Open letter to Anon, telling the truth is nothing to be frightened of, unpopular Nicola Sturgeon said of former SNP Govan Councillor Allison Hunter, “Allison was a first class councillor and her constituents will miss her dearly”, while in Pollok SNP, she only came out a handful of times, and I met no one in Govan who knew who she was, I am not rewriting history because you find it inconvenient to read the truth

Dear Anon

“Repeat Repeat Repeat”.

If you don’t like what is written, can I suggest the Tom Cruise movie, Edge of Tomorrow.

You say, “Repeat Repeat Repeat” but I think practice, practice, practice.

“Boring Boring Boring”.

I think the reshaping history back towards historical fact is a good thing.

“Change the record”.

Well, I am open to suggestions, what would you like to talk about, the SNP MPs clapping in the House of Commons showing they are just petty little clowns.

“Cut the crap”.

I think I am cutting the mustard.

“You have a Bitter vile and twisted mind and all your imaginary commentaries”

No capital B in bitter and where is the rest of that sentence, looks like it kind of tailed off.

“It is about time you left the deceased to rest in peace shows how low you are when you resort to writing about the dead”.

Your point is rather odd; I am writing about my experiences while in the Scottish National Party, are you saying I shouldn’t tell the truth?

Lets get to the nub of your complain:

“It is said that the modern SNP was trained up by a former Sturgeon crony named Allison Hunter who was previously a Glasgow SNP Councillor for the Govan Ward. I found that Ms. Hunter underneath the false exterior of ‘Auntie Allison’ was a deeply ignorant and thoroughly nasty little woman.

I remember on one occasion being abandoned in the street after an SNP event as her, the SNP MP Chris Stephens and the organiser Richard Bache all jumped into her car and sped off down the road I had to walk back. Richard Bache was a friend of William Begg, the limbs in the Loch killer. Homosexual Begg’s prison hobby is taking the State to Court on any matter.”

I assume you object to these paragraphs because they are true, why should the truth about people upset you, either it is true or it is false.

If this was false, then I would agree that it would be nasty, however, given it is true, you wish me to either not write about it, or even worse in my opinion, lie.

Would being a liar make me a better person?

“Go and do something useful instead of sitting in libraries writing all this hate no wonder you are ill. For a man who brags about how educated you are this is just the pits”.

Firstly, who said this was written in the Library, I wrote that post actually at home. Secondly, why do you feel making assumptions should be considered as fact? Thirdly, while awake in my university classes, I did manage to learn something, and I haven’t bragged as you called it about my education. I have stated in my youth, I taught at Glasgow University, also I was the top of my class when I took fitness qualifications. I even taught half of my class how to pass the practical exams. 

I did this for free, not because I had to but because I was asked by them. Their teaching and technical knowledge left a lot to be desired but I managed to get them to test standard. I also got a Vet Nurse into Anniesland College on a fitness course, it turned out one of the assessors did weight training, when she mentioned she trained in the gym, he thought it was a good idea to grill her. My trainees were the elite of the Glasgow University gym, taught to teach as well as train, she passed and was offered a place before she left the room. 

In my written papers, my exam marks were 92% and 95%. People that I taught as students represented Britain, Scotland and also went to the Olympics Games, one person a rower was at both Atlanta and Sydney.  

I can understand if my past successes upsets you, but I don't go bragging about it, it was something I did in my past which helped many people.

In the SNP, the leadership or cult members think they are so smart and every one else is an idiot, but that isn't the case. 

As to doing something useful, I am doing something useful, I am using the Library as an educational resource; check out my latest projects.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ORvfE4z9Ks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sg6XIMYtB5w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRHL6IwFPa0

Finally, you would have objected to this paragraph as well:

“Although I didn’t protest about such ill treatment by Hunter, I did at the time think I had been put in with a group of ignorant pigs. On another occasion Ms. Hunter at a Glasgow election count thought it was acceptable to belittle me by swearing and shouting abuse at me in front of a group of people. Since, I had given my word not to cause trouble at the counts, to Bache, I didn’t respond but it reinforced my opinion that I shouldn’t have been active in the Pollok Branch of the SNP”.

Here is the official version of how wonderful Ms. Hunter was:

http://www.snp.org/media-centre/news/2013/jul/tributes-paid-allison-hunter

I don’t retract a word I say.

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

Prime Minister David Cameron has delivered on new powers for Scotland according to the Law Society of Scotland, fresh embarrassment for unpopular Nicola Sturgeon who only could be bothered to ‘glance’ at the document before screaming 'grievance', my point, Sturgeon and the Scottish National Party are now irrelevant as events move forward

Dear All

The Law Society of Scotland says the new Scotland Bill which has come to pass via the Smith Commission has successfully “incorporated” the terms of the devolution deal.

In truth, there was never any possibility that David Cameron would renege on what some people called ‘the vow’.

Scotland is now one of the world’s most powerful devolved parliaments; the only problem is that unpopular Nicola Sturgeon has no intention of using additional powers to lift Scotland out of poverty.

Already, Nicola Sturgeon has decided to cry foul and complaint the new powers fall short of what is needed.

And regardless if anything else comes to the Scottish Parliament; her call will be always the same.

Scotland has been on pause since 2012, you could make a case that this date needs to revise downwards.

The Law Society of Scotland in the shape of its president,Alistair Morris, says the legislation “reflects” the agreement struck by the parties. Measures agreed include the transfer of “important areas of law policy” such as welfare, income tax and some VAT revenues.

With Sturgeon doing her grudge, grievance and malcontent routine, she yet again shows her startling lack of class and statesmanship. It is also rather embarrassing for Nicola Sturgeon and her deputy, John Swinney that such a body as the Law Society of Scotland is publicly speaking out against them.

The SNP leadership put into motion publicly a narrative that Scots had been betrayed because the Bill failed to match the “spirit or intent of the Smith Agreement”.

We all know now, the reality is that the ‘Sein Fein’ SNP actually wanted a Conservative Government, they had no intention of working with Labour, and their entire campaign was to destroy the Scottish Labour Party.

Although some of the Labour MPs had a good track record, others didn’t, and that was one of the biggest single causes in Labour’s epic defeat. If you don’t take care of your constituents then you can expect to see anger grow, a tipping point then arises and the good get swept out with the bad.

It is doubtful some of those Labour MPs defeated will be missed.

