Dugdale’s first major policy announcement came late in the month of September 2015 – Probably because she was head girl at her secondary school she chose Education as the stage for her first battle with the SNP government. Whoever is giving her advice needs their head examined. The Labour Party track record on education is deplorable. And poor Kezia will pay the price for the blunder.
30 September 2015: Video: Dugdale puts education at heart of Scottish Labour’s first 2016 Holyrood election campaign film
Scottish Labour have called for every child to be given the best possible start in life in their first advert of the 2016 Holyrood election campaign.
Kezia Dugdale’s party launched the advert on YouTube today ahead of its television premiere on BBC and STV tonight.
The video, called Question Time, shows Dugdale answering questions from a group of young people.
Lord (I’ll never join that lot of spongers) Lord Prescott
Comments:
john collatin: Perhaps she can start by ladling into the Labour controlled Councils and their management of Education?
How is Jackie Baillie’s West Dunbartonshire team doing? Cutting classroom hours and a cold snack for pupils at lunchtime on a Friday.
4000 teachers cut by Local Authorities, while Arms Length money losing contracts are kept artificially afloat by my rates?
PFI rents for schools sanctioned by Brown and Blair. A 25 year bill we did not want. And we still won’t own the schools.
Colleges awarding themselves footballer EBT sized redundancy and pensions pots.
‘Education, education, education’. Remember that wee gem from the Fettes educated leader? And who introduced academy schools. The Tory leader of the Labour party.
I doubt that there will be a candidate of any hue who would not stand on an “every child to be given the best possible start in life” pledge.
Airhead pamphleteering from the self styled leader of the autonomous Scottish Labour Party. I take it that she will roundly condemn tuition fees, and support free school meals for all pupils. Unless Westminster tells her otherwise of course.
Where did the money come from for the video? Scottish Labour funds, or London Labour?
Robin Stevenson: Dugdale stated: “50% of the poorest kids leave our schools unable to read.”
While stating the the Daily [broken] Record: “I’ve made education my No1 priority, The fact that under this SNP Government more than 6,000 children leave primary school unable to read properly is shameful”.
There are currently 385,200 children in primary-school education in Scotland. If we’re talking about 6,000 or so, that’s just under 1.6%. According to Dugdale that’s “50% of the poorest kids”.
John Collatin: I think that you’ll find that the vast majority of pupils who leave primary unprepared for a secondary education live in Labour controlled Councils.
The poverty that is the main factor in kids from poorer backgrounds under achieving lies at the door of Willie Rennie, and Ruth Davidson, and the financial mismanagement at Council level, predominantly controlled by New Labour Card Carriers in the built up industrial wastelands.
But Kezia won’t be attacking them, and the Blue Tories continued assault on our poorest and ‘hard working families’, will she?
The unholy alliance that is Better Together trumps any Corbyn Marxist attack on the Tories and Lib Dems Up Here.
SNP BAD is the only game in town, and Corbyn will be told this when he visits, and 700 or so Red Tory activists are herded into an auditorium and filmed by the assembled media.
The Austerity package voted through by the Red Blue and Yellow Tories in January will proceed unchallenged, and 1.5 million of our citizens already living below the poverty line because of Willie’s and Ruth’s Austerity (what ah effin’ 1984 description of financial vandalism) cuts in the last five years, and Ruth’s even harsher attack on the poor for the next five years p[lunges even more Scottish citizens into poverty.
Yet according to Kezia, all this poverty and declining educational attainment is the SNP’s fault.
Not the Tories, not the LD’s, not Miliband’s powder puff opposition, not the Local Education Authority high priced managers or the local councils.
It’s that Nicola Sturgeon’s fault. Utter guff from a party mouthpiece.but we are still not listening, Ms Dugdale.
David MacKenzie: I’d rather she put “truth” at the heart of her campaign.
Elizabeth Myles: You’ll have a long wait David.
Richard Holmes: Just heard the party political broadcast featuring Dugdale on the telly; to describe it as bland would be kind.
Alastair Gordon: ‘puerile’ would be kind! Question time with 5 & 6 year olds – really . . . And today at FMQs she proved where heart really lies – in the gutter!
Alan Stewart: The ineptitude of this unintelligent and gauche woman is almost painful to watch, even for those who do not wish her party well. What an embarrassment.
But is the record of the Labour Party in Scotland exemplary? A look back to the year 2000 is telling.
Confirmed Unionist Party
August 2000 – Scottish Exams System in Crisis
The Scottish examination system was left in crisis whilst the Scottish Education Minister, Sam Galbraith, passed the buck on to the agency that has responsibility for administrating the Scottish exam system. This was despite year’s of warning by teachers and opposition politicians that the new exams would cause administrative problems.
Over 140,000 school exam candidates received their results last month to tell them how they had performed in the exams which decide whether or not they will go to university or college. However the Scottish Qualification Authority (SQA), struggling with a new computer system, was thrown into confusion when some students failed to receive their results or received results that were inaccurate. Some pupils even received results for exams they had not sat and a number of native Russian speakers were failed in their Russian language exam.
The Chief Executive of the SQA resigned but the Education Minister passed the buck on to the organisation despite the fact that he was warned about such problems and that thousands of students will have their university applications delayed.
Commenting on the chaos, the Shadow Education Minister Ms Nicola Sturgeon MSP said:
“After sustained pressure from the SNP, the Education Minister, Sam Galbraith eventually announced that an independent inquiry will be carried out to investigate the cause of this delay. However this inquiry is far too late for the thousands of pupils across Scotland who have either received incomplete results or, in many cases, no results at all.
“Labour Ministers are quick to accept credit when things go well, but Galbraith is proving that they are also the first to blame other people for their mistakes when things go badly. As the Education Minister, the responsibility for this unmitigated disaster lies squarely on the shoulders of Sam Galbraith.
Education Minister Accused Of Misleading Parliament
In the first First Minister’s Questions since the Summer Recess the Education Minister, Sam Galbraith, was accused of misleading the Scottish Parliament and the public over the exams fiasco. The day before he had said he had “absolutely no powers” to instruct the Scottish Qualifications Authority.
However, during First Minister’s Questions SNP Leader Alex Salmond said the minister did have powers to direct the SQA under the 1996 Education Act. Mr Salmond said the education act gave him the power to direct the SQA in its discharge of duties and that the SQA had to obey.
He said: “The terms of clause 9 of the Education (Scotland) Act 1996 which states: ‘The secretary of state,’ that’s the minister, ‘may after consultation with the Scottish Qualifications Authority give the SQA directions of a general or specific character with regard to the discharge of its functions and it shall be the duty of the SQA to comply with the directions.’
“I have no doubt that any fair-minded person looking at Section 9 would regard the comments he made to Parliament and to the broader Scottish public as misleading. It may be that he simply failed to read his civil servants’ brief; or, as some have reported, that he was unaware of the full extent of the powers available to him under the 1996 Act. It is clear that he failed to act when he had the powers to act. Whatever the reason the remarks he made were misleading and did mislead Parliament and the public.”
Student Numbers Down From Last Year
It has been revealed that the number of Scottish students accepted to universities has fallen by 6.6% according to the University application organisation UCAS. Commenting on this disturbing announcement, Shadow Lifelong Learning Minister Mr John Swinney MSP said:
“It is an absolute disgrace that serious administrative and managerial blunders are costing Scottish students places at universities and colleges. The Scottish Labour government insisted throughout this sorry mess that no Scottish students would be disadvantaged.
“The repercussions of this fiasco are becoming more severe with each passing day. The situation is far more serious than anyone first thought. It was bad enough when we thought students would suffer anxious delays and doubts over the validity of their results, but now that Scottish pupils are facing the prospect of losing out on university places the situation is critical.
“It is deplorable that this shambles is likely to have a damaging effect on the future of thousands of students. This Scottish Labour government have badly failed Scotland’s students. Although Sam Galbraith is responsible for the shambles over the results process, it is Lifelong Learning Minister Henry McLeish who must guarantee those students affected will not be left in the academic slow lane.” http://www.forscotland.com/snpusa/august2000.html
Broadcast media and the Press in Scotland were heavily biased (in their reporting to the Scottish public) against the “Yes” campaign. The shameful behaviour has continued unabated in the period since.
I recently read an analysis of the Scottish Press written by Jennifer Rachel Birks BA (Hons). I commend it to you.
Newspaper Campaigns, Publics and Politics
This thesis examines the practice of campaigning journalism, where a newspaper seeks political influence and claims to do so on behalf of its readers or a wider public. It is a production and content study of campaign journalism in the Scottish press, examining the journalists’ orientation to their readers, both in terms of social responsibility toward them in facilitating their citizenship, and in terms of accountability or answerability to them as their quasi-representatives.
The study also analyses the newspapers’ representation of the substance and legitimacy of public opinion to politicians at the Scottish Parliament, in particular the governing Scottish Executive (now Scottish Government), and the framing of politicians’ obligation to respond to public demands as formulated by the newspapers. In short, it seeks to investigate newspapers’ democratic claims to be the voice of ‘the public’
Jennifer Rachel Birks BA (Hons) Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy – Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Applied Social Sciences Faculty of Law, Business and Social Science – May 2009
Social Responsibility of the Press in Scotland (extracted and altered for presentation purposes only)
The Scottish public “entrust a measure of their sovereignty to journalists”, or at least newspapers claim that sovereignty on their behalf. This increasingly extends beyond dispassionately judging performance of citizens’ elected representatives; there is typically an emphasis on expressing outrage at wrongdoing, mistakes and indiscretions and demanding resignations. It is characterised by the adoption of ‘professional’ norms designed to facilitate the informed democratic engagement of citizens. In publishing only what is objective, accurate, impartial, balanced and fair journalists allow their readers to vote in accordance with their views, values and interests.
Journalists imagine a Scottish public that is often too preoccupied and too distracted to be active citizens. Therefore citizens entrust a measure of their sovereignty to journalists just as people entrust a measure of control over their bodies to doctors. Journalists are professionals who hold citizenship in trust for us, and we rely on their expertise or political analysis when we want information about the state of the country.
The autonomy of journalists from political interference does not mean that they will necessarily be oriented to the public interest, but it is an important condition under which journalists are free to adhere to professional norms. Such norms are governed by the authority of rules and procedures and journalists are expected to represent events, issues and proposals objectively and impartially rather than selectively in loyalty to preferred groups or in exchange for political or economic advantage. However, critics argue that in reality journalism is subject to the rationale, interests and influence of commerce.
Newspaper owners enjoy considerable political influence over journalists and their output via mechanisms of reward and sanction and career progression. These captains of the means of publicity, and national newspapers have endured losses for many years simply for the gain of political prestige and impact. Rupert Murdoch is the most commonly cited contemporary example for his alleged sway over the Blair government.
It is also argued that journalists absorb hegemonically inflected newsroom assumptions to the point where they become invisible, and which can privilege certain social groups, such as the preference of elite sources as the credible “primary definers”. Journalists self-selected into positions at newspapers with whose editorial line they already sympathise, internalise the editorial policy and anticipated preferred angles or even factual distortions from previous editorial revisions, and learnt by example from more senior colleagues.
Newspaper journalists are supposed to be held to their professional principles through codes of practice such as that of the National Union of Journalists and the industry self-regulatory body the Press Complaints Commission. However, unlike the medical and legal professions, there is no force of accountability to the NUJ code since journalists are not formally accredited by the union and therefore cannot be struck off for misconduct. Similarly, the PCC can only request printed apologies, unlike the state regulator Ofcom for the broadcast media, which has legal force.
This demonstrates how, accountability of the press is consistent with its freedom, in terms of a positive (enabling) definition of freedom. But, like the PCC, this is an internal industry form of accountability, whereby journalists regulate one another nominally in the public interest, but without recourse to public engagement on the issue. Whilst the PCC does respond to external complaints, only individuals who have been sources for stories or otherwise represented within the pages of the newspaper are considered valid complainants, whilst the general public is not able to formally complain about being misinformed or misled, so it is questionable to what extent the PCC code really defends the democratic public interest.
Unrestricted freedom of the press is something that should be championed, but only if that includes freedom from state and commercial influence
Oliver Mundell – Dumfriesshire is the Mundell family dynasty
Oliver Mundell is to stand for re-election in tomorrow’s Scottish Parliament Election. He is confident that his strong stance in defence of the Union, in the South of Scotland will count in his favour with voters.
education & early employment
After leaving school in Moffat, he attended Edinburgh University, graduating in 2012. He worked for (7 months) for the multinational oil and gas firm Royal Dutch Shell and in the UK Parliament, (courtesy of Daddy) where he was employed, on a large salary, as a senior parliamentary aide to Geoffrey Cox QC MP. This was the launching pad for a political career as an MSP for Dumfriesshire
At Edinburgh University his campaign for election to the post of Student Association President was hindered by an allegation that he had harassed a fellow student Alice Stanes, a disabled NUS liberation officer reducing her to tears, in a discussion about disability and policy
In a later apology he said: “I understand that liberation is a sensitive issue but I have always tried to keep my own personal emotions out of decision making, putting the needs of students first, I’m really sorry if my point of view has been upsetting or misinterpreted but, rather than engaging in petty student politics, I’m moving forward with my plans to make the Student’s Union more representative.”
He was not elected. Evidently his fellow students disagreed with his statement about being unconcerned about engaging in “petty Student politics”
Dec 2014: Oliver works for his dad at the expense of the public
Mundell employed his son, out of university a few months. (salary £30,000+) as a Parliamentary Assistant from 1 March 2013. having previously employed him in the same position from May to 2012″. Then, in November 2014, Mundell transferred his SPAD duties taking up a position as a Senior Parliamentary Researcher (more money for the boy) working in the Westminster ,House of Commons office of a Conservative MP representing South West Region.
