Often I've suggested Iain Gray, the leader of the Scottish Parliament labour group, has some help with his public speaking.
My idea was he may benefit from a few hours at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama but no, Mr Gray's gone one better than our national drama school and he's been taking lessons from Silverfish Productions.
The lessons, for which Mr Gray claimed £3,450, trained him for television interviews and showed him how to present himself and answer difficult questions. I trust they taught him how to answer the easy ones first.
If the picture is anything to go by the taxpayers have certainly had their money's worth don't you think?
If any readers know of any other politicians (other than David Miliband) who have charged taxpayers for skills, with which they should have been equipped before they accepted the position of an elected representative, do let me know.
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36 comments:
Tunbridge Wells MP Greg Clark
I remember thinking he should already know how to do this!
HALIFAX MP Linda Riordan
Barbara Keeley, Deputy Leader of the House of Commons
Just saw the Hootsmon hatchet job on Wardog.
Incandescent is the word to describe how I feel.
I note that at the top of the article there is a little button to allow the reader to change the date. I think 1984 would be about right.
Big Brother Murphy is watching you?
David Tredinnick, tried to claim back £125 for a course on 'intimate relationships'.
Italian Lessons for Michael Jack.
To return to the article in question, Iain Grays acting lessons.
They didn't work, either. Another useless "one" then.
Sorry if the Though Police close your blog down SubR because of me.
Thanks for the info Sue. It's breathtaking how MPs think we should pay for their basic inadequacies.
Yes it's appalling Bug. I wonder how smart the delicious Mr Murphy feels seeing his boss being 'found out' faking grief in Westminster Abbey's Garden of Remembrance after the service the other week? CallMe Dave was just as bad.
What a collection of inadequates we have for senior politicians. Even prepared to use our military war dead for photo opportunities in order to brainwash the public into believing they actually care.
I wouldn't vote for any one of them.
sound of sinister music: Jack is coming back........No,no,no not Jack Bower - Jack MacConnell!
Iain's lessons wasted as Jack charges back to the rescue.
You couldn't make it up, even in 24.
Where is this Wardog article in the Scotsman, Subrosa/bugger?
http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/education/Lecturer-faces-blog-inquiry.5846750.jp
Note that comment is not allowed. I wonder what they are frightened of?
Murphy is a Cloaca
I haven't seen it in the Scotland on Sunday but it's in the Sunday Herald.
Scuse me for swearing subrosa but it's a fucking disgrace that a man's livelihood is threatened for expressing a point of view in a personal blog.
What kind of country is this.
Bug it's not a word I like or would use myself.
Thought Police? You mean the sensitive, chivalrous, understanding, miscellaneous persons who become upset when some disagree with them?
SubR
What, Cloaca?
I posted on the next article Rosa, I suggest we all do the same.
Got it now DL?
Jings Observer, I didn't think the Herald would stoop so low. It didn't come online until very late.
You don't have to apologise to me Observer.
It's certainly a country I don't like these days. How did we ever get to the stage that a politician can threaten a person's livelihood because they didn't like their opinion.
My forefathers fought and died for everyone to have the freedom to speak their thoughts.
It's sickening to think their lives were in vain and still politicians are sending our troops to countries as cannon fodder.
Ok Conan thanks. Kind of slow today but I'll try to sharpen up.
Observer, I don't see anything in the online Herald and I've no intention of buying the paper.
My search skills aren't great though.
subrosa
'If any readers know of any other politicians (other than David Miliband) who have charged taxpayers for skills, with which they should have been equipped before they accepted the position of an elected representative, do let me know.'
I don't agree that people who put themselves up for election to public office should already have these skills. That would just lead to even more 'style over substance' candidates, IMO.
I think it also implies that candidates should be fully-fledged politicians when they enter office, whereas I am prepared to allow them some leeway when they set out and to develop their skills in the role. I don't believe that any elected rep is actually 'ready' for the office when they first get elected.
The question of using public money for this sort of training is a different matter. I would've thought that our political parties might try and run training courses for their candidates?
Too right re Wardog. More power to him in his fight with the forces of repression.
I accept your view politicsscot but disagree. Being an MP on a salary of £64,000 is possibly the only job with that salary in the UK which requires no formal qualifications.
