The Startling Lack of Ambition of Anas Sarwar, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar claims that only Labour has momentum in the 2021 Holyrood election but the reality is that the privately educated middle class millionaire refuses to define progress, refuses to answer if he will be the official opposition, refuses to answer if he will win more seats, more votes, bigger voter share, the only progress so far by Anas Sarwar in this election is admitting Scottish Labour is in decline, the second battle bus for list votes was the wrong strategy, how does publicly admitting you cannot win Scottish constituencies help the Labour Party in 2024 Westminster election?

Dear All

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar did a BBC interview in which he said he couldn't turn around 20 years of Scottish Labour decline in 6 weeks. As statements go, this is accurate, however he and others may think that the problem is the Scottish voters not voting for them. In the 20 years of decline, the Scottish Labour took for granted the votes of the people, this translated into several things, bad policies, failing to oppose bad policies inflicted on Scotland by a UK Labour Government, and allowing careerist minded people to be candidates, then we got stuck with Cllrs, MSPs, and MPs who didn't serve their constituents. You might say where is the proof of this? Well, I would direct you to the London Labour cull of 2012, were 20 Labour Councillors in Glasgow were barred from standing, I would direct you to the generational falling votes in both Westminster and Holyrood elections because of lack of representation, when it came to dealing with people's complaints or standing up for local issues. When I did the 2016 Holyrood election campaign in Govan which forms part of the Pollok Constituency for Holyrood, people were angry. They were angry that former Labour MSP Johann Lamont wouldn't back them against a Labour Council plan to impose metering around their area caused by the traffic around the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital. Lamont went onto lose in 2016 but it had taken 17 years for the straw to break the camel's back when it came to good will being extended. Myself, I did Govan alone, this was because hardly anyone was willing to work for her, partly due to the dysfunctional nature of the Pollok CLP and her failing to show any sort of leadership as the Pollok MSP.

Earlier this year, I did two months of unpaid work for the Scottish Labour Party as a campaigner for a candidate to get selected high onto the Labour Party's Glasgow list, and as procedures secretary for Pollok CLP. I had wanted to step back from campaigning because I wanted to do personal things, but circumstances played against me. In fact, I expressed an interest in missing out the Holyrood campaign because I wanted all the things which I kept shelving due to politics to start in a meaningful way. As someone not in a Labour Party faction, neither in what some people recognise as Blairite or Corbynite wings of the party, I wasn't fussed about Holyrood 2021. That said, I was contacted to do the campaign, and against my better judgment, and to show good will, yet again to the party, I decided to do the campaign. So, I said to the Labour election agent, I would do Govan, then work in Craigton, effectively finish Ward 5 and 6 which sat in the Pollok Constituency, then move into Ward 4. I had a plan of how I would tackle it. On day two of Holyrood campaigning, a person in the team I was leading decided to have running arguments with me in front of the rest of the team. Apparently he didn't like the fact that I was giving orders to a Labour Councillor concerning the route I wanted him to take. The reason given to me was that the Councillor "knows the area", well, the question wasn't whether the Cllr knows the area but whether he can do an assigned route so that it works in with the rest of the work that the team was doing.

The final part of this little story after that day, was I took the Easter Holiday off, two days, I generally don't like to work Sundays, and I don't like to work on religious Holidays. So, when I returned to campaigning on the Tuesday to the pick-up spot at 9 am. I found no one there to pick me up for campaigning. Having waited 15 minutes in the cold, and checking my phone, no one had texted or called. Later on I got the chance to check my email, no one had emailed me out of courtesy to explain what was going on. Given that, I came to the conclusion that I wasn't welcome on the Pollok Labour campaign, so I did what anyone else would do, I found something better to do with my time. Since, they haven't been in contact, I can only assume those running the campaign found out and are too embarrassed to ask me back or they have no problem with what happened. Either way, I am not sufficiently interested to care, I have put that campaign behind, but any requests for help will be viewed in an entirely different fashion in future.

If you have looked at polling over time, you will see that Anas Sarwar as leader of Scottish Labour has made no real difference, however, he claims, his party is the only one with momentum going into the final week of the election. If you look at polling, you will see that his claim is so spurious, it could literally be said by any of the parties, including the SNP who have never lost their lead in this entire campaign. Just in case you forget, when there is a 'short campaign', parties polling does generate interest. In the case of Scottish Labour, it isn't because of Anas Sarwar is leader, it is because there is an election going on. Sarwar having made his success claim is refused to say how he would measure success, so this begs the question, why? He is waiting for the results to come in, then he and his advisors will pick something out and use that as evidence. The only real story of this election that has any interest is what will happen with Alba led by Alex Salmond. If Alex Salmond gets back into Holyrood with a small grouping, he will effectively be the opposition to Sturgeon. Salmond back in the Chamber of Holyrood will be a thorn in Nicola Sturgeon's side, a reminder that the SNP tried to stitch up an innocent man and failed.

In this election for the Scottish Labour, the focus after Anas Sarwar flung in the towel via the BBC, is the list vote. The Scottish Labour leader today has launched a second battle bus. Having failed to move polling in any meaningful way, and you can't do that without fixing Scottish Labour, the Sarwar plan is to use the same peach colour on his battle bus as the regional ballot paper. This is Sarwar's last stand in a last-ditch appeal for list votes and hope he has done enough to get more list seats than the Scottish Conservatives. Sarwar's "victory" in this election isn't he wants to be First Minister (a bridge too far), he wants to be the leader of the opposition, leapfrog over the Scottish Conservatives, and it is even money on the latest polling, both Labour and the Conservatives sit on 23% of the vote share. If you think back to 2016, Scottish Labour won 21 of its 24 MSPs on the discredited regional list system holding just three constituencies. Hopefully Jackie Baillie with her strong representation skills can hold Dumbarton, the SNP candidate is a carpetbagger Toni Giugliano.

In the final week, Sarwar is doing a tour of the country to drum up the list vote, which begs the question, why isn't he working night and day in Glasgow Southside? One of the myths I read on the internet is that Anas Sarwar has the "Muslim" vote in Glasgow Southside. I find this a strange claim because if he had, he wouldn't have been dumped as an MP in the same area by the utterly bereft of talent and cringe worthy 'rape clause' Alison Thewliss. Although people talk about squaring a circle, when you look at evidence of Sarwar's supposed popularity, you have to wonder where this nonsense comes from. In 2015, Alison Thewliss, a dud, polled 20,658 votes, compared to Anas Sarwar getting 12,996. When a new Labour candidate fought the 2017 snap election for Westminster, Faten Hameed, she polled 13,829, she has now joined the Scottish Conservatives. Anas Sarwar's influence in this election isn't nationwide, he is a Glasgow phenomenon, and London Labour is going to find that out.

Anyway, in spinning his chances, Sarwar said:

“It’s clear that the momentum is with us in this election campaign. You can see that we are the ones rising in the polls and our message is cutting through to the public around not going back to the old arguments.”

