North to Leith

Mandelson

2008-10-03T11:44:00.003+01:00

Peter Mandelson is going to be brought back into Government as part of Brown's latest re-shuffle. He's to become a Lord to allow this to happen.

Any betting on what he has to resign over this time?

Lord Mandelson of Notting Hill as someone observed on Iain Dale's blog.

If you have to say it...

2008-09-22T23:29:00.003+01:00

The BBC is reporting that David Miliband’s rather lucklustre speech today may have been deliberately underwhelming in order to avoid looking like a leader in waiting.

Miliband was speaking with an aide after the speech ‘with staff who told him that it was being given six marks out of ten. He was heard to reply: "I couldn't have gone any further. It would have been a Heseltine moment." ‘

The problem for Miliband, or perhaps that should be the problem for Brown, is that the Forgiegn Sec saw it as being necessary to deliberately put in a less than rousing performance. His aide’s reply was reportedly ‘No, you are right. You went as far as you could. That was what the party needed to hear.’

Miliband’s reasons for seeking to avoid doing a Heseltine was probably due to the old Tory big beast’s observation that ‘He who wields the knife never wears the crown’.

Just a Bit of Fun Redux

2008-09-21T13:55:00.001+01:00

Early this week I assessed a MORI poll and had a look at what sort of result we could extrapolate from it (with the usual caveats and it just be a bit of fun.

My projection was...

399 Conservatives
171 Labour
33 SNP/PC (SNP 24, PC 9)
25 Lib Dem
3 Indy
1 Speaker
18 NI MP

399 Conservatives to 251 Others, a majority of 148.

Last night a massive poll of around 35,000 people in over 200 marginal seats, carried out by YouGov on behalf of Politics Home. The result won`t make for happy campers at the Labour conference in Manchester.

The projected result from this huge poll is...

398 Conservatives
160 Labour on
44 LibDems
28 SNP/PC (SNP 23, PC 5)
2 Indy
18 NI MP

398 Conservatives to 252 Others, majority of 146.

So to compare my projection based on the smaller poll and some applied guesswork and the projection based on the huge poll...

I`m pretty much bang on for the Tories and the majority. I`ve overestimated Labour slightly and underestimated the Lib Dems slightly – the huge poll focussed on marginals and the question of tactical voting. From that it seems that the Lib Dems benefit to the expense of Labour in a number of areas. Also the Tories do a wee bit better in Wales than I projected.

That aside I wasn`t a million miles out. It should also be noted that this uber-poll was carried out in July and the UK electoral outlook for Labour certainly hasn`t go any better since then.

The Politics Home projection includes in the SNP winning both Edinburgh East AND Edinburgh North and Leith. Step forward Calum Cashley MP!

Here is how the electoral map would look according to the Politics Home projections...

Glenrothes Polls

2008-09-21T12:59:00.002+01:00

A few polls on the Glenrothes by-election have come out today and there is a marked difference in them.

ICM asked the question “If the Glenrothes by-election was a vote of confidence on Gordon Brown how would you vote -. The result for that question was SNP 44%, LAB 41%, LD 8%, CON 5%.

But the problem with the question being useful in terms of how a by-election might go is that the question is seriously loaded. A simple how are you going to vote would have been much more useful to the electoral geeks of this world (like me!).

However in the Sunday Times there are ‘Senior Labour figures’ who believe that the SNP will win the Glenrothes by-election by a majority of 5,000. This figure is based on supposed canvass returns. I think for that to happen a swing in the region of 28% would be required (I think). IN Glasgow East the SNP managed to get a 22% swing and Labour’s position has slipped back from that point so 28% in a by-election is not completely unthinkable – but it would still be an incredible result.

The significant problem with any of these polls is that the date has not yet been set so minds have not yet been focussed (with the accompanying increase of TV coverage etc).

I was out campaigning in Glenrothes yesterday (and I`ll be back during the week) and the reaction on the doorsteps was fantastic. What was also evident was that there was very little sign of the other parties being out campaigning. The only one spotted was the Conservative candidate himself.