An MP is expected to speak up for their constituents.
How can they do so effectively without having an acceptable degree of public speaking ability?
I know many people who have excellent public speaking skills but would be no more fully-fledged politicians than fly in the air and they wouldn't want to be either.
What Wardog says on his personal blog has nothing to do with his employers. It was the same when the numpty Paisley Labour Councillor Terry Kelly was reported to the Standards Commission for his outrageous views, he was cleared because what he says was his personal views on his personal blog.
It is not the first time Labour has tried to lose a person their job from a college for political reasons. They tried to lose a man his job from Reid Kerr College here in Paisley, his crime was to stand for the SNP against the Labour party, so they made up a load of drivel to try and force the college to fire him.
Wardog would have a good claim against the college if they take ANY action against him for what is a political move by the Labour party and like I say above there is a precedent.
Funny I call the Labour party murdering scum basically on my blog at paisleyexpressions and yet they are not chasing after me. Considering they are well aware of me and my blog I wonder why?
Billy
Hi SR
People all over the country are calling all politicians the same, and worse, all day, every day.Matters not the party ,somewhere, someone will be cursing them. If they cant stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. Murphy, and the rest are all volunteers,he is a wee bit thin skinned suddenly, so play the man and not the ball..!
And using taxpayers money to learn how to speak. I wonder how any of them would have got on at the public meetings when politicians had to "meet the people" face to face and explain themselves, without hiding behind a TV camera.
I am old enough(just) to remember some of them,a politician had to be able to answer the hall, give as good as they got,or they suffered loss of reputation/face. If they couldnt hack it in the village hall, what chance they could do it in whatever legislature they were aiming at. And some of them could be pretty rough in the old days.If they could handle a public meeting well, they would be voted for, make a fool of themselves and they are out!
Ninety nine percent of the current lot wouldnt last five seconds.
D.
Taxpayer-funded courses for Ministers can sometimes be a state secret to avoid embarrassing them, it seems. Who was learning Italian on our dime?
Margaret Thatcher, of course, famously had voice coaching but she paid for it herself.
Billy I think Wardog upset Jim Murphy in a few ways and because he has nothing better to do he decided to use his influence to destroy him.
This incident shows just how much the Scotsman and Herald cower to the labour party. It's no real surprise but it shows our so called national press are completely controlled by London.
Apogee, I remember these days too but now all politicians need to do is learn a crib sheet.
Right enough ASE, Maggie had sense whereas today's political numpties are in politics only for their own gains, nothing to do with their electorate.
I think he should have asked for training in asking questions in the FMQ that didn't get him laughed at.
The situation with Wardog has had me so angry I can hardly speak. On the one hand, this isn't the first time something like this has been done, it is hardly the worst, and you can bet it won't be the last.
But it silenced a voice in a supposedly free society.
The sadness is that Jim Murphy and his cohorts are so prepared to damage a person's livelihood because what they say doesn't suit them.
That's scary Jeanne because, as you say, this used to be a country where free speech was encouraged.
Now it seems we're living in a modern USSR.
Re. the acting school.
My father always said they(politicians) are all ham actors anyway.
D.
I would agree with your father Apogee. :)
On the night of the Glasgow NE bye-election, when it looked at one point that the BNP were going to come in third, I had a thought that perhaps now, realising the danger of the nazi's, the press would cut the SNP a fairer deal. Better to have a democratic SNP in the tent etc. However it was not to be.
The danger with stiffling the WD's of the world is that democracy can fall into disuse (aka 2/3 not bothering to vote in Glasgow NE) and became vunerable to certain "messages". Now there is nothing that labour would like better than a dictatorship with them in charge for ever. But what if the nazi's started making inroads? We need more WD's not less to ensure the blighters are kept on their lazy labour toes.
On a personal note, I didn't like the use of the word (that's me) but defend his right to use it in the appropriate circumstances.
I had high hopes in that direction too Dram but as you say it wasn't to be.
Labour have brought it all upon themselves and the BNP will most certainly gain in the English GE, although I doubt they'll get a seat. It's the seats labour are concerned about, not the wellbeing of the country.
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