What has replaced them is some respects is pure trash, we have already gotten a taste of that by the seating row and the happy clapping episodes. When the new SNP MPs open their mouths, we will see how untalented and inept they really are, student politics in a place such as Westminster will not play well.

The SNP like to cause trouble, this is mainly due to ignorance; for example, they argued that the new legislation contained a series of “vetoes” allowing UK ministers to block changes in areas related to welfare payments and energy bills. This on the face of it seems like a legitimate point, but we shouldn’t just blindly accept their word, the Scotland Office the clauses highlighted by the SNP were only “practical arrangements to ensure the transfer of new powers smoothly.”

See what I mean by a genuine lack of talent, grievance for grievance, literally, it is like trying to deal with illiterates who don’t understand Statehood or the mechanisms of such practices.

David Mundell, the Scottish Secretary has indicated that the UK Government intends to fast-track the Bill; this means that voters will see what deal the political parties which to put to the Scottish electorate. There will come a point when the people of Scotland will realise that Nicola Sturgeon isn’t doing anything to make their lives better.

Obviously the Conservatives are hoping that next May, they will get to be the official opposition and replace Scottish Labour at Holyrood. One thing which should be pointed from the Conservatives successful 2015 election is that in Scotland, Ruth Davidson failed her first major test of leadership.

She didn’t gain a single additional seat, this is important to mention, and shouldn’t be glossed over.

Ruth Davidson can only have success by the process of the Labour Party in Scotland continual failure.

The new Scotland Bill will make Holyrood responsible for 60 per cent of Scottish spending and 40 per cent of taxation. I think the Conservatives are being slightly hopeful that Sturgeon will raise taxes, what she will do is cut burdens, what she will do is force councils to downsize jobs numbers.

We will also see at the same time, Nicola Sturgeon pushing the living wage which she is currently doing at present as a smokescreen.  

At First Minister’s Questions, Ms Sturgeon said:

“The UK Government, I think, had a very clear test today to deliver a Bill which lived up in full, in spirit and in letter, to the Smith Commission. The Bill has been published within the last hour or so and, from my glance at it, I think it falls short in almost every area."

The key word here, is ‘glance’, do you remember what Nicola Sturgeon said, ‘education got me where I am today’, you don’t glance at documents, you read them fully, line by line. Incidentally, it wasn’t education that got Nicola Sturgeon where she is today; it was screaming hate at SNP Conferences about how everything is the fault of the English couched in the term ‘Westmintser’.

 

Deputy First Minister John Swinney said:

"Less than a fortnight ago, the Prime Minister came to Edinburgh and pledged to the people of Scotland to deliver the Smith Agreement in full. Today, it's plain to see that promise has been broken. Delivering the Smith Commission's recommendations was the minimum the UK Government had to deliver."

My opinion of John Swinney has gone down since the Scottish referendum.

What we will see in this term of the Westminster parliament aside from the SNP making fools in the Chamber of the House of Commons is the political landscape of the United Kingdom drastically changing.

This will happen and the SNP will become irrelevant, matters of substance will be set in motion while Nicola Sturgeon’s MPs just carp on the sidelines.

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University  

Disgraced former Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill finally admits that the ‘Sein Fein’ SNP Government are human rights abusers on prisoner voting rights, Scotland is on the road to fascism, there isn’t any room for justice under unpopular Nicola Sturgeon

Dear All

Kenny MacAskill was the worst Justice Secretary in the history of the Scottish Parliament.

He got the job because he was basically Alex Salmond’s pal; this was the criteria it seems to hold Ministerial Office in the SNP Government. Through-out his rein he was dogged by controversy, one of the cases which showed him up as a lemming was the Cadder Case.

What is interesting about the Cadder Case was the UK Supreme Court had to act to ensure that Scots got access to a fair trial. MacAskill fought tooth and nail against this case, at the time, I opined that human rights couldn’t be replaced by effectively what was ‘gifts’ by the Crown Office. Although Cadder the individual wasn’t exactly a pillar of the community, he did more for justice in Scotland as ‘deadbeat’ than Kenny MacAskill did while holding ministerial office.

On the Cadder Case, George Laird was right again by the way, it was they say an open and shut case.

During the Scottish referendum, the SNP deliberately continued to disenfranchise a section of the population resident in Scotland from exercising their right to vote. These people were prisoners who were locked in prison. The issue of prisoner voting is an issue that most politicians won’t touch with a barge pole because everyone is signed up to ‘tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime’.

This slogan was Tony Blair’s mantra while in public office.

Anyone not signing up to this was attacked by the other parties and described as being weak and pro criminal.

Giving people their human rights isn’t and shouldn’t be a matter of whether we like them, or what they stand for, or even what they have done previously.

So, a political consensus emerged which was ‘fuck criminals, we don’t want their votes if they are in prison’.  

My position when the issue cropped up at the referendum was that the prisoners should be allowed to vote. This view is in line with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) who ruled the blanket ban on prisoners voting is a breach of human rights.

According to MacAskill view now, the Scottish Government must review its "shameful" position, during the ‘shame’ episode, Kenny MacAskill had no problem in doing two things, one, collecting his Ministerial salary and secondly keeping his mouth shut.

Keeping your mouth shut doesn’t make you a team player, just in case you motherfuckers didn’t know that!

You are either the Justice Secretary of Scotland or you are not, is my opinion, plainly MacAskill was Alex Salmond’s placeman.

MacAskill’s sudden conversion to ‘faith’ is that he thinks the SNP must back prison votes to fight Tory human rights plan.

I get the sense, this isn’t about restoring democracy and human rights but rather this is a political manoeuvre. The Conservatives want to repeal the Human Rights Act 1998, and replace it with what is termed the British Bill of Rights.

The problem with the Human Rights Act 1998 isn’t that the Bill is wrong, but the wrongful judgments which arise from it, like allowing terrorists to have a revolving door to attempt to defeat the ends of justice. Another misuse is allowing foreign criminals the right to remain in the UK on the basis they can cite another part of human rights as a justification as a breach.

One of the gags used is right to family life to avoid deportation.

David Cameron wants to replace the human rights act with a British Bill of Rights but it rather looks like people will get less rights; and as we head towards a possible exit from the EU, this may look to some as long term housekeeping.

We don’t have a bad human rights act, we have bad judges.  