After 5 weeks of campaigning, private educated middle class millionaire Anas Sarwar is still using the same lines, of course if a story is worth telling, it is worth telling well, but does a story based on lack of substance really appeal. In this election, Anas Sawar will be remembered not for winning it and becoming First Minister but for saying 'grow up' to Douglas Ross. He will be remembered for not forming a coalition and standing down candidates to boost his party's chances. Anas Sarwar is the kind of leader who waited so long to become one that when he finally got it, he found he couldn't lead. In fact, his leadership contest was rushed through by the Labour Party so that any potential real leader couldn't be considered. That Scottish Labour leadership contest which will mostly be forgotten was an actual watershed moment. It was the reinforcement of a return to the failure of the right wing which was the sole cause of Scottish Labour decline over the last 20 plus years. In the post aftermath of losing, don't expect Anas Sarwar to reform the Scottish Labour Party, don't expect a review, just expect him and the other list system 'hostages' to carry on business as usual at Holyrood.

And before I forget, Anas Sarwar wouldn't be putting into effective a National Recovery Plan!

In the battle of second place, however, Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross this week predicted his party would hold on to second place at Holyrood, and he says that he and his party will remain the principal opposition. The Scottish Conservatives' campaign has been a lacklustre affair, I think in part it was because of covid, but more to do with the fact that Douglas Ross wasn't able to commit to give up his football duties as a linesman or referee. Jackson Carlaw was forced out for someone who wouldn't commit to Holyrood. The fact Douglas Ross wouldn't give up Westminster speaks volumes if elected, in my opinion, Jackson Carlaw should have led this campaign instead of Ruth Davidson as Douglas Ross' proxy. Ruth Davidson is off to be a peer, but I suspect she is lined up for a Scotland Office job, so she doesn't lose out financially. We will wait for that horse to come in down the line.

In not wanting to commit as well, and this seems to be a theme emerging from list politicians, Sarwar predicted Labour support to carry on rising. Is that based on the natural reaction that during a short campaign support for a party rises? What interests me, is whether people in places like Glasgow will click that their list vote going to Alba could generate an MSP or if enough numbers jump onboard even two. This year's loser in Glasgow is increasingly likely looking to be the second Conservative list seat. Anyway, it should be noted that the Scottish Conservatives, need to do long campaigning in constituencies to build up their vote, waving a Union Jack flag isn't enough anymore. I am not surprised that Sarwar wouldn't commit to saying that if Labour would come second, that would make him a hostage to fortune.

He said:

“We are making substantive progress and I want us to continue that progress over the next week and get the best result we can to demonstrate progress. I think even our biggest critics accept that we are making progress. I think you can see the way the campaign is going, the way the message is cutting through, that we are making progress. And so, what would, what would just remind people of is where we were eight weeks ago. Eight weeks ago we were at 14% in the polls, the Greens were saying that we were going to be pushed into fourth place, and the debate was whether Labour would get 15 MSPs or not, and even ask a question at FMQs. So we are making progress, and I want that progress to continue, but the next week is really crucial. I want to persuade as many people as possible over the course of the next week to vote Labour, to use their second vote in particular for Labour, and let's get the best result we can.”

He added:

“The momentum is with us. Our vote is increasing both in the constituency and on the list. Their vote is coming down. Every other political party’s vote is coming down. Our vote is going up in the constituency and is going up, and I think over the next week we can carry on that momentum and pull off some surprises on 6th May.”

Launched the new Scottish Labour bus, it reads on the side:

“Use your second vote for Anas Sarwar’s Labour” with a picture of a ballot paper with a vote for Scottish Labour. 

He said:

“We have one week to go. One week to ensure that the people of Scotland get a parliament focused on the national recovery, not the old arguments. We simply can’t come through the collective trauma of Covid and go back to the old arguments. While the Tories are playing political games, my only priority is delivering our national recovery from Covid. We have had 14 years of SNP broken promises and failure, we can’t afford to have a government or a parliament that takes its eye off the ball from the recovery. That’s why a vote for Labour matters. For the next six days, I will be travelling the length and breadth of Scotland, taking Labour’s message of hope and unity to every community and saying that we can choose to focus on what unites us not what divides us.”

Finally, this year, I spent two months working unpaid effectively for Scottish Labour. During that time, I was subject to a vile nasty vicious smear campaign accusing me of being a racist, and breaking the law on data protection. Despite this, and acting in good faith, I signed to do the Pollok CLP campaign, on that campaign, I was publicly abused by someone who signed up as a supporter for Anas Sarwar for leader page on Facebook. In his BBC interview, Anas Sarwar said he wanted to give the people of Scotland, the Labour Party they deserved, I think that Scottish Labour need to go take a real hard look at themselves. On his second battle bus, the peach one, he declares vote for Anas Sarwar’s Labour, I am familiar with the concept act like a winner even although you are going to lose, but to act like a loser prior to the ballot is a new one on me. There should have been two red Labour buses to reinforce the only message that Scottish Labour's candidates are standing to win constituencies, not effectively admitting they can't win any.  

Yours sincerely 

George Laird                                                                                                                                The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

A Very Scottish Election; Deviants, Mad Paedos, Nonce Enablers, Granny Home Killers, Mentally Deranged, Race Card Players and a support cast, make Holyrood 2021 Election entertainment for all the family, the Freak Show Election just rolls on, but current novelty act is an Alba Party campaigner who is a murderer who killed best man with hammer, and drove a 16 inch knife through his eye, how is a murderer out of place in this line up, surely the press could reel in a big fish instead of a political minnow?

Dear All 

Alex Salmond once said during First Minister's Questions when asked a question about future meetings with Tony Blair, "he doesn't write, he doesn't call". At the time, it was a rather witty comeback to what is a 'stock'  question. The gib was aimed at Tony Blair and the Labour Party back in 2007 which was a watershed moment in Scottish politics. It was watershed not just because of the defeat of the Labour Party that year led by Jack McConnell, but also because it ushered in 14 years of Labour intransigence. No effort was made to reset, restore and rebuild the party, hence the party went through leaders like water from a tap who couldn't be bothered to fix it, after all, they had their list seat. In the four years to the 2011 election, the Labour Party had ceased to be an opposition, this cement the SNP in power. In truth, in the 14 years and various leaders that the party had, there was no appetite to fix Scottish Labour which was rather strange. I could go on about polling etc but that would detract from the main point in mentioning the party, Scottish Labour has bad leaders. 

Just recently, I watched the Scottish Labour Party advert, it says vote Labour for a "national recovery plan and a better opposition". You can see the mixed message, you cannot have a "national recovery plan" without being the government of Scotland. And if all you aspire to be is to be a "better opposition", then you cannot put any plan into operation. People who support the Union aren't interested in a 'better opposition', they want a new government, they want the SNP out. Also, this 'better opposition', this begs the question, who assesses if you are in fact are? Is this self assessment or self id? 

The reason, I used the quote, "he doesn't write, he doesn't call" isn't because it is a good comeback, I am sure if I had time other interesting quotes would have surfaced, I wanted to take you back in time. The reason why is faux outrage as practiced by political parties, because, it ties into a story today about a murderer campaigning for Alex Salmond's party. Back in the day, Jack McConnell passed Sheriff Elizabeth McFarlane, she works out of Kilmarnock Sheriff Court, however, she is also Glasgow Uni and does charity, that is how I know her. One day, we bumped into each other in passing, and struck a conversation on law, it was good to chat to someone with her knowledge. Anyway, I asked her who passed her as a judge, she said she was appointed by Jack McConnell, the then Labour leader, I suppose it was irony that the same judge that Jack McConnell appointed was also the same judge who tried Jack McConnell's sister for stealing the sum of £9,000. 