He departed Westminster for Scotland only a year later and in 2015 was subsequently elected to serve as the MSP for Dumfriesshire.
In announcing his intention to remain as the MSP for Dumfriesshire in the 2021 Scottish General Election it is expected his father will be elevated to the House of Lords very soon paving the way for Oliver to take up a seat in Westminster further entrenching the Mundell dynasty in Dumfriesshire. Nepotism gone mad.
12 February 2014: Scottish Independence Osborne will rule out currency union
The headliner posted by the BBC was widely read and many say proved to be a pivotal moment in the referendum campaign. A careful read of the evolving statement reveals a more complex story. The final post was reached after the content was changed six times by the BBC (with government guidance). Policy on the hoof, first touted by Osborne, acting on the inappropriate advice of a senior treasury civil servant, (who had largely contributed to the 2007 financial crisis). http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-26147783
11 Feb 2014: 23:10 Hours Scottish independence: George Osborne to ‘rule out currency union’
UK Chancellor George Osborne is likely to rule out a formal currency union with an independent Scotland, government sources have told the BBC. It comes after Prime Minister David Cameron said Mr Osborne will set out further details of the coalition’s position later this week.
The Scottish government has said it wants to retain the pound in an independent Scotland. It has said a currency union is the “sensible option”. A spokesman for Scottish Finance Secretary John Swinney said it would be “absurd” for any prime minister to object to such an agreement.
According to BBC political correspondent Tim Reid, if the Treasury was to formally rule out a currency union it would pile huge pressure on Scottish ministers over which
currency an independent Scotland would use, ahead of the referendum in September. About four million people over the age of 16 and living in Scotland will be able to take part in the referendum, promised by the Scottish National Party (SNP), on 18 September.
11 Feb 2014 2345 Hours (35 min later) Scottish independence: George Osborne to ‘rule out currency union’
UK Chancellor George Osborne is likely to rule out a formal currency union with an independent Scotland, government sources have told the BBC. It comes after the prime minister said Mr Osborne will set out details of the coalition’s position later this week.
The Scottish government has said it wants to retain the pound if there is a “Yes” vote in referendum. A spokesman for Scottish Finance Secretary John Swinney said Westminster was trying to “bully Scotland”. The Scottish government has said a currency union is the “sensible option”.
According to BBC political correspondent Tim Reid, if the Treasury was to formally rule out a currency union it would pile huge pressure on Scottish ministers over which currency an independent Scotland would use, ahead of the referendum in September. On 18 September, voters in Scotland will be asked the yes/no question: “Should Scotland be an independent country?”
Until now, the chancellor has said a currency union between Scotland and the rest of the UK – in the event of independence -is “unlikely”. Answering questions at a Downing Street news conference on Tuesday, David Cameron said “I think it would be very difficult to justify a currency union post-independence.”
A spokesman for Mr Swinney said: “This is nothing more than an attempt by the Westminster establishment to bully Scotland, now that they have started to lose the argument on independence. “It is a sign of panic that will backfire badly. “No one will credibly believe these threats. They are simply another instalment in Project Fear.” He added: “People know that the Westminster establishment will say one thing before the referendum but behave far more rationally after a yes vote, when its self-interest will lie in agreeing a currency union with Scotland.”
Meanwhile, MPs are due to discuss the issue of what currency Scotland would use if voters back independence on Wednesday. Shadow business minister Ian Murray will lead a debate on the subject at Westminster.
12 February 2014: 0825 Hours (About 9 hours later) Scottish independence: George Osborne to ‘rule out currency union’
UK Chancellor George Osborne is likely to rule out a formal currency union with an independent Scotland, government sources have told the BBC. It came after the prime minister said Mr Osborne would set out details of the coalition’s position later this week.
The Scottish government has said it wants to keep pound in a currency union if there is a “Yes” vote in referendum. The deputy first minister claimed no currency deal would leave Westminster with the entirety of UK debt. Nicola Sturgeon said the position did not bear scrutiny and was a campaign manoeuvre in a bid to “bully Scotland”.
According to BBC political correspondent Tim Reid, if the Treasury was to formally rule out a currency union it would pile huge pressure on Scottish ministers over which currency an independent Scotland would use, ahead of the referendum in September. On 18 September, voters in Scotland will be asked the Yes/No question: “Should Scotland be an independent country?”
Until now, the chancellor has said a currency union between Scotland and the rest of the UK – in the event of independence – would be “unlikely”. Answering questions at a Downing Street news conference on Tuesday, David Cameron said: “I think it would be very difficult to justify a currency union post-independence.”
Ms Sturgeon told BBC Radio’s Good Morning Scotland programme that, in the space of a week, the Westminster establishment had gone from David Cameron’s “love bombing” back to “bullying and intimidation”. She said: “It is a bluff, because if this was to be the position of the Westminster government then it would put them in a position that’s at odds with majority public opinion in Scotland, it would put them at odds with majority public opinion in England. “It would cost their own businesses hundreds of millions of pounds, it would blow a massive hole in their balance of payments and it would leave them having to pick up the entirety of UK debt.”
The Scottish government has said Scotland should meet a fair share of the cost of servicing UK Treasury debt, but that “assets and liabilities” go together.Ms Sturgeon said that no matter what Westminster said now, the reality would be very different if Scotland voted “Yes”.
Meanwhile, MPs are due to discuss the issue of what currency Scotland would use if voters back independence on Wednesday. Shadow business minister Ian Murray will lead a debate on the subject at Westminster.
12 February 2014: 0940 hours (1 hour later) Scottish independence: George Osborne to ‘rule out currency union’
UK Chancellor George Osborne is likely to rule out a formal currency union with an independent Scotland, government sources have told the BBC. It came after the prime minister said Mr Osborne would set out details of the coalition’s position this week.
The Scottish government wants to keep the pound in a currency union if there is a referendum “Yes” vote. The deputy first minister claimed no currency deal would leave Westminster with all the UK debt. Nicola Sturgeon said the position did not bear scrutiny and was a campaign manoeuvre in a bid to “bully Scotland”.
According to BBC political correspondent Tim Reid, if the Treasury were to formally rule out a currency union it would pile huge pressure on Scottish ministers over which currency an independent Scotland would use, before the referendum in September. On 18 September, voters in Scotland will be asked the Yes/No question: “Should Scotland be an independent country?”
Until now, the chancellor has said a currency union between Scotland and the rest of the UK – in the event of independence – would be “unlikely”. Answering questions at a Downing Street news conference on Tuesday, David Cameron said: “I think it would be very difficult to justify a currency union post-independence.”
Ms Sturgeon told BBC Radio’s Good Morning Scotland programme that, in the space of a week, the Westminster establishment had gone from Mr Cameron’s “love bombing” back to “bullying and intimidation”. She said: “It is a bluff, because if this was to be the position of the Westminster government then it would put them in a position that’s at odds with majority public opinion in Scotland, it would put them at odds with majority public opinion in England. “It would cost their own businesses hundreds of millions of pounds, it would blow a massive hole in their balance of payments and it would leave them having to pick up the entirety of UK debt.”
The Scottish government has said Scotland should meet a fair share of the cost of servicing UK Treasury debt, but that “assets and liabilities” go together. Ms Sturgeon said that no matter what Westminster said now, the reality would be very different if Scotland voted “Yes”.
Meanwhile, MPs are due to discuss on Wednesday the issue of what currency Scotland would use if voters back independence. Shadow business minister Ian Murray will lead a debate on the subject at Westminster.
12 February 2014: 1235 Hours (about 3 hours later) Scottish independence: George Osborne to ‘rule out currency union’
UK Chancellor George Osborne is likely to rule out a formal currency union with an independent Scotland, government sources have told the BBC. It came after the prime minister said Mr Osborne would set out details of the coalition’s position this week.
The Scottish government wants to keep the pound in a currency union if there is a referendum “Yes” vote. SNP ministers said failure to do such a deal could leave the Westminster government with all UK debt. Scottish Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the UK government’s position did not bear scrutiny and was an attempt to “bully Scotland”.
Alistair Darling, leader of the Better Together campaign to keep the Union, accused the Scottish government of making a “reckless threat”.
Ahead of the 18 September independence referendum, the Scottish government has set out a plan to retain the pound and the services of the Bank of England, in the event of a “Yes” vote. SNP ministers said the position would be in the best interests of Scotland and the rest of the UK.
Until now, Mr Osborne has said such an agreement would be “unlikely”, but a formal ruling out of such a move would pile huge pressure on the Scottish government’s currency plan, said BBC political correspondent Tim Reid.
Answering questions at a Downing Street news conference on Tuesday, Prime Minister David Cameron, said: “I think it would be very difficult to justify a currency union post-independence.”
Ms Sturgeon told BBC Radio’s Good Morning Scotland programme the UK government had given its clearest sign yet that it was losing the argument. “We’ve gone, in under a week, from David Cameron’s love bombing, back to bullying and intimidation,” she said. “It is a bluff, because if this was to be the position of the Westminster government then it would put them in a position that’s at odds with majority public opinion in Scotland, it would put them at odds with majority public opinion in England. “It would cost their own businesses hundreds of millions of pounds, it would blow a massive hole in their balance of payments and it would leave them having to pick up the entirety of UK debt.” The Scottish government has said Scotland should meet a fair share of the cost of servicing UK Treasury debt, but that “assets and liabilities” went together. Ms Sturgeon said that no matter what Westminster said now, the reality would be very different if Scotland voted “Yes”.
Responding to the comments, Mr Darling said: “The nationalist threat to default on debt if they don’t get their way on currency is reckless. “The impact of Alex Salmond’s default would be to say to the world that we cannot be trusted to honour our debts. The result would be higher interest rates for Scots on mortgages and credit cards. “The former UK chancellor added: “One thing is certain – the only way to guarantee to keep the UK pound as our currency is to vote to keep Scotland a strong part of the UK.”
On 18 September, voters in Scotland will be asked the Yes/No question: “Should Scotland be an independent country?”
12 February 2014: 1350 Hours (about 1 hour later) Scottish independence: George Osborne to ‘rule out currency union’
UK Chancellor George Osborne will rule out a formal currency union with an independent Scotland, government sources have told the BBC. It came after the prime minister said Mr Osborne would set out details of the coalition’s position this week. His position will also be backed by Labour shadow chancellor Ed Balls and Liberal Democrat Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander.
The Scottish government wants to keep the pound in a currency union if there is a referendum “Yes” vote. SNP ministers said the Westminster parties were bullying Scotland.
Mr Osborne will set out his detailed position this week, with Mr Balls and Mr Alexander expected to follow in the days to come.
Deputy Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the UK government’s position did not bear scrutiny, adding that failure to do a deal on the currency in the event of a “Yes” vote in the 18 September referendum could leave Westminster with all UK debt.
Meanwhile, Alistair Darling, leader of the Better Together campaign to keep the Union, accused the Scottish government of making a “reckless threat”.
The Scottish government has set out a plan to retain the pound and the services of the Bank of England, in the event of a “Yes” vote, which it said would be in the best interests of Scotland and the rest of the UK.
Until now, Mr Osborne has said such an agreement would be “unlikely”, but a formal ruling out of such a move would pile huge pressure on the Scottish government’s currency plan, said BBC political correspondent Tim Reid.
Answering questions at a Downing Street news conference on Tuesday, Prime Minister David Cameron, said: “I think it would be very difficult to justify a currency union post-independence.”
Ms Sturgeon told BBC Radio’s Good Morning Scotland programme the UK government had given its clearest sign yet that it was losing the argument. “We’ve gone, in under a week, from David Cameron’s love bombing, back to bullying and intimidation,” she said. “It is a bluff, because if this was to be the position of the Westminster government then it would put them in a position that’s at odds with majority public opinion in Scotland, it would put them at odds with majority public opinion in England. “It would cost their own businesses hundreds of millions of pounds, it would blow a massive hole in their balance of payments and it would leave them having to pick up the entirety of UK debt.”
The Scottish government has said Scotland should meet a fair share of the cost of servicing UK Treasury debt, but that “assets and liabilities” went together. Ms Sturgeon said that, no matter what Westminster said now, the reality would be very different if Scotland voted “Yes”.
Responding to the comments, Mr Darling said: “The nationalist threat to default on debt if they don’t get their way on currency is reckless. “The impact of Alex Salmond’s default would be to say to the world that we cannot be trusted to honour our debts. The result would be higher interest rates for Scots on mortgages and credit cards.” The former UK chancellor added: “One thing is certain – the only way to guarantee to keep the UK pound as our currency is to vote to keep Scotland a strong part of the UK.”
Scottish economic commentator Bill Jamieson said Mr Osborne’s intervention raised a series of questions, including whether it was within the chancellor’s gift to make such a ruling. He said: “This is a very fluid situation with a UK general election coming up next year and I would suspect that any decision on currency sharing would be a matter for the Westminster parliament, rather than a Conservative or coalition chancellor.”
The referendum will see voters in Scotland asked the Yes/No question “Should Scotland be an independent country?”
Beware of what you buy and from whom – Kezia, Jackie and the hounds of the Unionist press are watching
The unionist press forced the matter of property portfolio ownership by politicians on the attention of readers in Scotland. There might have been merit making such information available to the public if the compelling need to do so had been driven by a desire to do good things. But this was not the case. There was malice in the motives. The purpose of the “expose” was to destroy the budding career of an SNP politician who had, (so far as the police were concerned) done nothing that might have warrant intervention. The savagery of the onslaught by innuendo, selective quotes and half baked interviews continued unabated for nearly a week.
