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May 2011 Election


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Anyone else bewildered that Gray will most likely become first minister in May.

My favourite part of that video is the sort of self-satisfied Ron Burgundy look on Gray's face when he asks the local income tax question... and the way that by 6:02 this has changed to a kind of Ronald-Villiers-does-Marlon-Brando tough guy act... and then at 8:00 it's Jack Nicholson in The Shining as he launches himself firmly off the deep end.

I'm not politicall ignorant by any means but I'll come out and admit it: for me, it's personality politics. I would never vote for Iain Gray because he has a dreadful personality. The fact that he is a useless politician with no policy insight beyond "SNP=bad" is just the icing on the cake.

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I posted this up on another thread recently, but it deserves a repeat showing. Its from 2008, Wendy Alexander has just called for the SNP to "bring it on", Gordon Brown slapped her down, annnnnnndd cue Iain Gray:

Look at the vacuous lack of personality, the stuttering, the awkward silences, the furtive darting eyes, and the sheer fucking incompetence. Can anyone seriously visualise this man in charge of Scotland, dealing with UK Ministers, handling pressure? Like Swampy, I believe in personality politics. Iain Gray doesn't have a personality worthy of anything more than a heavy sigh, and so is therefore disqualified.

My favourite moment, starting at 4 minutes in, and then peaking at 4:38, should be replayed over, and over in the mainstream media.

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If I were a Labour strategist I'd be withdrawing him from any leadership debate. Salmond could trail him badly enough on those alone to win the election.

Problem is they're old news now. It'll just look like triumphalism if Salmond digs 'em up. I think the current SNP strategy is to just keep independence on the table starting early next year and watch Labour contradict themselves over it.

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Problem is they're old news now. It'll just look like triumphalism if Salmond digs 'em up. I think the current SNP strategy is to just keep independence on the table starting early next year and watch Labour contradict themselves over it.

Sorry, I meant those as in the debates, not the clips.

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Problem is they're old news now. It'll just look like triumphalism if Salmond digs 'em up. I think the current SNP strategy is to just keep independence on the table starting early next year and watch Labour contradict themselves over it.

The SNP almost never go negative anyway. They try to campaign positively, and tend to leave off the attack ads, so its unlikely they would go especially negative.

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Sorry, I meant those as in the debates, not the clips.

Ah, aye. It really is incredible how easy it is to put "ScoLab" in disarray. You'd think they could just adopt an Ian Paisley-style "NO!" as their party line but that's too challenging for them.

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If Tommy Sheridan wins his court case I'll vote for his party.

If he gets sent down I'll vote for whoever the News of the Screws decide to back - the Anvar Khan Socialist Swingers Worker Party probably.

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Interesting to see the Scotsman was the only paper to pick up on the promotion of Norway to the most prosperous nation in the world.

"What's Norway got that we haven't?. More than 30 years after oil began to come ashore, our near neighbours have a sovereign wealth fund which last week hit a new peak of $518bn and, according to the Financial Times, now owns 1% of all global stocks. As well as providing a secure future for Norwegians, the fund encourages good corporate governance wherever it invests firms that mistreat workers or damage the environment are excluded.

When you think about it, Scotland in the 60s and 70s ought to have fared better than Norway when both countries struck oil. We had a mature industrial economy, close ties to world markets like the United States and The Commonwealth and other profitable exports like coal and whisky. We spoke English as a first language, had a reputation for the best education in the world and didn't have to cope with arctic winters.

http://joanmcalpine.typepad.com/joan_mcalpine/2010/10/scotsman-column-today-its-time-to-get-angry.html#comments

Yet forty years after oil was discovered and thirty years after it first came ashore, we have no fund for the future. Our manufacturing industry was largely destroyed in the 1980s and 1990s when it could have been modernised. We have pockets of the worst poverty in the United Kingdom, with communities in Glasgow and its hinterland where more than 50% of the population is economically inactive. Inequality is not just a feature of urban Scotland. There is an exodus of young people from rural areas. During the relatively prosperous years 2007-2008, average income in The Borders actually fell. We die young. We have world leading rates of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and alcoholic liver disease. Our society is still too violent."

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If they have a candidate I will vote for the BNP just like I did at the last general election. If the BNP have no candidiate I most likely will not vote as I refuse to vote for one of the big parties with all their lies.

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If they have a candidate I will vote for the BNP just like I did at the last general election. If the BNP have no candidiate I most likely will not vote as I refuse to vote for one of the big parties with all their lies.

The BNP are going bust, they are the Dundee of politics.

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If they have a candidate I will vote for the BNP just like I did at the last general election. If the BNP have no candidiate I most likely will not vote as I refuse to vote for one of the big parties with all their lies.

Apparently David Orr is putting himself forward in Livingston again.

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If they have a candidate I will vote for the BNP just like I did at the last general election. If the BNP have no candidiate I most likely will not vote as I refuse to vote for one of the big parties with all their lies.

Mhm.

What about these BNP lies, myths and falsehoods:

BNP Councillor Richard Barnbrook claimed that two schools in his area were holding "Muslim days" on the anniversary of 7/7. This was false.

On social housing in Barking, same councillor says that "they (asylum seekers) are flooding in". 4 of 20250 social houses in Barking and Dagenham are occupied by refugees. That's 0.019%!

In the same area, they claimed burglaries were up 79% (they went down 11.7%), robberies were up 80% (they went up 5%), violent crime was up 61% (it went up by 1.2%) and that 33% of residents were from ethnic minority groups (15% were).

The BNP claimed that Barking and Dagenham Council had a secret scheme to give African families £50,000 to buy local houses. This was a lie.

So basically, the BNP are a bunch of liars. Why would you vote for them?

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Iain Gray sets the agenda for the Election Campaign at the Scottish Labour Conference in Oban.

Scottish Labour Conference Agenda

'Doorstep Election'

Ed Miliband in reference to Gray in contrast to Salmond said: "Scotland needs a statesman, not a showman"

Unfortunately for Ed and Labour, Iain Gray is neither of the two!

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Iain Gray sets the agenda for the Election Campaign at the Scottish Labour Conference in Oban.

Scottish Labour Conference Agenda

'Doorstep Election'

Ed Miliband in reference to Gray in contrast to Salmond said: "Scotland needs a statesman, not a showman"

Unfortunately for Ed and Labour, Iain Gray is neither of the two!

Ed Miliband says Labour's fightback starts in Scotland

Labour treads 'road back to power'

Busy day for the BBC Scotland Politics Site!

Mr Miliband told delegates at the conference in Oban the economic crisis had taught the country it was "stronger together and weaker apart". He said the debate had changed since the financial crisis, adding: "Narrow Nationalism has nothing to offer the challenges of the 21st Century."

Nice to see Labour have managed to stop defining themselves as simply "Anti SNP". Oh.

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