Where’s the leadership Kezia; Secret internal Labour polling shows support for Scottish Labour has totally collapsed to 15% as the party prepares to abandon its Glasgow stronghold, ever heard the concept of stand and fight where you are Kezia?

Dear All

Scottish Labour is in trouble, deep trouble; their problem is that there are more than one problem to deal with on multiple levels.

2015 was bad for Labour, 2016 was equally bad for Labour and 2017 is looking like the Scottish Labour Party is facing being wiped out.

There are no Labour heartlands anymore; that’s gone, the goodwill of the people was used up on the back of the Labour brand.

So, how did Labour get to this position?

It selected people who didn’t want to serve the people at MP, MSP and Councillor Level. It allowed MP and MSP staffers to get ‘top up’ money as councillors; which effectively was ripping the utter piss out of the public.

As the public woke up, they got angry and decided that the Labour representatives needed to be dumped, to that end; they used the SNP as a protest vehicle. The situation was compounded by Kezia Dugdale’s misstep by saying she could vote for Scottish independence which made working class unionist Labour voters defect to the Tories as a safe haven to ‘save the union’.

Scottish Labour has many problems coming up in 2017, and is said to be preparing for a near wipe out in its heartlands at next year’s local elections.

Let’s get it right, this is all self inflicted, it is Labour’s leadership who put Scottish Labour in its current position, although I have left the Scottish Labour Party after being discriminated against by the Local Campaign Forum, I got an email from Labour talking about how they are looking for new leaders. Here is the email for you to read,

“Dear George

The Scottish Labour Party is launching a new development programme to invest in our next generation of talent and prepare them to become leaders in our communites and our movement.

This brand new training and mentoring programme will be delivered by some of our party's most talented individuals as well as leading figures in media, communications and the third sector.  Training will cover all aspects of politics and will help develop vital skills in leadership, media and communications, public speaking and community organising.

The programme will be delivered over one full weekend on Saturday 4th & Sunday 5th February 2017, with three subsequent training events over the course of the following 12 months.  As well as these intensive sessions, successful applicants will also be paired up with an experienced mentor to support their continued development.

The deadline for applications is 5pm on Friday 6th January.  Find out more about the programme and apply here now. 

In order to rebuild our party from the grassroots up, the Scottish Labour Party needs to invest in our members and train local leaders at every level in the party and in the trade union movement.  If you or anyone you know in your local party or trade union would benefit from this programme we want to hear from you.

Best wishes

Brian 

Brian Roy

Scottish General Secretary”

As an idea, this has some merit however…… what the content is and who will deliver this idea and how will ‘outcomes’ be judged immediately flags up to me, some people in Scottish Labour who hold leadership positions aren’t leaders and don’t exercise good judgement either.

Any proof? 

Someone in Scottish Labour has leaked to the press Labour's own internal polling.

The internal polling is said to reveal that the party has failed to recover from its dismal election performance at Westminster nor from disaster of Holyrood where it slid into third place.

That 2016 campaign was poor organised, started late, had no vision, weak on policy and no one was willing to come out for the Labour candidates. I have blogged on my experiences of how the Labour Pollok campaign ran and how it was lost even before it started. I thought the campaign was a shambles, and I wasn’t the only person who took part in that campaign who also thought that.

Here is a number which might shock you, 15%, this is the number of Scots who plan to vote Scottish Labour. A huge amount of support for Labour has simply abandoned the party and walked across to the Conservatives since 2015.

Scottish Labour thinks that they can achieve 15 per cent of the vote, the Tories 25 per cent and SNP sitting on 45 per cent.

A Labour source said:

"The internal polling also tells us there is no such thing as a core Labour vote anymore."

The question of what to do about Glasgow is floating about because the question of funding the Glasgow campaign is in the minds of Labour, they think the city is already lost. I have to say losing is painful but to lose to a bunch of idiots in the SNP is especially sore, I know Glasgow SNP, full of clowns and idiots of low calibre and talent.

Four decades of Labour rule in Glasgow appears to be over all by the shouting even before the polls are open.

Here is a comment by Labour Cllr Jonathan Findlay; I have blogged on him before:

“Rather than train Labour Party activists to be leaders, we need to encourage local community leaders to be Labour Party activists!”

There is so much in that statement, firstly Labour do need to train up activists to be leaders, he got that wrong, and secondly, there is no encouragement by elected officials to even encourage current members to be activists never mind ‘community leaders’.

The internal not so secret report was presented to Labour MSPs who were briefed at a meeting in Holyrood.

A source at the meeting said:

"Of those who voted Labour in last general election, around half won't do so again with most going to the Tories. The polling for the local government elections has us at only 15 per cent."

Labour insiders say that resources will "be put into areas where campaigning is being done on the ground".

In Glasgow, it appears that even the few who do come out are being led by people who haven’t a clue about campaigning. I was recently chatting to someone who wanted to have a discussion on campaigning, I said to her, if anyone says anything interesting let me know. To my surprise she said she wanted me to do a presentation, so I said it was a bit short notice and I hadn’t prepared anything and anyway who did she want me to chat to about campaigning anyway.

It was the closed group on Facebook, ‘The Scottish Labour Campaign Forum’, the group is basically a who’s who in Scottish Labour and I was asked to put forward ideas to get people thinking about campaigning. The Forum is stuffed with MSPs, Cllrs, Staffers and senior party people. In end, I didn’t do it, well let’s get real, I am standing for public office in 2017 in the Glasgow Pollok Ward, if they had selected they would have got my experience and vision for free. 

I am a great believer in letting people do exactly what they want to do, and then let them live with the consequences, the consequences of Scottish Labour treating me unfairly and discriminating against me was me walking off to stand as an independent candidate. As I said to my real friends, those in Labour who discriminated against me are not important, and who knows perhaps post 2017, they wouldn’t have a future.

One thing in Scottish Labour is a lack of loyalty and trust, this is seen by the observation of a Labour insider who pointed out that the Herald's access to Labour's own polling data was a problem.

The person said:

"The fact senior people hand this stuff to the media says it all about mess we are in”.

My comment that Scottish Labour doesn’t know what leadership actually is, is spot on, this person has deliberately undermined the Glasgow Labour Campaign in an attempt to hand over the city to the SNP. 

Here is another example of ignorance by the insider:

"However, STV may save the base. It's not ground zero. Any rebuilding job in Labour has to start at councils. But it's a 20 year thing."

20 years?

It doesn’t take 20 years to rebuild public trust, people and policies matter, get that right and have the right people as candidates and people will come back, continue to cheat them and it will be a damn sight more than 20 years to get a comeback.

Politics isn't difficult.

