09-Feb-10
Mongolia is the 19th largest ad the most sparsely populated independent country in the world, with a population of around 2.9 million people. It is also the world's second largest landlocked country after Kazakhstan. The economy relies on agriculture and mining mineral resources and 80% of its petroleum products are imported from Russia.
The country is high, cold and windy. It has an extreme continental climate with long, cold winters and short summers, during which most of the rain falls. In 2002 about 30% of households lived from breeding livestock.
About 20% of the population live on less that $1.25 a day.
This winter, the worst in living memory, half the country's entire livestock could be wiped out. Livestock cannot break through the ice to reach the grass and herders are incurring horrendous debt buying animal feed they can't afford.
The Mongolian government has appealed for food, medicine and animal food to help the most unfortunate, but will the world hear them with Haiti still uppermost in people's minds? China and Russia should be offering help but international agencies need to become involved as time is vital to save lives.
There is no evidence that any climate scientist predicted such a winter for the herding families who live in the remote mountain regions of south western Mongolia. But of course excessive snow shows the climate is cooling, not warming.
Update: Richard North has more research on the 'Dzud' which means 'winter disaster'. It's certainly worth a read.
Just a Thought - Will MP's be using AV to vote on "Reform" [ 09-Feb-10 8:28am ]
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As MP's vote on whether or not they should vote to have a referendum on moving to AV, I just wondered if we could first of all ask them to start voting using AV for everything in Parliament and also have secret rather than whipped votes.
We could then have laws that were the least unpopular. [...]
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Another British soldier, from 36 Engineer Regiment, part of the counter-IED Task Force, has been killed by an explosion in the Nad-e-Ali district, in central Helmand Province. He was killed yesterday.
His death follows that of the two soldiers killed in an explosion on Sunday and means 256 personnel have now died in Afghanistan since 2001.
Speaking to the media this past weekend, Bob Ainsworth said, in an attempt to show how the Westminster government ignores public opinion:
"Of course casualties are something that we have to expect when we are involved in these operations, and people have had that brought home to them," he said.
"This is not in any way a safe environment and it doesn't matter how much kit and equipment we provide for people, we can never entirely make these operations risk-free.
"But they are well planned and there is good provision and we can only hope for success for our people in bringing that relief for the Afghan people and the Afghan countryside.
"People will do everything they can to minimise casualties and it is at the forefront of the minds of the people that plan all of our operations.
"But we shouldn't deny ... casualties are a very real risk on these types of operations and people have to be prepared for that."
KERCHING! MONEY THAT'S WHAT I WANT........
In all the fuss surrounding the tawdry spectacle of Scotland's First Minister selling access to himself to the highest bidder - the grumpy spindoctor has a simple question?
Did Donald Dewar ever use the parliamentary restaurant to host party fundraising lunches or dinners?
Did Henry Mcleish or for that matter, Jack McConnell use the taxpayer subsidised restaurant as a thank you and or, prize to party donors?
I think the answer to the question in each case is - a simple no.
That fact alone should indicate to the First Minister and those who seek to defend or condone another example of his attempts to play the rules to the limit - what exactly is out of order about his conduct.
His tacky behaviour as regards using the highest office in the land to tout for cash to fill party coffers is certainly a first in the history of devolution.
It has to be said though, that its not a first that he or his party should be proud of.
You thought the agreement last Friday to devolve police and justice to a Northern Irish Ministry would be the end of the arguments. Well hold the horses don't be so confident. There is still debate as to who will take up the post.
It had long been assumed that the Alliance Party would be the most acceptable party to hold the post and give the position a degree of neutrality. But the Ulster Unionist and SDLP are upset that this goes against the d'Hondt system of allocating Ministers by proportion of representation in the Assembly.
David Ford the Alliance Party leader has said this evening that his party will not be nominating for the position of Justice Minister. Speaking at Stormont earlier he said:
Meanwhile the SDLP who would be next in line under d'Hondt have said that newly elected party leader Margaret Ritchie will not be their nomination. She is currently the only SDLP Minister serving as Minister for Social Development, however they will be nomination lawyer Alban Maginniss as their proposed option. Mrs Ritchie however says that the current approach for the role is a "corruption of democracy". She is looking for clarity on just what was agreed between the DUP and Sinn Féin last week saying:
We certainly live in interesting times.
It had long been assumed that the Alliance Party would be the most acceptable party to hold the post and give the position a degree of neutrality. But the Ulster Unionist and SDLP are upset that this goes against the d'Hondt system of allocating Ministers by proportion of representation in the Assembly.
David Ford the Alliance Party leader has said this evening that his party will not be nominating for the position of Justice Minister. Speaking at Stormont earlier he said:
"The situation is that at the present time we have not seen enough movement around a shared future and around the policies for the Department of Justice for an Alliance nomination to be made. There is plenty of time before April the 12th. I do not think we are in a long dragged out process. But clearly there is still a little bit of work that needs to be done.
"If others wish to engage, then others are entitled to engage. What we are saying is what Alliance believes to be necessary for the job to be done right."
Meanwhile the SDLP who would be next in line under d'Hondt have said that newly elected party leader Margaret Ritchie will not be their nomination. She is currently the only SDLP Minister serving as Minister for Social Development, however they will be nomination lawyer Alban Maginniss as their proposed option. Mrs Ritchie however says that the current approach for the role is a "corruption of democracy". She is looking for clarity on just what was agreed between the DUP and Sinn Féin last week saying:
The Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness however remained confident that a new Minister for Justice would be in place after the 10 days of talks that lead to his party and Peter Robinson's agreeing a framework to devolve policing and justice and to set up a new independent parades body. He said:"We will make our judgement on the Hillsborough arrangement when we know what is on the table and, more importantly, what is under the table.
"If the two parties won't reveal what they have already agreed then we will be pressing the two governments for greater transparency."
So while a week is often considered a long time in politics we only need a weekend in Northern Ireland to throw a whole different cat amongst the pigeons. So while Alban Maginnis may be qualified for justice being on the Northern Irish and Irish bar, the debate even from Sinn Féin it would appear is that cross-community support is key."It will be whatever person can command cross-community support in the assembly.
"At this stage, I think all I can say about it is I'm supremely confident that come 12 April we will have a person nominated who will command cross-community support."
We certainly live in interesting times.
A Populus poll reported in the Times has this to say
Voters are deeply pessimistic about the state of Britain today, believing that society is broken and heading in the wrong direction, a Populus poll for The Times has found.
Nearly three fifths of voters say that they hardly recognise the country [...]
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Soldier from 36 Engineer Regiment killed in Afghanistan [ 08-Feb-10 9:45pm ]
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Tonight further sad news from Afghanistan. Reading between the lines I think this may be the first casualty from the current initial 'shaping' phase of Operation MOSHTARAK in Afghanistan.
This death takes the toll of deaths in Afghanistan past the number killed in the Falkland Islands. A sad statistic when we consider how little we have [...]
Related posts:
- Afghanistan: UK soldier killed in Afghan blast
- UK soldier killed in Afghanistan
- UK soldier killed in Afghanistan
Twice in one day we see the dithering delaying Brown in action.
First, we had this morning the humiliating climbdown when, Brown finally worked out it was time to suspend it's three MP's accused of being Cheating Bastards.
It took David Cameron approx 5 minutes to do what it took Gordon Brown 72 hours and a large [...]
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08-Feb-10
Per the BBC:About 1,500 teacher training places are to be cut next year, according to the Scottish Funding Council.
Its figures show that the number of trainees will fall by 40% compared to 2009/10.
The Scottish government said it had reduced the student intake to deal with teacher unemployment, and to create jobs for those already qualified.
On the face of it, it makes sense to cut training positions if those that are already qualified cannot find jobs and last year only 1 in 7 newly qualified teachers found permanent positions.
However, a 40% drop is a huge number in anyone's book, so how did we get to this situation of having to cut so many positions?
Well, again per the BBC: the number of teachers has fallen by 2,000 from 53,000 since the SNP came to power in 2007 and Mr Russell said recently this trend was unlikely to be reversed.
So it seems that before 2007 there was a philosophy of the more teachers the merrier. The simple line between expected number of teacher vacancies and number of teachers being trained had not been drawn. This is perhaps not surprising given the one of the parties in power had as its leader Tony Blair who arbitrarily chose 50% as the number of 17-30 year olds that should be in higher education.
In the end Tony managed to increase the number of students in higher education from 39.2% in 2000 to 39.8% in 2007. An increase of 0.6%. The ex-PM would only have achieved his target of 50% some time after 2100.
So it seems there has either been a lack of delivery or a lack of joined up thinking from the very top over where pupils need to go in order to fill the country's skills gap going forward. Did we need 50% of pupils to go to university and we now have a desperate shortage or did it just sound good and actually 40% is a more appropriate amount? Who is to know.
Mike Russell is clearly not afraid to make the unpopular statement that the number of teacher training places will need to go down in the near future. Yes, it's always nice to hear that everything is pointing upwards but sometimes some truths have to be brought home and lessons learned the hard way.
Smaller class sizes, more teachers, a more focussed education for the next generation and a more intelligent, literate, numerate society of course has to be the long-term aim for Scotland, and it is with the current Government in place, but sometimes you have to take one step back in order to take three steps forward.
Cllr Fraser Macpherson - LibDem Councillor for Dundee's West End - www.dundeewestend.com [ 8-Feb-10 11:47pm ]
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A few latest updates!* Blackness Court Sheltered Housing - I have been campaigning for some time to have the footpaths near to the sheltered housing improved. On Friday, along with two residents, I had a useful site visit with a City Council roads inspector who has promised to progress pavement improvements at the Rosefield Place/Blackness Road junction and at the pedestrian crossing used by the sheltered housing residents to cross Blackness Road to get to the Post Office and other local shops.
Residents have also complained that the yellow lines in Rosefield Place are worn and cars park on the pavement edge making it very difficult for elderly folk - especially those on motorised scooters - to get from their homes to the shops. I was pleased to be advised today by the City Development Department as follows : "The lines in Rosefield Place will therefore be refurbished around April/May time along with other long term outstanding orders."
* Council housing allocations policy - Earlier today, I attended a briefing for councillors on council housing allocations policy. I raised questions about the need for a common housing register and co-ordination between housing association and council allocation policies to maximise allocations of housing for people in Dundee on housing waiting lists.
* Hunter Street Parking Project - I met the Head of Transportation today about my concerns regarding this project being delayed. I received an assurance that the project will be revisited in 2012 and, if the business case holds, the project will go ahead, as promised. I am disappointed at the delay, especially given that there was interest from around 8 commercial organisations to the advertisement in the European Journal. The multi-storey car park - immediately adjacent to the University of Dundee campus, would greatly assist parking problems in the area.
I also had the opportunity to discuss community transport with the Head of Transportation. We discussed the future of the Friendly Bus sheltered housing shopping service that I am anxious to see secured for the long term.
* Tay Rail Bridge Disaster 1879 - memorial - I had an excellent meeting with Stuart Morris, son of the Laird of Balgonie, regarding his suggestion of a lasting memorial to the victims of the 1879 rail disaster. We have agreed a route forward and will meet again with a group of supporters of such a memorial in March.
* Surgeries - Two busy surgeries late this afternoon at Mitchell Street Centre and Harris Academy.
* City Council Meeting - At tonight's City Council committees I welcomed an energy efficiency scheme and made some suggestions about ensuring publicity of these (apparently well-received by all sides) and also commented on proposed waiting restrictions in the area around Harris Academy - these will now be subject to public consultation.
Must confess I missed the fact that northern France have secured their latest Olympic contract by claiming to be the part of southern England the British have forgotten.
The civic leader of Pas-de-Calais, Dominique Dupilet, said: "I consider that we are the south of England and because we're the south of England it's normal that we would associate ourselves with this extraordinary event."
Considering the amount of English who visit to strip his supermarkets of cheap booze, I can understand M Dupilet's stance. The problem I see is that the good Monsieur's history is slightly out of date.
More worrying, if it is true and who am I to doubt the NoW, Gordon Brown plans to sell off Dover. The lovely blogger Tory Tottie first posted about this but if you haven't read her wonderfully emotional post then you can read the government is being advised by Rothchilds who say, "This is an exciting sale. Selling Dover to Calais is a very logical move as that is where most of the business is directed.
"Dover made an operating profit of £15.1 million in 2008. Now it is seeking £400m to expand, as it anticipates a doubling in freight traffic by 2040."
The PPC for Dover has expressed his outrage, but the article says the government is strapped for cash.
Less than 10 years ago I would have thought this an April Fool but I've learned, thanks to labour, to be a cynic and realise there really is no smoke without fire.
None. Next question.My honest glibness to one side, I am looking forward to the event with the above title that is taking place this evening. It is being held near Westminster with blogging luminaries such as Mick Fealty, Guido Fawkes, Johnathon Isaby and Sunny Hundal taking part. Lib Dem superstar-in-the-making Mark Reckons will also be there.
Despite the army of online talent pleading the case for the blogosphere's place in the world of Politics, I have to admit that I remain unconvinced that it makes much of a difference. Yes there are stand out moments such as Guido's Damien McBride episode and Cheese-gate but for someone to suggest that blogs help to shape public opinion and can affect polls is far-fetched in the least.
No doubt there are effects at the margins; a few hundred of votes here and a few hundred of votes there but with most First Past the Post seats commanding majorities of several thousands and most Government majorities in the tens, blogging is not close to being a decisive factor, despite the errant claims that this is the first election that will be fought on Twitter and on blogs in general.
That said, I stumbled into this hugely enjoyable hobby and still don't really fully 'get' it so I may be underestimating blogs entirely. There is a buzz around blogging at the moment and maybe it is going somewhere that I can't see.
So, to that end, I will host an exercise on SNP Tactical Voting to see what those at the front line of elections think by saying this: Between now and the General Election, whenever it happens to be, I will happily host a Guest Post from a PPC from any party, from any of the 59 constituencies across Scotland on any topic.
