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Dr Richard Simpson

 

 

Profile: 73yo Dr Richard Simpson. Education: Trinity College, Glenalmond. Studied at Edinburgh University and gained medical qualifications. Qualified psychiatrist . In addition to being a medical adviser to the Samaritans and the Scottish Prison Service, also found time to be active in his local constituency Labour Party, serving as vice-chairman and chairman. A General Practitioner for nearly 30 years before entering the Scottish Parliament representing the Ochil constituency from 1999-2003. He was not re-elected to office but was added, in 2007 to the Mid-Scotland and Fife region as a list candidateHe gained a seat as a list MSP and was subsequently re-appointed in 2011. It is widely rumoured he will stand down from office in 2016 handing over his position to his young SPAD Craig Miller.

 

Craig Miller and Suzanne

 

 

 

12 February 2001: Frankenstein Food Link to MSP in Jab Scandal: Labour Doctor in Hiding over MMR Payments

Complaints centred over the Register of Interests, in which Dr Simpson states he receives up to pounds 5,000 per year as a member of the Prostrate Advising Forum – an educational group sponsored by Merck Sharpe and Dohme Ltd (MSD). The company owns part of drugs giant Aventis Pasteur who produce the controversial triple MMR vaccine.

And it has now emerged that, in 1999, the Ochil MSP – a staunch defender of the triple MMR vaccine – was embroiled in a row over his cash links to a genetically modified food firm.

Dr Simpson was a consultant for one of the world’s largest GM food companies, Astra- Zeneca, who paid him pounds 5000 a year. The GP claimed he only acted as a consultant on primary care and his role had no connection to GM foods.

https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-70347601.html

 

Fascist Fireman

 

 

22 November 2002: Deputy Justice Minister Richard Simpson Minister, the minister responsible for the fire service in Scotland has resigned after claims he described striking firefighters as “fascist bastards”.

He was summoned to talks with First Minister Jack McConnell after which it was announced that he had quit. He admitted using the words when discussing the dispute but insisted he was only repeating what was being said by the public.

In a letter to the first minster, Dr Simpson said they were not his views but that as the row was making the resolution of the fire dispute more difficult he was standing down.

Mr McConnell agreed to the resignation, saying he was not prepared to accept the doubt which surrounded the reporting of the conversation. His letter to Dr Simpson said: “I accept your resignation and I am clear that you do not hold the views about the firefighters that have been reported in the press.”

Dr Simpson’s words came to light when they were reported in The Scotland on Sunday newspaper. The minister was overheard using the words at a dinner party at the Glasgow Hilton last Thursday. It was reported that he said: “We must not give into the bastards. These people aren’t socialists, they’re protectionists, they’re fascists – the kind of people who supported Mussolini.”

Dr Simpson told BBC Scotland he may have quoted the words during the dinner party where the type of language used by hoax fire callers was being discussed. On no occasion did he attribute these [comments] to other constituents or other members of the public.

But he denied personally making the remark and dissociated himself from the opinion that striking firefighters were “fascist bastards”. Dr Simpson said: “It was not me that made the original remark. “I was quoting somebody else. It was a member of the public who made that remark and I was saying that this sort of remark had occurred.” ‘He was angry’ He continued: “I really would like the opportunity to say that is absolutely not my view. “I think the firefighters, in terms of coming off that picket line as they have done on a number of occasions in Scotland, are behaving totally responsibly.”

Jason Allardyce, political editor of Scotland On Sunday, said: “On no occasion did he attribute these [comments] to other constituents or other members of the public. “He was being quite clear this was his view. He was upset. He was angry.”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/2513847.stm

 

Dr Richard Simpson

 

 

12 November 2002: Dr Simpson in trouble with the First minister yet again

After two years as a backbench committee member at Holyrood, Dr Simpson was elevated to become deputy justice minister when Jack McConnell became first minister in November 2001. Originally his straight-talking style won him more friends than enemies but a series of gaffes blighted the latter months of his year in office.

In June he was embarrassed by comments on youth crime which seemed to be at odds with those of the first minister. He told MSPs that juvenile courts in England had been “an absolute disaster”. This was a view at odds with that of Mr McConnell who said he was considering special fast-track hearings for vandals and other persistent teenage offenders.

Dr Simpson’s aides were later forced to “clarify” the comments, claiming the minister had not meant any criticism of the English scheme.

In September, he became embroiled in another row when he was accused of shuffling his diary to allow more time for campaigning for next year’s Holyrood elections.

Labour Party workers in Dr Simpson’s Ochil constituency met civil servants in an attempt to ensure that the minister spent more time in the area. This followed concern over Dr Simpson’s summer workload which meant he could not fully attend to constituency matters.

The weighty responsibility of ministerial matters is not something Dr Simpson needs to let concern him any more.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/2516649.stm https://twitter.com/scottishlabour

 

 

Dr Simpson and Jack McConnell

 

 

 
January 2007: Dunblane Massacre – Political Opportunism

Dr Richard Simpson, a Bridge of Allan GP, psychiatrist and part-time lecturer at Stirling University, was the first to speak at a debate on gun control at the Labour Party Conference in early October 1996, six months after the Dunblane massacre.

The stated aim of the debate’s motion (composite 31) was ‘putting the needs of victims before gun users’. According to Mick North, Simpson’s arguments were “strengthened by his experience as both a GP and a psychiatrist”.

Sorry, but how many victims of gun violence did Dr Simpson come into contact with before Dunblane? I doubt there were any.

http://www.911forum.org.uk/board/viewtopic.php?t=6677

 

Dunblane memorial

 

 

11 November 2010: Alcohol consumption debate – Labour’s Dr Simpson alleges the bulk of Scottish pensioners are alcoholics

Labour and the other unionist parties are totally disingenuous when they say minumum pricing is untried and untested.

Price does matter, as Finland shows. Yes, it would be better if the money went to the state instead of the supermarket. But the UK government refuse to act.

Why, then, do these parties oppose calls to give Scotland control over duty on alcohol and other taxes? Might it be because Scotch whisky alone provides £1.6bn a year to the UK exchequer?

Kaye Adams was taken aback when Labour’s Doctor Richard Simpson, a guest on her show, lamely responded that his only solution to the problem was to bat it back to the UK government – without even trying a Scottish approach.

Some people think he was given too much time by the BBC. Personally, I think he was given enough time to hang himself. Listen again to Call Kaye here.

Dr Simpson thinks most of the pensioners in the country are addicted to cheap vodka….he must hope Scotland is too inebriated to notice his inconsistency and opportunisim.

http://joanmcalpine.typepad.com/joan_mcalpine/articles_on_joan_mcalpine/

 

Bulk of Scottish Pensioners are boozers According to Dr Simpson

 

 

 

13 March 2015: Letter to Dr Richard Simpson MSP: “Mental Health (Scotland) Bill debate – disappointing performance – lack of insight and capacity”

Here is a letter just sent in an Email to Dr Richard Simpson MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, in response to his performance yesterday at the Mental Health (Scotland) Bill Stage One debate in Scottish Parliament, at which I was a spectator in the public gallery:

 

 

Dear Dr Simpson

I am writing to let you know that I was disappointed with your performance yesterday at the Mental Health (Scotland) Bill Debate, Stage One, in Scottish Parliament, where I was a spectator in the public gallery.

You are an MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, where I have lived for 25 years. You are also a GP and psychiatrist by profession, and therefore should be aware of the situation in Stratheden psychiatric Hospital where they have been using a locked seclusion room for generations, to “manage” patients. This has resulted in vulnerable people being locked in for hours at a time, no toilet or drinking water, light switch outside, in the dark, through the night.

I did not hear you speak out at the debate about the unreasonable treatment of psychiatric patients in Stratheden Hospital. You said nothing about the mental health act safeguards not being implemented properly or monitored effectively. Although I did hear other MSPs mention this in a general sense and by implication.

My youngest son was locked overnight in the Stratheden IPCU seclusion room for hours on end, unobserved, broken hand untreated, in February 2012. Prior to this he had been assaulted by a staff nurse in the Lomond Ward and face-down restrained. He has had 3 collapsed lungs and is asthmatic. His life was at risk.

My son was forced to defecate in the IPCU cell when no staff appeared to let him out for the toilet through the night, and then was forcibly injected with 25mgs Haloperidol until he would “voluntarily” swallow the drug. Sub-human treatment.

 

 

The RMO Dr Bill Dickson, a consultant forensic psychiatrist, told me that people without capacity don’t require advocacy. I set the doctor straight about this, that advocacy is a safeguard and a right for all, and then advocated for my son whenever he asked me to, representing my son’s views at clinical meetings in the ward.

I heard you speak twice yesterday about mental patients assaulting staff, victims of homicides. What about the people who have killed themselves after psychiatric inpatient treatment at Stratheden Hospital? Escaped from the hospital and thrown themselves on to the railway tracks at Springfield or into the sea at St Andrews, to be washed up on an English beach? I did not hear you mention these victims or their families.

You may be in a tricky situation as both a psychiatrist and government minister at mental health debates. Whatever. I thought that your performance yesterday lacked insight and capacity, in understanding the perspective of a person who has been subject to forced drug treatment and psychiatric abuse.

I hope that you might consider my critical feedback and that this may impact positively on your future practice.

I am copying others into this Email and will put the letter into a blog post, in the interests of transparency,

Yours sincerely,

Chrys Muirhead (Mrs)

 

 
Comment: Your words are heartfelt and ring so true Chrys. As a health professional, (now retired) of many decades I was truly appalled at human rights abuses happening to young people in even modern psych settings.

They beg you not to speak out for fear of the reprisals on them, not on you – not until later on you anyway.

The very worst and lowest, hugely self-confidence shattering, behaviour I saw was done by a Senior Consultant Psychiatrist. Anything and everything was possible it seemed in his mission to ensure his profession was not seen to have messed up profoundly.

Who cares if the patient was left weeping and feeling she had been mentally raped. I will repeat, I am writing this as a health professional of many decades experience. My friend, years later has still not recovered from the treatment.

https://chrysmuirheadblogs.wordpress.com/2015/03/13/letter-to-dr-richard-simpson-msp-mental-health-scotland-bill-debate-disappointing-performance-lack-of-insight-and-capacity/

 

 

 

 

17 March 2015: Mental Health (Scotland) Bill Debate – Serious assaults perpetrated by persons suffering from mental illness states Labour MSP Dr Richard Simpson

At the Mental Health (Scotland) Bill Debate, Stage One, in Scottish Parliament, on 12 March 2015, the Labour Party spokesperson for mental health, Dr Richard Simpson MSP and psychiatrist, repeatedly referred to serious assaults and even homicides committed by persons suffering from “mental illness” or “mental disorder”.

Yet Dr Simpson did not once mention the psychiatric abuse exacted by staff upon patients, for many years at Stratheden Hospital in Fife, an area where he is a regional MSP and where he has a share in holiday home, valued at £300,000. (see the doctor’s Register of Interests)

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/msps/currentmsps/28499.aspx

 

 

My son’s abusive treatment in Stratheden Hospital, was revealed by the Daily Express, (February 2012): Hospital HorrorPatient locked in cell with no toilet, food or water: http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/518869/Patient-locked-in-cell-with-no-toilet-food-or-water

Chrys Muirhead wrote to Dr Simpson, March 13, 2015

My thoughts were with my family. We have been subject to assault and forced drug treatment by psychiatric staff, in every decade since the 1950’s. Most recently in Stratheden Hospital, Fife, an area that you are MSP over and have a holiday home in, but have never done anything to advocate for me and my family, or to advocate for more humane treatment of mental patients.

What about all the lives shortened by psychiatric drug treatment, the physical disabilities and long term chronicity caused by the diagnosis/label of “severe and enduring mental illness”? Why are you not equally concerned about the major issues in psychiatric forced drug treatment? About the covert drugging of elderly people and the mental health safeguards not being safe?

I contend that you are not a suitable advocate for the rights of people with mental illness because you see the label and not the person. Your “profession” unfortunately diminishes your capacity to imagine yourself in their shoes or my shoes. It is a deficit, regardless of all your qualifications and “work experience.”

This lack of balanced debate from the lived mental health experience perspective, and stigmatising of people with mental illness, has caused me to consider standing as an Independent candidate at the Scottish Parliamentary elections in May 2016. Therefore I will mount a campaign of action and construct a manifesto towards that end.

 

 

 

I highly recommend this well written and researched blog. It will open your eyes to a neglected area of healthcare

https://chrysmuirheadblogs.wordpress.com/2015/03/17/serious-assaults-perpetrated-by-persons-suffering-from-mental-illness-says-psychiatrist-rsimpsonmsp-3-times-in-scotparl-debate/

 

Suzanne the model                           Suzanne the nurse                                            Suzanne at play
This blog post provides example of the lengths the Labour party will go to in their sleazy attempts to discredit the Scottish Government

https://caltonjock.com/2015/02/28/uncaring-craig-miller-labour-party-parliamentary-assistant-to-dr-simpson-hung-his-nurse-model-girlfriend-out-to-dry/

 

Suzanne: BEBO posts to male friend

Post 1: Love for u… I’m still nursing, wouldn’t give that up, have a mortgage 2 pay haha. I’m only modelling in my spare time, have a few jobs lined up. Just fancy doing something 2 make me feel good about myself and the extra cash will be nice 2 ha. Wot u doing with urself now a days? U still living in Sauchie? x

Post 2: The story?! Come on Aaron, u know the story, start 2 finish. Haha Wasn’t satisfied with treating heart attacks, wanted 2 be the cause of them 2 haha. Wot u been up 2? Any half naked pics u want 2 show me??? xxx

 

Budding politician Craig Miller and Nurse Suzanne enjoying time together

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Graeme Pearson   http://www.scotlandinunion.co.uk/the_reality_gap

 

 

 

 

A EU Report Claims Scotland’s Oil Capital is a Stronghold for the “Cammora” a Crime Organisation That Originated in Naples

Dr Felia Allum of Bath University, an expert on the “Camorra”  said information passed to her confirmed there were “two, three or four” full-time clan members in Aberdeen, but they were not “going around beating people up. When “Camorristi” move abroad, they adopt a different strategy, which is predominantly a financial one. In Aberdeen it appears to have been money laundering. There are   grey areas and there is a lot of blurring and sensationalism around the issue. But It is clear from my experience that there has been stuff going on in Aberdeen.”

Barney Crockett, an Aberdeen councillor, said the mafia presence in Aberdeen was no secret, but added that he was “totally confident” it had no involvement in public works.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/11046632/Aberdeen-identified-by-EU-researchers-as-stronghold-of-Italian-mafia.html

 

 

 

Councillor Barney (pictured below) and another three officers travelled 11,000 miles to the Tokyo Expo ( cost to the taxpayers £8,000) and stayed over 6 days (sight-seeing and hosting dinners) simply to attend a meeting lasting just 90 minutes

 

 

 

 

 

 

Members of some eastern European gangs are making more money from illegally harvesting shellfish than from selling drugs, police said.

Divers working for organised crime gangs are using the banned practice of electro-fishing – where sea creatures are electronically stunned – to bring in hauls of worth up to £65,000 a day. The gangs are targeting razor clams off the coast of Argyll, west Scotland. The shellfish make up an important part of the fishing industry, contributing £3.1 million to the Scottish economy

Clams Transported to Asia where they fetch very high prices

 

 

 

 

 

Organised Crime in Scotland – One man’s solution to the problem – Report Card: Failed

This is a report on the ever increasing problems of organised crime in Scotland. Illegal drugs (manufacture, transportation and distribution) people smuggling and human trafficking of young girls for prostitution in an increasing number of brothels, money laundering and many other anti social activities.

It covers the period 2004 – 2015 a time in which Graeme Pearson, exercised a major influence over the formation and performance of the police in Scotland first, as head of the Serious Organised Crime Agency for Scotland (SOCAS) then as a Labour Party MSP and Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Justice in the Scottish Labour front-bench team.

The report makes disturbing reading since it exposes the abject failure of the anti drugs and crime policies imposed on Scotland by SOCAS under the direction of Pearson who followed the seriously flawed dogma of the FBI.

A recent admission by a US senior police fraud investigator recently highlighted an ever increasing incidence of fraud and other criminal activities within the very forces set-up to defend the public, stating that centralisation of talented police officers simply created highly intelligent teams operating out of a single office and provided more opportunity for corruption, which some officers had seized on with a vengeance. Meantime pools of local talent had been reduced in ability resulting in increased incidence of local crime.

It might be time to look again at the methodology of dealing with organised crime and drugs since the Scottish public are on a “hiding to nothing” with the systems put in place by Graeme Pearson and the Labour Party.

There is also the matter of the creation of a Scottish Police Force, first proposed by Pearson against the wishes of Stephen House then Chief Constable of Strathclyde, a force that covered half Scotland’s population.