Tory chief whip John Lamont:

“Labour didn’t need internal polling to realise what has been obvious for months now, that Scots are tired of their flip-flopping on independence. When they can’t be trusted to stand up for the union it’s hard to trust Labour on anything else, so it’s no wonder they’re so unpopular."

To add to Labour’s woes, Steven ‘bin laden’ Purcell, the former leader of Glasgow City Council, said Scots party leader Kezia Dugdale's call for a new Act of Union was "a distracting and hollow sales pitch".

He added that in the face of the internal polling Ms Dugdale's "job right now is to stand up for the 62 per cent of Scots who voted to stay in the European Union".

Steven ‘bin laden’ Purcell is an idiot and comes across like an SNP stooge when he said:

"This means having the courage to work constructively with the Scottish Government to build the widest possible coalition to put pressure on Theresa May."

He then added:

“Labour can be relevant again, winning hearts and minds, if it re-embraces it's radical spirit of home rule.”

If Scottish Labour falls to the point of taking Steven ‘bin laden’ Purcell advice, they might as well shut down Scottish Labour entirely, he is like a mini Henry McLeish who is seen by some as another SNP stooge in Labour clothing.

Scottish Labour need to offer the people of Scotland a future, they need to reconnect with the working class and disconnect from their ‘pet’ minorities obsession and realise that the most discriminated group in Scottish society is white working class Scots!

Vote George Laird for Glasgow Pollok 2017 because I know I am the best candidate standing in that Ward!

Finally, Happy New Year 2017 when it comes, be safe, stay out of trouble and don’t drink and drive.

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

Terror strikes in Berlin - but resistance is growing

Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year to you and your family, be safe, don't drink and drive, enjoy the holidays and if you get the chance, do a good deed

Dear All

It is that time of the year again so without further ado; Merry Xmas and a happy New Year to you and your family when it comes!

2016 has been a difficult year for many people, but the winds of change are starting to be felt not just in Scotland but right across Europe.

Yet again, I stood up for Scotland to support Brexit and won, another referendum and another referendum where I got it right.

I would like to thank all the people who took the opportunity to drop by the blog to read and comment on the stories posted.

I would also like to thank those who read my stories and decided to post them elsewhere and then linked it to my blog, which means I must be doing something right again.

I would also like to thank the BBC in London for dropping by this year, I do commentating on TV, hint, hint hint especially since I am not a political candidate for public standing in Ward 3 which is the Pollok Ward.

And I wanted to thank the print press who also keep rolling by to see the George Laird view on the world.

All in all, it was a good year blogging, I saw many of my predictions on Europe unfolded before my eyes.

See you all next year; the battle for truth will be starting early as will my election campaign.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

Blood on Angela Merkel’s hands is too thick to wash off, Berlin terror attack by suspected Muslim terrorist Anis Amri causes 12 dead and 48 injured, 16 seriously, Angela Merkel's immigration policy is responsible for the Berlin Christmas attacks, she has brought terror to the streets of Germany, her career is over

Dear All

Are you surprised by the Berlin attack?

Are you surprised that the Russian ambassador in Turkey was shot to death?

I am not, on both these issues I was right that Islamic terrorists would attack large ‘soft targets’ and that the political elite would see open season declared on them.

The attack in Berlin is just as horrifying as Paris or Nice or Cologne, the blame for this mess lies with politicians who wanted to sacrifice our security to the ‘alter of diversity’. In the race to score brownie points and control the narrative, the safety of the population was put at serious risk.

Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor has blood on her hands.

The attack in Berlin by using a truck as a weapon isn’t new, but it is deadly, 12 people are dead and it is said that about 50 more are injured. At present, the Police are said to be hunting Anis Amri, a refugee who came to Germany earlier this year, as the people of Berlin were being murdered and killed, Angela Merkel was at a ceremony to ‘honour’ migrants, talk about bad timing!

My articles of last year were to come true, Merkel allowed a free for fall to develop instead of doing what is necessary.

http://glasgowunihumanrights.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/migrant-crisis-leading-to-fortress.html

What is necessary?

Every migrant should be removed from general population and placed in detention camps, the people would need to be vetted and those Syrians deemed safe would be allowed back into society subject under strict conditions. All the other bogus asylum seekers who are economic migrants would be deported back to their home countries.

At present there is a manhunt for Anis Amri who is thought to be armed and 'highly dangerous, it is also said that he could be a member of a 'large' Islamic organisation and had weapons training abroad. This begs the question, why was he allowed to wander freely in Germany?

To show how ridiculous the Germans are acting, the first pictures of him released in Germany have his eyes deliberately covered, thought to be because of strict privacy laws there. You couldn’t make this up, a wanted man sought in connection with a major terrorist attack and the German State is playing stupid bloody games endangering more lives.

People need to know everything about Anis Amri who was born in the desert town of Tataouine in 1992; this is a well-known ISIS stronghold close to the Libyan border. People need a full description and total honesty from the authorities something which at present is slow to come.

Anis Amri claimed to be an asylum seeker and posed as a refugee to get temporary permission to stay in the country, this is a loophole that must be closed. It is thought that the terrorist suspect might be injured as squads of officers have been to every hospital in Berlin and the surrounding state of Brandenburg as the manhunt continues. The German Police are at present an international laughing stock; and allowed the ISIS killer behind Germany's worst terror attack since 1980 to get an 18 hour head start after they initially bungled their investigation.

Angela Merkel who is to face the Germany public in elections next year said:

'It would be particularly hard to bear for all of us if it was confirmed that a person committed this crime who asked for protection and asylum in Germany'.

This attack, the bungled investigation will lead to a real outpouring of anger by the German people, the outcry has already started with Horst Seehofer, the minister-president of Bavaria and one of the harshest critics of her open-door asylum policy saying,

'We owe it to the victims, to those affected and to the whole population to rethink our immigration and security policy and to change it.' 

The change that the German people need however might come in the shape of AfD leader Frauke Petry who has said Angela Merkel is "finished" in the wake of the Berlin terror attack.

AfD (Alternative für Deutschland) is a far right party which has been gaining ground in Germany for sometime; they stand a chance of taking control of Germany as the population demand action. The response by Merkel and her government has been woeful such as a proposal for a burka ban among other ‘tat’.

AfD leader Frauke Petry put it pretty bluntly when she said:

“We cannot go on denying there is a link between Merkel's migration policy and these attacks”.

And the truth is that she is right.

A recent poll showed that 80 per cent of Germans seriously reject Angela Merkel's migration policy, even if they are not in the streets demonstrating about it. It could be that next year there will be a tsunami which will sweep Merkel and her ilk from power, and not a moment too soon. There will end up being a new agenda in Europe which will be universally adopted…. deportation!

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

Russian ambassador to Turkey killed in Ankara shooting attack

Dear All

The Russian ambassador to Turkey has been killed by a lone gunman.

