What is the point of Labour ?

[the jambo-rocker]

16 hours ago, MixuFixit said:

Well that lasted long
 

Scottish Labour will not back the referendums bill at Holyrood on Thursday. The party believes having an independence referendum in 2020, amidst the Brexit chaos is the wrong thing to do.

— Kirsten Campbell (@bbckirstenc) December 17, 2019

They can't even bring themselves to go neutral. Pull the goalie, they've got nothing to lose and everything to gain.

[Bully Wee Villa]

Thornberry announces that she's standing.

[SweeperDee]

Ian Murray, the last remaining Labour MP in Scotland is saying that Labour would be right to destroy itself in favour of saving the Union. Yikes.

[Colkitto]

12 minutes ago, SweeperDee said:

Ian Murray, the last remaining Labour MP in Scotland is saying that Labour would be right to destroy itself in favour of saving the Union. Yikes.

And they claim they're not British Nationalists as well...

[ICTJohnboy]

6 hours ago, Granny Danger said:

Labour need to learn many lessons without wholesale abandonment of radical policies. It will not be an easy journey and many of the rats they still have on board will try to make it more difficult.

However going back to the thread title if Labour become a ToryLite party, as some on here and many in the MSM are arguing for, then they will have no point.  People need an alternative to the Tories not a watered down version of them.

We in Scotland are fortunate enough to have that, other places are not.

 

 

Serious question for once, Granny...

Did you vote Labour during the Blair/Brown era?

If not, who did you vote for?

[Granny Danger]

3 minutes ago, ICTJohnboy said:

 

Serious question for once, Granny...

Did you vote Labour during the Blair/Brown era?

If not, who did you vote for?

I left the Labour Party in 1995 due to the direction it was taking under Blair who was elected leader in 1994.

Have only voted SNP since, with reservation in the early days as the SNP were not a particularly radical party at the time.

[Thistle_do_nicely]

52 minutes ago, SweeperDee said:

Ian Murray, the last remaining Labour MP in Scotland is saying that Labour would be right to destroy itself in favour of saving the Union. Yikes.

Can always just slither over to the Lib Dems or the Tories to fight the Unionist cause, I suppose.

[NotThePars]

Thornberry should run and have the white van man she mocked, Dan, run as her deputy. They could implement the Danifesto.

[ICTJohnboy]

1 hour ago, Granny Danger said:

I left the Labour Party in 1995 due to the direction it was taking under Blair who was elected leader in 1994.

Have only voted SNP since, with reservation in the early days as the SNP were not a particularly radical party at the time.

 

Interesting to reflect now that it was the election of the Blair Govt of 1997 that brought about devolution and the establishment of the Scottish Parliament, even although he now says he had reservations about that!

I can remember there was opposition for devolution from certain SNP members, who would have preferred to see a more direct route to Independence. It was also around that time that George Robertson MP famously declared that the devolved Scottish Parliament would kill calls for Independence stone dead!

 

 

Edited December 18, 2019 by ICTJohnboy

[BawWatchin]

2 hours ago, SweeperDee said:

Ian Murray, the last remaining Labour MP in Scotland is saying that Labour would be right to destroy itself in favour of saving the Union. Yikes.

What? Ian Murray's a tory? Who knew?!

[dirty dingus]

 

Scotsman article -

Why Ian Murray, not Jeremy Corbyn, should be Labour leader – Helen Martin

 

Let's make this happen Scotland

Edited December 18, 2019 by dirty dingus

[Granny Danger]

17 hours ago, MixuFixit said:

He's trying to hang on and anoint s successor, which will go down like a bag of sick

There’s a defined procedure which means that cannot happen.

[Paco]

Tony Blair criticising Jeremy Corbyn for backing a second referendum is an absolute riot. He literally boxed Corbyn into such a position.

[DeeTillEhDeh]

I left the Labour Party in 1995 due to the direction it was taking under Blair who was elected leader in 1994. Have only voted SNP since, with reservation in the early days as the SNP were not a particularly radical party at the time. 

 

I left the year before you in 1994 - shortly after Blair's election. That was from standing as a Labour candidate in the council elections in 1992.