Writing in The National newspaper, MacAskill admitted that he was "complicit" in the "wrong" decision to oppose granting convicted prisoners the vote.

He added:

"That's an issue that has come before the European Courts on many occasions and in which they have been quite clear.  A blanket ban is unacceptable and in conflict with human rights, notwithstanding that the UK Government has simply refused to comply and indeed Prime Minister David Cameron has said that the very thought of it makes him sick. Shamefully, the Scottish Government has so far refused to adhere to the spirit and the judgements of the European Courts. Initially it hid behind the franchise being reserved to Westminster but did indicate that it did not support its extension to prisoners. That was compounded by replicating the Westminster line in the franchise for the referendum. Votes were granted for 16 and 17-year-olds but not prisoners.

Kenny MacAskill also said:

"In that act I am as complicit as any as the former justice secretary. It was the wrong thing done, albeit for the right reasons. It was to avoid any needless distractions in the run-up to the referendum, to deny the right-wing press lurid headlines that could tarnish the bigger picture. But the referendum is behind us and the Tory press have failed to stop us. To have credibility on the issue the Scottish Government must now review their position on votes for prisoners or the defence of the Human Rights Act will ring hollow."

This is basically rubbish, but lets us home in on this part:

“It was the wrong thing done, albeit for the right reasons. It was to avoid any needless distractions in the run-up to the referendum, to deny the right-wing press lurid headlines that could tarnish the bigger picture”.

So, I read this and I think, this is a person who doesn’t give a shit about human rights, doesn’t give a shit about justice and thinks that Government exists as an election and referendum tool.

The job of the Justice Secretary is to oversee a justice system that is fair to both sides in a legal, during his tenure as Justice Secretary, Kenny MacAskill was so far up the arse of the Crown Office; you would have thought he was their employee instead of being their boss.

As to Sein Fein SNP adopting MacAskill’s position, I don’t see unpopular Nicola Sturgeon taking an interest in giving people their human rights; she hasn’t really expressed an interest in that as a politician.

Scotland is on the road to fascism, there isn’t any room for justice.

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

House of Commons Speaker John Bercow tells SNP MPs to stop clapping and 'show some respect' for the traditions of the House, I said there was a genuine lack of talent in the SNP, they just proved George Laird right again, the SNP cult members are just clowns!

Unpopular Nicola Sturgeon and ‘Sein Fein’ SNP are set to make demands on David Cameron, now get the popcorn out as we all see how impotent Nicola Sturgeon’s ‘feeble 56’ actually are at Westminster, France and Germany are already in secret pact against Britain to extent political union within the EU, the real kicker is that Sturgeon signs up to massive austerity for Scottish people regardless

Dear All

Just as ordinary people will find out what a colossal mistake it was to send the ‘feeble 56’ SNP MPs to Westminster, we are now seeing the ‘Sein Fein’ SNP express their love of the European Union.

If Scotland was to become independent, the SNP would take Scotland into the EU and also the currency union called the Euro.

We would become the next

Unpopular Nicola Sturgeon will be standing side by side with Prime Minister David Cameron and attempting to press for a majority vote in each country before the UK could exit.

In politics, the majority has the final say, but Sturgeon wants to ensure that if Scotland was to vote to stay in and England voted to leave, their wishes would be ignored.

Needless to say, if a majority vote to leave the EU, this will be the end of the matter and the membership.

Nicola Sturgeon says he will run a positive campaign to stay in the EU.

So, what are the disadvantages of membership?

Firstly, there is the cost aspect, the costs of EU membership to the UK is £15bn. Ukip believes this cost is higher when other factors are taken into consideration such as bureaucracy. Whatever the real figure is, there is a cost to the British taxpayer.

Secondly, we have seen how some policies in the EU haven’t been efficient such as the high percentage of EU spending goes on the Common Agricultural Policy or CAP as it is better known. That policy has distorted agricultural markets and lead to higher prices for consumers and encouraging over-supply. Remember the ‘Butter Mountain’ and the ‘wine lake’ of the latter have of the last century? Although there has been some work to reform the Common Agricultural Policy, it still comes up as a topic as because it hasn’t eliminated the wastage, that being said, there has been a reduction.

Problems of the Euro, we have seen how Greece has fared in the Euro, the country because of its economy isn’t doing well, in fact it is doing so badly that recently stories of Greek hospitals running out of supplies of essential equipment has surfaced.

Another story which caught my eye early on was that some Greek pensioners have been forced to look for food in bins. This isn’t the European dream. Greece is in limbo, to renew its self it has to leave the Euro and default on its debt, it is a drastic step to cure a drastic problem. At present the Greek Government is lacking the ability to cope in a real sense, if default is the answer, the question becomes when and not if.

The EU to encourage balancing of the books puts real pressure on countries towards austerity. Since 2008, the start of the banking crisis which saw many southern European countries faced massive pressure from the EU to pursue austerity to pay for the mistakes of others. This has led to spending cuts to meet budget deficits and prolonged economic stagnation.

Net Migration, this is seen by some as a real problem, free Movement of Labour has caused problems of overcrowding in UK cities. The idea of free movement of Labour is in need of being regulated, I have said, and I will continually say, the EU needs an internal immigration policy. The UK’s population is set to rise to 70 million over next decade; this will have a knock on effect to push up house prices, increase burdens of the State functions such as councils and hospitals, and led to congestion on roads.

No country can continue growth forever, it is a myth.

The United Kingdom needs to reclaim its borders and the trend towards 70 million needs to be reversed downwards as a permanent measure. The reality of EU membership is that the UK is powerless to prevent large scale immigration because EU rules allow free movement of labour.

Unpopular Nicola Sturgeon and ‘Sein Fein’ SNP wants to increase Scotland’s immigration by about a million people, this would be a disaster.

The EU is famous for red tape, red tape is a burden on business, although some of the rules brought in are essentials, I don’t favour making law purely on the basis of having something to do, just as law making is important when needed, the removal of law is an aspect rarely commented on. It is argued with some justification that the EU has created extra layers of bureaucracy whilst taking away decision making process further from local communities.

Although Sturgeon will push for a “double majority” to be included in the vote that would mean all four nations of the UK must back withdrawal before exit is possible, she won’t get it. The SNP see the EU referendum as a device to push for another independence vote if the majority in the UK vote to leave. They will play silly games, they will huff and puff but in the end they will be shut out of all decision making and will not influence the vote, the legislation, the franchise or the timetable.

