Spoiled Papers Gave Deprived Areas Less Say In May Elections (from The Herald )

Amazing news that the deprived areas managed to spoil more votes in the 2007 Scottish elections than the more well heeled areas.

Apparently 8 of the 10 constituencies with the most spoiled votes were in Glasgow, with Shettleston being the worst despite the relative youth (or perhaps because) of its population.

According to the Herald this is "astonishing news", I would say it is exactly what you would expect.

I said last night that the farce created by Douglas Alexander had likely affected proportional more of the likely Labour Voters than others and this appears to have been borne out by this report.

Spoiled Papers Gave Deprived Areas Less Say In May Elections (from The Herald )

General's attack on Home Front

General Sir Richard Dannatt, Chief of the General Staff has said that compared to the likes of the USA and Canada we treat our serving and retired personnel shamefully. He suggests that the British people must do more to recognise and celebrate the work of the UK military, the head of the army said yesterday, warning of a "growing gulf" between the military and the nation.

This is already being seen with the government and their shabby treatment of our personnel (see Honour the Covenant) and because of the lead they have given, some of the general public, are beginning to see the personnel serving in the forces and veterans as somehow shameful, either because of the type of War they are engaged in or because of their health problems.

We must honour our Forces Personnel because they have given voluntarily their service to our country and deserve the respect and gratitude of all the people living here in freedom.

By the way the picture is of my much missed Dad when he was working on Bloodhound Missiles in the early 80's


Scotsman.com News - British armed forces - General's attack on home front

Douglas Alexander - We are ready for poll

Nice to see the esteemed Secretary of State for International Development and former Secretary of State for Scotland Douglas Alexander, in his role as Labour's Election chief, thinks that they are ready to go for an election whenever his esteemed leader has manged to summon up the courage to go the Country. Douglas is of course very pally with the clunker as he is a son of the Manse as well as being one of his chief toadies back in the early 90's.

This is of course the man who presided over the 2007 elections in Scotland, with such great effectiveness that he managed to disenfranchise over 100,00 Scots, many of them likely to have been his own supporters. Since then the SNP appear to have bolstered their position in Scotland whilst Labour have looked stunned by the defeat.

Of course, his aim may have just been to get rid of Jack McConnell, and have his sister Wendy installed as the chief Brown Toady in Scotland. If this was the case then he succeeded in his cunning plan.

Sorry just had to put up this photo again as it is such a gem!


PM's election chief: we are ready for poll | Special Reports | Guardian Unlimited Politics

Holocaust Denier Irving to Speak in Coventry

Following onto my last entry I see that David Irving, a noted Holocaust Denier amongst other things, will be speaking to a rally of BNP thugs and bullies at the Royal Warwicks Club, Tower Street, Coventry later this evening.

Whilst I appreciate that everyone is entitled to their own opinion, I think it fair that people protest about this sort of meeting. Much better this than the kind of censorship being applied by Alisher Usmanov on other bloggers at the moment.

David Irving to Speak in Coventry | Mike Rouse

Arbeit Macht Frei

As I read through this article, I thought this was an extraordinarily good idea. As time passes we tend to erase from our memories the bad things in life and replace them with the good things. As the article says

The one who does not remember history is bound to live through it again.

a quote from George Santayan which appears on a plaque at Auschwitz.

I will be trying to get my children to take this visit as they have little concept nowadays of what total war is about, as it is remote to them, despite Iraq, Afghanistan and the other conflicts that have taken place in recent years.

When I was young, many years ago now, we had many reminders of both World Wars both at home and in our daily life. Our parents and grandparent had fought in or survived the wars and our teachers had often fought in the wars and brought a personal view to the history we learnt. Nowadays, veterans of the wars are few and teachers have only second-hand experience.

An experience like this may help youngsters today understand what happens in war and may just let them make a difference when they become more active in decisions that affect us all. The explanation by one of Rabbi's who lead the children in the visit of why they want people to see and hear about Auschwitz is well worth reading in this age when we prefer to hide the dirty parts of life. He states that the Holocaust is not just an atrocity against Jewish people but against difference of any kind

People ask why do we have this obsession with the Holocaust? Why can't we move on and leave it in the past? How we would love to leave it in the past. That would be the easy thing to do, but we cannot," he says. He describes the horrors which took place at Auschwitz as simply the endgame of a sustained campaign which started with pointing people out as different. A world which allowed the Holocaust to happen has also witnessed genocide in Rwanda and Darfur.