 

Then voted depending on the candidate - McAllion then Luke got my vote.

 

Voted for an independent at one point in a council by-election.

 

Part of me still clung to the idea that we shouldn't desert working class people in rUK by voting for independence - as subsequent elections and the EU vote have shown, quite frankly, it is they who have deserted the Scottish working class.

 

Final straw for me was the Labour Party conniving with the Tories to limit debate Scottish matters in the Brexit Bill - that's the day I joined the SNP - but it had been simmering since the EU vote/2017 General Election.

 

Politically I was pretty much a federalist but the LibDems were always too right wing for me. Labour's deliberate undermining of Regional Assemblies in England meant that federalism was dead in the water. If federalism isn't possible then independence within the EU is the next best option IMHO.

 

 

 

 

 

[Granny Danger]

2 minutes ago, DeeTillEhDeh said:

I left the year before you in 1994 - shortly after Blair's election.

That was from standing as a Labour candidate in the council elections in 1992.

Then voted depending on the candidate - McAllion then Luke got my vote.

Voted for an independent at one point in a council by-election.

Final straw for me was the Labour Party conniving with the Tories to limit debate Scottish matters in the Brexit Bill - that's the day I joined the SNP - but it had been simmering since the EU vote/2017 General Election.

I voted for John McAllion too after leaving the Labour Party!  Totally blanked that out.

Like you I voted for the man rather than the party.

I worked beside him and he was a good guy in every respect (except for being a Celtic supporter).

 

[tbsouth]

4 hours ago, ICTJohnboy said:

 

Interesting to reflect now that it was the election of the Blair Govt of 1997 that brought about devolution and the establishment of the Scottish Parliament, even although he now says he had reservations about that!

I can remember there was opposition for devolution from certain SNP members, who would have preferred to see a more direct route to Independence. It was also around that time that George Robertson MP famously declared that the devolved Scottish Parliament would kill calls for Independence stone dead!

 

 

Ah Lord Robertson......saw him a few times when i was on Islay....just happened to be talking to an ex policeman from the Dumbarton area who had dealings with Thomas Hamilton when the 'Lord' walked past.....i wont say what he said though.

[Granny Danger]

Clive Lewis considering standing.

[O'Kelly Isley III]

Ah Lord Robertson......saw him a few times when i was on Islay....just happened to be talking to an ex policeman from the Dumbarton area who had dealings with Thomas Hamilton when the 'Lord' walked past.....i wont say what he said though.

Did it involve handshakes and/or gun licences ? And no, I am not that policeman.

[ICTJohnboy]

18 minutes ago, O'Kelly Isley III said:

2 hours ago, tbsouth said:

Ah Lord Robertson......saw him a few times when i was on Islay....just happened to be talking to an ex policeman from the Dumbarton area who had dealings with Thomas Hamilton when the 'Lord' walked past.....i wont say what he said though.

Did it involve handshakes and/or gun licences ? And no, I am not that policeman.

 

Unfortunately we'll have to wait 100 years before all will be revealed.

In 2003, the Sunday Herald newspaper ran an article entitled "Should the Dunblane dossier be kept secret?", a reference to documents relating to the Cullen Inquiry into the massacre which are to remain classified for 100 years. In a discussion board on the newspaper's website, anonymous contributors claimed that Robertson had signed a recommendation for a gun licence for Thomas Hamilton in his capacity as Hamilton's MP. However, Robertson had never been the gunman's MP, and the claims were unfounded. Robertson sued the Sunday Herald and the paper settled by paying him a five-figure sum plus costs. A subsequent action by Robertson, related to the terms of the newspaper's apology, was unsuccessful. The first case became an important test case as to whether publishers can be held responsible for comments posted on their websites.

 

 

Edited December 18, 2019 by ICTJohnboy

[John Lambies Doos]

Ah Lord Robertson......saw him a few times when i was on Islay....just happened to be talking to an ex policeman from the Dumbarton area who had dealings with Thomas Hamilton when the 'Lord' walked past.....i wont say what he said though.

Forces of darkness from nearby Sky???