On the issue of democracy and the people’s right to express their views on the EU, Nicola Sturgeon said:

“I don’t think it is desirable to hold an in-out referendum on membership of the EU”.

Her view is that we should have the right to vote in a referendum if it is something she wants to have enacted.

Labour in the shape of Harriet Harman dropped its opposition to the referendum at the weekend in recognition of the general election result.

The Labour Party will run its own campaign against withdrawal, with the Liberal Democrats but not with the Tories, it seems that it will be David Cameron and Nicola Sturgeon joined at the hip as SNP usually vote alongside the Tories in Parliament anyway.

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie accused Sturgeon of using her tradition approach to anything, grudge and grievance.

He added:

 “I know Nicola Sturgeon wants independence for Scotland but she should stop quibbling about Europe. The SNP need to get on with making the positive case for Europe rather than using it to enhance the chances of independence for Scotland. If she is passionate about the UK remaining in the European Union, she should throw her full support behind the campaign. Europe is good for jobs, trade, workers and consumer rights and so much more so I hope the SNP will join is in a cross-party campaign to keep us in Europe.”

Interestingly, the people who make the strong case for staying in the EU mostly come from the political classes whose people make a very good living out of the EU setup, this contrasts rather sharply from the lives of ordinary working class people who stand in line at food banks.

One thing is certain, regardless of which way the vote goes, the EU will certainly have to be reformed to a new setup.

I doubt that France and Germany will be willing to take that step unless a crisis forces them to re-invent it towards a trading block. Already Hollande and Merkel have tighten their grip and rule out EU treaty change, they want more political union and more control of other member states.

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

Harriet Harman, acting leader of the Labour Party makes a dramatic U turn on the issue of a referendum on Britain's EU membership, this previous deadlock is a symptom of how badly out of touch the senior leadership is with the public mood

Dear All

One of the things which destroyed the Labour vote in England by their own hand was the Party refusing to back an in-out referendum on membership of the European Union.

The Labour Party has a problem in backing decisions and then having to do an embarrassing U turn when their position becomes untenable.

The people of the United Kingdom want the EU referendum for a number of specific reasons.

One of the prime reasons for wanting to opt out of the European project is the UK cannot control our own borders, this is particularly noticeable and has led to numerous social problems in the UK in a whole range of areas such jobs, housing and social cohesion.

Ordinary people say enough’s enough.

Years ago, I wrote on how the EU was in desperate need of reform, and the policy idea I had was the internal EU immigration policy. Each country in conjunction with the EU sets a strict code of residency in all EU countries. The criteria in one country could be radically different from the conditions set in another member state. This isn’t a block on free of movement of Labour; rather it’s recognition of the realities of life.

There is a strong case for staying as part of the EU, but equally there is a strong case to made for leaving the EU, while reform agenda remains little better than an academic discussion.

I fully support the people’s right to have a referendum on the EU, just as I supported the right of people to have a Scottish referendum.

What does it say that after being massive defeated that the Labour Party has now decided that listening to the people is a good idea?

It rather proves my point about the need for fresh talent to fill the Labour ranks is sorely needed, by fresh talent that doesn’t mean people who were chairs of Labour student organisations while at University. People that can look at problems and come up with radical solutions both internationally and domestically!

Ed Miliband while leader of the Labour Party made a lot of mistakes, he was weak, he had no vision and wasn’t a listening politician. His first big mistake was standing against his brother David for the leadership; he wasn’t ready for this post.    

After changing their mind of the EU, the party doesn’t wish the in-out referendum on membership of the European to clash with next year’s Scottish Parliament election. I would think that David Cameron would agree with this and the 2017 date which was touted early on would probably remain.

2017 is also date for the Council elections in Scotland.

One of issues already flagged up is the issue of eligibility to vote, the UK government have stated that people from most other EU nations living in the UK will not be able to vote.

The franchise used will be the general election franchise, with only UK, Irish and Commonwealth citizens eligible to cast their vote.

Acting leader of Labour, Harriet Harman said:

“There just does not seem to be the public appetite for us to man the barricades against a referendum that appears inevitably going to happen. We will vote for the bill and then get into the big questions for and against Europe.”

She added:

“It’s a big constitutional issue on its own and it needs that separate consideration.”

That is debatable that people cannot wrap their heads around multiple issues at the same time.

‘Fake Scot’ Angus Robertson of ‘Sein Fein’ SNP decided to take the opportunity to renew his party’s call for separate votes on the EU in each constituent part of the UK. The SNP want a majority in each country to say out or the vote is null and void. In effect, he thinks a minority should be able to hold the rest of the UK to ransom.

David Cameron will not take that nonsense onboard, Englishman Angus Robertson is particularly liked at the House of Commons; his words carry no weight with his English countrymen.

Robertson says a failure to allow each constituent part of the UK to decide on its status in the EU would leave Mr Cameron’s independence referendum vow to give Scotland an equal voice “in tatters”.

No, it doesn’t, this is a UK wide vote, and should and will be treated as such.

Robertson diatribe runs to this:

“We will also seek to amend the legislation to ensure no constituent part of the UK can be taken out of the EU against its will.”

There is no legal precedent for this point; it is meaningless much like Angus Robertson himself.

He also added the SNP will also seek to ensure 16 and 17-year-olds are allowed to vote in the EU membership referendum.

Robertson piped up:

“Young people are our future. It is their UK, and their Europe, so they must have their say. 16 and 17-year-olds can pay taxes, get married and join the armed forces, so it is only right and fair that they should also be entitled to vote.”

If that is the case, why do they need a State appointed Guardian?

Nigel Farage, leader of Ukip, said Labour had “been dragged, unwillingly” to accept an in-out referendum on Europe after its electoral defeat on 7 May.

I would have to agree with Nigel Farage’s assessment, nothing like defeat to make a party interested in accepting democracy again.

Farage said:

“They grudgingly accept that it is the will of the British people to have a say on their future, but they make it clear that they will campaign for in, whatever the result of Mr Cameron’s negotiations. So in reality this isn’t a conversion to democracy and the facts of the European argument, merely an acceptance of the inevitable. Claims that the EU has kept the peace for 70 years, and that Britain would be in some way barred from trade with the EU nations, rebels against all evidence. But they have closed their minds and hearts to evidence.”