What was really encouraging was there was a real appetite from the SNP activists to keep campaigning – there is no sign of the foot being taken off the gas.

Hopefully Gordon Brown will be good enough to call the by-election and move the writ necessary to allow it to take place (all chat points toward November 6th).

Ray Blake Financial Planning

2008-09-18T11:37:00.004+01:00

Ray Blake Financial Planning. That name not meaning much to you? Well I`ll explain a little why it may be of interest.

ray.blake@thinc.com decided to register a few domain names yesterday. Among them...

www.lloydshbos.com
www.hboslloyds.com
www.lloydshbos.co.uk

Now if you cast your mind back for a few days I issued the free domain challenge asking you, dear readers, to try and register the best/funniest/daftest free dotTK domain for your or someone else blog. I got the ball rolling and got labourspin.tk to redirect to Kezia’s blog, and in return Scottish Unionist got cybersquatter.tk to redirect here (a nice touch).

These domains are free and will stop redirecting after 90 days.

The Lloyds-HBOS domains registered by “Ray Blake”are a different kettle of fish. “Ray” saw the crisis in the banking industry and he thought to himself...well yes thousands are going to lose their jobs, and bank customers are going to be feeling uncertain, so seeing all this going on, well, I think I`ll register probable company names of the new bank and try and cream in some money from advertising on the sites and then hold the sites to ransom when the bank comes looking for them.

Always nice to see there are folk out there looking to profit from the misery of others.

I would suspect that the banks will get their hands on the domains after a dispute resolution process which I hope will cost “Ray Blake” (if it is indeed a real name that has been registered) at least what he has made from advertising on the site.

To my mind “Ray Blake” is a toilet.

About Face!

2008-09-17T19:35:00.002+01:00

David Cairns, who is as loyal as they come, resigns. Now there is talk that Eric Joyce, who has made rabid loyalty and art-form, is now being speculated over as a potential rebel.

I`ll say that again – Government Rebel Eric Joyce.

The Evening Standard has reported that “An MP close to Mr Joyce said: "It's just a question of timing really. I don't think there's anything that would make him change his mind. He just doesn't think Gordon will pull the rabbit out of the hat."

The Herald’s Michael Settle has followed this up and Joyce is reported as saying that "I am not resigning as a PPS post-conference. I'm looking forward to Gordon's speech and success in Glenrothes." He went on: "I support Gordon Brown as party leader."

So is Joyce going to bolt or has he been smoked out and forced back into line?

Just a bit of fun....

2008-09-17T17:19:00.008+01:00

According to one (pro-tory) commenter who replied to the MORI poll story on political betting said that this would give an indicative result of...

450 Conservatives
152 Labour
17 Lib Dems
31 Others

But this comes with HUGE caveats in that this would mean that the Conservatives would win Glasgow North. (Rather than 'HUGH' Caveats, ahem.)

Applying a wee bit of judgement to these figures let’s assume that the 18 Northern Irish MPs are not Labour, LibDem or Conservative. This poll doesn`t tell us much about the circumstances there so for the sake of this exercise let assume there is no change.

That leaves 632. Wales has 40 MPs, currently with 1 Indy, 3 PC, 3 Conservative, 4 LD and the rest being Labour. The Conservatives are making in-roads in Wales but certainly not the strides they are making in England. PC is doing relatively well and is seen to be performing in the Welsh Government. Labour are getting battered from all side as the last local elections showed and the Lib Dems are slipping back. So for Wales I think we can safely take that this poll would lead to 9 PC, 9 Conservative, 3 LD, 1 Indy and 18 Labour.

That leaves 592. Scotland has 59 MPs, 1 Indy (Speaker), 7 SNP, 1 Conservative, 12 LD and 38 Labour (including Glenrothes currently). Polls in Scotland show the SNP leading Labour, with a wee tiny bit of movement for the Conservatives and the Lib flat lining at best. So using this poll as a basis I would guess that the SNP would take 24, Conservatives 5, LD 7, 1 for the Speaker and 22 for Labour.

