Scottish Political News

I almost never use my camera phone, due to the fact I've got better ones. So what the hell is this?



















EDIT: This just in... It's the lesser-spotted Maryhill Mob (in latin gerri trightupye) . It's Jaggy Cardoon Thistle! Woo hoo!

Fife
SNP Councillor George Leslie has stepped down as chairman of the housing and communities committee without chairing a single meeting, and will now continue as an independent for his Kirkcaldy East ward. Cllr Leslie said he had been forced to resign following a witch-hunt by other party members, who he claimed had behaved "abysmally" towards him after he nominated independent councillor Andrew Rodger as licensing board chairman against the wishes of certain SNP councillors. (Fife Today, 22 August)

Dundee
Nationalist MSP Nigel Don has stepped down as a councillor for the Lochee ward. He said that he had decided to quit Dundee City Council after he was appointed liason officer for the cabinet secretary for justice (BBC, 23 August)

Highland
The escalating cost of the Eden Court theatre project led to the resignation of Independent Councillor Roddy Balfour as chairman of the education, culture and sport committee - and SNP councillor David Bremner was ordered to attend a disciplinary meeting for having supported him. (Inverness Courier, 21 August)

Edinburgh
Liberal Democrat and SNP councillors have vowed to stand up for the schools which their party wants to close - but none has promised to vote against the plans. The Evening News contacted all 24 councillors who have schools and community centres threatened with the axe in their own areas. Of those who responded, many promised to lobby colleagues to keep facilities open. Not one councillor, however, would commit to voting against the administration if their local school remains on the hit list. If the Labour, Tory and Green groups vote together in opposition to the council cuts after the consultation, it will only take one Liberal Democrat or SNP member to go against their party for the administration to suffer a defeat. (Evening News, 27 August)

Also under threat are four community centres - see Stop the Council Cuts for more information about the cuts and the campaign against them.

But at least Edinburgh Council won't have to have any more comfort breaks while Stefan Tymkewycz goes to vote in the Scottish Parliament (Scotsman, 20 August)

Fife
SNP Councillor George Leslie has stepped down as chairman of the housing and communities committee without chairing a single meeting, and will now continue as an independent for his Kirkcaldy East ward. Cllr Leslie said he had been forced to resign following a witch-hunt by other party members, who he claimed had behaved “abysmally” towards him after he nominated independent councillor Andrew Rodger as licensing board chairman against the wishes of certain SNP councillors. (Fife Today, 22 August)

Dundee
Nationalist MSP Nigel Don has stepped down as a councillor for the Lochee ward. He said that he had decided to quit Dundee City Council after he was appointed liason officer for the cabinet secretary for justice (BBC, 23 August)

Highland
The escalating cost of the Eden Court theatre project led to the resignation of Independent Councillor Roddy Balfour as chairman of the education, culture and sport committee - and SNP councillor David Bremner was ordered to attend a disciplinary meeting for having supported him. (Inverness Courier, 21 August)

Edinburgh
Liberal Democrat and SNP councillors have vowed to stand up for the schools which their party wants to close - but none has promised to vote against the plans. The Evening News contacted all 24 councillors who have schools and community centres threatened with the axe in their own areas. Of those who responded, many promised to lobby colleagues to keep facilities open. Not one councillor, however, would commit to voting against the administration if their local school remains on the hit list. If the Labour, Tory and Green groups vote together in opposition to the council cuts after the consultation, it will only take one Liberal Democrat or SNP member to go against their party for the administration to suffer a defeat. (Evening News, 27 August)

Also under threat are four community centres - see Stop the Council Cuts for more information about the cuts and the campaign against them.

But at least Edinburgh Council won’t have to have any more comfort breaks while Stefan Tymkewycz goes to vote in the Scottish Parliament (Scotsman, 20 August)

Some time ago I blogged about a hi-tech toilet seat that I had come across while on holiday in Kefalonia in Greece. The seat in question rotated when you left and cleaned its surface, protecting you from all the hazards of bum-transmitted infections, and the unpleasant "calling cards" of males with aiming problems . I thought this was the ultimate in toilet seats but science never sleeps, and I have just stumbled on a quantum leap in toilet technology: the washlet.