It is a terrible tragic event, the shooter is said to have screamed "Allahu Akbar.

In a recent  blog post you will have noticed that I returned to a minor theme that politicians would find themselves on the front line.

This appears to have happened to ambassador  Andrei Karlov.

"I would suggest that the history of killing European leaders may become vogue in Europe again".

Isn't it amazing that I manage to see how things are going to pan out well before others, if you stand back you really can see how it is all slipping away as we head towards a possible state of 'civil war'.

The gunman is dead, shot and killed by Turkish Police, one can only wonder how this tragic event will be viewed by the Russian public.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

Flogging the dead SNP horse: Alex Salmond says ‘Yes will win next referendum if Westminster rejects Scottish Brexit deal’, Scotland’s unpopular SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon wouldn’t be winning anything as her failed European plan on Scottish Brexit ‘options’ is entirely meaningless

Dear All

As you know it is getting near Xmas time, a time for panto, a time for some guys to dress up as women and trip the boards fantastic all in the name of good fun.

The worst gambler in Scottish history is Alex Salmond, he bet the farm on Scotland winning independence and lost everything. When the dice rolled on 18^th September 2014, the result was already decided before the dice stopped rolling.

The people of Scotland in 28 out of 32 constituencies sent Scotland’s ‘jolly fat man’ a simple message, the answer is No!

And the answer will continue to be no despite the SNP still playing their little games, the SNP is a party of protest, it isn’t a party of government.

The Scottish National Party has spun their way to success at the ballot box based on the failures of other party’s mostly the Labour Party to deliver for Scots.

The Labour Party in Scotland is effectively dead and buried, the leadership and those below them decided that they weren’t representatives of the people and also they didn’t want to work for the people, hence we see in 2015 and 2016, the party wiped out at both elections, all self inflicted wounds.

Is there a way back for the Scottish Labour Party?

Not under Kezia Dugdale at present!

Her fate is already sealed, she just doesn’t know it yet, or maybe she does; the biggest threat to her is her own party members and momentum.

Having lost Scottish independence, Alex Salmond sulked off to Westminster, as the SNP passed the torch to unpopular Nicola Sturgeon; her tenure is littered with incompetence and failure to achieve. John McLaren; a leading economist and TV pundit of Newsnight Scotland etc has accused the SNP government of undermining public trust by disguising its own inaction and exaggerating its spending with a “duplicitous” Budget. You can't help notice SNP failure in health, education and transport.

Just as the SNP were seen to be a bunch of liars while campaigning for independence, they haven’t learned the lesson of telling the truth, even in government. 

The recent statement by Alex Salmond:

“Yes will win next referendum if Westminster rejects Scottish Brexit deal”.

This is an example of grasping at straws, the same old tired rhetoric of a man whose political career is crowned by the biggest failure of modern Scottish time!

So, for those who are less than able, here it is again, Scottish independence is dead!

The fact that someone like Alex Salmond blows his trumpet yet again is just risible; he is just a noise in the background, a ghost of the past who has no future. The idea that Nicola Sturgeon will win a second independence referendum within two years if the UK government fails to meet her demand for a soft Brexit for Scotland is a joke. After Brexit talks are done and dusted, there wouldn’t be a second Scottish independence referendum, it won’t be allowed by Westminster. Westminster will not allow it because of the uncertainty it causes and potential instability of financial markets.

Nicola Sturgeon cannot run a second independence referendum without a Section 30 order from Westminster, and to do so would cause all sorts of trouble which Sturgeon wants no part of as it could lead to her losing the government.    

Just as the White Paper for independence was a farce, the SNP have now produced Sturgeon’s back of a fag paper plan for a special Scottish deal for Brexit. So, what about the plan, what do you need to know?

You need to know nothing,, this is because, the SNP will not be in a negotiation with Brussels about a special Scottish deal, that would be illegal and not entertained by Westminster. There will be one Brexit deal which will cover the entire United Kingdom and nothing else, this plan has two reasons for existence, one to try and gain a ‘mindset’ with people that Scotland is a separate country within the EU and ‘independence’ solves everything, both these assumptions are wrong.

Sturgeon’s plan is doomed to failure because her central plank that is to stay in the single market, this is unacceptable to the British people because that involves freedom of movement which is a red line which even the Tories cannot accept. Theresa May is effectively commented to Brexit in full, and if Brexit ends up being hard then so be it, because just as it would be hard Brexit in the UK, it would be similar treatment for European countries.

Pain for pain!

Another idea which is automatically vetoed in the Sturgeon plan is a Norway-style membership of the European Economic Area. This will be killed off because a requirement for “substantial” devolution of new powers over immigration, business regulation and employment will never be accepted by Westminster, especially around immigration. The UK will not allow Nicola Sturgeon to operate a backdoor highway from the EU straight into the rest of the UK.

So, after you read the Sturgeon plan and get through the blah blah blah, you end up with Sturgeon saying she still believed the best future for Scotland was as an independent EU state.

Adam Tomkins, the Scottish Conservatives’ constitution spokesman, said:

"Scots don't want to go through another divisive independence referendum, but Alex Salmond repeated the SNP's threat to press ahead regardless. As we begin negotiations to leave the EU, we need a Scottish Government that ends the sabre-rattling, and focuses instead on the national interest, not its own political interest. As she publishes her paper this week, it is vital that Nicola Sturgeon shows she is prepared to be a First Minister for Scotland, not a First Minister for the SNP."

Scottish Labour's Europe spokesman Lewis Macdonald said:

“Alex Salmond gave the game away when he made it clear that the Nationalists are only really interested in finding an excuse to impose another referendum on the people of Scotland. The UK is Scotland's most important market. The SNP's own figures confirm remaining part of the UK single market is more important for Scotland's economy than even being in the EU.”

Scottish independence is dead, as to Alex Salmond, his political career is dead as well, shunted off to Westminster to clear the pitch for Sturgeon and what an arse she made of running Scotland, the longer the SNP hold power, the more they are shown to be incompetent, and at some point, the house of cards will cave in.

The worst gambler in Scottish history is Alex Salmond, he thinks he can win a bet on a second Scottish independence win, the SNP have lost ground where it counts, being the best of the worst available doesn’t make you popular, it just makes you a vessel for protest.

The Sturgeon plan for Europe is an example of work having no meaning, no benefit and tying up human capital, money and resources, if you are searching for a word to best describe these people……. the word is clowns!

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University 

Copying George Laird ideas: Germany Minister Thomas Strobl of the governing CDU conservative party wants to send 500,000 migrants to detention camps, in Rome, Italy’s poor are close to open warfare with migrants, Angela Merkel has brought Europe towards the start of ‘civil war’, and now she is panicked and in free fall, events have passed her by

Dear All

Sooner or later, everyone comes around to the George Laird view, the migrant crisis has reached it a tipping point; we are at the stage now where people are preparing for ‘civil war’.

