Dear All
The Tories were able to capitalise on the collapse of the
Scottish Labour Party in 2016, they saw an opening by saying they were the
party of the Union when Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale said she could
consider voting for independence.
The mistake was to prove costly as Labour voters who
supported the Union felt betrayed and decided that the Tories were the best
bet. Since her mistake, the Labour Party has been rewriting history to now be a
party of the Union, one problem, the deputy leader Alex Rowley has since said
that Labour is now not a unionist party.
You could say at present the Scottish Labour Party is
experiencing a ‘ratner’s moment’ where their credibility is shot, Westminster
2015 was the worst disaster in Labour’s history in Scotland, Holyrood 2016 was
the worst disaster in Labour’s history of the Scottish Parliament, voters have
deserted them, activists have deserted them and donors don’t want to fund them.
2017 on paper is looking really bad unless they get some
good luck by other people’s bad luck, Scottish Labour cannot change their
fortunes because of the Blair faction which controls the party.
Double jobbing isn’t new in politics; several people do
elected political office as a part time job which provides them with a second
additional source of income and security. All the political parties do it, the
SNP in the shape of Scotland’s ‘jolly fat man’ Alex Salmond has several money
making schemes on the go to rake in the cash. From top to bottom in politics,
there are people who are elected councillors who also have a full time job
elsewhere; a common trick is to be the councillor and parliamentary assistant
to an MSP or MP in the area you were elected to ‘serve’, in effect paid twice
for doing the same job.
The Tories did very well because of the stupidity of certain
people leading Scottish Labour, but they also now need to play a more clever
game if they are to crack open and get seats in council elections beyond their
core support.
Douglas Ross is the Tory justice spokesman, ironically he is
now facing calls to be sacked as an MSP after he missed key meeting to referee
Real Madrid Champions League match. You have to wonder what the mentality was
in selecting him in the first place if he wasn’t going to fully commit to the
job.
To miss a vital parliamentary committee meeting to attend
the match is a disgrace, he wasn’t there in the stands; he was on the pitch running
the line at the Sporting Lisbon vs Real Madrid game in Portugal and
making a few bob on the side.
So, Douglas Ross gets an MSP salary which is £59,089, he
also draws a councillor salary representing a ward in Moray and then he tops
its off by referring which is said to be worth £40,000 a year.
The Tories have gone up to be the second party of Holyrood,
and if they keep on acting in this sleazy fashion, they will find that the
‘goodwill’ they received in votes can simply banish, previously when Ross
disappeared the Tories described this as a “one-off problem”, it isn’t, it is
an on-going problem beyond Ross.
I am not joining the bandwagon for Douglas Ross to be sacked
as an MSP like the SNP have done, the Nationalists are just as bad when it
comes to second jobs, they are hypocrites, I would say that Douglas Ross cannot
miss any more meetings of Parliament or duties he has been entrusted with, in
fact it would be better if he was replaced as Justice Spokesman and placed on
the backbenches if his fitba thing is so important to him.
SNP MSP Ben Macpherson said:
“The arrogance and blatant disrespect of ‘three jobs’ Tory
Douglas Ross is simply staggering.
Let’s take out the name Douglas Ross and replace that with
Alex Salmond and ask if he would say the same thing publicly.
Imagine SNP MSP Ben Macpherson saying for a second:
‘The arrogance and blatant disrespect of SNP MP Alex Salmond
is simply staggering’.
Of course Macpherson would say this or his career in the SNP
would be finished, but we shouldn’t associate Ben with having courage.
The Tories last night dismissed Macpherson’s complaint
because in politics you don’t acknowledge the complaint of the other side as
being valid.
A spokesman added:
“Earlier this year Ben Macpherson asked Douglas to kindly
speak to clubs in his constituency about refereeing – presumably this
invitation has now been rescinded.”
The Tories might feel this is a storm in a teacup given that
Scottish Labour is imploding at present, but in politics the long game is more
important, I don’t see any joy for Scottish Labour, this side of May’s council
elections, but the idea of the greedy sleazy Tory is still a powerful thought
in the minds of Scots.
Tory welfare spokesperson Adam Tomkins was criticised last
week after missing a social security committee event because he was busy with
his lucrative second job as a university lecturer. I personally don’t see the
appearance of Adam Tomkins as anything other than being put in place to help
bring in Federalism in the UK. Tomkins like Ross didn’t commit to Holyrood
either; in the main it could be that he thinks like me that this is a pretend
parliament of not much worth. The reason the place is of not much worth is the
calibre of the people elected to it, particularly the SNP along with others
made it a talking shop for bullshit student politics.
If anything was to light a fire under the Tories to act on
second jobbers, it would be the Scoittish Labour getting their act together,
however as I wrote above, the Labour Party in Scotland is imploding.
Tory justice spokesman Douglas Ross needs to be removed by
Ruth Davidson if he wants to continue going to the fitba, he should be given a
straight choice, do you want to be a justice spokesman or do you want to
referee, and then let him pick. Of course, she won’t do this, by imposing a
standard she would be forced to offer Adam Tomkins the same choice, so Douglas
Ross is safe for the moment.
But the Tories down the line might not.
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University
Georgeiboy think you may be being a wee bit harsh given the game, its not as if it was a Pollock united match
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