To add fuel to the fire the Labour Party in Scotland took up the cudgel. Abusing valuable parliamentary time and with the full support of their Labour party colleagues they, (through Jackie Ballie and Keiza Dugdale) raised the matter on two separate occasions attempting to force the First Minister to pronounce on affairs and take action requiring official bodies, over which she had no authority, to release confidential information pertaining to the MP (which would be in breech of the Data protection Act) The sheer audacity of the Labour Party is breathtaking.
But there is merit in adding to the debate by revealing that Labour, Tory, Liberal Democrat MPs are no strangers to the business of purchasing properties. But the scale of it places any portfolio held by the SNP MP under attack at the very bottom end of the business.
9 October 2012: research for an independent campaign group reveals increasing numbers of politicians across all parties maintain property portfolios
A group campaigning on behalf of first-time house buyers identified MPs supplementing their income through private tenants:
Conservative MPs: 83 out of 305 Labour MPs: 32 out of 232 Liberal Democrats: 9 out of 57
The group also found several examples of MPs owning more than one rental property. James Clappison, Tory MP for Hertsmere, topped the charts, having been found to own 26 homes he rented out across East Yorkshire.
Katy John, a spokesperson said “Not only do MPs enjoy taxpayer-funded second homes, many of them also have a portfolio of rented houses too. Many first-time buyers are trapped in the private rented sector, 94 per cent of whom would like to buy their own home.
Tenants in this country face some of the worst levels of housing security in Europe. First-time buyers desperately need house prices to fall to more affordable levels, but landlord MPs at the very top of the property ladder have a vested interest to not let this happen.”
5 March 2013: Great Tory housing shame: Third of ex-council homes now owned by rich landlords
The multi-millionaire son of a Tory minister who presided over the controversial “right-to -buy” scheme is a buy-to-let landlord owning at least 40 ex-council properties.
Investigation has found a third of ex-council homes sold in the 1980s under Margaret Thatcher are now owned by private landlords. In one London borough almost half of ex-council properties are now sub-let to tenants.
Tycoon Charles Gow and his wife own at least 40 ex-council flats on one South London estate. His father Ian Gow was one of Mrs Thatcher’s top aides and was Housing Minister during the peak years of right-to-buy. Other wealthy investors own scores of ex-council properties via offshore holding firms in tax havens in the Channel Islands.
GMS union boss Paul Kenny said: “You couldn’t make it up. The family of one of the Tory ministers who oversaw right-to-buy ends up owning swathes of ex-council homes.”
Thatcher’s man: Ian Gow was Housing Minister during height of right-to-buy boom in 1984
26 April 2013: Britain’s richest landlord MP Richard Benyon buys up 96 properties hikes the rent then tells poor families: You shouldn’t waste so much food
Around 90 households in an estate in Hoxton, London have been snapped up by Tory MP Richard Benyon’s £110million family firm, which promptly announced plans for a massive rent hike. The residents, now unable to meet the rent – face eviction.
Britain’s richest MP Richard Benyon told families on the breadline. “You shouldn’t waste so much food. careful fridge management would help solve the crisis in living standards and families should also eat more leftovers” He went on to say “many people have no idea how to keep fruit or vegetables or that cheese will last longer if properly wrapped.
2 August 2013: A property company run by the Labour Party has paid no tax in eight years, despite earning millions of pounds in rental revenues
Labour Party Properties Limited (LPPL), which owns a £6.3m portfolio of properties, has paid no corporation tax since 2003. In those eight years the company has received a total of £8.7m in rents but declared losses of £279,000. A Labour Party spokesman said the firm had done nothing to intentionally cut its tax bill.
Ed Miliband has repeatedly accused multi-national companies such as Starbucks and Google of failing to pay their full share of tax.
The latest accounts show LPPL, which is wholly owned by the Labour Party and whose directors include Iain McNicol, the Labour Party general secretary, received £1,189,000 in rent from 21 properties in 2011. Around forty per cent of the portfolio, worth £2.5m, is rented on the open market, while the other buildings are leased to local parties as offices and social clubs.
23 September 2013: Labour’s claim of being the party of council housing is in tatters
As part of the Labour conference focus on the cost of living, the party will be going to great efforts this week to reclaim its presumed title as the party of ‘council housing’. Expect to hear private builders bashed for squirrelling away land plots rather than piling ‘em high with apartments as they should. And the pillorying of the right to buy policy, ritually chastised as it is each conference as the chief reason for the country’s interminable descent into social housing drought.
What you’re unlikely to hear is a serious admission by Labour of its appalling track record on council housing supply. That local authority housing passed into private hands far faster under Labour than Conservative prime ministers. Or that the true title of council housing champion sits more comfortably in Conservative hands.
24 November 2013: Labour’s property portfolio, including Ed Balls’s constituency buildings, have benefited from cheap loans from the Co-operative Bank
Labour Party Properties Ltd (LPPL), a property firm wholly owned by the Labour Party, has used its £6.3 million portfolio to secure £3.8 million of cheap finance from the Co-op bank. The properties used as collateral in the deal include Morley Labour Rooms in the shadow chancellor’s West Yorkshire constituency.
The revelation raises fresh questions about Labour’s close relationship with the Co-operative Bank, whose former chairman and Labour councillor, Rev Paul Flowers, has been arrested and bailed on suspicion of drug offences. It follows the revelation the Co-op donated £50,000 to Mr Balls’s office.
LPPL paid 2.88 per cent interest on the loan, according to the company’s 2012 accounts – a far cheaper rate than would typically be offered to property firms on the open market, one expert said. If the bank had charged a commercial rate of interest, LPPL’s tenants could face significantly higher rents, he added.
24 February 2014: Richest MP in Britain slams welfare state but makes £120k a year in housing benefit
A Tory MP worth £110million is raking in £120,000 a year from his hard-up tenants’ housing benefit – despite blasting the “something for nothing” welfare state.
Richard Benyon – Britain’s richest MP – runs his vast property empire from a mansion on his sprawling country pile. But last night he was accused of cashing in off the back of the very handouts his party pledged to slash – as it emerged a string of other Tories were doing the same.
Just last month the MP, 53, said: “The average household spends £3,000 per year on the welfare state. This figure had been rising inexorably and unaffordably.”
Benyon has also attacked the Labour Party over payments and said: “Labour want benefits to go up more than the earnings of people in work. It isn’t fair and we will not let them bring back their something for nothing culture.”
He is a director of the Englefield Estate Trust Corporation Limited, which owns most of the land and property linked to his family. It got £119,237 in housing benefit from West Berkshire council last year, more than any other private landlord in the area.
Eileen Short, of Defend Council Housing, fumed: “How dare Richard Benyon lecture us about ‘something for nothing’ when he is living off the poorest and milking taxpayers all the way to the bank? “It’s not tenants who gain from housing benefit, but some of the richest people in Britain. They get richer at our expense – and blame us while they’re at it.”
Mr Benyon is likely to pull in thousands of pounds more from properties in other areas, too, as his firm owns 20,000 acres of land from Hampshire to Scotland and 300 houses in Hackney, East London. His office refused to comment on the figures or confirm whether Englefield got more housing benefit from other councils. Buy-to-let landlords and property tycoons like him will bank a total of £9.2billion in housing benefit this year.
It costs more than £23 a week, or 29% more in housing benefit, for a council to house a tenant with a private landlord than with a housing association or social not-for-profit landlord, according to the Department for Work and Pensions. Mrs Short added: “It’s time we stopped greedy private landlords living off housing benefit. Instead of subsidising them, we ought to cut rents not benefits, and invest in housing that’s really affordable. Let’s get these people off our backs.”
Our investigation, with the GMB union, comes after it was revealed yesterday that UKIP’s housing spokesman Andrew Charalambous was making a fortune off migrant tenants on welfare – despite leader Nigel Farage calling for a ban on foreigners claiming the cash. The millionaire pocketed £745,351 in housing benefit from occupants, who he admitted included immigrants.
Our probe also uncovered a number of other Tories and donors who also bagged cash through housing benefit tenants last year.
Peer Lord Cavendish benefitted from £106,938 in housing welfare last year from Barrow council in Cumbria through his shareholding in Holker Estates.
The Earl of Cadogan, who has given £23,000 to the Tories, has received £116,400 in benefits from Kensington and Chelsea. And MP Richard Drax’s 7,000-acre Morden Estate got £13,830 from Purbeck council, South Dorset, last year. A Morden spokesman said: “We don’t comment on these things.”
On top of Mr Benyon’s haul from tenants, his family farms have also received more than £2million in EU subsidies since 2000. Once a year the multi-millionaire – whose great great grandad was PM Lord Salisbury – hands out food to poor families as part of a 16th century tradition. He recently came under fire for scrapping plans to dredge the Somerset Levels. He was also criticised for claiming poor families wasted too much food.
Our investigation is based on Freedom of Information Act requests made by the GMB union, which has many members who rely on social housing. There are 1.8 million households on the waiting list for council homes. Despite Government pledges to tackle the welfare bill, the annual cost hit £24billion this year.
24 February 2014: Glasgow – vagrants housed in rat infested hellhole – Landlords paid £1.5m in Housing benefit
The owners of a notorious hostel where homeless men live in squalor are bagging more than £1.5million a year in housing benefit.
Ron Barr, 69, and Kenneth Gray, 80, make a fortune renting out the rat-infested Bellgrove Hotel’s tiny rooms with barred windows to residents who use shared toilets and shower rooms. The hovel is awash with drugs and alcohol, with people often left to pass out in pools of their own urine.
Brothers-in-law Barr and Gray, who bought the Glasgow “hotel” for £65,000 in 1988 through firm Careside Hotels Ltd, pocket cash through more than 140 clients whose rooms are paid for with up to £199.25 a week of public money.
The men – who live in luxury – raked in £1.56million in housing benefit in 2012-13, £1.49million in 2011-12, and £1.45million in 2010-11.
A local MP said the Bellgrove was like a “Russian prison”. He went on to say “I have been in and the facilities are seriously out of date. It is like some kind of Russian prison camp – grey and horrible.” Unlike care homes, which are monitored by official bodies, the Bellgrove is technically a private hotel. Mr Mason said the site needed to be regulated and urged the Care Commission to look at it.
The amount handed to the Bellgrove’s owners, to provide a room and basic meals, has tripled from £500,000 in 2000, despite it being described even then as the “worst in Scotland”. But business is still booming at the spot in the city’s East End. On a recent undercover operation hundreds of residents were discovered living in cell-like rooms. Drugs were taken openly and residents left to guzzle cider all day before passing out in stinking corridors. Pools of vomit were also left on the floor.
Glasgow city council stopped referring homeless people there in 2010 after deciding it made people’s drink and drug problems worse. A spokesman said: “Accommodating individuals in large scale hostels makes it much harder to address the issues that led to their homelessness in the first place.” A senior source at the council said: “There’s a very unhealthy drugs and alcohol scene. You could go into that place an alcoholic and come out a drug addict and alcoholic.”
24 June 2014: Queen riding high on housing boom with property income generating £43m
The Queen’s property portfolio is delivering the royal family a record income as the property boom lifts real estate values. The Crown Estate, the property company owned by the Head of State, generated a £285m profit in the year ending in March.
According to the Financial Times, this means the Queen, who after two years receives 15% of all profits from the Crown Estate, stands to gain £43m in 2017. The Crown Estate hands all remaining profits to the Treasury. The total value of all of the estate’s assets is now £11.5bn, a year on year rise of 16%. In addition, public funding for the Queen – the sovereign wealth fund – is set to rise by £2m next year, to 42.8m.
14 August 2015: 40% of homes sold under Right to Buy are being let out privately
The government’s Right to Buy scheme has come under fire after it has been revealed that 40% of all council flats sold under the scheme are now being rented out privately.
Figured obtained by Inside Housing magazine through a Freedom of Information request show that 37.6% of ex-council flats are likely being rented privately at market rents.
The figures released by 91 councils show that they have sold a total of 127,763 leasehold properties of which 47,994 leaseholders are living at another address. This is a “strong indication that the home is being sub-let”.
The research highlighted that Milton Keynes has the highest number of ex-council homes being privately rented (69.96%). It also found that more than half the ex-council flats in six areas are now being let privately.
14 August 2015: The owners of a London ex-council flat made an 800% return when it was sold for £1.2m
A former council flat in Covent Garden has been sold for £1.2m. The owners of the property bought it from Westminster council for £130,000 in 1997 under Right to Buy. The flat
failed to make the £1.35m asking price, however the owners still made an 800% return on their investment.
27 September 2011: Tory Property Tycoon Buys Olympic Village Athlete Accommodation
A Tory property tycoon’s company has snapped up half the Olympic Village at a bargain price. Jamie Ritblat’s firm, Delancey, bought the site in which the athletes will stay during the 2012 Olympic Games for just £557 million – an estimated loss of around £300 million on the money spent building the site. The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) conducted the sale on the Government’s behalf.
According to industry experts, significant profit could result from the investment. The company plans to rent out the majority of the 1,400 homes. Mr. Ritblat’s company’s offer was allegedly the best offer put forward for the site. It is believed that the Olympic Village homes, which lack kitchens, will require major refurbishment prior to being resold or rented.
Cynics have questioned the timing of the deal, which comes soon after Delancey’s substantial donation to the Conservative Party. Mr. Ritblat’s father, property tycoon, Sir John Ritblat, was also the chairman of the Conservative Party’s Olympics Oversight Committee. The committee was set up back in 2007 to scrutinise the London 2012 budgets.
