Darth Vader igniting his light saber - A George Laird Production

Dear All

Happy New Year when it comes tomorrow night, be safe, be warm, don't drink and drive, and stay away from the dark side.

George

The Xmas Blog;, the last post of the year. Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year to you and your family when it comes, be safe, don't drink and drive, enjoy the holidays and if you get the chance, do a good deed, there is always hope even in the darkest of time

Dear All

In this year, I have seen both ups and downs, hope and disaster, in fact, this year has been as much of a trial for me as 2014. Near the end of 2014, I nearly died, 2019, woke up to the fact that all of a sudden, I was going blind. I managed to beat the odds in 2014, and it seems as if I will again God willing.

It is amazing how much we take things for granted such as eyesight, but when ‘the lights start going out’, it is a major wakeup call in your later life. So, huge thanks to my surgeons who jumped in, done the business, and hopefully gave me the tools to fight another day.

And less we forget, we are always in a fight against the darkness.

Since this is the Xmas blog post, the last of this year, I wanted to keep it to hope, the election and what needs to be said about that can wait till next year. I was thinking; it wouldn’t be appropriate to try and merge these two events together because the tone would be off.

Needless to say, I did learn something about others while out campaigning and viewing online even although I was a physical wreck, and in a lot of pain. In my youth, I used to teach students to observe others, because people doing it wrong are a valuable training aid. Knowing how to do it right comes in part from knowing how others have done it wrong.

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!

Previously in a Xmas blog, I wrote that the winds of change are starting to be felt not just in Scotland but right across Europe. The 2019 winds of change certainly have changed the UK for the better. What Brexit will deliver are opportunities; that will benefit the many, it will take time but the good news is that the EU is not controlling our destiny, we are.

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, 2020 will also be a time of change as the political debate will change to take account of the new mandate of the UK government.

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 again, I do commentating on TV and radio, hint, hint hint, but alas they dinnae call, they dinnae write and they dinnae send a taxi.

And I wanted to thank the print press who also keep rolling by to see the George Laird view on the world, and who strangely never comment much on my views if at all.

All in all, it was a good year blogging; I saw many of my predictions on Europe unfolded before my eyes because as I stated during the campaign, this was a Brexit Election.

Finally, see you all next year; the battle for truth will be starting early yet, if you want to drive, don’t drink, if you can help someone take that opportunity because you don’t want to miss it, and remember what the true meaning of Xmas is selfless and giving.

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

The Election Storm; Nicola Sturgeon sees the sand crumbling beneath the feet of SNP candidates, Glasgow North East to re-elect Labour’s Paul Sweeney, backfoot Sturgeon forced to repeat warning over suspended SNP candidate on Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, there is no respect for Sturgeon’s authority in the SNP, we are looking at rot

Dear All

Firstly, sorry for the break in blogging, the campaigning for Paul Sweeney didn’t allow for me to get access to a computer. Plus, I was doing that campaign as a physical wreck, normally I would do the whole campaign, start to finish; this time round, carry too many injuries, I ended up starting late. The reason for this is that my previous surgery required me to be very careful about getting infection and ensure the wound was fully closed. I was a bit wary during the campaign because I knew my eye hadn’t fully settled down, add in a bad back and a really dodgy knee, well you get the picture.

The campaign in Glasgow North East was pretty good in terms of numbers through-out which says a lot about how keen everyone was to get Paul Sweeney re-elected. I would say that he is in a better position than any other Labour candidate in Glasgow. The Glasgow North East seat is a mixed bag of communities but Paul Sweeney is well known and respected. The SNP have lost their momentum and generally across Glasgow, you get the feel that the sand has slipped away from under the party. There is no ‘nationalist anger explodes’, even SNP voters are having doubts about voting SNP. The reason is Anne McLaughlin, her previous tenure as MP was a disaster politically for her, and the big majority created a false sense of security.

Paul Sweeney should retain the seat despite what the polls are saying nationally, the story I feel of this election will become about SNP slippage. I would expect Anne McLaughlin to get under 10,000, you can see why on twitter, she literally has no one to work for her and hence her relying on digital ads to plug the gap. She has no momentum and at hustings, she looked out of her depth and resigned to defeat. She is a former MP & MSP, who now says she is training people here & overseas n public speaking, confident leadership & political engagement. Anne McLaughlin isn’t good at public speaking, she lacks the ability to lead; she has no natural leadership about her. As to helping people with political engagement, the people of Glasgow North East who experienced her brand of political engagement decided to toss her out.

Glasgow North East…… Paul Sweeney for the win all the way!