The entire blame lays at the door of the political elite of Europe as they allowed the continent to be flooded with bogus asylum seekers. The main culprit in allowing matters to spiral out of control is Angela Merkel, the damage she done cannot easily be calculated, that is something for the historians to work out when this period of history gets written up.

If you think back to my article of Friday December 4, 2015, you would have seen clearly how I said that the Migrant crisis would lead to the creation of Fortress Europe.

http://glasgowunihumanrights.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/migrant-crisis-leading-to-fortress.html

In the article, I laid out 5 main points for action.

1/ EU Border Force

2/ EU internal immigration policy for EU citizens

3/ intervention and mobilisation of the military in member states

4/ New EU wide ID card scheme

5/ No non EU economic migrant processed from this crisis and allowed to remain within an EU country which has accept them can travel to any other EU member state. Everyone should be completely documented, if a breach occurred; the person or group will be returned to the EU country they were settled and registered in.

Another measure which I commented on in that post and others was the pressing need for the building of detention camps as a necessary first step. We now know only too brutally that terrorists were hiding among the migrants conservatively put at 2 in a 100 people.

The idea by ISIS like most ideas is simple, just as the Middle East has been destroyed; import the war directly to the streets of Paris, Brussels, Berlin, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna or Prague.

Turn Europe into a battlefield, and as the civil war kicks off try and recruit as many migrants into their cause to be a standing army of terrorists, allies or suppliers, setup a network.

As the political tide as shifted away from the political elite, we now see people like Angela Merkel fear for her own political future by attempting to talk tough and repair some of the damage she caused by her stupidity. The ordinary people not just in Germany but right across Europe have had enough; they have stopped listening and importantly voting for these people to form new groups and to vote for new alternatives. In Germany, the party of the discontent, the AfD, Alternative for Germany, they are the party on the move, the ones to watch, in Netherlands it is the party of Geert Wilders, in France, it is Marine Le Pen’s party, and in Austria, it is the party of Norbert Hofer.

Angela Merkel recently came out with what she or her advisors thought were a rather catchy vote grabber, it was ‘banning the burka’, how risible. As ban the burka didn’t work; and the nonsense of the female German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen doing a very public refusal to wear a hijab during visit to Saudi Arabia didn’t work either, the German elite have been forced to ‘up the ante’. Incidentally, the fact the senior Saudis didn’t say anything to her isn’t a sign that Saudi Arabia is a tolerate country. All women in Saudi Arabia both local and foreign are legally required to wear an abaya which is a traditional full-body covering.

So, back to Germany, as things slide, social cohesion breaks down, we see rape, murder, terrorism and robbery spread, the Germany elite has been forced to conclude that they need to build…. detention camps.  

Exactly as I predicted was going to happen, in times like this, I kick myself for not putting a bet on this happening in the bookies. A senior German politician has drawn up to deport 500,000 refugees next year to a repatriation centre he wants to build in Egypt.

One of the reasons for the slow removal is that migrants are using the same con of using the human rights legislation as a means to uphold their bogus claims.

Thomas Strobl of the governing CDU conservative party said:

“In the year 2017 there will be probably half a million foreigners in Germany who have no right to be here. Here is where we need a national effort! We cannot tolerate 500,000 foreigners without the right to remain in our country.  We require urgent new instruments for repatriations and deportations. Otherwise we undermine the public confidence in our rule of law.”

The key part of his speech is, “We require urgent new instruments for repatriations and deportations”, as to his comment on undermining public confidence in our rule of law that is already gone, it went when German Police allowed cover ups of crimes by migrants.

I look at Stobl’s plan or antics and I see someone who is doing politics because next year Germany goes to the polls, and at present, the polls don’t look too good for the ruling party. Strobl is also one of five vice-chairmen of the CDU on the national stage who intends to have the deportation initiative adopted as policy at his party's annual congress.

The Strobl plan:

Tough consequences for identity concealment

The immediate withdrawal of state toleration

The imposition of a prohibition on employment

Massive cuts in social services

Asylum seekers who have been known to return to their homeland to visit relatives to lose their right to residency

Possibility of detention will be extended to certain people

A German repatriation Centre in Egypt

German forces currently on duty in Afghanistan to assist in the deportations of rejected Afghani migrants

Expand border controls with Austria and Switzerland

All these measures truly show how much trouble that Angela Merkel and the CDU Party truly is in, and all this is seen as a ‘start’, it is an ‘election plan’ that needs to be beefed up more but let’s leave that for now and talk about the Italians.

The Great city of Rome on verge of open warfare between migrants and the poor according to the mayor of Italy's capital, although this is news, you could take the word Rome and replace it with any major city in Europe. Politicians love to portray asylum seekers as people in desperate need, you can’t have failed to realise those times where the politicians have combed through migrants to find an educated family to present to the media to give you the impression that these people are all doctors, lawyers and professors, people feeling war when in fact a majority aren’t feeling war at all.

Another con trick which politicians ran was that they would take in an asylum seeker which when I heard it I was under the impression that was complete rubbish.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/06/nicola-sturgeon-and-yvette-cooper-offer-to-house-syrian-refugees

PR stunt to portray the politicians as ‘nice people’ which the two in this article certainly are not, the asylum seekers never set foot in the houses of Nicola Sturgeon or Yvette Cooper unless of course they were working as “cleaners”.

If the people of Rome are on the verge of war, it is because the poorest in society are seeing their services and entitlements cut and their money as they view it given to foreigners.

Virginia Raggi told an immigration summit mayors need to be the first to welcome refugees with “warmth, shelter and accommodation”.

In Britain, the DWP is willing to supply housing, travel passes and taxis to migrants while people on benefits are systematically being sanctioned out of sheer badness. The cruelty inflicted on white working class people in the main is being ignored by the Conservative Government, if the same treatment was meted out to an asylum seeker there would be fucking uproar among the political elite as a cry of racism would be pinned onto the offending party.

In Rome, the authorities tried to place a Moroccan family in a council flat but were prevented by neighbours who allegedly shouted:

“We do not want these n*****s.”

This little incident of the Moroccan’s by itself isn’t where the whole of Italy has its mindset at present, but is a snippet in time that mirrors other happenings across Europe.

There is a pattern developing, and because I like to be ahead of the curve, I would like to float this thought passed you again, when ‘civil war’ does break out, the Strobl plan being an attempt at breathing space, you will see politicians being targeted as well.

Somewhere today, there is a senior politician living a life of luxury as part of the European elite who doesn’t even know that he or she is being targeted for death by whatever means down the line.

