MSPs approve tartan register bill

Just so you know how MSP's spend their valuable time at Holyrood and how well our money is spent in this time of Crisis. Maybe this is why Gordon Brown has an inane grin on his face.

Surely this sort of thing should be done by the manufacturers and makes of these products and not at our expense.

BBC NEWS | Scotland | MSPs approve tartan register bill

Scotland 1 England 0

Well that's the score in Labour leaders the countries have lost so far this year. I say England for Gordon Brown as we are now devolved and, thankfully, he has less and less influence in Scotland now since, the Labour Party was sent into a tail-spin at last years Scottish Elections. For once I am sincerely hoping that England can equalise, and very soon as well.

Wendy was the archtypical over-promoted politician and was really only typical Scottish Labour lobby fodder. She resigned from one ministerial position when it became rather obvious she was ill-equipped for the job.

Her promotion to leader of the Scottish Labour party was another complete farce especially when she managed to muck it up completely by accepting illegal donations and not correctly reporting others. Her punishment for this was very much the tap on the back of the hand.

Now we come to her actual resignation. According to Wendy

My pursuers have sought the prize of political victory with little thought to the standing of the parliament. Some may feel they have achieved a political victory but wiser heads will surely question 'at what price? It is clear that vexatious complaints will continue to dominate the headlines as long as I remain Labour's Scottish Parliamentary Leader. I cannot ask Labour supporters in Scotland for further forbearance.

She later told BBC Scotland that she thought the parliamentary process had been

"cynically abused" by political opponents who had used "investigation as political tactic". Ms Alexander admitted she had made mistakes but said there had also been "politically-motivated" complaints".

Now if she can't accept she has done wrong that's OK. She is, like Gordon Brown, a Son/Daughter of the Manse, who have a strange outlook on the real world, that what they believe is right and what others believe is wrong. This means she can lie about things but still be right just as Gordon can keep coming up with his "Brownies".

Wendy would like us to believe that the SNP have forced her out of her position. In reality much of the leaking and information about her donations and problems has come from inside the Scottish Labour party, the fact that other parties have decided to "help" her out of her position is just not surprising. I suspect, that in reality, Wendy has had a visit from the men in "Grey Kilts" who have quietly suggested that she should resign her position. I suspect she will not be very happy about this and, as such, may resign as an MSP as well at a suitable time.

I for one will not be sorry to her gone, especially as hopefully now I won't have to listen to the wee gobshite anymore!

James Mitchell: Wendy Alexander's resignation ends a leadership which failed to live up to expectations | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

McConnell's admission over referendum

I see Mr McConnell has now not ruled out a future Referendum on Independence for Scotland. It appears that under certain circumstances he thinks it might be possible.

Amazing what the thought of a slaughter at the coming elections does to a Politician.

It was only back in November 2006 that he said the following during a TV interview on the BBC's Sunday AM programme,

People north of the Border would "think twice" about independence given the option in a referendum. He also argued that holding any referendum on independence would be the wrong move for Scotland because it would create economic uncertainty.

The Scotsman - McConnell's admission over referendum

Snout in the Trough Alert - Mike Rumbles

I see my esteemed Lib Dem MSP Mike Rumbles has been using the vagaries of the publicly funded Edinburgh accommodation allowance (EAA), which helps MSPs to buy property in Edinburgh, to race up the property ladder purchasing three flats in eight years. He is the first MSP to achieve three Mortgages in this particular trough.

Not bad that and according to the Scotsman:

Mr Rumbles sold two properties and reinvested in larger ones with help from the public fund, eventually making a £40,000 profit. He now owns a £300,000 flat in an exclusive district of the capital, and claimed about £10,000 a year to help pay off his mortgage.

They go on to report

Yesterday, Mr Rumbles defended his use of the allowance.

He said: "I have bought three flats in Edinburgh. I made a loss on the sale of the first flat. And on the sale of the second flat I paid a capital-gains tax of 40 per cent.

So now he's complaining he had to pay Capital Gains Tax on money he got from us the taxpayers, what a bloody cheek.

One can only hope that he will soon be joining the ranks of the unemployed, rather than the underemployed at Holyrood.

This is not the first time some of the Lib Dems have been found out for using this particular trough

The Scotsman - Taxpayer subsidies help Lib Dem to buy three flats in capital

Revealed: MSPs' dubious claims

As usual we find those pretend politicians at the Scottish Parliament are trying to dig their snouts even deeper into the trough of our money.

Greg Gibbs, campaign director of the Taxpayers' Alliance, said he was astounded that MSPs were trying to get away with such frivolous and dubious claims.

He said:

"This is a classic case of MSPs not treating taxpayers' money as our money. As far as they see it, it is their money."

Also have a look here for even more stories.

Scotsman.com News - Scotland - Revealed: MSPs' dubious claims