Labour has already stated their position and this was confirmed by Shadow Europe Minister Pat McFadden said he “can’t see circumstances where Labour would back a no vote.

McFadden said:

“I don’t think the European Union necessarily always works best by always threatening to leave. We’ve achieved change by working with others; the Prime Minister is going to have to get some agreement from others to some of the changes that he wants so let’s see what he comes up with. But he too has some issues here because in terms of the programme that he’s set out so far, there is nothing that he could renegotiate that would satisfy a good number of his backbenchers who want to come out come what may.”

David Cameron says he will try and get a deal on reforms from Europe, I doubt his efforts will be productive as he thinks, even if he gets all he wishes, there is a sizeable population who want control of UK borders to be returned fully to the UK control. I would say he is looking at this from the wrong end of the telescope; the issue is much wider that the UK’s self interest, the EU problems require a 28 member discussion on the future of the EU.

It could be that the EU needs a re-invention what it stands for; so far the organisation has failed to address problems like illegal immigration of economic migrants into the EU, failed to fix the Euro currency, failed to properly protect EU member states whose economies can’t match the German powerhouse, allowed itself to grow too big without necessary safeguards re treaty changes.

It is too late to tinker with ‘wee things’ and present that as gold plated reforms, much in the same way as UK mission creep towards Federalism will be an absolute disaster. It was pointed out o me a short while ago, that the language of the British Government has changed, Instead of talking about Team GB, we are now seeing the push towards calling Britain, the United Kingdom, in UK government literature. 

A pointer of the push towards Federalism is Professor Adam Tomkins blog, ‘notes from North Britain which has a new article on Federalism as a way of saving the Union.

Wishful thinking on his part, and a non starter with yessers!

Some time ago, I mentioned to him to see that Better Together archived its material, I said he might have need of it again, when indyref 2 comes along, post 2020; post Cameron.

Tomkins has been recently appointed as an advisor to Secretary of State for Scotland David Mundell on matters to do with the Constitution. As a law Professor at Glasgow University, he is quite smart on law, but independence is about more than facts.

Anyway, the United Kingdom has held membership of the EU for circa 40 years, it would be a shame to lose it, but the British public may think the damage that comes with membership is too high a price to pay.

The European Union really does need an internal immigration policy, this is a good base to start from; it is also a measure that will have to eventually come into play at some point, along with a permanent cap on membership limits.

Finally, Labour’s U turn on the EU is a symptom of how badly out of touch the senior leadership is with the public mood.

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

‘Bad Mother’ Nicola Sturgeon lets her ‘feral kids’ run wild on the Westminster Parliamentary Estate, Sir Gerald Kaufman, a resident on the ‘estate’ brands the SNP MPs ‘goons’, Kaufman has a point as Westminster will see soon enough how trash lowers the dignity of Parliament

Dear All

One thing that the Scottish National Party MPs have managed to achieved in their short Westminster career of 2015 is the title of ‘goons’. In the SNP to be selected as part of the Nationalist clique, you have to fall into one of four categories.

Rich

Irish republican

Member of the LGBT community

Muslim

You don’t have to have any understanding of politics but it helps if you have a deep hatred of the British Establishment.

Sir Gerald Kaufman has called SNP MPs 'goons' over their Commons behaviour, you can’t expect the 50 new members to know all the workings of the House, but you would expect them to act like adults.

Sadly, that isn't the case, the Nationalists, all hand picked by the SNP cult have already demonstrated that they are small minded individuals who hold the Westminster Parliament in contempt.

As the longest-serving MP in the House of Commons, Labour’s Sir Gerald Kaufman feels that it is time that the Nationalists understand that their behaviour is unacceptable.

The seating row has brought home to the people of Scotland that on May 7^th, they made a tremendous mistake in voting SNP. The SNP created an image of Nicola Sturgeon as a caring individual; to that end they stuck a young child in her arms, to convey an image of her as the ‘mother of the nation’.

Nicola Sturgeon has no kids, and never will be a mother; her ‘children’ are the feral SNP MPs, the kind of people that you would warn your own kids to stay away from.

The attempt to turf the veteran Labour MP Dennis Skinner out of the seat he has claimed for nearly 45 years shows a ‘ned’ mentality but we shouldn’t expect any better from the SNP.

It is said that the modern SNP was trained up by a former Sturgeon crony named Allison Hunter who was previously a Glasgow SNP Councillor for the Govan Ward. I found that Ms. Hunter underneath the false exterior of ‘Auntie Allison’ was a deeply ignorant and thoroughly nasty little woman.

I remember on one occasion being abandoned in the street after an SNP event as her, the SNP MP Chris Stephens and the organiser Richard Bache all jumped into her car and sped off down the road I had to walk back. Richard Bache was a friend of William Begg, the limbs in the Loch killer. Homosexual Begg’s prison hobby is taking the State to Court on any matter. 

Although I didn’t protest about such ill treatment by Hunter, I did at the time think I had been put in with a group of ignorant pigs. On another occasion Ms. Hunter at a Glasgow election count thought it was acceptable to belittle me by swearing and shouting abuse at me in front of a group of people. Since, I had given my word not to cause trouble at the counts, to Bache, I didn’t respond but it reinforced my opinion that I shouldn’t have been active in the Pollok Branch of the SNP.

Another thing about Ms. Hunter was the fact she was incredibly lazy, year on year in the Govan Ward, she rarely came out to work with the activists. Scotland’s ‘jolly fat man’ Alex Salmond prior to the Hunter’s epic Glasgow City Council defeat in 2012 said she was a great leader, full of compassion and natural authority etc etc, all the good things you would expect and all what Ms. Hunter lacked in spades.

In the early days of my SNP membership, I noticed quite early on the lack of education, to that end I proposed a teaching hub in 2010, at the hustings in 2011; I even mentioned this to unpopular Nicola Sturgeon in front of a group of people. 3 years later and with the death of Ms. Hunter, the SNP announced the Allison Hunter Training School.

The joke was not lost on me, symbolism to make a gesture to give someone a status they didn’t earn and didn’t deserve.

If Hunter did ‘train up’ the modern SNP as claimed, a rather poor job she made of it, her product is little better than feral animals.

I agree with Sir Gerald Kaufman, these people who are supposed to be the best of best from SNP Candidate selection are little more than ‘goons’.

