Labour is bad for your health - The Sun

Labour is bad for your health - The Sun

Margaret Jaconelli walks taller and has had an idea …

Margaret Jaconelli has announced her candidacy as an independent for the Scottish Parliament today. Her campaign HQ will be 10 Ardenlea Street Dalmarnock, her threatened home of 35 years, under siege by Labour-controlled Glasgow City Council.

Last Saturday, Margaret confronted Glasgow City Council Labour leader, Gordon Matheson outside the Labour Party Conference. Her persecutor-in-chief hastily ran away, refusing to talk when he realised who he had by the hand.

Undeterred, Margaret went on to confront Ed Miliband, who did listen, took her phone number and promised to act. (reported in the Sunday Post with picture.)

Margaret exhibits fully the qualities and hopes that Jack McConnell, former Scottish First Minister, expressed in his farewell speech at Holyrood today -

“ … will walk a little taller, cringe a little less and have ideas above their station.”

Some YouTube comments on my Linda Fabiani video

• Linda Fabiani MSP calmly comments on Scotland and Barnett, while the wheels come off the Union

 

• All I'm saying is that there is a certain amount of risk involved. The fears that many Scots have should be allayed, not made fun of. I'm not saying that independence is the wrong way to go.robsargent4

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• The only way to find out if independence would actually be better than any of the other options is to go forward with it, but if it doesn't work out it would be too late to change our minds. robsargent4

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• You should have named the video Linda Fabiani and three twats Alba12349

• To Alba12349 I wouldn't dream of being so rude - Linda Fabiani and the three a******** perhaps. TAofMoridura

• What a mockery when Scottish oil has subsidised England for decades now ! I wish people here in Scotland would wakey wakey ! Whether they will remains to be seen . What remains is the arrogance of these people who believe that they actually own us and our country ! alba4232

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• To @alba4232 Scottish oil built the M25. It bailed out Maggie's failing economy. TAofMoridura

• @TAofMoridura and all the rest that we never were supposed to hear about !alba4232

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• @alba4232 But is there enough oil left to make an independent Scotland wealthy? Is an economy dependent on one natural resource really a good idea? Personally I don't really know. I know oil is not all there is to Scotland's economy, but other than whisky there don't seem to be any major exporters at the moment. That means that an independent Scotland would be reliant on only a few exports. I know renewable energy is also being developed but that still doesn't make for a very diverse economy. robsargent4

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• To @robsargent4 The Scots who favour independence are confident in the ability of Scots to survive and prosper once free of the union. The unionist position is characterised by timidity and a lack of self-confidence. But what they never understand that even if we were poorer - which we won't be - we would rather be free. That's what freedom and pride have always been about.

  For me, it's easy - the nuclear issue defines my position because the SNP are the only non-nuclear party of significance. TAofMoridura

• @TAofMoridura I'm sure an independent Scotland could survive or even prosper (in relative terms) but I'm not we would prosperous enough to woo the public (yet). You are quite right when you say the unionist position is characterised by timidity. Many like the idea of independence, but are simply not sure if/how it would work. These worries are legitimate and should be addressed, not derided. Insulting a large portion of the population is hardly going to sway them over to another way of thinking. robsargent4

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• To @robsargent4 I agree with all of that, but I occasionally forget it because of frustration with the Scottish electorate. But that's democracy, and coming up with convincing arguments is the only way. YouTube comments are not the place for complex economic arguments, however, and simpler messages are also necessary. A large chunk of the voting public react only to soundbites, and finding the right ones is the trick.The role of images and emotions in shifting allegiance is vital too.

• TAofMoridura

• • @TAofMoridura Like it or not, for many people, independence must bring greater wealth for it to be worthwhile. Freedom isn't enough for everyone. The only way Scotland can become independent is if the majority of people in Scotland can be convinced beyond doubt that independence would make the country wealthier. robsargent4

  • @robsargent4 It's one way - and a very important one - but it is certainly not the only way. Not everyone is driven by economic self-interest. If it was the only way, politicians could always buy votes by expedient promises, which is the contemptible belated tactic adopted by Labour in the last week or so. Whether the electorate will buy it or not remains to be seen. Certainly Scottish Labour voters never seem to vote for their narrow economic interest - if they did, they have been betrayed. TAofMoridura

• @TAofMoridura Like it or not, for many people, independence must bring greater wealth for it to be worthwhile. Freedom isn't enough for everyone. The only way Scotland can become independent is if the majority of people in Scotland can be convinced beyond doubt that independence would make the country wealthier.