In the digital age, the past is never forgotten, and there are several sites to visit, wiki does a good line in UK political scandals. Even in the upcoming Hartlepool by-election there is a sex offender standing, Christopher Killick, who is on the ballot for the May 6 vote. He was sentenced for voyeurism last year for filming a naked woman in a hotel room while she was asleep. If you want to know how serious Christopher Killick is about standing for election, he has since moved to Hartlepool where he is seeking to stand for MP. You could say that 'standards' have declined, but that would be inaccurate, standards have worsen considerably over decades. On the surface you could be supporting someone who appears respectable, below the surface, they could be an out and out deviant, a pervert or a serious criminal. 

One of the most interesting and in some ways depressing stories was the tale of Eric Joyce, and his fall from grace. Eric Joyce was a UK politician who was tipped back in the day as a possible defence minister in the Blair Government. After a fight in a bar at Westminster while drunk, his career nosedived. After this incident, there was an episode of his car crashing, and his refusal to take a breath test. He was banned rightly from driving, lost his licence for a year and was fined £400, unfortunately these episodes didn't shock Joyce into turning his life around. His final fall from grace was pretty much the lowest of the low, Eric Joyce had a 51-second film on a device that showed "the sexual abuse of very young children". This was a category A film, the most serious there is, accessed by Joyce between August 2013 and November 2018. It featured what appeared to be seven different children, aged between 12 months and seven years. During his trial, the prosecution presented evidence that he had searched "for material for five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10-year-old girls". Every now and again, I find stories, sometimes political and non political of someone who had it all, and messed it all up in the most toxic fashion. When you look at people who end up as politicians in the main parties, they come from similar backgrounds, professional backgrounds. In writing this, I did a bit of research, and came across this site.  

https://www.ibbclaims.co.uk/site/services/child-abuse-and-trafficking/convicted-offenders/  

The crimes are unforgivable, but what also caught my eye is the column where it listed their profession. Teachers, Doctors, Social workers, Priests, Coaches, Actors, Pop singers and Scout leaders, all having committed serious offences. This is the type of professions which are seen to be potential politicians of today. So, when I read that a murderer who stabbed his best man in the eye and battered him with a claw hammer has been unveiled as a campaigner for Alex Salmond’s Alba party. I have to ask why now, and if there is a point to the story other than faux outrage? Although, I mention it in passing, I was stabbed once, 42 stitches in 3 wounds, chest, lower arm and upper arm. If the knife which stabbed me in the chest hadn't bounced off a rib, you would be reading this post. One thing about blood when stabbed, it comes out very fast and it spreads into a large pool every quickly. I have to say, it makes you feel very cold due to rapid blood loss. Being stabbed is bad, but the aftermath of the mental flashbacks take some time to get over. On a physical level, your body appears to sag if that makes any sense, and the tiredness is something else, both mental and physical. But enough of little old me, let's take about John Tough. Tough had admitted killing his best man after claiming he indecently assaulted his then wife, but denied intending to murder him. A jury found him guilty at the age of 23.  

23 is old enough to know better, the killing of the victim was rather brutal, he drowned in his own blood. Tough was jailed for 11 years after he attacked his victim with a claw hammer, a bottle and household items. The one which will probably shock you was the 16-inch knife which was buried through an eye socket. I suppose the question is, should John Tough who served his sentence be continuously punished for the rest of his life. And I suppose what gives political parties or anyone else the right to make this an issue at the election. Tough previously he wanted to become a church minister after he was released. In newspaper comments from 2004, Tough said he was remorseful. I suppose people will question and doubt whether he is remorseful, but I think back to Jimmy Boyle. Jimmy Boyle was a notorious Glasgow gangster who was a murderer. His story was made into a movie, a sense of freedom, and he became an artist, he also according to wiki was named as a financial donor to the Labour Party in 1998. There is an interesting French documentary on youtube worth a glance at it.  

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

Of course, John Tough isn't Jimmy Boyle, but Boyle did turn his life around, so is it possible that Tough can equally transform his life? According to Paul Hutcheson, formerly of the Herald and now plying his trade at the Daily Record, is also a deluded conspiracy theorist who believes people will be put in concentration camps for not taking the Covid vaccine and claims the 2014 referendum was rigged. The second part first, the 2014 referednum wasn't rigged by the UK Government, in fact, you could say it was weighted in favour of the SNP, their question, their timetable and decisions on who voted in the franchise. As to people being put in concentration camps for not taking the Covid vaccine, this is hardly likely because of various factors. Anyway, Tough has joined SNP defector and Alba candidate Caroline McAllister on her campaign team. She is a list candidate in West Scotland, and as usual, she is posting PR campaign photos on Facebook about her growing “team”. One of the photos included Tough, at his house in Vale of Leven, Dunbartonshire complete with Alba banners visible on the fence. I suppose the question is, should he be kicked off the team? Well, that is a matter for Alba, in politics, anyone who is flagged as a problem is usually disposed off pretty quickly. The main parties have done this already, Craig Ross for the Scottish Conservatives and Hollie Cameron for Scottish Labour spring to mind. 

In this election, all sort of people will be campaigning, an Alba source however said no one by the name of Tough was listed as a party member. On the McAllister campaign photo, Tough remarked: 

“They were out leafleting and I’d asked for some enlarged boards for my house, so they dropped them off, and because I quickly put them up...they asked whether they could have a photograph.” 

He said of the murder:  

“It was a long, long time ago. I served my time. I never appealed. I never once said it wasn’t me.” 

Finally, to return to me, as you know I like to add in personal experiences because I think it makes the blog more interesting. Earlier on this year, I found that I was the victim of a smear campaign. A person using a fake name contacted someone that I was helping out to make false claims against me. The person who called themselves Paul Brady (fake name) claimed that I was in effect a racist, and that I had passed on data to the Scottish Defence League, basically names and address of people involved in politics. This was part of a dirty tricks campaign, I hadn't gone public that I was campaigning on the blog or on social media. To be honest, until I finished doing what I was doing, and had a result, there wasn't really much to say because phone canvassing is so short that you don't really have time to engage in a meaningful conversation as part of what you are doing is data collection. At the same time, I was being accused not just of being a racist but also of breaking the law breaching people's data, another story appeared, that of Anas Sarwar who accepted money from a Asian millionaire paedophile. 

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/millionaire-sex-offender-gave-4000-23374250 

The person who accused me of being a racist and breaking the law, sent their email at 23.43 pm on Saturday 23rd January 2021, the Daily Record story of Sarwar and the Asian paedophile was posted at 04.30 am on the 24th January. I guess that must be what some people would call coincidence. Although Paul Hutcheson, Daily Record provided an interesting titbit on Tough, he was just a tool to smear the Alba Party. In the grand scheme of things Tough just some guy wandering about, if he has reformed like Boyle, why shouldn't he campaign? One thing I learned from being smeared somewhere in the Scottish election campaign there is a scumbag who is probably quite active who defamed me. Although, they covered their tracks using a fake name and a vpn, they made a big mistake lying and citing I know the Scottish Defence League. The reason is, because when you look around at the people who play the race card in Scottish politics, you don't exactly have a mountain of evidence to occupy you, one scrap of paper is enough for possible suspects. And since I never went public, the list on the scrap of paper gets even shorter.

