Some on the left (Red Ken’s attack dogs) are furious that Boris Johnson appointed a black man as his Deputy Mayor. Now they have descended to the lowest form of political attack.
The Guardian and 4 Channel News have claimed that individuals have made completely ludicrous and false smears and allegations against Ray Lewis.
Boris has announced an independent inquiry and is backing his Deputy Mayor, showing again his decisive leadership - it’s obvious that these are lies and venom from the gutter occupied by Red Ken.
However, these are clearly racist smears, including the lie that Mr Lewis has been suspended from the Church of England.
I have emerged from my summer break to highlight how disgusted I am by these smears.
The Wilted Rose is shutting down for its annual summer break, which since it started on 18th August 2007 this must be the first one. Well, if MPs can take 8 weeks off so will I!
But before I go, check out this epsiode of Rab C. Nesbitt in which there is a by election in Glasgow’s Govan South parliamentary consituency and when it comes to the Declaration, it is an SNP gain!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYwuXAXH2f8&feature=related
I will be in Finland all of August, but there may be the occasional post, for example on the subject of the Glasgow East by-election, which may be on 24 July, or if I can find an internet café when I’m abroad.
Normally blogging will resume some time in September.
As someone from an Ulster-Scots heritage, I naturally take a keen interest in political events in Scotland, my country of ancestry, (and I’ve always fancied taking up an academic post at a university in Glasgow) but, while I admire Alex Salmond and am delighted by the SNP’s meteoric rise at the expense of Labour, I’m a unionist.
One of my first posts in this blog last August was on Jack McConnell’s appointment as High Commissioner to Malawi and Wendy “Bring it On” Alexander’s ‘heir apparency’ and forthcoming coronation as Leader of Labour’s MSPs. Now, as a journalist from the Daily Herald said on Sky News, Wendy has given Sub-Prime Minister Brown a ‘late anniversary present’. I read about her resignation on my mobile’s WAP so I couldn’t wait to get home to see what my favourite SNP bloggers had to say about this matter.
As Tartan Hero points out,
Wendy Alexander is expected to announce within the next hour that she is standing down as leader of the Scottish Labour group in the Scottish Parliament. The final straw appearing to be the one day ban being proposed by the Standards Committee for her failure to register donations to her non-leadership campaign last Summer.
And J. Arthur MacNumpty says:
she has “become the story” regarding the donations scandal.
She had become the story in December, but the whispers have got too much. The referendum row didn’t help, and her performance at FMQs made things worse. The one-day ban turned out to be the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Julie Hepburn, the next SNP MP for Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East, hasn’t yet posted on the subject - but her response will be, as always, good - but only 6 weeks ago she responded to Wendy’s call for the SNP to “Bring it On” (i.e. a referendum):
Who could have predicted such an astonishing U-turn from Wendy Alexander? This is the woman who has for years told us again and again that the people of Scotland did not deserve the right to choose their own future in a democratic referendum. For her, such an opportunity was a mere distraction from the ‘real’ issues. She subscribed to the patronising view that Labour - and the other unionist parties - were better placed than the people of Scotland to decide what was in our best interests.
Suddenly, in a cynical and desperate attempt to ‘outflank’ the SNP, she has given us exactly what we want. We want the people of Scotland to be given the chance to have their say on the future of this country, in a democratic referendum on independence. The people of this country have never had the opportunity to choose independence in such a vote, and it is long overdue.
Brown is against a referendum so it will be interesting to see how Wendy’s successor (if there is anyone left to take on the job) will handle this sensitive issue.
The next SNP MP for Gordon (i.e. the constituency for which Mr Salmond is an MSP), Richard Thompson, reckons:
Labour is trying to blame the SNP for this - everyone, in fact, but themselves. This is cant, pure and simple. Wendy and her team were the architects of their own misfortune, and the briefing against her came from within her own party throughout. I’ve no doubt that she’s pretty bright, certainly by the standards of her colleagues, but ultimately, it’s her unfortunate personal style, lack of attention to detail and inability to take others with her that has been her political undoing.
No post so far from Glasgow Central’s next SNP MP, Osama Saeed, (incumbent Labour MP Mohammad Sarwar, who voted for 42 days, is retiring and has lined up his son to stand in this seat), but late last year Mr Saeed commented on Wendy’s donorgate scandal:
Wendy has not just disgraced her own office, but has potentially jeopardized the probity of politics for a long time by not resigning. It has been said that she and Charlie Gordon were going to resign, but were told by HQ in London not to because of the reverberations. If this wasn’t actually what happened, Charlie Gordon made his own very clever moves too. He deflected calls for a by-election by saying he’d make a statement on his future later in the week. End of the week came, and he had nothing to say. Media had lost interest by then. The world moved on.