So the combined Scotland, Wales and NI result would be...

40 Labour
24 SNP
14 Conservative
10 Lib Dem
9 PC
9 DUP
5 Sinn Fein
3 SDLP
1 UUP
1 Indy (Wales)
1 Speaker

That’s 117 seats accounted for, leaving the 533 seats of England. Currently being (roughly and using wiki) 192 Conservatives, 284 Labour, 47 Lib Dems and 3 Independents. Again for the purposes of this execise I`ll assume that 2 of the Indys (being Health Concern and George Galloway) will get back in.

So in the 531 remaining English seats, using the supposed poll as the touchstone, the Conservatives would get 385, Labour 131 and the Lib Dems would get 15.

So the overall UK result (based on guesswork and the MORI poll) would be...

399 Conservatives
171 Labour
33 SNP/PC
25 Lib Dem
3 Indy
1 Speaker
18 NI MP

399 Conservatives to 251 Others, a majority of 148.

As the SNP and PC sit together as one ‘group’ in Westminster they would become the 3rd largest grouping in the commons overtaking the Lib Dems.

This poll then is catastrophic for Labour, and may even spell the end of the Lib Dems.

But BUT this is all speculation based on one poll result so in the best traditions of Peter Snow...it’s just a bit of fun.

Poll Apparently Real

2008-09-17T17:19:00.004+01:00

Political Betting have now corroborated the MORI polling figures showing

52% Conservatives (+4)
24% Labour (nc)
12% LibDem (-5)

I wouldn`t fancy being the staffer who would have to bring these figures to Brown or Clegg.

Fresh Rumours to Undermine Brown?

2008-09-17T17:19:00.002+01:00

After the flurry of activity in the blogosphere yesterday around whether or not David Cairns would walk the plank there is a new wee nugget on the blogs today.

There is a rumour (note rumour, heavy heavy caveats on this) that a poll is due out tomorrow that shows that if a UK general election was to be held tomorrow that Labour would such suffer a massive defeat and the Conservatives would be returned by a massive majority.

The generally reputable ‘UK Polling Report Blog’ says “No confirmation yet, so take this with a shovel-load of salt, but a rumour has just reached me of a MORI poll tomorrow showing the Conservatives at 52%, Labour at 24% and the Lib Dems at 12%. Seriously, I’ve no idea of the provenance of this and have no idea how trustworthy it is, so treat it with due scepticism.”

Note the many many warnings on the veracity of this before anyone gets too overcome with this.

If (IF IF IF) this poll is right then it has...

52% Conservatives
24% Labour
12% Lib Dem
12% Others

Over at Political Betting the story has been picked up and they have managed to confirm that MORI have carried out a poll and that it is due to be published on the newswires at midnight but would not confirm or deny the indicated results.

Where did these rumours come from, hot on the heals of Cairns resignation and just before the Labour conference?

The Party’s over

2008-09-17T11:37:00.001+01:00

Looking across the Irish Sea to the old country I see that there are strange times afoot. The Progressive Democrats (The PDs) look like they are now in their final death throws and will be wound up next month.

It has been a curious thing to watch a political party die, perhaps all the more remarkable as they currently have TDs (Members of the Irish Parliament the Dáil Éireann) and Senators, although small in number, a number of councillors around the country and over 4000 members.

The PDs have always been an odd creature. Setup in 1985 as a ‘liberal’ alternative to the two large parties of Irish politics (Fianna Fáil – FF, and Fine Gael - FG), they were created by a number of disaffected FF members (and a few FGs), including former ministers, who were unhappy at the conservative nature of many of FF’s positions. The issue that really sparked off the birth of the PDs, perhaps ironically, was FF’s attitudes against the introduction of contraception.

While that social liberal heritage is there it has always been the free market liberal policies of the PDs which have set them apart – as neo-cons.

