Cameron/Brown tv debate?

Fresh from a fairly resounding cuffing at the hands of the BBC’s Nick Robinson on Newsnight last night, the deputy Prime Minister – in all but title, Lord Mandelson today told the London Evening Standard that he didn’t envisage Gordon Brown having an issue with a live televised debate with David Cameron. However, it would appear that Gordon Brown hasn’t dropped his opposition to the idea judging by this piece on the Times website. Not only do you have to question who is actually in charge but you have to wonder what exactly Gordon Brown is scared of. I’m sure many people would be very interested in a head to head debate between the two people vying to be the Prime Minister.

I have to agree with Tom Harris though; there is absolutely no reason for Nick Clegg – he’s the leader of the Liberal Democrats - to be there. You have to wonder if Clegg would throw his toys out of the pram like he did with the Obama visit.

Faux rage not a faux-pas

This morning David Cameron was being interviewed on Virgin radio and when asked about twitter stated that "a lot of twits make a twat." A very jovial off the cuff remark you’d think, right? Oh no, it’s generated “rage” across the media ranging from this preposterous piece on Conservativehome to articles in both the Grauniad and The Telegraph.

Ridley Grove on ConHome even asks if David Cameron speaks like that in front of children. Words can’t express my thoughts on such a question, the below image can though.

Blimey

I just got emailed the below image of David Kerr brandishing a gun, the story was reported in the Sunday Herald this morning.

Who is the retiring Scottish Lib Dem MP?

One has heard murmourings that a Scottish Liberal Democrat MP is to announce his retirement today. Anyone got anything to add?

***Update****

Turns out that it is John Barrett, the MP for Edinburgh West, that is standing down. More info here.

Labour humiliated in Norwich North

The result from the Norwich North by-election is not long in and Labour's 5,459 majority has been turned into a Tory one of 7,348 - a swing of 16.5%. A number of commentators were speculating earlier as to what the Tory majority would be but few, if any, predicted anything like the size of the final majority.

The full result is as follows:

Chloe Smith (Conservative) - 13,591 (39.5% +6.3%)
Chirs Ostrowski (Labour) - 6,243 (18.2% -26.7%)
April Pond (Lib Dem) - 4,803
Glenn Tingle (UKIP) - 4,068
Rupert Read (Green) - 3,350
Craig Murray (Honest Man) - 953
Robert West (BNP) - 941
Bill Holden (Ind) - 166
Alan "Howling Laud" Hope (Loony) - 144
Anne Fryatt (NOTA) - 59
Thomas Burridge (Libertarian) - 36
Peter Baggs (Ind) - 23

More cricket

The below press release just dropped into the inbox of ScottishToryBoy. One has to wonder if Sandra White will be going along to show her support…

SPORTS MINISTER SHOWS SUPPORT FOR SCOTTISH CRICKET

Sports Minister Shona Robison will show her support for Scotland’s cricketers at the European Under 15 Cricket Championships tomorrow (Friday July 24, 2009).

Scotland takes on Ireland in the final round of the tournament, as they bid to retain their U15 European Champions title.

The Minister has recently announced over 415,000 pounds funding for cricket in Scotland which will contribute towards continued efforts to grow the sport at community level.

Ms Robison said:

“Cricket has a long and proud history in Scotland and is also one of our fastest growing sports.”

“Cricket Scotland has been involved in fantastic work on the ground to engage with young people and encourage more community involvement in the game.”

“I have recently announced sportscotland funding to help build on these achievements and provide coaching and development costs to ensure our cricketers are the best they can be. I will be cheering on our young champions as they bid to retain their title this afternoon.”

ENDS

Can the Lib Dems curb their spending commitments?

Today the Independent carries an interview with Liberal Democrat leader Chris Clegg in which he makes some "interesting" remarks in relation to manifesto spending commitments; the piece can be read here. The premise of the article is that due to the current economic plight some of the promises cherished by Clegg and his band of merry folk will be downgraded from official party policy to mere "aspirations". Apparently this is an attempt to convince voters they, the Lib Dems, would be able to make the deep spending cuts needed to fill the hole in the public finances. Maybe they think that's the reason folk don't entertain the idea of them being the party of Government.

 

Here's a wee snippet of the article:

 

"Mr Clegg issued a wake-up call to a party which has traditionally had a long shopping list of policies but been less convincing about how it would pay for them. Such an approach was fine for "an era of plenty", he argued, but would no longer carry conviction in times of "austerity".

 

He announced two rules that will govern his party's policies: no spending commitments without cuts elsewhere to fund them, and, similarly, no promises of tax cuts without increases in other taxes."