Up till now we have had to be satisfied with toilet paper to do the necessary after we have done the inevitable, but according to the Toto Website, toilet paper merely "moves the problem around". To feel truly happy about your personal hygiene you really need a very sophisticated electronic device to---lets be frank---wipe your bum. The site is very nicely designed with friendly music, and pictures of attractive bottoms and faces. Buttons on the webite direct you to every facet of the washlet you could possibly want to know about. The gadget doesn't just clean the relevant area with scientific precision using water at the prefect temperature, it also dries you at the right temperature, and even controls the rate at which the toilet seat goes down. I think you still do have to remember to put the seat down yourself, though!

I love the bit in the technology section where the guy says that the washlet toilet seat "has more in common with your laptop computer than any toilet seat you've ever come across". When you think about it that's not saying much! The nice folk on the Toto site cover several racial groups and they all seem so happy and secure that their personal hygiene needs are being taken care of.

I really don't know if bog roll is going to be enough for me any more.....

PS If you think there is something fishy about the washlet, try this!

After Eddie Cochran was killed in a car crash in Wiltshire in April 1960 his label rushed released his latest record - somewhat bizarrely it was 'Three Steps To Heaven' and it climbed to No.1 in late June 1960. But his prescience is nothing compared to that of Hank Williams whose record, 'I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive', entered the Country charts two weeks before the died from drug and alcohol abuse on New Years day 1953. It went on to be No.1, as did the three records that were released after the thirty year old country legend had died.

You really do have to marvel at how come some albums get made - who comes up with the concept. As always jumping on the bandwagon of a craze is usually a forlorn hope for any one who tries it. By 1964 Bo Diddley’s best chart days were behind him. He was still recording for Chess Records subsidiary Checker and it was they who in 1961 got Bo to cut an album called 'Bo Diddley is a Gunslinger', which was clearly stretching a point. In 1964 they released 'Surfin’ With Bo Diddley' which is about as bizarre a concept as you can imagine.

According to my clustrmap thingy, not many Canadians read this blog. So... I say we get stuck into those workshy, anti-independence, moose-fucking bastards.... what d'ye say? No... oh well...

I'm going to introduce to you a series of random statements and you can tell me what you think of them? They've all been said, uttered or whispered at various times to me.

I'm going to make a rare disclaimer (usually I could care less about what the Sun and Record reading public thought about this blog. Fuck it... most of the time complain to the retard about this blog and see just how much of a fuck I actually give.) BUT, this time, the statements below are not mine. Don't be stupid and automatically assume I subscribe to the comment.

These statements are anonymous and will remain that way. I'm merely curious about your reactions to them...

1. English people aren't moving to Scotland because they're trying to colonise the place. They see it as being more white than England is, and do not accept multi-culturalism. They want the white Britain of the 50s television sold them in the 70s. English Incomers are in receipt of racism, they're the cause of it.
   
2. Prince Michael of Albany wasn't the true heir to the throne. You can tell by the fact that he's still alive.
   
3. Socialists who have hubris about their socialism and cringe about their Scottish do so because they prefer sleeping with Socialist Workers to Scottish Nationalists. It's tribal, Kenny, not politics. It never was, not now.
   
4. [In response to my self-righteousness about the SSP being more morally right than Tommy Sheridan] People have sex. End of. Are you fucking Jesus? Who gave you the moral right to judge a man when you've done the same? Even if he did, does the man not have the right to save his fucking marriage?
   
5. [In response a speaker talking about how Wallace was "watching" over us] If she starts talking like Derek Acorah, I'm leaving. [not thought provoking, but it made me chuckle]
6. If the Independence Vote in a referendum was closer to losing than winning, it would be better to sabotage the turnout and gain a short-term loss, than lose the referendum with a big turnout and suffer a long term one.
   
7. You want to know why people like Wallace? It's because they want it done. They don't want pussy politics, they don't want old men hiding behind democracy and pacifism that sold them out in the miners strike and the Poll Tax. They want one man, standing up, ready to fight and to say fuck you to the aristocracy. They want someone to give them their pride back.
   