The new force, largely modelled on the proposition put to Cathy Jamieson by Pearson needed a tough nut to provide the leadership necessary to achieve success and Stephen House was correctly selected for the new post.

But, as is often the case in major reorganisations his time in office would be limited by the debilitating progress of forces within and outwith Police Scotland determined upon mischief where their local influences were being diminished.

Pearson, now involved politically with the Labour party witnessed opportunity to cause problems for the recently formed Scottish Police Force and armed with inside knowledge of personalties and motivating factors driving discontent gained Labour Party leadership authority to tour Scotland’s police regions gathering information and compiling a report setting out what had gone wrong and what need to be done to fix things.

The report proved to be a rehash of political negativity spouted by Pearson in the period before and since the formation of the Scottish Police Force. Professor Robertson offers a more detailed reply in his article – http://newsnet.scot/?p=115963

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About Graeme Pearson

Graeme Pearson (born 1 April 1950) is a Labour Member of the Scottish Parliament for the South of Scotland region. He is a former police officer and Director General of the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency. He was appointed to the position of Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Justice in the Scottish Labour front-bench team by Johann Lamont in May 2013. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graeme_Pearson

 

 

boyfriend comatose (trousers lowered to find site to inject heroin) girlfriend also unconscious, trousers down, holding a needle.

 

 

 

 

 
17 October 2004: Press release – Sunday Mail (Glasgow, Scotland) – No Soprano’s in Scotland-FBI-style agency to wipe out Crime families. Special Build headquarters to house six specialist gang-busting groups

An FBI style crime-busting agency with a purpose-built HQ is to be opened in Scotland to wipe out organised crime. Six organisations will come together under the umbrella of the Serious Organised Crime Agency for Scotland (SOCAS) at a special campus on the site of the old Gartcosh Steelworks. The total bill could top pounds 40million – and with beautiful irony, future funding will come direct from the sale of houses, cars and other goods seized from gangsters.

Graeme Pearson, director of the Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency, sold the revolution in crime fighting to Labour Party justice minister Cathy Jamieson. It could open as soon as 2006. Last night Pearson said: ‘Our organisation is designed to stop the worst excesses of what we see in the type of Sopranos fiction. ‘The bottom line is there should be no Sopranos in Scotland – we cannot have the type of firm that thinks it can do as it likes. ‘We need to go back a few chapters to ensure that crime organisations like that cannot get a foothold in Scotland.’

 

 

Cathy Jamieson (Deputy Leader of Labour government in Scotland from 2000 to 2008) approved Introduction of Uunified police force

 

 

 

 
17 February 2006: Graeme Pearson – Scottish Crime and Drugs Enforcement Agency Chief to step down

Pearson, 57, has led the fight against gangsters, drugs barons and people traffickers since 2004. But he’s stepping down to allow a new man to “prepare the way for future developments”.

Hardly a surprising development since the deceased top informer Mr McGraw is now in very permanent retirement himself. Pearson’s work in future would have been infinitely less productive without McGraw’s input. The betting his ‘stepping down’ is to ensure his clean-up record stays intact….Because without stitch-up merchants and prolific informers such as “The Licensee” Pearson would have to actually do some bloody detective work…..Which is beyond the capabilities of the former Airdrie desk jockey.  http://paulviking.websitetoolbox.com/

 

 

                                           Paul Ferris Former Glasgow gangster – now Author

 

 

 

 
4 March 2006: Detective Sergeant Pearson demoted and sent to Airdrie as a Uniformed Desk Sergeant

Over 20 years ago, at the time Pearson was a Detective Sergeant within the Scottish Crime Squad he was demoted to uniform Sergeant after a series of complaints from fellow officers and victims of his corrupt practices of fitting people up.

he was relocated to Airdrie Police station as a uniformed sergeant by the Assistant Chief Constable of Strathclyde! Pearson was also informed that he would never be involved in any police inquiries ever in the duration of his career.

This was a major statement from the then Chief Constable that far too many complaints of ‘Wrongdoing’ was intolerable and sent a very clear message to other like-minded officers that this would happen to any officer who would be inclined to follow in his footsteps.

Now Pearson is about to become a law unto himself and how did he manage to rise through the ranks to lead investigations that he was previously instructed that he would never be investigating any crime ever again?

The answer to his meteoric rise to power and subsequent black-mark on his career prospects being overlooked is that those in power at the time he was sent to purgatory (Airdrie) have since retired or are now dead.

However the Justice minister must know of this as must the Lord Advocate and many others including fellow disgruntled fellow officers and yes as time goes bye we all tend to forget things but unfortunately for Pearson how can he explain this one?

Ass kicking FBI style HQ?  kick this dishonourable man out the door and give the job to a decent cop who has no skeletons in the closet and deserves the post on merit rather than an old pals act as this is not plain sailing on this issue———-we have very long memories too you know and have people who are prepared to put an end to this sham and pension him off so that he can go back to the USA and visit the J Edgar Hoover building or had he plans for a Graham Pearson building? He sold the idea to the bold Cathy Jamieson who agreed to part with £10Million, and where did that come from? The taxpayers!

Jump before your pushed or do you have dirt on others that have kept this demotion secret, until now. so go back into your office or get someone to read this out to you as your days in office are well and truly numbered as Scotland can really do without the Soprano’s especially when disguised as a police officer. http://paulviking.websitetoolbox.com/

 

 

Tam McGraw (The Licensee)

 

 

 

 
8 March 2006: Director of the Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency, Graeme Pearson behind plot to murder me claims Paul Ferris

No convictions were ever made against McGraw and his top slasher who was later murdered on a rainy night in the East end of Glasgow. But it is thought McGraw’s handlers were behind his prosecution’. Blackhill gangster Paul Ferris claims that McGraw was involved in many violent crimes and drug dealing but escapes prosecution because of his ties with Mr Pearson.

He also claims the Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency which Mr Pearson runs was involved in a plot with McGovern family member Russell Stirton to plant heroin on Ferris and kill him. Stirton, claims Ferris, taped the conversations of the police plot and handed it over to Ferris.

“This just confirmed to me what I’d already been told by a rogue cop and a lawyer that Pearson was now McGraw’s handler. And he couldn’t pull his own snitch now could he?”, said Paul Ferris in his book “Vendetta.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Ferris_%28Scottish_writer%29    http://paulviking.websitetoolbox.com/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
14 March 2006: The Fitting-up of Paul Ferris – Transcript of covert tape recording (9 September 2005) between PC Graham Mitchell and Paul Ferris – the plot thickens

Graham Mitchell was a serving police officer at Baird Street Police station in Glasgow when I secretly recorded a conversation with him.

Mitchell had failed his sergeant’s exams but was ambitious and wanted to be with the big boys at CID level. He attempted to use me as a ticket to get to the big time at Baird Street cop shop. Instead he ended up in the dock on the same firearms charges as me we were co-accused!

Mitchell had previously warned me about a plot to have me fitted-up and at first seemed a decent honest cop who took the opportunity to warn me of this plot during an accidental meeting at a service station I was having with a mate of mine called Russell Stirton.

Mitchell approached me after Russell had left and asked what was I doing talking to Stirton. The fact that I was meeting with Russell was due to the invite I received to attend a meeting at STV studios where the chief crime reporter had filmed one of the Drugs Squad’s top men DS Derek Ingram saying he had asked Russell to plant Heroin in my car.

Mitchell said “I’ll tell ye something else that came back. Somebody in the Drug Squad is supposed to have given somebody who’s been in Russell’s car – some wee guy – the stuff to plant in his car, right. At first they said they’d found it in Russell’s car because they need statements. But if it goes to trial it’ll be that he dropped it out in a matchbox under his motor. The wee guy that’s been in Russell’s motor is a tout for another Mitchell and they are claiming tout money to pay him off for Russell getting done. That’s the story. Nobody knows that … you know”

Now I had two independent individuals telling me the same story and neither knew each other which made me really worried. One was Don Lindsay of STV Studios the other was Police Constable Graham Mitchell and at that point alarm bells were ringing in my head. Mitchell then offered to be my eyes and ears within Baird Street Police station but wished a favour in return.

I made it clear to Mitchell that I would not give him any info on others as I was not a grass nor would I supply him with anything that would result in the arrest of anyone either. Mitchell said the ‘favour’ was not of that kind so I presumed that he wanted money for his services and did a mental note of how much I was prepared to give him in order to meet again and to record the whole conversation.

I had a substantial amount of money in mind to pay him as the recording would have been worth every penny then he told me what the favour was. He said “Can you get me a shotgun a good yin?” and in one sentence I knew it was nothing to do with money. I agreed saving myself a right few quid into the bargain as the shotgun he was looking for was approx £100.

Mitchell was no honest cop, but whatever he intended to do with the shotgun I was prepared to take the risk I needed to get what he said about Stirton on audio tape and how else would I have been believed. The end result was I met Mitchell the next night armed with a hidden tape recorder and had at least Sixty minutes of Mitchell telling me I was the prime target for a fit-up.

I then made arrangements to hand over his shotgun which he took and kept it under his bed at his parents house in Glasgow whilst I handed my audio tape (copy) to Don Lindsay of STV studios.

It came as no surprise when I was arrested under the firearms act some weeks later the real surprise was that Mitchell was also arrested and we both stood trial in the summer of 1986. My defence was that I was out to prove a conspiracy to fabricate me with procured evidence by the police even Mitchell confirmed all of this within the contents of the audio tape. Mitchell’s defence was that he was acting as an officer of the law at all times.

The trial judge instructed the jury to find me guilty as I had no defence in Scottish law such as entrapment although if the jury believed my story then they could ask for leniency. The very same judge instructed the jury that they could find Mitchell not proven or not guilty.

I was sent down for 3yrs. Mitchell walked a free man and to this day the audio tape of what Mitchell told me that night was still worth the 3yrs sentence. Mitchell kept his job and eventually passed his sergeants exams.   http://paulviking.websitetoolbox.com/

 

 

Paul Ferris

 

 

 

 

 

 

7 April 2006: Graeme Pearson, director of the Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency (SDEA) in firearms plea.

The head of Scotland’s drugs busting agency has said he wanted his officers to carry firearms. Graeme Pearson, director of the Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency (SDEA), believes there should an armed unit to respond to emergencies.

Mr Pearson insisted that the war on drugs was being won but he added that the SDEA needed “latitude” to be able to do its job. He said: “Under current arrangements we require to make contact with the local police force and ask for firearms support from them and that sometimes may take some deal of time. “Either it becomes so obvious that we’re there and we’ve lost all our impact, or else it takes time to organise.”

He went on: “In the dead of night when we are dealing with those that we identify as the most serious criminals in Scotland, and sometimes in Europe, we could have an emergency situation where firearms predictably become an issue. “I think that my officers have the right to be protected and also have a duty to protect the public.” http://paulviking.websitetoolbox.com/

 

 

                                                                                             Multi Million Pound Trade in Illegal Cigarette Sales

 

 

 

 

 

 

14 April 2006: ‘FBI’ cop accused of planting drugs and plotting murder

The copper taking a leading role in the new Scottish FBI has been accused of plotting to kill a gun running gangster. And giving crown immunity to one of the country’s notorious crime-lords.

Graeme Pearson who was handed the post of ‘gatekeeper’ to the newly formed Serious Organised Crime Agency is allegedly protecting a super-grass whose evidence was used to catch one of the richest men in the world.

SOCA has been set up to crack down on organised drug gangs by the Prime Minster Tony Blair last week. Mr Pearson was said to be behind the capture of John Angus Gorman who was facing years in prison this week for masterminding a pounds 61 million drugs smuggling operation.

Gorman, 49, who was known as Piddy, plotted to smuggle 12 tons of heroin, cocaine and cannabis into Britain. But Mr Pearson has been accused of breaking the law in a bid to catch the Mr Bigs. Tam McGraw (whose nick name is the Licencee – licensed to commit crime) has been accused of passing on vital information to his handlers on John Palmer.

Palmer was jailed in 2001 for defrauding 17,000 holiday-makers in a pounds 30 million scam. At the time, he was ranked 105th in the Sunday Times Rich List with pounds 300 million, alongside the Queen, Michael Heseltine and the Duke of Devonshire.

He was released from prison just last year after serving half of his eight-year sentence. His timeshare operations were based in Tenerife and he was known as ‘Goldfinger’ after being accused of handling gold from the Brinks-Mat bullion robbery at Heathrow in 1983, although he was cleared of any involve­ment. Palmer and McGraw were introduced when McGraw went to Tenerife.

Some believe that he deliberately went there to infiltrate Palmer’s gang. Palmer was a big catch for the police and it has been suggested that the Home Office has McGraw on a list of registered informers and worth more out of jail than in. Joe Steele and Thomas “TC’ Campbell served 18 years before their convictions for the murders linked to Glasgow’s so-called Ice Cream Wars were ruled unsafe. They were wrongly convicted of an arson attack which murdered six members of the Doyle family in 1984.

Mr Campbell said McGraw’s hand was behind the fire. McGraw, who was near the Doyle residence that night, was cleared of any wrong doing. While Mr Campbell was freed and awaiting the results of his appeal he was allegedly violently assaulted by Billy McPhee and McGraw who tried to kill him in broad day light and in front of witnesses. No convictions were ever made against McGraw and his top slasher who was later murdered on a rainy night in the East-end of Glasgow. It is thought McGraw’s handlers were behind his ‘prosecution’.

Blackhill gangster Paul Ferris who was jailed for gun running claims that McGraw was involved in many violent crimes and drug dealing but escapes prosecution because of his ties to Mr Pearson.

He also claims the Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency which Mr Pearson runs was involved in a plot with McGovern family link Russell Stirton to plant heroin on Ferris and kill him.

Stirton, claims Ferris, taped the conversations of the police plot “This just confirmed to me what I’d already been told by a rogue cop and a lawyer that Pearson was now McGraw’s handler. And he couldn’t pull his own snitch now could he?”, said Paul Ferris in his book Vendetta.   http://paulviking.websitetoolbox.com/

 

 

Graeme Pearson Leader of the Serious Organised Crime Agency allegedly protected super-grass Tam McGraw whose evidence convicted one of the UK’s richest gangsters 

 

 

 

 

 

18 June 2006: Tsar admits: We’ve lost the war on drugs

Scotland’s drugs tsar has sparked a furious row by openly declaring that the war on drugs is “long lost”. Tom Wood, a former deputy chief constable, is the first senior law enforcement figure publicly to admit drug traffickers will never be defeated. Wood said no nation could ever eradicate illegal drugs and added that it was time for enforcement to lose its number one priority and be placed behind education and deterrence. Wood holds the influential post of chairman of the Scottish Association of Alcohol and Drug Action Teams, a body which advises the Executive on future policy.

He said: “I spent much of my police career fighting the drugs war and there was no one keener than me to fight it. But latterly I have become more and more convinced that it was never a war we could win. In order to make a difference in the long term, education and deterrence have to go to the top of the pile. We have to have the courage and commitment to admit that we have not tackled the problem successfully in the past. We have to win the arguments and persuade young people that drugs are best avoided.”  He went on to say that he: “took his hat off” to the SCDEA and added that it was essential to carry on targeting dealers. He stressed he was not advocating the decriminalisation or legalisation of any drugs.

But Pearson, director of the SCDEA, said he “fundamentally disagreed” that the war on drugs was lost. “I strongly disagree when he says that the war on drugs in Scotland is lost. The Scottish Executive Drug Action Plan acknowledged that tackling drug misuse is a complex problem, demanding many responses. It is explicit within the strategy that to effectively tackle drug misuse, the various pillars of the plan cannot operate in isolation.”

Alistair Ramsay, former director of Scotland Against Drugs, said: “We must never lose sight of the fact that enforcement of drug law is a very powerful prevention for many people and, if anything, drug law should be made more robust. “The current fixation with treatment and rehabilitation on behalf of the Executive has really got to stop.”

And Scottish Conservative justice spokeswoman Margaret Mitchell said: “I accept Wood’s sincerity, but this is a very dangerous message to go out. I would never say that we have lost the war on drugs. Things are dire, but we should never throw up the white flag.”

But Wood’s view was backed by David Liddell, director of the Scottish Drugs Forum, who said: “We have never used the term ‘drugs war’ and it’s right to move away from that sort of approach. For every £1 spent on treatment, £9-£18 is saved, including in criminal justice. The balance has been skewed towards more punitive aspects.”

And John Arthur, manager of the drugs advice organisation Crew 2000, said: “I think Tom Wood is right. This is something our organisation has been arguing for for a long time and it is good to see this is now coming into the mainstream.” Among the ideas now backed by Wood is less reliance on giving methadone as a substitute to heroin addicts. He says other substitutes should be considered, as well as the possibility of prescribing heroin itself or abstinence programmes.

One new method being examined by experts is neuro-electric therapy, which sends electrical pulses through the brain. One addict with a five-year habit, Barry Philips, 24, from Kilmarnock, said the treatment enabled him to come off heroin in only five days.

