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Do we need a GE2015 thread?

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  1. gembo
    Member

    Private office notoriously leaky over the decades and the line between spin and dirty tricks is narrow. but he might be vulnerable given his denial. Should have gone with no comment?

    Dale Campbell saviours (spelling?) says the greatest sin an MP can commit is to lie to his (or her) constituents.

    And yet in surveys we the people consistently believe them all to be liars. Perhaps it is ok to be a liar as part of a general classification but unacceptable to be exposed as an individual and specific liar from within that class?

    There are no morals in politics only expedience. A scoundrel may be of use to us because he is a scoundrel.

    I Am The Walrus

    Posted 8 years ago #
  2. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    @gembo

    This isn't a scoundrel we have before us but a great clunking farcical oaf.

    He went on telly and smirk-o-grinned his way through a categorical denial. Then he got rumbled and wrote a letter to his victim in the style of the chastised schoolboy.

    I've known a couple of Shetlanders in my time, enough to know that they will likely be burning with shame at having elected this man to represent them in parliament.

    If he's referred, if he's suspended, if there's a petition, if he's recalled, if there's a by-election...Orkney & Shetland falling to the SNP would be like Labour winning in Kensington and Chelsea.

    PS If the £1.4 megapound price tag on the slo-mo witch-hunt is correct that will constitute its own meta-scandal.

    Posted 8 years ago #
  3. gembo
    Member

    @iwrats

    That is why I said he should have said No Comment

    I just thought I would quote VI Lenin to introduce the idea that power corrupts and that those who are pure are few and far between now that Chris mullin has retired.

    Did not mean to excuse the lummox

    Posted 8 years ago #
  4. chdot
    Admin

    "PS If the £1.4 megapound price tag on the slo-mo witch-hunt is correct"

    "

    I think we should beware of quoting that £1.4 million widely for now. The only source seems to be a tweet by Paul Flynn MP (see https://twitter.com/PaulFlynnMP/status/601769705649643520 ). It seems an unfeasibly high figure even for the current unwieldy civil service bureaucracy. The danger is that when a truer cost emerges (if we ever find out), there’ll be the get-out of “Oh well, it only cost [insert figure here], so it’s not so bad!”

    "

    http://wingsoverscotland.com/the-naked-liar/comment-page-1/#comment-2018984

    Posted 8 years ago #
  5. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    @gembo

    Here's something else Lenin never predicted. The First Minister of Scotland pretending to be a bicyclist. Could be the basis of a new scandal - LackOfHiVizGate.

    Posted 8 years ago #
  6. gembo
    Member

    I saw that from the other direction during the landslide.

    I think Nicky S may do a bit of jogging?

    The tweets under the picture gave me the boak

    VI Lenin also said If you say a lie often enough it becomes the truth. For example, the SNP is now a socialist party. Ain't that the truth.

    1.4 million would be 95 pence for every SNP vote. Surely the bloc would gladly pay that to unseat the blob, it could be crowd sourced within minutes?

    Posted 8 years ago #
  7. Stickman
    Member

    sowing the seeds

    Posted 8 years ago #
  8. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    Now that the kingdom is governed by the Conservatives we have that EU referendum on our hands. It's going well.

    EU referendum: Foreigners barred from historic vote

    Only British, Irish and Commonwealth citizens who are resident in the UK will be allowed to vote in the referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union

    So my auntie who has Canadian citizenship and left in 1968 or any passing Zimbabwean is welcome to help determine the future of our country, but madame IWRATS, an EU national resident here for twenty years and perfectly integrated isn't. I do not, repeat do not, like these Conservative people. In fact they are foreign to me.

    Posted 8 years ago #
  9. PS
    Member

    Only British, Irish and Commonwealth citizens who are resident in the UK will be allowed to vote in the referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union

    Like in a General Election, then?

    Posted 8 years ago #
  10. That's basically what they're doing, using the exact same rules as for a general election. Hard to argue against that really (it IS possible to change it, like allowing 16 year olds to vote in the IndyRef, and I guess it's easily arguable that any EU citizen currently living in the UK could be impacted by a vote to leave, but it's probably an electoral reform too far for many - and I doubt xenophobic right wingers would appreciate the irony of an in/out vote having the input of the very people they want to be separated from).

    If your auntie left in 1968 then she's no longer resident and so wouldn't have a vote. Similarly the Zimbabwean would have to be 'resident' - I suspect someone 'passing through' probably wouldn't satisfy that.

    Of course there's a wonderful inconsistency that British citizens living abroad for less than 15 years can vote. Which would include those Costa immigrants who do appear to be right wing in their views, but have taken advantage of free movement.

    Posted 8 years ago #
  11. gembo
    Member

    @iwrarts - dual nationality?

    I have a colleague whose family used to sing the Joni song My Old Man as "we don't need no piece of paper from the city hall, keeping us tied and true"

    They were a very well behaved family, no need for the behaviour licence.

    Check out the website NomadCapitalist they are very transparent about their mission.

    Posted 8 years ago #
  12. kaputnik
    Moderator

    In the latest twist to #Memogate, Sir Malcolm Bruce stepped in with a bizarre defence of Alistair Carmuckle along the lines of "all MPs are basically liars and can still be good MPs, so it doesn't matter that Alistair's been caught lying on the record". So if your former colleagues are verifying you're a liar then that's OK. It's all basically a big SNP witch-hunt to build a bridge our of Carbunkle anyway; I assume therefore that no other parties are bothered enough at the way he's been caught behaving to be overly critical - after all that might let the nationalists "in".

    Willie Rennie's big #Libdemfightback isn't getting off to the best start by having to defend 100% of the Lib Dem's Scottish MPs being caught with their underpants ablaze. Big Al has I believe spoken quite strongly in the past on the principle of the electorate being able to recall crooked MPs.

    Posted 8 years ago #
  13. kaputnik
    Moderator

    http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/top-stories/french-born-snp-msp-cannot-vote-in-eu-referendum-1-3782858

    Being French-born is good enough to qualify you for being an MSP, but not for voting in the EU referendum.

    Posted 8 years ago #
  14. Stickman
    Member

    Was he eligible to vote in the UK General Election?

    Posted 8 years ago #
  15. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    @kaputnik

    The best defence I've heard so far for the referendum franchise is the argument that Westminster is seeking the views of those that elected it.

    Problems with this superficially attractive argument? No one elected the House of Lords. Most electors' votes go in the bin in Westminster elections.

    So, might it not be reasonable to seek the views of everyone that Westminster represents, rather than just those who voted? Anyway, I'm annoyed that transient commonwealth students will vote but fully hefted EU nationals - fellow Scots citizens to me - will be excluded.

    PS I heard Malcolm Bruce on the radio yesterday. It was like hearing an adult have a toddler temper tantrum in slow motion.

    Posted 8 years ago #
  16. cb
    Member

    Better together is going to be Yes this time:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-32894220

    Posted 8 years ago #
  17. chdot
    Admin

    Queen's Speech 2015: Bill-by-bill

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-32898443

    Posted 8 years ago #
  18. wee folding bike
    Member

    I think the FM really does ride a bike.

    Before they got banned Top Gear listed the cars used by leaders of government and they said she didn't drive.

    I'm afraid I have done recently. The memsahib has been insisting that I put number 4 son in his school taxi as she has to be at work early. Catastrophic failure of the water pump on my car didn't get me out of it. I had to borrow hers. Yesterday was the last time.

    Now spraying PlusGas on the water pump so I can unscrew it.

    Posted 8 years ago #
  19. chdot
    Admin


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