At their early high point they held 14 seats in the Dáil, but it is their recent showing that has doomed the party. Before the last Irish election they held 8 seats and on election night in 2007 they lost 6 of them. Those two TDs left standing were Mary Harney and Noel Grealish. Despite their small number they went back into government with FF, but in the last couple of weeks t has been clear that Grealish has been looking to defect to FF.

Grealish is something of a no-mark but it seems that the speculation on his move have been the straw that has broken the camel’s back and has committed the PDs to the political dustbin. It is now expected that a large number of PD members will switch their allegiance to FF – although it has been stressed this will be a decision for each individual member to make. There is to be a special conference next month on the winding up of the party.

But what of Mary Harney? Harney was a FF senator in her youth, being the youngest senator ever at 24 years old. She was later elected to the Dáil in 1981. She has played a fairly prominent part in Irish political life ever since and was one of the founders of the PDs, serving as its leader from 1993 to 2006 and step into the position briefly after the last election when the PDs then leader, Michael McDowell, lost his seat. In coalition governments she was also Tánaiste (Deputy PM) to Bertie Ahern and has been a long serving minister of health.

Harney has made it clear that she doesn`t intent to rejoin FF when the PDs are wound up and will instead sit as an independent – there is though suggestions that she may be made Ireland’s EU Commissioner next year, although this is not a position she has been seen to lobby for.

The death of the PDs is a fairly clear reminder that all of politics is fluid and that sometimes political parties do die – even though they have elected members etc.

What the hell is going on with the UK Government!

2008-09-16T16:23:00.002+01:00

There is what can only be described as a ‘hitting the fan’ of speculation among the media blogs on which Ministers are or aren`t going to resign.

As I write the news that David Cairns HAS now resigned has just broken. There is still the question whether he will be the last one to go. Cairns is an ambitious sort and must be calculating that by going now that others, who have been speculated on, will follow. In seeking a chain reaction they are looking for the swift removal of Brown and a new body to be brought in. The notion being that with a new body in place that they have 2 years before the next election to try and claw back their current position trailing behind the Conservatvies in England and the SNP in Scotland.

It’s a high risk strategy for Cairns – banking that the Prime Minister will be forced to go, spurred on by his actions. The rumour mill has it that Caroline Flint MP (Minister for Housing) who has taken a few hits for the Government on Housing policy she is clearly less than comfortable with. Also in the frame are Phil Woolas MP(DEFRA) and Jim Murphy MP (Europe).

If another was to follow then it would make the forthcoming Labour conference a bit of a bloodbath. But for any of these people’s resignations to have impact it needs one of the big beast to step forward. Jack Straw? Alan Johnston? David Milliband?

I think one of the most entertaining suggestions is that of another possible runner who has been out of the limelight – step forward Dr John Reid MP. Stop giggling, I`m serious. Reid is a firm Blairite and all round ‘Fixer’ during the Blair era. He has the profile and the gravitas to ask Brown to step outside without the hindrance of having to appear as a loyal member of the Cabinet. He’s untouched by the Brown regime’s problems and I suspect a credible bid could be built around Reid dusting off his ol’ cowboy hat and sidearm, muttering that he never thought he’s have to use it in anger again, before riding off across the plains to the rescue of the party.

Not quite so daft a notion anymore is it.

Let’s look at the other supporting evidence that has been put forward by others. Siobhain McDonagh MP, the junior whip who sparked the current crisis by asking for leadership nomination papers to be sent to each Labour MP – which led to her being sacked, is a close ally of Reid having been his PPS at the Home Office. Looking at the other plotters there is Joan Ryan MP , also sacked, who was a junior Minister of Reid’s at the Home Office, Fiona Mactaggart MP also ex of the Home Office. Also implicated was Lord Waheed Alli who was a former advisor to Reid.

Its also been pointed out that David Cairns is an ally of and former researcher to Siobhain McDonagh, completing the link to Reid.

Even if the attempted coup on behalf of John Reid is nonsense it does make for entertaining speculation.

