BBC and MISINFORMATION

I've been working in the sitooterie this afternoon with the radio for company.  BBC Scotland news reported that Barack Obama is visiting Iraq and is at a US airbase, but he's unable to meet the President because the weather is too bad for helicopters to fly. It was also said President Obama will be telephoning the Iraqi President instead. As I used to say 20 years ago 'big deal.'

We all know a US military base in Iraq comes under the US constitution and is not part of the occupied country, therefore Obama is not in Iraq he's visiting a US base.  Quite an insult to the Iraqi hierarchy for him to act in such a manner and I'm sure there will be plenty international comment.

Yesterday Obama told the Austrians their language was Austrian and now another big faux pas. It's my understanding the American President has an entourage of hundreds with him on this trip. Obviously he's forgotten to bring any talent from his Foreign Office and Diplomatic Service.

As I was writing this I notice Craig Murray, who has considerable expertise in the diplomatic field,  has posted about the same thing.  Like me he's astonished at the level of insult to the Iraqi President.  

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75 Today

Happy Birthday to the Scottish National Party which is 75 today. Winnie Ewing is due to cut the cake and even the Herald has published an article by Alex Salmond. 

David of Notworkingfortheclampdown has a super post (including some photographs I've never seen), detailing events since 1934 so please do have a read.  We all need to refresh our memories at times and to recall where we've been and where we're going.

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Job Hunt Easter Style

I thought this was an April Fool but it's not.  Tomorrow in the Southwark offices of Jobcentre Plus contractor, Skills Training Centre uk, around 150 jobless will be asked to search for 35 chocolate eggs hidden around the building.  Among the gifts laid on courtesy of James Purnell will be an application form to become a security guard, a licence to work on buildings sites and vouchers to buy an interview suit.

Catrina Lynch, the manager who has organised the event said, "It is not meant in a demeaning way.  It's going to be fun.  My idea has always been to show people that there are jobs out there."

Who's paying for this? We are of course.  I can well imagine if this idea was attempted by any job centre in Dundee; they'd soon be told where to stick it.

Courtesy of Obnoxiotheclown

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Blair, First President of the EU?

James Merrick of the The Independent is reporting Tony Blair has upped his fight to become the first 'President of the EU'.  Gordon Brown has accepted that his old rival should be in pole position for the appointment on the basis that Britain needs to have a key figure in the architecture of the "new world order". There are these three words again, new world order.  For a few years now I've been reading about this including the conspiracy theories.  Wikipedia has a definition along with other sites, one of which analyses the term after the G20 last week.

Of course the presidency relies upon Ireland voting 'yes' to the Lisbon Treaty in the autumn.  Mr Blair will have spent two years in the Middle East role by July, giving him a legitimate opportunity to claim he has devoted enough time to the job, but critics will say he has failed to make any significant breakthrough.

Could it be Gordon has hopes of being Tony's deputy as a thank you for the nod of approval? 

Update :  Craig Murray has more information on his blog.  Please read as this affects us all.

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Mike Russell Blogs on Scotland Week

I'm a bit late with this information as he's been in the US two days already, but Mike Russell has started his own blog about his week in America as the Scottish government's representative at Scotland Week.  Of course he's a good writer and has a light touch with this subject.

It would be good to see more Scottish Nationalist MSPs and MPs enter the world of blogging. Many have websites which are seldom regularly updated and are therefore of little interest to anyone and it's my hope that Mike has started a trend.  Please give him a little encouragement in his comments section.

Note:  My apologies, the initial title said Tartan Week instead of Scotland Week.

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Update on EC and ECHR post

 

 UPDATE

Since this post of mine yesterday, there have been some excellent contributions from commenters. Indy contributed the following:

The European Convention on Human Rights was drafted under the authority of the Council of Europe – not the EU, although all EU members subscribe to the Convention. It is not exclusive to EU members however as the Council of Europe is not a part of the EU – so, for example, Russia is a member and in theory must incorporate ECHR.

Lallands Peat Worrier has written a post of his own as well as putting forward a very informed argument. I confess to being quite ignorant about what happens in Europe these days and the fault lies mainly with me, but it's refreshing to read arguments in plain English from my readers.  To understand my present ignorance the excuse is I was asked, back in the 80s, to read the Maastricht Treaty and produce a 2 page report.  It took me many days and the jargon was most difficult to interpret.  Usually I read German papers a few times a week and they often have a different translation of EC and ECHR communications compared to the UK.