I guess, with a short toot of my trumpet, a hat-tip to my humbling success in the recent Scottish Politics vote and considering I've had a fairly hefty 6,400 unique hits this month so far (not far off 1,000 a day), it's not unreasonable to suggest that this blog is one of the few independent Scottish blog sites that a PPC would want to put a post on if they thought blog exposure would make a difference to their campaign.
There have been welcome suggestions already that that is the case. Kevin Lang (Lib Dem PPC for Edinburgh North & Leith) agreed to a guest post a few months back and Osama Saeed (SNP PPC for Glasgow Central) had one up yesterday. Alex Johnstone MSP wrote a guest post for Jim Millar while Iain McGill (Tory PPC for Edinburgh North & Leith) wrote a guest post on Scottish Tory Boy's blog. This is not to mention the numerous PPCs who run blogs themselves.
So the offer is open. Any party's PPC, any constituency, any topic will see the unedited guest post published whenever the editor wishes, if sent on to jeffrey.breslin@gmail.com. Not that I'm suggesting for a second that a majority of that number read this blog but maybe word will get out over the next couple of months.
Does political blogging make a difference in Scotland? Hopefully we'll be a bit closer to knowing the answer in due course but if the guest post tumbleweed is clearly blowing on here over the next few months, I will be concluding once and for all that the answer is no.
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Former Green Student blogger Kristofer Keane has been on a bit of a Political journey himself. he say he started supporting the Scottish Socialist Party, then in the 2007 elections supported the Scottish Nationalist Party, when he went to University he joined the Greens but now has left them to join the Liberal Democrats.
He gives 3 different break downs on a recent blog post of why he has come to his decision. On Political Position he says:
Similar thoughts on preserving spending levels could be argued against the SNP at present as well.
On electoral strategy and hopes he tells of his just missing out in Glasgow North East but how he saw more of Lib Dem candidate Eileen Baxendale out on the campaign trail than he did of David Doherty the Green Party candidate. He adds:
A final thread of his thought process comes down to local politics in Motherwell and Wishaw where he hails from he speaks highly of Lib Dem candidate Stuart Douglas how I have known since he was a fresh faced 15-year-old making his debut speech at conference. Adding:
He gives 3 different break downs on a recent blog post of why he has come to his decision. On Political Position he says:
"I have never really expressed great support for Green policies on other matters though, and this was exemplified recently by the debate of our position on the deficit for going into the upcoming election. The Liberal Democrat position on widespread cuts and efficiency savings is far more realistic and appealing to me than some Green Party campaign on preserving spending levels as they are now. Furthermore, I feel the Greens have their priorities wrong in choosing this time to talk about abstract ideas such as contraction and convergence....
"I have been reading the Liberal Democrat manifesto and I found myself in agreement with them on many issues. To a far greater degree than I found myself agreeing with the Greens anyway."
Similar thoughts on preserving spending levels could be argued against the SNP at present as well.
On electoral strategy and hopes he tells of his just missing out in Glasgow North East but how he saw more of Lib Dem candidate Eileen Baxendale out on the campaign trail than he did of David Doherty the Green Party candidate. He adds:
"The Scottish Greens have been very lucky after the 2007 elections in that the remarkably tight party balance at Holyrood means their two votes often matter. However, no balance at Westminster is going to lead to one Green MP being able to make any changes and, with Labour down and out, the best hope to prevent a Conservative majority is for a hung parliament to emerge where the kingmakers will be the Liberal Democrats. Therefore the best chance for bringing in environmental legislation within the critical timeframe of this next parliament lies with the Liberal Democrats."
A final thread of his thought process comes down to local politics in Motherwell and Wishaw where he hails from he speaks highly of Lib Dem candidate Stuart Douglas how I have known since he was a fresh faced 15-year-old making his debut speech at conference. Adding:
"The Greens won't be having a candidate in Motherwell and Wishaw, and ultimately Motherwell and Wishaw is where my political concerns are concentrated."In terms of the next council elections too, the Liberal Democrats are much more likely to make advances in North Lanarkshire than the Greens, and North Lanarkshire desperately needs to break the Labour majority and have a Labour/Liberal Democrat coalition executive formed to stop Labour running through whatever they want - the sort of power that has let them railroad through bad project after bad project."
Therefore welcome Kris to the Liberal Democrats, it appears that you have made this latest transition after some considerable thought. I hope to get to know you over the coming years as we journey on Lib Dem ship together. A lot of what you said rings true with me, though as a student for me joining my first party the economic policies of the Lib Dems were more feasible then along with their environmental heart to get me in and keep me there these last 21 years.
The polls are showing an increasing likelihood of a hung Parliament. Iain Dale forecast very close to a hung Parliament when the polls were showing a comfortable Tory lead, with probably about 100 independents, simply because national swings no longer reflect local conditions. William Hill are making this 2:1.
So if the Conservatives are the largest single party what should they & David Cameron do?
We are in uncharted water. Normally a party leader who fails to win gets the chop & the Conservatives have been particularly keen to cull losers. Both Thatcher & Iain Duncan Smith were removed even without losing simply because they were expected to. If the Conservatives are the largest party they haven't totally lost but they certainly haven't come close to winning. If you can't win when the government has brought to country to, at least, the edge of national bankruptcy & kept us in recession from longer than our competitors then it is unlikely there are any circumstances under which a Cameron Conservative party could win.
It seems to me Cameron has made 3 very major mistakes -
1 - Pulling the Tories onto the global warming/Green bandwagon, just as the wheels were going shoogly.
2 - Ignoring the economy, the biggest single issue in almost any election
3 - Making & breaking a "cast iron" referendum promise.
All of them are major failures of electoral tactics. Unlike many electoral questions they are even more important in government.
#1 & 3 are ones on which the large majority, of his party are against him. Conservative Home recently estimated that for catastrophic warming.
The only thing that could keep him as leader would be if the LibDems offered the poisoned chalice of minority government which could only be giving the Conservatives enough rope to hang themselves. It would be impossible for the LDs to support the sort of tough cuts needed, to avoid trying to take credit for every cut staved off or to support them through the length of a Parliament. The best that could happen would be that they get the opprobrium for recession & cuts & then get dropped in it when it was deepest.
The better alternative would be that Cameron would go, or be pushed if he refused but I doubt he would be so foolish. I assume replaced by David Davis who ran him a close 2nd in the leadership contest & has the sort of toughness people want in a recession & has shown integrity, whether you agree or otherwise, in resigning over ID cards. I previously suggested Cameron could regain momentum by bringing Davis & Redwood into the team but, astonishingly enough, it seems my advice isn't being taken yet again. In this case, after a year of Conservative reappraisal & of grossly incompetent Labour government (one reason they don't have their hearts in this election must be fear of winning) propped up by LDs he would be able to force a new election & walk it.
This tactic is a combination of the Emperor Claudius promoting Nero to "Let all the poisons that lurk in the mud hatch out" & Mencken's "Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard" but on the other hand we common people right don't have any major party offering us anything we want so a real choice would be pretty good.
Remember the viral YouTube video of Gordon Brown that did the rounds where he was portrayed as Hitler in the bunker during the Nazis final last days? It was an amusing, satirical take on the Prime Minister's supposed control freakery and inability to see beyond what he wanted to see. It did the rounds and is probably one of the most well-known videos of its kind in recent years.Well, Arbroath Councillor and blogger Jim Millar has got himself into a bit of hot water by using the same video, this time marking out Alex Salmond as the fuhrer in chief using 'lunchgate' and raffles etc as the butt of several jokes. According to an SNP spokesperson "This is a major blunder by the Tories and hugely embarrassing for Alex Johnstone." I'm really not so sure of that and would instead suggest that some have misplaced their sense of humour.
I've not seen the video but I have little doubt that it is humorous and simply a bit of fun and certainly no worse than what we'd see or hear on Mock the Week, Rory Bremner or Spitting Image so it is good to know that Jim's boss, Alex Johnstone MSP, will not be taking further action.
Certainly the call from SNP members in Angus to call on Jim to quit over this alone are regrettable, even deplorable. The idea that if you get a political opponent to resign you've scored a win, regardless of the circumstances, is abhorrent to me but I guess this relatively minor episode, fresh on the heels of Cheese-gate, is yet another warning about blogging when you work for a highly visible MSP or MP.
Cllr Fraser Macpherson - LibDem Councillor for Dundee's West End - www.dundeewestend.com [ 8-Feb-10 2:46pm ]
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I have today launched my February 2010 update to West End Community Council.Subjects covered include :
• Wheelie Bins
• Safe parking/drop off at Primary Schools
• Friendly Bus
• Hillside Terrace - proposed Stopping Up Order
• West End Primary Schools Project
• Unadopted Footways Programme
• Blackness Library Opening Hours
The Community Council meets this tomorrow (Tuesday 9th February) at Logie St John's (Cross) Church Hall at 7pm.
You can download a copy of the update by clicking on the headline above or by going to : http://tiny.cc/wecc0210.
TAKE YOUR PICK
A Tangled Web - A Family Affair
Boballs - NI Politics? Stop the world, I want off...
Idle Pen Pusher - EU - Time to Leave
John Redwood - The bedding plant murders
Old Rightie - The West's Banker?
Muffled Vociferation - Wilders on Trial
Old Holborn - Filthy Lucre
RantinRab - The Madness that is the EU Part 1
The Anger of a Quiet Man - This is where libertarianism and legalisation would have worked.
The Big Dollop - The Anger of the Silent Majority
13th Spitfire - Conservative Policy - another one bites the dust
The MOD is reporting the sad news of the deaths of two soldiers from The Royal Scots Borderers, 1st Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland (1 SCOTS), part of the 3 RIFLES Battle Group, in an explosion near Sangin. Apparently these deaths are not connected with the current major attack in Helmand.
The MOD has this:
It [...]
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Alas mulled tonic we know it well, it is the winter, summer, spring and autumn of our discontent and to ban or not to ban is now the question.Scottish Labour, so often reminiscent of a modern Shakespearean tragedy, has got on the front foot and pushed commednable policies to the fore to simultaneously replace their negativity to the increasingly popular minimum pricing policy and also to capitalise on the SNP's misfortune of getting hammered in the press in recent days.
It's a different type of getting hammered that Labour are focussing on with their current crop of headlines as paper after paper states 'Labour to ban Buckfast' but I can't think for a second that Scotland's deep seated alcohol and crime problems are the fault of a group of peaceful monks in Devon.
Governments should not be in the business of targetting individual companies and shutting them down although, looking more closely at Labour's proposals, that's not strictly what the party is proposing. Keeping my cynical hat on, I would wager that, with an election coming up, Scottish Labour have decided local whisky and lager companies should not be attacked but anyone south of the border is fair game. Buckfast therefore fits the bill nicely.
However, reports mentioning Buckfast reflect only 0.4% of all crimes reported in Scotland. It's enough that we need to do something about it, but not so many that it should dominate the entire debate on alcohol abuse.
Amongst Labour's suggestions are a legal limit of 150mg of caffeine per litre of alcohol (Buckfast has 375mg), lowering the drink-drive limit to zero tolerance and increasing license fees for shops selling alcohol. I would say I was broadly in favour of the first two and hesitant about the third.
Many local shops have a very difficult time to survive, particularly with the lamentable Tesco and Sainsbury's dominating communities more and more. I do not see how charging local retailers more money just for selling alcohol will help address some of the country's problems, it would surely just speed up putting many of them out of business.
As for zero tolerance for drink-driving, that's an approach that I tend to use myself as I just think it's the safest conduct when it comes to alcohol and getting behind the wheel so I'd be happy for it to become law. People may scoff at the 'if it saves one life...' mentality but I think it can reasonably apply here. The philosophy that it's ok to meet friends in a pub or party, have a cola or orange juice and drive home afterwards stone cold sober is a healthy one to be fostered, particularly in Scotland.
For a limit on caffeine in drinks, I would be in favour of this proposal, assuming that scientists and academics were behind the 150mg and there is a reason why more than this amount is too much. Given a bottle of Buckfast (for example) has the same amount of caffeine as eight cans of coke, I can easily imagine that setting a limit would be beneficial. However, it is worth noting that Red Bull, a very popular drink that doesn't seem too cause particular consternation, has an even higher level of caffeine. Is it possible that Buckfast is a demon drink not so much due to what is in it but who is drinking it?
Anyway, if Labour's proposals for a limit on caffeine and zero tolerance for drink-driving could sit alongside the SNP's proposal of minimum pricing, perhaps we would really be getting somewhere in the country's difficult fight against excess alcohol and anti-social behaviour. How wonderful it would be if the two parties (or all five parties even) could sit down and write such a Bill into law.
If not, I am afraid I would have to wish for a plague on both their houses.
TNS-BRMB Poll released today:
Holyrood Constituency:
SNP 35 (-5)
Lab 37 (+5)
Con 13 (=)
LD 12 (+1)
Others 3 (-2)
Holyrood Regional
SNP 30 (-7)
Lab 37 (+8)
Con 12 (=)
Green 5 (+1)
Others 3 (-3)
Figures in brackets are from the last TNS-BRMB in October 2009
Holyrood Constituency:
SNP 35 (-5)
Lab 37 (+5)
Con 13 (=)
LD 12 (+1)
Others 3 (-2)
Holyrood Regional
SNP 30 (-7)
Lab 37 (+8)
Con 12 (=)
Green 5 (+1)
Others 3 (-3)
Figures in brackets are from the last TNS-BRMB in October 2009
Two British soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan. The soldiers served with The Royal Scots Borderers, 1st Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland (1 SCOTS), part of the 3 RIFLES Battle Group and were killed near Sangin, in Helmand province, yesterday evening.
The MoD has emphasised that the deaths of these two solders are not connected to Operation Moshtarak.