A contest of minor interest to me is Kirkcaldy & Cowdenbeath, this area has a suspended SNP candidate Neale Hanvey who is being helped by SNP activists who decided to ignore their dreadful leader Nicola Sturgeon and still campaign for Hanvey. Nicola Sturgeon’s authority is meaningless; her plea to campaign at other seats which is code for Stephen Gethins had no traction. It is laughable that she is now appearing to attempt to resurrect her authority by making a second warning to SNP activists not to campaign. Sturgeon like McLaughlin is failing to realize that their position gave them authority and power. But when you are an SNP activist who wants nothing from Sturgeon, she has no power.

Basically SNP activists in Kirkcaldy & Cowdenbeath are sending two messages;

1/ Get stuffed

2/ We don’t give a monkey’s about your position

Oh how that must sting for Nicola Sturgeon, also a second warning, really?

If they won’t go to campaign for your cult member Gethins, no second or third or fourth intervention makes a different, the game is over. Kirkcaldy & Cowdenbeath is a marginal seat; all that separated the SNP from Labour was 259 votes. The result is anyone’s guess because we don’t see anything that the scandal has had an impact. So, deputy Scottish Labour leader Lesley Laird better get her skates on, and fight a blood and guts campaign like Paul Sweeney for very vote. Getting the win may for some people be enough, but the reality, Laird needs a couple of thousand as a majority. Not that this is an excuse for coasting is she gets in, more a solid building block to get a super majority.

Scottish Tory leader Jackson Carlaw last week urged Ms Sturgeon to show “real leadership” and discipline any SNP member who campaigned for Mr Hanvey during his suspension. If Hanvey gets in, no one will be getting disciplined, the SNP only act when forced by media pressure. Hanvay wins, he gets taken back into the fold and sent on a re-education course, which maybe he attends or doesn’t depending on who runs it.

In a weasly defence of failing authority Sturgeon said:

“I’ve been very clear, I’ve said it publicly, I’ll say it again - SNP members in that constituency should not be supporting his campaign, they should be going to other neighbouring constituencies to campaign for candidates there. The SNP could not have been clearer here, these are not easy situations for any party to find themselves in but you have to do the right thing. We’ve done the right thing here, I regret that we were in this position but he’s not an SNP candidate, he shouldn’t be using SNP materials, I haven’t seen any evidence of that, and that’s very clear.”

She added:

“We’ve taken that [decision] because we have zero tolerance to anti-Semitism and that’s the right and important decision and position we took. He’s not the SNP candidate in that constituency, but what happens after that is for a disciplinary process that is independent of me and I think it’s right that that’s allowed to take its course.”

Name an SNP jewish MSP or MP?

You will find that a hard research project because I don’t ever remember one, you’ll see Sein Fein, Muslim, LGBT and the rich, but no jewish representation or even a senior leadership person. Not even a token figure, much in the same way you have no Chinese MSP or MP in the SNP. Diversity stops at Sein Fein, Muslim, LGBT and the rich, the SNP is a party steeped in tokenism.

Finally, this is my second last post, tomorrow back to the hospital for surgery, then a period off blogging to rest my eye; then start back normally after the New Year. So, just the xmas blog to crack out, and an assessment of the election, the winners, the losers and the crying. And of course a lighthearted look at any portillo moments. This Thursday, 10 pm polls close and then the game’s afoot. So stock up on grub, it will be a long night as the various battles unfold. The battle of Glasgow North East, Stirling, East Renfrewshire and Ochil and South Perthshire, along with Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, the ones to watch and laugh or cry over!

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

Shaken Not Stirred, Labour Candidate Paul Sweeney on course to win Glasgow North East as the SNP failed to put a worthy candidate up for the seat, when is Anne McLaughlin going to realise that she is fighting the ‘Best of British’, Labour campaign in North East of Glasgow is cruising towards an increased majority

Dear All

Nothing says Xmas more than opening your prezzies, scoffing down a turkey dinner, hearing the Queen's speech and watching the Bond movie on Xmas day. One thing which has been sadly lacking is the spirit of Xmas from the UK for quite some time. It is almost like the TV channels find it a chore to remember what Xmas is about and what is means beyond mere trinkets.

This Xmas will usher in a new government, who that will be depends on what happens between now and the 10 pm on the 12th December. It will be down to two men, Boris Johnson or Jeremy Corbyn, my contribution in this little drama is to support Paul Sweeney, the Labour Candidate for Glasgow North East as best I can.

And, this time round, this is a hard election for me, not mentally but physically, I am physically wrecked, knee and back both gubbed and seeing with only one good eye. I was hobbling along today, I looked up to see the Sun reflect of a building with huge glass panels. The bad eye was looking at the equivalent of a lighthouse in heavy fog where the light when you look at it blinds everything out.