Kaufman said:

“I think that their conduct is infantile. I don’t know what they’re trying to prove. It’s all very well for them to try to sit in a block, but to move one of the longest-serving members of parliament out of a seat that he’s occupied for decades, it’s stupid.”

As well being infantile, members of the ‘feeble have also been reprimanded by parliamentary staff for taking selfies, which breaks the Palace of Westminster’s strict no-photography rules.

After being told it was customary to applaud in the Commons chamber by a Conservative MP, what did the SNP do?

They applauded.

One of the amusing things in this sorry episode which has years to run is that Pete Wishart, one of the SNP most senior members, was allegedly called the "biggest clown in Parliament" by Labour's chief whip in the row about seating in the Commons.

On twitter, I said that there shouldn’t be such a rush to judgment, this wasn’t a defence of Pete Wishart but rather an observation that the Labour Chief Whip had by passed many contenders for the title in the new SNP intake.

For example; the odious Natalie McGarry has started to expose herself as a fool already, and will certainly provide more ammunition for opposition members to use in the coming years.

McGarry tweeted recently:

“As long as in your heart and your head you believe sovereignty lies with the people, doesn't matter what comes out your mouth.”

This led many people on Twitter to ask, did Natalie McGarry ‘lie’ as she was being sworn in as an MP?

Another person to watch out for is Chris Law out of Dundee, he has ‘dick’ written all over him.

What Sir Gerald Kaufman is seeing what many people suspected but few dared to say until recently, the SNP is a cult, the cult is like feral animals, and there will come a time, when the animals will find out the difference between, tolerated and accepted, at Westminster.

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

NY 5th Ave explosion, a George Laird Production

Prime Minister David Cameron gets ready for the biggest bun fight of the Westminster 2015 term, the referendum on continued EU membership, given the EU caved in over Greece to some degree, Cameron make get wiggle room for his proposed EU reforms, but it’s dangerous waters to sail in

Dear All

One of the most interesting aspects of the 2015 Parliament will be the referendum on Britain’s continued European Union membership. Ted Heath, the Conservative Prime Minister in 1973 signed to take us into what was then called the Common Market. This was the end of a process which had lasted about 10 years have been blocked by General Charles de Gaulle of France.

Ted Heath signed on behalf of Britain and we started our membership which so far has lasted 42 years, give or take. You could say in many respects the European Union as it was to become has brought stability to Europe. That being said, there are also negative aspects which centre round loss of sovereignty of the current 28 member countries which lead people to call for EU reform.

I am in favour of EU, which is why I believe that the continual growth of the EU has been detrimental to its security, both economically and strategically. Some people believe in what is called a ‘United States of Europe’, this would lead to loss of sovereignty with member parliaments being effectively rubber stamps for EU legislation.

David Cameron will press ahead with the referendum by publishing the parliamentary bill, to satisfy is backbenchers who have been pretty vocal on their displeasure about how the EU has interacted with Britain. Although, the Conservatives did take Britain into Europe and section of the Party has always been anti EU right from the start; and that hasn’t died down.

The Bill will no doubt be the centre piece of the Queen’s speech next week, David Cameron will be keeping his word to make sure that his final term as Prime Minister is as trouble free as possible, although, he plans controversial legislation on a range of issues. This Bill more or less guarantees him getting his programme through; the vote when it finally comes is scheduled to take place in 2017.

The Prime Minister will no doubt campaign for a majority to stay in, but his backbenchers won’t be whipped. The EU provokes strong emotions, so the opposition which will be Ukip, will face off against the Conservatives, Labour, Lib Dems and the SNP. 

Cameron is not alone when calling for EU reform, another group called Open Europe think tank has been campaigning for major changes to the EU is backing his bid. This group seem to feel that he stands a good chance of success on EU negotiations. The EU has recently bent over backwards in the matter of Greece and their issue of threatening default on their debt, so there maybe wiggle round. However, that being said, David Cameron must produce a package of extensive reforms to justify his position that might not be so easy.

Any agreements will have to be signed off by Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor.

Some of the reforms being suggested are:

Restrictions on in-work benefits for EU migrants for four years

Safeguards for non-eurozone members in the EU’s single market – by allowing such countries to suspend “qualified majority voting” if a proposal impinges on their rights

 A “red card” to allow national parliaments to club together to block new EU legislation

Amending the EU’s historic mission, enshrined in the treaty of Rome, to foster an “ever closer union among the peoples of Europe” 

I would like to come back to my idea, that what is needed in the EU is an internal EU immigration policy, if reforms are to take place, piecemeal won’t cut it, it is essential that the founding principles of the EU are kept, but without a shift and change of focus, the EU will and has become unmanageable, effectively growth of enlargement has paralysed the organisation. Greece is a good example of how it can all go terribly wrong for a country when an economy falls out of sync with the rest of Europe. The Euro sounds good in principle, however in application it is too inflexible because the currency only works well when everything is booming, the downturn hit many countries in the EU very badly.

There is a school of thought that Britain if it leaves the EU would be much better off and able to trade easier and more successfully with the rest of the world, and in particularly the Commonwealth. It would seem that the cutting of ‘red tape’ should also figure rather highly on the list for David Cameron to campaign on.

Raoul Ruparel, Open Europe’s head of economic research, said:

“David Cameron will be squeezed between those who say no substantial reforms in Europe are possible and those who seek to set the bar so high that it is effectively code for exit before even trying to fundamentally reform the EU. He should ignore both camps and instead seek to balance the priorities of the UK public, businesses and his own party along with the achievability of the reforms in Europe.”

The problem is which ever way he turns, someone isn’t going to be happy, and there isn’t a middle ground. Unless David Cameron can get control of Britain’s borders, and refuse entry unless conditions are met, he stands a good chance of having a continual running sore through-out his last term in Office as Prime Minister.

An internal EU immigration policy solves many problems.

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University 

Andy Coulson, former director of communications for David Cameron is in Court in Scotland facing accusations of perjury at the Tommy Sheridan trial, never a dull moment in Scotland it seems, the Sheridan trial is the gift that keeps on giving

Dear All

When Tommy Sheridan won his case for defamation against the News of the World and was awarded £200,000, he must have thought he won the lottery. After all £200,000 is a good chunk of change to have in the skyrocket (pocket).