A total of 255 of our military have now fallen in this war. More lives lost, more families lives which will never be the same again and all in the name of 'fighting terrorism'. Such a tragedy.
Of plasma tvs and sofas, and shooting pals doing up flats [ 08-Feb-10 11:15am ]
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Driving to work this morning, we heard one of the latest adverts on the radio about driving on rural roads. I wasn't driving as I car share, but both myself and my driver muttered about how it wouldn't happen to us, just as he put the brakes on for a corner and we slid for [...]
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David Cameron launched an attack on Gordon Brown yesterday that may well be misconceived; He said:
"There is no chance Gordon Brown will do what is right and put the public interest before his own political interests. He cannot reform the institution because he is the institution: he made it. The character of his Government — secretive, power-hoarding, controlling — is his character.Of course given the chance to vote on expenses reforms in 2008 twenty one of his own MPs voted against such reform. As Mark Pack points out their excesses were above the average for Westminster."For the health of our democracy it is now essential that this shameless defender of the old elite goes as soon as possible."
Only one party in 2008 voted for radical reform. Only one party said that the institutions were wrong and needed changing. It wasn't the Tories either it was the Liberal Democrats. The Conservatives and David Cameron have hopped unto the bandwagon only because they have been caught with their fingers in the till. While the Liberal Democrats saw that the temptation was there and too great for some and wanted to take the sweetie jar away and make it more transparent just what was being claimed for and why.
You only have to look at David Cameron's promises on inheritance tax, he promises to provide free personal care if you can afford £8,000 on retirement to enter his insurance scheme, to see that he is as much part of the institution as he claims Gordon is. In his case it is pandering to the elite but it still part of the machine that has existed for too long.
The media is divided, some say it was a stunt, others believe he was showing his emotion for a change. I've read the excuse on his blog and don't believe him.
All things considered, I think his 'pause' could have been his conscience catching up with his mouth. We all have a conscience, just some suppress it more than most. Mr Campbell is one of these people but today his conscience gained superiority. Not for long though, not with a spin merchant such as Alistair Campbell.
I don't need further proof that the man doesn't believe what he says.
According to the local Northsound Radio news, the audience were told before the interview with Gordon Brown there would be no questions on Politics or Iraq. So what may I ask was the programme about and why?
Gordon Brown is a politician and I believe, though it's difficult to tell, the Prime Minister of this country. [...]
Related posts:
Gordon would have us believe he is a miracle worker, saving the World, saving the banking system, saving our Armed Forces, saving everything in fact.
But the truth is that this this sad man is utterly deluded. Three times this week he has come up with what appears to be major announcements, only for them to [...]
Related posts:
- Brown scuppers a fair, sensible and long-term plan for care of the elderly
- Delusions – Gordon Brown: I will go on and on
- Defence Green Paper Launch – Gordon Brown's Delusions exposed
07-Feb-10
Sir John (Johnny) Dankworth the jazz saxophonist and clarinetist who was the husband of Dame Cleo Lane has died yesterday aged 82. She announced his death at a concert she was giving last night with their children in a classic case of the show must go on.
Here are some theme tunes of shows or films you may remember and have loved which had the Dankworth touch in their titles down the years.
Tomorrow's World
The Avengers original theme from 1961-4, not the later more commonly recognised one.
Modesty Blaise
He also collaborated with some of the current stars here is Neil Hannon of The Divine Comedy with Dankworth from the Gangster Number One soundtrack.
Sir John Phillip William Dankworth 1927-2010
Here are some theme tunes of shows or films you may remember and have loved which had the Dankworth touch in their titles down the years.
Tomorrow's World
The Avengers original theme from 1961-4, not the later more commonly recognised one.
Modesty Blaise
He also collaborated with some of the current stars here is Neil Hannon of The Divine Comedy with Dankworth from the Gangster Number One soundtrack.
Sir John Phillip William Dankworth 1927-2010
The Herald has details of a new poll from TNS-BMRB but merely teases us by releasing only the figures of Labour leading the SNP at Holyrood by 37% to 35%. There is also mention that the 'don't know' section is at an arithmetically impossible 37%. (That gives a total sample of some 109%).Despite no mention of the Westminster figures, the paper has decided that 'this all bodes badly for the SNP's bid to win 20 seats in the General Election and the chance of holding the balance of power at Westminster.'
Furtheremore, the paper asserts that 'the cancellation of the Glasgow Airport Rail Link has given the impression of an administration that is anti-west of Scotland. The decision has drawn flak from the business community. And, in the midst of a global recession, the constant whingeing about Westminster is starting to wear thin.'
It sounds like the Herald is giving its own point of view rather than interpreting the all important public's. Do people really think the SNP is anti-west of Scotland? Are Scots actually quite proud of a Government that fights for their interests against Westminster? At least the paper is fair enough to admit that Iain Gray is "lacking in charisma".
There is no denying that slipping behind Labour at Holyrood is bad news as the SNP is typically further ahead in Scottish Parliament polls than it is in UK Parliament polls. It would be fair to assume that a 2% loss at Holyrood equates to a ~ 7% loss at Westminster, or perhaps even worse given many will consider the election a two-horse race.
I maintain though that a picture is unclear until the full detail of a poll is released. After all, right now all The Herald seems to be doing is putting 37%, 35% and another 37% together and coming up with a barrow-load of speculation...
Pictured above is Ian Stafford, 59, a church-goer and once a highly respected member of the community and Mayor of Preesall in Lancashire before his 'bluntly revolting' behaviour was uncovered Preston Crown Court heard.
Mr Stafford is a part-time handyman and gardener and had been employed for years by some of his victims who trusted him with keys to their homes.
You may be wondering what Mr Stafford did to be jailed for two years. Well, he has a knicker fetish, so he used to rifle their underwear drawers and masturbate before replacing the knickers, sometimes taking a pair or two with him. One of his 'victims' suspected something was going on and installed a hidden camera in her bedroom. That was Mr Stafford's downfall.
He has now resigned as mayor of Preesall.
Now we have the story of a south Harrow teenager who stabbed a motorist with a screwdriver and walked free from court last year with only a suspended sentence. Wais Nazari, 19, attacked Mehdi Kyrostami by slashing him across the stomach and stabbing him in the back with a screwdriver before fleeing the scene.
Did Mr Stafford cause any injury to anyone? I agree he abused the trust put in him by these women but his behaviour did not threaten their lives although they may have thought their personal privacy had been invaded.
Far too often we hear of people walking free from court having been accused of serious crimes such as manslaughter, yet a man who gets his kicks from sniffing women's knickers is jailed for two years.
Mr Stafford should have been given a small fine. He's a man who satisfies his sexual urges in a different way to what is accepted in society today; a harmless soul who has completely lost his standing in his own community. If I knew the prison address I would persuade a few of my own pals to donate a few pairs of knickers and would send them to him with our best wishes.
There wouldn't be a return address on the parcel though!
Thanks to Dark Lochnagar as he brought the fetish story to my attention.
Earlier this week it was announced that on 11 March Livingston Jim Devine will have to appear in Westminster Magistrates Court to make his initial appearance over his alleged expenses theft. However, from the Daily Record 8-10 March he will be in Court in Edinburgh for a review of the unfair dismissal case against him from his former office manager Marion Kinley.
The initial finding over unfair dismissal found that Devine had failed to file forms correctly. There does appear to be a trend there for his week in court. Ms Kinley who was the MPs between June 2006 and October 2008 claimed she only received £60 petrol money for the two years that she drove Devine around the constituency, his expense claims show he received more from the Fees Office. Devine himself had asked for the review just as he himself referred his expenses to the police.
So Devine will go from facing allegations of harassment and bullying from his former employee one day to claims about his expenses the next. Not necessarily going to be a good week for the former psychiatric nurse. Certainly going to be a stressful and full on though.
Hat tip to Jonathan Calder at Liberal England.
The initial finding over unfair dismissal found that Devine had failed to file forms correctly. There does appear to be a trend there for his week in court. Ms Kinley who was the MPs between June 2006 and October 2008 claimed she only received £60 petrol money for the two years that she drove Devine around the constituency, his expense claims show he received more from the Fees Office. Devine himself had asked for the review just as he himself referred his expenses to the police.
So Devine will go from facing allegations of harassment and bullying from his former employee one day to claims about his expenses the next. Not necessarily going to be a good week for the former psychiatric nurse. Certainly going to be a stressful and full on though.
Hat tip to Jonathan Calder at Liberal England.
The video gives tips on surviving an electioneering visit to your area from Gordon Brown.
Courtesy of Tory Tottie and Gotty
DEATH PENALTY & MURDERERS WHO MURDERED AGAIN - NORMAN TEBBIT'S BLOG [ 07-Feb-10 6:16pm ]
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Norman Tebbit has started a blog & it is one of the interesting politician ones. He is a fearsome political operator & the Conservatives lost a generation of office when he didn't become leader. Googling for a quote I found this comment from a knowledgeably political commentator who unfortunately can't spell psephology - "Norman Tebbit was an annoyingly competent pepsologist when in power & still clearly knows many things that the current high flyers have yet to learn." I am certain that he would have detached the working class, as opposed to the on the dole or government employee class permanently from the New Labour party.
This rather touching thread takes Blair to task over Iraq, not so much from a classic "leftist" point but for the sheer stupidity, pointlessness, callousness of it & its being managed with more concern for spinning it than for casualties. On this he is right but what I had not known previously is something he says inter alia about the effect of the removal of the death penalty:
the actual number of people who have been murdered by killers who have been let out from jail to kill again since the suspension, then abolition, of capital punishment. Up to April 2008 it was 131. That is an average of all but three a year. All these people were innocent. Each one a miscarriage or failure of the justice system. Quite remarkably, three convicted killers even killed again while in prisonI support the death penalty because I believe it acts as a deterrent. Anybody who doesn't must explain why they either (A) believe murderers are more afraid of prison than hanging or (B) say that they believe murderers shouldn't be imprisoned either but presumably let off with a warning/probation/community service.. Nothing else is intellectually honest & I have never seen any opponent manage either. Nonetheless I have always also accepted that miscarriages are possible, indeed over the long term certain, & have had to accept that as the cost of not being perfect. I am thus glad to have these figures since clearly any worthwhile judicial system is not going to execute even within an order of magnitude of that many innocent people & the figure given takes no account of first time murderers who would be dissuaded which is equally clearly likely to be at least an order of magnitude greater again.
A common point on both issues is that the people politicians kill by their deliberate action & those they kill by refusing to take responsibility for the duties they have sought are equally dead & the politicians responsible similarly heinous.
Cllr Fraser Macpherson - LibDem Councillor for Dundee's West End - www.dundeewestend.com [ 7-Feb-10 5:46pm ]
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The Dundee West Liberal Democrat campaign continued in earnest today - here's parliamentary candidate John Barnett together with son Rory campaigning in St Mary's this afternoon! The "shame" on the LibDem newspaper refers to Labour's shame over the illegal war in Iraq.
Final "Journey" upload
Was on the Tay Talk In this morning on Radio Tay AM about the Scottish Budget and cuts in the Fairer Scotland Fund.
With all the news stories recently surrounding 'lunchgate' and the Scottish Islamic Foundation, I made it known to Glasgow Central SNP candidate Osama Saeed (at the centre of these stories and a man that I couldn't have a higher esteem for) that he was more than welcome to write a guest post on either topic to give his largely unpublished side of the story.
Happily, Osama took me up on the offer and his words are below:
I write this article in a personal capacity, as much of the criticism surrounding the Scottish-Islamic Foundation are to do with my political life, even though SIF has always maintained a strict non-party political line, and no one can demonstrate otherwise.
Reports recently about SIF have been headlined about me as an SNP candidate even though this has absolutely nothing to do with the SIF. Candidates in all parties hold down sensitive jobs in the public and charitable sectors and are not subjected to this unfair blurring of lines.
From day one SIF has been hounded by the Labour Party. The reasons for this are obvious. I am in with a great chance of being the next MP for Glasgow Central, and thereby sweeping the Sarwar family, great benefactors of Scottish Labour, out of office.
Mohammad Sarwar is not just a normal MP to Labour. He got the party £300,000 for the last Scottish election campaign. He continues to fund, directly and indirectly, a number of candidates and the national party itself. Labour will as a result make sure he is looked after.
In the initial phases, Sarwar's ally Frank McAveety MSP was getting in about SIF. His register of interests shows he was given money for his last election campaign by Sarwar's Muslim Friends of Labour organisation. Labour's point man on this then seemed to suddenly switch. An unholy number of parliamentary questions have been tabled about SIF, in a scenario perhaps not quite 'cash for questions', but morally dubious nonetheless.
The pressure put on the Scottish government about SIF has been unparalleled for any similar small organisation. It's come not just from Labour, but from rightwing elements, but often with the two feeding from each other. 55 others were funded in the same stream as SIF, including some working with Muslims, but I doubt readers can name another one or what they do for the money. Any organisation, when examined under a cynical microscope, can have fun poked at it. I've seen enough in the last few years in this sector to know that.
Audit Scotland investigated SIF's funding and clearly and definitively concluded that correct processes and procedures were followed. £200,000 was awarded by the Scottish Government in 2008 to organise a festival of Muslim culture in order to bring communities together. The total budget needed was greater than this, but it proved difficult to raise it due to the economic crisis that had broken out. The plans were therefore streamlined and retimetabled. A lot of organisations have commented to me that they would have just blown the money on any old thing anyway. Instead, we were prudent, wanted to do the job properly, and asked for the £128,000 that wasn't spent so far in developing the project to be reprofiled into this year.
Projects get delayed all the time - folk in the Scottish Parliament building of all places should know that. Just last week it was reported that government IT projects had lost in the region of a cool £26BILLION (where are the parliamentary questions? Where are the Freedom of Information requests?). SIF is nowhere near this territory though and didn't ask for any new money. I think the green light to finish the festival would have been given had it not been for the hatred that would have poured forward if it had. SIF has instead had to be nimble and resourceful in reconfiguring the plans where others would have given up.