Today, I am resting up because the body sadly is breaking down, quite a bit, so I am having to rest up and pace myself which is not really my style when it comes to campaigning. I am only doing one campaign in this election which is a novelty for me as last time when I did the Westminster campaigning, it was 4. Two conservative and two Labour, which might seem odd, as people are brought up to believe that the fight is between the left and the right. But it isn't that simple, there are shades of grey. Being in Paul Sweeney's campaign is great, the activists are very upbeat and really up for the fight ahead as is the candidate.

In this election, I can see the sands shift from under the SNP despite the polls, despite the hype and despite the bookies odds. I don't think this election will be as good for the SNP as Nicola Sturgeon hopes. You could say that her and her government are carrying to much baggage and people know it. They will still come out as the largest party, because they play the emotional card to whip up people's anger. At some stage in the future, the anger will literally burn out and the those who backed Sturgeon will question why the SNP government are so bad at protecting Scots.

And they won't accept Westminster as an answer.

Madame Shouty will be facing dissent, it is already taking place, Nicola Sturgeon urges SNP members not to campaign for axed Fife candidate, their response is effectively get it up you. It seems rebellion is rife. Sturgeon having had to dump a candidate wants SNP members to shore Stephen Gethins who is slated to lose his seat. SNP activists are standing by their suspended candidate, Neale Harvey. He is fighting to win Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath from Labour's Lesley Laird. Harvey is suspended in the event he wins, he will get back into the party, the investigation will be a memory.

To leave politics aside, I want you to watch the Bond trailer as well, it is great, and it highlights why Daniel Craig must continue as 007. The new Bond trailer is just a taste of great British action at its best. The film will be released in the UK on April 3, 2020, at that time, equipped with two good eyes, I am going to see it at Cineworld. When Daniel Craig was first proposed as Bond, many people didn't think he was up to the task, I thought differently. When Casino Royale came out, the critics were silenced and dumbfounded by how good Daniel Craig is. In the other movies, you will find a line by Moneypenny, where she says, 'it looks like you are just getting started'. I would like to see Daniel Craig in at least another 3 movies. The new movie is titled 'No Time to Die', and I would venture that for Daniel Craig, no time to quit. James Bond is king, other action heroes come and go, but Bond is forever.

What Bond does is make people feel proud to be British, the best of British, and takes us back to an era when all the values of what that means run deep in our national psyche. The franchise started in 1962, the year of my birth with the incredible Dr. No. Sean Connery was 007, he set the style of movies and is so iconic in the Bond universe and rightly so. Many others have played Bond, but no one at that time in 1962 could have done a better job than Sean Connery. In the present era, Daniel Craig raised the bar in 2006. I remember buy the DVD in Asda when first released for £7, what a bargain, next day they put the price up.

Finally, tomorrow, I will be limping back out to campaign, shaken but not stirred, because the people of Glasgow North East need Paul Sweeney back as their Labour MP and people's champion. Not something which you could associate with the SNP candidate Anne McLaughlin, being a people's champion.

https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/13839545.snp-mp-gives-office-job-to-boyfriend/

Mind you, I could see an opening for Anne as a minor Bond villain given that she wouldn't be getting elected on the 12th December 2019, obviously she would have to play the part of someone doing an admin role. She isn't up to being a star nor an MP.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

SNP, the Political Party that failed Scottish kids; International tests see record low results for Scottish school pupils, Scotland was famous for the enlightenment, well the lights are going out under the SNP, and the children of Scotland are paying the ‘forever bill’ of a lost generation, their future has been robbed from them, a bitter pill for parents to swallow

Dear All

Once Scottish education was held up as a beacon of excellence, and rightly so, Scotland had not just world class universities but also world class schools. Scotland has done much to invent the modern world as we know it.

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

Without Scots churning out ideas, our world wouldn’t be as we know it, so we have a proud history to look back on, but after 12 years of SNP rule at Holyrood, we as a country are going backwards. It would be simple to just write off what is been done and neglected and just tag it as stupidity. The SNP have used the government machine as a vehicle not for improvements to our society but for independence campaigning. If there is a price for stupidity, the ordinary Scot has more than paid that particular bill in full. Right across the board, we are failing as a country and as a people.

This is entirely due to the SNP leadership.

In the big departments of state, health education and law and order, the shameful neglect of policy is replaced by short term vision, no real objectives and sound bites. The Scottish NHS makes the news because of failures, failure to manage, failure to treat and failure to accept responsibility.  As to law and order, when Nicola Sturgeon put Humza Yousaf in charge, the joke was verging on too much, it seems membership of the Sturgeon cabal was the only qualification for high office.

When the SNP brought in ‘curriculum for excellence’ it almost seemed that the SNP leadership where intent in destroying the life chances of Scottish kids on an industrial scale. The facts speak for themselves; those at the bottom of society who needed education as the lifeline to escape poverty were having that pulled away from them. CoE has been a disaster, it was known it was a disaster, but the SNP leadership had this pressed ahead by education chiefs as they sat back.