An ODA spokesperson claimed that they received bids from three shortlisted bidders. Each bidder was assessed in terms of both their long-term plans for the development and in delivering value for money against taxpayer’s investment. The spokesperson adds that no other factors were considered in the decision-making process. Mr. Ritblat has declined to comment on his donations to the Tory Party. A Conservative Party spokesperson claimed that the Olympics Oversight Committee had failed to meet since the General Election.
Sale of an ex-council house – This story is set in Aberdeen, but it could be applied anywhere in Scotland
On or around 2007, an Stonehaven couple reaching retirement age (lets call them Dougal & Ermitrude) purchased their council flat at a knockdown price of £21,000. They took out a mortgage to cover the cost of the purchase plus fees.
Formal advice, given to them in writing was that they could not sell the flat for at least 3 years without returning, to the council a significant part of any profit that might be realised from any such sale.
Their children, both adult were now married with children of their own. They lived locally, in Aberdeen, about 10 miles distant.
Ideally Dougal and Ermitrude would have preferred to be located nearer to their grandchildren but Aberdeen housing was extremely expensive and in any event they would need to sell their flat first. They were stuck. The years passed.
Around 4 years later a friend provided a possible solution which if implemented would provide opportunity allowing Dougal & Ermitrude to sell their house for much more than they had paid for it.
The plan formulated required only that they would be able to display an pressing need supported by medical evidence (if possible) to be nearer their immediate family, in Aberdeen. All necessary measures were put in place.
Dougal & Ermitrude completed and submitted application forms to two Housing Associations, in Aberdeen. They struck lucky. The Hanover Housing Association, (provider of sheltered housing for the over 60’s) undertook to provide a one bedroom flat in Aberdeen (http://www.hanover.scot/).
There was only one catch. Housing provision was on a first come first served basis, meaning that refusal of accomodation considered suited to their needs could signifacntly delay any other offer. Normally housing would not be forthcoming for around 3-6 months, which gave Dougal & Ermitrude time to sell their flat in good time.
Then the bombshell. Roughly 3 weeks after submitting the application forms they recived a letter of offer of accomodation from Hanover advise that a one bedroom flat would be ready for occupation within the month. The location of the flat was ideal, being within walking distance of their grandchildren’s homes. What a quandry.
Dougal had made arrangements placing details of their flat with a local solicitor so that it could be sold. There had been a couple of viewings but no offers had been forthcoming due to the extensive refurbishment that would be necessary to bring the flat up to an acceptable standard. An added difficulty was that the local housing sales market had taken a downturn. Things did not look good.
The friend who first muted the move to Aberdeen came to the rescue once more with a recommendation that they consider selling the flat to an equity buyer. The price realised would be much reduced over the market rate,(between 25-30%) but in the circumstances it seemed to be the only viable option. Arrangements were put in place so that such a sale would be achieved without undue delay. Dougal & Ermitrude accepted the offer of accomodation from Hanover.
The equity buyer valued the flat at £75,000 and offered to purchase it for £50,000. The offer would be available for 48 hours after which it would be withdrawn. Dougal was inclined to hold out for more money but Ermitrude insisted he accept. Which he did. The outstanding amount of the mortgage loan taken out on the flat was £15,000. This provided Dougal & Ermitrude with a windfall cash sum of £35,000 after paying off the mortgage.
In 2011, Dougal & Ermitrude moved into their new one bedroomed flat located within walkng distance of their grandchildren. They were content and reasonably well off in their retirement since their needs were centred around their grandchildren.
The moral of the story: It is within the grasp of any ex-council house buyer under the right to buy scheme to do what Dougal and Ermitrude did. But they should have sold their flat before completing the application form seeking sheltered accomodation.
Afternote. The SNP government brought the right to buy scheme to an end since it had brought about an appalling shortage of council owned property for rent. Many properties sold off under the right to buy scheme had been susequently sold on to entrepreneurs increasing housing in the private sector which brought with it much increased rental charges for vulnerable Scots. http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/top-stories/right-to-buy-council-homes-to-be-scrapped-1-2986947
The scheme, introduced by the Thatcher govenment was supported by Labour government’s under Blair or Brown and the three Labour governments in Scotland led by Dewar, McLeish and McConnell. Indeed Labours council house building record in Scotland is disgraceful. In the first 6 years of the SNP government 4,432 new council homes were completed – compared to only 6 under in the last 4 years of the Labour-Lib Dem administration.
An aside: The couple in the news, Douglas and Jacqueline Wright sold their Cumbernauld property to M & F Property Solutions 2011. They took up residence in a one bedroomed flat, in pristine condition in a sheltered home complex in Bishopbriggs, (about 10 miles from Cumbernauld). The complex is one of a number of similar amenities built throughout Scotland over the last 10 years. It is run by the Hanover Housing Association
William Cowan Rennie was born in Fife and grew up in Strathmiglo, where his family ran the village shop and still live today. His mother was secretary of the local community association and his grandfather was the local Minister. He lives in Kelty with his wife Janet and their two sons, Alexander and Stephen. He is a keen runner and is a member of Dunfermline’s Carnegie Harriers. He was also runner-up in the 2006 Scottish Coal-Carrying Championships held in Kelty. Rennie was one of the 50 MPs who ran a mile to raise money for Sport Relief finishing close behind the winner, David Davies.
He went to Bell Baxter High School in Cupar, Fife, before going to Paisley College of Technology, where he graduated with a B.Sc. degree in Biology. After that, he received a Diploma in Industrial Administration at Glasgow College. After college, Rennie spent most of his early career as a Liberal Democrat election campaigner and official before working as a public relations consultant in the private sector. He became the Member of Parliament (MP) for Dunfermline and West Fife after a by-election win in February 2006.
He lost this seat to Labour in the May 2010 UK general election but was subsequently appointed in the same month by the newly formed UK Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition as a Special Government Adviser (SPAD) working for the Liberal Democrat Scottish Secretaries of State Michael Moore then Danny Alexander at the Scotland Office. He later resigned from his special adviser role in June 2010 to stand for the Scottish Parliament in the May 2011 elections. Despite the overall collapse of the party in the election he was elected as a list member for the Mid Scotland and Fife region. He was soon after elected unopposed as leader of the decimated Scottish Liberal Democrat party, replacing Tavish Scott.
While a student at the Paisley College of Technology he was depute president of the student union. Rennie ran the Scottish Young Liberal Democrats (later reformed as Liberal Youth Scotland) and after graduation went on to work for the English Liberal Democrats in Cornwall. He then went on to work for the Liberal Democrats’ campaigns department, and was the successful agent in the 1993 Christchurch by-election in Dorset. After managing the party’s campaigns in the South West England region, securing the return of a sizeable number of new MPs in the 1997 General Election, he moved back to Scotland where he was Chief Executive of the Scottish Liberal Democrats from 1997 to 1999, and then the party’s Chief of Staff in the new Scottish Parliament from 1999-2001.
From 2001 to 2006 he worked for the small Scottish communications firm McEwan Purvis as an account director helping advise businesses and charities such as the Royal Society of Chemistry and Asthma UK. During his time at McEwan Purvis, Rennie was a press adviser to Fife Council’s Liberal Democrat Opposition Group and a member of the Dunfermline Focus editorial team, working with Dunfermline’s Lib Dem councillors on local issues.
Following the death of Rachel Squire MP, Rennie stood in the Dunfermline and West Fife by-election on 9 February 2006 and overturned a huge Labour majority to win the seat. In the House of Commons, he was a member of the Liberal Democrat shadow defence team, chair of their parliamentary campaigns unit, and a member of the Commons Defence Select Committee. During his time as an MP, he campaigned on local constituency issues such as abolishing the bridge tolls, changing the law to protect female learner drivers from sex offenders, improvements to cancer services at Queen Margaret Hospital, and local jobs (including at Longannet Power Station and Rosyth Dockyard). In the General Election of 6 May 2010 Rennie lost his seat to the Labour candidate Thomas Docherty.
Rennie returned to front-line politics as an MSP when he won a regional list seat for the Liberal Democrats in the Scottish Parliament’s Mid-Scotland and Fife region at the Holyrood elections on 5 May 2011. He was the only new Lib Dem MSP to win a seat in this election. After the resignation of the Scottish Liberal Democrats’s leader, Willie Rennie was made their new leader. He vowed to stand up to the “SNP bulldozer” majority, and refused to distance his party from the UK Liberal Democrats.
February 2006: Willie Rennie elected in Dunfermline by-election surprise
The one obvious thing that should happen – but probably won’t – in the wake of the ground breaking result in Dunfermline is that the ludicrous Labour-LibDem coalition that purports to run devolved Scotland should come to an end. That way we might return, at last, to a bit of honest politics.
Able candidate that he is, the truth is that Rennie and the Liberal Democrats fought an entirely fraudulent campaign based on a wholly bogus prospectus. The plain fact is that, while that perennial curse of governing parties – the fed-up factor – as well as general disillusionment over things like the Iraq war played a part in turning voters against Labour, the big issues were local issues.
And whereas in the past the Lib Dem “pavement politics” enabled them to cash in on these local gripes they were, in those cases, a party of opposition. In Dunfermline and West Fife they were in part responsible for the causes of these local gripes. They are a party of government in Scotland but they pretend, when it suits them, to be something else.
The deciding role on the Forth Road Bridge tolls and the downgrading of Queen Margaret Hospital is the responsibility of the Scottish Executive, yet the Lib Dem’s come over all hurt and innocent – who us? – when you remind them that their ministers play key roles in that administration.
The writing was on the wall for this disaster for Labour last May when the Lib Dem’s finished second in 15 Westminster constituencies. I wrote then that Alistair Darling, for one, was getting mightily fed up of Holyrood Labour’s accommodations with the greatest bunch of chancer’s Scottish politics has ever seen. With just over one year to go before the elections to the Scottish Parliament, is Labour to continue allowing the Lib Dem’s to claim all the credit for what little good has come out of devolution, yet blame them when things come unstuck? If they do, they might well find that this cuckoo in their nest will oust them completely.
They must tear up the partnership agreement as soon as possible, form a minority administration and bring back some plain dealing into our political life. That way might threaten Jack McConnell’s continued tenancy of Bute House, but it would also get the Lib Dems out of their limousines and back on the buses. I suspect the pressure for this sort of draconian action must be ferocious right now from the likes of Mr Darling and his boss, Gordon Brown. Devolution is killing off what we used to know as the Scottish Labour Party.
Westminster Labour and Holyrood Labour is the real coalition in Scottish politics now. It’s not a proper party any more, merely a loose grouping of disparate politicians all pulling in different directions and held together by an increasingly distant folk memory of how things used to be. Devolution did this to them. And don’t let them say they weren’t warned. Only scrapping their dirty deal with the Lib Dem’s can save them.http://www.scotsman.com/news/make-the-coalition-chancers-come-clean-1-1409170
November 2006: Ban the bombs I helped sell! says Willie Rennie
This week’s Westminster PMQ’s were full of Fib,dem screamers! Rennie (Lib/dem defence spokesperson) did not want to be outdone by his leader,(Clegg) so he decided to get in on the fibbing. He asked the Prime Minister:
Rennie (Dunfermline and West Fife) (LD): “After the conflict ended, cluster bombs used in Lebanon by Israel had resulted in 159 casualties, including 23 deaths so far. In Geneva last week, why did the UK not support calls from the UN Secretary-General, the International Committee of the Red Cross and 27 nations for urgent action? In Oslo next year, will the Prime Minister push for a ban on those indiscriminate bombs, or does he agree with the Minister of State, Ministry of Defence, who has responsibility for the armed forces, who strongly advocates the use of such bombs?”
But he should have declared an interest. Faithful readers will be aware we flagged up Rennie’s past before and his association with Raytheon. He was a top PR man at McEwan Purvis who had the merchants of death as their client. Yes, it is the Raytheon – the weapons manufacturer. Looks like “Oor Willie” is not only a political opportunist but the worst kind of hypocrite seeing as Raytheon is a proud manufacturer of, you guessed it, CLUSTER BOMBS.
You can see also see Willie meeting the Acting Director of Raytheon in a press release drafted by none other than McEwan Purvis! Of course he went to the factory in his capacity as a new MP. (Note the picture of the F-18 that carries the very same cluster bomb below. Also his ol’workmate’s email address at the top. Willie, Willie, Willie, we couldn’t even make this stuff up.) Is there no depth-charge to which two-faced fibbers will sink?
December 2006: The Dundee Courier – Willie Rennie – for whom the bridge tolls
The Lib Dem’s pledged their support for The Courier’s “Scrap the Tolls” campaign yesterday when they launched a petition to abolish the “Toll Charge” to cross the Forth. Until yesterday, the party had been sitting on the fence in relation to the Forth Road Bridge toll. Lib Dem’s sitting on the fence?!? Surely not! But it gets better.
Dunfermline and West Fife MP Rennie said he had been reluctant to jump on the anti-tolls bandwagon because of concerns about congestion. Really?!? This wouldn’t be the same Rennie who centred his Dunfermline & West Fife by-election swindle victory on a petition against an increase in tolls, would it?!?! I mean, there cannot be any photographic evidence of Willie being against tolling on the Forth Road Bridge, can there?
The article then continues at pace to point out that the person in charge of tolling on the Forth, is none other than our favourite road safety campaigner and property market guru, Ravishing Tavish-ing Scott. So, Willie, when will you be lobbying your own party hierarchy on this one then? Rather than duping the electorate with a “petition” which always seems to rear its head at election time?http://fibdems.blogspot.co.uk/2006_12_01_archive.html
February 2007: Rennie just can’t help himself.