Wood said: “We need to look at the other options. Other substitutes are used in other countries. They even prescribe heroin in Switzerland and there is a pilot in Germany, with pilots also mooted in England and, more recently, Scotland. We need to have a fully informed debate.”

A Scottish Executive spokesman said: “We have a very clear policy on drugs, which is to balance the need to tackle supply and challenge demand. They have to go hand in hand and we make no apology for that.” http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/tsar-admits-we-ve-lost-the-war-on-drugs-1-1412705  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/448574.stm

 

 

Chief Constable Tom Wood              Sites where syringes have been found in Scotland

 

 

 

 
2 March 2007: Police shut down about 20 cannabis ‘factories’ in Scotland.

Vietnamese organised crime is behind a sudden explosion of cannabis cultivation in Scotland in the past year, with more than 40 factories producing £5 million of the drug in the past nine months.

Graeme Pearson, head of the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency (SCDEA), will today tell a drugs conference that cannabis cultivation in Scotland has gone from a “homespun cottage industry” to mass production lines overseen by Far Eastern “Mr Bigs”.

A network of Vietnamese gangs, responsible for mass cannabis production in North America and the south of England, is understood to have recruited members of the Chinese community in Scotland to set up dozens of factories across the country in recent months.

A big rise in cannabis cultivation in parts of England has already been witnessed in recent months, with the proceeds reinvested in other aspects of organised crime, including heroin, cocaine and firearms.

Last week police disclosed the results of Operation League, a major cannabis-production crackdown, mainly in the west of Scotland, which has seen about 20 factories shut down. Police made several arrests during the operation, including Vietnamese and Chinese nationals, along with Scots.

But Mr Pearson will today tell a Scottish police conference on cannabis that the scale of the production is even higher. He told The Scotsman: “In the past year, cultivation in Scotland has gone from a baseline of almost nothing to a very substantial quantity. “More than 44 cultivations with a crop worth more than £5 million have been uncovered in the past six months. “It’s gone from a homespun industry to a major production-line approach and is now big business. He said organised crime gangs had set up production “very quickly” in Scotland in the past year. “There is a Vietnamese and Chinese backdrop to many of these developments,” he said.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scots police were alerted to the problem by law-enforcement authorities in Canada, where Vietnamese and other Far Eastern gangs have seized almost total control of the cannabis market over the past five years. The criminals also moved into class A drugs and violent gang wars ensued. Cannabis production subsequently spread to mainland Europe and has now reached Scotland.

Supplies of the Class C drug in the UK have traditionally come from countries such as Afghanistan, Lebanon, Morocco and the Americas, but it is thought that around 60 per cent is now home-grown – compared with 10 per cent a decade ago.

Ian Latimer, chief constable of Northern Constabulary and president of the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland, which has organised the two-day conference at Turnberry, said: “This new development emphasises the need for individual police forces to work closely with the SCDEA. “The significant number of arrests in the last nine months could not have been made without that partnership.”

Comment: The foregoing emphasises the need to legalise cannabis and thus permanently remove it as a means of black market gangs making money. Throwing more money at a policy that has been proven ineffective and counter productive decades ago is not going to solve it.  http://www.scottwebb.co.uk & http://www.uk420.com/boards/index.php?showtopic=85024

 

 

cannabis farm in the heart of the city

 

 

 
1 July 2007: Drug plague that knows no boundaries – Leap in crack deaths in North-East of Scotland

In an area where drugs are a fact of life, the discovery of two bodies in a squalid harbour-side flat would probably have been regarded as little more than yet another tragic sign of the times. However, one of the victims was a former beauty queen from a respectable family, and the reality of a growing problem permeating all levels of society was brought home with a vengeance.

In less than two years Saranna Buchan turned from a popular, vivacious young woman into a down-trodden crack addict controlled by a violent drug-dealing boyfriend 20 years her senior. When police found her battered body and that of her lover, 41-year-old James Logan, two weeks ago shock-waves swept through the 18,000-strong coastal community of Peterhead. A good family and loving home had been no protection against this modern plague.

First Minister Alex Salmond, whose constituency covers Peterhead, last week called for a cross-party approach to end the ‘scourge of drugs’, which he said was sadly indicative of a problem facing the whole of Scotland.

As police continue their investigations into the apparent murder of Buchan and the suicide of Logan, (who had a criminal record for violence), Graeme Pearson, the director-general of the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency (SCDEA), said: “Crack cocaine is a particular problem for the north-east of Scotland. Around Aberdeen there’s been regular difficulty with the drug for a couple of years now.”.

 

 

Saranna Buchan and James Logan                                                           More than 3 Tonnes of cocaine recovered from a ship in the North Sea

 

 

 

 

 

In Aberdeen the number of cocaine users is estimated to have soared by more than 600 per cent in the last few years as dealers have targeted the oil-rich city and neighbouring communities. Organised gangs from as far as London have been working hard over the last few years to carve out a new niche market. “These people are making vast profits dealing in misery,’ said a police source. ‘They can sell their drugs in the Aberdeen area for up to five times the prices they are getting in London.”

Health officials in Grampian have been fighting to stem the tide by offering crack users a range of alternative remedies, such as acupuncture, reflexology and aromatherapy, along with advice and medical treatment to help them beat the drug.  It is estimated that of the 4,000 heroin addicts registered in Aberdeen, about 95 per cent of them now also use crack.

 

 

Union Terrace Drug Den -User shooting up

 

 

 

 

 

Once their customers are hooked, the dealers are able to sit back and watch profits soar in an area where it has been calculated that the trade is worth more than £10m a week. Outside the city the drugs plague has spread along the coast to fishing towns and villages such as Peterhead and Fraserburgh.

In Fraserburgh Dr Sandy Wisley, who described the problem as ‘the slow strangulation of a community and way of life’, claims there has been a dramatic rise in patients with heroin and cocaine problems. “Doctors are treating people whose heart rates are up at 190 beats per minute after crack binges. Crack cocaine is becoming a big problem,” he said. “If people think heroin is a problem, just wait till crack really gets a hold. It is one of the worst drugs known to man.”

Despite Grampian police recording a 700 per cent increase in seizures of crack cocaine, with a street value of nearly £900,000, last year drug deaths in the region more than doubled to 48. “It is a tragedy that 48 people died of overdoses from illegal drugs in 2006 and this figure must be one of the highest on record,” said Brian Adam, the SNP MSP for Aberdeen North. “I am particularly concerned about the increase of crack cocaine dealing in the area and even though the police have made recent large seizures of drugs, this does not seem to have hampered this disgusting trade.”

However, according to the SCDEA, which has had a number of major successes in recent months, not least the seizure of 150kg of heroin valued at £12.5m in a raid in Glasgow on Thursday, there are signs things may be getting better across the country. “We are involved in a war for life, not a war against drugs,” said Pearson.

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2007/jul/01/drugsandalcohol.drugs

 

 

Drug den right in the heart of the city of Aberdeen                           Early morning Drugs bust in Falkirk

 

 

 

 

Drugs find: The ocean-going tug MV Hamal (left), registered in Tanzania, was intercepted by the Royal Navy and Border Force cutter Valiant (right) about 100 miles east of the Aberdeenshire coast in Scotland

 

 

 

 

 

12 November 2007: Outgoing head of Scotland’s crime fighting agency lifts the lid on organised crime and trafficking of drugs in Glasgow.

Graeme Pearson, Director General of the Scottish Crime and Drugs Enforcement Agency, retired at the weekend after almost 40 years of police service. The 57-year-old has led investigations into money laundering, drug trafficking, kidnapping and electronic crime for the past three years. The 300-strong team he fronted employs cutting-edge surveillance techniques to gather evidence on suspects.

Pearson, in his last interview as director general, outlined the difficulties faced in tackling the heroin trade in the west of Scotland. He said: “The Blochairn seizure would have put a dent in the supply chain across the country. “There would have been a lot of cities, towns and villages which didn’t get deliveries for a few weeks. But, because of the amount of money involved, there would have been a group or individual willing to plug that gap in the market within seven days. It may take a month for the drugs to reach Scotland but the wheels are set in motion within the week.”

During his 38 years with the police, Mr Pearson has seen gangsters rake in huge profits as communities are ripped apart by drugs. He said: “In the old days, if a drug dealer was living in a big house and your dad couldn’t get a job, kids would ask who is the mug here?  With the Proceeds of Crime Act, we now have the power to vilify these figures and strip them of their assets. Communities get frustrated because the justice system moves very slowly but we are after these people.”

The Stevenson case made Scottish legal history as the agency used listening devices planted at suspects’ homes during a three-year undercover investigation. Mr Pearson said: “Surveillance can be a very expensive exercise. It takes a lot of time but if the intelligence is sound, it will produce results. The technology is very advanced. It is everything you see on the TV and more.”

During his reign at the agency Mr Pearson clashed with chief constables by calling for Scotland’s eight forces to be merged into one. He also sparked controversy by pushing through plans for a £40m campus at Gartcosh to unite crime-fighting agencies on one site.

There has been speculation that he took the decision to step down amid concerns over staffing levels and the future direction of the agency. He said: “One of my biggest disappointments has been that the agency has never been fully staffed. “There are posts there and people want to come but they’ve not been released. To be fair, Strathclyde has been one of our biggest supporters.

“I am not in a retiring mode. My life has been policing, seven days a week. “I was talking to one Glasgow criminal the other day and he told he didn’t believe I was retiring for a minute, he thinks it’s all a ploy. “I will miss the excitement of the job and the notion that you are doing something worthwhile. “The new Scottish Government said it wanted to provide 1000 extra police officers. If I could have one wish, it would be for the agency to get 150 of those. “There’s no doubt the work is there for them.” http://paulviking.websitetoolbox.com/

 

 

Young couple after shooting up near the Gallowgate (Glasgow)

 

 

 
21 November 2007: Top civil servant ‘knew of VAT bill for police’ Department told in 2005 ago about payments

The top civil servant at the Labour Party Scottish Government’s Justice Department was warned two years ago that the new Scottish Police Services Authority would incur VAT charges The revelation comes just a day after the Herald revealed a major blunder by civil servants and the previous Labour Party administration means the authority, which was set up to create cost savings and centralise procurement, will have to pay VAT .

Officials only contacted Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) with their full case for exemption some six weeks ago, despite the fact the planning for the body started with the Labour Party Government more than two years ago and the authority became active in April this year.

Andrew Keddie, former convener of Fife’s police board and a member of the Common Police Services Committee, which preceded the authority, warned Robert Gordon, head of the Justice Department, in late 2005 that the creation of the SPSA would be too costly because it would not be VAT exempt.  https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-23669698.html

 

 

drug user searching for a needle

 

 

 

 

 

5 October 2008: Labour Party blanketed the agency with Pen-pushers and sabotaged the war on crime lords

The ex-police chief who headed Scotland’s answer to the FBI has warned the agency is no longer fit for purpose in the war against organised crime. Graeme Pearson said the Scottish Crime and Drugs Enforcement Agency has been strangled by red tape after being taken over by faceless civil servants.

In a hard-hitting interview to launch his book, “The Enforcer” Pearson warned: Proceeds of crime laws do not punish the wealthiest criminals. Gangsters are lining up to cash in on the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. It is wrong for Scotland to have eight police forces when London has just one to look after a much larger population.

Pearson had far-reaching powers when he was appointed SCDEA director general in 2004. But he quit 10 months after control of the agency dubbed “The Untouchables” was handed to the Scottish Police Services Authority.

Overnight, Scotland’s most powerful policeman claimed he was was mired in red tape and made to answer to a faceless committee. His most damning comments are directed at the takeover by the SPSA. The structural change, introduced by the labour Government at Holyrood, choked the agency with bureaucracy.

Pearson said: “The Labour administration put the arrangements in place. There was a reluctance to allow the agency to become all it could be but that was never in your face. You found yourself in treacle and there was no explanation why it was so difficult. You have more meetings about co-ordinating than the time you spend getting on with targeting the criminals.”

The agency – established eight years ago as a national force tackling major drugs gangs – quickly fell victim to pen pushers. Pearson said: “Committees, panels and task-forces seldom deliver the innovation and commitment of a named individual. “That’s why we seldom use committees to decide battle strategies in times of war. We nominate leaders and provide the governance and control to ensure effective support. The current arrangement with the agency being responsible to the SPSA is not fit for purpose.”

Pearson also claimed it was wrong for five million Scots to be served by eight police forces when a single Metropolitan Police force deals with twice as many people in London. He said: “It suits the eight forces because it maintains the status quo and the civil service because it allows them to keep control. It also kept us at a distance. “I don’t think it makes sense but until there’s a way of persuading politicians it won’t change. We get one-line sound-bites but we need more than that. Politicians want to say yes to everything and end up saying no to everything.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wealthy Crime Bosses try to Cosy up to Politicians and Police Chiefs

Pearson said the problem is under control in Scotland, adding: “It became a popular suggestion in the 70s and 80s that if a detective was involved with criminals then they must have been a bit of a criminal themselves. The problem is if the police withdraw from contact with criminals, it is the criminals who benefit. Evidence is hard to come by but I’d say Scotland is better off than most modern democracies. One reason for writing the book was to get some balance into the debate. For years criminals alleged widespread police corruption but there was no one from law enforcement to say, ‘wait a minute, let’s get a grip’. The difficulty is people get hold of some small thing and use that to make it look like the whole organisation is tainted and corrupt and that’s not true. It’s not good for the public because you then create a fear.”

Pearson warned politicians to keep their distance from organised criminals and avoid a repeat of the 2002 Red Rose scandal. (when Ex-Home Secretary John Reid and former First Minister Jack McConnell were at the same Labour fundraising dinner as drug dealer Justin McAlroy, 30, who was shot dead days later.)

Pearson said: “If people see organised criminals sitting with key figures, it creates in their mind the complete inability to report anything. The balance needs to be shifted to enable us to draw a line to stop criminals trying to make themselves legitimate by association.”

Pearson warned that the threat from organised crime had to be taken seriously. He said: “People are always asking how does this affect us in Scotland. One example is the Commonwealth Games. Major events like these create opportunities for organised crime.” Three months ago, the Sunday Mail revealed how the Faulds crime clan had landed a lucrative security contract for the Games.

Pearson said: “The Sunday Mail has published exposes over the years of those who have just been a front for criminals benefiting from the public purse. The preparation for the Games should ensure only those who are fit and proper should receive contracts and not just placemen for organised crime.  But I don’t know if the systems are robust enough to ensure that is the case.” http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/the-enforcer-pen-pushers-have-sabotaged-the-war-on-crime-992695

 

 

Under training

 

 

 

 

 

23 August 2010: Graeme Pearson explains why he wants one police force to cover whole of Scotland

One of Scotland’s most experienced crime-fighters yesterday revealed his plan to axe Scotland’s eight police forces and replace them with a single super-agency. Pearson, former head of the country’s elite taskforce against organised crime, disclosed his proposals just days after Strathclyde Police revealed massive cuts were in the pipeline, with other forces also preparing to slash budgets.

Pearson, now a Labour adviser on crime, says his ideas would instantly save £10million a year and deliver more effective policing. His radical blueprint includes:

* A single chief constable with the number of deputies cut from 16 to two.

* All police headquarters – including Pitt Street, in Glasgow, and Fettes, in Edinburgh – to be sold off.

* A single renamed force to be based at a new purpose-built centre in Stirling.

* All performance bonuses for police chiefs to be axed.
Pearson, formerly director general of the Scottish Crime and Drugs Enforcement Agency, said: “The savings would be massive. At present there is too much duplication and forces are often reluctant to share information because of rivalries. When forces do talk to each other, that involves eight teams and eight separate reports – a real waste of time and money. In future, all that would be decided by a much smaller team in the new HQ. With one person in charge, decisions can be taken more quickly and at less cost. A single force would also give Scotland a much stronger and more credible voice in dealing with forces like the Met and the Westminster government.”

The future of Scottish policing is uncertain as forces review their options in the face of swingeing budget cuts. Strathclyde Police may have to cut 25 per cent of their civilian staff in a bid to balance the books. A leaked email from chief constable Stephen House to senior staff last week warned of “deep cuts” to 2700 civilian posts. Pearson said: “With the savings we would make from setting up one force, it would be possible to protect many of the key front-line civilian posts that are under threat currently.”

 

 

Money laundering an industry

 

 

 
If Pearson’s plans are accepted by Labour, they could include them in their manifesto ahead of the Holyrood elections in May. Pearson claims his blueprint would not result in sackings or forced redundancies. He claims unwanted staff would go through natural wastage, as most senior police staff are on fixed-term contracts.
He says reducing the number of police chiefs would also substantially reduce the pension bill to the taxpayer and free up funds for front-line policing. The new force would return power to local area commanders – usually Chief Superintendents – who would control their own budgets. They in turn would be answerable to local councillors, with the new force as a whole answerable to MSPs.

