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    Monday, 2 November 2009

    He's not local after all

    A few weeks ago I posted on how important being local is in a by-election. Well, it would seem that SNP Glasgow North East Candidate David Kerr is indeed not local to Glasgow. The Labour party have unearthed some campaign literature, below, from the 2000 Falkirk by-election and from the 2001 General Election in which it states in both that David Kerr is born in Cumbernauld.

    I hasten to add, I don’t for a moment believe “being local” is that important but it does look daft, ala Margaret Curran, when you say you are local and it turns out you aren’t…



    Tuesday, 27 October 2009

    Iain Gray's first re-shuffle

    Despite only being in the job for a year, and on the back of some particularly bad press coverage, Iain Gray has decided to reshuffle his Shadow Cabinet at Holyrood, details of which can be found here.

    One wonders though, is this merely re-arranging the deckchairs on the Titanic as opposed to looking at how he is steering the ship?

    Friday, 23 October 2009

    I know what I'm watching tomorrow night...

    It’s the end of the world as we know it but I feel fine

    Below is an article I have just posted on the Steamie blog.

    ScottishToryBoy: It’s the end of the world as we know it but I feel fine

    I thought I’d give my thoughts after Nick Griffins appearance on Question Time last night. I should also point out at this juncture that, as I had said, I didn’t actually watch last night’s Question Time. Admittedly I am toying with watching it tonight but probably won’t. However, it’s been difficult to avoid the topic as nearly every blog, newspaper and news broadcast carries the story.


    It’s probably fair to say that both the Beeb and the BNP will be pleased following last night’s programme based on viewing figures alone as some 8million tuned in to see Griffin on QT – nearly three times the usual viewing figures for the show. I also think Nick Griffin has grounds for his complaint about his treatment on the show. Instead of focusing on current affairs, last night’s Question Time focused solely on Griffin himself and his views – it was, in fact, Griffin Time.

    Yes, his views are disgusting and deserve to be debated and taken apart but Question Time is about discussing current affairs not teaming up on a single politician – something that will work in his favour as it will have garnered him some sympathy. Griffin complaining is also an inspired move as it will result in him staying on the news agenda even longer.

    For me though, the most delicious irony of this whole affair was the anti-fascist groups trying to ban him from appearing on the show. Sounds a lot like censorship and suppressing freedom of speech to me…

    Update:

    I'm also enjoying Malc in the Burgh's post about being a fascist to oppose fascism.

    Thursday, 22 October 2009

    A lot of fuss over nothing?

    Below is an article I just posted on the Steamie blog.


    I think I’m probably one of the few bloggers that hasn’t yet written about Nick Griffin appearing on Question Time tonight, so I thought I’d break the duck now.

     
    Based on some of the rantings stuff I have read, you would think we were approaching some sort of apocalypse as opposed to an elected representative being given a platform on Question Time. It is mostly those in the New Labour camp that have the biggest gripe with the leader of the extreme left-wing BNP appearing on TV. Young Yousuf of YappingYousuf fame seems to have gotten himself worked up into a wee tizz over this and Welsh Secretary Peter Hain wanted the BNP banned from appearing and is still handing out free legal advice.



    Maybe I’m just getting cynical in my old age, but I suspect both the BBC and BNP will be fairly happy with the media coverage that this whole affair is getting. Like many I believe the views of the BNP are utterly abhorrent but down to their electoral “success” they are perfectly entitled to appear on Question Time. I note that David Dimbleby has been cleared to quiz Griffin on his denial of the Holocaust.



    I should also note, I’m not going to even bother watching the show, that’s how little I actually care.

    Wednesday, 21 October 2009

    Jim Hume is a man

    I'm sure very few people that follow Scottish Politics will have any doubts over Jim Hume's gender but I'm grateful that the Scottish Lib Dem website's profile of Mr. Hume has stated that he is indeed a man.
    Born in Peebles and raised in Selkirkshire, Jim Hume is a born and bred man from the South of Scotland
    Phew, glad that one has been cleared up.

    Tuesday, 20 October 2009

    Guest post: Deanthetory from New Right


    In a sign of laziness, I mean...err... opening up debate on this blog, I have another guest post this time by Dean the Tory from the recently discovered, and rather excellent, New Right blog. I asked Dean to blog on whatever he wished so below is his post which is a mixture of a rebutal of Yousuf's recent guest post as well as a wonderful commentary on Conservatism in Scotland.