After the fraudulent and bogus circumstances of his election which saw him take a low profile and the blasting he got for his hypocrisy and lack of commitment on cluster bombs, we have his latest initiative to con the good people of Fife – abolishing tolls on the Forth Road Bridge.
Obviously Rennie is desperate to protect his ill gotten seat by getting a FibDem MSP elected in the area. However this little local plan has now gone a bit awry leaving Rennie’s future as an MP after the next election a little forlorn.
In true FibDem hypocrisy the party most to blame for the continuation of tolls on the Forth Road Bridge is, erm, the FibDems since the Scottish Transport Minister is, aherm, a FibDem – aka the hapless Tavish Scott. It all came to head this week when a vote on abolishing tolls on the Forth Road Bridge saw Mr Scott lead the opposition and say it would be bad for the environment if they were scrapped. However Tavish seems to have missed how this statement has screwed up not only his party’s chances of taking Dunfermline West from Labour but effectively ended Rennie’s future as an MP.
No wonder Rennie was squirming on Politics Scotland as Isobel Fraser skewered him into saying he had “faith” in Tavish after exposing the lack of “credibility” he now has on the issue of tolls. Poetic justice indeed. Elected on the issue of tolls and exposed and rejected on the issue of tolls.
May 2008: Rennie enjoys a fully funded 5 day trip to Israel
Liberal Democrat Friends of Israel (LDFI). Air travel, transport within Israel and West Bank and some hospitality paid for by LDFI. Accommodation paid for by our hosts the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
July 2009: Willie Rennie in sleaze probe
A Parliamentary sleaze probe is to be held into expense claims made by Liberal Democrat Willie Rennie MP who paid his local party £14,000 for an office which cost them half that to lease. John Lyon, the parliamentary standards commissioner, has agreed to Labour Party calls for an investigation into the rental arrangements of Rennie, Lib Dem MP for Dunfermline.
Last month, it emerged that Rennie and fellow Lib Dem MSP Jim Tolson had paid a total of £21,000 in rent to the local Lib Dems who paid just £7,050 to lease the property in the Fife town. Rennie denies channelling funds to his local party and insists that the sums he and Tolson pay are justified as they include bills for telephone and electricity costs which, he says, make up the difference between the two amounts. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-20528679.html
May 2010: Former MP Willie Rennie to repay £2,000 in office costs
Rennie, the former Liberal Democrat MP, who lost his Dunfermline and West Fife seat at the general election and now working as a SPAD for the Scotland Office has apologised after he wrongly claimed for office costs on his local office, premises shared with his local party. He has accepted he will be required to pay back more than £2,000.
House of Commons authorities found that Rennie, who now works as a special adviser to the Scottish Secretary, was paid £2,647 too much for the upkeep of the office and equipment since 2006. Political opponents said the findings were “deeply embarrassing” for the Lib Dem’s as they accused him of trying to divert funds to the party’s election campaign.
Thomas Docherty, the Labour MP who unseated Rennie at the general election, said: “(Rennie] has been ordered to repay thousands of pounds of money and has had to apologise for the misuse of his expenses. “He wrongly directed public funds towards the Lib Dem election drive.”.
Mr Docherty also questioned the decision to appoint Rennie to such a high civil service role, adding: “Now he has been rewarded with a job as a special adviser, a political appointee who has access to extensive government facilities, (the Scottish Secretary] must guarantee his new employee does not misuse public resources once again.”
Comment: Despite the foregoing nonsense Danny “Beaker” Alexander the newly appointed Chief-Secretary to the Treasury, gave Rennie a job as his SpAd after he lost his seat to Labour in the general election.
Rennie was using a scam widespread amongst Lib/Dem MPs, renting his constituency office off his local Lib/Dem constituency party and shifting his campaign costs onto his parliamentary expenses. It is usually difficult to prove, Rennie was unlucky to get caught, it was only that his campaign team made canvassing telephone calls to Labour activists from a phone number paid for out of parliamentary funds that also appeared on his party letterhead that did for him.
Rennie was according to a report in the Scottish Sunday Post renting the office space off his party, which meant that Commons expenses cash was going directly into the local Lib/Dem coffers. Effectively the local Lib/Dem party was his landlord and taxpayers’ money was being used for Lib/Dem campaigning. Not a frugal sign from the right-hand-man of a Chief Secretary charged with cutting public expenditure.
April 2011: The Scottish Parliamentary election – Why did the Sun back the SNP?
Just under three weeks before the election the Sun gave it’s backing to the SNP. Rennie was not happy and started to stir the ****, but without foundation his attempts at smearing Alex Salmond were doomed to fail.
It was the judgement of the public that the decision to support the SNP had been based on blatantly obvious commercial logic. The Sun’s main competitor, the Record, being unshakably Labour, a traditional position it has taken for decades.
Taking a contrary position to the Record made obvious sales sense, particularly outside the Record’s core area of Glasgow, but the Sun could equally be agnostic; after all, not all of its readers would vote SNP. Insiders say the paper likes winners, and since in the last election when it unfairly suggested Scotland might need to consider suicide if Salmond was elected, it evidently decided this time round that the SNP leader was indeed a winner.
They also argue the SNP’s aspirational tax-cutting, and upbeat electioneering is more in tune with their readers’ outlook than the Record’s more biased reporting. Sun readers are younger, more upwardly mobile, as are SNP voters. Salmond’s advisers deny that the first minister and Murdoch have recently met, but do not deny that conversations have taken place at a senior level between Salmond and senior News International (NI) officers.
Other political observers – including those with powerful Tory allegiances – took a more jaundiced view of NI’s motives. Preventing Labour from winning back power in Edinburgh suited the Tories in London very nicely indeed, cynics say.
So with Salmond happy to do business with the Tories at Holyrood and clearly unable to deliver independence in the near future, backing the SNP is a much more attractive short-term bet for Wapping. At least, that is the very strong suspicion, and in Tory quarters too.
Willie “off with his head” Rennie and his double standards
Willie Rennie, at the time he was elected leader of Scotland’s Lib Dem’s after their demolition in the 2011 Holyrood elections promised to “rediscover the party’s soul and rebuild trust with voters”. Willie claimed to be an honourable man who would have no truck with anyone in public office who did not measure up to exacting standards he demanded of himself. Those who failed, for any reason would be expected by Willie to resign. Indeed there were occasions when it seemed Willie couldn’t rise to speak or give interview to a compliant Unionist press without a shout of “Off with his/her head”. In his time as leader Willie has called for the resignation of:
* Former First Minister, Alex Salmond
* Former SNP Justice Secretary, Kenny MacAskill.
* The Head of Police Scotland, Stephen House.
* The head of the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, Martin Sime.
* Former SNP Transport Minister Stewart Stevenson. (Forced from office because he failed to control extreme weather conditions and heavy snowfall.) But should we be expecting a politician to control the weather? Willie had no doubt. The answer was a resounding Yes!! He had to resign.But hold on just a mo! What about “Frenchgate”? The exposure of former Scotland Secretary Alistair Carmichael, after much prevarication by himself, of his disgraceful, underhand leadership and devious direct involvement, with others in an attempt to smear Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon. There have been strident calls from across the political spectrum, the public and the press for the exposed rogue and liar to stand down from the seat he won by a whisker in the Westminster Election for Orkney and Shetland. Based on voters intent throughout Scotland it is extremely doubtful that (given his deceitful behaviour, without shame lying about Nicola Sturgeon) Carmichael’s ability to retain his seat would have been very badly compromised. So that he took his place at Westminster brings politics into disrepute.
And what about Willie and his principles? Scotland waited and waited for an utterance and the word “Resignation” It was not to be. Finally, after much pressure Willie issued the following contemptible statement:
“I have discussed the serious nature of the publication of the Scotland Office document with Alistair Carmichael. He fully understands the impact it has had on his reputation. He deeply regrets his actions, has accepted responsibility for his error of judgement, apologised to Nicola Sturgeon and the French Ambassador and declined his ministerial severance payment. I have known Alistair for almost thirty years and have worked closely with him in parliament for almost a decade. I have always been impressed by his energy, dedication and professionalism. He has served Orkney and Shetland for fourteen years and has been elected on four separate occasions. It is clear to me that recent events are an aberration. As a liberal I believe that people deserve a second chance. I hope fair minded people would agree that Alistair Carmichael should be given that second chance.”
The Scottish public are not stupid. Willie Rennie’s blind hatred of the Scottish National Party has no place in Scottish politics. He should resign his post immediately and allow some other fair minded person to lead the Lib/Dem Party before he leads it to oblivion.
3 October 2015: questions raised about the past conduct of Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross MP Paul Monaghan – The Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie urges the SNP to review vetting procedures to ensure candidates are suited to political office
He said: “These are very disturbing reports about another SNP MP, and it raises questions about the party’s vetting procedures. I would urge the SNP to establish an immediate review of not only Dr Monaghan’s individual case but their whole approach to candidate selection.”
Rennie’s uncalled for intervention challenging the integrity of the SNP is breathtaking in it’s arrogance. I well remember, at the time he was elected leader of Scotland’s Lib Dems after their demolition in the 2011 Holyrood elections his promise to “rediscover the party’s soul and rebuild trust with voters”. He claimed, with a straight face to be an honourable man who would have no truck with anyone in public office who did not measure up to exacting standards he demanded of himself. Those who failed, for any reason would be expected by him to resign. Indeed there were occasions when it seemed Willie couldn’t rise to speak or give interview to a compliant Unionist press without a shout of “Off with his/her head”. In his time as leader willie has called for the resignation of:
* Former First Minister, Alex Salmond
* Former SNP Justice Secretary, Kenny MacAskill.
* The Head of Police Scotland, Stephen House.
* The head of the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, Martin Sime.
* Former SNP Transport Minister Stewart Stevenson. (Forced from office because he failed to control extreme weather conditions and heavy snowfall.) But should we be expecting a politician to control the weather? Willie had no doubt. The answer was a resounding Yes!! He had to resign. A bit rich coming from Willie Rennie whose own conduct at the time he was an MP was hardly scandal free. http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/top-stories/snp-selection-under-fire-over-second-mp-1-3906656
December 2006: The Dundee Courier – Willie Rennie – for whom the bridge tolls
The Lib Dems pledged their support for The Courier’s “Scrap the Tolls” campaign yesterday when they launched a petition to abolish the “Toll Charge” to cross the Forth. Until yesterday, the party had been sitting on the fence in relation to the Forth Road Bridge toll. Lib Dems sitting on the fence?!? Surely not! But it gets better.
Dunfermline and West Fife MP Rennie said he had been reluctant to jump on the anti-tolls bandwagon because of concerns about congestion. Really?!? This wouldn’t be the same Rennie who centred his Dunfermline & West Fife by-election swindle victory on a petition against an increase in tolls, would it?!?! I mean, there cannot be any photographic evidence of Willie being against tolling on the Forth Road Bridge, can there?
The article then continues at pace to point out that the person in charge of tolling on the Forth, is none other than our favourite road safety campaigner and property market guru, Ravishing Tavish-ing Scott. So, Willie, when will you be lobbying your own party hierarchy on this one then? Rather than duping the electorate with a “petition” which always seems to rear its head at election time? http://fibdems.blogspot.co.uk/2006_12_01_archive.html
February 2007: Rennie just can’t help himself.
After the fraudulent and bogus circumstances of his election which saw him take a low profile and the blasting he got for his hypocrisy and lack of commitment on cluster bombs, we have his latest initiative to con the good people of Fife – abolishing tolls on the Forth Road Bridge.
Obviously Rennie is desperate to protect his ill gotten seat by getting a FibDem MSP elected in the area. However this little local plan has now gone a bit awry leaving Rennie’s future as an MP after the next election a little forlorn.
In true FibDem hypocrisy the party most to blame for the continuation of tolls on the Forth Road Bridge is, erm, the FibDems since the Scottish Transport Minister is, aherm, a FibDem – aka the hapless Tavish Scott. It all came to head this week when a vote on abolishing tolls on the Forth Road Bridge saw Mr Scott lead the opposition and say it would be bad for the environment if they were scrapped. However Tavish seems to have missed how this statement has screwed up not only his party’s chances of taking Dunfermline West from Labour but effectively ended Rennie’s future as an MP.
No wonder Rennie was squirming on Politics Scotland as Isobel Fraser skewered him into saying he had “faith” in Tavish after exposing the lack of “credibility” he now has on the issue of tolls. Poetic justice indeed. Elected on the issue of tolls and exposed and rejected on the issue of tolls.
July 2009: Willie Rennie in sleaze probe
A Parliamentary sleaze probe is to be held into expense claims made by Liberal Democrat Willie Rennie MP who paid his local party £14,000 for an office which cost them half that to lease. John Lyon, the parliamentary standards commissioner, has agreed to Labour Party calls for an investigation into the rental arrangements of Rennie, Lib Dem MP for Dunfermline.
Last month, it emerged that Rennie and fellow Lib Dem MSP Jim Tolson had paid a total of £21,000 in rent to the local Lib Dem’s who paid just £7,050 to lease the property in the Fife town. Rennie denies channelling funds to his local party and insists that the sums he and Tolson pay are justified as they include bills for telephone and electricity costs which, he says, make up the difference between the two amounts. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-20528679.html
May 2010: Former MP Willie Rennie to repay £2,000 in office costs
Rennie, the former Liberal Democrat MP, who lost his Dunfermline and West Fife seat at the general election and now working as a SPAD for the Scotland Office has apologised after he wrongly claimed for office costs on his local office, premises shared with his local party. He has accepted he will be required to pay back more than £2,000.