Pearson, honorary professor of the study of serious organised crime at Glasgow University, added: “The public do not care what name the police have. What they want is local accountability and a good service. During the G8 summit in 2005, there were forces from all over Britain in Scotland. I don’t think that really bothered the public. “If you are the victim of a crime you don’t really care where the officers come from so long as something is being done.”

Axing 14 Chief Constable and Deputy Chief Constable posts could save around £1.6 million a year in salary costs alone. There are also 12 civilian staff employed to run police Human Resources, Finance, Corporate and Legal services on salaries of up to £85,000 a year. Pearson believes the number of civilian posts could be slimmed down to four, saving a further £500,000 a year in salaries.

He added: “We would have to find or build a new HQ but that could be funded from selling off of existing HQs such as Pitt Street, which is earmarked for closure anyway.”

Chief Constables in Scotland earn between £120,000 and £170,000 while their deputies’ salaries range between £100,000 and £130,000.

Yesterday, Shadow Justice Minister Richard Baker said he welcomed Pearson’s plans for one force. He said: “There needs to be a change in the structure of the police in Scotland so we get best value for money. Mr Pearson is highly respected and his proposals must be taken seriously. If there is a better and more efficient way of delivering a quality police service to Scotland then it cannot be ignored. Things cannot go on the way they are, with forces facing massive cuts and the inevitable impact on front-line policing.”

 

 

Phil Gormley Scotland’s Police Chief

 

 

 

 

 

Kenneth Scott, of the Centre for Criminal Justice and Police Studies at the West of Scotland University, said: “It makes sense for a country of Scotland’s size to have one force. It means resources can be deployed where they are most needed.” Raymond Pratt, of the Scottish Police Federation, said: “We are open to any change that will improve the police service but the evidence from England is that the move to reduce the number of forces may not be less expensive.”

Fred McManus, past president of the Association of Scottish Police Superintendents, said: “The problem with one force is that it could soon come under political control. “With the present eight forces, each Chief Constable is independent from any political interference.”  http://www.the-investigator.co.uk/viewnews.php?newsId=1830

 

 

Arben Dumani and his family fled Kosovo for a new life in Scotland. But he chose to be a drug lord in Glasgow

 

 

 

 
15 January 2012: Albanian crime gangs top list of most feared foreign gangsters in Scotland

AT least 25 foreign crime gangs are operating in Scotland, according to investigations by the country’s equivalent of the FBI. Detectives are said to be particularly concerned about the arrival of the “ultra-violent” Albanian mafia.

Gangsters from the impoverished Balkan state have muscled in to Scotland’s drug and vice trades, according to the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency (SCDEA).The crime-fighting body ranks ethnic Albanian groups as among the “non-indigenous” gangsters posing the greatest threat.

Foreign gangs now make up almost 10% of all crime groups operating north of the border, according to work by the SCDEA. They have identified 267 organised crime groups, of which at least 25 are from abroad.  Other nationalities include Chinese gangs behind cannabis farms and bootleg DVDs, Bangladeshi and Czechs involved in people smuggling, and Yardies from the Caribbean who specialise in selling crack and running prostitutes.  http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/crime/schoolboy-who-fled-kosovo-scotland-1647874

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But it is Albanian gangs – known as the “Mafia Shqiptare” – that are causing particular concern. The gangs are said to have been brutalised by the conflicts in the Balkans in the 1990s and sit on worldwide trade routes for guns, drugs and women.

Stephen Whitelock, a Detective Chief Superintendent with the SCDEA, said: “We are noting the emergence of a number of crime groups from other countries operating in Scotland. This includes gangs from eastern Europe, south-east Asia – particularly Vietnam and China – as well as African countries. The Albanians are here now. Some of the individuals concerned are known to be capable of extreme violence. Albanian serious and organised crime groups have been known to be involved in prostitution, arms and drugs. We have a list of the top 20% most serious organised crime groups and, each of which is in the ownership of one of the forces or the agency. The Albanians are on that list. It is thought Albanian crime families arrived in the UK in the aftermath of the 1999 Kosovo war. The families are relatively small but strongly bonded by a code of honour and blood feuds. As long ago as 2003, Luan Plakici, an Albanian from Montenegro, was jailed in Scotland for 10 years for trafficking women from Moldova.

Former SCDEA boss Graeme Pearson, now a Labour MSP, said: “The Albanians are a bit of a challenge because they have a military background in their homelands and their criminal elements have a very violent history. They are very difficult groups to penetrate.” http://www.deadlinenews.co.uk/2012/01/15/albanian-crime-gangs-top-list-of-most-feared-foreign-gangsters/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
6 May 2014: Foreign mafia gangs have 50 operations in Scotland worth £5billion.

An investigation by a leading organised crime research unit in Italy uncovered the scale of international mobsters’ infiltration of the Scottish economy. At least 20 current probes by law enforcement agencies are looking into 50 “assets” – including properties, restaurants, wholesale suppliers and other apparently legitimate firms. Rackets include drugs, prostitution, extortion and the use of legitimate businesses across all sectors worth an estimated £5billion in Scotland alone.

The findings have prompted calls for renewed efforts and extra legislation to tackle the international mafia, particularly crime syndicates based in Italy, eastern Europe and Russia. The investigation is being coordinated in seven countries by Transcrime, the Joint Research Centre on Transnational Crime. Transcrime’s Cristina Soriani said: “We are able to say right now we have 20 cases of investigations by law enforcement agencies which relate to Scotland and they involve about 50 assets that are mainly companies. There may be more than 50 Investigations ongoing so we cannot reveal the exact location of assets, other than to say they are in Scotland.”  Gangs from China and southern and eastern Europe are known to operate in Scotland. Italian crime families have also extended their activities into this country.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Transcrime’s research reveals that Europe’s trade in counterfeit goods, trafficking, prostitution, firearms, drugs and other business is worth £33.5billion. The biggest sector is fake goods, including designer clothes and DVDs, earning £15.5billion alone. It is estimated to be worth £1billion in Scotland, with one criminal justice source suggesting all mafia operations in Scotland could be worth £5billion.

The source said: “Given the findings of this report, that may well be a conservative figure. The drugs trade in Scotland is said to be worth £10billion. Given the foreign gangs’ range of operations, legal and illegal, then they will easily be generating billions of pounds.”

Milan-based Soriani said her group have evidence of “a lot of cases” of infiltration by foreign gangs in Glasgow as well as cases involving Edinburgh and Aberdeen. She said: “We collect cases of infiltration by organised crime looking at which kind of sectors and what kind of assets they control, and how they launder their illicit proceeds.” Her team used law enforcement agency documents and unpublished official reports. They found evidence of extortion, fraud, money laundering, human trafficking, drug trafficking and counterfeiting.

 

 

In 2005, the restaurateur Antonio La Torre was arrested and later jailed for 13 years in Italy for extortion and racketeering, having moved to Aberdeen in 1984

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gangsters were involved in property, construction, the wholesale and retail food trade, and restaurants and bars. They specifically target legitimate businesses in areas which were poorly regulated – such as security firms. In the highest profile Scots mafia case, the Naples-based Camorra were revealed in 2008 as having a foothold in Aberdeen’s booming oil and gas industry.

Soriani said: “With the expansion of the economy, they were able to infiltrate and launder illegal proceeds of crime and some legal proceeds they had from other economic activities. “In a local sense, they were considered successful businessmen. “They did not just control companies and some local activities using extortion, violence or intimidation, they were directly involved as co-owner of restaurants, or import-export firms.

“In Glasgow, we have evidence of organised crime infiltration in bars and restaurants or private security, retail and wholesale and food. “We are not yet able to identify if they belong to the Italian mafia or to organised crime groups that are mostly local.” Soriani said she believed the assets uncovered were the tip of the iceberg. She said: “These are the cases we are able to identify through evidence. They are just a share of the total.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The EU set up an anti-mafia commission two years ago. Europol said in 2011 they had an “intelligence gap” about mob activities. In February, the European Parliament passed a directive making it easier for national authorities to confiscate criminal assets.

Scotland’s Serious and Organised Crime Task Force, and proceeds of crime laws, are already being used to tackle the issue. Soriani added: “A lot of European countries say, ‘No, we do not have organised crime’ or, ‘We do not have mafia-type crimes’. But it is important local communities understand the mafia does exist and are a very real threat. “A new type of legislation is needed against organised crime. They are changing continuously and states must respond to this when developing anti-mafia legislation. Without it, Scotland is at risk.

“They need anti-mafia laws which don’t just focus on which kinds of crimes are committed but on disrupting groups’ economic structure. “This includes the confiscation of assets – and not just upon conviction.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MSP Graeme Pearson, Labour justice spokesman and a former director of the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency, said: “Unless we start taking this whole issue seriously, organised crime goes from strength to strength. There is very little organised crime in Scotland that does not have an international division. There is a need to change the way in which seizures are done. Instead of prosecutors having to prove the link between the assets and criminality, if they prove monies have been obtained by criminal conduct – that money has been added to clean money – then the authorities should be able to take it all. I think the authorities need to be aggressive in the way they respond to organised crime in Scotland.”

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “Scotland already has one of the most robust and effective strategies for dealing with serious and organised crime in the world. Our Serious and Organised Crime Taskforce are made up of Scottish and national organisations with international reach. Only last week, a key member of the taskforce, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, announced they had taken £8.2million from criminals under the Proceeds of Crime Act over the last year. Last October, we announced £24million of POCA money will be put back into communities to divert future generations from crime over the next three years. We will continue to work with our partners to ensure Scotland remains a hostile place for criminals and those who seek to peddle misery and suffering.”

Lindsey Miller, the Crown Office procurator fiscal for organised crime, said: “We constantly review the strategies employed by these groups to ensure we stay one step ahead. We will continue to use innovative investigative techniques as well as wide-ranging legal powers to ensure Scotland remains a hostile place for organised crime.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
The Italian Mob

ANTONIO La Torre, 55, a dad of three and member of the Camorra Mafia, came to Aberdeen in 1984. He’s the brother of Augusto La Torre, the former head of the powerful crime clan from Mondragone. He opened restaurants Pavarotti’s and Sorrento, expanding into health and fitness centres, import-export food firms and pubs and betting shops in Aberdeen, Dundee, Stirling, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness. He and his lieutenants were also involved in dealing in luxury cars.

His property deals included buying land in the centre of Aberdeen for a car park. A second involved buying a city centre building and renovating it into flats for a six-figure profit.

After setting up phantom companies in Scotland and Italy, he was able to obtain loans from banks to buy foodstuffs from his native Campania to export to the UK. Huge amounts of wine, pasta and olive oil for use in restaurants were involved. Other goods included building equipment and computers.

But as soon as the phantom firms got the cash, they were bankrupted by La Torre and the money was diverted into other accounts. His time in Scotland was over and he was extradited to Italy in 2005.

Other Italian mafia groups operating in the UK include the Sacra Corona Unita, from Apulia in southern Italy, who have interests in casinos, betting and property.

 

 

The notorious Sicilian Cosa Nostra also operate here, as well as the Ndrangheta from Calabria.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
The Eastern Europeans

Russian and Georgian gangs are known to run money-laundering operations, as well as interests spanning property, the wholesale and retail trade, sports and gaming.  And Czech and ethnic Slovak gangs have been linked to people trafficking and forced prostitution.

Political upheaval in eastern Europe in the 1990s led to Balkan crime gangs looking abroad to broaden their interests. The ultra-violent Albanian mafia – known as the Mafia Shqiptare – has operated in Scotland for more than a decade. Crooks from the impoverished state muscled in on Scotland’s drug and vice trades after fleeing their homeland in the late 1990s after the Kosovo war. In 2003.

Albanian illegal immigrant Luan Plakici was jailed for 23 years after being found guilty of trafficking women.  He arrived in the UK in 1996 and, after being granted asylum, created a £1million vice empire. The operation was based in London but the gang trafficked women to brothels throughout the UK, including Glasgow. Sources say Albanian gangs present a particular challenge due to their military backgrounds and extreme violence. They are known to be very difficult for outsiders to penetrate.

 

 

Triads run  £1billion Cannabis Industry in Scotland their organised gang groups operating here often employ illegal immigrants in restaurants as well as running dodgy retail scams. The gangs are also behind cannabis farms and bootleg DVDs.  http://flarenetwork.org/learn/europe/article/the_vastness_of_criminal_businesses_in_scotland.htm

 

 

 

Graeme Pearson Labour Party regional MSP for South Scotland and Spokesperson for Justice.

 

 

 

 

 

A fool or just deluded?

 

 

 

 

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:

 

https://caltonjock.com/2014/08/31/wee-willie-rennie-whit-a-toastie/
https://caltonjock.com/2015/05/16/willie-rennie-man-of-many-failings-driven-by-hatred-but-seeking-only-to-do-good-things-for-himself/
https://caltonjock.com/2015/10/04/willie-rennie-advises-snp-to-review-candidate-selection-procedures-ensuring-they-are-fit-persons-to-hold-public-office-a-bit-rich-coming-from-a-party-leader-whose-colleagues-are-struggling-in-the-sl/

 

 

 

 

 

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”.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_McKillop
http://powerbase.info/index.php/Scottish_Parliament_Science_Information_Service

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A pictorial view of a corporate elite network

 

 

 

 

 

First Minister McConnell accused of compromising the office of First Minister.

Corporate elites penetrated political and cultural networks in Scotland benefiting from the patronage of institutions. In this environment lobbying is seen as worthwhile by business interests, evidenced in the ever expanding lobbying and PR market which emerged post devolution.

In the first term of the Parliament lobbyists swarmed to the Mound, embroiling Jack McConnell in the Lobby- gate row, from which (contrary to a successful spin operation) McConnell was not exonerated of blame.

Lobbyists continued to find new avenues of approach to MSPs, ministers and civil servants. One of these was via “think tanks” a means for corporations to gain access to decision makers. The role of the “think tank” is to provide a disguise for corporate interests and to help populate the policy information environment with a seeming variety of voices.

Their aim, in other words,is to manage the perceptions and expectations of the political elite, to socialise them into neo-liberal values and to propose handy, seemingly workable solutions to political problems.

The gathered destructive power of “think tanks” was deployed against Scottish citizens at the time of the 2014 Scottish referendum on independence

Witnessed by the intervention, financially and through use of the combined weapons of the media, press and Westminster of the corporate elites’ in favour of the “Better Together” campaign.

The Tories are the driving force behind the expansion of influence of “think tanks” and it is important that Scots are mindful of the manipulation of their political thinking by these corporate elites at the time of the next referendum and in the intervening period

Required reading for all Scots: http://www.allofusfirst.org/commonweal/assets/File/4_Chapter_Two_-_Miller_Proofed.pdf

 

 

Open Europe

 

 

 

 

 

Open Europe – The European issue has been a defining fault-line for the Tory Party for a generation.

A less well known “think tank”, but arguably a very significant organisation connected to Cameron’s advisers is “Open Europe.” This think tank focuses on the European Union and is unusual in that it is directly supported by business leaders. “Open Europe believes that the EU must now embrace radical reform based on economic liberalisation.”

What this appears to mean is integrating all EU countries further and faster into the global economy but with a distinct Eurosceptic tinge. The Marquess of Salisbury is on the board of this organisation and amongst its supporters are Lord Sainsbury who donated to Cameron’s leadership campaign along with fellow donor Peter Gummer.

 

 

Pictorial growth of the Stockholm Network

 

 

 
The Stockholm Network

The Stockholm Network is the main liaison channel for free market European think tanks. It brings together over 120 think tanks from across Europe. Membership includes the stalwarts of the free market right from the early stages of the neo-liberal revolution. Namely:

* The Institute of Economic Affairs,(IEA)
* The Adam Smith Institute
* The Centre for Policy Studies (CPS)
* The Social Affairs Unit (SAU)

The Stockholm Network connects to a network of right wing think tanks in the US and has close links with the Heritage Foundation, which ‘frequently’ sends staff to Europe and has worked closely with like-minded European think tanks producing and launching a European edition of their “Index of Economic Freedom”, which ranks countries according to market friendly criteria like tax reduction and deregulation.

Think tanks depend on corporate funding and in many cases are set up at the instigation of corporations. Pfizer, Merck Sharp, Dohme (MSD) and Schering-Plough Corporations are a few that are engaged with the network.   http://powerbase.info/index.php/Stockholm_Network

 

 

Behind the EU-USA free trade agreement TTIP

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Heritage Foundation (US) – The secretive 1% who control the world economy

Member groups are dogmatic free-marketeers who intend to:

* Introduce minimalist flat taxes’ (thus ending redistribution via taxation)
* Terminate social protection systems
* Privatise healthcare
* Attack socially or environmentally progressive legislation, which is in place or under discussion, that places restrictions on market activity.
* Consistently cast doubt on the seriousness of climate change
* Oppose environmental regulations
* Promote free-market pseudo-solutions to virtually every problem.

