committee was to allow the public to have an opportunity to petition the council on issues that are important to them. It has completely failed in its remit."

Mr Docherty said:

"We want to see to members of the public come forward with petitions but we can only deal with what is put in front of us. It is also disappointing those members did not even wait to approve an important piece of work such as the Gaelic language plan before leaving the meeting."

And they wonder why the people of Glasgow bounced the SNP from taking control of the council.

Giving the way that Councillor Billy McAllister is carry on playing petty politics, it might have been better if the Police had held onto him a bit longer.

Glasgow SNP is run like a rabble, I blame Allison Hunter, they need a leader of men not a broken down old age pensioner, well pass her political sell by date.

She cost Glasgow SNP their chance to win Glasgow……. just pathetic and useless.

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University