Odds and Ends Monday 13th February 2023 – Delusion to Candidate Fixing

Wishful Thinking lol – Ben Wallace has announced the UK will conduct a security review after a series of objects in Western airspace were shot down by the US military, including a suspected Chinese spy balloon.

Who gives a crap what goes on in colonial UK, we can’t even defend ourselves and the Tories are so riddled with foreign money most countries probably know all they need to know about insignificant UK. Transport Minister Richard Holden said on Monday that Britain would deal “robustly” with China, which he called “a hostile state”, adding that it was “possible” Beijing had flown spy balloons over the UK. LOL, the Chinese Boy Scouts and Girl Guides could take on the UK military right now given the state it is in and kick its ass.

Talk about delusions of grandeur.

Not a good look – Governments and Councils have credit cards, no issue with that at all. What I do have a problem with is some of the spending, The searchable database of expenditure on government procurement cards (GPCs) above £500 includes payments for luxury hotels for ministers, gifts for foreign dignitaries, and entertainment. Spending on the cards has risen 70 percent since 2010 and some of the worst examples of what Labour calls “hideous waste” include Liz Truss, then foreign secretary, and her officials spending almost £1,500 on lunch at Jakarta’s most exclusive restaurants and the Treasury, then led by Rishi Sunak, splashing out £4,500 on Venice hotels and £3,000 for art.

Really, I can get certain hotels for security at a push but the rest is a real slap in the face for the rest of us. It was Labour who brought in this system so they won’t make too big a deal about it but this is just more out of touch us and them, the UK is already broke and borrowing at a rate that we cannot sustain. The people who will pay in the end will be the poor, it won’t be the civil servants or the MPs that is for sure, it will be cuts to public services and benefits, this country is broken beyond repair.

It is down to Sturgeon but nothing to be happy about – I really do think that Nicola Sturgeon has slowly but surely since 2014 done serious damage to the cause of independence. GRR might be the focus for many right now but this has been coming for years due to her shocking governance of Scotland and of her Government. I also agree with James Kelly this is nothing to be happy or gloat about in any shape or form as it damages the YES cause at a time when Scotland badly needs to escape its colonial nightmare.

Wither we like it or not we do need the SNP to further our cause, we also need the members to get the party sorted out, to get rid of the grifters, to get rid of Murrell, and to replace their leader before we lose it all. WoS is also correct that Sturgeon’s bluff might be about to be called if the members have the balls to do that, something has to give or we might as well all just have a long holiday.

James Kelly writes “When I went on Twitter this morning, every second tweet I saw was from Alba members, often very, very senior Alba members, seemingly gloating about the Ashcroft poll and claiming it showed Nicola Sturgeon had destroyed the cause of independence or set it back decades.  It should be a statement of the obvious that this is not generally the way pro-independence parties behave – for very obvious reasons we normally talk independence up, not down”. (Scot Goes Pop)

It is time for Alba members to take the moral high ground in so many ways. Alba has highlighted the issues within the SNP, Alba has been able to keep the independence debate front and centre, focus the minds of many in the SNP. Now is the time to step back from being all that bothered about what the SNP do and focus on building Alba. Alba needs to get someone elected to keep the momentum going, need to continue to develop policy, to show that it is a serious party with the potential to be an alternative, and let the SNP destroy themselves.

They are all at it, party members just don’t matter – SCOTTISH Labour has been accused of a “stitch up” to help secure a Westminster candidacy for a schoolmate and neighbour of leader Anas Sarwar.

The SNP did it with Angus Robertson standing as an MSP by making it impossible for Joanna Cherry to stand for MSP, Robertson being a carrot eater and Joanna maybe not so much. Labour in recent years has a long history of placing candidates at the expense of local preferred candidates. Members have reacted,

The source said: “It’s a stitch-up. He came within 10 per cent of beating Jackie Baillie for the deputy leadership, so he clearly comes up to the standard expected by party members. Yet he doesn’t come up to Jackie’s standard? The reality is that the Left has been routed. People aren’t even coming forward because they think there’s no point.”

Another said: “He failed vetting because he’s on the Left and that’s it.”

I don’t know why people bother being in the SNP or Labour Parties and as a member of Alba if they ever went down this road, or all women short lists, then they would lose my membership very very quickly. Voters are just viewed with contempt, now members are just viewed in the same way and as cash cows.