The News of the World weren’t best pleased when they lost that case, and you can understand why, Tommy Sheridan pulled off a victory which surprised many. The Judge at that Trial took an unusual decision in a civil case and said the matter should be investigated by the Police.

At the time, this was considered a highly unusual step, but it led to a change of events which would see Tommy Sheridan standing in the dock accused of perjury. After an emotional trial which saw Sheridan conduct his own defence, he was found guilty. Having been found guilty, he ended up in prison, and the Tommy Sheridan legend continued, far from accepting the verdict, he decided that he would appeal since leaving prison.

So far, all his attempts to get his sentence quashed have failed; the stumbling block to this is the evidence.

A by-product of the Tommy Sheridan case is that former News of the World editor Andy Coulson is accused of perjury. Coulson was previously working for David Cameron as director of communications. When things flared up, David Cameron said that he believed that people deserved a second chance, however, Coulson eventually left as director of communications. Now, he finds himself in Sunny Scotland standing in the dock to answer questions about the evidence he gave about phone hacking at the trial of Tommy Sheridan about five years ago.

Doesn’t time fly when you are having fun?

Coulson is accused of lying during the trial of Mr Sheridan in Glasgow in 2010. Given that lying is deemed serious by the Court, anyone who is found guilty tends to be punished rather hard, unless of course you have nothing to lose and then its free bed and board.

At the High Court in Edinburgh the jury heard an audio recording of the testimony Mr Coulson gave under oath after being cited as a witness in the trial almost five years ago. The first witness to appear before the tape was played Police Constable James Smith; he was doing Court duty on December 9 and 10, 2010. In effect, he was there to identify the Andy Coulson as the person who gave evidence. So, he is just pointing the finger and saying that’s him.

The real evidence is obviously the exchange between Tommy Sheridan who conducted his own defence after getting rid of his lawyer and Andy Coulson. The phone hacking scandal saw the end of the News of the World after about 168 years, it was a real campaigning newspaper which did a lot of good and exposed a lot of people doing bad things. Innocent staff lost their jobs and it was a really bad time for the Murdoch Empire, a lot of bad PR came their way.

Regardless how the trial of Andy Coulson turns out, this doesn’t affect the evidence that convicted Tommy Sheridan such as the confession to a room full of witnesses and also the video evidence of his confession.

Andy Coulson from Kent is pleading innocence, and the trial is expected to last about four weeks. Given that Sheridan cross examined Coulson, I would suspect he will be called to give evidence and answer questions.

Day out in Edinburgh for him and paid expenses!

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

Ken Macintosh throws his hat into the ring and enters Scottish Labour leader race, if he wants to go out and save Scotland, he will need to address the internal issues affecting Labour, Labour doesn’t need a business as usual candidate, they need someone who is willing to take the party ‘back to bare metal’ if need be

Dear All

In September 2011 I wrote a blog post that the person, who was best suited at that point to be the leader of Scottish Labour, was Ken Macintosh.

The person who won the contest was Johann Lamont. Her tenure as Labour leader in Scotland was patchy, at the start, she didn’t do well at FMQs, however over time; it improved.

In the end, Johann Lamont was to step down, and as she left rather suddenly, she decided to take a dig at London Labour for treating Scottish Labour like a ‘branch office’.

If the leader of Scottish Labour doesn’t have total authority over the entire party in Scotland, then that is a problem. In politics like in life, you can’t serve two masters.

The problem with Scottish Labour is that some people for example on the issue of defence don’t get it, the Trident issue being a particular bugbear. Some people want to see Trident removed from Scotland, as if this will revive the party’s fortunes.

It won’t.

When Johann Lamont went for the leadership, two other people wanted the position, Tom Harris and Ken Macintosh. Tom Harris wasn’t my pick, of the candidates, he was in a bad position, he was a Westminster MP, and didn’t strike me as the type to carry Labour forward.

The other person was Ken Macintosh, I rated his chances as better than both Harris and Lamont; he spoke well on a range of topics and was a good performer on TV, which anyone who wishes to lead must have that ability. It isn’t enough to reel off facts and figures, you need something more. During the Scottish independence referendum, I was lucky to be asked to a couple of events run by Labour; the person who was the guest speaker at both events was Gordon Brown. On both occasions, he delivered very powerful speeches which changed my impression of him.

If Gordon Brown had been more like this, he wouldn’t have lost in 2010.

At one event, I listened to Johann Lamont making a speech; she talked about how everything she does was based on social justice.

Johann Lamont is the MSP for my area, one day, I went to her with a constituency case, she tossed in the bin, not in front my face, but I did get a letter telling me she wasn’t going to do anything.

And there she was telling me and the other members of the audience about her social justice credentials and about her passion for it. As I listened to her, I didn’t believe a word out of her mouth, and that is setting aside the incident of the constituency case.

No one can try and avoid the scale of Labour’s 2015 election nightmare; now Ken Macintosh is considering a bid for the Scottish Labour leadership.

Last time round he had support among members but the Unions apparently weren’t too keen on him and instead they favoured Lamont along with some MSPs.

Two of the possible challengers to Ken Macintosh would be Neil Findlay and current Deputy Leader Kezia Dugdale, so, this creates a problem for Macintosh who was pretty much sidelined in the Scottish independence referendum. One Sunday, close to the vote, my friend wanted some advice on gardening, so we ended up at B&Q in Darnley, to my surprise in one of the few weekends before the vote, who did I see, Ken Macintosh with his family. In fact in a discussion with my former resident critic ‘Hamish’ who retired from complaining on the blog, I did mention that as Sir Francis Drake had been bowling, George Laird was in a back garden.

Part of being a leader is showing commitment, so Ken Macintosh may want the trappings of leader but is he prepared to lead from the front? I am not so sure, in 2011, he seemed to be the most credible candidate. Post Lamont, he had all but disappeared never to be heard from again, of course being leader has benefits, people want to know you, and if elected, he would find himself with helpers all keen to align with him. It could also help in his attempt to hold his seat in Eastwood.

Whoever is appointed leader has a massive task ahead of them, and it cannot be ‘business as usual’ because business has gone right done the drain. Political parties rise and fall, this is Labour’s fall, and by the looks of things it will be a deep one. If there is any comfort, the same will happen to the SNP, the public just don’t full understand that they have been conned. But they will eventually click on to it, and then just as there was a backlash against Labour, there will be a backlash for the Nationalists.