And finally some words of wisdom from ASwaS last month, which makes me think maybe Brown pushed Wendy because she contradicted him:
This isn’t going to end well. Gordon and Wendy have now contradicted each other too publicly for there not to be some kind of politically violent resolution. This is elevating the issue from a Scottish one to a UK-wide one that threatens the integrity - not to mention credibility - of an already vulnerable Prime Minister.
Alex Salmond will certainly be smiling at Wendy’s ‘late anniversary present’ to Brown, since the SNP should be in a position to win the Glasgow East by election, especially on a 40% turnout (typical of by-elections) - and if Elaine C. Smith - who played Rab C. Nesbitt’s wife - is the SNP candidate.
The Scottish Parliament seat of Glasgow Ballieston is the nearest equivalent and here are the 2007 results:
Margaret Curran (Lab) 9,141
Lachlan McNeill (SNP) 5,207 (+11.2)
Richard Sullivan (C) 1,276
David Jackson (LD) 1,060
George Hargreaves 588
A high SNP turnout, disaffected (ex) Labour voters voting SNP, Conservatives & Lib Dems voting tactically (5,000 voted C & LD in 2005 in Glasgow East) could turn this into an SNP Gain.
It could be the Scottish equivalent of Crewe & Nantwich - this should be a rock solid Labour seat, but is vulnerable to an SNP challenge in a by election.
Scotland is supposed to be Labour’s heartland, but it just shows what a mess Brown, Alexander, Darling, Browne and the rest have made. And they’ve robbed low-income Scots workers by abolishing the 10p tax rate. Not to mention rising prices.
And don’t you think it’s ludicrous that in a net oil producer like Scotland (billions stolen by Whitehall) Scots people have to pay the absurdly high petrol prices at the moment? Which wouldn’t be so absurdly high were it not for tax rates on petrol.
In these circumstances, wouldn’t it be crazy if Glasgow East returned anything else other than an SNP MP?
Labour have come 5th in yesterday’s Henley by election and, it seems, lost their deposit (and Happy Birthday Gordon, as he is cheerily wished elsewhere):
And, as Guido points out, Labour
will be looking at the crumbling Gordon and wondering to themselves how the party might fare without the millstone of a voter repelling weirdo up front.
It is surely no coincidence that the number of votes polled by Labour is 1066, the date of the Battle of Hastings, at which, the ever reliable Wikipedia reports:
Harold was killed during the battle; traditionally, it is believed he was shot through the eye with an arrow. Although there was further English resistance for some time to come, this battle is seen as the point at which William gained control of England.
Is 1066 perhaps prophetic? Is this the point at which Gordon Brown (á la Harold) has been mortally wounded politically and at which point David Cameron (á la William) can be said to be the heir apparent and ‘gained control of England’?
Today is Gordon Brown’s first anniversary as Prime Minister. It is more than a year since Tony Blair stepped down as Prime Minister. Brown has been a disaster - the succession of a man who simply wasn’t up to the job.
I am absolutely appalled by the way Tarique Ghaffur has been (allegedly) treated by the Metropolitan Police and by “Sir” Ian Blair (yes, he of Jean-Charles De Menezes; insensitive comments about Holly and Jessica; etc). The public has about as much confidence in Blair as they had in his namesake, the former PM: i.e. very little. Labour should be ashamed of the shambles the leadership of the Met has become.
It is time that Blair resigns as head of the Met. He should be replaced, not by the usual public school & Oxbridge educated, white, middle-class copper but by someone who knows the patch and commands respect: as well as adding some diversity to the most senior leadership of this country’s police.
My suggestion isn’t positive discrimination á la Harman’s legislation today. There has already, it appears, been (alleged) racial discrimination against the man I suggest should replace Blair - so it would rebalance an already unfair and unjust situation.
Who would be the ideal successor to ‘Sir’ Ian Blair? None other than Tarique Ghaffur - he would make a fine, and well deserved, head of the Met.
Whatever you think of Zimbabwe or Robert Mugabe, we shouldn’t ban its sportspeople, as Gordon Brown despicably said in the Commons. Why crush the dreams of a country’s people - or hardworking sportspeople, some of whom may be MDC and some may be Zanu PF - because of the actions of its politicians? Sports sanctions are wrong.