Yours sincerely 

George Laird                                                                                                                                The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

Pandering to a Country of Fools, the Iranians continue to imprison an innocent woman Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe by sentencing her to another year in prison, Zaghari-Ratcliffe is a political pawn held hostage, it is time the UK upped the stakes and put Iran to a decision, release her or pack up your London Embassy

Dear All 

The problem with dealing with third world countries such as Iran is that their system of justice is rather primitive, Iran despite all its wealth and history, being one of the cradles of civilization is to all intensive purposes backward. This is what happens when the so called Iran revolution took place, and a democracy was returned to the stone ages, and all done in the name of religion. Iranians who stay there have not enjoyed the benefits of the modern world, not to the fullest extent. In any country, where justice is replaced by tyranny, by the edict of the mob, this must be considered a bad sign. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is a political prisoner in Iran, she isn't a spy, she is a pawn, a pawn used by the Iranians. In fact, the Iranians are so stupid, they haven't the brains to trade her for something, or indeed cultivate goodwill by releasing her. 

Zaghari-Ratcliffe is a British-Iranian charity worker, of course most charity workers aren't treated like her. Charity workers are usually seen as a benefit to any country they work in, not because of their manual work, but because of their experience. So, how did the Iranians repay her kindness, well, they accused her of being a spy, and shoved her in prison. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe isn't a spy, but she was sentenced to five years' imprisonment after being found guilty of "plotting to topple the Iranian government". I know what you are thinking, all by herself? If you look at her background which is documented, you will see her background is hardly James Bond, and of course have you ever seen a James Bond movie where he is lugging his young family about with him on a mission. At the time of her arrest, the head of Kerman province's justice department, Ali Tavakoli, said she and others had participated in projects run by the BBC and received funds from London: 

"This gang was running a number of projects and plans for anti-revolutionary Iranians based abroad, especially for the BBC Persian, under the guise of legitimate activities. Financial aid for this group was usually provided from London under the pretext of charitable donations. The director of the team was an individual who has served the BBC as a mentor and teacher in a number of countries such as Malaysia, India and Afghanistan and his travels to these countries were paid for by British intelligence services." 

Ali Tavakoli is someone who should be removed from their justice department as he seems to be someone who makes up evidence and presents that as fact. From what I can tell his method of investigation is, 'I don't like what some people say or could be doing, and so that must be a crime'. Iran is a backward country, and the fact that someone like Ali Tavakoli gets paid, and gets away with victimising people under the guise of justice is a disgrace. Justice is quite straight forward, you find the bad people, stop them doing bad things, arrest them and put them in prison. What Ali has done is arrest a good person, fit them up without evidence and imprison them, then roped in the government to rubberstamp his madness. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been sentenced to another year in prison after being found guilty of propaganda activities against the regime in Iran. It is almost like a rolling programme of victimisation now, having illegally imprisoned her, they have to justify to the world their corruption dressed up as justice by keep put her imprison. As well as being put in prison again, the British-Iranian charity worker was also given a one-year ban from leaving the country. 

I am sure that once Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is released, her days of doing charity work for a backward country like Iran will come to an abrupt end. You see, she will realise that although she was born there, there are certain types of people not worth helping. If she had been wiser, she should have recognised what the Iranians where all about. History has show over the last 40 years who wretched the nation has become as a whole. In fact, the recent joke is that Iran has been appointed to the UN Commission on women's rights. That is like giving a rapist a job at a rape crisis centre, or as equally bizarre a man dressed as a woman a job at a rape crisis centre, the latter already been done in Scotland. Iran is a backward country, but don't forget, so is Scotland, the fabric of Scotland is being destroyed so that the poor are losing services and facilities. In order to jail Zaghari-Ratcliffe, her crime is, that she done things which are entirely legal, her lawyer said she had been accused of taking part in a demonstration in London 12 years ago. Protesting is a legal sanctioned activity, and her other crime is that she gave an interview to the BBC Persian service. Neither of these things are illegal, and freedom of speech and expression covers her BBC interview. In all the time that this saga has been running, the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been effectively powerless because the Iranians are backward. You see it doesn't matter when they release her, the damage to them has been done, it has been done because British-Iranian charity workers will be thinking, if imprisonment could happened to Zaghari-Ratcliffe, it could happen to them. 

The Prime Minister said the UK would "redouble" efforts to free her but the UK Government now facing mounting calls to impose sanctions. Zaghari-Ratcliffe is a pawn, she is a hostage, so in all the time she has been held prisoner, the Iranians haven't used her. Her husband Richard Ratcliffe told the BBC the court's decision was "clearly a negotiating tactic" by the Iranian authorities. He is right, the Iranians have issues with their development and research of over the country's nuclear activities. Boris Johnson said that the Government will be “working very hard” to secure Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s release. 

The PM said: 

“Obviously we will have to study the detail of what the Iranian authorities are saying. I don’t think it is right at all that Nazanin should be sentenced to any more time in jail. I think it is wrong that she is there in the first place and we will be working very hard to secure her release from Iran, her ability to return to her family here in the UK, just as we work for all our dual national cases in Iran. The Government will not stop, we will redouble our efforts, and we are working with our American friends on this issue as well.” 

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the sentence was "inhumane". 

He added: 

“We continue to call on Iran to release Nazanin immediately so she can return to her family in the UK. We continue to do all we can to support her.” 

Layla Moran MP, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs, called for targeted sanctions to be introduced against Iran. 

She said: 

“This is a cruel and heartless decision by the Iranian regime. Nazanin should be coming home to her family, instead she’s being used as a political bargaining chip yet again.

Enough is enough. The Foreign Secretary must now begin the process of introducing targeted Magnitsky sanctions against officials responsible. With Nazanin’s health deteriorating and her family in distress, strong words must be backed by real action. Nazanin has been put through hell for five years and today's verdict will prolong her suffering even more. The Government must do everything in its power to bring her home to her family immediately.” 

Labour MP Lisa Nandy, shadow foreign secretary criticised the Government’s handling of the case. 

The Labour MP tweeted: 

“This is devastating news. Nazanin’s freedom is being used as a political bargaining chip and the Government has serious questions to answer over their failed strategy to bring her home.” 

Finally, the fact of the matter is, if there was a Labour Government in power at Westminster, they too would have a failed strategy, assuming they had a strategy at all. There is a problem dealing with backward countries where human rights are not respected. The other problem is that the Iranian courts don't function as they should, imprisoning innocent people is hardly justice. Imagine all those people who work in the Iranian justice system who must know that all law and reason can be swept aside in favour of someone pulling their strings like a puppet from government. I personally cannot see what the point is having an embassy in a place like Iran, I would close it down, and place a ban on visiting Iran, or Iranians being allowed to land on British soil with the exception for medical cases. I would also say to the Iranians 'pack up' your UK embassy within 30 days, just throw the lot out. It should be made clear to the Iranians that the UK will not play the Iranians' game any longer. I put the Iranians to a decision, 30 days to return Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe or your embassy closes. 