 

 

  Bill Jamieson

 

 

 

 

 

The Policy Institute – The Starting Point In Scotland

The Policy Institute was a “think tank” created to coincide with the first election to the Scottish Parliament in 1999. It was strongly associated with and indeed for a time based in the offices of the Scotsman, the Barclay Brothers newspaper and took a strong neo-liberal and pro-market line.

Bill Jamieson, a senior journalist was the first Director of the PI, which had no office, “Only a desk at the Scotsman’, its Executive Director Tom Miers phrased it. He was the only salaried member of the PI, and joined it in May 2003 “to run the institute on a more full-time basis”. He formerly worked for the right wing leaning, Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) in an administrative role.

Jamieson described newspaper as very generous in allocating logistic resources to the PI and allowing a senior member of its staff to dedicate some of his time to the institute. An arch Thatcherite committed to a fight against deeper UK integration into the EU, Jamieson was a frequent guest at the IEA and at the Bruges Group.

The PI’s board of trustees was less impressive than that of other more established Scottish think-tanks such as the David Hume Institute and the Scottish Council Foundation. It comprised “The Scotsman” pundit Katie Grant, a top manager of Scottish Friendly Assurance Colin McLean, and Allan Massie, a journalist-turned-writer.

In the Scottish think-tank world, the David Hume Institute and the PI shared a similar ideological background, but differed in their style. The DHI was more academic and more restrained than the pro-market philosophy of the PI, which likened the Scottish NHS to Soviet-style bureaucracy and generally demanded that the forces of the free market should be let loose on the public sector.

Their goal was fuelled by the P.I.’s “mission and purpose” which was broadly to research how the classical liberal ideas of the Scottish Enlightenment could be applied to modern Scotland. The P.I. was a multi-issue think-tank that concentrated exclusively on Scotland’s economy, public services, environmental and agricultural policies, and modernisation of governance.

Without in-house expertise, scholars from the relevant fields are commissioned to write papers and newspaper contributions, so that the PI facilitates policy learning processes. The PI belongs to the neo-liberal privatisation advocacy community. It also has some features of a vanity think-tank, as it was the brainchild and hobby-horse of a Tory journalist at odds with the perceived leftist Scottish consensus. It certainly served the Scotsman as a reliable source for neo-liberal leaders and opinion pieces and, in a reciprocal process, as a further outlet of the broadsheet’s right wing political views. https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Policy_Institute

 

 

Reform Scotland think Tank

 

 

 
Reform Scotland – The Public Face

Reform Scotland is a public policy institute or ‘think tank’ established as a separate Scottish charity, supposedly independent of any political party or any other organisation being funded by donations from individuals, charitable trusts and corporate organisations. But it clearly a front for the Tory party

Its objective is to set out policies in Scotland that deliver increased economic prosperity and more effective public services based on the traditional Scottish principles of limited government, diversity and personal responsibility. It has an advisory board to agree its strategic goals and a separate board of management (Trustees) to oversee its day-to-day running. Reform Scotland’s policies cover the following broad themes:

• Better and more accountable government
• Greater devolution within a federal UK
• Shared prosperity based on a dynamic economy
• Stronger local communities
• Modern, high quality infrastructure
• Effective and responsive public services

Chairman: Alan McFarlane (Multi-Millionaire): McFarlane, netted £80 million from selling his business to Mellon Financial in 2006.

Director: Geoff Mawdsley: Director of Grayling Political Strategy in Scotland. (Right wing leaning lobbyist group). Chief Political Adviser (8 years) to the leader of the Scottish Conservative Party. Conservative candidate (Stirling) at the 2001 General Election (he lost).

Research Director: Alison Payne: Positions held: Head of Research (4 years) for the Scottish Conservative MSP group. Political adviser to Annabel Goldie, Leader of the Scottish Conservative Party. Conservative candidate for the 2007 City Council election in Edinburgh.  Senior Account Manager, PPS Group. Research director Reform Scotland. Political Blogger, The Herald.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reform Scotland – Another view

“Reform Scotland” is a Scottish free market think tank. It has been described in the press as the tartan offshoot of free-market think-tank “Reform”, the sister organisation of the London-based Tory run right-of-centre think tank started by the Tory Nick Herbert in 2001 and a counterpart to the “Reform” think-tank in London.

“Reform Scotland” maintains that it is an independent, autonomous organisation and is neither an outpost nor a branch of “Reform”. This might well be the formal position, but established links between the two include the fact that Andrew Haldenby the Director of “Reform”, was on both the Board of Management and the Advisory board of “Reform Scotland” on its launch in 2008.

“Reform Scotland” is a key player in lobbying activities at Holyrood, playing the role of ‘influential other’. helping to influence politicians and policy-makers on behalf of lobbying and PR companies.

Along with connections to the Scottish Conservative Party, it also has the lobbying firm “Message Matters” (http://messagematters.co.uk/) under its employ, which lists prominent “Better Together” advocates, the “Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland” (ICAS) and “Standard Life” in its list of clients.

The think-tank reveals little about the sources of its funding, but it is known that donations come from a wide range of society and major organisations, not just the financial sector.

The chair of Reform Scotland” is Alan McFarlane, a multi-millionaire financier who has ties to the neo-liberal, free-market think tank, “David Hume Institute”.  http://reformscotland.com/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Morning Star Has Another View

Reform Scotland is a right-wing think tank and member of “The Stockholm Network.” It is mainly sponsored by the finance sector – the very gnomes who have been whispering in John Swinney’s ear over the Scottish Futures Trust. It aims to influence the Scottish policy agenda at Holyrood. Unsurprisingly, one of its interests is increasing competition in public services. Advisers at the time of its launch included were:

* Ben Thomson, chairman of the Noble finance group.

* Trevor Matthews, chief executive of Friends Provident.

* Sir Richard Sykes, former chairman of Glaxosmithkline.

The director is Geoff Mawdsley, former senior adviser to the Scottish Tories, and the trustees are drawn from across the financial services sector. And who was in discussions with the head of Reform Scotland just before its launch? Step forward Wendy Alexander.

Ian McKerron, media adviser for Reform Scotland stated (tongue in cheek?) that Reform Scotland is not aligned or affiliated to any political party and is a registered charity which accepts donations from a range of sources, not just the financial sector.”

 

 

 
Hay & McKerron – Media Advisers to the network

Gordon Hay and Ian McKerron have between them held senior positions on The Scotsman, Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, Daily Express, Sunday Express, Daily Mirror, Daily Record, Sunday Mirror, Today, Press & Journal and Aberdeen Evening Express. As freelances, they also worked for every national newspaper in the UK, including the Daily Telegraph and The Times.

Not much to write home about then since this grouping of newspapers was and still are in vanguard of a “Campaign of Fear and misinformation” waged on the Scottish public at the time of and since the referendum.

Discussing, on their website their PR strategy for “Reform Scotland” they maintain that the think tank is independent, non-political and aims to set out better ways of delivering increased economic prosperity and more effective public services based on traditional Scottish principles of limited government, diversity and personal responsibility.

Engaged to help launch the organisation they have been further retained to provide media advice and to plan and implement overall and individual media campaigns for “Reform Scotland’s” research papers and public events.

Before each of the think tank’s research papers is published, Hay McKerron are brought in to discuss and advise on media strategies, organise mock Q&As, to construct and distribute high-calibre but easy-to-read press releases, to organise journalists’ briefings and press conferences and to field questions from the media. According to Hay McKerron “Reform Scotland” has rapidly earned the reputation as one of the country’s most influential and authoritative economic research bodies’. http://www.hay-mckerron.co.uk/who-we-are.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cameron is playing cat and mouse with Scot’s on independence

Despite repeated assertions from David Cameron that independence was for Scot’s to decide, without unwelcome input from Westminster, the Tory government used every trick in the book seeking, together with others to deny the SNP a fair campaign in the independence referendum.

The full name of the Conservative Party,  is the Conservative and Unionist Party. That the Unionist portion refers to Ireland rather than Scotland is of no consequence; the point is clear – the Conservatives want to preserve the three-century old union between Scotland and England.

Most Conservatives hold this unionist truth to be self-evident, yet the rhetoric glosses over an uncomfortable historical fact: when Irish Nationalism reached its peak in the early 1920s it was the Conservatives – as the dominant partner in Lloyd George’s coalition government – who bade the Irish Free State farewell, and who fudged the Ulster question by imposing a “home rule” parliament called Stormont.

 

Sir William Harcourt

 

 

 

As the Liberal statesman Sir William Harcourt perceptively observed, “The Tories never yet have taken up a cause which they did not ultimately betray”. David Cameron may have been sincere when he said the next Conservative government would “believe in the Union and will never do anything to put it at risk”, but he must also realise that preserving it will take more than warm words.

And although Cameron’s Conservatives may not ultimately betray Scotland’s place in the union they will certainly have to compromise. While political cohabitation within the United Kingdom has been a reality since the SNP was returned to government in Scotland last May, the dynamic between a Unionist Tory government in London and a Nationalist SNP administration in Edinburgh is straining the union as never before.

But David Cameron is no Margaret Thatcher and his government has not embarked on an ideological crusade against “subsidy junkie” Scots. On the contrary, as a primarily tactical politician the Tory leader is acutely aware of how Nicola Sturgeon depicts his “alien” government. But Cameron, before the General Election earlier this year said “a Conservative government will govern the whole of the United Kingdom, including Scotland, with respect.”

 

 

 

The fatherly approach by Cameron is designed to create the perception that SNP attacks are churlish but, this will not be enough to “strengthen the Union.” He is also under pressure from the extremist fringe of Tory MPs who want to bid Scotland farewell as they did Ireland more than 80 years ago; those for whom the Scots are an electoral liability who should no longer be allowed to compromise majority Tory support in England.

Cameron is resisting this, at the same time placating grumbling backbenchers with EVEL getting round the perennial question of West Lothian. The post of Secretary of State for Scotland – which was to be abandoned by the Labour Party has also been restored to Cabinet, mitigating against accusations that the Conservatives do not take Scotland seriously.

It is clear, in the months since the General Election that Cameron is pursuing a more positive brand of unionism. The pro-union arguments of old have often been as vague as Nationalist ones are woolly, but a speech by the Scottish Secretary, David Mundell revealed a subtle shift in emphasis. “Well, of course Scotland could survive as an independent country,” he suggested “but we believe that her future is better served as part of the Union, and here are the reasons why…”

 

David Mundell

 

 

The reasons – economic, disproportionate influence and resources – are, hardly new, but in politics tone is important, and tone is something Cameron does well. Nicola Sturgeon, however, is not stupid. She, like his counterpart in Downing Street, will be aware of the subtleties of a Conservative/Nationalist cohabitation and will act accordingly. The “No” vote in the independence referendum, compels the Prime and First Ministers to reach a deal.

Having already signed up to the Smith Commission report, Cameron has no problems endorsing greater fiscal powers for Holyrood. It removes the sting from the Barnett Formula, much-resented by English Tory MPs. Nicola Sturgeon, too, will lose no sleep over agreeing to additional powers as a necessary step on the road to independence.

This, of course, will not be an end to the constitutional question. But when independence again looks inevitable the Conservatives will not defend it kicking and screaming. Instead Cameron will cast an eye back to the Government of Ireland Act in 1921 and accept a pragmatic solution. “I want to be Prime Minister of the United Kingdom”, he declared in May, “all of it, including Scotland.” But then Cameron has to say that.

Another Anglo-Scots Tory, Andrew Bonar Law, used to say something similar of Ireland. But when it came to the crunch he inevitably capitulated. “When I say I am in favour of this (Anglo-Irish] Agreement,” he told the House in December 1921, “I do not pretend to like it, but I ask myself this: What is the alternative?” David Cameron could find himself echoing those sentiments in relation to Scotland.

The foregoing article, (updated, retaining it’s probity) was first published in The Scotsman, 26 September 2008. It was written by David Torrance, freelance writer, journalist and broadcaster and former aide to the Scottish Secretary, David Mundell.

http://www.scotsman.com/news/cameron-plans-a-clever-game-of-cat-and-mouse-on-independence-1-1134871

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

21 September 2015: Hedge Funds and power over people and governments. This is power. Hedge Fund manager increases drug cost from $13.50 to $750 per unit

What would you do if the price of your everyday prescription rose 5,500%?

It may seem far-fetched, but it’s exactly what happened to Daraprim (pyrimethamine), a drug originally developed over 60 years ago to fight protozoal infections like malaria and toxoplasmosis. After Martin Shkreli, a former hedge fund manager, acquired the drug for his company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, he raised the price by 55 times overnight.

Daraprim used to cost just $13.50 per dose. Now it’s $750 for each and every tablet, meaning some people who need it to manage chronic infections have seen the cost of their health-care explode into the six-figure range. People who take Daraprim include immunocompromised HIV and cancer patients.

http://mic.com/articles/125619/hedge-fund-manager-s-turing-pharmaceuticals-raises-62-year-old-drug-from-13-50-to-750

 

 

 

 

 

The Tory Party and the Hedge Funds

The purpose of this post is expose to readers the tolly that is political wheeler-dealing and multinational corruption. The true nature of the relationships between the Tory Party and Hedge Funds. There might well be some who take the view the subject has been done to death but I do not subscribe to this.

Hedge Funds control vast sums of money and are accountable only to their shareholders who in turn are fabulously wealthy and spread over every country in the world.

Hedge funds are protected from any government interference since all accounts are held safe and secure being located in tax havens such as the Bahamas. Information pertaining to how much is held and by whom is, by result unobtainable.

Any income tax liability to the UK, which may arise is contested until exhaustion, usually requiring payment to the UK treasury of a ludicous amount, much less than should be the case.

 

Short selling caused the 1932 stock market crash and the 2007-2008 financial disaster

 

 

Short Selling – A thieves charter

It is also the case, but not widely known that Hedge Funds brought about the world financial crisis in 2007-2008 through a process called “short selling”

“Short selling is the sale of a security that is not owned by the seller, or that the seller has borrowed. Short selling is motivated by the belief that a security’s price will decline, enabling it to be bought back at a lower price to make a profit.”

What the Hedge Funds did was sell off large amounts of their holdings, at a higher price in a number of key worldwide financial organisations (banks & building societies). The value of the shares dropped massively, in theory providing opportunity for the Hedge Funds to buy back shares at a much reduced price making large profits. But the risky “ponzie scheme” backfired as many of the organisations were already exposed to other pressures. Hence the near collapse of the worlds financial base.

But Hedge Funds were unaffected since their money had been safely salted away in the Bahamas etc. And they reaped a massive financial reward when governments bailed out failing financial institutions increasing the value of their stocks, doubling and more, their profits at the expense of the UK taxpayer. David Cameron, George Osborne and many other Tories have accounts in tax havens reducing their tax liability.

 

 

 

 

28 September 2008: Cameron’s secretive donors bet on the collapse of Bradford & Bingley and other institutions

David Cameron faced embarrassment on the eve of his party conference last night after members of a secretive club of Tory donors were linked to the ‘short-selling’ of the collapsing Bradford & Bingley. As the bank was taken into the hands of the authorities ahead of its break-up or nationalisation, two members of Mr Cameron’s elite Leaders Group were revealed to have bet on its falling share price, which has dropped by 95 per cent in a year.

A hedge fund managed by Michael Hintze, who has given £660,000 to the Tories since Mr Cameron took over, declared ‘bets’ on the bank’s falling share price in July. A second fund, GLG Partners, which declared its ‘short-selling’ in Bradford & Bingley in June, is managed by Belgian Pierre Lagrange, whose wife Catherine has given £50,000 to the Conservative Party. Both Mrs Lagrange and Mr Hintze are members of the Leaders Group, which grants access to the Tory leader and his inner circle in return for a £50,000 donation.

The links between Mr Cameron and the City of London figures dubbed alleged ‘robbers in pinstripes’ emerged after Channel 4’s Dispatches programme obtained the names of the 100-strong Leaders Group. The programme, identified Paul Ruddock and David Craigen of Lansdowne Partners, who have given £260,000 between them, as among seven hedge-fund members of the group. Lansdowne is reported to have made £100million by betting that Northern Rock would collapse and has helped to drive down the value of Barclays by selling shares in the bank worth £151million in recent months.

In April it was announced that Mr Lagrange, one of two managers of GLG, had paid himself £400million after using complex financial instruments to make money in the global downturn. Last year the company paid more than £1.5million to American authorities to settle claims of illegal short-selling, without admitting or denying the allegations.

Mr Lagrange, 45, who lives with Catherine and their three children in a £15million house in Chelsea and a £21million mansion in Oxfordshire, was forced to declare his company’s ‘short’ position on Bradford & Bingley, along with Mr Hintze’s outfit CQS, after the Financial Services Authority (FSA) ordered institutions to do so. The practice has now been banned until January after it was blamed for the demise of banks such as Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and HBoS.