So if anyone is to blame for the delays to the bold things SIF wanted to do, Labour should look at themselves. It is nonsensical to create an environment where an organisation cannot get funding, and then criticise the consequences. How are SIF meant to deliver a Middle East trade expo and a cultural festival with no staff resource on it, and no way to pay for venues, publicity and the rest? No organisation in the country would be expected to do that.
Despite working under considerable strain, the young people involved in SIF have carried on as best they can, and are firmly an important part of the Scottish landscape. A cultural festival will go ahead. Since its launch a short 18 months ago, SIF has campaigned against forced marriage, distributed food amongst Glasgow's needy, set up a PhD with Strathclyde University, exposed the man that threatened to blow up Glasgow Central Mosque, condemned vandalism by young Muslims against a synagogue in Edinburgh, and seen its young people even win awards for their contribution in the mainstream of society. The organisation brought together the country, including all political parties, with the Scotland United initiative when the far-right SDL was formed - 3,000 people from all walks joined it including trade unions, churches and the EHRC.
The latter, with Nazis astonishingly on Scottish streets against Muslims, underlined the need for bridge building activities and action against Islamophobia that SIF brought forward. It's not ever reported, but Labour recognised this themselves when they agreed in principle to fund the Islamic festival before leaving office in 2007. It's just a shame political opportunism later took over.
Happily, Osama took me up on the offer and his words are below:
I write this article in a personal capacity, as much of the criticism surrounding the Scottish-Islamic Foundation are to do with my political life, even though SIF has always maintained a strict non-party political line, and no one can demonstrate otherwise.
Reports recently about SIF have been headlined about me as an SNP candidate even though this has absolutely nothing to do with the SIF. Candidates in all parties hold down sensitive jobs in the public and charitable sectors and are not subjected to this unfair blurring of lines.
From day one SIF has been hounded by the Labour Party. The reasons for this are obvious. I am in with a great chance of being the next MP for Glasgow Central, and thereby sweeping the Sarwar family, great benefactors of Scottish Labour, out of office.
Mohammad Sarwar is not just a normal MP to Labour. He got the party £300,000 for the last Scottish election campaign. He continues to fund, directly and indirectly, a number of candidates and the national party itself. Labour will as a result make sure he is looked after.
In the initial phases, Sarwar's ally Frank McAveety MSP was getting in about SIF. His register of interests shows he was given money for his last election campaign by Sarwar's Muslim Friends of Labour organisation. Labour's point man on this then seemed to suddenly switch. An unholy number of parliamentary questions have been tabled about SIF, in a scenario perhaps not quite 'cash for questions', but morally dubious nonetheless.
The pressure put on the Scottish government about SIF has been unparalleled for any similar small organisation. It's come not just from Labour, but from rightwing elements, but often with the two feeding from each other. 55 others were funded in the same stream as SIF, including some working with Muslims, but I doubt readers can name another one or what they do for the money. Any organisation, when examined under a cynical microscope, can have fun poked at it. I've seen enough in the last few years in this sector to know that.
Audit Scotland investigated SIF's funding and clearly and definitively concluded that correct processes and procedures were followed. £200,000 was awarded by the Scottish Government in 2008 to organise a festival of Muslim culture in order to bring communities together. The total budget needed was greater than this, but it proved difficult to raise it due to the economic crisis that had broken out. The plans were therefore streamlined and retimetabled. A lot of organisations have commented to me that they would have just blown the money on any old thing anyway. Instead, we were prudent, wanted to do the job properly, and asked for the £128,000 that wasn't spent so far in developing the project to be reprofiled into this year.
Projects get delayed all the time - folk in the Scottish Parliament building of all places should know that. Just last week it was reported that government IT projects had lost in the region of a cool £26BILLION (where are the parliamentary questions? Where are the Freedom of Information requests?). SIF is nowhere near this territory though and didn't ask for any new money. I think the green light to finish the festival would have been given had it not been for the hatred that would have poured forward if it had. SIF has instead had to be nimble and resourceful in reconfiguring the plans where others would have given up.
So if anyone is to blame for the delays to the bold things SIF wanted to do, Labour should look at themselves. It is nonsensical to create an environment where an organisation cannot get funding, and then criticise the consequences. How are SIF meant to deliver a Middle East trade expo and a cultural festival with no staff resource on it, and no way to pay for venues, publicity and the rest? No organisation in the country would be expected to do that.
Despite working under considerable strain, the young people involved in SIF have carried on as best they can, and are firmly an important part of the Scottish landscape. A cultural festival will go ahead. Since its launch a short 18 months ago, SIF has campaigned against forced marriage, distributed food amongst Glasgow's needy, set up a PhD with Strathclyde University, exposed the man that threatened to blow up Glasgow Central Mosque, condemned vandalism by young Muslims against a synagogue in Edinburgh, and seen its young people even win awards for their contribution in the mainstream of society. The organisation brought together the country, including all political parties, with the Scotland United initiative when the far-right SDL was formed - 3,000 people from all walks joined it including trade unions, churches and the EHRC.
The latter, with Nazis astonishingly on Scottish streets against Muslims, underlined the need for bridge building activities and action against Islamophobia that SIF brought forward. It's not ever reported, but Labour recognised this themselves when they agreed in principle to fund the Islamic festival before leaving office in 2007. It's just a shame political opportunism later took over.
This was another big week, with the Budget on Wednesday, and the Marine (Scotland) Bill on Thursday, which saw 21 votes taken in the Chamber.
So to start off with Wednesday, I think we all know what happened here: following the usual nodding through of the Business Motions, a Labour amendment to the motion passing the Bill (effectively Parliamentary graffiti) calling for GARL to be re-instated fell by 66 votes (SNP/Tory/Green/Margo) to 59 (Labour/LD), and the Budget (Scotland) (No. 4) Bill (PDF) passed by 66 votes to 45 (Labour) with 14 LibDem abstentions: the absentees were Tom McCabe (Lab, Hamilton South), John Farquhar Munro (LD, Ross, Skye & Inverness West) and LibDem Education Spokesperson Margaret Smith (Edinburgh West).
What you might not have spotted was that the Loch Ryan Port (Harbour Empowerment) Order 2009 was waved through.
On Thursday, proceedings were dominated by the epic Marine (Scotland) Bill and its many, many, amendments. Tom McCabe and John Farquhar Munro missed the whole thing, and there were 21 amendments which faced votes. In the morning, MSPs voted on: Amendments 6 (LD), 24 (Lab), 25 (Lab), 106 (Green), 107 (Lab), 35 (LD), 16 (Lab), 41 (Lab), 43 (Lab), 52 (LD), 115 (Green), 60 (LD), 116 (Lab), 117 (Lab), 68 (LD) and 118, raised by Kenneth Gibson (SNP, Cunninghame North). Margo MacDonald (Ind, Lothians) and Margaret Mitchell (Con, Central Scotland) missed all of these votes.
Amendment 6 fell by 62 (SNP/Con) to 59 (Lab/LD/Green). Labour's Shadow Public Health Minister Richard Simpson (Mid Scotland & Fife), Margaret Smith and Nicol Stephen (LD, Aberdeen South) all missed this one.
Amendment 24 passed by 62 (Lab/Con/Green) to 60 (SNP/LD). Anne McLaughlin (SNP, Glasgow) missed this one, as did Margaret Smith.
Amendment 25 also passed 62-60. This one was missed by Parliament Minister Bruce Crawford (Stirling) and Margaret Smith.
Amendment 106 fell by 62 (SNP/Con) to 61 (Lab/LD/Green). Margaret Smith was still AWOL at this time.
Amendment 107 passed by 106 to 17 (LibDems, Greens and Kenneth Gibson). Margaret Smith still hadn't got in.
At this point, the Chair was occupied by the two DPOs: Trish Godman (Lab, West Renfrewshire) and Alasdair Morgan (SNP, South of Scotland) and remained so for most of the proceedings relating to the Bill - neither of them were involved in any further voting for the rest of the day.
Amendment 35 fell by 104 to 15 (LibDems alone). Gavin Brown (Con, Lothians), Tory Leader Annabel Goldie (West of Scotland) and Christine Grahame (SNP, South of Scotland) were missing.
Amendment 16 fell by 60 (SNP/Con/Green) votes to 58 (Lab/LD). Gavin Brown, Annabel Goldie, Christopher Harvie (SNP, Mid Scotland & Fife) and LibDem Leader Tavish Scott (Shetland) were all absent.
Amendment 41 fell by 63 (SNP/LD/Green) votes to 59 (Lab/Con).
Amendment 43 fell by 60 (SNP/LD) votes to 59 (Lab/Con/Green). Tory Finance Spokesman Derek Brownless (South of Scotland), Alex Johnstone (Con, North East Scotland) and Hugh O'Donnell (LD, Central Scotland) all gave this one a miss.
Amendment 52 fell by 61 (SNP/Con/Green) votes to 59 (Lab/LD). Gavin Brown and Annabel Goldie were still missing.
Amendment 115 passed by 116 to 2: the sole dissenters were Mike Pringle (LD, Edinburgh South) and Richard Simpson. Gavin Brown, Annabel Goldie, Liam McArthur (LD, Orkney) and Jamie Stone (LD, Caithness, Sutherland & Easter Ross) were absent.
Amendmet 60 fell by 61 (SNP/Con/Green) votes to 59 (Lab/LD). Again, Gavin Brown and Annabel Goldie were absent.
Amendment 116 fell by 61 (SNP/Con/Green) to 58 (Lab/LD), Gavin Brown, Annabel Goldie and Tavish Scott all AWOL.
Amendment 117 fell by 60 (SNP/Con/Green) to 56 (Lab/LD). Gavin Brown, Annabel Goldie, Nanette Milne (Con, North East Scotland), LibDem Finance Spokesman Jeremy Purvis (Tweeddale, Ettrick & Lauderdale), Tavish Scott and Jim Tolson (LD, Dunfermline West) were all missing.
Amendment 68 passed by 60 (Lab/LD/Green) to 59 (SNP/Con). Gavin Brown, Annabel Goldie and Tavish Scott were all still out of the Chmaber.
Then came Amendment 118, which fell by 115 to 4, the amendment's sole supporters being the Greens, Kenneth Gibson and Hugh O'Donnell. Again, Gavin Brown, Annabel Goldie and Tavish Scott were still absent as MSPs headed towards Question Time.
Members returned to the Bill in the afternoon, where they handled Amendment 20 (Green), 121 (Green), 7 (LD), 90 (LD) and 5 (Lab).
Amendment 20 fell by 120 to 3, the only supporters being the Greens and Margo. Labour's Shadow Cabinet Secretary Without Portfolio John Park (Mid Scotland & Fife) missed the vote.
Amendment 121 fell by 121 to 3, again with the Greens and Margo being its only backers. At this point, Margo left, perhaps in disgust. Leader of the Opposition Iain Gray (East Lothian), former FM Jack McConnell (Motherwell & Wishaw) and his successor Alex Salmond (Gordon) also quit the Chamber, doubtless to argue over 'Piegate'. It's finally happened: we've attached the '-gate' suffix to so many words that we've had to start reusing them: 'Piegate' was originally the fiasco that saw Frank McAveety telling a white lie in the Chamber as to his whereabouts.
But I digress. Amendment 7 fell by 62 (SNP/Con/Green) votes to 57 (Lab/LD). Alex Johnstone also missed this one.
Amendment 90 fell by 63 to 57 - the same parties voting the same way.
Finally, Amendment 5 fell by 61 (SNP/Con) to 58 (Lab/LD/Green). George Foulkes (Lab, Lothians) missed this one.
So that was that: after all that, the Marine (Scotland) Bill passed without dissent, along with an LCM regarding the Flood and Water Management Bill.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to lie down in a darkened room.
So to start off with Wednesday, I think we all know what happened here: following the usual nodding through of the Business Motions, a Labour amendment to the motion passing the Bill (effectively Parliamentary graffiti) calling for GARL to be re-instated fell by 66 votes (SNP/Tory/Green/Margo) to 59 (Labour/LD), and the Budget (Scotland) (No. 4) Bill (PDF) passed by 66 votes to 45 (Labour) with 14 LibDem abstentions: the absentees were Tom McCabe (Lab, Hamilton South), John Farquhar Munro (LD, Ross, Skye & Inverness West) and LibDem Education Spokesperson Margaret Smith (Edinburgh West).
What you might not have spotted was that the Loch Ryan Port (Harbour Empowerment) Order 2009 was waved through.
On Thursday, proceedings were dominated by the epic Marine (Scotland) Bill and its many, many, amendments. Tom McCabe and John Farquhar Munro missed the whole thing, and there were 21 amendments which faced votes. In the morning, MSPs voted on: Amendments 6 (LD), 24 (Lab), 25 (Lab), 106 (Green), 107 (Lab), 35 (LD), 16 (Lab), 41 (Lab), 43 (Lab), 52 (LD), 115 (Green), 60 (LD), 116 (Lab), 117 (Lab), 68 (LD) and 118, raised by Kenneth Gibson (SNP, Cunninghame North). Margo MacDonald (Ind, Lothians) and Margaret Mitchell (Con, Central Scotland) missed all of these votes.
Amendment 6 fell by 62 (SNP/Con) to 59 (Lab/LD/Green). Labour's Shadow Public Health Minister Richard Simpson (Mid Scotland & Fife), Margaret Smith and Nicol Stephen (LD, Aberdeen South) all missed this one.
Amendment 24 passed by 62 (Lab/Con/Green) to 60 (SNP/LD). Anne McLaughlin (SNP, Glasgow) missed this one, as did Margaret Smith.
Amendment 25 also passed 62-60. This one was missed by Parliament Minister Bruce Crawford (Stirling) and Margaret Smith.
