Margaret Hamilton

We are 2 weeks from polling day. I have voted. It’s going to be a long wait now.  Somehow I have managed to hear most of the main parties election launches listening to the radio while I work. There seems to be a heavy emphasis on how to fill in your voting papers. This could be construed as thinking we are stupid but I’ll err on the side of caution and assume it’s because there has been a big increase of first time postal voters What about the council who sent out voting papers that did not include instructions as to what gets put inRead More →

Westminster does not have enough money, they say, to pay healthcare workers a decent pay rise. Meantime convoys of nuclear weapons have been travelling up to Scotland. Not replacements though. We hear this week that instead of reducing the number of warheads we have to 180 they are going to increase to 260. Why do we need all these? The picture that comes to my mind is little boys comparing their anatomy and seeing who can pee the furthest. More likely though is the bully boy scenario. The threat of actually wiping out a sizable part of the world. I fear for the next fewRead More →

As lockdown continues the topics are getting harder to find. However, social media got a bit hot last night (Monday) among SNP members, some saying they were resigning their membership. This seems to have become fashionable. I’m not sure resigning is necessary as you just need to stop your monthly payment. However, if you think you need to draw attention to yourself, I can see how an email or a letter of resignation might be something you would want to do. The SNP Westminster group was reshuffled on Monday. This is something that happens from time to time. It is no great deal usually. However,Read More →

So that was another embarrassing week by our Prime Minister. Goes to Brussels for a meal and a chat. He had tried to have separate talks with the individual leaders of EU countries. They didn’t play his game and remained a unified unit. Split and divide is what the tories do best. Some Yes campaigners need to waken up to this. Rather than behave in a statesmanlike manner at the dinner he decides to play the bullish clown and make some crude and tasteless jokes about some of the EU countries. Then the following day, at a press conference with Ursula von der Leyen, heRead More →

We had been feeling the pressure for a while. The daily briefing from the First Minister. The lack of briefing from the Prime Minister. The weird numbers being thrown around by the Westminster cabinet and their advisors. The negators on social media and given space on mainstream media. The Council leaders, business owners, union leaders constantly shouting the negatives and ‘we need help’. We all need help. The people making the best of the situation, changing operations to keep going, helping others out were not being noticed or heard. Then the US presidential elections. The lying, the bullying, the threats. The inciting of hatred andRead More →

Today (Tuesday) at the Scottish government briefing, the First Minister made another attempt to treat us as grownups. She carefully explained the rise in numbers of infection, hospital admissions and deaths. She explained that the science shows that the rise is primarily caused by the infection getting into households and spreading to those within the household. Last week there was an outcry, quite rightly, at Margaret Ferrier for knowingly travelling on public transport while having felt unwell and then testing positive. Let us examine then how the virus gets into your house. Someone, knowingly or unknowingly, carrying the virus may have visited you. A memberRead More →

This week started with new Scottish Tory leader landing himself in it. In his ‘I am right’ manner he put the radio presenter in his place, he thought. Trouble is the person he quoted was listening to the programme and was very angry at being misquoted. You got to admit the Scottish Tory leaders have spectacular abilities to land themselves in the proverbial. Then Tuesday arrived. All the issues that have arisen during Covid 19 are to be looked at by the government in the last programme for government of this parliamentary term. Some snippets from her speech :-“The Economy Secretary will publish the implementationRead More →

A new political organisation has been born. Apparently, the aim is to bring together people who don’t like to belong to a political party, to discuss, debate, form policies and field list candidates. Lifted from the about section of their facebook page ‘The Alliance for Independence was created to give YES, Indy groups and individuals a voice in Scotland’s parliament and to remove as many non indy msp’s as possible.’ They wish to attract all small bands of independence supporters and YES groups. My take on the reason there are so many small groups of independence supporters is because they all can’t get on together.Read More →

In recent months there has been a plethora of debate about tactics for the second, list, vote in the Scottish Parliamentary General Election next year. With more opinions and assertions than I could shake the proverbial stick at. Very few accompanied by an analysis I have to say. One thing they tend to share is an acceptance that anyone voting SNP in the 1st paper can be readily transferred on a whim. WRONG! One because lots of people will vote SNP 1 & 2 regardless. Two because lots of folk were persuaded to do that in 2016 with very little extra to show for it.Read More →