Yours sincerely 

George Laird                                                                                                                                The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University  

Covid Scotland vaccine passports, the backdoor ID card scheme: is SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon planning to set up a Stasi Network in Scotland to track Scots, will Scots be asked to 'show their papers' on entry to public buildings, are covid passports Sturgeon's latest way to sow division and hate, what human rights will Nicola Sturgeon be taking away from the segregated minorities, will human rights be ignored and denied in Scotland unless you have a piece of plastic?

Dear All 

Scottish discrimination under Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP is coming in, State sponsored discrimination, after finding the public will not accept id cards, the SNP Government and hi-tech companies are banded together to further increase the surveillance state. Under SNP plans, being considered, every movement a Scottish citizen makes whether it is going to a pub, going to the shops, entering a public building, going to the gym, or accessing healthcare could all be tracked. From when you first step out of bed in the morning to when you lay your head on your pillow could be all monitored, who knows maybe one day tracking will extend to what rooms you use in your own house. 

The 1984 nightmare is being rolled out, already despite protestations that this isn't happening, pilots schemes have been commissioned in other parts of the UK. 

Our rights to live a free life are being taken away under the guise of a health crisis. Basically politicians keep listening to hitech companies who say they have all the answers to prevent and shutdown further health emergencies, and a few quid to political party coffers will see willing politicians sign up to the surveillance state. We are told that covid passports would be a temporary measure but that is a lie. Once the state has power, they are reluctant to give it up, if you take the example of conscription which carried on after World War 2, it took until 1960 for it to stop. ID cards where reintroduced during WW2 but it wasn't till 1952 before 'showing your papers' was stopped due to increased public resentment. 

Covid passports are backdoor ID cards by another name, the issues against ID cards are well known such as;  

A national ID card system would not solve the problem that is inspiring it. 

An ID card system will lead to a slippery slope of surveillance and monitoring of citizens. 

A national ID card system would require creation of a database of all citizens. 

ID cards would function as "internal passports" that monitor citizens' movements. 

ID cards would foster new forms of discrimination and harassment. 

Carrying a piece of plastic, won't stop you getting covid, carrying a piece of plastic wouldn't stop you being re-infected with covid, and carrying a piece of plastic wouldn't stop you being a carrier of the virus. Nothing will protect you from covid if your DNA makes you vulnerable. But what the internal passport could do is deny you rights, deny you services, and make you a second class citizen. In effective, you could be treated the same as a paedophile on licence in the community, someone who potential would harm others. At the same time, someone with a covid passport who is seen as legit could get infected again, and then become a superspreader. The plastic card will also not protect you and neither will the vaccine fully if the country's borders remain open and people can fly in bring various mutated strains of the virus in with them. If you think of the virus as a 'key' and you as a 'lock', only certain keys will open certain locks, if the virus unlocks you, you may die or you make like a common cold shrug it off. As well as covid being nasty, so potential can the vaccine in some people, although government and shrills tell you otherwise. No one knows what the long term side effects of the vaccine could be, 'experts' have gave their opinions of its okay, and let's face it, saying anything else would cost them their jobs. The truth is, only time will answer the question of what are the long term side effects of the vaccine because data must be collected. Experts saying everything will be okay is not backed up by data. 

Another interesting observation is those who have had bad reactions such as Sarah Beuckmann. 34 year old  mother of one is currently wheelchair-bound as she waits for her wounds to heal following a severe reaction to the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine. I have put a picture of her reaction to that drug. This is the drug which we were told is 'safe', we were told it was made by 'experts', we were told it was tested rigorously, and we were told how quickly this was done. Does anyone think that Sarah Beuckmann thinks it is wonderful? Does anyone think she will be getting the second dose? Clearly, we can see what happened to her externally after being injected, but what we aren't seeing is what has happned internal right down to a cellular level, and what happens at the cellular level is important. Today, I came across an article on blood clots caused via the AstraZenaca jab,  April 22, 202, Scientists in Germany say they've worked out the two-step mechanism by which the AstraZeneca vaccine causes rare but devastating blood clots that gobble up the body's supply of platelets. This is what I mean by 'data', and access to data which allows people to make an informed choice. Why wasn't this 'bug' ironed out of the vaccine prior to wholesale production, especially in the light of extensive testing? 

In the race of the blind leading the blind, Scottish National clinical director Professor Jason Leitch has been the public face of health. He is a dentist, although dentists are highly qualified, he isn't qualified to save the population from this virus. He has a degree but it isn't the right type of degree, he doesn't work with viruses, he drills, fills and pulls teeth. Real experts of virology haven't been used by the Scottish Government, instead we have people such as that crank Devi Sridhar. She is an out and out shrill in my opinion, so here is her wiki page to read. If you didn't know better, you might be impressed by her wiki, but the fact of the matter is, she isn't a medic, she has never been a medic, she is also not a virologist. From her output, you might believe she was some genius protégé, the type you see in the movies who works all night then finds the miracle cure. Well, Devi Sridhar is much like that crank at Glasgow University who used to live off the misery of drug users, documenting their shit life. Sridhar does the exact same thing, she isn't a player on the pitch, she is someone watching the covid game from the spectator stands, just like you. Her titles, awards, books, papers and rattling off her mouth, all meaningless. 

Leitch, is just a mouthpiece, he is a front man, his presentation style is something which I am not a fan, it is a rather convoluted 'workie come good'. This part of his wiki page caught my eye, Leitch was part of the senior team who conceived, designed and led the Scottish Patient Safety Programme. If you read that you might think, wow, isn't he great, but you have to factor in the fact that during covid in Scotland, we learned that MSPs heard on the Scottish Parliament's Equality and Human Rights Committee that elderly people were suffering “fear and anxiety” during the Covid-19 outbreak due to being encouraged to sign do not resuscitate (DNR) orders. What about now, are you impressed with Leitch's Scottish Patient Safety Programme? You see research and knowledge help give you the balanced picture, if you take the time, use your time wisely, you can find a trail of bread crumbs that may lead you to question, what you are told, by whom, and when. Here is the link to the DNR story, a shameful story of medical neglect. 

https://www.edinburghlive.co.uk/news/edinburgh-news/old-people-elderly-coronavirus-dnr-18325649 

When Leitch is pushing covid passports on us, he is pushing ID cards on us, execept he doesn't call it so, him giving further details regarding plans for a potential digital scheme that will show whether or not we have had the Covid vaccine is meaningless. In this country, you don't have to carry ID, you don't have to give the police your name, or your address unless they arrest you, you have the right to stay silent, and you have the right to speak to a lawyer first, the Cadder Case reinstated that right to you.  Leitch says there would have to be some form of certification, and stressed there would be alternatives for those without access to smart phones. I don't have a smart phone, and I am not buying one to show a bar code to some pub bouncer to use their facilities. Show your papers went out with the Nazis! Already, Leitch is laying out part of the nightmare, he said: 

"Covid certification already exists. You might add in vaccine, you might add in antibody testing, and then you may need some other stuff about where you live and who you are, where your health system is, and whether you've had the disease previously". 

None of this will stop you getting covid, or spreading covid, because everything is closing the gate after the horse has bolted. 

