Dunfermline Building Society

Labour now wants to force the Dunfermline under its heel and sell it off and already has a buyer lined up. Lloyds, anyone?

Gie's a break

Poor wee Gordon Broon can't get a break. Just when he thinks he's getting his head above water and is about to save another world up pops something else to puncture his balloon. First there's the Governor of the Bank of England saying that there are no more pennies for spending, then there's Brazil telling him to naff off, now there's the rest of the world saying that this G20 summit is a bit of fakery. When other nations' leaders are calling your bluff you know you've been rumbled.

All political careers end in failure - some more noticeable than others.

SNP to take Dundee

It looks like Dundee is now definitely on course to take become an SNP-run city next week. Lord Provost John Letford (old-fashioned kind of politician) has left the Labour party after many years of membership (I don't know how many, but it could be half a century - John is 73).

Well done those councillor chaps. It will take a long, long time to repair the damage caused by years of Labour rule - as it is doing in other areas of Scotland - but at least you're now in a position to get started.Step we gaily on we go ...

Gordon Brown to impose sanctions against Scotland?

Since Gordon Brown is threatening sanctions against Iran if it doesn't develop nuclear power and Labour is desperate to force new nuclear power stations on Scotland against the wishes of Scotland's Government, can we be expecting tanks on our lawns?

All women shortlists

My good friend Kezia Dugdale mounted a fine attack on misogyny and a spirited defence of Labour's all-women shortlists and then spoiled it a wee bit by becoming partisan (not something I ever do). People may have been intrigued by her assertion that Labour has "well over 300 members" in her constituency given that Labour's membership numbers are falling, the figures in Edinburgh are:
Edinburgh East - 356
Edinburgh North & Leith - 364
Edinburgh South - 425
Edinburgh South West - 395
Edinburgh West - 194

Meaning that the SNP has more members than Labour in every single seat in Edinburgh - and our membership is growing.

But back to the main point of my wittering - Kezia pointed out the rule that applies to Labour selection:

the Labour Party's current policy - led by Harriet Harman - is that all seats where the incumbent Labour MP is standing down should be all women shortlists

Which would seem awfy clear, but other Labour bloggers suggest that it may, just possibly, be a bit less clear than that.

Come on Labour, sort yourself out!

Nigel G

Like Ali only less well dressed. There's a tale or two about Nigel Griffiths being deselected. Given what they've already put up with, why would Edinburgh South Labour Party want to punish him for an extramarital affair in his House of Commons office on Remembrance Day?

More paint, Duggie, more paint

There's a wee daft tale about Alex Salmond being furious about the Commission to Repaint Devolution intending to recommend that London should have control over some things.

Terribly important except -

1 Why would Salmond be furious over the recommendations of this Labour thinktank rather than any other Labour thinktank?

2 Why would anyone be furious now given that this news was out months ago?

3 How come the quotes given by the spokeschappie didn't reflect any fury?

4 Surely everyone knows that Westminster can over-rule Scotland on absolutely anything it wants and, therefore, there is nothing that can be given back to Westminster except our voice.

5 Is the Calman Commission not just a wee bit embarrassing?

Apologise? Apologise? Apologise to who?

Just go in and ask for Operator 42 ...

Here's a bizarre story - way back on the 10th of February, Martin Bright wrote a piece saying that Whitehall Officials had been ordered to make a dvd of President Obama's apologies over the Daschle nonsense (because, of course, Obama can do no wrong) to allow Brown to learn how to apologise. A story, you would think, that your average spin-doctor would snort at before moving swiftly on. You'd be wrong. Two days later Bright reported that, rather than snorting and ignoring the tale as you'd expect them to, Brown's team were denying it. Brown's staff later weighed in with more nonsense. What did they think they would be achieving?

Bright was already speculating back then that it suggested that Brown would not be doing any apologising. Whether he should or not is a moot point, I suppose, but the Northern Rock story today suggests that Bright was right. Whether he was doing it deliberately or not, Brown was responding to allegations that the bank was mismanaged by the people he put in after nationalisation by saying it was right to nationalise it.

Obfuscation, misdirection, discombobulation, or did he just not understand the question?

Whose bus?

I was most taken with the recent redesign of the Scottish branch of the Labour Party - especially the use of the Saltire (I hope George isn't too upset) - and I loved Iain Gray in John Major - the sequel which is what caught my attention...