Amendment 106 fell by 62 (SNP/Con) to 61 (Lab/LD/Green). Margaret Smith was still AWOL at this time.
Amendment 107 passed by 106 to 17 (LibDems, Greens and Kenneth Gibson). Margaret Smith still hadn't got in.
At this point, the Chair was occupied by the two DPOs: Trish Godman (Lab, West Renfrewshire) and Alasdair Morgan (SNP, South of Scotland) and remained so for most of the proceedings relating to the Bill - neither of them were involved in any further voting for the rest of the day.
Amendment 35 fell by 104 to 15 (LibDems alone). Gavin Brown (Con, Lothians), Tory Leader Annabel Goldie (West of Scotland) and Christine Grahame (SNP, South of Scotland) were missing.
Amendment 16 fell by 60 (SNP/Con/Green) votes to 58 (Lab/LD). Gavin Brown, Annabel Goldie, Christopher Harvie (SNP, Mid Scotland & Fife) and LibDem Leader Tavish Scott (Shetland) were all absent.
Amendment 41 fell by 63 (SNP/LD/Green) votes to 59 (Lab/Con).
Amendment 43 fell by 60 (SNP/LD) votes to 59 (Lab/Con/Green). Tory Finance Spokesman Derek Brownless (South of Scotland), Alex Johnstone (Con, North East Scotland) and Hugh O'Donnell (LD, Central Scotland) all gave this one a miss.
Amendment 52 fell by 61 (SNP/Con/Green) votes to 59 (Lab/LD). Gavin Brown and Annabel Goldie were still missing.
Amendment 115 passed by 116 to 2: the sole dissenters were Mike Pringle (LD, Edinburgh South) and Richard Simpson. Gavin Brown, Annabel Goldie, Liam McArthur (LD, Orkney) and Jamie Stone (LD, Caithness, Sutherland & Easter Ross) were absent.
Amendmet 60 fell by 61 (SNP/Con/Green) votes to 59 (Lab/LD). Again, Gavin Brown and Annabel Goldie were absent.
Amendment 116 fell by 61 (SNP/Con/Green) to 58 (Lab/LD), Gavin Brown, Annabel Goldie and Tavish Scott all AWOL.
Amendment 117 fell by 60 (SNP/Con/Green) to 56 (Lab/LD). Gavin Brown, Annabel Goldie, Nanette Milne (Con, North East Scotland), LibDem Finance Spokesman Jeremy Purvis (Tweeddale, Ettrick & Lauderdale), Tavish Scott and Jim Tolson (LD, Dunfermline West) were all missing.
Amendment 68 passed by 60 (Lab/LD/Green) to 59 (SNP/Con). Gavin Brown, Annabel Goldie and Tavish Scott were all still out of the Chmaber.
Then came Amendment 118, which fell by 115 to 4, the amendment's sole supporters being the Greens, Kenneth Gibson and Hugh O'Donnell. Again, Gavin Brown, Annabel Goldie and Tavish Scott were still absent as MSPs headed towards Question Time.
Members returned to the Bill in the afternoon, where they handled Amendment 20 (Green), 121 (Green), 7 (LD), 90 (LD) and 5 (Lab).
Amendment 20 fell by 120 to 3, the only supporters being the Greens and Margo. Labour's Shadow Cabinet Secretary Without Portfolio John Park (Mid Scotland & Fife) missed the vote.
Amendment 121 fell by 121 to 3, again with the Greens and Margo being its only backers. At this point, Margo left, perhaps in disgust. Leader of the Opposition Iain Gray (East Lothian), former FM Jack McConnell (Motherwell & Wishaw) and his successor Alex Salmond (Gordon) also quit the Chamber, doubtless to argue over 'Piegate'. It's finally happened: we've attached the '-gate' suffix to so many words that we've had to start reusing them: 'Piegate' was originally the fiasco that saw Frank McAveety telling a white lie in the Chamber as to his whereabouts.
But I digress. Amendment 7 fell by 62 (SNP/Con/Green) votes to 57 (Lab/LD). Alex Johnstone also missed this one.
Amendment 90 fell by 63 to 57 - the same parties voting the same way.
Finally, Amendment 5 fell by 61 (SNP/Con) to 58 (Lab/LD/Green). George Foulkes (Lab, Lothians) missed this one.
So that was that: after all that, the Marine (Scotland) Bill passed without dissent, along with an LCM regarding the Flood and Water Management Bill.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to lie down in a darkened room.
With all the news stories recently surrounding 'lunchgate' and the Scottish Islamic Foundation, I made it known to Glasgow Central SNP candidate Osama Saeed (at the centre of these stories and a man that I couldn't have a higher esteem for) that he was more than welcome to write a guest post on either topic to give his largely unpublished side of the story.
Happily, Osama took me up on the offer and his words are below:
I write this article in a personal capacity, as much of the criticism surrounding the Scottish-Islamic Foundation are to do with my political life, even though SIF has always maintained a strict non-party political line, and no one can demonstrate otherwise.
Reports recently about SIF have been headlined about me as an SNP candidate even though this has absolutely nothing to do with the SIF. Candidates in all parties hold down sensitive jobs in the public and charitable sectors and are not subjected to this unfair blurring of lines.
From day one SIF has been hounded by the Labour Party. The reasons for this are obvious. I am in with a great chance of being the next MP for Glasgow Central, and thereby sweeping the Sarwar family, great benefactors of Scottish Labour, out of office.
Mohammad Sarwar is not just a normal MP to Labour. He got the party £300,000 for the last Scottish election campaign. He continues to fund, directly and indirectly, a number of candidates and the national party itself. Labour will as a result make sure he is looked after.
In the initial phases, Sarwar's ally Frank McAveety MSP was getting in about SIF. His register of interests shows he was given money for his last election campaign by Sarwar's Muslim Friends of Labour organisation. Labour's point man on this then seemed to suddenly switch. An unholy number of parliamentary questions have been tabled about SIF, in a scenario perhaps not quite 'cash for questions', but morally dubious nonetheless.
The pressure put on the Scottish government about SIF has been unparalleled for any similar small organisation. It's come not just from Labour, but from rightwing elements, but often with the two feeding from each other. 55 others were funded in the same stream as SIF, including some working with Muslims, but I doubt readers can name another one or what they do for the money. Any organisation, when examined under a cynical microscope, can have fun poked at it. I've seen enough in the last few years in this sector to know that.
Audit Scotland investigated SIF's funding and clearly and definitively concluded that correct processes and procedures were followed. £200,000 was awarded by the Scottish Government in 2008 to organise a festival of Muslim culture in order to bring communities together. The total budget needed was greater than this, but it proved difficult to raise it due to the economic crisis that had broken out. The plans were therefore streamlined and retimetabled. A lot of organisations have commented to me that they would have just blown the money on any old thing anyway. Instead, we were prudent, wanted to do the job properly, and asked for the £128,000 that wasn't spent so far in developing the project to be reprofiled into this year.
Projects get delayed all the time - folk in the Scottish Parliament building of all places should know that. Just last week it was reported that government IT projects had lost in the region of a cool £26BILLION (where are the parliamentary questions? Where are the Freedom of Information requests?). SIF is nowhere near this territory though and didn't ask for any new money. I think the green light to finish the festival would have been given had it not been for the hatred that would have poured forward if it had. SIF has instead had to be nimble and resourceful in reconfiguring the plans where others would have given up.
So if anyone is to blame for the delays to the bold things SIF wanted to do, Labour should look at themselves. It is nonsensical to create an environment where an organisation cannot get funding, and then criticise the consequences. How are SIF meant to deliver a Middle East trade expo and a cultural festival with no staff resource on it, and no way to pay for venues, publicity and the rest? No organisation in the country would be expected to do that.
Despite working under considerable strain, the young people involved in SIF have carried on as best they can, and are firmly an important part of the Scottish landscape. A cultural festival will go ahead. Since its launch a short 18 months ago, SIF has campaigned against forced marriage, distributed food amongst Glasgow's needy, set up a PhD with Strathclyde University, exposed the man that threatened to blow up Glasgow Central Mosque, condemned vandalism by young Muslims against a synagogue in Edinburgh, and seen its young people even win awards for their contribution in the mainstream of society. The organisation brought together the country, including all political parties, with the Scotland United initiative when the far-right SDL was formed - 3,000 people from all walks joined it including trade unions, churches and the EHRC.
The latter, with Nazis astonishingly on Scottish streets against Muslims, underlined the need for bridge building activities and action against Islamophobia that SIF brought forward. It's not ever reported, but Labour recognised this themselves when they agreed in principle to fund the Islamic festival before leaving office in 2007. It's just a shame political opportunism later took over. #
Happily, Osama took me up on the offer and his words are below:
I write this article in a personal capacity, as much of the criticism surrounding the Scottish-Islamic Foundation are to do with my political life, even though SIF has always maintained a strict non-party political line, and no one can demonstrate otherwise.
Reports recently about SIF have been headlined about me as an SNP candidate even though this has absolutely nothing to do with the SIF. Candidates in all parties hold down sensitive jobs in the public and charitable sectors and are not subjected to this unfair blurring of lines.
From day one SIF has been hounded by the Labour Party. The reasons for this are obvious. I am in with a great chance of being the next MP for Glasgow Central, and thereby sweeping the Sarwar family, great benefactors of Scottish Labour, out of office.
Mohammad Sarwar is not just a normal MP to Labour. He got the party £300,000 for the last Scottish election campaign. He continues to fund, directly and indirectly, a number of candidates and the national party itself. Labour will as a result make sure he is looked after.
In the initial phases, Sarwar's ally Frank McAveety MSP was getting in about SIF. His register of interests shows he was given money for his last election campaign by Sarwar's Muslim Friends of Labour organisation. Labour's point man on this then seemed to suddenly switch. An unholy number of parliamentary questions have been tabled about SIF, in a scenario perhaps not quite 'cash for questions', but morally dubious nonetheless.
The pressure put on the Scottish government about SIF has been unparalleled for any similar small organisation. It's come not just from Labour, but from rightwing elements, but often with the two feeding from each other. 55 others were funded in the same stream as SIF, including some working with Muslims, but I doubt readers can name another one or what they do for the money. Any organisation, when examined under a cynical microscope, can have fun poked at it. I've seen enough in the last few years in this sector to know that.
Audit Scotland investigated SIF's funding and clearly and definitively concluded that correct processes and procedures were followed. £200,000 was awarded by the Scottish Government in 2008 to organise a festival of Muslim culture in order to bring communities together. The total budget needed was greater than this, but it proved difficult to raise it due to the economic crisis that had broken out. The plans were therefore streamlined and retimetabled. A lot of organisations have commented to me that they would have just blown the money on any old thing anyway. Instead, we were prudent, wanted to do the job properly, and asked for the £128,000 that wasn't spent so far in developing the project to be reprofiled into this year.
Projects get delayed all the time - folk in the Scottish Parliament building of all places should know that. Just last week it was reported that government IT projects had lost in the region of a cool £26BILLION (where are the parliamentary questions? Where are the Freedom of Information requests?). SIF is nowhere near this territory though and didn't ask for any new money. I think the green light to finish the festival would have been given had it not been for the hatred that would have poured forward if it had. SIF has instead had to be nimble and resourceful in reconfiguring the plans where others would have given up.
So if anyone is to blame for the delays to the bold things SIF wanted to do, Labour should look at themselves. It is nonsensical to create an environment where an organisation cannot get funding, and then criticise the consequences. How are SIF meant to deliver a Middle East trade expo and a cultural festival with no staff resource on it, and no way to pay for venues, publicity and the rest? No organisation in the country would be expected to do that.
Despite working under considerable strain, the young people involved in SIF have carried on as best they can, and are firmly an important part of the Scottish landscape. A cultural festival will go ahead. Since its launch a short 18 months ago, SIF has campaigned against forced marriage, distributed food amongst Glasgow's needy, set up a PhD with Strathclyde University, exposed the man that threatened to blow up Glasgow Central Mosque, condemned vandalism by young Muslims against a synagogue in Edinburgh, and seen its young people even win awards for their contribution in the mainstream of society. The organisation brought together the country, including all political parties, with the Scotland United initiative when the far-right SDL was formed - 3,000 people from all walks joined it including trade unions, churches and the EHRC.
The latter, with Nazis astonishingly on Scottish streets against Muslims, underlined the need for bridge building activities and action against Islamophobia that SIF brought forward. It's not ever reported, but Labour recognised this themselves when they agreed in principle to fund the Islamic festival before leaving office in 2007. It's just a shame political opportunism later took over.
Simon Cowell as he appeared on his prime time TV show last week.
Is it any wonder our young people don't have a clue about how to dress for specific occasions when one of the richest men in show business dresses like a tramp?
One of my pet hates is men who wear trousers which are too long. They look untidy, make the wearer look short- legged and just a little silly with three or four extra inches of material bagging round their ankles. It's as if they were too lazy to look further round the shop to find the correct length.
I will give him full marks for his well polished shoes though.
Many will say, 'What do you want him to wear, a suit?' No, because he obviously wishes to convey a casual look, but a smart casual appearance involves clothing which has been well pressed.
Others will say with his money he can dress how he likes. Indeed, but doesn't he have some responsibility, when he has so much influence upon today's youth, to show there are various levels of dress appropriate to various situations?
Norman Tebbit has started a blog & it is one of the interesting politician ones. He is a fearsome political operator & the Conservatives lost a generation of office when he didn't become leader. Googling for a quote I found this comment from a knowledgeably political commentator who unfortunately can't spell psephology - "Norman Tebbit was an annoyingly competent pepsologist when in power & still clearly knows many things that the current high flyers have yet to learn." I am certain that he would have detached the working class, as opposed to the on the dole or government employee class permanently from the New Labour party.