    Enjoy,

    ScottishToryBoy

    Guest post: Dean the Tory from New Right

    In his post [13th October] Yousif Hamid concluded that “The debate on prevailing ideology [of Scottish politics] is far more complex than first seems”. It is my intention to refute this, but go further and explain that due to an inherent leftwing bias in Scottish society the modern Scottish Conservatives must revert back to ‘old hat’ One Nationism.


    Rose tinted lenses

    What first strikes a reader of Hamids’ guest article is the sheer volume of historical generalisations Hamid seems content to peddle.

    The rose tinted vision of yesterdays Tories is an apt point in being. Hamid initially correctly observes Labour haven’t always dominated Scotland; “it is worth remembering that Scotland has not been Labour since the dawn of time”. Yet by pointing to the 50.1% Tory domination in the 1950’s as evidence of a right-wing Scotland is rose tinted history.

    Yes Labour never always dominated Scotland, yes the Tories once did- but this doesn’t amount to a hill of beans. As the 1950’s Tory electoral coalition was all-encompassing and overwhelmingly ‘left wing’ [i.e. patrician class] in character. This 1950’s Tory Scotland was reliant upon a loose political coalition of ‘Liberal Unionists’, ‘National Liberals’ and finally ‘Unionist’ MPs. These MPs elected as part of Scottish Toryism derived from the patrician class of consensus politicians. They valued consensus, they read Disraeli’s Sybil- in modern speak they were ‘wets’.

    Their political heirs became among the most enthusiastic Heathites in the 1970’s, so Hamids’ interpretation of a Tory Scotland therefore equating to a right-wing Scotland is false. Scotland has never elected espousers of right-wing [thatcherite] values.

    Thatcherism without Thatcher?

    Hamids’ rose tinted theology does continue, evolving to the point where he speculates that perhaps Scots “wanted “Thatcherism”, but not Thatcher”. This strange argument moves forward towards somehow hinting at a secret Scottish rightism. It seems Yousif Hamid has read works of Quintin Hogg; who once wrote “Scotland is a Conservative society with radical pretensions”.

    I however once again hold that Hamid is either deliberately or accidentally conflating or speculating over Scottish political history. Take a look for example at Sir Malcolm Rifkind, he is on record as saying the fault with 1980’s Toryism was that it “avoided selling Thatcherism to the Scots, rather Scottish Tories positioned themselves as the protectors of Scots; keeping back the worst excesses”.

    How then does this square with Hamids’ romanticism? I’d like to highlight that a high level of uptake on right-to-buy doesn’t prove a popular outpouring for ideological Thatcherism. Especially if Rifkind is to be believed. Did Scots approve of her monetarism? No, and when Heath tried to implement it before Maggie he presided over the largest exodus of grass-roots Tory members in history. What about the privatisations? Of course not. Indeed the Scottish attitude to centre-right politics like Thatcherite economic liberalism, and centre-right economic monetarism was best demonstrated in the Scots reaction to the ‘Sermon on the Mount’ speech. I’d suggest to Hamid that that Scots reaction displays the real character of Scots towards rightist economic politics, not right to buy.

    Tory Democracy

    The future for contemporary Scottish Tories like me therefore could be construed as bleak. And let me tell you it shall be if we continue to perpetuate the historical belief that Scots are somehow secretly Thatcherites, or somehow actually really agreed with the right-wing politics of the 1980’s.

    If any future is to exist for Scottish Conservatism is to exist we must look back to the successes of One Nationism. As Dr Thorpe wrote in the Daily Telegraph the day before Camerons’ conference address, “Cameron should model himself on Supermac”. May I stretch this slightly and suggest “The Scottish Conservatives should model ourselves on Supermac”?

    The means to achieve this leftward shift in our own party back to the values of 1950’s Toryism must involve the revocation of the 1965 merger, and the ending of the 1977 reforms. In short Scottish Conservatives must take back control over their own future. We are a party in a country inherently left wing, and we are the heirs of a consevativism which was itself only ever reflective of this society in which we live when we accepted this.

    I call thus for a return to One Nationist values, and an end with our affiliation to the corrupted and dead Thatcherite legacy.

    Ends

    The musings of Dean are more regularly found on his excellent blog, which can be found here: http://new-right.blogspot.com/