Monday, August 5, 2013

Stupidity is a poor substitute for intelligence, Anas Sarwar, Scottish Labour's deputy leader, denounces Labour for Independence as a desperate charade, fresh evidence raises concern over LFI’s Labour credentials



















Dear All

I have said repeatedly that there is a genuine lack of talent in the Scottish National Party.

As the controversial Labour for Independence group (LFI) plods on desperately trying to convince people that it is actually Labour Party members, more evidence emerges that it is nothing more than an SNP front.

One of the SNP, a long-term member has joined Labour with the aim of undermining the party over the referendum.

Stupid idea, and stupid in application.

Celia Fitzgerald has told the press how she was an SNP member since 2004 but had quit in November and then immediately joined Labour and LFI.

And she makes no secret; it was in order to agitate from within against Labour's support for the union.

Do you see what I mean about a genuine lack of talent in the Scottish National Party, to think such a stupid idea would work and not blow up in the face of the SNP proves my point which I have long held!

Stupidity is a poor substitute for intelligence!

The self confess Alex Salmond cheerleader refers to "his Eckness" being a cuddly "honey" even on her Facebook page. She should have kept that shut along with her mouth, the more she speaks, the deeper the hole she digs.

Fitzgerald is now LFI treasurer and its organiser in Edinburgh and the Lothians.

This begs the question, how many more SNP members have dropped their membership to carry out similar roles in the independence campaign?

How many SNP members have suddenly become Labour members; if it was just one, then there wouldn’t be much of a story, however, this on the surface doesn’t appear to have been random in nature.

Since the revelations Better Together says Fitzgerald's case proves LFI was a skin-deep Nationalist fake, and not the important grass-roots development claimed by the SNP.

Labour for independence was founder by Allan Grogan, his branch in Angus say he wasn’t active for the Labour Party even at election times.

Now suddenly, he is a founder of LFI and running all over the country campaigning, if I was Labour, I would find out which members of the party are part of LFI and give them a straight choice.

LFI or Labour!

The Labour Party has left this lot to fester, and they have milked the bad PR, so it is just a matter of stamping this out now.

As a tactic, this stunt is pretty disgraceful and ultimately rather stupid, it was destine to backfire and now it has, trust is the issue, people know now, LFI is finished as a credible force.

The SNP and Yes Scotland both welcomed LFI's formation in June 2012, they were quick to say it was evidence of a Labour split on independence, but the reality is that only about 30 people in LFI are Labour Party members.

And I wonder how many of these ‘campaigners’ were actually activists for the Labour Party in the first place!

The Sunday Herald has some rather nice snaps of SNP councillors sitting with piles of LFI leaflets in a pub and manning an LFI stall.

Brains obviously in short supply.

And to drive home the SNP front claim, Allan Grogan also said his group had received financial support from the SNP-led Yes Scotland campaign.

Fitzgerald on her political travels said:

"I left Labour ages ago and joined the SNP to work for independence, then rejoined the Labour Party [in East Lothian] after I heard about Allan Grogan and Labour for Independence. I rejoined the Labour Party in November. It's about reclaiming the Labour Party for its members and its supporters and the people, and taking it away from this ghastly leadership."

This is the same line used by others in the LFI about ‘reclaiming the Labour Party for its members’.

She added:

"New Labour is not real Labour at all. It's a Westminster party. It's not presenting the people of Scotland. We see it as a Scottish party, and we want to bring it back to Scotland, dust it down, return it to its proper values and then re-export it to England. We can't do that unless Scotland is independent."

Crap!

She added that it was "ludicrous" to suggest LFI was an SNP front or dishonest in its activities.

One of the leading lights of LFI is its chairman Alex Bell, 59, who rejoined Labour in mid-2012 after many years out of the party.

He said:

"Getting rid of New Labour is the issue. If someone could convince me there was still a British road to socialism I might not be voting Yes. It [independence] frees the current Scottish Labour Party or a new one from having to pander to that Thatcherite greed of the southeast of England to get elected."

Rejoined Labour in mid-2012……… pathetic, sadly in some case the Nationalist cause attracts the not very few bright.

Better Together campaign director Blair McDougall said:

"Last week, we had photographic evidence of senior SNP politicians attempting to deceive the public. Now it appears that there are deliberate attempts by the SNP to infiltrate the Labour Party to support the deception. "There are serious questions to answer for the SNP, Yes Scotland and 'Labour' for Independence. How far up the nationalist chain of command did this deception go? We know Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon have shared platforms with this group. Why did they work so closely with this organisation when it was clear 'Labour for Independence' was nothing more than a sham?"

In political terms, the LFI shambles is another reason why trust is deserting the Nationalist cause; Fitzgerald will probably rejoin the SNP post September 2014 or quicker if Labour throws her arse out into the street.

If I was leader of either the Yes Camp or Pro UK, I wouldn’t tolerate such behavior or have members associated with it. Labour for Independence is now a lame duck with no credibility at all 

Johann Lamont should act because Alex Salmond doesn’t have the integrity in my opinion to be a statesman and deal with this; he is just a squalid little man, sinking he is grasping at straws.

Anas Sarwar is right, this is a desperate charade.
  
Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

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