So, why does the SNP want a country of underachievers?

I would suggest the answer is simple; they need this as a reason to push for control of immigration, in this way they can make the case for skilled immigrants such as doctors, dentists and engineers. But, and there is always a ‘but’, we would also get a criminal element in an SNP immigration free for all. The SNP with a low educated population would also see to create division, rather than accept they are to blame, they would blame Westminster. Some people have bought into this nonsense, just as they bought into the lie that the Scottish NHS was under threat of being sold off to the Americans.

The SNP leadership are the enemies of stability, peace, advancement and opportunity in Scotland, no amount of fake ‘nationalist anger explodes’ crap can hide this in the mist of deception. The truth of failure in education is factual, international education tests have reported record low results in science and maths among Scottish school pupils. Scotland, the country that built the modern world, now produces kids with such poor education, we would be lucky to see them construct a shed in the back garden. When we look at key indicators, we find that pupils are performing substantially worse in all three subjects of reading, maths and science than they did in 2000.

Scotland is a country moving backwards because we elected stupid people to political office who either don’t listen, don’t grasp or don’t comprehend what experts are telling them to advance the abilities of our kids. Given the SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon isn’t interested in kids unless they are a prop for a photo op, is it any surprise that efforts to close the attainment gap between rich and poor pupils appear to have stalled?

I have been blogging for years regarding how Scottish kids from disadvantaged backgrounds are being shut out of getting higher education. We keep getting fobbed off by the SNP leadership and people like Universities Scotland, the mouthpiece of the universities that they are doing their best. Clearly this is just sound bites to deflect media attention because return to the status quo.

Where exactly are the champions of the poor in the SNP Government?

They don’t exist!

Education Secretary John Swinney said the results were “very encouraging” and stressed PISA only shows part of the picture, Swinney has been a disaster in education, he doesn’t know what he is doing, and he doesn’t have the will to act. When Swinney went from finance to education, I thought he wouldn’t understand it, the concept what was needed, an education system where pupils had the ability to break down subjects because they had been taught the most important skill that everyone should learn. What is that skill?

The skill is the ability to analyze.

https://www.thebalancecareers.com/analytical-skills-list-2063729

The ability to analyse is what famous Scottish inventors had, with the ability to investigate a problem and find the ideal solution in a timely, efficient manner. This is what is needed at the heart of every Scottish kid’s education.

Scottish Conservative education spokeswoman Liz Smith said:

“This is damning evidence revealing the full extent of the SNP’s shameful 12 years running down Scotland’s schools. Nicola Sturgeon asked to be judged on education. This summer saw the fourth consecutive year of decline in Higher pass rates and now the SNP is presiding over the worst ever PISA results in both maths and science. In reading, where it should be acknowledged that there is encouraging improvement since 2015, the score is still lower than the 2012 result and considerably lower than the score in 2000. Nicola Sturgeon’s obsession with a second divisive referendum has come at a high cost to our schools.

Performance in maths and science is absolutely vital for the future of Scotland's  economy and for industries such as engineering and IT”.

Smith added:

“These results are a humiliation for the SNP and they also mean that the potential of Scotland’s economy has been tarnished. After the last set of poor PISA results, the SNP said that the curriculum had to change. Yet these results are a new low and we know there have been many failings within the delivery of the Curriculum for Excellence. It is not just time to change the curriculum but also to change the government in Scotland.”

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said the results were “appalling”.

He said:

“Scotland used to have one of the best education systems in the world, but under the SNP its now just average. Scottish teachers have been messed about for too long. John Swinney has refused to listen to them. Support in their classrooms has been cut to the bone and they simply don't believe in the policies being imposed on them, not least the national testing of four and five-year-olds. Nicola Sturgeon once claimed education was her top priority, but nobody is now in any doubt that the SNP will always put independence first no matter the cost. Their chief civil servant has warned another independence campaign will lead to the 'de-prioritisation' of domestic policy, but the SNP simply don't care about the damage and distraction it will cause.”

In what must be the most deluded excuse, SNP Education Sec John Swinney said:

“These are very encouraging results and the latest sign that our education reforms are working. Scottish schools are improving and this international study confirms that”.

Finally, when you find that pupils are performing substantially worse in all three subjects of reading, maths and science than they did in 2000, how can Swinney’s statement make sense. He is like Nero, fiddling while Rome burns down around him, Swinney isn’t a stupid man, I have met him, but I would say his cowardice in allowing this situation to continue because an inability to accept responsibility is rather damning. Scotland was also famous for the enlightenment, well the lights are going out, and the children of Scotland are paying the bill.

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University