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In: Margaret Hamilton, Uncategorized
With: 0 Comments

January is a dreary enough month without everyone commenting on the farce that is being played out in Westminster. Many enlightened people are aware that the UK Government are the laughing stock of the world at the moment. BBC happy to to keep reporting on it. Not giving a toss about the blatant lies they spin. So enough! Let’s look at the positive things happening in Scotland, being driven by that Scottish Government that they hate to report about because those nasty SNP non persons are running the show. So, positive story number one. More than 3,000 new homes are to be built in WestRead More →

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In: Jim Lynch
With: 0 Comments

I am indebted to Jim McGugan of Letham, Angus for sending me cards of comparisons between Scotland and 5 different countries; Ireland, Iceland, Norway, Denmark and Finland. He compares Area, Population, Density, Country GDP, GDP per head, Currency, Borders with, In EU?, or with other arrangements, and finally Nuclear bombs:  this last has Scotland the sole “beneficiary”. The cards are published by Bill Robertson, 1 Drimmie Place, Letham, Angus, DD8 2DW of the SNP in Letham, supporting Normal Nations everywhere, as a counter to the “Too wee, too poor and too stupid” and are being delivered by Letham Branch, one country at a time- waryRead More →

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In: Uncategorized

WHAT THE TORIES ARE REALLY DOING TO EU NATIONALS by petewishart Over Christmas, when very few people were paying attention, the Home Office put out a video and further information on its EU Settlement Scheme. Full of stock photos of smiling people, apparently having a whale of a time, the video provided a chilling and provocative reminder of the precarious situation EU nationals living within our community endure as we approach Brexit. In a rare moment of clarity the Home Office confirmed that EU nationals would have to ‘apply’ to remain in the UK under the Settlement Scheme and a new menacing tone was introduced. TheRead More →

On:
In: Stephen Bird

It is often said that people get the leadership they deserve. If so, it’s hard to imagine just what the membership of the Labour Party have done to deserve this lot. For the last year or so Labour have sought to hide their differences over Brexit behind claims that what they want is a General Election. Yet now, when the Government are floundering hopelessly does he go for the jugular? No! Instead Craven Corbyn plays socialist debating society games. Instead of leading the charge to get rid of this shambolic Tory government, he and Labour’s Shadow Cabinet table a motion of No Confidence not inRead More →

On:
In: Maureen Forbes, Uncategorized

At the time of writing, the political instability of the country is astounding. After months upon months of wrangling and backtracking for a deal that even the leave voters have deserted, this afternoon, the Prime Minister revoked on the plan to hold a Commons vote on the decisions that had been reached on a Brexit withdrawal. Knowing that she would be heavily defeated by her own government as the proposals stood, she announced that the vote would be deferred until further tweaks had been sought from the EU. Our exit from the European Union bears no resemblance to what those who voted leave were promisedRead More →

On:
In: Margaret Hamilton

Well those damn pesky Scots (polite version) appear to be getting somewhere. Nicola has been down in Westminster chatting to Theresa about a third way. Ian Blackford has been leading his team in constantly chipping away in the debate about how things will affect Scotland.Talks have been held with other opposition parties. Meanwhile a cross party group have been taking the possibility of just being able to say ‘no, we want to reverse the Brexit decision’ (the simplified one sentence version) to the European Court of Justice. ‘In a written statement, the ECJ said Mr Campos Sanchez-Bordona’s opinion was that if a country decided toRead More →

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In: Political News

by Pete Wishart It was Norman Lamont who said of the equally disastrous John Major Government ‘we give the impression of being in office but not in power’. Such is the situation with this Government they don’t even give the impression of being in office! Never before has such overwhelming shambles characterised a Government’s approach to running the country. The tenuous majority they secured with the £1 billion DUP bung seems to be abandoned as the DUP vote against the Government. As the sound of ‘never’ reverberates from the opposition lobby this must be the worst political investment in history. How this Government must wishRead More →

On:
In: Jim Lynch

The title “Power devolved is power retained” is attributed to the late Enoch Powell, a hard right Tory also remembered for “rivers of blood”, his condemnation of immigrants, chiefly if not exclusively, coloured.  He became a Northern Ireland Member of Parliament, which seems appropriate. As I look at the cantrips of the  Tory Party, and at a  confused Labour Party, I have to say I am not sure what will happen even before I get to the end of the page – the Liberals still not sure.  However, the direction of travel is evident. Before and since the inception of the Scottish Parliament the ToriesRead More →

On:
In: Grant Thoms

His Excellency Lubomir Rehak, the Amabassador of Slovakia to the Court of St James (aka Betty’s Club), gave a talk at the University of Stirling this week with the Provost and past Provost of Stirling in attendance with the civic regalia on show. The occasion of this talk was to mark the centenary of independence for Czechoslovakia in the aftermath of World War 1. He traced its modern history as an independent country with Czech Republic from 1919-39, skipped past the 1939-45 when Slovakia was a separate but crypto-Nazi state until the Iron Curtain fell in the aftermath of the second World War. Touching onRead More →

On:
In: Maureen Forbes

As we reach the centenary of the end of the First World War and reflect upon the sacrifice of all the young men who fell it is clear that, statistically, Scotland had a higher percentage of soldier deaths than elsewhere in the union. Often, the kilts and bagpipes that marked their heritage also marked their bravery as they led the troops into battle. Everyone will have their own stories or their own local folklore but the stories I probably find the hardest to understand are those when multiple members of the same family were lost and Caithness has plenty of these to remember. I sawRead More →