Abandon Ship!

2008-09-16T14:36:00.002+01:00

Apparently Number 10 are trying to spin things to appear that they have been running a flushing out operation to shock Ministers who were thinking of resigning into remaining onside.

The story goes that Number 10‘s flying monkeys put a few names about the press corp as potentials who were considering resigning – trying to prompt the press to contact the ministers named and ask whether they were still onside...except when it came to David Cairns they couldn`t get through and he's not returning call - they now assume that he has gone to ground.

With this intel now in the public domain Number 10 can then start turning the screws of the rebel minister in question to stay on and declare loyalty having ‘flushed’ them out into the open. It is, I suppose, a variation on the apocryphal Lyndon B Johnson gambit of calling your opponent a pigf*cker.

Its an interesting theory but I don`t really buy it as part of the strategy necessitates getting the media to speculate on what Ministers are looking to resigning demanding Brown do the same – that’s bad press in anyone’s book.

But a wee snippet on Brenedict Brogan of the Daily Mail’s blog says that sources close to Jim Murphy MP have been in touch saying he has no intention of resigning...when no one was suggesting he was! IF Murphy felt the need to issue such an assurance just how many Ministers were being suggested as being on the verge of resigning?

Free Domain Challenge

2008-09-16T13:13:00.002+01:00

I`m going to issue a wee challenge to bloggers and readers of the blog. As you may know some bloggers have snappier web addresses than others – www.calumcashley.com for instance is more memorable than northtoleith.blogspot.com .

To get a nice snappy web address you may think you will have to shell out for it – but no, there are snappier short domains which are free.

The dotTK domain space uses the TK country code for the country of Tokelau as its basis. Provided any dotTK address you register gets a reasonable number of uses over a 90 day period you can get it for free – if you don`t get the right number of hits they just take it off you for someone else to have a go. You can buy one permanently if you like too.

So I`ve now got www.northtoleith.tk which will direct you to this blog. But since this is free I thought I`d issue a challenge – what free dotTK addresses can you get for your blog.

By way of illustration www.gordonbrown.tk will also bring you to this site. As will....
www.scottishlabour.tk
www.libdem.tk
www.scottishtories.tk

Or you can set up ones to direct to other sites such as...

www.labourspin.tk going to Kezia’s blog.

The challenge is simple what is the best free TK domains that you can get to direct to your site, or which are the best ones that you can get directed to others (cheeky, name squatting, funny etc).

The rules are simple – keep it clean. If there is interest in this I`ll compile the best ones

To start registering them go here – its very simple.

Best of luck!

David Cairns to Resign?

2008-09-16T13:11:00.002+01:00

Interesting story on BBC online which states that according to Number 10 David Cairns has not resigned...I wasn`t aware that there was a suggestion he had!

I had a wee scoot over to Iain Dale’s Diary, home of Westminster gossip, and sure enough there has been a post suggesting that Cairns was about to walk. If Cairns were to go he’d be the highest profile MP to walk or be sacked in recent days – all with the intention of getting rid of the clunking fist.

Over on Guido Fawkes there is a suggestion that as many as 60 Labour MPs are now on the brink of rebellion and are looking for a senior member, basically a member of the Cabinet.

Earlier today there was just the suggestion that a Minister of State was to resign and the following quote was attributed to them - “There just comes a point where you say, 'I can't go on lying', you can't go on saying 'I think Gordon Brown is the man to lead us to victory' when you don't believe it.”

The Telegraph were, according to Dale, the paper which pointed the finger at Cairns. Nick Robinson of the BBC has also been following the tale and it now seems that sources close to Des Browne are saying that Cairns is going nowhere.

A storm in a teacup? Only time will tell.

Fife fun

2008-09-16T13:09:00.001+01:00

The candidates are now in place for the Fife by-election and of course Gordon Brown has called an early election, as he did in Glasgow East, to ensure that the people of Glenrothes are not without an elected member for too long...or not as it happens.