In Prague in 1943, Nazis leader Reinhard Heydrich was ambushed and killed in an SOE (Special Operations Executive) operation, basically his attackers used a Sten gun and an IED bomb to attempt to kill him, the plan although not well executed resulted in his death. Reinhard Heydrich, a murderer made the mistake that he was untouchable; that policy appeared to have been successfully right up to the time that someone reached out and touched him.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Anthropoid

I would suggest that the history of killing European leaders may become vogue in Europe again.

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

Is the 'alt-right' on the rise in Europe? - BBC Newsnight, the answer is yes

Dear All

As you know I like to stay ahead of the game, the BBC has done a piece on the changing face of Europe.

Here is my post of August 2016.

http://glasgowunihumanrights.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/rise-of-far-right-identitarian-movement.html

And you should take people seriously because it is likely they be dictating policy down the line.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

No surprises: Sleaford and North Hykeham by-election sees election of Dr Caroline Johnson for Tories, the big story of the night is that the Labour Party is heading towards 'electoral disaster' both North and South of the Scottish Border, people have completely lost faith in the Labour Party, what it stands for and how it is run

Dear All

You will at some point in your life look around and ask yourself what planet are some people on, I know I do.

Prior to leaving the Labour Party, I going to leave straight after the Holyrood Election, I was asked to stay on and consider putting myself forward as a candidate, the thing that prompt to me consider this was the actions of rebel Labour MPs of the Blair faction who wanted to oust Jeremy Corbyn as leader.

It was a nasty low down dirty trick which was to backfire spectacularly on those involved.

The Labour Party clearly has serious and major problems, it didn’t start with Corbyn’s leadership, it started when Labour Party Candidate Selection in the main shifted to become a more or less middle class only affair. The middle class careerist mostly straight from University took over the party and then decline started. Over time buoyed up by trading on the Labour brand, these people sat back and did nothing for their constituents.

Then there is the cronyism which has plagued Labour.

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2014/06/what-labour-s-red-princes-tell-us-about-britain

This behaviour didn’t start under Jeremy Corbyn, but it has contributed to the decline of the Labour Party on both sides of the Scotland/England border. In Scotland, the Labour Party has been wiped out at both Westminster and Holyrood level; their presence in Holyrood is due to the discredit list system. Next year, the party face being wiped off the political map for a third time.

This is what Glasgow Labour thought was acceptable.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/News/14734862.Psychic_councillor_who_quit_politics_in_expenses_probe_returns_for_Labour/?ref=rl&lp=3

I left Labour because they thought it was okay to discriminate against me, if the party doesn’t really badly in Glasgow, it isn’t my concern, it was clear to me as a member of Labour that I wasn’t welcome as a working class member. I am better than a psychic medium who claims to have communicated with the spirit of John F Kennedy? 

Yes!

Down South in recent by-elections, the Labour Party has done incredibly badly as well; the by-election in Richmond against Zac Goldsmith saw the party trail to a miserable fifth place finish with a less than gracious candidate who hadn’t the brains to keep his mouth shut post result.

Given the extent of the Labour Party being rejected, Veteran MP David Winnick, 83, says the latest result shows that the leadership has to ditch its "bunker mentality" and join the real world.

Whoo, that sounds like rebel talk, but Veteran MP David Winnick misjudges what the problem is, the problem isn’t Coprbyn, he is a figurehead of a movement for change, the real problem is the ‘Blair’ faction which goes under the name ‘Progress’, this is seen by many to be a party within a party which acts against the interests of the members.

Owen Smith is the poster boy at present for Progress, in a recent TV interview, he said he didn’t accept the Brexit result and would vote to have a second EU referendum, in his view the majority of the people votes don’t matter. This is the nub of Labour’s problems, there is are two Labour Parties, those who on the left who follow Corbyn as leader and those on the right following Smith or whatever proxy takes his place further down the line.

The result of the Sleaford and North Hykeham by-election saw, you guessed it another middle class university educated person elected, this time under the Tory banner.

Dr Caroline Johnson.

To see the damage that the Blair/Progress faction have done to Labour with their anti democratic stance,  the Sleaford and North Hykeham by-election provides this in spades, Ukip has emerged as the runner-up to the Tory candidate Caroline Johnson. Is this the start of Ukip taking over as the second party of British politics?

No, there is a huge mountain for them to climb both inside the party and out, they aren’t ready yet, because information and knowledge are ‘key’ to making them have a big break through.

Dr Caroline Johnson won the by-election fairly; she ticked all the right boxes and came away with a landslide 17,570 votes. The full results were:

Caroline Johnson: (Conservatives) - 17,570

Victoria Ayling: (UKIP) - 4,426

Ross Pepper: (Liberal Democrats) - 3,606

Jim Clarke: (Labour) - 3,363

Marianne Overton: (Lincolnshire Independent) - 2,892

Sarah Stock: (Independent) - 462

The Iconic Arty-Pole: (Monster Raving Loony Party) - 200

Paul Coyne: (Independent) - 186

Mark Suffield: (Independent) - 74

David Bishop: (Bus Pass Elvis Party) – 55

Out of about 60,000 in a constituency, the Labour Party only managed 3.606, this is humiliating but it reflects what both leaderships of the Labour Party know, the problem is the very real damage done by those who are part of the Progress movement. They have brought down the Labour Party and unless the party membership removes these people as MPs, the party will not recover. The Blood price muted by Blair back in the day is now, a systematic removal of people like Owen Smith, Angela Eagle, Ben Bradshaw, David Lammy, Tom Watson and even Hillary Benn, these people have crossed their rubicon.

If removing Jeremy Corbyn is the obvious fix to Labour’s problems then the membership would have gone with Owen Smith, they didn’t, and removing Corbyn solves nothing. No matter who is in charge of Labour when the party goes into the next General Election, the odds of a Labour Government looks rather remote at this point in time.

Ukip leader Paul Nuttall, who was at the count, said it was a "great result" for the party following the turmoil of recent months.

Coming second does sound rather good but the numbers don’t lie, Ukip pulled 4,426

Votes, a long way away from anything like the 17,570 of Johnson.

Anyway Nuttall said:

"If someone would have offered me second place at the beginning of the campaign, considering we were in the middle of a leadership election and the party resembled a bit of a shambles over the summer, I would have bitten their hand off.  I think it's a really good way to get my leadership off the ground. This is a small step on a long road."

And at 4,426 Votes, it is a baby step.

The Labour Party was the party to suffer the most in this by-election, with its vote share dropping 7.1 percentage points compared to the 2015 General Election. This is as I wrote, entirely the fault of Progress and the damage they continue to inflict on the party by their actions. Progress should be treated in the same way as Militant was in 1980’s and expelled from the party.

The middle class have hijacked the Labour Party and turned it into a clone of the Conservative Party, and the people don’t like it; that is why Jeremy Corbyn attracted a huge increase in members, it was to wrestle control away from a small self serving elite and return democracy back to the members.