8. [on why a person didn't vote SSP when I suggested it to them] They claim to be the party of the working man. But all I see is a bunch of people on benefits and incapacity benefit. Nobody seems to give a fuck about the working classes anymore. It's all about the underclasses. Where's our party?
   

So, reason for the disclaimer should be obvious. Anyone any thoughts? If you don't like using bloggers comments system, email me. kenny.sheerin@gmail.com

Thanks to the preferential voting system delivered by Labour's coalition deal with the Liberals, most local authorities are now also beset by coalition or minority politics.

It took some longer than others to sort themselves out, but give or take a few days haggling, by about the dreaded hundred days ago, most had done so. Indeed, it took so long that the national media seems to have lost interest before the deals were all done and the overall picture of the democratic carve up became clear.

And not just the media. The Electoral Commission and VoteScotland simply direct result seekers to the BBC - despite the BBC still showing 27 councils with no overall control, and the distribution of seats on each council requiring a lot of clicking.

For actual ward results, you need to go to the councils' own websites, noting that the ease of finding and the level of detail on the counts varies a lot. There is clearly an ambition to get this information onto Wikipedia, but the council pages I checked still had only one sample ward; and similarly, WriteToThem.com hasn't managed to incorporate the new councillors into their website yet.

For the record, this was the final score:


Yellow denotes parties in power. That's

• 14 Councils run by a single party or by independents, with 9 of those being minority administrations.

• 18 Councils run by coalitions. 5 of these exclude the biggest party. 2 are minority administrations.

• 13 two-party coalitions: 5 LibDem/SNP coalitions; 4 SNP/Ind; 2 LibDem/Tory; 1 Lab/Con and 1 Con/Ind.

• 4 coalitions with more than two partners: Con/LD/Lab/other - everybody but the SNP in Angus; Lab/Con/LD (Dundee); Lab/SNP/LD/other - everybody but the Tories in East Renfrewshire; Con/LD/other - everybody but the SNP in the Borders.

According to the Travelodge hotel chain the top 10 most discarded books in their hotel rooms are...

1. The Blair Years by Alastair Campbell
2. Don't You Know Who I Am? by Piers Morgan
3. A Whole New World by Jordan
4. Wicked by Jilly Cooper
5. Dr Who Creatures & Demons by Justin Richard
6. The Diana Chronicles by Tina Brown
7. I Can Make You Thin by Paul McKenna
8. Humble Pie by Gordon Ramsay
9. The Story Of A Man And His Mouth by Chris Moyles
10. Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling

Mine don't sell in large enough numbers to make the list!

Interestingly in the same article in the Guardian it says that Alastair Campbell's book has sold about 55,000 copies, which means it's a long way off either recouping his advance - said to be £1 million - or making the publisher any money. It retails for £25 but the publisher sells it for around £13 on average to the booksellers meaning its earned them £715,000. With the paperback on the way they will hope to wipe out the £1m they've paid Mr.C and the costs of printing, editing and marketing the book and show a small profit. Alastair Campbell will fall way short of recouping his advance, as I understand that the serialization of the book in the newspapers was kept separate from the advance.

You have to wonder at how we end up with some of the elected officials that we do. Yesterday the leader of Edinburgh City council Jenny Dawe and George Grubb, the Lord Provost, have asked for a report on plans to restore the traditional red and black robes, and their accompanying tricorn hats.

Mrs Dawe, a Liberal Democrat, said: "We are only asking for a report at this stage on the reintroduction of the robes for some civic occasions ... we're not committing to spending any money. I'm not for a minute suggesting we should come into the City Chambers every day wearing robes, but there are important civic occasions when I feel it would be important to set us apart from the hoi polloi."

She clearly doesn't understand that the meaning of Hoi Polloi - Greek for the masses' is almost exclusively used in a slightening sense. More to the point, why spend the money on either a study or potentially the robes? Self-aggrandisement is almost always unattractive.

T minus 24...

Meanwhile a joke from the Maryhill Mob...

A London lawyer runs a stop sign and gets pulled over by a Glasgow polis .
He thinks that he is smarter than the polis because he is a London lawyer and is certain that he has a better education then any scots polis. He decides to prove this to himself and have some fun at the Glasgow polis's expense!!