OK, ignorance is no excuse, but I tried.

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Professor Sir Neil MacCormick

1941-2009

Sadly Neil MacCormick lost his battle with cancer this weekend.  I was privileged to hear him talk on a couple of occasions and his enthusiasm for Scotland, the SNP and independence was infectious.  His achievements were extensive and well recorded.

Richard Thomson of Scots and Independent writes a touching tribute with which I'm certain most SNP supporters will agree.

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European Court of Human Rights is a Threat to the UK

Beautiful building isn't it?  It is the European Court.  You helped pay for it and it's the place where unelected judges are slowly introducing a federal law of Europe.

James Forsyth in the Spectator Coffee Shop posts about Lord Hoffman's attack on the European Court of Human Rights and he argues that the court has neither legitimacy nor the standing to interfere as it does in domestic law.  But will that stop Europe attempting to encompass the UK into the EU spider's web?  Of course not.  It's up to our politicians to protest and make their thoughts known.  From the article it doesn't seem as if the tories will be doing much either.

It's my belief that the Human Rights Act should be abolished and another more appropriate Act brought into place.  The present Act protects criminals more than it protects law abiding citizens and that is just plain wrong.

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The Other John Knox

I don't expect many of you recognise the person in the photograph.  He's John Knox, the BBC's Scottish Parliament reporter.

John intends to cycle from Gretna Green to John O'Groats to find out what difference devolution has made to people's lives.  A series of three programmes based on his travels will be broadcast on BBC Radio Scotland at the end of May.

So, if you see this man on his bike, give him a clap, if nothing else he deserves it for the attempting to cycle the 1200 miles of highways and by-ways.

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THIEVES UK PLC

Wouldn't you think this man is just an ordinary tourist on holiday?  Ah but he's not, he's a member of the Commons Health Committee who, along with another seven, flew 11.000 business class miles to Auckland, New Zealand to find out how New Zealand's heath services cope with people who drink too much.  Five labour MPs, one LibDem and one Independent spent up to five nights in upmarket hotels.  The committee chairman Kevin Barron (pictured above) stayed on for a holiday at the end of the official programme last Thursday.  This MPs holiday cost the taxpayers £70,000 but of course there will be extra expenses not doctored into that amount.

The Mail on Sunday quotes MP Jim Dowd, who did not stay on after the official visit, as saying,"I'm not interested in whether you think it's a good case or not, to be quite frank.  We've done a lot of work looking at what's happening in New Zealand on issues ranging from alcohol abuse to patient safety to social care."  Then he hung up.

As for them travelling business class that has to stop.  Our military, regardless of rank, have been told they must travel second class to save money and that's been for some time now. These MPs are the UK's representatives who refuse to permit our senior military officers from travelling to the likes of Australia and the US anything other than second class to attend extremely important conferences.  Our military are thrust into international meetings with jetlag and exhaustion but still manage to do their job.

All this bunch of thieves had to do was take a train from London to Glasgow and they'd have soon had an education in our own government's alcohol abuse research.  Another case for saying the quicker we're independent the better.

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Another Freedom Lost

I didn't realise the proposal by the Westminster government for personal web data to be stored comes into law on Monday.  There have been few protests from UK politicians but of course, they will be exempt. 

Mobile calls, emails and website visits of every person in Britain will be stored for a year under sweeping new powers which will, for the first time, place a legal duty on internet companies to store private information, including email traffic and website browsing histories.

This is a gross intrusion of my privacy and I'm not prepared to accept the argument that it is to protect public safety and national security.   Inch by inch this government's plans to monitor everyone's communications are creeping into place.  We need to speak out and stop this.

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Subrosa's Super Seven Blogs

An Original Idea -  Baron Foulkes of Cumnock

Daniel 1979 -  G 20 results

Holyrood Patter -  a blogging campaign

No More Diaspora -   quel damage!

10 Drowning Street by Lord Elvis of Paisley -  How Gordon Brown Broke Britain (video)

Scunnert Nation -  why Germany is urging ‘humility’ on Ireland and a Yes vote to Lisbon

SNP Tactical Voting -  are women short sighted?