  To @robsargent4 Well, I have a higher opinion of Scots than that, but you may be right. May 5th won't be either the beginning or the end of the progress towards independence, which I believe is inevitable, sooner or later. But we've waited 304 years - we can wait a bit longer.

• But free of the useless House of Lords, Trident and nuclear folly, and the UK's ridiculous pretensions as a global warmonger - and with a few years of our own oil revenues - we will have a head start in the wealth game.  TAofMoridura

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• I praise Linda Fabiani's calm approach to attack from the panel members. Journalists however exist to question the policy of elected administrations. The SNP falsely give us a choice: Independence or the Status Quo. Thankfully there is another choice: further devolution and reform of the union. Devolution is a process not an event so perhaps there should be more talk of devolution of powers to local government where they can used more effectively.

• TAofMoridura  I find it interesting that you talk of the United Kingdom as a foreign body, it is our Union: Democratically elected. Of course there are policies of the UK Government that are dubious but we must not enter the cycle of believing that everything Scottish is pure and good and that anything UK is evil. The UK's economic crisis has been weathered better than it could be in an independent N.Ireland, Scotland, Wales or England. champs98320

• To @champs98320 The UK has fought one illegal war and is embroiled in a dubious one. It cannot protect the heir to the throne in his capital. It allied itself to an utterly discredited regime in the US. It has alienated the youth of the nation and provoked riots. Its defence policy is a ludicrous anachronism. It has destroyed its own economy.

• It doesn't know what to do about Scotland. English nationalism is on the march.

  Devolution is a process not an event - a process leading to independence.

• TAofMoridura

   

• To @champs98320 The UK has been inimical to my interests and those of many Scots for many years, and is increasingly a foreign body. But I am a democrat, and I accept that it exists in the present day as a result of democratic procedures, however flawed and manipulated. I and many other Scots seek change through these democratic procedures

  I have no romantic ideas about Scotland. I do not accept that the UK handled. or is handling the crisis better than we would have as independent nations. TAofMoridura

Nuclear power - inherently unsafe. Scotland doesn’t have to be part of this global lunacy

Another Three Mile Island threatens in Japan, and as ever with the nuclear industry, the lies emanate as insidiously as the radiation, poisoning the political debate.

Greenpeace observed yesterday that the first instinct of the managers, politicians and apologists for the nuclear industry is to lie.

Scotland doesn’t have to be part of the nuclear lunacy - an industry joined at the hip to its twin, the nuclear ‘deterrent’.

And in Scotland, the UK’s nuclear playground, the MOD secretly bans nuclear subs from berthing in Loch Ewe, near Ullapool, because of fears that the public would be at risk from radiation leaks.

The Scottish police demonstrated an admirable instinct for self-preservation by refusing to join naval commanders in the Aultlea co-ordination centre for fear of radiation contamination and prudently set up a control centre well away from the hazard area.

THE SUNDAY HERALD

There appears to be be an astonishing sea change in the Sunday Herald’s view of Scottish life today, who knows, perhaps a recognition of what we are in danger of losing on May 5th - the only non-nuclear party in Scotland - and the UK - apart from the Greens and tiny Socialist parties, wholly committed to the interests and future of the Scottish people, and bluntly, the only competent party in the UK at this time.

How else to explain these paragraphs in the Sunday Herald’s editorial -

The first Nationalist government has proven itself sure-footed, competent and more innovative than its predecessor. It has removed bridge tolls, ended prescription charges, frozen council tax, recruited an extra 1000 police officers and restarted council house building.

Its support for the construction industry has helped secure jobs through the downturn.

As the First Minister acknowledged yesterday, some things could have been done better.

But taken as a whole, it seems to us that Scotland has benefited from a change of administration and Salmond’s enthusiastic leadership.

LibDems and Clegg in denial at Scottish Conference

After managing to avoid the demonstrators, Clegg manages to avoid the real issues, and gets a quaich for his pains. Party claims new members, but little evidence of them in the vacant seats in the hall.

If the Coalition survives, Clegg and his Westminster gang have four more years of ministerial salaries and cars. No such hope for Tavish's ragged band, facing meltdown on May 5th. Desperate to pretend that they are different from their benighted Westminster party bosses, they belatedly take the SNP position on tuition fees, promising to fund this by penalising Scotland's pensioners and the sick, by removing free bus travel and re-instituitng prescription charges.
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The Westminster party, faced with the nightmare of a general election if they withdraw from coalition, are unlikely to show any courage or spirit. Only the membership can force withdrawal from the doomed alliance.

LibDems - face the truth - bring this poisoned coalition down now, and recover your self-respect and some shreds of LibDem values and principles.