Glasgow polis says," License, please."
London Lawyer says, "What for?"
Glasgow polis says, "You didn't come to a complete stop at the stop sign."
London Lawyer says, "I slowed down, and no one was coming."
Glasgow polis says, "You still didn't come to a complete stop. License please."
London Lawyer says, "What's the difference?"
Glasgow polis says, "The difference is, you have to come to complete stop,
that's the law. License, please!"
London Lawyer says, "If you can show me the legal difference between slow down and stop, I'll give you my license and you give me the ticket. If not, you let me go and don't give me the ticket."

Glasgow polis says, "Sounds fair. Exit your vehicle, sir."

The London Lawyer exits his vehicle. The Glasgow polis takes out his baton and starts beating the sh*t out of the lawyer and says, "Do you want me to stop, or just slow down?"

Since the SNP became the biggest party in the Scottish Parliament at the May 2007 elections, it seems that they have systematically debunked the accusations levelled at them for years by the other political parties. Alex Salmond moved quickly to shake off the "narrow nationalist" tag and has shown himself to be a statesman on the world stage, even with the limited powers of devolution. Far from being narrow and inward looking, every aspect of SNP policy looks outward to the rest of the world.

Another of the favourite terms bandied about was of course "tartan tories". The idea that anyone can take this seriously now is laughable. It is actually Labour themselves who have killed off this particular line of attack by going into a "pan unionist coalition" with the Tories and the Liberal Democrats in an attempt to thwart the SNP. It does beg the question, who are the real tartan Tories now? Labour should choose their bed fellows very carefully indeed . Whilst they got away with a coalition with the Lib Dems, the Tories are still despised in much of Scotland for the dreadful way Scotland was treated under the Tory governments of Thatcher and Major.

It is clear to see that the SNP have been proven correct and that the real fault line in Scottish Politics is not Right Vs Left but Nationalist Vs Unionist. Regardless of their supposed differences, the Conservatives, Lib Dems and Labour have all conspired to deny the people of Scotland their right to a referendum on the future of their country and indeed there is a suggestion that they will go as far as to attempt to establish a "shadow government" of Scotland, against the will of the Scottish people who ousted Labour from power in May. This will not go unpunished at the ballot box.

It appears to be desperation driving this move by the unionist parties as they clearly believe that they can only defeat the SNP's stated aim of independence by co-operating against them. The Labour Party in Scotland looks like a party which has seen better days and which sees worse ones ahead. The Labour Party can no longer even claim to represent all of Scotland. In many areas, they don't have any constituency MSPs yet the SNP have proven at the last election that they can win all over Scotland, even in former Labour strongholds like Fife and Glasgow.

It seems that Labour are retreating to their West of Scotland heartlands and looking for these to sustain them yet even these bastions are not above the influence of the SNP. The Labour MSPs returned there saw their majorities slashed dramatically and now there are very few seats which could be considered to be "safe". Couple this with the SNP gaining councillors in places they have never had them before and it is possible that support will erode further for Labour in the West, as in the rest of Scotland.

doctorvee linklogged this great image showing what Wikipedia would look like if it were printed out on paper. However, I don’t think it quite captures the essence of what Wikipedia is all about, so for your elucidation I present a breakdown of what exactly one gets for their money with a paper version of Wikipedia, above.

Further reading: The Art of Wikigroaning and Wikipedia’s counter-systemic bias project.

NB: Before any Wikipedia fans pounce on me for being rude - not only am I a proud Wikipedian, I have also been an administrator since January so this is nothing more than an affectionate joke, I assure you.

doctorvee linklogged this great image showing what Wikipedia would look like if it were printed out on paper. However, I don’t think it quite captures the essence of what Wikipedia is all about, so for your elucidation I present a breakdown of what exactly one gets for their money with a paper version of Wikipedia, above.

Further reading: The Art of Wikigroaning and Wikipedia’s counter-systemic bias project.

NB: Before any Wikipedia fans pounce on me for being rude - not only am I a proud Wikipedian, I have also been an administrator since January so this is nothing more than an affectionate joke, I assure you.