Ken Macintosh’s pitch for leadership according to a source is he wants to change Scottish Labour's "angry" tone and reassert the party's values. The source also commented that Macintosh also had a focus on campaigning on bread and butter issues such as improving health care and job prospects.

Scottish Labour needs a leader with a vision, not someone who thinks that being a ‘caretaker’ or ‘middle manager’ is going to cut it with the Scottish public. Scotland has changed politically; the landscape isn’t the same as 2011, something that Ken Macintosh should reflect on if he decides to go ahead with a leadership bid.

Can Ken Macintosh wield the knife and have a cull, because the old guard has had its day, I doubt it, you could make a reasonable case that being all warm fluffy and cuddly has landed Labour in the mess it is currently in. Too much empathy towards people who once they got elected didn’t think it matter too much if they didn’t work their areas and served the very people who put them there.

One of the problems of Labour which is mirrored by the SNP is what some term the ‘red princes’, people related to elected members who get positions and candidacies, Stephen Kinnock, the newly elected MP for Aberavon and son of former Labour leader Neil, now Lord, Kinnock said there was "potentially a case" for separating the Scottish and UK parties.

That won’t solve Labour’s problem; that is the same short term thinking that got Scottish Labour into the current mess that it is in.

Scottish Labour is preparing to choose its sixth leader in eight years, so there is a consistent theme of making bad choices and then rallying around someone who isn’t up to the task and then the same scenario of failure repeats itself.

If you want to watch a movie on how to benefit from repeated failure and learn from it then I would recommend, Tom Cruise’s Edge of Tomorrow, because the message that Labour needs is evolve.

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

Train damage test, big holes, before and after footage

Labour leader Jim Murphy to stand down after about 8 months in the job, his main problem was that he couldn’t turn around Labour’s 20/30 year problem of disconnecting from the public; his loss creates a political vacuum which will be hard to fill, like Fitba, Labour need to get new talent in

Dear All

Jim Murphy was a good constituency MP for East Renfrewshire, he understood unlike some others in the Labour Party that their re-election campaign started the day after they were elected.

The result at the Westminster election was a huge and depressing defeat for some people, personally I wasn’t happy or unhappy, I am not a member but I could see quite early on, the Labour Campaign was terrible.

It was a Campaign that started off with the Labour Party focussing on ‘fitba’, then ‘fitba’ and then some more ‘fitba’.

I would say one of the biggest mistakes was to re-unite the Better Together team which was more like a support group for Jim Murphy. Another bad decision by Jim Murphy was to appoint someone to a key post of Chief of Staff, some of that person’s tweets and observations didn’t tally with the reality of the situation. After watching weeks and weeks of the Labour Campaign going head first into the deck, I wrote a post on the 19^th Feb called, ‘fucking it all up’.

10 weeks out, and I knew that things were going to go rather badly.

The SNP won 56 seats with dross as candidates, so ‘fucking it all up’ was rather unsurprisingly on the mark for me again.

I don’t blame Jim Murphy for the defeat of Scottish Labour; the damage had already been done well before he took Office. Labour’s activist base hadn’t been properly developed, some MPs had become rather arrogant and lazy, the phrase that best sums up the problem is, ‘I didn’t leave Labour, Labour left me’ for voters.

The Labour ‘political elite’ had forgotten that votes must be earned as well as trust, and trust had been eroded by the failure to address unfairness which the SNP exploited to the max. After all, it was a Labour Party who introduced the ‘bedroom tax’ and didn’t really react when the DWP started benefit sanctions, apparently people in Scotland had something in the region of 500,000 sanctions, people left with no money.

Matters weren’t help when a Labour MP boldly declared:

“we are not the party of the unemployed”.

I wonder just how many people who had their benefits stopped marched into the polling station to punish ‘Westminster’.

So, the Labour Party in Scotland had their worst defeat since 1918, activist base collapsed, lazy MPs, poor campaign and disastrous appointments to Jim Murphy’s team. Instead of realising that unity was required, some people and the unions decided not to support Jim Murphy. On Saturday, he faced a confidence vote, so, he won that by 17-14.

After the narrow win, Jim Murphy announced to the press he will stand down as Scottish Labour Leader next month. This is of course his right to do so, however, it was a mistake, but a mistake that was his to make.

In politics if you say you are going to do something, you see it through right to the end. Another interesting issue which also came out of this episode is that Murphy does not intend to stand for election to the Scottish Parliament.

As a side issue, the idiot, Sean Clerkin and the Nationalist hate mob turned up outside the Labour HQ to ‘offer’ their support for Jim Murphy, Piers Doughty-Brown and the Sturgeon Youth, the blood and soil division came to gloat.

What purpose did this serve?

I would hazard a guess and say their personal amusement as being the prime mover.

In 2016, the Holrood election takes place, Labour fortunes have changed for the worst, a short time ago, Jim Murphy said he had ‘fixed’ Labour’s problems. To people who are interested in sound bites, sounds terribly good but as so many in the party wouldn’t accept his leadership, he wasn’t leading a party, more fighting a rearguard action.

The leading voices of dissent came from the MSP ranks alongside defeat MPs who didn’t in my opinion pull their weight. Jim Murphy isn’t responsible for that aspect of the defeat. The current Labour MSPs must be wondering, if in under less than a year, they will be out the door as well?

In an internal discussion with some people, I pointed out that for various reasons, 3 Glasgow seats were going to possibly fall; the ones that I picked were Ian Davidson, Tom Harris and Willie Bain’s seat.

They all fell.

A group of about 100 Left-wing Scottish Labour activists had a meeting organised by the ‘Campaign for Socialism’, they reached the almost unanimous decision that 'Jim Murphy must go'. I suppose this group will be holding another meeting next year and tell the MSP Neil Findlay or whoever is elected that they have also got to go.

In politics, you cannot be all things to all men; you have to make a stand on something as ‘grounding’. Jim Murphy’s problem was he was a ‘Blairite’, and he couldn’t re-invent himself as something else and sound plausible with it.

What effectively killed off Jim Murphy’s leadership was the trade unions, the latest being the Communication Workers Union, Unison added that it was 'unprecedented for a party leader not to stand down after such a defeat'.

Jim Murphy isn’t responsible for Labour’s 20/30 year problem of disconnecting from the public, they took the public’s vote for granted and paid a heavy price.

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University