Last year Mr Cameron apologised ‘unreservedly’ after The Mail on Sunday disclosed that he had been using his taxpayer-funded Commons office to stage lunches for the Leaders Group. The Committee on Standards and Privileges criticised Mr Cameron for ‘abusing’ Westminster facilities. Members of the group are promised that they will be ‘kept close to policy developments and meet with the Leader several times a year at small dinners or lunches’. Its activities are shrouded in secrecy. The Tories refused to disclose who attends the meetings or to confirm that they have been held at Mr Cameron’s home.

Neither would they explain why Mrs Lagrange had made the donation rather than her husband, or whether her donation gave Mr Lagrange the right to attend the meetings. Mr Lagrange’s spokesman said the donation was made by his wife on the basis that ‘her and her husband thought the party was doing some good things and decided to give them some money’.

Last night Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker, whose request to Mr Cameron for details of all meetings held by the group since April 2007 was refused, said: ‘It seems that Mr Cameron’s commitment to freedom of information stops as soon as it concerns his own financial activities.’

A Tory spokesman said: ‘We have donors from a wide range of businesses, including retail, industry, property, insurance and financial management. All donations are legal and comply with Electoral Commission rules. ‘This party has led the way on party funding reform. Only when Labour failed to address the question of its heavy reliance on trade unions did recent talks on the issue collapse.’

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1063358/How-Camerons-secretive-donors-bet-collapse-Bradford-amp-Bingley.html

 

 

 

 

 

24 January 2009: Revealed: Day the banks were just three hours from collapse

Narrow escape: The Bank of England was forced to contact RBS’s creditors abroad to persuade them not to withdraw their funds. Britain was just three hours away from going bust last year after a secret run on the banks, one of Gordon Brown’s Ministers has revealed. City Minister Paul Myners disclosed that on Friday, October 10, the country was ‘very close’ to a complete banking collapse after ‘major depositors’ attempted to withdraw their money en masse.

The Treasury was preparing for the banks to shut their doors to all customers, terminate electronic transfers and even block hole-in-the-wall cash withdrawals. Only frantic behind-the-scenes efforts averted financial meltdown. If the moves had failed, Mr Brown would have been forced to announce that the Government was nationalising the entire financial system and guaranteeing all deposits.

But 60-year-old Lord Myners was accused last night of being ‘completely irresponsible’ for admitting the scale of the crisis while the recession was still deepening and major institutions such as Barclays remain under intense pressure.

The build-up to ‘Black Friday’ started on Monday, October 6, when the FTSE 100 dropped by nearly eight per cent as bad news on the economy started to multiply. The following day, Chancellor Alistair Darling began all-night talks ahead of an announcement on the Wednesday that billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money would be used to pour liquidity into the system. But shares continued to plummet, turning into a rout on the Friday when the FTSE crashed by ten per cent within minutes of opening.

Both Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS were nearing complete collapse – but Lord Myners, who built up his fortune during a long career in the City, said the problems ran far wider. ‘There were two or three hours when things felt very bad, nervous and fragile,’ he said. ‘Major depositors were trying to withdraw – and willing to pay penalties for early withdrawal – from a number of large banks.’

The threat to the system was so severe that the Bank of England was forced to contact RBS’s creditors in New York and Tokyo to persuade them not to withdraw their funds, but it is not known which other banks faced a run on their reserves. ‘We faced the very real problem of how banks could stop depositors from withdrawing their money,’ a Treasury source said yesterday. ‘The banks themselves were selling their shareholdings, accelerating the stock-market falls, and preparing to shut up shop. Mortgages would have been sold on and savers would have been spooked, to put it mildly. It would have been chaos.’

After a weekend of crisis talks, which concluded at dawn on the Monday, it was announced that Lloyds TSB was taking over HBOS, supported by £17billion of taxpayers’ money, and RBS would receive an injection of £20billion – prompting the resignation of RBS’s infamous chief executive, Sir Fred ‘the shred’ Goodwin. Share prices at last started a small rally.

Ruth Lea, economic adviser to the Arbuthnot Banking Group, said ‘We are not out of the woods yet,’ I fear for Barclays, after the fall in its share price, and Lloyds has been damaged by the HBOS takeover. Adding If it was panning out in that way, then the Government would have had no choice but to step in and nationalise the entire financial system.’

Lord Myners also said that bank executives had been ‘grossly over-rewarded’ during the ‘golden days’ of big bonuses. ‘They are people who have no sense of the broader society around them,’ he said. ‘There is quite a lot of annoyance and much of that is justified.’

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1127278/Revealed-Day-banks-just-hours-collapse.html

 

 

 

Forward in time to 2015

A leap forward to 2015: after 5 years of a Tory/LibDem government the UK is even worse off than in 2008. National debt exceeds £1.6trillion and the Tories are returned to office, with a working majority. The key word being bandied about by Cameron, Osborne and other members of the Tory party is “austerity”. They are determined to reduce debt by slashing the UK’s welfare state, no matter the cost to middle and low income families. But Hedge Funds and the wealthy are of course well protected from the effects of any austerity measures.

The Tories and the Hedge Funds merge their interests, to the detriment of the UK. Cameron and his buddies bed down with the very people who almost destroyed the UK. Unbelievable.!!!

 

 

 

 

 

5 February 2015: Party of the rich? Almost 50% of Tory donors are hedge fund managers – research

The ruling Conservative Party is unlikely to shake off its image of being the ‘party of the rich’ as recent data shows nearly half of its donors come from wealthy hedge funds.

The analysis, which was put together by the opposition Labour Party, showed how nearly 50 percent of donations to the Conservatives were linked to big business in the City of London, effectively acting as an unofficial lobby group.

According to the data, 27 of the party’s major donors featured in the Sunday Times “rich list,” and have donated more than £19 million during this election cycle. The news comes in spite of warnings from Tory leaders that the Conservatives are still too close to Britain’s elite.

The criticism came after Boots boss Stefano Pessina, who is worth an estimated £7.5 billion, said the Labour leader’s policies would have a “catastrophic impact” on commercial activity in the UK.

“David Cameron is debasing political debate by refusing to answer questions over his hedge fund backers,” Labour’s vice-chair of its election campaign, Lucy Powell, told the Guardian. “This research shows just how reliant the Tories’ campaign is on those in the hedge fund industry.”

“While Labour would clamp down on tax avoidance by hedge funds in order to deliver investment to the NHS frontline, the Tories have given hedge funds a tax cut worth £145 million. The Tories are standing up for those at the top rather than hardworking families, and David Cameron doesn’t want to admit it.”

The report has a strong correlation with analysis conducted by the Financial Times last year, which found the City’s support for the Conservatives had doubled compared to the period between 2005 and 2010.

FT analysis additionally found that 35 percent of Conservative Party funding came from eight elite business people in the City, who have, to date, donated £12.2 million to the party.

Earlier this week, Miliband attacked the prime minister for failing to tackle tax avoidance by hedge funds, which the party believes costs the UK more than £100 million a year.

“Everyone pays stamp duty on stock market transactions except hedge funds, who are allowed to avoid it, costing hundreds of millions of pounds. You have been funded to the tune of £47 million by the hedge funds,” Miliband said during this week’s Prime Minister’s Questions.

https://www.rt.com/uk/229631-conservative-party-funding-hedge/

 

 

 

 

 

20 February 2015: Dirty’ Money: Political parties face public scrutiny over ‘suspect’ donations (VIDEO) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2RzKCny0dk

https://www.rt.com/uk/234159-election-reform-dirty-poll/

 

 

 

 
​Tories bankrolled by hedge funds in offshore tax havens, new analysis shows

Conservative Party candidates are bankrolled by hedge fund donations siphoned to Westminster from lucrative tax havens including the Cayman Islands, new analysis suggests.

Figures released on Thursday by the Electoral Commission detail donations received by Britain’s political parties since the general election campaign began.

Sixteen of Europe’s 50 most prolific hedge funds are financing the Conservatives. Each of these funds is nestled in a far-flung offshore tax haven. Critics suggest the Conservative Party’s outward opposition to tax avoidance is politically motivated lip service, with no firm basis in policy.

The Labour Party said the data is evidence of the Conservative Party’s intimate relationship with wealthy financiers. The party’s Shadow Cabinet Office minister Jon Ashworth said it is unsurprising the Conservatives are failing to tackle tax avoidance when their most lucrative donors own hedge funds situated in tax havens. “The Tory campaign is bankrolled by big money donors from hedge funds,” he added.

Hugh Sloane and George Robinson, co-founders of hedge fund Sloane Robinson, have collectively handed almost £950,000 to the Conservative Party. A number of their funds are strategically located in the Cayman Islands. Both financiers were hit by allegations of tax dodging in 2012 after investing in a tax avoidance scheme used by City banks and footballers. A judge said at the time the Guernsey-based trust was purely “cosmetic,” and ordered them to pay back millions. Speaking to the Guardian, Sloane said Labour’s critique of the Conservatives financial backing shows the party misunderstands the hedge fund industry. “They are barking up the wrong tree. We have done nothing wrong, and we are paying taxes in the UK,” he said.

Another leading hedge fund donor who has given generously to the Conservatives is Michael Platt of BlueCrest Management. Platt, who founded the Jersey-based firm, has reportedly offered £125,000 in total to the Conservatives.

Additionally, Paul Ruddock and David Craigen, from hedge fund Lansdowne Partners, have given more than £900,000 to the Tories. The firm has funds in both the Cayman Islands and Delaware. Although Ruddock officially stepped down from Lansdowne Partners in 2013, he remains a Conservative Party donor.

Twelve of the 16 hedge funds bankrolling the Conservatives have at least one fund in a Cayman Island tax haven. The Caribbean islands are a leading global financial center, and are particularly popular with the international hedge fund industry.

Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader David Cameron announced plans in 2013 to tackle financial secrecy, clamp down on tax avoidance and make tax havens linked to Britain more transparent. However, despite his assurance Britain’s crown dependencies and overseas territories would create registers to identify the owners of secretive shell companies and trusts based in these tax havens, no progress was ever made. Most of the relevant tax havens – including the Cayman Islands and Jersey – later confirmed they would not be implementing Cameron’s proposed reforms.

https://www.rt.com/uk/250325-tories-bankrolled-hedgefunds-industry/

 

 

 

 

 

19 February 2015: Hedge fund lobbying’: Tories wine and dine 45 tycoons in 12 weeks

The Tories held lavish private dinners for 45 wealthy businessmen and hedge fund chiefs over the course of 12 weeks in 2014. Critics say the tycoons are funding marginal Conservative seats that could sway the result of the general election. In the Conservatives’ most recent transparency filing, details of glitzy dinners held for wealthy donors have caused controversy. According to official figures, private dinners were hosted for members of Prime Minister David Cameron’s “leaders group” whose collective donations to the Conservatives since 2011 surpass £40 million.

The tycoons have recently channeled £5 million towards various Conservative constituency groups, 70 of which relate to marginal Tory seats. In return for handing over £50,000 each, they receive direct access to Cameron and his cabinet members. The extravagant dinners differ markedly from other Conservative fundraising events such as black tie balls. They are reportedly much more intimate evenings, where donors can freely discuss politics and policy with key government ministers.

Cameron said in 2010 lobbying was “the next big scandal waiting to happen” in Britain. However, since the Tories have been in power, anti-corruption think tank Transparency International UK says British politics has been blighted by at least 14 major lobbying scandals. The think tank says such scandals include MPs and select peers agreeing to lobby for payment, the coalition’s failure to publicly disclose evidence for certain policy decisions, and evidence of a revolving door between business and politics.

The Tories’ transparency filing shows key Conservative ministers wined and dined scores of its top donors between October and December 2014. It also indicates the PM personally hosted wealthy hedge fund manager Sir Michael Hinzte at a private dinner last October.

Labour’s Shadow Cabinet office minister, Jon Ashworth, said the revelations suggest the Tories had effectively become the “political wing of the hedge fund industry.” Ashworth warned a self-interested group of hedge fund chiefs and businessmen are assisting the party in buying the general election. He stressed these are the very millionaires the Conservatives recently offered tax cuts to.

Another donor who attended the Tories’ private dinners is Swiss national Georg von Opel. Opel has been resident in Switzerland since 1973. Renowned for its financial secrecy, the country is a hive of hedge fund activity.

Other well-heeled donors who attended the soirees include Howard Shore, founder of stock brokers firm Shore Capital, Michael Spencer, founder of disgraced City inter-dealer broker Icap, and metals trading tycoon and Tory treasurer Lord Farmer. Alexander Temerko, chief of oil and gas firm Offshore Group Newcastle, was also an attendee. Temerko told the Newcastle Journal in November the Tories “spend time and listen to us.” “They change the law and they change the regulation, and the regulation today is simpler and much more effective,” he added.

As details of political party donations across Britain emerged on Thursday, chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life Lord Bew said “public skepticism” is rife. He said resistance from Conservative and Labour MPs makes the system very difficult to reform. Bew argued increased transparency is paramount, particularly regarding the financial affairs of wealthy donors who are made peers.

Britain’s Electoral Reform Society published a report on Thursday addressing the murky world of political party funding. The report said transparency is key to public trust. It argued Britons have become so disenchanted with mainstream UK political parties, they “have grown to expect” funding scandals.

The Electoral Reform Society’s research revealed eight political parties in Britain received a total of £22 million in the last quarter of 2014. The group called for a cap on donations to curb Britain’s “big donor” culture, increased public funding of political parties, and the imposition of a cap on campaign spending.

Transparency International UK also calls for widespread reform of lobbying in Britain. It warns many “lobbying distortions and abuses” are currently legal in the UK. In a report published earlier this year, it said MPs must target and clamp down on “lobbying loopholes” that facilitate “corrupt activity.” 40% of Tory Donations come from Hedge Funds 20% come from sources linked to Private Healthcare.

https://www.rt.com/uk/233683-lobbying-donors-tories-hedgefunds/

 

Queen confirms, “we are all in this together” as she starts her new job

 

 

 

 

 

Early moves setting up the UK Goverment of Scotland

 

 

 

 

Let me Set The Scene The UK Government of Scotland

Many will not know this body of government over Scotland exists, but it was formed in secret only recently. Sir Andrew Dunlop and Mundell are the architects of the change and they are a couple of cute cookies who will have ulterior motives fordoing this.

I know Mundell has been beavering away in Orkney and Shetland in recent months, concocting plans usurping the Scottish Parliament, creating an environment within which he would be able to divide and rule Scotland whilst giving the impression he is only seeking to assist the regions.

His mucker Dunlop has been charged with the role of Foreign Minster for the Scottish Government in the UK. To this end he has been busy setting up his own contact network within the EC and other parts of the world.

Other MP’s in Westminster with Scottish connections will, in time be allocated posts in the newly formed Scottish Government for the UK increasing it’s size and powers

The Scottish Parliament will be neutered  dealing with mundane matters.

Scottish MP’s will become increasingly disaffected as their role at Westminster fades and questions will be raised at Westminster as to the need to retain them in light of the new arrangements.

 

 

 
The UK Government in Scotland. A Likely Scenario

The Scotland Office is part of the UK Government for Scotland. It’s full terms of reference will become clear in time. But in essence all finance allocated by Westminster will be first transferred to the UK Government for Scotland. Distribution of Funds will be decided by The Secretary of State for Scotland after consulting with appropriate bodies within Scotland. The emphasis of governance will be to allocate some budgets to local government on a direct reporting basis.

Finance not so tramsferred will be allocated to the Scottish parliament to administer to universal functions on a national basis in Scotland. A number of budgets will be ring fenced and any year end underspend will be returned to The UK Government for Scotland for consideration of amended distribution or return to the UK Treasury.

Special development areas will be formed,  or they may apply directly to the UK Government for Scotland, with/for, increased levels of autonomy. The elected leaders of these areas will work closely with the office of the Secretary of State for Scotland so that improvements can be assured and monitored. Two areas will be formed within the lifetime of the present UK Government for Scotland, namely Orkney and Shetland.

 

 

 

 

Good Governance and the Role of the Upper Chamber

At the time of the 1999 devolution settlement the need for a second chamber was given consideration, but rejected as unnecessary due to the limited powers of the newly formed parliament.

However, the recent decision to greatly enhance devolved powers brought about the need to establish an upper chamber with powers and responsibilties matching those presently enjoyed by the House of Lords at Westminster.

The upper chamber, to be known as the Scottish House of Lords will sit at the Royal High School in Edinburgh. It is expected to be in place by 2019.

Under these arrangements Scottish peers presently at Westminster will transfer to the Scottish House of Lords or resign. In the event of resignation from the House they will retain their peerage. Total membership of the House will not exceed 50. Retirement will be compulsory at age 70. 25% of peers will subject to election at the end of each parliament.