Michael Feinstein is far from everyone's cup of cocoa. He is throwback to an age of romanticism, an age when singers sang in dinner jackets in front of small orchestras or sat at a grand piano and entertained us with songs that are slow paced and overflowing with melody. This collaboration with the genius of Jimmy Webb is for me Mr F's crowning achievement. His earlier albums of Gershwin in particular are good, but Jimmy L's orchestrations and arrangements are sublime.

The opening seven-minute track combines ‘After All the Loves of My Life’ with ‘Only One Lif’e; it's a tour de force. The lyrics of ‘Only One Life’ show what a master Webb is of writing simple yet clever lyrical hooks that can touch the listener. Other tracks such as ‘Skywriter’ with Webb on piano are equally good. "I'm tired of chasing vapour trails, ghost letters in the sky" - brilliant. ‘Time Flies’, ‘Adios’ and ‘Didn't We’ are all equally superb.

I've said before that Jimmy Webb is the last of the great American songwriters and this album proves it - for me anyway. This is probably not something anyone will be rushing off to buy. But if you like a bit of romance in your music, love Jimmy Webb's writing and love songs you really should risk it.

Now the Tories have come up with a cunning plan to reduce short haul flights. VAT would be levied on fuel for domestic flights for the first time and airlines would be forced to give over airport slots to long-haul trips. All flights would be subject to a separate per-flight tax based on the amount of CO2 generated, replacing the air passenger duty and shifting the burden from passengers to airlines. The proposals also include plans for a moratorium on airport expansion pending attempts to free capacity at existing airports by restricting short-haul flights and forcing travellers to switch to high speed trains.

They say that because a fifth of journeys are to destinations in Europe and the UK that are served by high speed trains it would reduce the need for a third runway. All this comes from the quality of Life group headed by John Gummer and the environmental campaigner Zac Goldsmith.

They've clearly lost the plot and are jumping on the bandwagon. First of all this will force up ticket prices when you shift the 'burden' to the airlines because funnily enough they'll pass it on to the passengers. I know there's the expansion of the Eurostar upcoming but what high speed trains in the UK? Unless I'm very much mistaken, and I'm a regular traveller to London on the Edinburgh line, it is pretty full a lot of the time and there doesn't seem to be that much spare capacity. Many of the passengers using domestic flights are connecting to long haul flights at Heathrow and it is naive to think that it will 'force' airlines to increase in any significant way long haul flights from non-London airports.

At some point or another politicians are going to realise that this 'push of the green vote' is going to start to backfire. Yet again we in Britain seem to be climbing to the top of the moral high ground while others are just laughing at us. Added to which it is people who are travelling on plans at their own free will. If they are to stop flying so much it either has to be through price or legislation that limits capacity. Capacity legislation will likely be challenged in the European courts and similarly any moves to increase taxes or landing fees will not just affect British airlines but also European airlines - again fodder for the courts.

We either have to be convinced that by not flying so much we will save the planet or we will have to be forced not to fly domestically so much by the government restricting flights. For me all other bets are off. Oh yes, and if Scotland gains independence it will not be a domestic flight.

UPDATE

If anyone doubts the value of air travel to the UK then they would so well to check THIS on the Department of Transport's web site. The Quality of Life's simplistic view of how air transport and airlines function does not auger well.

If Tuesday's 6.30 news was indicative of what a Scottish 6 would be like then we're in trouble. The first item up on the news was a lengthy 'in programme' trail for the Rangers European qualifier's match and this was followed by a piece about how the NHS in Scotland is not treating patients as well as in England over funding. This turned out to be a trail for a programme at 10.30 last night. Not that BBC Scotland is alone in this somewhat skewed approach to news but it's really not on.

from the Scottish Sunday Express - August 26th 2007

Would-be officers rejected for being colour blind seek compensation

Force is facing a claim of sexism from men who failed in jobs bid

By Tom Martin

Scotland's largest police force faces a barrage of compensation claims in a row over rejected colour blind recruits.

In the past three years, Strathclyde Police rejected 16 candidates with vision problems despite government guidelines saying they should not have been barred.

But now two failed applicants could pave the way for others to seek thousands of pounds in compensation in a test case next week.

