Willie Rennie is now the leader of the Liberal Democrats in the Scottish Parliament. Caron must be delighted. Mr Rennie did not win his constituency vote but acquire his appointment through the list system here in Scotland and he was the only MSP to put himself forward for the leadership. A shoo-in indeed.
However, like this blogger, I have issues with Mr Rennie's knowledge when he had the remit of Libdem defence in the Westminster. In case anyone is unaware Mr Rennie was an MP entered the Westminster parliament after a by-election success but he was thrown aside by the Labour candidate in the 2010 general election. He has a record of expenses claims.
He held the Libdem post for Defence. I do hope he does himself a favour by keeping his mouth shut on this issue in the Scottish Parliament. The man is so uninformed it's embarrassing.
How many civil servants (many of them paid far more than the average hard-worker could dream of) run the country? The military needs generals as much, if not more so, than the country needs politicians who have no experience of military action or life then profess to vote for legislation on our HM Forces.
I hope Mr Rennie concentrates on the subjects with which he's more acquainted than the current military and wish him well.
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22 comments:
Don't you just love the positive, creative, spin, politicians put on allegations of wrongdoing.
From the newspaper article:- "Mr Rennie added, "The commissioner has made it absolutely clear that the central allegation by Thomas Docherty — that I stole £18,000 of taxpayers' money — was not the case," he said."
Of course, he's correct - the same article reports "It emerged at the weekend that Mr Rennie has agreed to repay £2647 ....."
Yes Joe, political speak which I hate. If he'd only admitted to the £2647 then I would have had some kind of respect for him.
I has never ceased to amaze me how cabinet re-shuffles occur. One assumes that a person appointed to be Minister of State for Health knows something about the subject. How odd it is that, after a couple of years, he swaps roles and becomes Foreign Secretary. Does that means that he also knows an awful lot about Foreign Affairs? Gosh, what a genius! But, low and behold, a couple of years later, he swaps roles again and becomes Chancellor! Now, one's credulity is becoming stretched.
We observe this process and wonder how it comes to pass. What we observe is that this chap (or chapess - always to be understood) has held some minor post as a shadow or junior minister, and has progressed and become 'well thought of'. Why? Is it because of his knowledge? I think not. I think that he has become 'well thought of' because he has mastered the knack of saying the right things, and always backing up the boss and 'being a safe pair of hands'.
Thus, we get the ministers who do not necessarily know anything but say the right things and, more than anything, act according to the advice of the real powers - the Civil Service committees of the Departments. Thus, when these top Civil Servants collude, we find ourselves with the unelected, all powerful EUSSR. Politicians make noises, say the right things, but the reality is that they can do nothing since they know nothing, and therefore must obey the advice of the Civil Servants.
And so it will go on until, one day, either the sh*t seriously hits the fan (economic melt down, for example) or The People get fed up, and a real leader emerges.
Who do you think that that leader might be?
Junican, Hi there, I am in complete agreement with what you say.
We KNOW the MP's know only what the civil servants know, trouble is that the civil servants are not that knowledgeable either and thats when the brown stuff hits the rotating object. Too often its the blind leading the blind.
Right, Apogee, but the trick that the Civil Servants employ is to set up a committee of 'experts', which they stuff with people that they want. They also engineer 'select committees' and 'all party committees' to recommend. All bases are covered. IT IS NEVER THEIR FAULT when things go wrong, and, of course, it is the fall guy politicians who carry the can at the end of the day. CARRY ON CHAPS!
One more thing.
So we have seen that the Labour Party, the Liberal Party and the Conservative Party in Scotland have all changed their leaders. I suppose that that means that the load of tripe that was previously spoken will be replaced by a different load of tripe spoken by a different person. Well, that's ok then! Problem solved!
What a shower! There is something seriously wrong with politics in this country (or should I say, in these Islands?). Could it be that THE PEOPLE are becoming more knowledgeable? If one person in a thousand starts to think about politics, then 50 000 potential dissatisfied bloggers emerge. That equates to a lot of pressure. If one of these bloggers came up with a seriously good idea for the reform of politics, big changes could result.
Fancy a go, Subrosa?
For years I too was under the illusion that politicians had knowledge of their briefs Junican, until I saw first hand the system. It's civil servants who run this country and like politicians some are good while some are only concerned with matters of self-interest.
Junican, that's it in a nutshell. Different talking heads.
A go Junican? Dare I say I'm too outspoken and when I tell lies I blush. Not good attributes for a politician.
Aye an odious piece of work put in charge of another 3 odious individuals.
Sucking at the public teat for no benefit to Scotland.
Has Tavish trousered the £100k profit from his taxpayer funded flat in Edinburgh yet ?
Apologies if he has handed the cash back.
Hat Tip for the link Rosie.
A total wrong un this one. A career politician with no spine and an addiction to other peoples money. A total puppet of both his leaders and certain memberes of the electorate.
A scant disregards to others unless its for his own gain.
Odious is being polite.
So the losing parties have changed or are about to change leaders? What difference will that make? None. They might hope to have someone who has more of a personality which suits media exposure but knowledgeable? Selfless? Courageous to adopt change which will improve the voters lot? I think not.
Change has to come from somewhere. The question is how bad do things have to get before it changes in a meaningful way?
The SNP getting in? Change? yes. But not enough and they are not informed enough or brave enough to determine policies (energy, nuclear, wind power) which will support our economy and fuel our hopes of improving the lives of everyone in Scotland.
Still aways to go then.
Aren't there another 4 of them RMcGeddon? No matter, 3 or 4 or 5 or 6, won't make a bit of difference.
My pleasure LotF. I know you are quite acquainted with the man.
I think Alex Salmond knows just how fast to implement change patem, at least far more than the others.
Alex is recognised as being a shrewd political operator. I certainly supported him and his party mainly because they had been innovative in government and seemed to have made things a bit better.
That was fine then and I hope that continues.
Shrewd or not how is he going to back track or u-turn on energy? We'll need much more than windmills. We'll need a mix of nuclear, coal and gas and hydro. We'll need to expand North Sea Oil exploration and development and we'll need to exploit whatever shale gas we can.
Should be interesting.
It was also reported recently that Scotland would keep the Queen as head of state. Did anyone ask the people about that?
I think there will eventually have to be a serious debate about energy petem, but the SNP will first want to sort out the Crown Estate business I should think.
Alex has always campaigned on the fact that the Queen would be head of state. I've noticed he never includes 'and her successors'.
Mr Rennie said although there aren't many Lib-Dems they could make a lot of noise. Oh dear. He seems to think much can be achieved with noise. That didn't do Labour a lot of good last term did it? And what's that saying about empty vessels?
I once had the dubious pleasure of sharing a platform with this odious individual.
A lightweight and either totally incompetent, or more likely a complete liar.
I was really pleased he lost his seat in the General Election even if it was to Labour. But like a bad penny....
Mr Goose,
Your comment is bang on !
I too laughed out loud on the 7th May last year , but also had a tear as Doherty was brought into the seat with the same Scottish connections as Idi Amin. But as you say like a bad penny .......... !!!
Exactly Jo. At least Tavish used to have a sensible question to ask most weeks at FMQs - even though the FM seldom answered it.
Is that the definition of a libdem career politician Wildgoose?
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