Fish Suppers to:

Baron’s Life -  to be young again

england calling -  post of the week

The Lone Voice -  PC policing

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Tweet of the Week

Tweet of the Week

A serious tweet this week and do read the link.

mattwardmanBlog Post: Voting From Jail: We The Peoplehttp://bit.ly/pGjyX

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WHEN THE PEERIE STOPS

Now that the great and the good and the not so great and the not so good have left, the dissection of the G20 communiques begins.  The best analysis I've read so far is from Wat Tyler at Burning Our Money. It's written with knowledge but in simple English for those of us who are just weary of endless financial non-words being spoken to us each day. Craig Murray also has a post which fits with my view.

I posted this photograph to remind you of the meaning of hero worship and the phrase 'the cat's got the cream'.

For a definition of the Scots word peerie look here but it does have another meaning in the Western Isles.  

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FUEL TAX RISES

Almost unnoticed, the UK government fuel rises, announced in the pre-budget report in November, took effect yesterday.  Petrol and diesel duty will increase by 2.12p a litre, taking diesel over a £1 a litre once more.  The rise comes on top of a December duty increase of 2p a litre on both fuels which had been deferred from April 2008 when global oil prices were at record levels.

"Taking an extra pound off drivers each time they fill up their fuel tank is a pound taken away from high street and leisure spending that would help revive the economy," said AA President Edmund King.  The AA said the fuel duty rises took the tax element paid by motorists in the UK to 71%, one of the highest rates in Europe and second only to the Netherlands and Norway. It also said that from April 2010 motorist face a further 4p a litre duty rise on both fuels.

Our haulage industry will be severely affected by this rise and it's obvious the basic necessities of life such as food, will increase in price.  Surely the chancellor could have raised the money by putting a tax on European hauliers who, with massive tanks, fuel up in Europe before coming to UK.  They are able to be more competitive, due to their much cheaper fuel costs, than British hauliers.  Just a thought. 

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FMQs 2 April 2009

Today's First Minister's Questions was dedicated to the catastrophe which occurred in the North Sea around 24 hours ago.  Alex Salmond gave a detailed update and sadly confirmed the services were no longer considering rescue but recovery.  The whole Parliament conveyed their condolences to the families, friends and colleagues of the dead.

A third of today's FMQs on the BBC was given over to Westminster where Jim Murphy made a statement about the incident.  It was sad to note the House was more or less empty.  Where were all the Scottish labour MPs? 

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The Human Cost of Oil

We can only imagine the shock and grief of the families and friends of those involved in today's helicopter tragedy in the North Sea.  Sixteen people were on board the Super Puma which was bringing workers back to shore.  Eight bodies have been found but it seems there will be no survivors as this helicopter crashed into the sea, compared with the incident in February when the helicopter managed to ditch into the sea, resulting in all lives being saved.

There was a MayDay call around 2pm this afternoon.  Aberdeen coastguard launched a major operation involving RAF helicopters, a Nimrod place and 11 ships and boats and the first rescue helicopter, which was quickly on the scene, could only see 2 lifeboats and bodies floating in the sea.  

The First Minister Alex Salmond described the tragedy as "devastating and appalling" which is very true.  Not only does such a disaster affect the north east of Scotland but about half the workers come from further afield.  Since 1985 there have been 56 deaths and 18 survivors in helicopters taking oil workers to and from north sea platforms.  That figure does not include today's deaths.

This puts all the glitter and spin of the G20 into proportion and all the talk about MPs being worth more than they are paid.   The people who died today provide the UK with its oil and it's North Sea oil which has given the UK the standard of living they have enjoyed over the past 40 years.  I do hope those who live both inside and outside Scotland realise the sacrifice made today and spare a thought for the families and friends of the dead.

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A Very Honourable Gentleman

On the eve of the G20 elite circus taking the stage in the English capital, London, I thought it appropriate to pay tribute to one of the very few politicians who deserves the title 'honourable' and that is The Right Honourable Robin Cook.  He was a man of principle and justice and one who let it be known that he couldn't be bought.  Although we held different beliefs regarding Scotland, Robin Cook was highly respected by many of all political persuasions. My thanks to Ampers for the video and I suggest you also visit The Truth or the Fight for a most interesting read.

The video is Robin Cook's resignation speech over the Iraq war.  It has been shortened slightly to fit with Youtube's 10 minute policy but I do hope it reminds you, as it has done me, we have had politicians of integrity and honour in the past.

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