When the returning officer says at an election count that someone has been elected to serve the constituents, perhaps the Blair/ Progress should have taken that on board. In Scotland, the party is run by the Blair/ Progress, the results here are something Veteran MP David Winnick would have a hard time to twist as being Jeremy Corbyn’s fault. When the worst defeat in Scottish Labour’s history happened in 2015, it was at the hands of Blair/ Progress faction in Scotland.

Given the way things are going for 2017, the Scottish Labour Party stand to be wiped off the map drastically, this will be a Scottish campaign run by Scots all the way.

The only real information which the Sleaford and North Hykeham by-election reveals is that people don’t want to vote for or feel comfortable about placing faith in the Labour Party at present while a ‘civil war’ rages on both sides of the border. As someone recently said to me, the Labour Party is finished in Scotland, and that they will never come back as a major force.

Who do they represent and what do they stand for, there aren’t people of the calibre of Gordon Brown, Donald Dewar, Nye Bevan or a Keir Hardie which is kicking about the place.

Congratulations to Dr. Caroline Johnson on her win and for Labour, I would say you need better candidates, a cull and a new campaigning model.

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

The disintegrating world of Nicola Sturgeon is falling apart rapidly: Police Scotland catch SNP Transport Minister Humza Yousaf driving without insurance, how many of Sturgeon’s nasty vicious SNP Southside clique does that make being charged with offences now?

Dear All

The safety of the public on the road is of prime importance, so when people drive without insurance, they are endangering others by their reckless behaviour.

I knew Humza Yousaf even before he became the failing Transport Minister, I used to be in the SNP, he is stupid and arrogant, but as people know, what goes around comes around.

And what has come around is Police Scotland catching the transport minister Humza Yousaf driving without insurance.

Transport Minister driving without insurance, the personal humiliation for him and the SNP must be intense as the Nationalists tend to be hypocrites. This latest episode of failure is hot on the heels of Yousaf’s bungling attempts to sort out the trains on Scotland’s railways.

Humza Yousaf says he will plead guilty at the earliest opportunity; this is mighty big of him since he is caught anyway.

Humza Yousaf in public mitigation plea mode said:

'I will put my hands up. It's entirely my mistake and whatever the fiscal says I will agree to.' 

The reason for his problem stems according to him to be the recent break up from his wife and the transfer of ownership of the couple's car, he was no longer the main policy holder so not insure to drive other vehicles.

A competent transport minister would have known this basic fact.

During the Holyrood 2016 election, I saw him at a local polling station in my area, as he passed me by, he couldn’t resist being cheeky to me by the flippant comment of:

‘There is my number one fan’.

At the time, I just thought ‘dick’ as he and his ‘minder’ wandered into the polling station.

And now karma has popped up and he has split from his wife, makes you wonder and as I wrote above, what goes around comes around.

His wife is as much of a git as he is but I think the political class may in public give him the sympathy vote. 

You may remember his wife as person who tried to organise a hate campaign against the former Labour MP Ian Davidson before she was spectacularly outed.

Humza Yousaf is quite friendly with scum; his office manager is Shona McAlpine who I named in a criminal witness statement as being a follower of the hate account setup by Tommy Ball to brand me a paedophile. 

You have to wonder what kind of disgusting animal Shona McAlpine is to follow a twitter account with the theme sexual intercourse with children.

Another piece of scum is of course someone who needs no introduction, Natalie McGarry who also helped Ball enable the abuse I suffered by linking my blog to Tommy Ball’s hate account.

Natalie McGarry got away with her part in the abuse but she is facing criminal charges of her own after two organisations which she was involved in contacted the Police. Although Natalie McGarry was elected as the SNP MP for Glasgow East, she sits as an independent after she was suspended from the party for being charged with embezzlement. 

It seems that the world of Nicola Sturgeon is falling apart as her ‘allies’ experience bad fortune and no one will really shed a tear for them.

Since he has been caught, Yousaf has issued a grovelling apology and said he will use his mistake to remind others to check their insurance. 

His famous quote on transport which people know is:

“I am no expert”.

Now, you add to that no expert on insurance, no expert on marriage, no expert on exercising good judgement either.

I remember the first time, I done activism with Humza Yousaf, him and his wife and myself went to a train station, both of them went to the opposite platform to hand out leaflets leaving me alone on the other side. Later Matt Kerr, the cllr turned on my side to hand out leaflets in support of Margaret Curran’. As I campaigned I watched as Humza Yousaf and his future wife sat on their asses being less than enthused by the menial task.

The attitude appeared to me to be the classic ‘couldn’t give a fuck’ attitude, the public face not matching the private individual.

Still on the positive side, Police Scotland seem to be on the ball, maybe in future Humza Yousaf should take more interest in details.

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

Zombie Head Turning animation test - A George Laird Production

Brexit: The political class in Britain is becoming increasingly bankrupt, third rate politicians have brought Britain and Europe to its knees, we are possibly on the verge of a mass awakening that the political class doesn’t serve the people and that we are ruled by proxy by Big Corporations with politicians as their ‘front men’, our democracy has been stolen.

Dear All

Brexit was always going to be difficult, difficult to win and difficult to get the mainstream political parties and their MPs to accept the result.

The people of Britain won the Brexit vote, it took a lot of effort by a handful of people who were willing to stand up and be counted in the face of a tidal wave of press and political resistance.

But the people was seeing how bad things had gotten in Europe, seeing how their democracy was being undermined and seeing how their right to sovereignty was being gifted away piece by piece made a historic stand.

The political class of Britain all banded together and rather exposed themselves as what they are, they are in the pockets of Big Business, the EU is an anti worker, anti country political organisation that favours big business of the rights of the people. The populism which is sweeping Europe will engulf it, the European dream is shattered; the elite got greedy.

Some MPs and others are fighting to stop the will of the people being enacted, in London, the case goes before the UK Supreme Court, this will be a historic constitutional legal case to be sure in front of told a panel of 11 justices.

The referendum result was for to leave the EU; this also means to leave the single market which allows freedom of movement.

Is migration a good thing?

Yes, it is if the migration policy is fair and controlled; the recent articles in the Times and elsewhere talking about the rise of the ghettos, flag a major problem.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/enclaves-of-islam-see-uk-as-75-muslim-77qdr67tl

Politicians like to talk about diversity and multiculturalism when the reality on the ground is segregation. In place like Blackburn, in central Lancashire, they are getting known as a prime candidate for the title of Britain's most racially segregated community.

Do you remember the photo ops of refugees where the politicians have their researchers find a ‘rocket scientist’ or a ‘doctor’ to give the impression that every refugee is a good person and how they will benefit our society? The idea was simple, to create an image of politicians as caring and at the same time use fascism under the guise of political correctness to silence people’s voices.