The move, by Robin Dixon, 25, and Graeme McCullie, 28, follows a landmark legal action south of the Border which found that a colour blind officer faced indirect sexual discrimination because the condition is more common in men than in women.

Mr Dixon, a store manager, from east Kilbride, has now launched a sex discrimination complaint alongside Mr McCullie.

Both men discovered other forces would have accepted them after a government review recommended colour blindness should not bar potential recruits.

Mr McCullie, from Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, who is now working as a plumber, said: "It was always my ambition to join the police and a real blow when my application was turned down.

"It seems rediculous at a time when you read about the police wanting to get more officers then rejecting them because of an outdated position that most others have changed."

He added: "I am not interested in compensation I just want to make sure no other potential recruits have to go through what happened to me."

The men's cases will be considered at a preliminary employment tribunal next Monday.

Mr Dixon is currently working in Dublin but his father, Robert, 55, said: "Other forces, including the Met, have said he would be acceptable to join them.

"We cannot understand why Strathclyde Police would continue to argue they are right when they are in the wrong."

Strathclyde Police said it was inappropriate to comment on individual applications but their spokeswoman added "current policy" prevented those with colour blindness from becoming police constables.

===========================

This the story of an IP Address. An IP address is merely the number identification of an internet connection. It’s like your National Insurance Number, but for your internet connection rather than your computer.

Wikipedia, where our story takes place, is an encyclopedia. An encyclopedia YOU can go on to, read and edit.

Wikiscanner is a tool designed to unmask anonymous amendments made to Wikipedia. The following list of amendments Wikipedia entries come from IP Address: 194.60.38.10

Or… as the RIPE IP Address database puts it: 

netnum:         194.60.0.0 - 194.60.63.255
netname:         HOP
descr:           Houses of Parliament
country:         GB

Or more specifically: 

person:          Jon Daniels
address:         Parliamentary ICT
               7 Millbank
               London
               SW1P 3JA

phone:           +44 20 7219 2001
mnt-by:          UK-HOP-MNT
nic-hdl:         JD2618-RIPE
source:          RIPE # Filtered

person:          David A J Hamilton
address:         Parliamentary ICT
               7 Millbank
               London
               SW1P 3JA

phone:           +44 20 7219 2001
e-mail:          postmaster@parliament.uk
nic-hdl:         DH849-RIPE
mnt-by:          UK-HOP-MNT
source:          RIPE # Filtered

Reference: http://www.ripe.net/whois?form_type=simple&full_query_string=&searchtext=194.60.38.10&do_search=Search

The Wikiscanner page I’m using for this search is located here (so you can check for yourself): http://wikiscanner.virgil.gr/f.php?ip1=194.60.38.10&nolimit=1

Tennis Player Andrew Murray is a Twat

This particular computer decided that Andy Murray’s NAME was wrongly designated on Wikipedia. It changed the Wikipedia reference from ‘Andrew “Andy” Murray’ to ‘Andrew “Twat” Murray’.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=prev&oldid=61357681

Labels: personal insults

Spinning the 40% Rule (Scotland Act 1978)

Spin is what Labour brought to the table when they were elected and you can’t accuse them of not applying the same rules to history…

The simple sentence “The British government rejected the referendum because the condition that 40% of the total electorate should vote Yes was not met, and the Act was repealed by Order on 26 July 1979” was rejected in favour of “The British government accepted the result of the referendum in accordance with the Act. Because the condition that 40% of the total electorate should vote Yes was not met, the Act was repealed by Order on 26 July 1979”.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=prev&oldid=52659490

Labels: Spin

Tommy Sheridan – Gang Bangin’

In Tommy Sheridan’s Wikipedia reference, surprisingly it wasn’t his old embittered amigos in the SSP who decided to play up the tabloid stories… but… er… the same British Parliamentary IP address as the ones listed above…

They decided to add: “The tabloid stories included allegations that Sheridan had seduced large numbers of young female SSP members, that he used call girls, and that he had accompanied journalist Anvar Khan to an orgy.”

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=prev&oldid=9769410

Labels: personal attacks, defamation of character

Too much time on your hands?