Leitch added: 

"That Covid certification is something that will become something that the world needs, and the WHO is looking at that even as we speak. What do you do for countries that haven't been able to vaccinate large numbers of people? It gets really complicated really quickly." 

The real kicker of this, is when he says if younger members of your family had not yet been vaccinated and were therefore not permitted to travel. Basically, there are people who will not get vaccinated on religious grounds, they now under the Leitch plan are to be discriminated as a segregated minority. Will people of the segregated minorities be put in walled areas of the cities? Well, the answer to that is no, so all this segregation instead of using colour, religion, sexuality or creed will be based on freedom of expression. The covid vaccine programme is an expensive farce which will make hitech companies rich and also people connected to government. 

Finally, in trying to make covid passports appear all warm and fuzzy, Leitch said: 

"We'll have to have solutions for everybody, like we've tried to do for other parts of the system. Clearly a digital solution will be very very useful to millions of people, so I would be very surprised if we didn't use that at some point in the future. But we'll have to have alternatives." 

Health professionals haven't been calling for covid passports, this race has been led by hitech companies and politicians. Millions of pounds have been wasted on track and trace, we were told this would be the golden bullet to kill covid. It was a disaster on a scale unheard of in modern times, many people connected to government got rich quick. Some people who had never work in lines like the supply of PPE were given million pound contracts without any expertise at all. Covid has been a vehicle to rip off taxpayers' money on an industrial scale. Now, a new golden bullet is a Stasi card, a piece of plastic which denies people freedoms like movement, which will end up being accessed by people who are no business looking at your personal data. Where are the so called political leaders in this, well presumably waiting on hitech dropping vast sums of money into party coffers before they are awarded multi million pound contracts, that only applies to those who control government. If the vaccine is so wonderful, why do we need to 'show our papers'?

Yours sincerely 

George Laird                                                                                                                                The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University 

DISGUSTING! Lebron James defends a knife-wielding maniac.

The George Laird View; Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar touts 'minimum income guarantee' in social security shake-up, no details, no plans and no timescale, Sarwar mirrors the SNP's equally vacuous proposals on minimum income, in the 'race to the bottom' using election bribes, 'pie in the sky', poor people have to face up to reality, it seems privately educated middle class millionaire Anas Sarwar, has a destiny, 'minimum income guarantee' as a list MSP at Holyrood, Jim Murphy led a disastrous campaign in 2015, is history about to repeat itself for Scottish Labour?

Dear All 

Do you believe in free money? In theory, you would probably say yes, what is not to like, the sticky part is of course when someone asks the awkward questions like where is it going to come from, who is paying for it, and what cuts will there be to services to pay for it. The more I read about the Scottish election, the more I see a 'race to the bottom' by political parties promising the earth for people's votes. SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon is still leading the way on freebies, but other parties are now joining in the wishing game. Sturgeon leads with her free dentistry which I assume the idea came from someone looking at the state of SNP MP Pete Wishart teeth. Not only does Pete Wishart have bad genetics, he also appears to have black teeth. When you consider the salary of an MP plus expenses, you have to wonder what does he spend his money on? Also has he ever heard of brushing his teeth and regular dental check- ups, scaling mean anything to him. 

In the great Scottish giveaway, Scottish Labour instead of doing the hard graft of proposing structural change has decided to shore up the same rotten system by throwing a few crumbs on the table. If terms of crumbs, Anas Sarwar's vision is more meatier than the disastrous campaign of ex Labour MP Jim Murphy, but crumbs are still crumbs. In this election, Scottish Labour leader is fighting, not fighting to be First Minister, he is fighting for second place in this election. In a recent BBC interview, he does not believe he can turn around his party's 20-year decline in Scotland before the Holyrood election on 6 May. Sarwar also said he was being honest and not defeatist about making this statement, but there is a PR gimmick which can be done by trailing lower expectations, so when the bad news comes, there is less heat in it. The flip side to trailing is also that if he does better than expected according to the polls, he can claim Scottish Labour is having a revival. 

On the 6th of May, we will see whether Anas Sarwar stands, will he as polling suggests lose seats? Who knows, he has two weeks to turn around 20 years of decline, actually, he won't be turning around anything. The Scottish Labour project in Scotland is in denial, it is in denial because the various leaders haven't led the party. When Sarwar was elected, I voted for him, but I knew I what I was voting for, the least worst candidate, Monica Lennon and her indy comments were beyond the pale. The Labour Party deliberately rushed the selection of a new leader so as to cut down the chances of a proper candidate from the left. This was a massive mistake of political judgment, in my mind, this was the right wing of the Labour Party not moving the party forward, but a return to Blairism, or poor man's Blairism. If you think back to 2012, London Labour came to Glasgow to vet all existing Councillors, and 20 of them got chopped off at the ankles. Why did London Labour need to do this, well because Scottish Labour was incapable of putting their own house in order. I didn't agree with all who were axed, but the cull should have been extended to MSPs and MPs. The Labour Party in 2012 had an opportunity to reset Scottish Labour and missed the boat. 

It can't have escaped Keir Starmer and his team's attention that if Scottish Labour isn't turned around, then he isn't going to be Prime Minister. After this election, London Labour can either step in and fix Labour in Scotland, or resign themselves to being the opposition. If the angry landlord footage is anything to go by, you can see Keir Starmer having an uphill struggle. Starmer's recent comments on a Scottish referendum show that he doesn't understand Scotland. He is a multi-millionaire who represents a seat  in London. Scotland to Starmer is just a day trip, he is like the General Manager who comes to visit one of the factories in a network, does a tour then leaves, none the wiser. In the entire time, and that includes his election campaign thrown in, Anas Sarwar hasn't came forward with any concrete plans to turn around Scottish Labour. He hasn't came out and said that he will do a staff review of the Scottish operation. He hasn't come out and said he will replace the broken and unaccountable campaign model. He also said in the same BBC interview I mentioned earlier: 

"I can reverse the decline and want us to start rebuilding the Labour Party. I want to give the people of Scotland the Labour Party they deserve." 

I personally doubt that Anas Sarwar can 'reverse the decline', during his entire lifespan as an MSP, he has never fought to do so. When he says he wants to start rebuilding the Labour Party, I would say, when did you recognise the decline? And why didn't you do something concrete about it? What did you do under Richard Leonard's leadership, in fact why did his election for leader against you end up so dirty? The only thing which Anas Sarwar will ever lead is half the Scottish Labour Party, the right wing. After being elected as leader, Sarwar offered Richard Leonard, a shadow Cabinet post, Leonard effectively threw that back in his face preferring to sit on the back benches. The fact is that the right wing of the Labour Party, the part that led to the decline in Scotland actively undermined the party leader. Now that the right wing have control again, they think that carry on with the same behaviour that turned voters away from them. The right wing of the Labour Party see themselves as 'managers' of the people and not representatives of the people.   

One of the main reasons for Scottish Labour decline, was the betrayal of the working class, the Scottish model, election results and polling all bear this out. It isn't just policies that are problem in Scottish Labour, it's people. For example, what does private educated millionaire Anas Sarwar have in common with me? I have met him, I have debated with him, I am in the same party as him, but Anas Sarwar has nothing in common with me whatsoever except we both hold Labour Party membership and both went to Glasgow University. In politics, there is such a thing as 'mirroring', this is when political parties put up a candidate which is the same as their main opponent, the obvious case of mirroring is when it is done with females or done with ethnic people. Mirroring can also be done with policies, so instead of real choice, you get effectively the same policies just done under a different party. Scottish Labour has decided to do this, it has said it would “repair and renew” the welfare safety net if it was in power at Holyrood. In the great giveaway, they say they offer a guaranteed minimum income for all. 

