A most unexpected communication informs me that this blog is acquiring a readership among Scottish Labour backbenchers at Westminster, now by some distance (and entirely regardless of any former views) the most virulent anti-devolutionists in British politics, with the possible exceptions of Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling.
Apparently, they quite agree with me, and cannot wait for Brown to bring forward legislation applicable in Scotland across the range of policy areas of most concern to their (and, of course, his) constituents, secure in the supremacy of the Parliament of the United Kingdom over any body merely exercising clearly specified and restricted aspects of that Parliament’s power on a purely devolved basis.
Well, why are they content to appear in Waiting for Gordon? We all know how that ends. Instead, let them bring forward Private Members’ Bills, Ten Minute Rule Bills, and, with most chance of success, amendments extending legislation of which they approve so that it applies in Scotland.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
The Scottish Labour backbenchers in the Commons - largely men whose size of their brains have an inverted relationship with the size their beer bellies.
ReplyDelete"Ah think ahm ah socialist, Karl Marx was Groucho's brother, Lenin wrote "I am the walrus" and Trotsky wrote Swan Lake" sort of chaps.
Having no truck with Marx, Lenin or Trotsky is precisely what makes them Socialists.
ReplyDeleteStalin (inter-war years) is their preferred model.
ReplyDeleteScottish Labour pop-up book of the Life of Stalin with the words "teacher, teacher" written inside in crayon.
Oh, do give it a rest! We all know that the SNP hates the working classes, but do you really have to be quite so obvious about it?
ReplyDeleteTalking of Scottish (apparently ex)stalinists why did Jimmy Reid join the SNP?
ReplyDeleteYou tell me what such a person might have found so attractive about your party.
ReplyDeleteI think he joined the SNP because he felt that Labour had sold out to Essex man and his ilk.
ReplyDeleteRemember a quote from him that you as a devout Christian and an imperialist will find an annoying but it is a good one if I can remember:
"Apologists for the British Empire say that we gave civilisation to the various peoples whose lands we colonised-----The Roman Empire also gave much to the world such as the alphabet you are reading and straight roads. However like all empires it was ultimately built on oppression and killed and tortured anyone who opposed it. One noted victim was a young woodworker from Galilee, the circumstances of whose death are still causing quite a stir-----"
As for your compadres amongst the ranks of Scotland's Labour MPs, many of these guys are double-thinks - to use such a term. Many of them were/are sympathetic to Irish Republicanism - the violent type and sing songs with gusto about it. Some Unionists!
George Galloway (to give an example) banged on in his book about a certain John Reid and where his sympathies lay on the Irish question. Apparently many of party pieces are singing IRA songs. Not bad for an ex-Home Secretary, ex-Defence Secretary and ex-Northern Ireland Secretary.
When he was appointed Defence Secretary there were several letters on this topic published in the (Glasgow) Herald, all recalling his enthusiasm for the Republican cause. One suggested that his first engagement as Defence Secretary was to go down to Aldershot and entertain the officer corps with his rendition of "Bold Fennian Men".
No comment from Dr Reid denying this. His views are well known.
Another young Turk going up the ranks who shall remain nameless except he represents a Glasgow seat that was once traditionally tory from what I can gather was a frequent visitor to "The Plaza". The Plaza was a hardline Republican club in south Glasgow and this now minister of the crown used to participate in sessions of what is known as "rebel karaoke".
To such MPs who may be reading this, I dedicate to you this song, possibly a favourite:
In Dublin City in nineteen thirteen,
The boss was rich and the poor were slaves,
The women working and children starving,
Then on came Larkin like a mighty wave.
The workers cringed when the boss man thundered,
Seventy hours was his weekly chore,
He asked for little and less was granted,
Lest given little then he'd ask for more.
In the month of August the boss man told us,
No union man for him could work,
We stood by Larkin and told the boss man,
We'd fight or die, but we wouldn't shirk.
Eight months we fought and eight months we starved,
We stood by Larkin through thick and thin,
But foodless homes and the crying of children,
It broke our hearts, we just couldn't win.
Then Larkin left us, we seemed defeated,
The night was black for the working man,
But on came Connolly with new hope and counsel,
His motto was that we'd rise again.
In nineteen sixteen in Dublin City,
The English soldiers they burnt our town,
The shelled our buildings and shot our leaders,
The Harp was buried 'neath the bloody crown.
They shot McDermott and Pearse and Plunkett,
They shot McDonagh and Clarke the brave,
From bleak Kilmainham they took Ceannt's body,
To Arbour Hill and a quicklime grave.
But last of all of the seven heroes,
I sing the praise of James Connolly,
The voice of justice, the voice of freedom,
He gave his life, that man might be free.