I`ve not yet heard of a fixed date for the by-election but the latest speculation seems to be resting on November 6th. According to the Times the rationale behind this date is that its 2 days after the US Presidential election. The suggestion appears to be, although it is not spelt out in the piece, that the aftermath of the US election will provide media cover for Brown should Labour lose Glenrothes – a good week to bury bad news to butcher a phrase.

All that aside it would be good to know when the election is actually going to be held as currently it looks like Brown is trying to avoid having it altogether.

You Dancin?

2008-09-16T13:07:00.004+01:00

When Tavish Scott won the Lib Dem contest Labour fell over themselves to heap praise on the one-time Viking - “Tavish has distinguished himself as both a backbencher and a minister during his time in the Scottish Parliament. He has shown he can rise above narrow partisan politics for the overall good of Scottish people when he served as Transport Minister on the Scottish Executive in coalition with the Labour party. He is to be congratulated on his victory.”

This has been viewed by many as a less than veiled attempt to remind the Libs of the ‘good ol days’ when they were in coalition with Labour and perhaps, just perhaps, to tempt them to dance with them again.

After Iain Gray’s victory Labour were doubtless waiting for the praise they heaped on Tavish to be repaid and perhaps an indication that they were willing to tango once more. On Gray’s victory Tavish said "I congratulate Iain Gray on his election. However, I fear that the messenger is not the problem with Labour. The country has got sick of the message."

That’ll be a knock-back then.

Edinburgh Councillor passes away.

2008-09-16T13:07:00.001+01:00

Cllr Elizabeth Maginnis of Edinburgh’s Forth ward has passed away. I don`t often agree with Cllr Andrew Burns, the leader of the Labour group in Edinburgh, but as part of a tribute to her he says -

“Elizabeth was a member of a large and very loving family, of whom she spoke often, and first-and-foremost all our thoughts are with them at this difficult time.”

Sentiments we can all agree with.

And Congratulations to Iain...

2008-09-16T13:04:00.002+01:00

Iain Gray has seen off Andy Kerr and Cathy Jamieson to become leader of the Labour group in the Scottish Parliament.

Soon after taking up the reigns he attempted to make a play for a better job title – that of Leader of the Scottish Labour Party. ‘Look up mandate ye MPs and despair’ he cried...the reaction from MPs through Des Browne was very clear ‘Back in your box Gray’.

It seems that this is going to rumble on for some time to come, but with the knifes being sharpened for Brown perhaps there is an opportunity for Gray and co to persuade the next leader of the UK Labour party that devolving responsibility down is a good idea.

Congratulations to Tavish...

2008-09-16T13:03:00.001+01:00

Tavish Scott has taken the Lib Dem leadership (who said ‘again?’) with the 4000+ Scottish Lib Dem membership giving him a healthy majority.

In the time since winning he’s tried to create a bit of interest – there have been indications that an accommodation can be reached on Local Income Tax. However recently at the UK Lib Dem conference he seems to be suggesting that Income Tax in Scotland is cut by 2p. I can only assume that his rationale behind this is to try and create some policy distinctions between the Lib Dems and the other parties. It remains to be seen whether this notion gets any purchase in the Scottish political sphere – although I doubt it.

It does though mark Tavish clearly as a bit of an Orange-Booker and perhaps a wee rightward drift for the party. One policy does not a tory make though and I suspect he has at least a few years in front of him to flesh out his vision for ‘Tavism’.

I have returned...

2008-09-16T13:02:00.000+01:00

I have returned from yet more of my travels (travails?) which have taken me away from my keyboard and this blog.

I`m back though before another stint away so I`ll try and get a few posts up on recent happenings.

Take a breath...

2008-08-13T14:00:00.003+01:00

After a long battle with cancer John McDougall MP has passed away, aged just 60. While you see all the coverage that will quickly ensue about by-elections and what we shouldn`t forget that this is at its heart a sad and tragic loss of a man’s life. So before we all get too carried away with graceless haste let’s take a breath and remember that a mother has lost a son, a family has lost a father and a wife has lost her husband.