Scottish Labour’s plan for minimum income came with no cost details, no timeline, no explanation of where the money will come from. But it says it wants to “work towards” a minimum income standard no one would fall below. To kick that can down the street, it says it will work with a commission to “work out the precise value in the wake of the pandemic”. This is what I mean when I say there is a problem in Scottish Labour, this plan is bullshit, if there are people will extraordinary low IQs, it might attract a few votes. When you have universal free money for all, the poorest in society lose out the most. You might say, if everyone gets guaranteed minimum income, how can they lose out, it is like lighting a candle at both ends and holding it in the middle, eventually you will get burned. To fund guaranteed minimum income, you have to cut services, and means right across the board. SNP have also said it will to “start work” on a minimum income guarantee in the next parliament, but also offered no costings or timescale for delivery. Do you remember the SNP pledge for 100,000 high paid jobs at £42 a year for women to fund the SNP childcare programme? Do know how many high paid jobs at £42 a year for women where created? 

Zero! 

In several issues, I highlighted that Labour leaders had a knack of being on the wrong side of history, in some cases on a par with Scottish Green Leader Patrick Harvie, famously Kezia Dugdale supported all the wrong causes, Brexit and anti Trump being the most notable. I am poor, I am working class, and because of my life experience, I know 'pie in the sky' when I see it, and Scottish Labour's approach is wrong. Anas Sarwar should be fighting the SNP instead he has cosied up to them in policy terms, where is his vision? Instead of fighting the SNP, he is fighting the Scottish Conservatives, saying he wants to reverse the “cruellest” aspects of Tory benefit reforms. Guess what Anas, you aren't an MP, your target is the SNP, it isn't too aspire to be the second party of Holyrood, that isn't an objective, that is just a hostage doing up their prison cell. My view is this, Anas Sarwar has no interest in reforming the Labour Party, he is happy to be a list MSP because that is his "guaranteed minimum income". 

Just as the SNP couldn't provide 100,000 high paid jobs for women, I see no evidence that Anas Sarwar can provide 170,000 covid recovery jobs in various sectors. Why not you may ask, well simply his plan doesn't take into account that in order to get these jobs, people have to be trained to do those jobs. And in some case training takes years! 

Sarwar said: 

“If we focus on making the next Scottish Parliament a Covid recovery parliament we can immediately lift as many as 60,000 children out of poverty and work towards ending the scandal of child poverty once and for all. We can transform the lives of those Scots who risk falling deeper into poverty year after year by offering them the stability of a guaranteed minimum income. Scotland’s powers over social security give us the opportunity not just to repair the safety net after a decade of Tory austerity and SNP inaction, but renew it so it is fit for the challenges of the 21st century. A national recovery after Covid should mean a minimum income guarantee for people that no one falls below - restoring dignity to those who have been denied it. That means Parliament working together to ensure good jobs, lower housing costs, and a social security system there when people need it.” 

A few years ago on Questiontime, Nicola Sturgeon as SNP Deputy First Minister was slaughtered when she implied that she could create jobs. A fellow panel rip her a new arse by exposing the lie that the Scottish Government creates anything. Private business creates jobs, and in order for private business to do this, the people who run it must be able to see a profitable return. 170,000 covid recovery jobs is a pipe dream, Scotland's unemployment rate from December 2020 to February 2021 remained at 4.4%. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the employment rate, for those aged 16 to 64, over the same period was 74.6%. There were 2.567 million people aged 16-64 in employment between December and February, while 120,000 in that age range were unemployed. Of the 120,000 people in Scotland now, how many would be able to walk straight into a covid recovery job with being retrained? I found this information out in a few seconds on a google search, so if I can do this in a few seconds, who is going to buy into Anas Sarwar's 'pie in the sky' jobs? Let's say he actually got all the 120,000 employed, that's bullshit but bear with me, where do the extra 50,000 workers come from? If they aren't in Scotland, it means they would have to come here from elsewhere, is Sarwar really proposing mass immigration to Scotland in a UK jobs market that remains subdued? 

Finally, Anas Sarwar's claim to fame in this election was when he told Conservative leader Douglas Ross to "grow up". In 2015, I wrote an article, 12 weeks out from the election called, 'fucking it all up', this was Jim Murphy fighting a Westminster election on reserved Holyrood issues. 

http://glasgowunihumanrights.blogspot.com/2015/02/fucking-it-all-up-labour-leader-jim.html 

When, I wrote that post on Thursday, February 19, 2015, I could see early on what the Scottish Labour mentality was by whoever concocted this strategy. And guess what, the SNP got 56 MPs in Scotland, I was right then, just as I am right now, Labour's strategy is wrong. Was a pledge then that alcohol be re-introduced at football matches, the biggest social injustice facing Scots? Was the repeal of the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Bill just a brilliant concept, or did someone remember a John Wheatley quote that to win elections you need the football fan vote? Things have moved on a lot since the time of Labour MP John Wheatley, things are more nuanced.  You have to work for a vote today, you have to be credible to get a vote today, and 'pie in the sky' and copycat ideas like sour grapes just withering on the vine leaves a bad taste. The real enemy that Scottish Labour should be focused on is Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP, maybe someone from Keir Starmer's team should point out the elephant in the room to Anas? 

Yours sincerely 

George Laird                                                                                                                                The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University 

Holyrood 2021, the Dead Cat Bounce Election; Odious Nicola Sturgeon unveils her pathetic SNP manifesto commitment to Indyref2, lies for the gullible in a lukewarm election campaign, Prime Minister Boris Johnson isn't granted Sturgeon a Section 30 order, the real question that voters may end up asking, is there really an election on, and does it really matter at Holyrood when no one will commit to change the same rotten structure that party leaders make a comfortable living from?

Dear All 

It's lying time again, it's false promise time again, it is the SNP Manifesto launch! 

Aside from the usual SNP drivel, the main lie fed to gullible Scottish people is SNP Leader Nicola Sturgeon saying that a second independence referendum could be held in the next parliamentary term. Sturgeon is making promises that she cannot keep, neither legally or morally. If Sturgeon has a mission, it is to destroy the infrastructure of Scotland, destroy the educational life chances of kids, and destroy the social fabric of our society with identity politics. 

Under Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland is a failed State, it is a divided country with the worst aspects of a banana republic. Education is destroyed, health care is restricted, law and order administered by the Crown Office is compromised. The signs of infrastructural decline are all around you, you can probably walk less than 100 yards from your house and see them. Do you live in pothole Glasgow Central, do you live in fly tipping Govanhill, do you live in Dogshit on the pavement Craigton? Since 2012, the SNP have treated Government as a part time job, and as an SNP proxy campaigning vehicle, and that doesn't take into the account the monstrous misuse of public money on failed projects. It seems everything that Nicola Sturgeon touches she fucks it up massively, Ferries, Steel, Airports, and saving companies makes no difference, all doomed, all liabilities!   