This rather touching thread takes Blair to task over Iraq, not so much from a classic "leftist" point but for the sheer stupidity, pointlessness, callousness of it & its being managed with more concern for spinning it than for casualties. On this he is right but what I had not known previously is something he says inter alia about the effect of the removal of the death penalty:
the actual number of people who have been murdered by killers who have been let out from jail to kill again since the suspension, then abolition, of capital punishment. Up to April 2008 it was 131. That is an average of all but three a year. All these people were innocent. Each one a miscarriage or failure of the justice system. Quite remarkably, three convicted killers even killed again while in prisonI support the death penalty because I believe it acts as a deterrent. Anybody who doesn't must explain why they either (A) believe murderers are more afraid of prison than hanging or (B) say that they believe murderers shouldn't be imprisoned either but presumably let off with a warning/probation/community service.. Nothing else is intellectually honest & I have never seen any opponent manage either. Nonetheless I have always also accepted that miscarriages are possible, indeed over the long term certain, & have had to accept that as the cost of not being perfect. I am thus glad to have these figures since clearly any worthwhile judicial system is not going to execute even within an order of magnitude of that many innocent people & the figure given takes no account of first time murderers who would be dissuaded which is equally clearly likely to be at least an order of magnitude greater again.
A common point on both issues is that the people politicians kill by their deliberate action & those they kill by refusing to take responsibility for the duties they have sought are equally dead & the politicians responsible similarly heinous.
And in the same vein, but from a Scottish angle.......
From the Mail:Harriet Harman was facing Labour fury last night over claims that she briefly suspended her support for all-women shortlists - so her husband can land a safe Commons seat.
Over the past few days, Mr Dromey has joined protests in Birmingham over the controversial sale of Cadbury to the American company Kraft.
It led one union fixer involved in the Dromey campaign to comment: 'Have you noticed Jack's sudden interest in chocolate?'
So Harriet Harman has one rule for the party and another rule for her own family. You can't very well think Labour needs more women representatives but then abandon that philosophy when your husband wants to get into Parliament. It's like Groucho's old quote: if you don't like my principles, then I have another set over here instead.
With the selection problems in Airdrie & Shotts still ongoing and rumours of Harriet Harman wanting to parachute a preferred candidate in, it looks likely that the Deputy Leader isn't letting up in her bid to mount a personal power base after the election.
And with Gordon Brown promising to stay on as party leader if defeated and Cruddas, Milibands plural and Johnson jockeying for position, it is likely that 2010 will be an ugly year of infighting for Labour as it searches for its future.
Personally I think the party has no chance if it moves away from encouraging candidates to work their way through the constituency area from local councillor to local candidate to local MP. How disconcerting must it be to see a Cabinet Minister's partner get parachuted into your area when you're trying to toil away in your own backyard with political ambitions of your own?
Local MPs invariably make the best politicians. It's just a shame they rarely land the Cabinet Minister roles.
No it is not my audition for So You Think You Can Dance, and how dare you for thinking it would be.Local Bathgate man 76 year-old Patrick Morrison (pictured) went into Astley Ainslie Hospital, Edinburgh after losing his right foot. When he returned home upon removing the protective sock covering it his wife Alexia aged 75 burst out laughing as he had been fitted with a left foot on his right.
She called the hospital who cut off the lower part of the replacement limb and replaced the foot with a right footed version.
However, false limb expert Malcolm Griffiths has been sacked by NHS Lothian, pending a hearing of the Health Professions Councilhe may be considered unfit to practise and either suspended or struck off.
After the Afghanistan conference the week before last, when the outcome appeared to be the bribery of Taliban leaders, Gordon Brown announces 4,000 British troops are preparing to take part in the largest military offensive against the Taliban since the Afghanistan invasion in 2001.
The strike force, composed of British, US and Afghan troops, will storm into some of the most dangerous areas of central Helmand in a series of daring raids as part of Operation Moshtarak.
The offensive, the start date of which is being kept secret (although it is obviously imminent), will dwarf last summer's Operation Panther's Claw in which 10 British soldiers were killed and more than 100 badly injured.
The mission is designed to "break the back" of the Taliban in Helmand but commanders warned that casualties could be the highest of any operation in the eight-year war. Senior officers believe that there is a "real risk" that British forces could lose a Chinook helicopter laden with troops in the assault and warned the public to "steel itself" for casualties.
So this announcement is to prepare us for excessive casualties. No other country's troops are taking part.
In the past such operations have proved unsuccessful as once the British and NATO troops withdrew to their bases the Taliban returned.
Last month the UN condemned the Taliban's use of children as victims and perpetrators of suicide bombings. 'Children must be protected and not targeted,' UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict Radhika Coomaraswamy said in a statement. The Taliban have ignored the UN and continue to train and use children as suicide bombers.
How ineffective the UN is becoming. It seldoms walks the talk.
The news that London-based Luciana Berger, girlfriend of Siôn Simon, with her minimal knowledge of Liverpool, was selected as candidate for Liverpool Wavertree didn't go down well with one well known local resident.Ricky Tomlinson, a long time supporter of the Socialist Labour Party, has decided to get off his arse and stand against her. He's accused Labour of overlooking local working class politicians in favour of candidates approved by central office. He said:
"I just can't understand why they have picked someone from London. It just does not make sense to me."
Not knowing who Bill Shankly is or who wrote Ferry Across the Mersey may seem like small fry. But it does hint that a knowledge of what the people of Liverpool Wavertree may need assistance with from their MP might also be lacking. Some people will be accusing Ricky of splitting the vote but he defends his stance saying:
"People say ... you could be letting the Tories in. But there is no difference between the Conservatives and new Labour."
He's not alone in being against Berger's selection union officials also protested the selection process.
Today in the Observer Gordon Brown says:
"I'm not complacent, but Labour can still win it. I'm absolutely sure of that."
This is the same man who declared in September 1999:
"And I say to Conference and the country, we will never return to the days of Tory boom - bust."
What never? What absolutely sure?
I think Gordon doth use superlatives too much and too glibbly.
Each year on the eve of the Superbowl the NFL announce new inductees into the Hall of Fame. They can be players, coaches or media personalities within the game. So here is the class of 2010. It includes a winner of Superbowl XXX and the Defensive Co-ordinator who tried to stop him. The only two non-kickers to score 1000 points in their careers, the leading wide receiver. A man most associated with the team making their Superbowl debut tomorrow.
Emmitt Smith
Running Back
Dallas Cowboys 1990-2002
Arizona Cardinals 2003-4
The final of 'The Triplets' (after Troy Aikman 2006 and Michael Irvin 2007) to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. He is All Time career leader in rushing yards 18,355 and Rushing TDs 164, plus having a the All Time record of 100+ yard rushing games 78, as well as attempts 4,409 . In 1993 he became the only running back to ever win a Super Bowl championship, the NFL Most Valuable Player award, the NFL rushing crown, and the Super Bowl Most Valuable Player in one season.
Of course the Triplet have three Superbowl Rings XXVII, XXVIII, XXX.
He also holds a number of post-season records. ncluding rushing touchdowns (19), consecutive games with a rushing touchdown (9) and 100-yard rushing games (7). His 1,586 yards rushing is also top on the NFL postseason chart, and he shares the total playoff touchdown mark of 21 with Thurman Thomas. He is also one of only 5 NFL players to have amassed over 10,000 rushing yards and 400 receptions.
When he annouced his retirement from the Cardinals he was given a one day no pay contract back in Texas so he coud retire a Cowboy.
Jerry Rice
Wide Receiver
San Francisco 49ers 1985-2000
Oakland Raiders 2001-2004
Seattle Seahawks 2004
Denver Broncos 2005 (Off season and practise squad only)
Jerry was always going to be an automatic first year eligible inductee when the time game for him to end his career (like Emmitt above). Even after his 16 years with San Francisco. He holds all the major wide receiver records too numerous to list here. As well as the all time leader in the NFL in touchdowns 208. Only in his last 2 seasons with the 49ers did he fail to reach 1000 yards when he was fit to suit up for every one of the 16 games.
He won three Superbowls XXIII, XXIV, XXIX. Was selected to the Pro-Bowl in 13 seasons, name first team All-Pro on 11 occasions.
He was a legend in his own career.
1,549 receptions
22,895 yards
Russ Grimm
Guard
Washington Redskins 1981-91
Grimm was one of the famous Redskins' 'Hogs' offensive line from the late 80s to 90s before it lost it's supremacy to the massive men of divisional rivals the Cowboys. But the hogs were deemed one of the best front fives of all time. He led the Skins to the Superbowl 4 times and picked up rings on three occasions. XVII (1983), XXII (1988), XXVI (1992).
Upon retirement he started coaching at Washington. Through to 96 and Tight end coach, then to 2000 as the offensive line coach. In 2000 he moved to the Pittsburgh Steelers as Offensive Line coach and picked up a 4th ring in 2005. In 2007 he moved to the Arizona Cardinals as assistant head coach and offensive line team coach.
Rickey Jackson
Linebacker
New Orleans Saints 1981-93
San Francisco 49ers 1994-5
In the year that the Saint's finally make the big show their all time career sack leader (with 123) is a worthy inductee in the Hall of Fame. In six different seasons he recorded 10 or more sacks. His final career stats are 136 (8 unofficial in the 1981 strike season), 8 interceptions which he returned for 68 yards. He also recovered 29 fumbles, at the time of his retirement this was the second most.
When he moved to the 49ers in 1994 he got the the Superbowl and lifted the ring, he may be hoping his beloved Saints all do the same tomorrow.
His #57 shirt has been retired by the Saints.
Dick Le Beau
Corner Back/Free Saftey
Detroit Lions 1957-72
Coach
Philadelphia (special teams) 1973-5
Green Bay Packers (defensive back field) 1976-9
Cincinnatti Bengals (defensive back field) 1980-3
(defensive co-ordinator) 1984-91
Pittsburgh Steelers (defensive back field) 1992-4
(defensive co-ordinator) 1995-6
Cincinnatti Bengals (defensive co-ordinator/assistant head coach) 1997-2000
(head coach) 2000-2002
Buffalo Bills (assitant head coach) 2003
Pittsburgh Steelers (defensive co-ordinator) 2004-present
As a player he was drafted by the Cleveland Browns but was cut before the season but the Lions swooped on his as a free agent. In his 14 seasons he was a leading interceptor in the back field. 62 career interceptions (7th all time) for 762 return yards and 3 touchdowns, and holds the NFL record for consecutive game appearances for a cornerback with 171. He also recovered 9 fumbles, returning them for 53 yards and a touchdown. It is for his playing career that he is inducted.
As a coach five time he has been involved in winning AFC Championships (1981, 1988, 1995, 2005, 2008), in the latter two he added the next game winning Superbowls XL and XLIII.
Floyd Little
Running Back
Denver Broncos 1967-75
In what was the first combined NFL-NFL draft he was the 6th pick for the AFL Broncos, the first time a first round draft pick had signed for an AFL side. From 1968-73 he led the NFL in rushing. He retired as the 7th leading career rusher with 6,323 years and 54 touchdowns. In 1970 he led the AFC with 901 yards, but the following year was the first AFC 1000 yarder with 1,133 leading the entire league.
He was the smallest back to lead the league in rushing since before World War II but was also versatile in that he was the only player to return punts for Touch Down in both 1967 and 68.
His #44 shirt was the first to be retired at the Broncos, and he finally joins the 6 rushers who were ahead of him in career yards when he retired.
John Randle
Defensive Tackle
Minnesota Vikings 1990-2000
Seattle Seahawks 2001-3
Originally undrafted before being picked up by the Viks at training camp. IN 1993 appeared in his first of 7 Pro-Bowls after 11.5 sacks, he reached double digit sacks in a season on 8 separate occasions including a career-high and league leading 15.5 in 1997. He had sacked future hall of famer Brett Farve more than any other player.
When he retired his career 137.5 sacks ranks him 5th in the all time list. This was the second year he was eligible for induction.
Emmitt SmithRunning Back
Dallas Cowboys 1990-2002
Arizona Cardinals 2003-4
The final of 'The Triplets' (after Troy Aikman 2006 and Michael Irvin 2007) to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. He is All Time career leader in rushing yards 18,355 and Rushing TDs 164, plus having a the All Time record of 100+ yard rushing games 78, as well as attempts 4,409 . In 1993 he became the only running back to ever win a Super Bowl championship, the NFL Most Valuable Player award, the NFL rushing crown, and the Super Bowl Most Valuable Player in one season.
Of course the Triplet have three Superbowl Rings XXVII, XXVIII, XXX.
He also holds a number of post-season records. ncluding rushing touchdowns (19), consecutive games with a rushing touchdown (9) and 100-yard rushing games (7). His 1,586 yards rushing is also top on the NFL postseason chart, and he shares the total playoff touchdown mark of 21 with Thurman Thomas. He is also one of only 5 NFL players to have amassed over 10,000 rushing yards and 400 receptions.
When he annouced his retirement from the Cardinals he was given a one day no pay contract back in Texas so he coud retire a Cowboy.
Jerry RiceWide Receiver
San Francisco 49ers 1985-2000
Oakland Raiders 2001-2004
Seattle Seahawks 2004
Denver Broncos 2005 (Off season and practise squad only)
Jerry was always going to be an automatic first year eligible inductee when the time game for him to end his career (like Emmitt above). Even after his 16 years with San Francisco. He holds all the major wide receiver records too numerous to list here. As well as the all time leader in the NFL in touchdowns 208. Only in his last 2 seasons with the 49ers did he fail to reach 1000 yards when he was fit to suit up for every one of the 16 games.
He won three Superbowls XXIII, XXIV, XXIX. Was selected to the Pro-Bowl in 13 seasons, name first team All-Pro on 11 occasions.
He was a legend in his own career.
1,549 receptions
22,895 yards
Russ GrimmGuard
Washington Redskins 1981-91
Grimm was one of the famous Redskins' 'Hogs' offensive line from the late 80s to 90s before it lost it's supremacy to the massive men of divisional rivals the Cowboys. But the hogs were deemed one of the best front fives of all time. He led the Skins to the Superbowl 4 times and picked up rings on three occasions. XVII (1983), XXII (1988), XXVI (1992).