Some years back an immoral and illegal war was waged on Serbia and thank goodness Ana Ivanovic was not blocked from building her superb and graceful tennis playing which has made her, at only 20, a tennis star. What would have happened if she’d reached this age during the Kosovo War? Would she too have been banned?
Ana is a lovely Serbian girl who has brought some grace and beauty to Wimbledon this year and deserves to win. BBC Sport documents the fantastic game where she beat Dechy today and especially these dramatic moments:
Ivanovic managed to battle back and served out strongly to win the tie-break 7-3 and take the match into a decider.
The drama did not end there and 10 of the first 12 games of the set provided a break-point chance.
Dechy was broken twice to go 4-2 and then 5-3 behind but she fought back to level the match at 5-5.
And Ivanovic received another slice of luck at 5-5 when Dechy fired home a backhand volley winner to go 30-15 ahead on the Serb’s serve, only to be told to replay the point as her hat had fallen off just before the stroke.
Ivanovic won the replayed point, and the game, and then had two match points at 7-6 only for Dechy to save them both.
But Dechy’s brave effort ended when her opponent secured three match points at 9-8. And Ivanovic claimed victory on her second with a forehand volley down the line.
Politics should never interfere in sport. That is why the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2012 London Olympics will be such triumphs. We mightn’t agree with what China or the UK has done politically, but sports offers one of the few level playing fields where athletes can compete on a human level.
Ana Ivanovic will hopefully win at Wimbledon and bring much joy to her country. I wish her well.
Nadine Dorries MP has an excellent post on blogging and journalists’ fears of blogging threatening their hegemony. I would heartily concur with what she says. For example,
Take care, your first blog may highlight to newspaper editors everywhere how badly journalists - who are paid huge sums of money with vast liquid expense accounts - actually write; and even more alarmingly, how long it takes them to write it.
For more of the same, please click on the link above.
In an excellent analysis, Newmania reports that:
In a plan which is bound to be applauded by the BNP’s Nick Griffin, Labour intends to drop a plan to make families pay a cash bond for relatives who visit from India and Pakistan, instead there will be heavy fines or the threat of jail if family members overstay.Liam Byrne has just told the BBC’s Asian Network radio station that “what we want to do is have a new system but punish people if things go wrong.” He was referring to people coming over for family weddings and then disappearing. Byrne said the government now wanted to “make sure that we can just hit people and hit people hard if their family member breaks the rules”.
Sunny Hundal was absolutely right that “it’s time for Brown people to switch to Tory” if Labour are going to treat South Asian people this way and “hit people hard”. Liam Byrne is disgusting: Labour has already betrayed its core vote with the 10p tax and now they are going to go on the offensive against harmless (often elderly) South Asians going to weddings in the UK. Whatever next? I hope Byrne resigns for this.
Coffee House’s Peter Hoskin reports that Wendy Alexander has been
found guilty of breaking Scottish Parliamentary rules on donations. And Ed Balls and Yvette Cooper are under investigation over their expenses.
That’ll no doubt wipe the smile off Brown’s face … if today’s ICM/Guardian opinion poll (Con 45%, Lab 25%, LD 20%) doesn’t (Before you ask ‘What smile?’, I’m referring to the smile that cropped up when he had that Press Conference last week — haven’t seen PMQs yet so unaware whether he was smiling then.)
Simon Heffer hits the nail on the head in his usual astute way in the Telegraph today, in reply to Darling’s lies (or economic illiteracy) about pay rises stoking inflation:
Let us be clear about what is really happening. There is not inflation because of rising prices, or rising wages. There is inflation because the Government has for years allowed the supply of money to be increased by far in excess of the combined rates of inflation and growth. Growth is at present about 2 per cent, and predicted to fall to about 1.4 per cent over the next year.
Inflation, on the bogus measure of Consumer Price Index, is more than 3.3 per cent. Even if we believe these two figures, their sum is about 5 per cent. How fast is the supply of money increasing in the M4 measure? More than 12 per cent. So why do we have inflation? Because we have too much money chasing too few goods. And who put all that money into circulation, not least by excessive borrowing? The Government.
Now, this is something no minister would want to own up to, even if he were sufficiently cerebral to grasp the point. It is much better to do the usual trick of the Prime Minister’s, and disclaim all responsibility for anything that goes wrong.
I tackled this subject yesterday but Mr Heffer has done it much more justice than I did. The Government, not external factors or wage increases or whatever, are responsible for the mess we’re in. So much for the “tripartite system”, Bank of England independence and the ‘Golden Chancellor.”