House of Commons authorities found that Rennie, who now works as a special adviser to the Scottish Secretary, was paid £2,647 too much for the upkeep of the office and equipment since 2006. Political opponents said the findings were “deeply embarrassing” for the Lib Dem’s as they accused him of trying to divert funds to the party’s election campaign. One said “(Rennie] has been ordered to repay thousands of pounds of money and has had to apologise for the misuse of his expenses. “He wrongly directed public funds towards the Lib Dem election drive.”. He also questioned the decision to appoint Rennie to such a high civil service role as a SPAD, adding: “Now he has been rewarded with a job as a special adviser, a political appointee who has access to extensive government facilities, (the Scottish Secretary] must guarantee his new employee does not misuse public resources once again.”
May 2011: Willie Rennie, newly-elected Liberal Democrat MSP, has become the party’s Scottish leader from a short list of one.
Rennie took over from Tavish Scott when the deadline for the contest passed at noon without any other candidates stepping forward. The Lib Dem’s were reduced from 16 to just five MSP’s in a disastrous election result earlier this month. The other Lib Dem’s re-elected to Holyrood are Alison McInnes on the North East list, Jim Hume on the South of Scotland list and Liam McArthur, in the Orkney constituency. Two days after the election, Shetland MSP Mr Scott resigned as leader with immediate effect.
July 2011: Willie Rennie tries to pin Alex Salmond down on News International dealings
“Dear First Minister, In light of the deeply shocking events, (phone hacking) that have unfolded over the last week, I am writing to urge you to disclose the details of your dealings with News International while seeking their endorsement. Following the criticism that you levelled at the corporation this weekend, it is inconsistent for your party to continue to accept News International’s support.
The allegations that have surfaced over recent days are dreadful, yet these follow on from those that were made a number of years ago. People in Scotland want to know what questions you asked of News International before accepting their backing for the election in May. Did you raise any concerns about phone hacking during these discussions and, if so, what assurances did you seek about the previous allegations? This scandal has shocked people throughout the country and I believe that, as First Minister, you must now make your position clear. Will you now set out the details of all discussions and negotiations between your party and News International?
October 2011: Willie Rennie involved in a controversy over an unjustified attack on Alex Salmond
Rennie was at the centre of controversy after an offensive cartoon was published in his name depicting Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond MSP in Arab dress with his skin apparently artificially darkened. The cartoon, which was published on Rennie’s Facebook page and through his Twitter feed, followed a comment in which Alex Salmond noted “remarkable similarities” between Scotland and Qatar.
November 2011: Rennie highlights independence threat to Scottish research funding
He said: “Scotland is at the cutting edge of research and development work in the UK. Our universities are doing work which is producing technologies which the applications for could almost be limitless. The expertise exists in Scotland, but we could not do all of this exciting new research without the extra bonus funding that we receive from across the border.
The real danger of splitting Scotland from the UK is that you also split our universities from this vital source of funding which helps to fuel the innovation. We do not want to see a repeat of ‘Silicon Glen’ or cause a brain-drain to better funded projects south of the border.
Scotland is punching well above our weight in terms of funding. I am puzzled why the SNP would want to jeopardise this. Mr Salmond cannot guarantee that there would be alternative funding sources to fill the funding gap of £210 million every year.
December 2011: Wise words from Willie Rennie at Christmas
This is a brief extract from Scottish Liberal Democrat Leader Rennie’s 2012 Christmas message: “While the Nationalists play a game of political poker, bluffing their way from one missed opportunity to the next”
“A sad and inaccurate statement. But just what we’ve come to expect from Rennie. Sold out in England and nasty in Scotland with no Christmas spirit of goodwill. Oh and remember that the cuts in Scotland are due to the imposition of much reduced financial allocations from Westminster don’t you ? From Danny and his team ? You know Danny from up in Moray who closed Leuchars and kept Lossie open ? And that the Lib Dems reneged on their pledge to scrap tuition fees in England ? Just checking.”
November 2011: Rennie highlights independence threat to Scottish research funding
He said: “Scotland is at the cutting edge of research and development work in the UK. Our universities are doing work which is producing technologies which the applications for could almost be limitless. The expertise exists in Scotland, but we could not do all of this exciting new research without the extra bonus funding that we receive from across the border.
The real danger of splitting Scotland from the UK is that you also split our universities from this vital source of funding which helps to fuel the innovation. We do not want to see a repeat of ‘Silicon Glen’ or cause a brain-drain to better funded projects south of the border.
Scotland is punching well above our weight in terms of funding. I am puzzled why the SNP would want to jeopardise this. Mr Salmond cannot guarantee that there would be alternative funding sources to fill the funding gap of £210 million every year.
January 2012: Rennie Raises Salmond’s disrespect in Parliament
Ever the opportunist, Rennie complained that Alex Salmond arranged news interviews, where, appearing in front of a cosy fire and saltires at Bute House, he made his announcement of the referendum date before briefing his MPs who were in the Commons listening to Moore. It had all the impression of being done completely on the spur of the moment. But, why the need for the high drama? Why not just make a statement to Parliament on Wednesday lunchtime? and it was disrespectful to the Holyrood Parliament. He said:
“On a point of order, Presiding Officer. Yesterday, Scotland’s ministers at Westminster set out the United Kingdom Government’s proposals for a fair, legal and decisive referendum in two statements: one to the House of Commons and one to the House of Lords. They took 47 questions from members of Parliament.
In Scotland, the First Minister announced his date for the referendum, not to the Scottish Parliament but to Sky News. Given that the decision relates to what the First Minister called the biggest question for Scots in 300 years, and given that the Scottish Government is always concerned about the respect agenda, has the Scottish Government made a request to make a statement to this Parliament today?
Is there any reason why you, Presiding Officer, would not be able to respond positively to such a request if it were made by the Scottish ministers?” Presiding Officer Tricia Marwick said she’d not had any request for a statement.
Rennie followed up outside parliament “This shows the SNP’s disrespect for the Scottish Parliament. Instead of choosing to make a statement to the Scottish Parliament on Scotland’s biggest question for 300 years, Mr Salmond instead chose to make his statement to the media. With the SNP’s majority in Parliament, it is obvious that they feel they can do anything. The bulldozer is out of the garage.” http://carons-musings.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/rennie-highlights-salmonds-disrespect.html
Comment: I think the headline should read “Rennie highlights his total lack of judgement yet again”.
It is public knowledge that Salmond expressed only his Preferred Timeline for a Referendum in advance of publishing a Consultation document. Therefore, whatever the language used, there is no question that ‘the date of the Referendum was announced’ anywhere other than in Rennie’s head. All that has been done is an expectation set. And by the way, why should Salmond announce anything to the Scottish Parliament when, in Rennie’s view, the Scottish Parliament doesn’t have the competence to legislate for the Referendum? Rennie’s intervention yesterday was sheer petulance probably borne out of frustration that Michael Moore was getting all the attention after he had been chosen by his Tory bosses to make a clown of himself on Tuesday. I don’t think Cameron could believe his luck that he found such a willing and able stooge.
Willie Rennie – A confidence trickster who repeatedly tries to deceive the Scottish electorate with false claims and innuendo seeking to gain political advantage over the SNP government via some form of pretence or deception.
Rennie is readily available to the right-wing Scottish press and media frequently and with ever increasing vigorous impetuosity making statement’s calling for government intervention or apology, challenging the integrity of the SNP. His public performances are breathtaking in their arrogance.
I well remember, his promise to “rediscover the party’s soul and rebuild trust with voters” at the time he was elected leader of Scotland’s Lib Dems after their demolition in the 2011 Holyrood elections
He claimed, with a straight face, to be an honourable man who would have no truck with anyone in public office who did not measure up to exacting standards he demanded of himself. Those who failed, for any reason would be expected by him to resign.
But. True to form his own performance in public life has been less than honourable but he still clings to public office like a “chit-chat on a wall”
For details of Rennie’s rise to the top of the cesspit that is the Liberal Democratic Party in Scotland read my previous blogs on this person:
March 2012: Rennie attacks Alex Salmond stating he would dine out with Devil to further independence cause
Rennie alleged “By seeking to exploit Rupert Murdoch’s spiteful revenge for phone hacking the First Minister has confirmed that he will dine out with the devil to get his way on independence. The First Minister has already defended News International in his recent Sun on Sunday column and now he’s seeking a grubby deal with the media tycoon to support splitting Scotland from the rest of the UK.
This is a cynical attempt to exploit Rupert Murdoch’s personal grudge and grievance against UK politicians who rightly criticised the News of the World and the Sun over phone hacking. The real substance of last week’s cosy fire-side chat with Rupert wasn’t jobs but his revenge over Leveson. Has the First Minister no shame?” http://carons-musings.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/rennie-salmond-would-dine-out-with.html
Comment: Alex Salmond is well aware he is taking a risk being seen with Murdoch but until it is proven that he was doing anything other than his job as Wee Rennie’s comments are, as usual, an attempt to smear his and the SNP’s name!!
Speeches by lib/Dem leaders at their conference showed an incredible level of duplicity on Home Rule and disgusting slurs on the party you hate show much..I hope there is somewhere for the membership to go when the Lib/Dem party is cast into the wilderness for a generation.
In fact their only hope for the future is Independence when honest Scottish Liberals may be able to regroup – having fired their previous leaders!
Lets just look at how the two party’s compare. Alex Salmond meets Rupert Murdoch who through his large shareholding in Sky TV has 6000 employees in Scotland.
The Lib /Dems take £2.5 million of what turns out to be stolen money from a donor. Now any party that is happy to criticise another party over just about anything, and had any scruples themselves, would return that money, but it appears the Lib/Dems have no such scruples.
Keep up the moral indignation all you Lib/Dems, you will find out in May just what the Scottish electorate think of you.
April 2012: Willie Rennie: Murdoch says “Jump”, Alex Salmond says “How high?
Rennie, Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, said that First Minister Alex Salmond had been sullied by James Murdoch’s revelations at the Leveson Enquiry. Amongst e-mails filed for the Enquiry to consider, was one from Frederic Michel, News International’s Director of Public Affairs, about a meeting with Alex Salmond’s advisers on 15 June 2010: Rennie called for an urgent investigation into the circumstances behind this exchange. He said:
“It is difficult to understand why the First Minister has allowed himself to be sullied to such an extent. When the troubled media mogul said jump, it is clear that Alex Salmond was quick to say ‘how high?
I agree that there should be an inquiry into the alleged suggestion that a News International (NI) employee emailed advice that Mr Salmond could seek to influence “Hunt” if he was asked to. (Rennie seems to be keen to accept without question what an NI employee had written about what spokesmen for the First Minister might have have said. I’m sure there must be some doubt about the credibility of NI staff…?)
Mind also that Hunt was always 100% for Murdoch in the first place, so any need for a functionary of the FM to contact Hunt would be in doubt. A note to Cable, who had declared war on Murdoch would have been a different story.
But yes. Absolutely 100% let’s have an inquiry into Salmond’s relationship with Murdoch, Hunt, Cable and anyone else. We absolutely need to know that despite the LibDem Westminster government being corrupt beyond belief and having no regard whatsoever for the law, the Scottish government and its first minister MUST be above that.
Incidentally the gripe about only the two possible first ministers debating in Scotland: The Lib/Dem’s were happy to take part in a debate that ignored anyone but the three party leaders from England. No UKIP, BNP, or Celtic country parties involved.
The Lib/Dem’s are given mention twice in the “extracts” supporting Murdoch’s bid? Very strange. They further quote the support of the Scottish LibDems.
Tavish Scott has already denied this. But, is Tavish to be believed yet Salmond must be a liar? Seems to me Willie Rennie is making an excellent attempt to steal Labour’s mantle for hypocrisy.
August 2012: The Herald and Willie Rennie accuse the SNP of secret push to obtain a devo max option
Private correspondence obtained by The Herald shows Mr Salmond’s office had been helping campaigners wanting to widen the referendum to build the case for putting “devo max” to voters in the poll. Publicly Mr Salmond has maintained his preference is for a single question on independence, while leaving the door open in case other options emerge.
He has argued it would be his duty to include a second question if there is a groundswell of support. However, an email obtained by The Herald shows the First Minister has been working behind the scenes to generate such support.
The message was sent from Mr Salmond’s special adviser Alex Bell to Martin Sime, chief executive of the Scottish Council for Voluntary Services (SCVO) and a leading proponent of a two-question poll.
The SCVO is the driving force behind the Future of Scotland group, a loose coalition of charities, churches, student organisations and trade unions which, since launching earlier this year, has been developing a possible second question on greater devolution.
Mr Bell’s email, on June 14, provides a link to an internal report by the Unite trade union showing 62% of their members favoured a second question on devo max, according to a poll. A message attached said simply: “Read this.”
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Rennie said: “Despite his public protestations, Alex Salmond is increasingly desperate to get a second question on the ballot paper. The fact his henchmen are manipulating independent organisations behind the scenes to achieve that second question shows just how desperate he is.”
But, determined to make mischief, as is his want Rennie put pen to paper and wrote to Alison Elliot, the Convener of SCVO, asking her to consider the position of Martin Sime. His letter said:
“I am sure your members will be dismayed to learn that Mr Sime is allowing the SNP to use the SCVO as a front organisation to make its case for a second question. As you are more than aware the SVCO exist to represent the views and interests of Scotland’s third sector.
Mr Sime has displayed poor judgement by involving himself in a highly polarised debate on matters of process regarding the constitutional referendum. SCVO provides expert opinion to decision makers on a range of subjects including health, education, justice and regeneration.