In this election, yet again, Nicola Sturgeon wants you to fail to understand how Government works. Nicola Sturgeon is not the leader of Scotland, Boris Johnson is the leader of Scotland. Nicola Sturgeon is the leader of devolved services within a UK structure, she may think she answers to no one, but in fact she answers to the UK Government and to UK institutions such as the Supreme Court. Sturgeon is someone on a legal leash, although she can get to make decisions by herself, those decisions can be challenged. In order for Sturgeon to have a second Scottish referendum, she needs a Section 30 order by the Westminster Government. Boris Johnson has repeatedly among others in his Cabinet said, this order will not be granted. To have a Manifesto promising something she cannot deliver is incredibly disingenuous, because it shows contempt for the democratic process and the people of Scotland. Therefore Nicola Sturgeon is lying, deceiving and conning people that if they vote the SNP back into Government that they can get Boris Johnson to just give her one. 

Boris Johnson will not give Nicola Sturgeon a Section 30 order in the lifetime of this parliament, and I would put money on him if he is PM post 2024, not granting a Section 30 order in the next Westminster Parliament. As I said back during indyref one, the boat has sailed on Scottish independence. Just as the SNP lied through their teeth about protecting people's rights and benefits, they are lying through their teeth now in order to win an election. So, you may ask, if the SNP cannot be trusted and are liars, why can't the opposition parties beat them at the ballot box? The answer to that is because the opposition is weak, and has a track record of being disengaged. What major private members Bills did the opposition bring forward in this parliament? The opposition don't act like various governments in waiting, they act like hostages on the list system. The party leader are unwilling to build up their parties because that could in theory be a catalyst for internal leadership changes. 

If you look at polling from various polling companies over the last month, you will see the leaders debates, policy announcements, and various press releases have to sum up done nothing to sway the voters. The latest panel base polling on the regional vote of 12/4/2021 falls within the margin of error. One thing to note is any single polling cannot be used to paint a picture, but it can perk an interest. The SNP has dropped regional votes, and it seems that Alba is the people who have benefited, but will that trend continue, clearly Alex Salmond wants SNP regional votes, and maybe his plan is working, to make a breakthrough, he needs 6%. If he does hold or go further, he and his party get a good number of seats, who knows he could rival the Scottish Greens who sit on 9%. For those parties such as the Scottish Conservatives and Scottish Labour whose leaders say they want to be the next First Minister, latest polling isn't much of a comfort. Scottish Labour on the regional vote is down to 17%, in the constituency vote, they are at 20%. In Glasgow, this would mean that the SNP would win all constituency seats, and if Alba picks up, they could take a single list seat, the question is who loses out? The obvious answer would be Scottish Greens leader Patrick Harvie, but Alba needs a huge push to shift him. If the Labour vote keeps dropping, maybe they lose a seat list MSP, in 2016, Scottish Labour had 23.8% of the regional vote in Glasgow. The latest polling is bad news for them putting them on 17%. If polling holds up, Scottish Labour will retain their 3rd place in the Scottish Parliament. The honeymoon period normally extended to a new leader in this case, Anas Sarwar will be rather short lived. 

You see London Labour cannot be the UK Government unless they win back Scotland! 

Scottish Labour Leader Anas Sarwar has effectively 20 campaigning days to change the fortunes of Scottish Labour. This election which he is putting all his political capital into as the new kid on the block with all the answers, isn't so far working out. You get a feel of what is termed the dead cat bounce, people are doing things in Labour as 'cogs' without being informed what the 'big picture is'. You may have heard of the dead cat bounce phrase before, it is used in finance, a dead cat bounce is a small, brief recovery in the price of a declining stock. Derived from the idea that "even a dead cat will bounce if it falls from a great height". The phrase, which originated on Wall Street, is also popularly applied to any case where a subject experiences a brief resurgence during or following a severe decline. Funny enough Anas Sarwar used that today, when he talked about the party under his leadership has went from 14% to 17%. The Scottish Labour Party operation is broken, there isn't an acknowledgment of that within its leadership or the ambition to change from a failed model. It isn't just the campaigning model it is broken, it's the entire operation which should be subject to review. I am sure that Sarwar's colleagues in London will be looking at the Scottish election results, and asking themselves come 2024, can the Scottish Westminster election operation be left to him? If it hasn't started already, I would expect to see Sarwar allies take to social media to blame former leader Richard Leonard, this might make them feel good, but Leonard only inherited a broken party from right wing leaders. Interestingly enough, in a BBC article, it seems Anas has already started with his excuses by saying: 

"I am being honest in saying I don't think I can turn around the decline of the Labour Party in Scotland for the last 20 years in 10 weeks. I can reverse the decline and want us to start rebuilding the Labour Party. I want to give the people of Scotland the Labour Party they deserve."

For years, nearly a decade I wrote about the Labour Party needing fixed, no one was listening then, is  anyone listening now? 

If we get back to Sturgeon, she said a second independence referendum should be held in the next parliamentary term. The word you are looking for here is 'should', I should be a millionaire, but I am not, I should be taller but I am not, should doesn't mean anything in the context of her sentence. At present, Sturgeon is able to hide in plain sight using Covid as cover, if restrictions are gone, her power takes a hit, which is why she isn't proposing holding another vote "while we are still grappling with the Covid crisis". In the age old question, how long is a piece of string, in her case, she wants to make it elastic. Covid gone means her record falls under the spotlight, her next rock to hide under is Covid recovery, which give the SNP distain of helping business is something she will want to drag out. Sturgeon says indyref 2 should take place when the crisis has passed. During this time, and in the aftermath, she will be attacking the UK Conservative Government, specifically Boris Johnson. Laughingly, she says that there will be no "democratic, electoral or moral justification" for Boris Johnson to block a referendum if there is a pro-independence majority in the Scottish Parliament. 

Well, there is, and it is a bigger majority, the Scottish people in 2014 voted to remain in the UK, this is the "democratic, electoral or moral justification", it is all he needs. In order to get elected, Sturgeon is throwing UK taxpayer's cash around like confetti, she committed to freezing income tax rates, and abolishing all NHS dentistry charges if she is re-elected. Sturgeon is effectively buying her way back into power, and then claiming people's votes are a mandate for a referendum. There are people who will vote for freezing income tax rates and for abolishing all NHS dentistry charges, it is called self interest, it is a powerful motivation. 

Finally, leaving aside the indyref issue, there isn't any big ideas from any party to change Scotland. This is a missed opportunity, there are people offering bribes, but no one is offering to change structures. No one is advocating changing the status quo of misery and discrimination. No one is proposing new rights for the majority, no one is proposing ending educational discrimination of the poor in any real sense. No one is proposing fixing the Crown Office. There is nothing on increasing social mobility, nothing on hold people to account for care home deaths etc. In fact, if Holyrood was a council hoose, the real debate is who should be the new tenants running and living in the same rotten structure? Did anyone say they are going to change the voting system to remove the anti-democratic list system? Did anyone from the main parties even propose changing the list system so a person is ineligible after two consecutive terms? Did anyone come up with anything other than election bribes? You might be forgiven for asking, is there an election on, and does it really matter at Holyrood?

Yours sincerely 

George Laird                                                                                                                                The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University