Naturally whichever elected members or parliamentary researchers or millbank technicians altered Wikipedia, its good see they’ve got so much insight, wit and intelligence to keep the Union together…

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=prev&oldid=30719253

Apparently BBC6 DJ Marc Riley’s musical are all “shit” according to someone called Tom Kiehl.

Labels: Don’t we pay you for something better than this?

The Militant War

In the 1980s the Labour Party expelled a particularly left-wing group of politicians from its ranks, notably people like Derek Hatton and Tommy Sheridan.

Over four separate edits, a series of names were added to the article to make sure no-one was in any doubt who the bad boys were.

This very British computer felt it necessary to tell tales out of school and grass up all the lefties who were chucked out of the labour party.

The baiting failed. The edit acquired “disputed neutrality” tag only succeeded in baiting Militants to actually expand the bloody article.

See for yourself:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=prev&oldid=74719741

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=prev&oldid=74719842

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=prev&oldid=74720560

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=prev&oldid=74720997

And the current article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Militant_tendency

Labels: Baiting the commies

The Shona McIssac Edit War

I’m not going to lie to you, I never heard of this wummin until she cropped up on the Wikiscanner. The first thing I noticed was the removal of criticism from Ms. McIssacs Wikipedia reference.

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=prev&oldid=137413484

Fortunately though, sanity broke out and the same IP address deleted a fictional “she’s married to Frank Skinner” reference. Phew.

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=prev&oldid=137413658

Er… then it deleted the rest of the article altogether…

I hadn’t heard of this wummin before and now she was disappearing before my eyes… Was she so anorexic that her entire history was disappearing?

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=prev&oldid=137413803

Phew. Some nice editor who doesn’t mind people knowing his user name called “YJwong” then put it all back up again.

Until my current favour IP address deleted all again. Boo hiss. I was never going to learn who the hell Shona is at this rate…

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=prev&oldid=137425292

By this point, clearly 194.60.38.10 is getting a bit sick of deleting everything and merely amends the web page by removing that strange reference that she’s married to comedian Frank Skinner by saying: “Deleted stupid and incorrrect reference to her marrying comedian Frank Skinner.” This technically is correct. Apparently she’s married to some guy called Peter. But since would clearly have preferred to delete EVERYTHING… I’m think “Hello Kettle? Erm… It’s pot. We’ve been talking about what colour you are…)

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=prev&oldid=137434579

I left it there since I got bored… You can understand…

Labels: Censorship

The situation in Belgium continues and there has been yet another interesting twist on proceedings. Leterme of the Flemish Christian Democrats, the largest party after the recent Federal elections, has informed King Albert that he is not in a position to carry on negotiating to form a government as the Wallonians won’t play ball on the state reforms (further devolution) that he and his Flemish colleagues want.

King Albert has attempted to step in and appoint new negotiators to resolve the situation but the negotiation may have come unstuck before its even began thanks to a sharp eyed photographer and a careless politician.

Former Flemish Christian democrat prime minister Jean-Luc Dehaene is among those that King Albert has called to assist in getting negotiations back on track. A photographer noticed that while being brought by car to see the king that Dehaene had a document in his lap. The photographer was quick enough to get a clear shot of the page and its contents. The paper appears to be a positioning document and it suggests that constitutional reform and greater devolution should be left out of the coalition negotiations. Curiously the paper also says that there should be fresh federal elections in 2009, at the same time as the scheduled regional and European elections.

Dehaene has been derided as being careless but there has be criticism from political circles over the behaviour of the press during the time since the election. This is perhaps a wee bit rich as an 80 day delay in forming a government can`t be completely laid at the door of the media. The sheer length of the delay and the tension it has caused in Belgium as made me warm somewhat to the 28 day limit we have in place here for forming a government.

Australian police forces are acknowledging that perfect colour vision is not essential in performing the role of an operational police officer.

The Australian Federal Police require testing of colour vision to a ‘defective safe’ standard (ref).

