ThunderDragon Blog

Pity it doesn’t count for anything.

The Scottish Parliament has voted against the UK Government’s plans to introduce ID cards.

MSPs backed a Scottish Government motion stating the scheme would not increase security or deter crime, while raising concerns about civil liberties…

But Labour declined to back the motion, saying parliament should focus on issues which were devolved to Scotland. (BBC)

To a certain extent, yes, the Scottish Parliament should only focus on devolved matters. But ID cards are such an important issue for us all that any intervention from politicians against these impositions on our civil liberties.

Surprisingly, Labour won the by-election in Glenthrothes. I say “surprisingly”, but Labour were never out of the game. They always had a chance of winning, and only idiots *cough*Salmond*cough* said that it was in the bag for the SNP.

However, the amount of its vote that Labour managed to keep is surprising. In 2005, Labour had a majority of 10,664, and in 2008 a majority of 6,737, a loss of 4,000. The SNP increased its vote by 4,500, and both the Conservatives and Lib Dems lost their deposit. The biggest loser of the night was the Lib Dems, who were dismissed by the electorate into fourth place - down from third.

Gordon Brown has hailed this victory as a “vote of confidence” in the government. Err, excuse me? How, precisely?

Let’s look at the facts: Glenrothes is a Scottish constituency right next to Brown’s own; Gordo is a local boy, “a citizen of the Kingdom of Fife”; Labour’s candidate was the head teacher of a local school; neither Glenrothes or any of it’s constituent parts have ever had a non-Labour MP. So Glenrothe isn’t exactly a neutral area on which the success of policies can be based, since Brown and Labour had such an inbuilt advantage.

It simply cannot be regarded as any form of vote of confidence in Labour’s policies on a national basis - even though it is an undoubtedly a good thing for them.

Who’da thunk that sticky-back plastic and toilet rolls can instigate evil?

Yet according to an SNP MSP it does.

However, he does think that Hitler knew how to use TV “imaginatively”.

The best comeback is from a Lib Dem MSP, Margaret Smith:

Today’s was an interesting contribution, which referred to the evil-doing of Blue Peter but the imaginativeness of Hitler. One could only guess what Adolf would have done if he had access to sticky back plastic.

Set your alarm clocks.

6th November is volcano day.

The day that Gordon Brown’s future becomes clear: will he stay or will he be forced out?

It’s all down to the people of Glenthrothes.

Via ConservativeHome

Labour have lost Glasgow East. A seat where they had a huge 13,507 majority and gained more than 60% of the vote at the last election now lost to the SNP, with a swing of more than 22%.

When Labour is losing a seat like Glasgow East, which they really should be able to hold easily, the end is nigh for them. If this swing was repeated at a general election, Labour would be left with just one MP in Scotland - and if this were to be replicated in England as well… Of course that won’t happen, but it is an interesting statistic to look at.

Labour is now in a critical position. Gordon Brown is lucky that parliament has risen for the summer recess, or I doubt that he would have survived much longer. This was almost certainly arranged on purpose. But even so, Brown’s future as Prime Minister still hangs in the balance.

The results:

John Mason, SNP - 11,277
Margaret Curran, Labour - 10,912
Davena Rankin, Conservative - 1,639
Ian Robertson, Lib Dem - 915

Glasgow East was a good result for the SNP and the Conservatives, a bad resut for the Lib Dems and, rather obviously, a terrible night for Labour. The Conservatives leap-frogged the leaderless Scottish Lib Dems into third place. One thing that hasn’t really been mentioned with recent by-election results is that the Lib Dems, who once triumphed in these elections, really have failed miserably, their “legendary” by-election engine stalling. Three times in a row.

Is this result something from which Labour can recover? It seems unlikely when Glasgow East was such a safe seat. The end appears to be nigh for Labour.

ASDA are my hero of the day.

In response to the SNPs nanny state proposals to crack down on cheap alcohol, they have declared:

There is nothing to stop companies looking at expanding their home shopping network or opening up depots just south of the border and delivering to homes in Scotland.

So if the SNP continue with their stupid idea, they will build distribution centres in England and sell cheap alcohol to Scottish homes.

Good on them!

Apparently, according to the SNP, “high-strength, low-cost alcohol is not a right.” Erm, why? It is my money that I am spending and my body into which I am poring it. So yes, it is a right for me to be able to buy what I want at the cheapest available price.

The right to buy cheap alcohol from an off-licence or alcoholmarket supermarket is not something that they should be allowed to take away without a fight. I fully support ASDA in seeking to preserve the rights of Scotsmen to drink alcohol at the price they wish to pay for it.

One by-election was just a month ago. Another held its vote yesterday. And the candidate list for one more has just closed.

They think it’s all over - but it isn’t yet:

A Labour MP is set to resign forcing another potentially embarrassing by-election for Gordon Brown in the wake of his fifth place humiliation in Henley.

The Telegraph can reveal that David Marshall, the East Glasgow MP, will stand down because of ill-health on Monday.

The seat, with a 13,507 Labour majority, would normally be considered safe.

However, the Scottish National Party will target the seat and Labour sources told the Telegraph that they believed the seat was “vulnerable.” (The Telegraph)

Another by-election test for Gordon Brown. After avoiding a vote every possible opportunity, it seems that fate is conspiring the ensure that the people get as many chances to vote on Gordo as possible.

Unlike Henley - or even Crewe and Nantwich - Glasgow East is not a constituency that can, under any circumstance, be claimed to be a likely Conservative target. In 2005, Labour got nearly 61% of the vote with the Conservatives on just 7% and the SNP in second place on 17%, so to lose the seat would be a very clear signal indeed that Brown has to go.

Labour will have to fight tooth-and-nail for Glasgow East. They have no other choice. If they lose this seat, the end is more than nigh - but right here, right now.

UPDATE: More Scottish bad news for Brown, as Wendy Alexander is to stand down as Scottish Labour leader.

What this really means is that yet another headache will be added to Brown’s already-huge pile of problems, exascerbated by the fact that Wendy Alexander is very much a Brownite.

The most important thing to come out of this, however, is that Mr Eugenides will be sad.

It seems that Labour are pro-referendums and direct democracy when they think that it will give them the answer they want, yet not when they think we’ll give them an answer that they don’t want. Whilst you can easily demonstrate that any political party has done this over time, for one party to do this within a couple of months shows contempt for the electorate of this country.

Either they do or do not believe in referendums and direct democracy. Wendy Alexander’s argument for a referendum in Scotland is that:

It’s time for them to put up or shut up… If [the SNP are] convinced [they've] got a majority, we shouldn’t leave it to the fag end of a parliament to get around to testing public opinion.

This can just as easily be applied to Gordon Brown’s government in Downing Street. If they’re so convinced that they are right and that the people support them, they should hold or referendum. Put up or shut up, as Wendy says.

Not to mention Labour’s lack of internal referendums on leadership…

So Gordon Brown has ordered a review into the Barnett formula which gives Scotland £1,500 extra per person than England, paid for inevitably by English taxpayers. To be honest, I doubt we’ll hear anything back about it, in either a few months or a few years. Certainly so long as Labour remain in power, reliant on Scotland for their majority.

As much as this is a good thing to hear, under a Scottish Prime Minister elected in a Scottish constituency bugger all will be done, no matter what the conclusion made is. Especially considering that the Chancellor is Scottish as well.

Not to mention the SNP being right up Labour’s arse, too.

So, no matter what Brown says, bugger all will actually happen.