I read this story on line today and it certainly got me thinking about election rules.

It appears that questions are being asked of Jo Swindon in relation to her declared election costs in her win in the recent general election. According to the Sunday Herald the MP for West Dumbarton only scraped in by £210 of the allowed spending limit set for the election.

Allegedly Jo Swindon and the Scottish Liberal Democrats are claiming that over £7000 pounds worth of leaflets and newsletters were never used and that some of the literature was of a national context. Jo Swindon is claiming that over 93,000 pieces of literature were never used during the campaign so don't get counted, that is an incredible amount of waste but then as a minister in the coalition with her friends the Tories she was accustomed to wasting money.

This accusation by the Herald comes at the same time as Alex Cole Hamilton MSP is also being investigated for alleged election fraud in his victory in Edinburgh. These incidents are starting to build a picture and must raise serious questions as to the rules for elections in Scotland and the oversight of the Electoral Commission and the rules and punishments they have at their disposal.

It's bad enough that our so called democracy is pretty knackered as it is but the conduct of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, and other parties like the Tories, has to be brought into question. We are short changed enough in broken Britain and these type of stories lean towards an even more corrupt and fixed election system.

While I don't expect anything to come of any of this for Swinson and Hamilton, like it didn't for Carmichael in our fixed system, there has to come a point where enough is enough and we just don't put up with this shit anymore. Are the Scottish Liberal Democrats at it? Going by the media coverage it is starting to look that way.

Update

It appears there is more, wonder if the unionist press will pick this up now, no didn't think so.

I saw this today and had a wee laugh, but also a chill went up my back, is Scotland that stupid, sadly it might be.

It appears that Colonel Tankstraddler (thanks Pete A Bell for that name) is telling her MSPs and MPs to prepare for government. Apparently the Colonel has defeated Nicola Sturgeon and the second independence referendum so now it's time to forget that battle and move on to policy and preparing for Government.

A source close to the Colonel said " When Nicola Sturgeon decided to shelve her plans for another referendum, that was when the battle was won.”

First things first, they have won nothing and if they think YES is going away they are in for a rude awakening. However, we should all be very afraid of the Tories ever getting power in Scotland, and you can bet your ass the Scottish branches of the Liberal Democrats and Labour would happily support them.

People need to remember the rape clause, housing benefit, tax credits, pay freeze, cuts, universal credit, cuts to winter fuel allowance, pension triple lock, rising retirement age , nuclear weapons, food banks, waspi women, redundancy, NHS cuts and the Barnett formula. Anyone who votes for these scumbags need their heads looked at.

God help us all if they ever get control of Holyrood. They are toilet scum, if I have a message to Scottish voters , don't fall for their shit and don't ever vote for these people because if you do you will live to regret it.

So the English Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, is spending £44,000 of our money to get a bathroom suite fitted in his office.

Robbing the poor is obviously a very dirty business for the millionaire secretary doing his best to destroy the NHS in England.

The 15ft-by-8ft shower suite has ceiling-high slate tiles and sensor-activated lights and a large vanity mirror so he can “freshen up” privately after cycling to work .

This is part of a wider 25 million of improvements being made to the Department of Health Offices in Waterloo London. Of course Jeremy Hunt has said the story is false while admitting he requested the bathroom for after long cycles. Tory logic.

At least we can rest easy knowing that while those of us in the public sector continue to suffer minus wage growth Jeremy Hunt (so tempted with that name) is fresh and smelling nice as he slashes and burns public services.

Something that is starting to really get on my nerves, especially when watching Sky Sports in particular, is bloody adverts by Cancer Research.

Now don’t get me wrong, cancer is a horrible illness that devastates families, I know, my father passed away as a result of cancer in the early 1990’s. However, recently it feels like every time I put the news on or watch sports every commercial break has a cancer advertisement. I don’t mind the occasional advert for charity but when it is all the time, employing the shock approach or the heartstrings approach, it is really annoying. Like when I had the Shelter guy at the door a few weeks ago and I advised him that I will never donate to a charity that does door knocking, not through lack of compassion, I worked in homelessness for 7 years, but because the hard sell and the guilt trip gets right on my nerves and it turns me off.

I know that charities struggle without our help, but their methods do not foster a sense of goodwill with sales techniques that are as bad as walking into a mobile phone shop. When you have a charitable hospital in London paying its Chief Exec nearly a million pounds per year and the average salary in the third sector for a Chief Exec being £217,000 per year my sympathy wanes even more. It’s not just me that appears to be getting annoyed with this intrusion, just look online and you will find cancer survivors saying they hate them, former homeless people asking for the homeless ads to stop because they generate frustration in people. When many in this country are relying on food banks and have zero disposable income adding a big dollop of guilt won’t make them feel any better.