 

Now, we know the Scottish Liberal Democrats have put themselves at odds with Clegg before – such as when Clegg called for all Lib Dem MPs to hand back any gains made through the sale of taxpayer-funded homes a plan not exactly supported by the Lib Dem MSP group what with Tavish standing to gain £120,000 alone, but will this call from Clegg result in the Scottish Lib Dems reign in their sometimes preposterous spending commitments? Since Lavish Tavish, and boy has he earned that nickname, took over from Nicol Stephen as leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats his Scottish party, at Westminster; Holyrood and Local Government level, have made spending commitments worth an astonishing £12billion pounds.

 

A cynic, I heard that, may suggest that these calls were in order to garner media coverage in their respective local newspapers safe in the knowledge that they – the Lib Dems – will never have to deliver them. One has to wonder, and I do I honestly do, if Lavish Tavish and his crew will take any heed of Clegg's words or will they batter on regardless. Calls by the party range from their fabled 2p tax cut – not only seemingly made up on the hoof but also a policy which would cost a whopping billion pounds to introduce – to a call for new electoral board management.

 

Time will tell if the party will curb its spending commitments but I suspect the spending commitments list of the Scottish Lib Dems, a hefty document itself, will continue to grow when Holyrood reconvenes after the summer hols.

Norwich North by-election guest blog

A tired guest blog spot today from Iain McGill - PPC for Edinburgh North & Leith.

Edinburgh Conservatives pitched in over the weekend to help Chloe Smith win this weeks Norwich North byelection.

Iain McGill, Edinburgh North & Leith Westminster Candidate & Stewart Geddes (Edinburgh West) were on the 07.05 flight from Edinburgh to Norwich on Saturday, and returned on Sunday night flight at 19.25

We found a very well run campaign, lots of supporters pitching in a & Conservative victory well within our grasp.

We were pressed into immediate action, and kept active by a very efficient team in our sector - they turned the Conservative Home coachload of 29 London based volunteers around and onto the streets of Norwich in 5mins flat so the 2 Scots were dispatched tout de suite!

We delivered all Saturday morning, had a pub lunch with 2 new friends, and canvassed for the rest of the day - we canvassed the traditional Labour area of Norwich - and got a good reception - all things considered!

There is a real voter frustration - they liked their old MP despite his expenses and feel he was shabbily treated by Gordon Brown - and a lot of apathy aswell.

A well advertised hustings in the previous week brought 12 candidates out and 3 members of the public!

Our activists outnumbered oppostitions be a long way - and have for the whole campaign - volunteers helping Chloe so far now number into the thousands - really impressive numbers - and our literature is sharper and more proffessional looking than the other parties.

The other parties are fighting a campaign based on the fact that Chloe worked as a researcher for an MP in the past and that she would vote to repeal fox hunting - "Vote Labour or the Fox Gets It" and "Be Careful Not To Wake Up With A Tory MP On Friday Morning" giving us a
giggle in campaign HQ.

Saturday night was catching up with friends from St Andrews (Gabrielle, Stephanie and James deserve mentions) and London and doing our bit to boost the local economy with curry, beers and dancing.

Sunday was back to pounding the streets - lots of deliverys as the never ending mountain of literature got delivered - still, it beat Chloes Sunday job - personally signing thousands of letters - writers cramp!!!

Eric Pickles was touring the patch thanking volunteers - he's always fun - and seemed pleased that Scots had made the effort.

We got lunch at HQ with the Conservative Home bus - did they pay extra to hire a blue one? - it was good to catch up with friends like Chris Kelly and Havard Hughes aswell as put faces to names like Jonathon Isaby.

Afternoon was back delivering streets we'd canvassed the day before - and then a couple swift well deserved pints in the Whalebone pub with the new friends we'd met before the taxi to the airport and home for a good nights sleep!

The byelection buzz is special - it's nice campaigning in a team of 1000s - all pulling for the same cause, and knowing that the big wigs are doing the same - 40MPs a day are pounding the streets as well as the voluntary party.

Back refreshed for the challenges in Edinburgh in the run into the election - and inspired by the great folks I met down there - confident that Chloe will win and looking forwards to the announcement on Friday lunchtime that the Conservatives are a step closer to Government.

August by-election?

There are whispers going about that Labour may move the writ for Glasgow North East tomorrow which could mean an August by-election...

Top ten political blogs

As is increasingly the norm, Iain Dale is again asking readers of his blog to vote for their top ten political blogs. The relevant post on his blog can be found by following this link.