Here is a glimpse of what the politicians have done, it is a story like any other rape story in Europe expect the victim is a medical student and daughter of a top EU official.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4004480/Pictured-Afghan-migrant-17-modelled-gangsta-rappers-raped-murdered-EU-official-s-daughter-met-work-refugees.html

Angela Merkel has opened the floodgates and rapists, murderers, terrorists and robbers have all come to Europe claiming to be asylum seekers. Grown men pose as children to get round the rules and access Britain, as one of these people said, British people are so stupid.

Maria Ladenburger was only 19 years old, she had a promising future in front of her; someone should remember her name. She was brutally raped and then murdered by an Afghan who came to Germany. Even the boss of Germany police union said her death would have been prevented had the open door asylum-seeker policy of Chancellor Angela Merkel been less lax than it is.

As regular readers know, I am not impressed by our political class, we don’t have great politicians anymore, we don’t have people of stature that others look up to, we get a bargain basement X Factor rejects, third rate politicians which are basically shit.

In Scotland, we have Nicola Sturgeon packaged up as a ‘superwoman’ by the SNP  and assisted by the press who fail to be critical enough of her and her party, her career is littered with failure.

The latest gimmick that the Nationalists are running with is ‘welfare and homeless’, it is getting near Xmas, so they are playing the role of the concerned citizen, something which Nicola Sturgeon has never really managed to master.

After 9 years of SNP Government where was the SNP’s help for people being sanctioned beyond getting a few cans of baked beans in a food drive for foodbanks? The last time the SNP were collecting food for the needy they were also campaigning at the same time for elections, do you see how gullible they think people are, how much they hold them in contempt? Where was the SNP opposing the EU on Zero hours contracts or indeed on anything of significance?

Can you name a really big SNP policy on anything of real importance; you might struggle with this because Holyrood is full of third rate politicians of the same political bankrupt class. All the main parties of Holyrood supported the EU Remain campaign, apparently a few MSPs in private didn’t and even fewer said so publicly, those coming from the Tory ranks.

Nicola Sturgeon has such contempt for the will of the people much like Labour MP Owen Smith; you have to wonder what the differences if any, other than independence are they? Sturgeon has joined the anti Brexit bandwagon in London to be noticed, her ‘case’ is non existent but then since when did that matter to her, her deal is getting her face in the press and claiming to represent Scotland which she doesn’t, she represents a branch of government which deals with devolved services. London is her way of trying to say to the World that she is a ‘statesman’, she isn’t!

The referendum gave UK Government ministers the ‘right to trigger Article 50’, the High Court ruled that MPs should be given a say on triggering Brexit, one of the judges on that Court was part of a pro EU group.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/728460/Article-50-three-judges-blocked-Brexit

Baron Thomas, who is the country's most senior judge has sparked a constitutional crisis when he, alongside Sir Terence Etherton and Lord Justice Sales, ruled in the High Court the Government cannot trigger Article 50.

Referendums give people the opportunity to decide on matters of extraordinary importance which affect the country. If the will of the people doesn’t matter, why do we have elections to a body if those who are elected don’t carry out the wishes of the people who have spoken in a referendum?

If the entire process is a now sham, isn’t there an argument that new political parties are needed?

Attorney General Jeremy Wright told a panel of 11 justices at the Supreme Court that triggering Article 50 is not being done on a “whim” or “out of a clear blue sky, everyone is clear that Brexit means Brexit, if the UK Government doesn’t deliver on this, there is a legal remedy called the ballot box. I am not opposed to parties having input into the process, but that doesn’t mean that MPs should block what the people have already decided.

The Attorney General said starting the UK’s two-year exit using royal prerogative powers was the “logical conclusion of a process in which Parliament has been fully and consciously involved”.

Parliament voted to allow a referendum, all major parties signed up to the democratic process and to accept the result, it is therefore wrong that some people should now feel they can cheat people out of their result.

Attorney General Jeremy Wright added:

“None of this means, of course, that Parliament will not be closely involved in the process of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU over the coming months and years.” Mr Wright told the justices in London that the case was of “great constitutional significance in which there is understandable and legitimate interest both inside and outside this courtroom”.

The High Court in my opinion got it wrong; the verdict in my mind was tainted by having someone with Baron Thomas who has a history which questions his impartiality sitting judging this case. He should have recused himself and stepped away, but he didn’t, hence we are at the UK Supreme Court.

How will this matter end?

As Attorney General Jeremy Wright said:

“if this is all about standing up for Parliament, I say Parliament can stand up for itself.”

I think that the UK Supreme Court should uphold the appeal by the Westminster Government, not because life would be much simpler but because this is the right thing to do. If they don’t they will put Britain into a constitutional crisis which will possibly see the need for a General Election, and if after that we still cannot get Brexit, then democracy in the UK is effectively dead.

At that point, the worst political secret will be firmly burnt into the minds of the British people, that elections are more or less a fraud and that those in the main elected do not represent the people but their own narrow self interest.

It will be the realisation that we are ruled by proxy by Big Corporations with politicians as their ‘front men’.

Finally, please take the time to watch the video which was flagged up to me, it explains rather aptly how politics is done in the UK.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

Nick Clegg car crash interview on Brexit, there is an old saying, if it walks like a duck, sounds like a duck, then it is a duck, the Lib Dems want to deceive and trick the British people out of Brexit by staying in the Single Market

False hope, the EU political elite breathe a sign of relief as far right leader Norbert Hofer was defeated in Austria but their joy was short lived as Italy’s PM quits after referendum defeat, the EU is in the process of getting ready for free fall

Dear All

Far-right candidate Norbert Hofer has lost the race for the Austrian presidency; the result was close 53% to 47%, in truth I didn’t think that Austria is quite there yet to elect Hofer.

Although the left are celebrating this victory, I believe further down the line that Austria will return a far right government when the plates shift, what is needed is more breakdown of social cohesion and terrorism.

Then and only then will movements like the Identitarian Movement of Austria be able to influence the public, although going for some time, they are in their developmental stage. They are learning the art and skills of political campaigning, they are building their networks; they are getting established.

The time of Norbert Hofer and people of the Identitarian Movement of Austria isn’t here yet.

The left make feel that this defeat stops far right politics in its tracks in Europe, they have miscalculated the feeling of people right across the continent, the right and the far right are growing.

The focus has now moved onto Italy, the political elite of the European Union are in trouble, as Italy’s Prime Minister Matteo Renzi announced his resignation after suffering a decisive defeat in his constitutional reform referendum. The upset in Italy has plunged the Europe to a 20 month low as the financial markets react to a disastrous referendum.
 
57% of voters had rejected the Italian Prime Minister’s plan to streamline the country’s system of government. Isn’t it strange that right across Europe that politicians are cutting jobs in local government, have you never wondered why they have all arrived at the same policies?