Helan Eadie MSP had known him for many years and has said "It's a very sad loss and to learn of that this morning makes me deeply saddened for John's family. His death means the loss of a good friend and a good colleague, and it is very upsetting for all of us here in Fife that we have lost someone who has dedicated all of his adult life to serving the Labour Party. He was someone who I grew to both like and admire over the years, because he was so committed to what he was doing. John had above all a caring attitude, but he also had a very good sense of humour and that sense of humour always helped to cut through many difficult political situations. I always admire people who have got the ability for humour, and John certainly did have that in abundance."

Old political foes of McDougall have also paid their respects, SNP MSP Tricia Marwick has said that "I have known John for over 20 years and am deeply saddened that his long fight against illness has ended. As a councillor, the leader of Fife Council and an MP he has left a legacy and will be missed by many people. My thoughts are with his wife and family who supported him throughout his long illness."

Conservative MP David Mundell has said "John was a kind and decent man who dedicated to the service of the people of Fife, with distinguished service both in Parliament and local government. I have greatly admired the way in which he has borne such a debilitating illness with enormous courage. My thoughts are with his family and friends at this difficult time."

Lib Dem MP Sir Menzies Campbell said that "Both as a councillor and as a Member of Parliament, John MacDougall embodied the best traditions of public service. His courageous fight against illness in recent times meant that Parliament was denied his shrewd interventions on so many issues. My sympathy goes to his wife and family."

Iain Gray's Creep

2008-08-03T16:05:00.000+01:00

It seems that, like Transport Scotland, Iain Gray is trying to achieve Sottish Independence by creep...he must be, he's using a Saltire in branding of his campaign website for his Labour leadership bid.

Woopra!

2008-08-02T14:42:00.004+01:00

Fellow bloggers I`ve just started using a new stats monitoring package called woopra. It does what most other stats counters does but it packages it together in a very attractive manner and has a few other features too.

The most interesting of which is the option to see who is viewing your site live...and to start chatting to them online! So if you are every looking at the blog and a wee window appears from the ‘Webmaster’ saying ‘Hello’ then please don`t be too freaked out!

For instance at the moment someone from Sydney is currently looking at the site (I can also tell you taht they are using Windows XP, IE7 and their screen resolution is 1024x768...lots of completely needless information for stats fans.

It is a bit of a pain in the backside to setup, but it is worth it. You can get it here.

And if you are very good I may post in the future about how wonderful Flock is compared to IE or even Firefox.

Choo-Choo

2008-08-01T12:59:00.002+01:00

This post would have been on yesterday but blogger decided that this blog may be spam! I protested, it may well be mince but its not spam.

Its seems that the dastardly SNP are planning to achieve Independence by repainting trains...if George Foulkes is to be believed.

The latest nonsense to spew forth from the Baron’s gub beggars belief.

The story is this...Transport Scotland have decided to rebrand all the trains and railway stations in Scotland. The rebranding will mean that trains will have the same ScotRail brand regardless of which organisation gets the franchise to operate them – unlike currently when if a new firm comes in then its new brand gets added to the trains etc.

Also rather than have both SPT and FirstGroup branding on trains (as happens currently) both organisation’s trains will have the single ScotRail brand.

This consistency will be rolled out to stations too (signage branding and types etc). In a nutshell its actually a very dull exercise in corporate identity branding. But the bold Baron Foulkes believes that rather than a consistent corporate image that customers and travellers will identify easily that there are political motives behind the move.

And why does he think this? Because the new branding will incorporate the Saltire – that’s rights Transport SCOTLAND are looking to incorporate the SCOTTISH flag in the SCOTrail brand.

A Labour spokesman this morning said of the announced rebranding that "This is typical of the SNP. People care about whether their train runs on time, not what colour it is painted. Repainting the rolling stock will be a huge waste of money. We have to ask whether the SNP is getting a Government agency to use the Saltire for their own nationalistic aims, rather than simple patriotic pride in Scotland, which we all share."