 

 

 

 

There will be other changes and these will be published in the course of time.

 

 

 

 

 

Summary:

Scotland is the only nation in the world in modern times to have rejected freedom in favour of being governed by another nation whose track record over the past 300 years is worse than that of Ghengis Khan and his hordes. I love my country and fear the future.

 

 

 

 

 

Ireland under the Union 1800 – 1900

In 1800 Westminster announced Ireland had agreed to join the United Kingdom, mirroring the 1707 decision of Scottish lords. But, as it was in the case of Scotland where Scots were not consulted, the Irish too were sold down the river. It would take Ireland 130 years of brutal suppression, clearances, penal colony banishment and armed struggle to regain it’s independence from the most insidious form of governance the world has ever witnessed.

 

 

This is wee taster. It is noteworthy that very many of the lies, deceit and brutality (the Scots’ 1745 refusal of obedience to “German Geordie”. Culloden and 50 years of martial Law inflicted on the highlanders.) had been practised on Scot’s in the ninety years’ that had elapsed since the “Act of Union” had been signed.

Westminster politicians simply implemented their dastardly plans well knowing, (through their successful subjugation of the Scots) the effects their political expediency would have on the Irish, placing English desires for expansion above morality.

 

 

 

1800 The French revolution and  it’s impact on England

The French revolution caused great concern in Westminster. The very thought that the public would be paramount in decisions about how a country would be governed almost caused apoplexy within royal circles, the ruling class and amongst Westminster politicians. Their was much talk of war and the religious leanings of the Irish towards Rome. Something needed to be done.

 

 

 

1800 Westminster makes it’s move and annexes Ireland into the United Kingdom

The horror of death lay over Ireland; cruelty and terror raised to a frenzy; government by martial law; a huge army (upwards of 170 battalions of infantry and artillery) occupying the country. In that dark time the plan for the Union with England, secretly prepared in London, was announced to the Irish parliament.

It seemed that England had everything to gain by a union. There was one objection. There was fear that a hundred Irishmen would strengthen the democratic side of the English parliament; others that their eloquence would lengthen and perhaps confuse debates. But it was held that a hundred members would be lost in the British parliament, and that Irish doctrines would be sunk in the sea of English common sense.

 

 

 

In Ireland a union was detested as a conspiracy against its liberties. The parliament at once rejected it; no parliament, it was urged, had a right to pass an act destroying the constitution of Ireland, and handing over the dominion to another country, without asking consent of the nation.

Pitt, the British Prime Minister refused to have anything to say to this Jacobin doctrine of the sovereignty of the people. A doctrine he would oppose wherever he encountered it.

The Union, Pitt said, was no proposal to subject Ireland to a foreign yoke, but a voluntary association of two great countries seeking their common benefit in one empire.

 

Just had to get her in

 

 

 

 

There were progresses of the viceroy, visits of political agents, military warnings, threats of eviction, to induce petitions in its favour

All reforms were refused the outrageous system of collecting tithes, the disabilities of Catholics so as to keep something to bargain with; 137,000 armed men were assembled in Ireland.

 

They disrespected the flag and were made to carry it around the town. Their bodies were found in a field outside town 

 

 

 

But amid the universal detestation and execration of a Union the government dared not risk an election, and proceeded to pack the parliament privately.

By official means the Commons were purged of sixty-three opponents, and safe men put in, some Englishmen, some staff-officers, men without a foot of land in Ireland. There were, contrary to one of the new laws, seventy-two place-holders and pensioners in the House.

Fifty-four peerages were given to buy consciences. The borough-holders were offered 1 ¼ millions to console them for loss in sale of seats. There was a host of minor pensions. Threats and disgrace were used to others.

Large sums were sent from London to bribe the Press, and corrupt the wavering with ready money. Pitt pledged himself to emancipation.

Thus in 1800, at the point of the sword, and amid many adjurations to speed from England, the Act of Union was forced through the most corrupt parliament ever created by a government.

 

 

 

It was said that only seven of the majority were no bribed. An Act “formed in the British cabinet, unsolicited by the Irish nation,” “passed in the middle of war, in the centre of a tremendous military force, under the influence of immediate personal danger,” was followed, as wise men had warned, by generations of strife.

A hundred years of ceaseless agitation, from the first tragedy of an abortive rising in 1803, proclaimed the undying opposition of Irishmen to a Union that from the first lacked all moral sanction.

An English parliament, all intermediate power being destroyed, was now confronted with the Irish people. Of that people it knew nothing, of its national spirit, its conception of government or social life.

The history and literature which might reveal the mind of the nation is so neglected that to this day there is no means for its study in the Imperial University, nor the capital of Empire.

 

 

 

The Times perceived in “the Celtic twilight” a “slovenly old barbarism.”

Peel in his ignorance thought Irishmen had good qualities except for “a general confederacy in crime … a settled and uniform system of guilt, accompanied by horrible and monstrous perjuries such as could not be found in any civilised country.”

Promises were lavished to commend the Union. Ministers assured Ireland of less expenditure and lighter taxation: with vast commerce and manufactures, a rise in the value of land, and a stream of English capital and industry.

All contests being referred from the island to Great Britain to a body not like the Irish influenced by prejudices and passions. Ireland would for the first time arrive at national union.

The passing over to London of the chief part of Irish intelligence and wealth would give to Ireland “a power over the executive and general policy of the Empire which would far more than compensate her”; and would, in fact, lead to such a union of hearts that presently it would not matter, Pitt hoped, whether members for Ireland were elected in Ireland or in England.

Ireland would also be placed in “a natural situation,” for by union with the Empire she would have fourteen to three in favour of her Protestant establishment, instead of three to one against it as happened in the country itself; so that Protestant ascendency would be for ever assured.

The Catholics, however, would find in the pure and serene air of the English legislature impartial kindness, and the poor might hope for relief from tithes and the need of supporting their clergy.

All Irish financiers and patriots contended that the fair words were deceptive, and that the Union must bring to Ireland immeasurable disaster.

Any discussion of the Union in its effect on Ireland lies apart from a discussion of the motives of men who administered the system in the last century. The system itself, wrongly conceived and wrongly enforced, contained the principles of ruin, and no good motives could make it work for the benefit of Ireland, or, in the long run, of England.

Oppressive financial burdens were laid on the Irish.

Each country was for the next twenty years to provide for its own expenditure and debt, and to contribute a sum to the general expenses of the United Kingdom, fixed in the proportion of seven and a half parts for Great Britain and one part for Ireland.

The debt of Ireland had formerly been small; in 1793 it was 2 ¼ millions; it had risen to nearly 28 millions by 1801, in great measure through the charges of Clare’s policy of martial law and bribery.

 

 

The Black and Tans

 

In the next years heavy loans were required for the Napoleonic war. When Ireland, exhausted by calamity, was unable to pay, loans were raised in England at heavy war-rates and charged to the public debt of Ireland.

In 1817 the Irish debt had increased more than fourfold, to nearly 113 millions. No record was made in the books of the Exchequer as to what portion of the vast sums raised should in fairness be allotted to Ireland; there is no proof that there was any accuracy in the apportionment.

The promised lighter taxation ended in a near bankruptcy, and the approach of an appalling famine in 1817.

 

 

Bankruptcy was avoided by uniting the two treasuries to form one national debt—but the burden of Ireland remained as oppressive as before. Meanwhile the effect of the Union had been to depress all Irish industries and resources, and in these sixteen years the comparative wealth of Ireland had fallen, and the taxes had risen far beyond the rise in England.

The people sank yet deeper under their heavy load. The result of their incapacity to pay the amount fixed at the Union was, that of all the taxes collected from them for the next fifty-three years, one-third was spent in Ireland, and two-thirds were absorbed by England; from 1817 to 1870 the cost of government in Ireland was under 100 millions, while the contributions to the imperial exchequer were 210 millions, so that Ireland sent to England more than twice as much as was spent on her.

 

The tribute from Ireland to England in the last ninety-three years, over and above the cost of Irish administration, has been over 325 millions. A sum which would probably be much increased by a more exact method both of recording the revenue collected from Ireland and the “local” and “imperial” charges, so as to give the full Irish revenue, and to prevent the debiting to Ireland of charges for which she was not really liable.

While this heavy ransom was exacted Ireland was represented as a beggar, never satisfied, at the gates of England.

 

 

 

Later, in 1852, Gladstone began to carry out the second part of the Union scheme, the indiscriminate taxation of the two countries.

In a few years he added two and a half millions to Irish taxation, at a moment when the country, devastated by famine, was sinking under the loss of its corn trade through the English law, and wasting away by emigration to half its former population.

 

An eviction

 

 

In 1896 a Financial Commission reported that the Act of Union had laid on Ireland a burden it was unable to bear; and that, in spite of the Union pledge that the ability of Ireland to pay should always be taken into account, she was paying one-eleventh of the tax revenue of the United Kingdom while her taxable capacity was one-twentieth or less.

While Great Britain paid less than two shillings in every pound of her taxable surplus, Ireland paid about ten shillings in every pound of hers. No relief was given.

 

An eviction

 

 

Under this drain of her wealth the poverty or Ireland was intensified, material progress was impossible, and one bad season was enough to produce wide distress, and two a state of famine.

Meanwhile, the cost of administration was wasteful and lavish, fixed on the high prices of the English scale, and vastly more expensive than the cost of a government founded on domestic support and acceptable to the people.

The doom of an exhausting poverty was laid on Ireland by a rich and extravagant partner, who fixed the expenses for English purposes, called for the money, and kept the books.

 

 

 

The Union intensified the alien temper of Irish government. Dublin Castle, no longer controlled by an Irish parliament, entrenched itself more firmly against the people.

Some well meaning governors went over to Ireland, but the omnipotent Castle machine broke their efforts for impartial rule or regard for the opinion of the country.

The Protestant Ascendancy openly reminded the Castle that its very existence hung on the Orange associations.

Arms were supplied free from Dublin to the Orange-men while all Catholics were disarmed.

 

 

 

The jobbing of the grand juries to enrich themselves out of the poor. The traffic of magistrates who violated their duties and their oaths. These were unchanged. Justice was so far forgotten that a presiding judge spoke of the counsel for the accused as “the gentleman on the other side.”

Juries were packed by the sheriffs with Protestants, by whom all Orange-men were acquitted, all Catholics condemned, and the credit of the law lowered for both by a system which made the juryman a tool and the prisoner a victim.

It is strange that no honest man should have protested against such a use of his person and his creed. But jury-packing with safe men remained the invariable custom till 1906.

 

 

 

Nothing but evil to Ireland followed from carrying her affairs to an English parliament. The government refused the promised emancipation, refused tithe reform.

Englishmen could not understand Irish conditions. The political economy they advocated for their own country had no relation to Ireland.

The Irish members found themselves, as English officials had foretold in advocating the Union, a minority wholly without influence.

Session after session, one complained, measures supported by Irish members, which would have been hailed with enthusiasm by an Irish parliament, were rejected by the English.

 

 

 

Session after session measures vehemently resisted by the Irish members were forced on a reluctant nation by English majorities.

When Ireland asked to be governed by the same laws as England, she was told the two countries were different and required different treatment.

When she asked for any deviation from the English system, she was told that she must bow to the established laws and customs of Great Britain.

 

 

 

The reports of royal commissions fell dead such as that which in 1845 reported that the sufferings of the Irish, borne with exemplary patience, were greater than the people of any other country in Europe had to sustain.

Nothing was done. Instead of the impartial calm promised at the Union, Ireland was made the battle-cry of English parties; and questions that concerned her life or death were important at Westminster as they served the exigencies of the government or the opposition.

All the dangers of the Union were increased by its effect in drawing Irish landlords to London. Their rents followed them, and the wealth spent by absentees founded no industries at home.

 

 

 

A land system brought about by confiscation, and developed by absentees, meant unclaimed wastes, lands half cultivated, and neglected people.

Landlords, said an indignant judge of wide experience in a charge to a jury in 1814, should build their tenants houses, and give them at least what they had not as yet, “the comforts of an English sow.”

To pay rent and taxes in England the toilers raised stores of corn and cattle for export there, from the value of eight million pounds in 1826 to seventeen million pounds of food stuffs in 1848, and so on.

They grew potatoes to feed themselves. If the price of corn fell prodigiously. As at the end of the Napoleonic war, or at the passing of the corn laws in England. The cheaper bread was no help to the peasants, most of whom could never afford to eat it; it only doubled their labour to send out greater shiploads of provisions for the charges due in England.

On the other hand, if potatoes rotted, famine swept over the country among its fields of corn and cattle.

 

1916 Easter rising

 

 

And when rent failed, summary powers of eviction were given at Westminster under English theories for use in Ireland alone; “and if anyone would defend his farm it is here denominated rebellion.” Families were flung on the bogs and mountain sides to live on wild turnips and nettles, to gather chickweed, sorrel, and seaweed, and to sink under the fevers that followed vagrancy, starvation, cold, and above all the broken hearts of men hunted from their homes.

In famine time the people to save themselves from death were occasionally compelled to use blood taken from live bullocks, boiled up with a little oatmeal; and the appalling sight was seen of feeble women gliding across the country with their pitchers, actually trampling upon fertility and fatness, to collect in the corner of a grazer’s farm for their little portion of blood.

 

The  notorious Black and Tans

 

 

 

Five times between 1822 and 1837 there were famines of lesser degree: but two others, 1817 and 1847, were noted as among the half-dozen most terrible recorded in Europe and Asia during the century.

From 1846 to 1848 over a million lay dead of hunger, while in a year food-stuffs for seventeen million pounds were sent to England.

 

A starving Irish family from Carraroe, County Galway, during the Famine.
Source: National Library of Ireland.

 

 

English soldiers guarded from the starving the fields of corn and the wagons that carried it to the ports; herds of cattle were shipped, and skins of asses which had served the famishing for food.

New evictions on an enormous scale followed the famine, the clearance of what was then called in the phrase of current English economics “the surplus population,” “the overstock tenantry.”

 

 

 

They died, or fled in hosts to America. Ireland pouring out on the one side her great stores or “surplus food,” on the other her “surplus people,” for whom there was nothing to eat.

In the twenty years that followed the men and women who had fled to America sent back some thirteen millions to keep a roof over the heads of the old and the children they had left behind.

It was a tribute for the landlords’ pockets. A rent which could never have been paid from the land they leased. The loans raised for expenditure on the Irish famine were charged by England on the Irish taxes for repayment.

No Irish parliament, no matter what its constitution, could have allowed the country to drift into such irretrievable ruin.

 

 

 

In the whole of Irish history no time brought such calamity to Ireland as the Victorian age.

“I leave Ireland,” said one, “like a corpse on the dissecting table.” “The Celts are gone,” said Englishmen, seeing the endless and disastrous emigration.

“The Irish are gone, and gone with a vengeance.” That such people should carry their interminable discontent to some far place seemed to end the trouble. “Now for the first time these six hundred years,” said The Times, “England has Ireland at her mercy, and can deal with her as she pleases.”

 

http://www.libraryireland.com/irishnationality/ireland-under-union.php    Alice Stopford Green

 

 

 

 

 

   

Couldn’t resist it

April 2010: Murray Campaign gets nasty early – Sign of things to come?

Early warning for anyone intending to run for political office against Murray. He gets into the gutter very early on and will broadcast anything to gain advantage regardless of truth.  http://caledonianmercury.com/2010/04/07/campaign-gets-nasty-early-sign-of-things-to-come/004982

Success in politics is not gifted to decent people. Their are traits in the character of successful politicians and Murray has them in abundance. He is an excellent constituency MP and spokesman on national affairs for his party. In the 2015 GE the SNP underestimated his abilities and paid the price.

His strengths and weaknesses:

• He studiously observes the “5P’s” (Proper, Planning, Prevents, Poor, Performance) in his approach to everything he does which may impact on his professional career.
• He works long hours in his constituency and at Westminster.
• He is media savvy and more than useful with computer graphics
• His pen is his weapon of choice and he weilds it well.
• He interviews poorly reacting badly, taking personal offence any time a negative spin is inserted by journalists.
• There is a danger he will succumb to the “Marlyn Monroe” complex “Next” as his portfolio expands.
• He is no friend of his new leader and will find it difficult to buckle down and commit to policies with which he is uncomfotable.
• He liked being called a baby faced assasian by a twitterer. I think “Bopeep” is more apt.
• I place him in the same vein of politician as Jim Murphy and expect he will be around for some time yet
• He is a Heart’s supporter which places him at odds with one half of Edinburgh.
• He is an avid Twitterer.

Can’t be sure. It could be him!!