Upon retirement he started coaching at Washington. Through to 96 and Tight end coach, then to 2000 as the offensive line coach. In 2000 he moved to the Pittsburgh Steelers as Offensive Line coach and picked up a 4th ring in 2005. In 2007 he moved to the Arizona Cardinals as assistant head coach and offensive line team coach.
Rickey JacksonLinebacker
New Orleans Saints 1981-93
San Francisco 49ers 1994-5
In the year that the Saint's finally make the big show their all time career sack leader (with 123) is a worthy inductee in the Hall of Fame. In six different seasons he recorded 10 or more sacks. His final career stats are 136 (8 unofficial in the 1981 strike season), 8 interceptions which he returned for 68 yards. He also recovered 29 fumbles, at the time of his retirement this was the second most.
When he moved to the 49ers in 1994 he got the the Superbowl and lifted the ring, he may be hoping his beloved Saints all do the same tomorrow.
His #57 shirt has been retired by the Saints.
Dick Le BeauCorner Back/Free Saftey
Detroit Lions 1957-72
Coach
Philadelphia (special teams) 1973-5
Green Bay Packers (defensive back field) 1976-9
Cincinnatti Bengals (defensive back field) 1980-3
(defensive co-ordinator) 1984-91
Pittsburgh Steelers (defensive back field) 1992-4
(defensive co-ordinator) 1995-6
Cincinnatti Bengals (defensive co-ordinator/assistant head coach) 1997-2000
(head coach) 2000-2002
Buffalo Bills (assitant head coach) 2003
Pittsburgh Steelers (defensive co-ordinator) 2004-present
As a player he was drafted by the Cleveland Browns but was cut before the season but the Lions swooped on his as a free agent. In his 14 seasons he was a leading interceptor in the back field. 62 career interceptions (7th all time) for 762 return yards and 3 touchdowns, and holds the NFL record for consecutive game appearances for a cornerback with 171. He also recovered 9 fumbles, returning them for 53 yards and a touchdown. It is for his playing career that he is inducted.
As a coach five time he has been involved in winning AFC Championships (1981, 1988, 1995, 2005, 2008), in the latter two he added the next game winning Superbowls XL and XLIII.
Floyd LittleRunning Back
Denver Broncos 1967-75
In what was the first combined NFL-NFL draft he was the 6th pick for the AFL Broncos, the first time a first round draft pick had signed for an AFL side. From 1968-73 he led the NFL in rushing. He retired as the 7th leading career rusher with 6,323 years and 54 touchdowns. In 1970 he led the AFC with 901 yards, but the following year was the first AFC 1000 yarder with 1,133 leading the entire league.
He was the smallest back to lead the league in rushing since before World War II but was also versatile in that he was the only player to return punts for Touch Down in both 1967 and 68.
His #44 shirt was the first to be retired at the Broncos, and he finally joins the 6 rushers who were ahead of him in career yards when he retired.
John RandleDefensive Tackle
Minnesota Vikings 1990-2000
Seattle Seahawks 2001-3
Originally undrafted before being picked up by the Viks at training camp. IN 1993 appeared in his first of 7 Pro-Bowls after 11.5 sacks, he reached double digit sacks in a season on 8 separate occasions including a career-high and league leading 15.5 in 1997. He had sacked future hall of famer Brett Farve more than any other player.
When he retired his career 137.5 sacks ranks him 5th in the all time list. This was the second year he was eligible for induction.
06-Feb-10
Osama Saeed has an absolutely tremendous bit of research over on his Rolled Up Trousers blog highlighting that Labour promised the Glasgow Airport Rail Link by 2007 in its 2003 manifesto.
Who was the Transport Minister back in those days? Why, it was Iain Gray, the current leader of the Labour group in the Scottish Parliament who now laments the demise of that very same project that he never followed through on.
Indeed, a little more digging and I found a 'Building Better Transport' document providing an 'update on progress across transport and major transport projects' with a Ministerial foreword from Gray in his ministerial capacity. Dated 5th March 2003, it included the following text:
Transport improvements that once seemed a pipe dream stand a genuine chance of becoming reality. The new communications links that businesses have been crying out for are just around the corner, and the economy will thrive on them.
We have been criticised in the past for not committing the funds needed to enable major projects to proceed. That has now changed. All schemes will still have to continue to demonstrate value for money and stand up to rigorous economic and environmental scrutiny. But the security of a 1 billion per annum budget has enabled us over the year to make firm funding commitments, including the M8 and M80 motorway upgrades in west central Scotland; the reinstatement of the Airdrie-Bathgate railway line; a new bypass, the Western Peripheral Route, for Aberdeen; and has allowed us to make further progress with rail links to Glasgow and Edinburgh airports.
In the body of the document itself we have:
Passenger numbers at Glasgow and Edinburgh airports are growing significantly. People want to fly more often for business and to visit Scotland for tourism. We want to enable people to get to and from the airports with ease and without being caught by congestion. This is why we are working hard to develop rail links to both airports.
So what one may ask? Well, on its own it's no big deal. Clearly Labour had admirably grand ambitions for a Glasgow rail link and had neither the time nor the money to see it through in the parliamentary terms that the people awarded them. That wouldn't be a problem if it wasn't for the hypocrisy of the wailing and gnashing of teeth when the project is subsequently cancelled by an SNP Government faced with significantly more austere financial conditions.
For a party that is so quick to rip up other party's manifestos and cry 'shame' over the cancellation of projects when money is so tight, they should perhaps have a quick flick through their own manifesto every now and again to check how their own record stacks up. I could go on and on about raising the top rate of tax and having a referendum on the European constitution, two further examples of broken manifesto promises, but I won't.
Instead I will merely flag this up for readers to keep in mind if any Labour member raises GARL in the future and also as a litmus test to see if our beloved Scottish press picks up this story on the back of Osama's fine work.
Surely if a somewhat dodgy £9,000 lunch is a story for several days then so is the conduct of a party that is crying foul over a rail project so soon after it promised completion of it and failed to deliver.
Who was the Transport Minister back in those days? Why, it was Iain Gray, the current leader of the Labour group in the Scottish Parliament who now laments the demise of that very same project that he never followed through on.
Indeed, a little more digging and I found a 'Building Better Transport' document providing an 'update on progress across transport and major transport projects' with a Ministerial foreword from Gray in his ministerial capacity. Dated 5th March 2003, it included the following text:
Transport improvements that once seemed a pipe dream stand a genuine chance of becoming reality. The new communications links that businesses have been crying out for are just around the corner, and the economy will thrive on them.
We have been criticised in the past for not committing the funds needed to enable major projects to proceed. That has now changed. All schemes will still have to continue to demonstrate value for money and stand up to rigorous economic and environmental scrutiny. But the security of a 1 billion per annum budget has enabled us over the year to make firm funding commitments, including the M8 and M80 motorway upgrades in west central Scotland; the reinstatement of the Airdrie-Bathgate railway line; a new bypass, the Western Peripheral Route, for Aberdeen; and has allowed us to make further progress with rail links to Glasgow and Edinburgh airports.
In the body of the document itself we have:
Passenger numbers at Glasgow and Edinburgh airports are growing significantly. People want to fly more often for business and to visit Scotland for tourism. We want to enable people to get to and from the airports with ease and without being caught by congestion. This is why we are working hard to develop rail links to both airports.
So what one may ask? Well, on its own it's no big deal. Clearly Labour had admirably grand ambitions for a Glasgow rail link and had neither the time nor the money to see it through in the parliamentary terms that the people awarded them. That wouldn't be a problem if it wasn't for the hypocrisy of the wailing and gnashing of teeth when the project is subsequently cancelled by an SNP Government faced with significantly more austere financial conditions.
For a party that is so quick to rip up other party's manifestos and cry 'shame' over the cancellation of projects when money is so tight, they should perhaps have a quick flick through their own manifesto every now and again to check how their own record stacks up. I could go on and on about raising the top rate of tax and having a referendum on the European constitution, two further examples of broken manifesto promises, but I won't.
Instead I will merely flag this up for readers to keep in mind if any Labour member raises GARL in the future and also as a litmus test to see if our beloved Scottish press picks up this story on the back of Osama's fine work.
Surely if a somewhat dodgy £9,000 lunch is a story for several days then so is the conduct of a party that is crying foul over a rail project so soon after it promised completion of it and failed to deliver.
Clegg and Cameron Say No Privilege Defence: Brown Silent [ 06-Feb-10 10:45pm ]
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Nick Clegg and David Cameron, leaders of the Liberal Democrat and Conservative parties respectively, have agreed that the three MPs facing criminal charges over their expenses should not claim privilege as a defence. Cameron said he was disgusted and Clegg that the public would be outraged if Elliot Morely, David Chaytor and Jim Devine used their stated 1689 Bill of Rights defence of privilege.
While Cameron is saying he will say more at a press conference on Monday Nick Clegg speaking at the Welsh Lib Dem conference said:
However, the Prime Minister has been quiet on the specifics neither distance himself from the individuals or offering support. He been talking generically:
He went on to talk about his Alternative Vote proposal as his trump card to clean up this mess. The fact that he is having a daily attendance allowance rather than an itemised, individual, receipt based expenses system shows that he has failed to understand the public's desire for transparency for their MPs.
As Mark Thompson pointed out our electoral system does appear to have some contribution to play in these scandals, he's also pointed how how disproportional AV is and would actually have returned Labour a bigger majority in 1997. Hardly a way to replace a discredited system with one that can be manipulated just as much by the party machinery to get their way.
While Cameron is saying he will say more at a press conference on Monday Nick Clegg speaking at the Welsh Lib Dem conference said:
"Lawmakers shouldn't be above the law and they should not be invoking 17th century conventions in order to avoid paying their expenses".
However, the Prime Minister has been quiet on the specifics neither distance himself from the individuals or offering support. He been talking generically:
"We have taken the action necessary to clean up politics, but I am determined now to reconnect Parliament and the public, to bring politics back to the people. It's their Parliament, not ours.
"This expenses scandal has been a scar on democracy and has done great damage to the reputation of parliament. We are putting the discredited old system behind us and I want to see the new system in place as soon as possible."
He went on to talk about his Alternative Vote proposal as his trump card to clean up this mess. The fact that he is having a daily attendance allowance rather than an itemised, individual, receipt based expenses system shows that he has failed to understand the public's desire for transparency for their MPs.
As Mark Thompson pointed out our electoral system does appear to have some contribution to play in these scandals, he's also pointed how how disproportional AV is and would actually have returned Labour a bigger majority in 1997. Hardly a way to replace a discredited system with one that can be manipulated just as much by the party machinery to get their way.
Not for one minute am I suggesting any of my readers browse terrorist-related websites, but in case you do come across one the government is launching a new programme for you do to your civil duty and report them.
The government is seeking to enforce the Terrorism Acts of 2000 and 2006, which make it illegal to have or share information that's intended to be useful to terrorists and bans glorifying terrorism or urging people to commit terrorism.
You can report terrorist-related websites on Direct.co.uk by filling out a web-based form.
The reports are anonymous and are then reviewed by police officers who are part of the new Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit, run by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO).
I'm just grateful my blog isn't primarily about chemistry, medicine or food.
Don't forget you can also report litter droppers, smokers who naughtily have a puff in a working environment (other than Westminster where they happily smoke on the terrace) and anyone creating a noise which you find unacceptable.
Try to remember to lock your home and car though because local police don't appear to be as quick off the mark as the CTIRU.
David Cameron has just sent out this video of him talking about how Parliament should be reformed.
Having watched it and compared it to how Gordon Brown portrays this issue is hugely enlightening. You just know that Gordon has one conviction and that is he hates Tories. All the rest is just Chaff.
He reveals how Gordon [...]
Related posts:
- Five more Years – Deluded – Gordon Brown
- The Great Reformer – Deluded, Gordon Brown
- Desperation of the Deluded – Gordon Brown
To claim Parliamentary privilege instead of defending their innocence, only goes to show that the three Labour MP's, Elliot Morley, David Chaytor and Jim Devine, are a disgrace to all MP's.
If they are innocent they should demonstrate it in the courts of law rather than hiding between ancient and out-of-date laws.
As they are going [...]
Related posts:
- Three MPs and one peer to be charged over expenses
- Tory Peer resigns – Labour Cheats say did nothing wrong
- Labour lose another Scottish MP – Richard Griffiths
One of my readers, Crinkley & Ragged Arsed Philosophers, is an erudite blogger but little known.
Ragged Arsed (as he prefers to be called), was given a Christmas present of Bob Woodward's trilogy of Bush at War.
He has now completed reading the tomes and has posted a comprehensive review, 'Pit Bulls, Poodles and Politics'. It confirms what many think but cannot prove.
I won't be purchasing Mr Woodward's trilogy after struggling to finish Alistair Campbell's tedious novel All In The Mind, but at least I have an idea of the 'fascinating - disturbing - shocking- or downright frightening' powers of those who wander the corridors of the White House.
You too can read it here.
Cllr Fraser Macpherson - LibDem Councillor for Dundee's West End - www.dundeewestend.com [ 6-Feb-10 5:15pm ]
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As reported in today's Courier, I have raised my concerns that Dundee City Council appears to be backtracking on promises to construct a multi-storey car park in the city's Hunter Street/Hawkhill that would have provided much needed parking adjacent to the University of Dundee campus and have eased the parking difficulties for residents across the West End. Providing a multi-storey car park for over 400 vehicles right next to the University of Dundee campus would greatly improve the difficult parking situation.During my period as City Council Planning & Transport Convener, I brought the project to committee for approval in May 2008. This was unanimously approved and members of the then SNP opposition welcomed it.