Lets break this down.

“This is typical of the SNP” – I`m not sure how it can be typical of the SNP when it was Transport Scotland who made the move.

“People care about whether their train runs on time, not what colour it is painted.” - As a regular Rail user I can confirm that passengers do indeed want trains to run on time. But at least one passenger group has said that it’s a welcome move, reported in the Scotsman as “Robert Samson, the Scotland manager for Passenger Focus, said: "We can see value in not changing the branding every time the train operator changes. It will also help bring uniformity, because there is a mishmash of First ScotRail and Strathclyde Passenger Transport (SPT] liveries at present, and different signs all over the place at stations. The new livery gives Scotland's railways a national identity without being Nationalist". ”

“Repainting the rolling stock will be a huge waste of money.” - I`m not sure how it will be a huge waste of money as Transport Scotland have confirmed that the repainting etc “will be carried out during routine repainting to avoid extra costs.”

“We have to ask whether the SNP is getting a Government agency to use the Saltire for their own nationalistic aims” – Except that “Transport Scotland, whose own logo was inspired by the Saltire, stressed work on the new train design had started before the SNP came to power last year.”

In short what Labour has said is at best ill informed and at worst bare faced lies.

Baron Foulkes has decided that the rebranding is all a nationalist plot saying that "This is all part of the SNP's independence by creep...They know they can't have a straight fight on it because they would lose hands down, so they try to brainwash people into independence instead with a strategy of incremental changes."

Does he really believe that the branding of a train is going to influence, sorry “brainwash”, people’s view on the constitutional future of Scotland? I can`t help that think that perhaps people might be more swayed by debates and informed opinion rather than dark blue choo-choo trains.

The logic seems to be that a saltire is involved and therefore it must be nationalist. So, when Jack McConnell as First Minister adopted it as the symbol to promote Scotland abroad he was being nationalist?

And how about the ‘One Scotland’ anti racism campaign, began under the last Exec, inspired by the Saltire – was this the last administration trying to get independence by creep?

Whoever wins the leadership of Labour at Holyrood I hope that that they can get a grip on both Foulkes and this kind of nonsense so we can get back to having serious politics in Scotland.

To the Victor...3rd place!

2008-07-31T10:49:00.002+01:00

Way back in April I stuck up a wee post about Labour’s selection for the European candidates for the 2009 European Parliament elections. A wee birdie had told me that their candidate who came 4th, one Paul McAleavely had out polled the two incumbent Labour MEPs and also the 3rd placed Mary Lockhart.

I`m told that my wee birdie had picked the info up wrong.

No less a source than Mary Lockhart herself has left a couple of comments about the story (after a few of her SNP friends said they had seen it) to give me news from the inside.

It seems that it was in fact 3rd placed Mary who was the candidate that polled the most votes – “I was the candidate who had more votes than anyone else, including Paul. No-one was more surprised - or delighted -than I that this was so. I have the greatest respect and liking for Paul, but have certainly not taken his place on the list and would be grateful if you could correct your assertion”.

I`m more than happy to do so. My point from the original post from April stands, in the SNP it doesn`t matter if you are an incumbent you are treated equally with all other candidates and if you are reselected it because you got the most votes – which isn`t the way in the Labour party where the incumbent is protected. When I was first told the tale it was said that both the 3rd and 4th placed candidates outpolled the two sitting MPs – unless informed otherwise I still believe this to be the case.

So my apologise to Mary Lockhart for suggesting that she was outpolled, my congratulations to her that she was the real winner of the Scottish Labour European selections, and also my commiserations to Mary Lockhart who despite winning gets 3rd place.

As well as saying this blog is “balanced and intelligent” (she has taste in blogs clearly) she also says “Thanks for your suggestion that he/she who polls most votes should head the list; no-one was more surprised and delighted that I polled more votes than any other candidate than I was, since I belong to the socialist and co-operative wing of my party.”