Current Office: Shadow Business Minister for Trade and Investment 2013-

Offices Held:

Shadow Business Minister for Employee Relations, Consumer and Postal Affairs 2011-2013

Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to Ivan Lewis MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport 2010-2011

Vice Chair Backbench DCMS Committee 2010-2011

Committee Membership:

Member, Business, Innovation and Skills Committee 2010 -2011

Member, Environmental Audit Committee 2010-2013

All Party Parliamentary Groups:

Member, All-party Parliamentary Space Committee

Member, British American All Parliamentary Group

Member, All-Party Parliamentary BBC Group

Member, All-Party Parliamentary ITV Group

Member, All-Party Parliamentary Group on Cancer

Member, All-Party Parliamentary Group on Journalism

Member, All-Party Parliamentary Football Group

Member, All-Party Parliamentary Group on Events

Member, All-Party Parliamentary Group for Haiti

Member, All-Party Parliamentary Group on Equitable Life

Member, All-Party Parliamentary Group on Palestine and the Middle East

Member, All-Party Parliamentary Group on Students

Member, All-Party Parliamentary Group on the United Nations

All-Party Parliamentary Group on Business, Finance and Accountancy

Organisation Membership:

Member, Scottish Labour Party,

Member, Co-operative Party

Member, USDAW

Member, Community

Member, Fabian Society

Member, Progress

Trustee, McCraes Battalion Trust

Trustee, Royal Observatory of Edinburgh

The list links to my earlier comment.

Building a picture of Murray

An old friend once advised myself that success would be assured in battle only if you took the time to get to know your enemy and his tactical nuances. Advice I heeded, to my advantage on many occasions.

Mindful of the foregoing I dug around, extracted six months of his twitters and grouped them for analysis. I have posted theoutcome below, largely without comment as I answered many of his utterings at an earlier date.

Enjoyment is guaranteed by reading his twittering then flicking to my responses. https://caltonjock.com/2015/04/28/ian-blinky-murray-labour-party-mp-for-edinburgh-south-shadow-scottish-secretary-a-comic-appointment-but-the-jokes-on-him   You might well be able to add a few of your own.

Zero hours Contracts & Cost of Living & The Living Wage
Kezia Dugdale MSP reminding people that SNP voted against putting living wage in govt contracts. They also redirected £1bn from poverty projects.

UKTogether Brian Wilson 1967 bang on. SNP voted against Living Wage last week. They have powers but refuse to use them to help inequality.

Can anyone explain why SNP voted against introducing Living Wage & banning of zero hours contracts in Scot Parly tonight? Kezia Dugdale MSP

Small Biz Bill considering public procurement & impact on biz. Raised issue of Scot Gov voting against incl Living Wage in govt contracts.

Salmond talks of social justice but has absolutely no redistributive policy. In fact his only economic policy is 3p tax cut 4 big biz.

Cant fathom why SNP voted to exclude the Living Wage from SP procurement Bill today. Public contracts must lead by example 4 better pay.

Childcare

SNP manifestos in 07 & 11 promised 600 hours of childcare to all 3 & 4 year olds & haven’t delivered it. They could deliver it tomorrow.

The Independence Referendum

We continue on the doors as protests at BBC, talk of “days of reckoning” & anyone who disagrees with Salmond shot down.

That’s worrying. Social injustice not resolved by nationalism.

Political proposition that risk Edinburgh & Scotland losing RBS, Lloyds & Standard Life is economic vandalism that costs jobs.

Hello everyone at ide bate, apparently me standing up for my constituents jobs means I’m not in Team Scotland. A sad day for Scottish politics.

Thousands of jobs in my constituency depend on Standard Life. It’s time people realise the severe risks of independence http://t.co/1v0lZJQIPo

Guardian supports no thanks http://t.co/R6TGv784Ug

Gordon Brown “1m jobs in Scotland are dependent on being part of the UK”. This is the most positive case for UK. Strong single market.

Gordon Brown “Labour took 2m pensioners out of poverty with pension credit so don’t let nationalists tell you otherwise.

Gordon Brown has asked Speaker to allow time for debate immediately after referendum to get timetable for implementing more devolution.

Trade Union GMBScotOrg has also launched their cost of indy calculator.

GMB are campaigning for a NO vote in the indyref for jobs, pensions and solidarity GMB vote.

Currency union would mean a foreign govt would set our budget & control our economy. which is why UK not in €.

On the basis of Yes argument on EU and £ next time you get a parking ticket forget about the law and legal advice as pragmatism will kick in.

I don’t get the German re-unification argument on EU as that was a country coming together as a member not leaving an existing EU member.

How does a 3p corporation tax cut fit with greater fairness in Scotland?

UK is not in € because UK doesn’t want EU currency union. Why would a £ currency union be any different? Arguments against € r same as £.

More misrepresentation from yes side. Alistair Darling said “you can use the £. The Ruble. The $. It’s the central bank that’s the issue. ”
I have a solution. If u want £, want EU, want a single market, want free movement & want mortgages to stay same u vote no. It’s called UK.

Salmond said “the £ is a millstone around Scotland’s neck” and wanted Euro, now he wants £ with 3 plan Bs. Total economic vandalism.

Sturgeon talks about a Wendy Alexander speech when she tried to predict oil price. Wendy got it wrong. Shows u can’t predict volatile price.

Lots of people r talking about the passionate speech by Archie McPherson yesterday. Here it is http://t.co/vm1oqTg24H

I remember when First Minister said Pound was a “millstone around Scotland’s neck” when he wanted the Euro. All over the place on currency.

After another 90 minutes debate there was still no answers to the key real issues of currency or economy. That’s too important to ignore.

North Sea oil is not a bonus but supports current expenditure. It’s 50% of projected revenues.

Independent Institute for Fiscal Studies estimated a £6bn black hole in Scottish finances. That’s a very large amount of money.
Oil revenues fell by £5bn last year. The entirety of education budget. How would that gap be closed? Currency is not to be laughed about Mr Salmond it underpins my constituents jobs, mortgages and livelihoods.

Scottish Govt can help save Fergusons shipyard now as with Prestwick Airport under devolution.

The “Panama Plan” – using a currency without a central bank – is like driving a car without insurance.

Everyone knows if you don’t pay your debts you get a bad credit rating and then it costs you more if you can get it.

Salmond says he has 3 plan Bs but I’ve not heard 1 yet. Maybe I missed them. I think 1 option was a bus.

The wonders of a democratic society. We got 18 years of Tory Govt in 1979 due to the SNP helping bring down the Labour Govt.

It’s little wonder politics is held in such low regard when the devolved NHS is so disingenuously used to con public http://t.co/2ESZ4qeiMD

The £ not “a millstone around Scotland’s neck” according 2 Salmond when it suited. Now it’s integral to indy. say anything

Salmond claims on £ can’t even persuade his own side as Yes Scotland Chair wants separate currency or Euro!!

Dennis Canavan I don’t think you could describe me as new labour but keep putting the old tags on people if you like.

My speech indy debate on Tuesday evening. The motion – “Independence is the greatest threat to Edinburgh” http://t.co/O9vfftOUcV

The do anything, say anything, be anything approach of Yes campaign has been exposed by impartial IFS as unaffordable http://t.co/5mv5exNBai

The debate in Scotland must rise above denigrating those that disagree but example must come from the top & FM has failed to do that

The Smith Commission is asking for submissions from you. Make sure you send them by 31/10 http://t.co/ZCwW0DpcEA for all the info.

Why the CWU union have voted to say “no” in the indyref. A sensible and interesting blog by Scottish CWU Member http://t.co/OJELLlIFIQ

Bills of ’97 Labour Govt delivered Scottish Parliament. 1st Bill of a ’15 Labour Govt will be more powers on tax & welfare

Record View: Labour proposals offer good reason to say no to independence http://t.co/An8K6qvECk

The world of work is critical agenda. Let’s talk about real issues rather than indy for a change.

We have a First Minister that refuses to deal in established facts and rather prefers the maybe instead. Simply not good enough.

Wonder if we will get Salmonds currency plan B on Marr Show – I doubt it. SNP rejected Euro for same reason £ currency union doesn’t work

The reintroduction of the 10p and 50p tax rates are pillars of fairness when people are struggling. SNP refuse to back this fairness.

Chair of manufacturing body, EEF says the future of manufacturing requires the UK to stay together. He’s obviously a bully!

The primary job of MP/MSPs is to represent & support constituents. My letter to SNP MSPs on the threat to local jobs http://t.co/7WEQxnpOog

Businesses have been advised to include the risk in their reporting analysis. That’s why they’ve spoken out.

1,000s of my constituents work in Standard Life & RBS. Not good enough 4 SNP 2 dismiss them. SNP MSPs represent their constituents, no?

Quite possibly my favourite cybernat tweet yet. babyfacedassassin http://t.co/mN3RQ908Gy

Don’t forget they (the SNP) campaigned 4 Indy throughout Labour in office. They also brought in 18yrs of Tory rule in ’79.

Powerful positive case 4 the UK. Pooling & sharing across our islands http://t.co/gRQBD52wB8

And can Scottish taxpayers not pay for the new white paper please. £800k better spent on people & services.

The SNP’s reasons 4 rejecting the Euro must surely be the same reasons for why £ currency union wouldn’t work? Identical issues.

My speech today from the House of Commons debate on Currency in Scotland post 2014. http://t.co/VtdyQzDmhe

Pete Wishart complains there is not enough time for currency debate but hasn’t even put in to speak.

SNPs Pete Wishart accepts that things might “not work out” with separation then dismisses BofE governor in £

Head of BP expresses concerns about indy & £. He’s slated as “British Nationalist” by Yes. BP invests £10bn a yr in Scotland. Shameful.

SNP no clear plan 4 pensions says ICAS in devastating indictment of white paper http://t.co/81RaZLPZBx

The EU is mentioned 719 times in the indyref white paper but we don’t know if we will be in EU or how long it will take. Lots riding on it.

The childcare policy in Indy White Paper can be delivered NOW as it is devolved to the Scottish Parliament. More smoke and mirrors.
Over 600 pages of assumptions on currency,

EU, debt, pensions etc. All these big assumptions will have to come off to keep things the same!

Fantastic piece by Douglas Alexander MP on the positive case for the UK remaining together http://t.co/FAaAu1nqvg

Transcotland. SNP use £800k of taxpayers cash 2 promote political white paper & now “impartial” Transport agency goes political with ur tax

BBC Scotland News. Alex Salmond we got “18 years of Margaret Thatcher” because SNP voted to bring down Labour Govt. FM rewrites history again

The Bedroom tax

The social justice mask slips from SNP as indy ref approaches bedroom tax Not 1 redistributive policy from SNP in 7 yrs in power, not 1 in white paper & now too busy with indyref to turn up to bedroom tax vote.

Apologies for cancelling Friday constituency diary commitments but we defeated the Govt on the bedroom tax.

Pete Wishart childishly ticking off names of scottish labour members voting against bedroom tax when he didn’t even appear to attend debate.

Pete Wishart you know that’s not the way it works. Why don’t you lobby your boss to do something about it rather than peddling nonsense.
SNP r desperate as they can’t defend doing zero on bedroom tax. Labour MPs did NOT abstain. MPs get paired off for absence. SNP know this.

Wings over Scotland Get up his nose

Minutes since I posted my blog piece and wings over scotland still not confirming retraction. He was quick enough to write it.

Wings over Scotland your entire story is about vandalism to the doors of my office. That is not what happened. Retract it as its not true.

Wings over Scotland will you now formally retract inaccuracies that were not checked? http://t.co/4ezO2CBgQ5

I have therefore produced a response & people can make their own mind up about accuracy of Wings over Scotland blog.

The bile on my feed says it all  He has chosen not to do so but merely to say he will correct any errors “of which there are none”.

According to Wings over Scotland I took time out of my busy diary to give Wings over Scotland a courtesy return call in order for him to retract his false blog last night.

My constituency office was vandalised by Yes supporters last night. I can take personal abuse but it’s getting out of control.

Nimrod aircraft scrapped at Stockport BAE factory

 

£30bn to be spent purchasing aircraft from the USA

 

 

 

 

Negligence bordering on the criminal – Scrapping the Nimrod MRA4 planes Left a bloody great hole in the defences of Scotland

In 1994 proposals were submitted to the Tory government, which if implemented would deliver to the RAF, by 1998 a “state of the art” surveillance and reconnaissance plane replacing an increasingly unreliable fleet of clapped out Nimrods. An alternative option, to purchase excellent well tested aircraft “off the shelf” from the USA was rejected. The MOD were determined the UK should build a new aircraft from scratch.

The outcome was the “well trumpeted” all British super duper, “Spy in the Sky” Nimrod MRA4 surveillance and reconnaissance plane. The hype promoted was that the new all British plane would be a unique, world class, multi role platform aircraft which, in addition to completing traditional maritime roles, would also have intelligence gathering capabilities, crucial in a troubled world.

In 1996 the MoD signed a contract with BAE, to build 21 Nimrod spy planes. This was later reduced to 12 and later still to nine. Then, in 2010 the multi-million pound Nimrod MRA4 surveillance and reconnaissance planes project was scrapped in the defence review by the Con-Dem government.

Nine of the planes, nearing completion, were subsequently dismantled and sold of as scrap metal. Protesters described the decision as the, “greatest blunder” in the history of the UK aircraft industry”

The Nimrod MRA4 development programme had been in place for nearly 15 years. At the time of cancellation finance in excess of £5bn had been spent and this was written off.

Approximately 2000 BAE and other workers were also laid off in consequence of the cancellation.

In an open letter to the Times signed by; (Marshal of the RAF Lord Craig, Major General Julian Thompson, Air Vice-Marshal Tony Mason, Major General Patrick Cordingley, Admiral Sir John “Sandy” Woodward and Air Commodore Andrew Lambert) they warned that scrapping the RAF’s Nimrod surveillance aircraft has left a “massive gap” in UK security.

“Vulnerability of sea lanes, unpredictable overseas crises and traditional surface and submarine opposition will continue to demand versatile responsive aircraft”. “Nimrod would have continued to provide long-range maritime and overland reconnaissance – including over the UK – anti-submarine surveillance, air-sea rescue coordination, and perhaps most importantly, reconnaissance support to the Navy’s Trident submarines.”

Union leaders attacked the Tory Government’s controversial decision to scrap the Nimrod spy planes. Unite national officer Bernie Hamilton said: “The lunatics have taken over the asylum when the Government orders the Ministry of Defence to break-up £5bn worth of world-class defence equipment.”

A Ministry of Defence spokesman statement said: “Ministers and service chiefs have made clear that the decision not to bring the Nimrod MRA4 into service was difficult, but it will not be reversed.”

 

A giant ponzie scheme rip off ?

 

All thats left. Nimrod sent to the RAF museum. Celebrating a major cock-up. The Tory’s are past masters at this

 

 

 

But there is another version of the truth providing the real reason why the Nimrod MRA4 was cancelled?

During an exchange with Mr Kevan Jones (Lab) on 3rd February 2014, Mr Hammond, Secretary of State for Defence, replied:

“It is a bit rich for him to say that the gap in maritime patrol cover was created by this Government. What this Government did was to recognise the reality that his Government had been investing in aircraft that would never fly, would never be certified and would never be able to deliver a capability.”

It is a pity Mr Hammond did not expand upon “would never be certified”, given the Government had hitherto implied the Nimrod MRA4 had been cancelled to save money. This made no sense, given nearly £5Bn had already been sunk. Gradually, through similar comments, the real truth has been confirmed.

The Nimrod MRA4 could never be certified as airworthy due to legacy systemic airworthiness failures. A fact that became clearer by the day after notification to senior MoD staffs in 1994.

So there it is. The new Nimrod would never have been granted a airworthiness certificate allowing it to be introduced into service. And this information was known to the Tory Government in 1994. Why then was a £ multi-billion contract awarded to BAE in 1996.

If the contract cancellation was, as advanced by Hammond truly a “savings measure” then that would, perhaps, be sufficient reason not to hold a public inquiry into the £5Bn. But the latest admission that the aircraft could never be certified warrants a full inquiry into the conduct of the programme.

The (mandatory) Post Project Evaluation (PPE) report, confirmed that the aircraft could never be declared airworthy. PPE references Project History Sheets and it should be possible to identify exactly when this information was recorded, by whom and what was done with the information. A public inquiry would be able to ask why the programme was allowed to proceed fruitlessly for another 15 or so years.

But inconvenient facts are usually well buried by MoD. And in this case also by the Tory Government, given who was in power when the problems were notified and ignored.

Something Kevan Jones wasn’t quite knowledgeable enough about when Hammond misled Parliament.

Misleading Parliament? Isn’t that a serious transgression under the Ministerial Code of Conduct? Ah, but it doesn’t apply when there are senior people to be protected. The levels of incompetence and deceit are breathtaking but I expect this one might end up lost in the long grass.

https://sites.google.com/site/militaryairworthiness/12-why-was-nimrod-mra4-cancelled

 

 

 

What might have been but never was.

 

A Nimrod monitoring a Russian nuclear submarine But dream on The Nimrod was the plane that never flew.