I don’t know what the answer is for charities to raise money in an appropriate way but I know that every time I see a Cancer Research advertisement or have Shelter at my door, I am even more inclined to never donate to them than I was before.

The biggest sci-fi movie franchise in history.

I am a big sci-fi fan and Star Wars is certainly up there in my watch list when they are on. But which are the best. For the record here is my order of preference:

Star Wars A New Hope

The first and best for me. Maybe not the best special effects or even the most action but for the main a really good introduction to the characters and it has Alec Guinness in it.

The Empire Strikes Back

I really liked the darker tone to the movie and the interesting twists in the story. They could have made a little more out of the Jedi training that Luke gets from Yoda but a really good film.

Rogue One

This really surprised me by how good and well made it was. The story was good and the effects excellent. This for me is what the Force Awakens could have been like as far as pace etc is concerned.

Return of the Jedi

I hated the Ewoks, there was no need for that part of the story, it was stupid and really detracted from what was overall a good end to the trilogy .

The Force Awakens

I so wanted this to be awesome but it wasn't. It felt like a re-hash of A New Hope in too many ways. JJ Abrams did a better job on the Star Trek movies than on Star Wars, maybe believing his own hype but either way a Force Awakens was good but has so many flaws and things to not like.

Revenge of the Sith

I love the opening scene, the lead in to the battle that is taking place is epic. The end is also very very good as we see the transition of Anakin Skywalker into Darth Vader but like all the prequels they suffer from really bad acting. Hayden Christensen is shockingly bad and the love story just did not need to play such a huge role in the 3 prequels.

Attack of the Clones

Ewan McGregor was the main star in this one for me. He comes into his own in this film and more could and should have been made of his part. Christopher Lee is good also but again the love story and the acting by some let it down. More should have been made of the Count Dooku character as this was an interesting story.

The Phantom Menace

A close last for me but it has to be because of the Jar Jar Binks character and the mini chlorians explanation that just didn't need to be there. Decent special effects and the back story for the Emperor was decent. Samuel L Jackson is nearly always good but so much in this just doesn't work for me.

There you go, just my opinion.

It couldn't get any worse it might just be around the corner. Political Betting has the following as favourites to replace Theresa May.

Is this really the best the Conservatives have to offer. We are so screwed for the longer term it's truly frightening. David Davis is the truly frightening front runner, Jacob-Rees Mogg would certainly be a true posh boy in charge and Ruth Davidson would just shout at everyone but have the Tories ever been as vacuous as they are right now. The fact that Theresa May is Prime Minister shows how bereft of talent the UK, and in particular the English, political scene has become. Labour have Jeremy Corbyn and the Liberals Vince Cable, we really are up shit creek without a paddle.

I don't think anyone really knows if the money behind the Conservatives will force a leadership challenge this year, probably not. They will probably wait until Brexit really starts to be the disaster in negotiations that many think it will be. Whatever happens though the Conservative Party are in serious trouble, as are Labour and the Liberals, and ultimately us. There is no leader in the U.K. that really stands out.

We are fortunate to have Nicola Sturgeon but at a UK level there is no one. It's interesting that Damian Green is so low down, it must be because he is soft on Brexit and while I can't stand any of them he comes across as the most professional to me.

The main players in my lifetime have been Thatcher, Major, Blair, Brown, Cameron and May and the sad reality is that Thatcher and Major were probably the most competent of that bunch but the bar keeps getting set lower. If the list above doesn't encourage or scare people into voting yes nothing ever will.

Saw this story online today from the Telegraph, and I think it was mentioned on the news last night, and just had to have a wee chuckle.

It appears that certain high-ranking EU Officials might be staying in fancy hotels and using private planes which they call air taxis to the tune of more than £90,000. The Telegraph tells us that it was the paper that broke the MP expenses scandal so is reporting this one. A Government source (unnamed of course) is quoted as saying ” One of the many reasons why people voted for Brexit was Brussels love of lavish spending. The Commission still doesn’t get it, they are making exorbitant demands for money, like the divorce bill, only to splash the cash on wasteful spending and out of touch perks”. LOL.

Of course Britain would never ever do that would they.

Just a couple of years ago we learned that Whitehall officials had spent more than £100million on taxis, business class flights and first class rail travel over a four-year period, according to official figures. One rule for the Tories and our politicians and one for the EU and others. The hypocrisy of the Tories and politicians in general really pisses me off, remember during the London riots a student with no criminal record was jailed for six months for taking a £3.50 six pack of water from Lidls, tell me who is guilty of the greater crime.

Politicians and officials everywhere are at it at our expense and if the Tories want to have a go at the EU then get this countries house in order, of course they won’t, but it is so much easier to accuse Johnny foreigner of thieving from the tax payer than addressing our own somewhat more lavish pampering of the Prince and Princess’s of Westminster and the unelected.