In May 2009, a year after committee approval, I was assured by the City Engineer that the project had been advertised in the European Journal. The assessment panel had been identified and the assessments of these were being carried out. I was further advised at that time :
"A detailed project programme is about to be prepared but the design, procurement and construction will likely be about 2 and a half years so the car park/retail unit can be expected to be complete around December 2011/January 2012, all going well."
Last week, City Council City Development Director Mike Galloway advised me :
"In light of the downturn in the property development market and the need to evaluate the operational success of the new multi storey car park to be built at East Marketgait, we will not now progress Hunter Street until the medium term ie we will revisit the proposal after 2012."
I am unconvinced by the reasons advanced for not progressing with the project. It is clear from the recent Tesco proposal for a new "Express" convenience store in Hawkhill that there is still commercial viability for the car park that envisaged retail facilities on the ground floor.
I am meeting the City Council's Head of Transportation on Monday to discuss the matter and my concerns about the council's u-turn. I am very disappointed at this turn of events and think it is vital that the Hunter Street parking project is progressed, for the benefit of easing parking difficulties in the West End.
Last week, City Council City Development Director Mike Galloway advised me :
"In light of the downturn in the property development market and the need to evaluate the operational success of the new multi storey car park to be built at East Marketgait, we will not now progress Hunter Street until the medium term ie we will revisit the proposal after 2012."
I am unconvinced by the reasons advanced for not progressing with the project. It is clear from the recent Tesco proposal for a new "Express" convenience store in Hawkhill that there is still commercial viability for the car park that envisaged retail facilities on the ground floor.
I am meeting the City Council's Head of Transportation on Monday to discuss the matter and my concerns about the council's u-turn. I am very disappointed at this turn of events and think it is vital that the Hunter Street parking project is progressed, for the benefit of easing parking difficulties in the West End.
Second "Journey" upload!
John Barnett's LibDem team in Dundee West has been campaigning today in Strathmartine Ward and getting a great response on the doorsteps. Here's a rather wet Fraser in Downfield this morning - see right!
"ENVIRONMENTALISTS" are wholly corrupt, lying, pensioner murdering, eco-Nazi, Luddite, parasites (no offence) [ 06-Feb-10 3:45pm ]
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The Institute of Science in Society really sounds like, well, an institute of science. In fact it is just a another bunch of wholly corrupt, lying, pensioner murdering, eco-Nazi, Luddite, parasites flying under yet another false flag. I have said before & will doubtless have to say again that one of the problems with politics is that the parasites who crawl out from under things & never have anything to contribute keep adopting respectable political banners. These banners are worth defending because an ideal that cannot be expressed in words will disappear.
The Luddites have adopted many of them - "environmentalist", "ecologist" (both genuine scientific terms), "concerned local", "progressive", "liberal", "concerned scientist" (Union of - membership available to all $25) etc.
My particular annoyance with them is this article which, with all the outrage of the thief they say should not be copied & uses the name of the pioneering scientist Sir Austin Bradford Hill & his principles (which I reprint because the "Institute" has no claim to ownership) in a wholly fraudulent way to say that by these quite proper & rigorous principles catastrophic warming is something other than a scam.
In the the words of Numberwatch's John Brignell "Sir Bradford Hill, a great proponent of statistical rigour. After the death of Hill, his colleague Doll rather went off the rigorous rails and launched into some of the greater excesses of the subject that its practitioners call epidemiology" {I recommend this link to anybody interested in how statistics are fiddled to produce scare stories]thus a field he helped form has been traduced & turned over to charlatans who endlessly get paid, almost always by government, to produce the scare stories the papers are infested with.
So these are the principles he laid down & they are indeed worth checking any eco-fascist claims against:
(1) Strength of the association. The death-rate from lung cancer was over nine times as high in smokers as in non-smokers; in heavy smokers, it was more than twice that again. This was obviously much stronger supporting evidence than if the rates had only been slightly higher.
(2) Consistency: Are we talking about the result of a single study, or of several, and if there is more than one, were they all done in the same way or were they really different? Bradford Hill pointed out that according to a committee advising the US Surgeon General, 36 different inquiries, not all using the same methodology, had found an association between smoking and lung cancer. That does not rule out the possibility that the same fallacy was at work in all of them, but it strengthens the case.
(3) Specificity: If a disease occurs only in one group of people and if there are no other diseases that occur only in this group, this is strong evidence for cause and effect. In fact, while the death rates for smokers are higher for many causes of death, the increase is much greater for lung cancer than for the others, so this criterion is still satisfied.
(4) Temporality: While cause obviously has to come before effect, it is not always obvious which of two events was really first. If people who smoke are more likely to die from lung cancer, does that mean that smoking causes cancer or is it that the sort of people who are predisposed to lung cancer are also likely to adopt a life style that includes smoking? Here the obvious explanation is correct - smoking does cause lung cancer - but it is a question we should ask.
(5) Dose response: Does increasing the purported cause increase the effect? In the case of smoking and lung cancer, the increase in death rate rises linearly with the number of cigarettes smoked per day, and this is strong supporting evidence. On the other hand, in many cases there are threshold or trigger effects, and then there will be no dose response. Drinking two glasses of poison doesn't make you twice as dead.
(6) Plausibility: Is the cause-effect relationship plausible? Ideally, we would like to be able to find the mechanism that links cause and effect, but often this is not possible; if it were there would be no problem. We can, however, ask if it is at least plausible that A could be the cause of B. Hill immediately warns, however, that what is considered plausible changes in time. In the nineteenth century, for example, it was thought totally implausible that doctors not washing their hands could be responsible for the deaths of women in maternity wards.
(7) Coherence: Does the claim that A causes B seriously conflict with what we know about B? This is really a companion to the plausibility criterion. If our present knowledge provides no plausible mechanism by which A can cause B, can we actually rule it out? John Snow was not able to suggest how polluted water could be the means by which cholera is spread, but even in 1854, there was no good scientific reason for ruling out the possibility that it might be.
(8) Experiment: If we change A, does B change as well? If people stop smoking, does the death rate from lung cancer fall? We now know that it does. Not only do deaths from lung cancer in a population increase when the proportion of smokers goes increases [2], an individual who gives up smoking reduces his or her chance of contracting the disease depends on the total number of cigarettes smoked [3]. Bradford Hill did include laboratory experiments in his paper, such as the effect of tobacco smoke on dogs, but because he was writing specifically for epidemiologists he considered those to be part of coherence.
(9) Analogy: Are there analogous examples? After it had been established that thalidomide and rubella can produce birth defects, it was easier to make the case that some other birth defect could be caused by a drug or a viral disease.
And this is my reply:
Association - The increase over the last "2 or 3 centuries" (so not that certain) may be passable but since CO2 didn't start rising till the 20thC that disproves any correlation.
Consistency can only apply when the studies are unrelated. As you point out they are often merely rehashes of each other. Had there bee consistency over different methods or even over a long period of time that would be relevant but in fact we know that before the warming scare there was a cooling scare, in which Hansen & some other alarmists were involved. The consistency argument points to a consistent history of "environmental" scare stories all of which have, so far, proved to be untrue.
Specificity - warming has been found on Mars & other planets. That is consistent only with the solar theory.
Temporality - as you have acknowledged, the temperature growth has been going on for "2-3 centuries" which predates the CO2 growth & thus proves the latter did not cause the former.
Dose response - CO2 has continued to rise at the same rate but over the last 12 years temperature has fallen - no correlation.
Plausibility - not all calculations from the 19thC are automatically accepted (e.g. Kelvin calculated the earth couldn't be over 1 million years old). The current theory depends on unknown but massive positive feedbacks & that we rest on a knife's edge likely to tip on to catastrophic warming (Arrhenius assumed negative feedback.) If there was a positive feedback it would mean there has been no time in the last million, possibly billion, years when we fell off that knife edge which is statistically incredibly implausible.
Coherence - there is & always has been an inconsistency in that measurements of tropospheric temperature should be rising faster than on the ground (the CO2 being in the atmosphere). The opposite is the case. The proposition is not coherent.
There are many possible analogies but taking ozone - the "environmentalists" promised catastrophe & that even if CFCs were banned it would take 50 years before the Antarctic Ozone hole stopped growing (they had not predicted the hole for Antarctica before it was first measurements were first taken there). In fact the hole started shrinking almost immediately - as soon as Mount Erebus stopped pouring out millions of tons of sulphur in fact. The analogy with this & the other false scare stories is obvious.
The "Institute" has censored my comment (& presumably others since none appear). Now what sort of "Institute of Science" prevents factual discussion of basic scientific principles? - a fraudulent one, that's what sort.
On a further thread they have the another "scientist" "rebutting" the sceptic's arguments on warming. Again this "rebuttal" is not strong enough to face examination & they have censored this rerebuttal:
Your first argument obviously depends on the assumption that absorption of CO2 naturally is an absolutely fixed amount. That purely by chance it happens to be exactly the same as production over millions of years. That a rise in the amount of CO2 would not make it easier for water or trees to absorb more of it. This could be called a highly improbable unproven assumption if we did not know that it was totally false. Experiment shows that plants do grow faster in a higher CO2 environment - something that the "Institute of Science in Society" would certainly know if you knew any science.
Ponzi Scheme Scam Still Continues Under Ed Gromit?
Feb 04, 2010
Scotland records coldest winter in almost a century reports The BBC. Scotland has suffered some of the coldest winter months in almost 100 years, the Met Office has confirmed. By combining the temperatures of January and December it showed they were the coldest since 1914 - the year data started being logged. Elsewhere, it was the coldest December and January in Northern Ireland since 1962/63 and the coldest in England and Wales since 1981/82. Sub-zero temperatures and snow blew into the UK from mid-December. The average minimum overnight temperature for January is usually at freezing point, but in Scotland it was regularly below -5C.
01/25/2010 der Spiegel International.
Frost Bite
Cold Snap Causes Deaths in Eastern Europe, Germany
Cold weather in Germany and Eastern Europe in recent days has caused deaths and major disruption to transportation systems. Parts of Europe have been snow-covered for a month, but that coating turned into a layer of ice in many countries in recent days.
A continuing cold snap across parts of Europe over the weekend and into Monday caused the deaths of more than 40 people in Romania, Bulgaria and Poland. It's a cold spell that also stretched across much of Germany, leaving people here shivering as temperatures plunged as low as -15 degrees Celsius (5 degrees Fahrenheit) early on Monday morning.
Now just in case you get a bit cocky up there read on;
Deadly Cold Strikes Eastern Europe
Germany's cold spell, however, has been minor compared to temperatures being experienced in Eastern Europe. A government spokesperson in Bucharest (Subway Station shown) reported that ice cold temperatures of -34 degrees Celsius caused the deaths of 11 people in Romania in just 24 hours, with a total of 22 deaths registered in the last five days as a result of the cold.
Of course if we should have a well deserved warm, sunny summer the Ponzi -Storm troopers will be out in force again. If we do and they are, just remember how much egg they are having to wipe of their faces virtually every day since mid-November!
In their statement yesterday MPs Elliot Morley, David Chaytor and Jim Devine said:
"We maintain that this is an issue that should be resolved by the parliamentary commissioner, who is there to enforce any breach of the rules."
However, the Director of Public Prosecutions has decided they they should be charged under the 1968 Theft Act. Keir Starmer in his statement said:
"We have considered that question and concluded that the applicability and extent of any parliamentary privilege claimed should be tested in court."
So what is it that the court feel they can do that the MPs are saying is protected by Parliamentary Privilege in the 1689 Bill of Rights?
First all the charges made against them are for the crime of gaining money/property by deception. What is the issue is that they appear to have claimed payments under false documentation. Morely was claiming for a mortgage on a property that the mortgage was already fully paid, Chaytor rent on a property he owned and rent on a property from his mother. Chaytor and Devine also used false receipts to claim services.
Should such claims be protected by the same right that gives MPs the freedom of speech to say what they need to in the Chamber of the House of Commons without fear of prosecution to do the job they are responsible for? Hugh Tomlinson QC, at Matrix chambers thinks not saying:
"MPs don't enjoy any kind of immunity from the ordinary criminal law. It seems to me that any privilege arguments are unlikely to be successful because the alleged offences are in substance just ordinary criminal offences. They are no different from the kind of offences any member of the public could also be accused of through their work."
Tomlinson acted in the 2008 case where MPs failed to prevent information about their expenses being released under Freedom of Information legislation. He added:
"Once legislation which applies to parliament has been enacted, MPs cannot and could not reasonably expect to contract out of compliance with it, or exempt themselves, or be exempted from its ambit."
That ruling looked at the Bill of Rights element on privilege "for words spoken or things done in the course of, or for the purposes of or incidental to, any proceedings in parliament". It decided that privilege serves to "avoid any risk of interference with free speech in parliament" and also preserves "the principle of the separation of powers, which … requires the judiciary not to interfere with, or to criticise, the proceedings of the legislature".
But this is not the proceedings of the legislature that is the issue, this is the dealings of individuals. As Tomlinson said this comes under the remit of ordinary criminal law.
If that is the case why weren't warrants issued, the MPs and Peer taking to their local police station read their charges, finger printed and DNA profiled like common criminals? Instead they were (at least Devine was) appearing on every TV station possible claiming his innocence. Yesterday's inaction may turn out to be the full extent of the Parliamentary privilege that they end up receiving.
Courtesy of Channel 4 News, this is last night's interview with Jim Devine, MP for Livingston, Scotland.
Jim Devine is a former psychiatric nurse and union official who served as Robin Cook's election agent for 22 years. When the former Foreign Secretary died in 2005, Mr Devine was a natural choice to contest the by-election in his Livingston constituency four months later. He saw the party's majority of 13,000 under Robin Cook cut to 2,680.
Many say labour supporters will vote for 'a monkey wearing a red rosette'.
Mr Devine is a perfect example. How this man was ever selected as a candidate, far less elected, for Westminster I will never understand.