I value the critical role the organisation plays. However, Martin Sime is undermining the impartiality of that opinion by backing the SNP in a highly polarised debate on constitutional process matters on which he has neither locus nor expertise. I believe that Mr Sime should consider his position as Chief Executive of SCVO.”
Alison Elliot’s reply: “I consider your allegations preposterous, your interpretation of the incidents fanciful and your attempt to interfere in the business of an independent organisation unworthy of a public leader. I have no intention of asking Martin to resign.” http://carons-musings.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/scvos-alison-elliot-proves-willie.html
Rennie’s further comment: “I’ve clearly touched a raw nerve. These are serious concerns about the impartiality of the Chief Executive of SCVO and clearly deserve a better response. I think people will be concerned that SCVO has taken one side of a highly polarised, political debate.
First we had the attempt to undermine the launch of Better Together and now hard evidence of collusion with one of Alex Salmond’s close advisers. SCVO are in serious danger of undermining their reputation.”
Final comment from Rev Stu: “I’m still keen to hear what Mr Sime actually did to merit Willie Rennie’s ire other than receive an unsolicited email. Perhaps there’s a vital aspect of the story I’ve missed, because it’s staggeringly, blindingly obvious even to a total idiot that calling for someone to lose their job because a twisted, moronic person sent them an email is.”
August 2012: Willie Rennie attacks Alex Salmond for “pandaing” to China over Dalai Lama
So, now we know. Rennie was right all along. Scotland’s First Minister didn’t put up any sort of a fight when China sent the boys round to talk about the Dalai Lama. Today’s Scotsman has the details.
The Scottish Government didn’t get involved in meeting the Dalai Lama when he visited Scotland between 21 and 24 June. Alex Salmond refused point blank to meet him, and nor did any other member of his Government. He had no problem giving time to the Chinese Consul General two weeks before, though. The Scotsman have obtained a record of that meeting and it makes no mention of any discussion taking place on human rights.
This is what the note says about the Dalai Lama’s visit:
“The Ambassador asked the First Minister about the Dalai Lama’s visit to Scotland in June. The First Minister clarified that is a private visit at the invitation of the Conference of Edinburgh’s Religious Leaders and the Edinburgh Interfaith Association, amongst others. The Scottish Government is not involved in the visit.”
It almost sounds apologetic. A “Yes, he’s here, but it’s now’t to do with us.” Not “We welcome the fact that he’s coming. He’s an important figure in the world who stands for peaceful protest and human rights. I’m going to meet him. I know you don’t like it, but that’s the way it is. I hope that you’ll reflect on the way your Government treats your citizens.” http://carons-musings.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/willie-rennie-was-right-alex-salmond.html Comment: Rennie Quote – “This is what the note says about the Dalai Lama’s visit:
“The Ambassador asked the First Minister about the Dalai Lama’s visit to Scotland in June. The First Minister clarified that is a private visit at the invitation of the Conference of Edinburgh’s Religious Leaders and the Edinburgh Interfaith Association, amongst others. The Scottish Government is not involved in the visit.”
So – it was a pastoral visit, not a political one, as I believe the Dalai Lama himself confirmed. No Government ministers anywhere in the UK met with Tenzin Gyatso during his recent visit. When he visited the religious communities, the Dalai Lama did not request a meeting with any political figures in the UK. Why should Scotland’s First Minister be the only one in the UK to be criticised for not forcing his presence on this homophobic, pro-life, CIA-backed religious leader? If Rennie cares so much about Human Rights, then why didn’t he take up the issue of the Dalai Lama’s persecution, discrimination and repression of the Dorje Shugden sect?
August 2012: Rennie questions Alex Salmond’s £400k spend on “London embassy” for the Olympics
According to First Minister Alex Salmond, visitors can see what a great place Scotland is to have a holiday or do business in, and what wonderful food and drink and culture we export all across the globe – not to mention our pride in our sporting history, personified by heroes like Eric Liddell.
That’s all very well, but it turns out that they were offered the use of rooms in Dover House, where the Scotland Office is based not just at cheaper cost, but at no cost whatsoever. Not only that, but that building overlooks Horse Guards Parade, so they would have been able to take in the Beach Volleyball at the same time. What possible reason could they have had for refusing that offer?”
It’s a bit rich for Mr Salmond to complain about a lack of funds for schools and hospitals while spending almost half a million pounds on a plush London address during the Olympics. Spending the equivalent of a nurses’ annual salary every day on the exclusive Pall Mall address when Dover House was available free of charge is a colossal waste of money.
An invitation was made to the Scottish Government to use Dover House to promote Scotland, something that both the UK and Scottish Government are keen to do during the Olympics. It is one of the government’s finest buildings and Michael Moore has already hosted receptions there this week to take advantage of its prime location to promote Scotland on the world stage.” http://carons-musings.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/rennie-questions-salmonds-400k-on.html
Comment: Widely distributed, Westminster Council Public Notice: “The area where Dover House is located will be extremely busy throughout the entire Olympic Games as Beach Volleyball is also taking place at Horse Guards Parade. Whitehall and Parliament Street will be access only 6am – midnight between 25 July – 14 August as the road will be used for athlete and other Olympic Family members to access the Horse Guards venue. Roads in the area (particularly Trafalgar square, Parliament square and Victoria Embankment) will be busiest when spectators, workforce and members of the Games Family are travelling to and from venues before the start and after the end of sessions. There we have it. An underhand offer from the Lib/Dem Scottish Minister of State. Use of Dover House would have been a disaster.
But surely this can’t be right, cynical, or at the very least, Wee Rennie (the man who can do no wrong) must not have been aware of that fact. After all, Wee Rennie is a man of integrity.
Recently, after writing to the head of Scotland’s civil service to complain about their politicisation, he was straight on the blower to Whitehall, complaining about the UK government using departments such as DWP and HMRC to come up with positive arguments for the Union. Oh, wait, I remember now, “No” he didn’t because he has no integrity, no principles and absolutely zero credibility. To say Dover House would not have been suitable simply makes no sense. It smacks of putting party politics ahead of taking advantage of the Olympics to benefit Scotland.
October 2012: Willie Rennie’s leader’s speech to Scottish Liberal Democrat Autumn Conference in Dunfermline.
“I.AM. Jolly is funny. Wee Rennie is just pathetic. Congratulating a council candidate who came third in a three horse race! How high the fortunes of the Lib/Dem’s are at present. If you ever come second any place will you have a party?
“I was going to read Rennie’s speech but I see that its only slightly longer than the Gettysburg Address so I can’t be bothered. The first few gripey lines are enough to more than set the tone and calibre of all the rest.
“Rennie and his erherm….”parliamentary party” turned up in a Mini. And instead of an inspiring eulogy he delivered a 3,000 word address that was an inspiration to nobody at all. Full of catty remarks, trite rather than pithy and much much too long. Clearly he has not heard that brevity is the sole of wit!
March 2014: Willie Rennie unhappy with his own party’s bedroom tax said in a BBC webcast that the bedroom tax ‘should just go’.
Lib/Dem leader Rennie has called for the bedroom tax to be axed because the controversial welfare reform isn’t “working as intended.”
The measure has been at the heart of the welfare reforms being imposed by the Coalition Government and Rennie has steadfastly defended it. But, in a shock climbdown today and contrary to his own party policy, he said it should be scrapped. Asked if the “tax” should go, he told the BBC: “I don’t think it should stay.”
Rennie had always described the changes to housing benefits as “tough”, but had never signalled that he may be in favour of scrapping the policy altogether. But he said in a BBC webcast today: “The principle behind [the spare room subsidy] I can understand, but to be honest I don’t think it is working as it was intended and I think it should just go, and it should go quickly.”
Meanwhile, his Westminster colleagues continue to support the tax on the poor. Here are the names of 7 Scottish Lib/Dem MPs who voted against scrapping the bedroom tax:
Sir Alan Beith (Berwick-upon-Tweed), Sir Menzies Campbell (Fife North East), Alistair Carmichael (Orkney & Shetland), Michael Moore (Berwickshire, Roxburgh & Selkirk), Sir Robert Smith (Aberdeenshire West & Kincardine), Jo Swinson (Dunbartonshire East), John Thurso (Caithness, Sutherland & Easter Ross.)
And the names of 3 Scottish LibDem MPs who abstained from voting against the bill:
Danny Alexander (Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch & Strathspey), Charles Kennedy (Ross, Skye & Lochaber), Alan Reid (Argyll & Bute.)
April 2015: GPS tracking system puts Willie Rennie in the spotlight after he leaves it on following a bike ride only for it to record his car breaking the speed limit.
Rennie had just led the Fife feeder ride to a “Pedal on Holyrood” event on Saturday using a state of the art tracking application called Strava to log his route and time. The application, popular with runners and cyclists, uses GPS sateliite technology in mobile devices to map a user’s position and speed. Users sign up to the service and can then share their journeys publicly. Throughout the event the 47-year-old was logged at an average of a leisurely 11mph.
But after returning to Inverkeithing it appears he got into his car to drive home and forgot to switch off his GPS. Strava then tracked the MSP’s journey back to his home near Kelty, Fife. At one point on the M90, near Hill of Beath, the tracker clocked him travelling at 81.2mph. A Scottish Liberal Democrat spokesman said: “This is an app for measuring running and cycling, not cars travelling on motorways. “Willie always tries to stick to the speed limit and does not believe he broke it on this drive, but it is always worth everyone remembering the importance of driving safely.”
April 2015: Before the general election – For Willie Rennie, the Scots Lib Dem leader, it seems tactical voting has begun to haunt his dreams.
Here is his favourite story from the campaign trail so far. “I met a lady in Crammond,” he says. “She said to me, ‘I hate you. I hate your leader. I hate your party. You’ve done nothing in the coalition. I love Ruth Davidson. I love the Conservatives, I’ve always voted for them. But I’m going to have to vote for you to stop the SNP’. “If we can get people like that voting for us, anything is possible.”
Such unabashed talk of tactical voting is a sign of how the country has split down the middle since the referendum. It is also an unsubtle commentary on the Lib Dems’s whole campaign.
He laughs a lot, Rennie. It is a contagious chuckle, the kind blurted by a duvet-cloaked schoolboy tearing through a Beano annual by torchlight. Contrition, though, is his main thing. An outmoded virtue, perhaps, but the leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats happily admits to some conservat… well, let’s say old-fashioned values.
This is a man worth the watching. Strives to present as affable yet underneath that is a chauvinistic nature. In debate with Nicola Sturgeon he repeatedly said ‘she’ and ‘her’ as if she didn’t warrant enough respect to be called by her name.
Comment: This is a joke right? Why is this clown being given media coverage, he is an embarrassment, his party is poison, Its Ex leaders Steel and Ashdown covered up and protected paedophile Cyril Smith, offered him up for a knighthood and refuse to discuss the child sex abuse scandals which their MP was involved in. and this paper gives them good press. What a joke.
April 2015: Liberal Democrat Party and Willie Rennie hypocrisy continues
The Liberal Democrats are running their election campaign on double-standards, the Scottish Conservatives said, today. LibDem leader Rennie is quoted as openly criticising plans for English votes for English laws (EVEL) today. However, in the UK Government paper on the issue, the Liberal Democrats section reads:
“It cannot be right that a future government could pursue policies in England in areas devolved to the Scottish Parliament using the votes of Scottish MPs, even if this was not supported in England.
The so-called West Lothian question can no longer go unanswered. The Liberal Democrats believe that English MPs at Westminster should have a stronger voice and a stronger veto over purely English only issues.”
April 2015: Rennie appeals to public for tactical voters
Rennie has backed an anti-SNP tactical voting strategy in the hope that it will shore up his party’s dwindling support going into the general election.
The leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats said that unionist Scots were already backing the party in some seats to stop the Nationalists. He made a direct plea to others who “might oppose a lot of what we say” to use “smart thinking” when they voted.
May 2015: Before the general election – Vote intelligently says Willie Rennie
The Scottish Liberal Democrat leader said the choice voters are facing in the general election is “quite straightforward”, adding: “No one party will have a majority, so therefore we have to decide who do we want to have the biggest influence in the next parliament?
Comment: The hatred of the SNP knows no bounds from these utter cartoon politicians. Willie Rennie is a complete balloon, whom, like his lapdog Unionist companions are saying absolutely anything to win votes, I heard him this morning literally trying to take credit for anything that was remotely positive.
He forgets that the facts are public knowledge and he and his party sold their political soul 5 years ago never to be forgiven. As soon as they are gone the better it will be for Scotland. We do not need two faced political parasites and that is what the Fiberals are.
May 2015: Post election – Willie Rennie claims he is ‘hopeful for the future’ after SNP tsunami sweeps across Scotland.
The Liberal Democrats lost 10 of the 11 Scottish seats they had held at Westminster.
Nicola Sturgeon’s party now has 56 MPs, with only Alistair Carmichael, who had been the Scottish Secretary in the coalition government, managing to retain his Orkney and Shetland seat.
Despite that Rennie said: “Our vision for Scotland is hopeful for the future, founded on opportunity and liberty for all.
May 2015: Post election – Message to Liberals from Willie Rennie
“We have an ongoing duty to the people who voted for us to promote liberal values.”
Comment: I’m sorry but Rennie has his head in the sand. I can’t understand why, as a failed leader, he hasn’t come under pressure to stand down in the same way that Murphy has. I think it is more to do with the fact that he is not taken seriously really by anyone in politics.