There was Iain in full flow, saying "my family's a bus painting, bus checking, bus conducting family on the Edinburgh buses" - and there was a Lothian bus going about its lawful business at the start of the broadcast - just to show that it was an Edinburgh bus, you understand. Apart from a wee concern over vehicle emmissions (double-decker, one politician, one camera operator, one make-up artist and two cheerleaders isn't very environmetnally friendly), I admired it for a while, the quality of the production, the message being about being a man of the people, the clever use of a Lothian Bus... "Hang on" said the wee partisan voice inside me, "just a diddly minute - those buses are publicly owned!" There was only one course of action...

I submitted a Freedom of Information request to our prize-winning, well-loved and publicly-owned Lothian Buses, and it went a wee bit like this:

Please supply me, under the Freedom of Information legislation, with a copy of the receipt issued for payment for the bus which was used by Iain Gray in his capacity as Scottish Labour Leader to film the broadcast which can be seen here: http://keziadugdale.blogspot.com/2009/03/scottish-labour-ppb.html I would also appreciate information on who the invoice and receipt were issued to and an indication of the usual cost of hiring a bus for this purpose and for how many days the bus was hired and on what dates.

Straightforward, I thought, and I'll have the information in 20 working days. I didn't bank on the incredible speed of Lothian Buses FOI department! Seven days later (get that, all you other FOI people, that's service) I got a reply from Lothian Buses which read something like this:

Having examined the video clip using the link to Kezia Dugdale’s blog which you were kind enough to provide, I can confirm that one of our buses does appear briefly in the opening sequence. The resolution of the YouTube clip is inadequate to allow the specific vehicle to be identified but it is operating westbound on Service 12 passing the bus stop in East Hermitage Place, just west of Restalrig Road. That view of the exterior of our bus lasts for approximately three seconds and the bus was in normal public service at the time.
In contrast, the more extensive footage featuring Iain Gray inside a bus was not shot in one of our vehicles. The detail in the video is insufficient to identify the individual bus which was used but, for guidance, the last bus of that specific type in our ownership was disposed of in 2004. Since no vehicle of any kind was hired from us in relation to the film made for this broadcast, I cannot provide the information you
request.

"Jings!" Said I in my best Oor Wullie voice, "Iain didn't use Lothian Buses!" This could only mean one thing - he hired a bus from someone else. What's wrong with our prize-winning, well-loved and publicly-owned Lothian Buses? Why would a Labour leader try to deceive us in this way? I felt terribly hurt. It might be a donation, I thought, grasping desperately at a passing straw, so I checked Iain's register of interests - Iain's been right up front about donations and things - not for him a wee Jersey experience - nothing. The thing was made for Labour's conference, it must have been done more than a month ago - he must have paid for it.

The only conclusion I can reach is that Iain hired a bus from a private company, making sure that it had internal livery similar to Lothian Buses, had a few shots taken of our prize-winning, well-loved and publicly-owned Lothian Buses in operation and sought to misdirect us about using our bus company. Oh Iain, how could you?

Who was it he used? It's so humiliating!

Mind how you go!

Brown at what cost?

Flabber your gasted thank you very much! I was perusing the blog of a Dundee wifie and came upon an exchange with another person which I can't find again, but it did point me to a story in the Steamie about Goggsy Broon. Apparently he pays £150 for a haircut (I pay a tenner, including tip - less of your cheeky comments up the back there), £795 for a suit, £65 for a shirt, £350 for a pair of shoes (and buys six pairs at a time), £14 for a pair of socks (which he buys in 20 packs), and leaves half the food on his plate (my mother would give him a thick ear).

Right in touch with the ordinary people struggling to survive in his economic disaster then...

While I'm on the subject and having a right good rant, I was in the Doctors' waiting room (you've got to watch these Green types, you know) and read James' bit about Brown threatening Iran with sanctions if it doesn't develop nuclear power. Hah, thinks I, that daft laddie has read that wrong and I moseyed (how do you spell that word?) on over to the original article to get the truth (for use in mocking activities).

Shocked, stunned and not a little amazed was I! I had a look elsewhere and things might look a bit different here and there (why do all these lightweights want to be Barack Obama's wee brother? Surely they can stand on their own records rather than have to pretend that "Mr President would have said it if he'd been me") but still there's Brown driving nuclear power down the throats of the Iranians. A Labour Prime Minister, a Labour Prime Minister, flying around the world delivering nuclear power. Through the looking glass indeed!