What really upset me about the article were the first 4 comments from persons who would like us to believe that the Holocaust never happened. These people are unbelievable and there denial in the face of the truth marks them out as type of person who commit this sort of crime against humanity.

Perhaps some quotes from Winston Churchill might put this in context.

The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.

and also

A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.

and finally aimed at all those deniers out there

When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber

The Children Who Are Determined We Will Never Forget The Horror (from The Herald )

Offensive, angry and ginger

Offensive, angry and ginger,

apparently that's us, the Scotsman, according to a poll carried out by Ipsos MORi for the Scottish Executive. We are typified by Groundskeeper Willie from the Simpsons.

The report will make depressing reading for the whole of Scotland far less the Politicians who commissioned it. The report carries the disclaimer that

The views expressed in this report are those of the researchers and do not necessarily represent the views of the directorate or Scottish ministers.”

You'd certainly hope so for all our sakes.

Of course who ever believed what an American said about places outside the good 'ol USA, typified by my telling a Texan in Houston that I came from Scotland and he replied,

"That's near Switzerland"

I retreated from the conversation to consult my Atlas of the World.

Offensive, angry and ginger - Simpsons' Willie defines US image of the Scot - Times Online

Liberal Politics -Jury told of 'corrupt councillor'

Apparently a man accused of murder in Aberdeen has alleged that an "unnamed" city councillor was corrupt. Now I wonder who that might be.

Perhaps these stories from a while ago might give a clue.

The story goes on - One of the defendants a Mr Carswell had said during the interview that he did not want to be taken to Aberdeen by police because he did not trust them. Mr Jackson, Carswell's lawyer continued:

"There was a lot of discussion - I am not sure if he is an Aberdeen councillor or not, I don't know who this man is."

Mr Jackson said Mr Carswell, in the interview, went into a lot of questions about whether he was involved in drugs.

"There is a long discussion about him (the unnamed councillor)and where he lives and who his girlfriend is and whether he is corrupt,"

said Mr Jackson and Det Insp Stewart agreed.

"There is discussion about his girlfriend, her name, the fact that he knows this man, the fact he is involved with prostitutes, involved with drugs, a whole discussion about this other man's involvement, I suppose. Quite serious allegations against this man."

Mr Jackson continued:

"He was perfectly willing to speak to you about this public figure in Aberdeen - I don't know him from Adam - but when you are talking to him about what you want to talk to him about he moves into 'No comment' mode at that stage?"

"Or stays completely silent,"

said Det Insp Stewart.

The story continues...

BBC NEWS | Scotland | North East/N Isles | Jury told of 'corrupt councillor'

Global Warming in Scotland

First Snow on Morvern
Originally uploaded by fitaloon

With all the talk about Global Warming going on, I give you the first snow of the Winter? for us in the depths of Aberdeenshire. This was on Tuesday morning. Thankfully it didn't last long.

Honour the Covenant - Take Action

Coming from a service family (My Father served in the RAF for 35 years) and having also married into a Service Family (Father-in-Law and Brother-in-Law both having served or serving in the Royal Marines), the action being taken by the British Legion is close to my heart.

My Father and Father-in-Law were also heavily involved in SSAFA (Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association (SSAFA) Forces Help) after they retired and understood many of the problems that service personnel faced when they left the services either voluntarily or because of injury.

Previously I had talked about this under the title "Neglected and Let Down"

A little story from My Father-in-Law, a few days ago, shows how the Covenant is strong within the Services themselves but this seldom applies to the government.

My Father-in-Law has been very ill recently and has been amazed at the amount of contact/help he has received from comrades, both those who have kept in contact and those whom he had lost contact with during the time since he retired. Contacts have been renewed around the world and many wishes for his recovery have been received. Help has been offered both from local people and those living further afield. This culminated in a recent phone call from an old comrade Sir Steuart Pringle, former Commandant General of the Royal Marines and President of the Royal Marines Association wishing him well and reminiscing about when they had served together.

Contrast this with the government's attitude that they are quite willing to ignore their responsibilities and pay lip service to honouring the Covenant that they promise to each and every serving person.

Gordon Brown and Tony Blair between them have taken us into war in Iraq and Afghanistan with little understanding of the outcome of these decisions and the long term effects it has on people in the services.

Their attitude is that they are tools to be used and then to be disposed of as cheaply as possible.

You can all help current and ex serving personnel by supporting the British Legion campaign or volunteering for SSAFA

The Royal British Legion - Honour the Covenant - Take Action