The victory in Italy is a people’s victory; it is an anti-establishment backlash sweeping much of Europe and America, a rejection of globalism and a reinforcement of the importance of sovereignty that allows people to hold their politicians to account.

Italian politics have always had a reputation for being volatile but anti-euro Beppe Grillo’s populist Five Star Movement have done Europe a great service, the fact that a comedian-turned politician can ride the same wave of discontent shows how serious the discontent is in Italy. This is the same kind of discontent which led to Brexit in the UK and put Donald Trump into the White House.

Having lost the referendum, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi who had pinned all his hopes on a result going his way has now gone, just like Zac Goldsmith, he took a political gamble and it blew up in his face.

Norbert Hofer was defeated in Austria but Matteo Renzi defeat in Italy, the difference is that Hofer isn’t going away, he isn’t giving up; the reason is that he and his supporters have a cause.

In France, the jury is still out on whether Marine Le Pen, the leader of France’s National Front can win the presidency, just like in Austria, I am not entirely sure that she can pull it off at this time, however, the terrorist attacks of Paris and Nice do add more weight to her campaign, if there are been a Paris style attack in Austria then I think we would be looking a new political landscape there.

Marine Le Pen said on Twitter about the Austrian defeat:

“Victory will be theirs in the next legislative elections.”

I would say there is a strong possible case for this to happen, the left will continue as is and the discontent will grow as will the work of the fledgling Identitarian movement of Austria, at that point whether it is Hofer or someone else, the Austrian will return a far right leader.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

Risky Business, Zac Goldsmith gambles his political future in a by-election and comes up short, Lib Dems narrowly claim by-election victory by capturing a seat they stuck a huge amount of resources to win, Brexit is still going ahead despite the Lib Dems saying they have a ‘mandate’

Dear All

Politics can be a risky business especially at the ballot box, which is why few people tend to step down and take the risk of standing in a by-election, the public can be fickle.

The Lib Dems have managed to secure a victory over Zac Goldsmith who had stepped down on a point of principle over the 3rd runway for Heathrow which was certainly going to pass through the Commons.

What he had going for him seemed to stack the odds in his favour, a 23, 1015 and the Tories didn’t stand a candidate against him, in all, it looked like he was a shoo in, but the public thought otherwise and unseated him in favour of a Lib Dem, the only real challenger to the seat.

This is a shockwave and the question will be will this now affect the Brexit situation which the Lib Dems ran with as their theme.

Lib Dem challenger Sarah Olney won the contest by a slim margin to finish 1,872 votes ahead of Goldsmith.

She polled 20,510 votes which makes the swing 21.75% which is a real good effort.

The Lib Dems think this paves the way for Parliament to “override” the EU withdrawal referendum result.

Olney said:

“It does look now as if we can have a vote in Parliament that might override the referendum. And I will, obviously, be voting to Remain because that is always what I have believed.”

Parliament may or may not vote on something but if Brexit doesn’t go ahead and the majority of the people’s votes don’t count then that leads to a Constitution crisis which can have only one conclusion, a real shift in British politics. The voting system would in effect become meaningless because for the first time, it would sink into people’s head that their MPs don’t get elected to serve the people of their area, they are elected to carry out the wishes of their party.

The upshot of this development might mean that new parties have to be created in Britain both north and south of the Border to address the new dynamic.  

Although Ukip can be seen as a driving force in Brexit, they were relegated to be excluded from the official campaign by the Leave camp, so the claim by Olney that her win was a rejection of the “Ukip vision” of Britain, and the politics of “anger and division is pantomine.

In her victory speech the Lib Dem said:
“The people of Richmond Park and North Kingston have sent a shockwave through this Conservative Brexit government, and our message is clear: we do not want a hard Brexit. We do not want to be pulled out of the single market, and we will not let intolerance, division and fear win.”

If Britain remains in the single market, the people of Britain will have been cheated out of their victory, Brexit means leaving the EU and not being tied to the single market rules and regulations.

No free movement of people entering Britain.

Zac Goldsmith said:

“This by-election that we have just had was not a political calculation, it was a promise that I made and it was a promise that I kept.”

In politics keeping your promises do count, so I suspect that we haven’t heard the last of Zac Goldsmith as a politician.

The Labour Candidate Christian Wolmar lost his deposit as he trailed a distant third with 1,515 votes, this will not be a result that Labour wanted, they were never in line to get the win but the result is incredibly poor for them and it also shows that the Labour Party needs a new campaigning model.

A Conservative Party spokesman said the result would make no difference to Brexit plans, stating:

“This result doesn’t change anything. The Government remains committed to leaving the European Union and triggering Article 50 by the end of March next year. In addition, we will continue to take decisive action in the national interest to secure the UK’s place the world - supporting a third runway at Heathrow to secure jobs and business opportunities for the next decade and beyond. Commiserations to Zac Goldsmith on his defeat. We are sorry that he is no longer in the House of Commons.”

Lib Dem leader Tim Farron said:

“The message is clear: The Liberal Democrats are back and we are carrying the torch for all of those who want a real opposition to this Conservative Brexit government. This was a remarkable, come-from-nowhere upset that will terrify the Conservatives. A year and a half ago, their man won by nearly 40% and had a majority of more than 20,000. In one fell swoop we have wiped that out completely. If this was a general election, this swing would mean the Conservatives would lose dozens of seats to the Liberal Democrats - and their majority with it”.

Although Farron can crow about the win, the Lib Dems were the only real contender for the seat and previously they had done well there in the past, so the claim about lose dozens of seats to the Liberal Democrats is bogus.

This is Farron trying to create an impression of the politically bankrupt Lib Dems making a comeback, they aren’t.

The Labour Candidate also chipped in his 10 bob’s worth by saying that the lost by Goldsmith was due to voters disliking Zac Goldsmith’s “ghastly, disgusting” bid to be London mayor. This wasn’t a good campaign for the Tories to run, as Labour accused him of running a racist campaign against Sadiq Khan.

The people of Richmond Park and North Kingston couldn’t have been that disgusted as only 1,515 votes voted for the Labour Party. Perhaps Christian Wolmar needs to learn the art of shutting up and only saying positive things in defeat.

Well, it’s Friday, and Zac Goldsmith is no longer an MP, he kept his word and stood in a by-election, so few in politics have that grit, so points to him for having integrity.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

Earthquake at Glasgow Central Station - A George Laird Production

Zombie face turning animation - A George Laird Production

Dear All

I am sticking this up, it is something which I have been playing about with trying to get right for another project I am working on which involves something called obj sequences. Anyway I rendered this out as a clip and thought it might amuse a few people as I am thinking of sticking it to something else as an asset for a wee clip.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University