 

I thought I'd post my top ten political blogs, in no particular order for your viewing pleasure. Naturally, I am voting for myself so the below list is the nine other blogs that will make the final list I submit to the poll.

 

Here goes:

 

SNP Tactical voter - Despite now having joined the SNP and having gone a bit native - I await the rebutal - SNP tactical voter is a fantastic blog and I look forward to his live coverage of the Glasgow North East by-election - whenever that will be.

 

The Universitality of Cheese - A new one that I stumbled upon whilst I was on blogging hiatus. A rather entertaining read at times and seems fairly well clued up into things.

 

Malc in the Burgh - Malc's blog is one I check almost every day and despite a recent lack of posting - something to do with his thesis and engagement I expect - it's still a blog I thoroughly enjoy.

 

Kezia Dugdale - Kez, like myself, also made a return to blogging this year and was an influence on my return. Whilst, naturally, I don't agree with everything she says on her soapbox I do enjoy her blog and she even takes my advice on books!!

 

Iain Dale - Nothing really needs to be said here.

 

Guido Fawkes - A fantastic blog and excelled during the expensegate scandal at Westminster. If I was to ever be a politician, I really wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of Mr. Fawkes.

 

Two Doctors - The lone green voice in Scottish political blogging and a good read. Also good for earphone advice.

 

Tom Harris - An entertaining blog from the Labour MP and one I check regularly.

 

Tory Bear - "Right wing political gossip" and like ronseal, it does exactly what it says on the tin.

 

STB

Apparently it's just not cricket

First up, apologies to all (both) my readers for the lack of blogging recently. Basically, I've spent much of the last week away from my laptop and have thus found blogging fairly difficult but I figured I'd come back to blog with another post about sport, this time about cricket.

Now, first things first, ScottishToryBoy is not a cricket fan. I do remember having Brian Lara cricket on the Playstation when I was but a youngster and thinking it was a smashing game but I've never really gotten into watching cricket as a sport. Saying that, I am fairly biased towards football when it comes to Sport and don't like many, if any, other sports that much and rarely watch any others when they are on TV.

However, it seems SNP MSP Sandra White has a strong dislike for cricket and has caused a little bit of a storm with her comments over the weekend in relation to the sport. It's perhaps a sad indictment when the only person you can get to support your claims is Bill Wilson - a man famous for standing against John Swinney for party leadership when he was but an activist and wanting all vegetables in Scotland to be packaged with name tags giving the veg their Scottish names. Sandra White has lodged a motion at Holyrood expressing concern at the "wall to wall coverage of the Ashes test series" believing that this is further evidence that Scotland deserves it's own broadcasting channel. Marvellous stuff, it really is. I hasten to add I'm not taking away from the argument that Scotland could have a broadcasting channel of its own but this is clutching at straws when it comes to an argument in favour for one.

Ms. White has a bit of history when it comes to causing controversy after referring to the Union Jack as a "butchers apron" in a press release in the second session of the Parliament but this latest outburst from her is ludicrous. Now, as I've said I don't particularly enjoy cricket but I don't believe that the only sport on TV should be football. I don't particularly like formula one, for example, but I don't really care that it tends to hog TV time on a Sunday. Nor do I like tennis that much and didn't think it merited that much TV time during Wimbledon.

 

I sense this is just a poorly researched piece of work from the Glasgow MSP, after all, more people in Scotland play cricket than play Rugby. I await her motion attacking rugby when the six nations starts...

More bad news for Scottish football?

The Sun is reporting this morning that the sponsors of Scotland's kit, Diadora UK, have gone under. This follows the recent demise of Setanta – which left a £125m black hole in the SPL income - and the struggle to find a replacement.

 

This has been some summer for football north of the border. The halcyon days of big money signings and long runs in Europe are, I suspect, likely to never resurface. So, are our politicians trying to get more money into Scottish Football? You'd think so, wouldn't you? Alas it appears not; instead some would rather jump on the populist bandwagon.

 

SNP MSP Stuart McMillan, who despite being a good guy, displays a brutal lack of understanding on the financial implications of his call for Scotland's international matches to be on terrestrial TV. This call – if realised – would remove some £15m a year from the SFA's budget. I'm not sure who has the best description; Darryl Broadfoot – chief football writer for the Herald – who called the proposal criminally opportunist and chronically stupid or former Celtic star Davie Provan who, in writing for the News of the World, said that McMillan was putting "armchair fans ahead of the youngsters who aspire to wear our Dark Blue."