Alex Salmond has been named SNP foreign affairs spokesman at Westminster. Lib Dem Leader Willie Rennie said “Alex Salmond’s recent mantle of foreign affairs spokesperson for the SNP is the equivalent of putting Mr Bean in charge of the World Bank.”
http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/salmond-given-new-foreign-affairs-role-206654n.126009784 Comment: The bile from Rennie knows no end. His blind hatred of Alex Salmond and the SNP is well documented and the Scottish public are fed up with the constant “SNP Bad, Bad, Bad,” utterings. Rennie should do the honourable thing and resign his position as have other political leaders tarnished with the mantel of failure.
March 2014: Willie Rennie unhappy with his own party’s bedroom tax said in a BBC webcast that the bedroom tax ‘should just go’.
Lib/Dem leader Rennie has called for the bedroom tax to be axed because the controversial welfare reform isn’t “working as intended.” The measure has been at the heart of the welfare reforms being imposed by the Coalition Government and Rennie has steadfastly defended it. But, in a shock climbdown today and contrary to his own party policy, he said it should be scrapped. Asked if the “tax” should go, he told the BBC: “I don’t think it should stay.”
Rennie had always described the changes to housing benefits as “tough”, but had never signalled that he may be in favour of scrapping the policy altogether. But he said in a BBC webcast today: “The principle behind [the spare room subsidy] I can understand, but to be honest I don’t think it is working as it was intended and I think it should just go, and it should go quickly.”
Meanwhile, his Westminster colleagues continue to support the tax on the poor. Here are the names of 7 Scottish LibDem MPs who voted against scrapping the bedroom tax:
Sir Alan Beith (Berwick-upon-Tweed), Sir Menzies Campbell (Fife North East), Alistair Carmichael (Orkney & Shetland), Michael Moore (Berwickshire, Roxburgh & Selkirk), Sir
Robert Smith (Aberdeenshire West & Kincardine), Jo Swinson (Dunbartonshire East), John Thurso (Caithness, Sutherland & Easter Ross.)
And the names of 3 Scottish LibDem MPs who abstained from voting against the bill:
Danny Alexander (Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch & Strathspey), Charles Kennedy (Ross, Skye & Lochaber), Alan Reid (Argyll & Bute.)
April 2015: GPS tracking system puts Willie Rennie in the spotlight after he leaves it on following a bike ride only for it to record his car breaking the speed limit.
Rennie had just led the Fife feeder ride to a “Pedal on Holyrood” event on Saturday using a state of the art tracking application called Strava to log his route and time. The application, popular with runners and cyclists, uses GPS satellite technology in mobile devices to map a user’s position and speed. Users sign up to the service and can then share their journeys publicly. Throughout the event the 47-year-old was logged at an average of a leisurely 11mph.
But after returning to Inverkeithing it appears he got into his car to drive home and forgot to switch off his GPS. Strava then tracked the MSP’s journey back to his home near Kelty, Fife. At one point on the M90, near Hill of Beath, the tracker clocked him travelling at 81.2mph. A Scottish Liberal Democrat spokesman said: “This is an app for measuring running and cycling, not cars travelling on motorways. “Willie always tries to stick to the speed limit and does not believe he broke it on this drive, but it is always worth everyone remembering the importance of driving safely.” http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/cycling-app-shows-lib-dem-5596733
April 2015: Willie eyes a return to power
He laughs a lot, Rennie. It is a contagious chuckle, the kind blurted by a duvet-cloaked schoolboy tearing through a Beano annual by torchlight. Contrition, though, is his main thing. An outmoded virtue, perhaps, but the leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats happily admits to some conservat… well, let’s say old-fashioned values. This is a man worth the watching. Strives to present as affable yet underneath that is a chauvinistic nature. In debate with Nicola Sturgeon he repeatedly said ‘she’ and ‘her’ as if she didn’t warrant enough respect to be called by her name. Comment: This is a joke right? Why is this clown being given media coverage, he is an embarrassment, his party is poison, Its Ex leaders Steel and Ashdown covered up and protected paedophile Cyril Smith, offered him up for a knighthood and refuse to discuss the child sex abuse scandals which their MP was involved in. and this paper gives them good press. What a joke. http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/top-stories/interview-willie-rennie-eyes-a-return-to-power-1-3746783
If your stuck in a hole stop digging Willie
April 2015: Liberal Democrat Party and Willie Rennie hypocrisy continues
The Liberal Democrats are running their election campaign on double-standards, the Scottish Conservatives said, today. Lib/Dem leader Rennie is quoted as openly criticising plans for English votes for English laws (EVEL) today. However, in the UK Government paper on the issue, the Liberal Democrats section reads:
“It cannot be right that a future government could pursue policies in England in areas devolved to the Scottish Parliament using the votes of Scottish MPs, even if this was not supported in England. The so-called West Lothian question can no longer go unanswered. The Liberal Democrats believe that English MPs at Westminster should have a stronger voice and a stronger veto over purely English only issues. ”http://www.scottishconservatives.com/2015/04/liberal-democrat-hypocrisy-continues/
One more nail in this chappies coffin.
Searching back through Holyrood records I was reminded of another of Rennie’s dishonourable performances at the time in September 2003 the Scottish Parliament launched a science project to afford MSPs access to ‘reliable and factual information’.
A one-year pilot Science Information Scheme for MSPs was launched at the Scottish Parliament in 2003. The Scheme was a collaborative project between the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe), the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) and the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) in association with the Institute of Physics in Scotland and the University of Edinburgh.
The main purpose of this service was:
* To ensure that all MSPs had access to rapid, reliable and factual information on science, engineering and technology-related issues in order to help inform Parliamentary debates on scientific issues.
The scheme was operated through a group of 52 Topic Co-ordinators who acted as “sign posts” directing MSP queries to the appropriate expert. Queries were directed to these topic co-ordinators through the RSC Parliamentary Liaison Officer or SPICe.
The contacts named at the end of the press release included the Parliament, the RSE and the Royal Society of Chemistry. The contact for the latter was Willie Rennie, at that time in the employ of company McEwan Purvis.
Rennie had passed himself off as working for a learned society while in reality he was employed by and a shareholder in the PR firm. Rennie, subsequently elected to Westminster as an MP now leads the Lib/Dem party,in Scotland as an MSP.
Furthermore all of the science related organisations involved have strong corporate links and are known to take pro-corporate views on science issues. For example:
* The Royal Society of Edinburgh * Royal Society of Chemistry * Institute of Physics
Biased briefings?
The service promoted as ‘rapid, and impartial’ was run jointly by the parliament, the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Royal Society of Edinburgh, in association with other learned or scientific bodies.
But Corporate influence was kept hidden from the public and MSPs. Some briefings for MSPs were provided through the scheme on an anonymous basis and initially the list of “topic co-ordinators” was kept confidential to avoid “inhibiting” their ability to provide “free and frank” advice.
Much later, when Greens finally gained access to the list under “Freedom of Information Act,” they found that, among a number of academics with strong ties to industry was Sir Tom McKillop, the chief executive of Astra-Zeneca, who went on to become the Chairman of the Royal Bank of Scotland and who presided over the bank’s worst ever performance when the value of the bank’s shares dropped by over 75% following criticism from the press for the takeover of ABN AMRO and the UK government having to bail out the bank.
Announcing his early retirement as Chairman of the Royal Bank of Scotland at a meeting of the Treasury Select Committee of the House of Commons on 10 February 2009, he admitted to having no qualifications in banking. Like other retired bankers present, he apologised for the financial crisis at the Royal Bank of Scotland, and other academics with strong ties to industry which the Greens said made them partisan.
The GM crops/agrochemical divisions of Astra-Zeneca and Novartis were merged in 2000 under the name Syngenta. As of 2008 Syngenta became one of the major producers of GM crops.
Perhaps not coincidentally, the SPICe briefing on GM crops were described by Dr Sue Mayer, director of campaign group Genewatch and a member of the UK Government’s Agriculture and Environment Biotechnology Commission, as “highly biased and pro-GM”.
Addressing ethics and politics within the Lib Dem party it is relevant, since Rennie raised the matter of vetting potential party representatives with care so as to avoid any scandals: Is the Party Scandal Free?
* Alistair Carmichael: Hold on just a mo! What about “Frenchgate”? The exposure of former Scotland Secretary Alistair Carmichael, after much prevarication by himself, of his disgraceful, underhand leadership and devious direct involvement, with others in an attempt to smear Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon. There has been strident calls from across the political spectrum, the public and the press for the exposed rogue and liar to stand down from the seat he won by a whisker in the Westminster Election for Orkney and Shetland. Based on voters intent throughout Scotland it is extremely doubtful that (given his deceitful behaviour, without shame lying about Nicola Sturgeon) Carmichael’s ability to retain his seat would have been very badly compromised. So that he took his place at Westminster brings politics into disrepute.
And what about Willie and his principles? Scotland waited and waited for an utterance and the word “Resignation” It was not to be. Finally, after much pressure Willie issued the following contemptible statement:
“I have discussed the serious nature of the publication of the Scotland Office document with Alistair Carmichael. He fully understands the impact it has had on his reputation. He deeply regrets his actions, has accepted responsibility for his error of judgement, apologised to Nicola Sturgeon and the French Ambassador and declined his ministerial severance payment. I have known Alistair for almost thirty years and have worked closely with him in parliament for almost a decade. I have always been impressed by his energy, dedication and professionalism. He has served Orkney and Shetland for fourteen years and has been elected on four separate occasions. It is clear to me that recent events are an aberration. As a liberal I believe that people deserve a second chance. I hope fair minded people would agree that Alistair Carmichael should be given that second chance.”
The Scottish public are not stupid. Willie Rennie’s blind hatred of the Scottish National Party has no place in Scottish politics. He should resign his post immediately and allow some other fair minded person to lead the Lib/Dem Party before he leads it to oblivion.
* Tavish Scott:The Edinburgh Accommodation Allowance Scheme scandal. November 2006:
One of the biggest winners from the scheme appears to be Tavish Scott, the Liberal Democrat MSP for Shetland, who is responsible for Scotland’s transport network. He is charging the public nearly £1000 a month in mortgage interest payments to help him buy a £380,000 house in Edinburgh. He has doubled the amount he bills the taxpayer for the property perk despite making a £36,000 profit last year on another flat bought with assistance from the public purse. And he previously claimed rent on a flat which at the time was owned by his sister.
The allowance is deeply unpopular with the public because it has allowed several MSPs to make substantial profits on properties bought with the help of taxpayers’ money. One of the biggest winners from the scheme appears to be Scott. Land registry documents show that most MSPs have used the allowance to buy small flats in central Edinburgh costing between £80,000 and £100,000. But Scott took advantage of the generous system by purchasing a house last year in Morningside worth £380,000, on a mortgage of £265,000.
Parliamentary records show he is now billing the public £979 a month in interest payments on his mortgage – the highest charge of any MSP. Scott is also entitled to claim the £1920 council tax on his new band-G house. An identical property for sale in the same street, inviting offers over £350,000, has three bedrooms, a “lovely private garden”, and a conservatory and patio.
The purchase of the house is only part of the Lib/Dem minister’s use of the accommodation allowance. The MSP bought his first property through the scheme in 2002, a £112,000 flat at Lower London Road sold to him by his sister. Figures show he claimed around £500 a month in mortgage payments for the property. He sold the flat last year for £148,000, pocketing £36,000 in profit. This allowed him to buy the much bigger property in Morningside.
This purchase coincided with Scott’s changed personal circumstances. By 2005, he was separated from his wife and dating BBC journalist Kirsten Campbell, (the person who misreported an extreme weather incident) bringing about the resignation of an SNP government minister. The electoral roll shows a “Kirsten Campbell” is registered at the new property. The minister is now charging the public almost double the amount he charged for his previous flat, up from £500 to £979 a month.
Scott has also left himself open to criticism regarding his rental arrangements prior to buying his first taxpayer-funded flat in 2002. That property was bought by Scott’s sister in 2000 – just months after her brother was elected to Holyrood – and sold to him two years later. However, council records show a Tavish H Scott was on the electoral roll for this flat in 2001. The LibDem MSP was claiming rent for staying in his sister’s property.
Scott, a business studies graduate, earns around £50,000 for representing Shetland, while ministers are entitled to a further £39,000. He has claimed more than £50,000 in Edinburgh Accommodation Allowance payments since 1999. http://forum.caithness.org/archive/index.php/t-16987.html
* Simon Hughes: A favourite to become the party leader, has come out as bi-sexual. Apparently, M.P. has had both homosexual and heterosexual relationships, “So what?” you cry! Well, it means that Hughes lied on many occasions about his sexuality. Rumours circulated that he was gay ever since he became an M.P., which he denied repeatedly. And this despite running a homophobic campaign against Labour candidate Peter Tatchell during the 1983 Bermondsey by-election in which he was presented as “the straight choice” (for which he has since apologised).http://londonist.com/2006/01/inside_westmins_4
The late Cyril Smith: The politician’s predilection for young boys was the stuff of gossip and jokes in pubs around Rochdale, a close-knit community where secrets did not remain hidden for long locally. But the full damming extent of his abuse of young boys was hidden from the public until well after he died. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2237627/Cyril-Smith-child-abuse-Chilling-claims-Smith-child-abuse-scandal-concealed-avoid-crisis-Westminster.html In conclusion, having highlighted only a few of the Lib Dem scandals which have blighted the Party over many years it follows that in consideration of his own conduct, Willie Rennie is unfit for office and should resign. If he is minded to stay on as the Lib Dem Party leader in Scotland he should refrain from publicly imparting advice to other political party’s pertaining to conduct in public office
Lord (I’ll never join that lot of spongers) Lord Prescott
Confirmed Unionist Party
Raytheon Cluster Bomb Launcher
Chris Huhne & Vickie Pryce
caltonjock 