The requirement for "suitable colour vision" to join the Western Austalia Police has been removed and people with colour vision impairment, inclduing former applicants who previously did not comply with the colour vision standards, are now being encouraged to apply. (ref)

The Queensland Police Service standard in relation to colour vision does not call for perfect responses in relation to colour vision perception. The Service specifies a requirement for a good standard of colour vision in the perception of distinct colours, as opposed to perception of shades.

Meeting the Queensland standard requires each applicant's indivual colour vision to be assessed. General labelling would not be acceptable and could lead to claims under Australia's Disability Discrimination Act. (ref)

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More from The Sounds. Here playing 'Tony the Beat' from their Sunday gig at the liquid rooms, Edinburgh. Ears still buzzing from Dinosaur Jr. last night. τ

Ever wondered which album that you would come closest to hearing in its entirety if you were stuck on the famous BBC owned Desert Island; It’s Pink Floyd’s 'Dark Side of The Moon'. Jeremy Clarkson took 'Time', Zandra Rhodes 'Us and Them', Alan Ayckbourn 'Eclipse', and Pamela Stephenson 'Brain Damage'. Apparently while she was recording the programme Pamela said that is was the song that most reminded her of an LSD trip, a remark that failed to make the final edit. It’s been claimed that the Floyd album has, over the years, been the most popular music in Amsterdam’s many live sex shows, which clearly had no influence over the people that picked it.

Pink Floyd’s Dave Gilmour, when he was a guest on the show, took none of his own bands records (unlike some other musicians) but chose records that included Tom Waits, Dylan, The Kinks and Neil Young. Dave’s choice, if he was only allowed one record, was Martha and the Vandellas, 'Dancing in the Street', which probably surprised people. For good measure George Clooney took 'Another Brick in The Wall'.

T minus 28 days...

No, not in Scotland, in Ireland. Pat Rabbitte who has led the Irish Labour party for the past 8 years has resigned from the post. Rabbitte’s fate was undoubtedly tied to the electoral pact with Fine Gael. The pact didn’t get enough support to form the government and Labour were clearly squeezed in favour of the FG partners.

Rabbitte had a strong personal appeal to the Irish electorate and when the American pollster Frank Luntz was doing a series of programmes in Ireland before the election it was Rabbitte who often came out on top. Orginally elected on the Worker’s party ticket Rabbitte’s roots were in the clear left of the Irish Labour movement. The Workers party was to split some years later with the largest side becoming ‘Democratic Left’. Rabbitte was on the DL side of the split. He served as a minister in a rainbow government between FG, DL and Labour.

In 1998 DL and Labour merged after negotiation in which Rabbitte was at the forefront for DL. In 2002 he became the leader of the Labour party when Ruairi Quinn stood down.

Names have started to emerge as possible contenders for the post. Brendan Howlin was considered as a possible contender but has ruled himself out of the race. Perhaps an unsurprising move given he has stood as a contender in the previous 2 Labour leadership contests only to be defeated.

Joan Burton, Liz McManus and Tommy Broughan have all been mooted by the media but none have declared their intentions so far. Of those Liz McManus is perhaps the most credible challenger.

The only person to have declared their intention to stand is Eamon Gilmore. Like Rabbitte, and indeed McManus, Gilmore is from DL. He’s first out of the traps and probably a frontrunner at this stage – although the intentions of McManus will have a distinct influence on this. I`ve met Gilmore on a few occasions and he does have a substantial intellect. If he becomes leader his challenge is how to grow his party’s appeal. In 2002 Labour opted not to go for an electoral pact with FG and in 2007 they decided to go for one. On both occasions they have ended up outside of government.

Gilmore has indicated that at the next elections he would not be advocating a pact with another party and Labour would stand on its own merits. The key to achieving growth will be breaking the hold which Fianna Fail holds over voters from low and middle income backgrounds. If they can chime with this electorate then in the urban areas where a few extra transfers could switch a seat from FF to Labour is not unthinkable.

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } The Sounds Live, originally uploaded by alister. The Sounds live at Edinburgh Liquid Rooms 26th August 2007. The Sounds from Sweden returned to Edinburgh last night. The band say they have been on tour for two years and I

I must say I'd never heard of Muhammad Abdul-Wahhab until I came across this in a US magazine from 1946. It turns out he was THE dominent force in Arab music for almost 70 years.