 

However, the opportunistic stick can be used to bash SNP MSP Brian Adam over the head as well. Mr. Adam, who I don't know and thus won't get the benefit of any niceties, lodged a motion to the effect of calling for the BBC to make a bid for SPL coverage – the motion, in all its "glory" can be read here. Now, I understand populism and the benefits many politicians believe it will bring them. But can either politician explain to me how the funding shortfall will be covered?

 

In the case of international games being on terrestrial TV, that's the SFA down £15m – the figure they sell the games to Sky for – so is the Scottish Government planning on covering this or does Stuart McMillan wish the money to be removed from another budget, say, the spending on grass roots football? Surely that would have a massive detrimental effect on the Scottish game.

 

As for Brian Adam, who himself has previously spouted nonsense about international matches being on terrestrial TV, wants the BBC to make a bid for the contract to show SPL games. The deal that Setanta originally struck with the SPL was to broadcast 38 lives matches a season – a deal worth around £125million over the course of the 4 years. Presumably for the BBC to pay for such a bid they would have to increase the cost of a TV license and one has to wonder how that sits with SNP MPs who voted to freeze the TV license at Westminster.

 

Crude populism, unfortunately, knows no bounds with this lot.

Jack McConnell's Parliamentary participation

With it being recess and there being no parliamentary business focus inevitably turns on to who is the busiest and "laziest" MSPs based on their voting records, questions and motions tabled and committees attended etc.

This week the Sunday Post ran such an article showing that Jack McConnell is Scotland's laziest MSP. In the two years up until April this year the former First Minister has voted in just 17% of voted and averages about one written question every two weeks whilst at the same time serving in no parliamentary committees.

The quote carried in the story from an SNP spokeswoman accusing him of letting down the constituents of Motherwell and Wishaw but it is the comment attributed to his spokesperson that is the most interesting:

"All fair minded MSPs would agree that Mr. McConnell's participation in the Scottish Parliament is more than would be expected from a former First Minister while at the same time representing his constituents, supporting a number of Scottish charity foundations and representing Scotland and the UK abroad."

What exactly does that mean? Because he's a former First Minister he's entitled to do less than other MSPs? If so, that's a very strange arguemtn indeed. It's all very well and dandy Jack supporting a number of charities - certainly an honourable cause, that I do not deny - but I suspect his constituents voted for him for other reasons than that, Oh, I don't know, perhaps to improve the area. After all, it's an area he himself described as a pigsty pre election.

STB

Movies I've Never Seen

A few weeks ago Tom Harris, the Labour blogging MP for Glasgow South, wrote this post about classic movies that he has never seen and it got me thinking about how few classic movies I have seen.

Those that know me will be aware that I am certainly no film expert. Ask me about music or sport, well football, and I can talk all day but when it comes to films I'm pretty ropey, at best. I obviously do watch movies and own plenty of DVDs but by no stretch of the imagination could I claim to be much of a film buff. I do, of course, have a favourite movie, 'Star Wars - the empire Strikes Back' now that you ask, but there are classic films that I've never seen, the ones on Tom Harris' list of movies he is going to see before he dies for starters. As such, I think I shall add them all to my lovefilm list – I even joined lovefilm in order to expand my knowledge of film.

Tonight will be spent watching LA Confidential and I'll gladly be accepting suggestions to films to watch, in the comments section.

STB

Weekly non political thread

Whilst I've always rather enjoyed writing about politics on this blog, I've often been tempted to write about some of my other interests, such as music and football etc. Now that I'm back and blogging and with it being recess and slightly light on news I figured I'd do some posts on some other things that matter to me.

I'm going to endeavour every weekend to write a post about non political things going on so here goes:

Murraymania

It's resonably fair to say that I'm no tennis fan and certainly did not get swept up in Murraymania as he attempted to become the first British male to play in a Wimbledon final for 73 (I think) years. All the best to the lad etc but I just can't get into tennis at all and barely watched more than a few minutes of the tournament. Role on when I no longer have to flick through page after page in the sports section before I reach the football pages.

Livingston FC

Times are looking particularly difficult for Livingston, although I'm sure Stephen Glenn will have more to say on the matter. There are parallels that can be drawn between the club's plight and what happened with Gretna but there are some differences. Before becoming Livingston FC the club had a proud history as Meadowbank Thistle before moving to West Lothian and becoming Livingston in 1995. It is fair to say that times have been turbulent since then – 14 managers in 14 years for starters and just recently the chairman tried to raise money from supporters. When the Livingston chairman raised a grand total of £149.50 a matter of weeks ago when he went to the fans for financial help.

There are of course various reasons for such a small amount. The club has very little history as a club in West Lothian. By the time they started operating in 1995 many fans would already have a club to support, be it either of the Edinburgh clubs etc, and although the rise through the ranks was better than that made by Gretna – Livingston finished 3^rd in the SPL in their first season thus qualifying for Europe – the dream soon ended with relegation and football in the First Division.

Scottish Football

Bit of a bleak week for Scottish football in general as well with everything continuing to look rather glass half empty. Despite the transfer window being only open a matter of days the majority of dealings involve players leaving SPL clubs rather than the other way around. We also saw Motherwell lose to Llanneli in Europe the other night in the home leg meaning a somewhat uphill struggle for new manager Jim Gannon to turn things around for his new club. The demise of Setanta has rocked Scottish Football and the days of big money signings and Uefa cup final runs seem but a distant memory now. I can only hope that a sponsorship deal is found soon otherwise there will be fears over the longevity of many of the clubs in the SPL.

Music

It's a reasonably fair point to make that I spend the bulk, well certainly more than I should, of my salary on records. At Christmas I finally joined the ipod generation and I haven't looked back. I got one of the 120gb models and have been attempting to fill it since! As it currently stands I have some 13,500 tracks on it with still many records to upload. Whilst our politics are quite different, I have found common ground musically with Herald Journalist, and sometime blogger, Robbie Dinwoodie who has introduced me to the likes of Rory Gallagher and Gary Moore over the course of the last few weeks. Another artist I've recently gotten into is the late Warren Zevon – someone I advise everyone to check out. I've also very much been in Bruce Springsteen mode this week due, in part to his stormingg performance at Glastonbury last weekend, but also down to the fact that in ten days I am seeing him at Hampden Stadium.

What I'm reading

Due to a combination of hayfever and a fairly pasty complexion I'm not much of a fan of the summer – when does Autumn start? - so I tend to spend as much time as I can get away with indoors. One of my main hobbies, other than music, is reading and this week i've finished reading Billy Bremner's biography before starting one on Winston Churchill – it's fair to suggest my reading taste is quite varied indeed.

STB

Clegg and Labour list – a boring marriage made in heaven

Via the medium of Caron Lindsay's twitter page I was alerted to the fact that Chris Clegg has written a post for the Labour list blog. I thought I'd take a wee look to see what he was saying and I really wish I hadn't. Not only is the article unsurprisingly dull but it's essentially just rehashing the rubbish from Ben Bradshaw and Chris Bryant earlier in the week. Now, I do expect some abuse from the cyber Lib Dems who, according to one journalist who was the victim of the vitriol, they are as bad as the Lib Dems but because I'm only having a go at their leader and not the hero figure that is Vince Cable, I should be fine.

According to the “wisdom” of Bradshaw and Bryant the Tory party is, despite everything, still ridden with homophobia. Those of a cynical mind amongst us could suggest that these are very much just attacks from a Labour party on its last legs. I did like how Bryant all but admitted to defeat at the next election by talking how Cameron's back benchers after the election will force him to introduce anti-gay legislation. Naturally, with the rest of your “argument”, not backed up with any evidence whatsoever. The pair of them, and Chris Clegg, brush over the fact that Tory leaders have apologised for clause 28, Michael Howard did it and just last week David Cameron did it. Now, Clegg's stance is because we joined a more eurosceptic grouping in the European Parliament with parties of a right wing nature we are homophobic. It's a rather embarrassing argument from Clegg indeed and it really is little wonder that so few really do care what the Liberal Democrats have to say.

Just last weekend, up here in Edinburgh, was gay pride and the Scottish Conservatives were one of two parties that had a stall at Gay Pride – the other being the SNP. I understand that these style attacks from the Lib Dems and Labour are all about trying to portray the Conservative party as the “nasty party” but to me it's nothing more than a Government party and a party that will always languish in opposition so devoid of ideas that they are forced to trot out this type of rubbish in order to garner headlines. Politics at its worst.

Twitter

How things change. In my, albeit brief, absence from blogging a new phenomenon has started… namely twitter.

For those minded, I can be followed here: http://twitter.com/ScottishToryBoy

STB

Back to blogging

After initially deciding that blogging wasn’t for me and that I had better things to do with my time – blatantly a lie – I’ve decided, well been gently persuaded, that I should bring my alter-ego ScottishToryBoy back ahead of the Westminster Election.

Perhaps it may just be a reunion tour just or maybe I’ll start recording a new album. OK, the music analogy doesn’t really work. But in my absence from blogging there have been times I’ve had things I wanted to say or people I’ve wanted to bait a bit so consider ScottishToryBoy to be out of retirement and back to blogging.

STB