I’ve only written a couple of small pieces on this blog about gay marriage, for example around Proposition Eight, but have written scattered pieces around the net for ages on message boards, Facebook walls, Twitter etc. I thought it might be time to pull some of these things together.

Why now? Well the Equality Network have been lobbying the Scottish Government on the issue (you can take part in the lobby about gay marriage here). Secondly the posting of that video on a friends wall led to a 46 comment thread where someone made a pitiful answer to the question/challenge I posted previously:

Can anyone point to an argument against gay marriage not based on religion. I have looked and looked but can’t find one.

Thirdly I had some examples to use as part of the discussion and I wasn’t completely comfortable using them. I hope that if I refer to anyone I know they won’t take offence at the reference as it’s not used to judge them, just to illustrate a point.

I have yet to hear a coherent argument against gay marriage. Most resort to terrible comparisons which don’t work or just reading out of some bronze age book (whilst ignoring any examples in the book of marriage not of the traditional 1 consenting man + 1 consenting woman model).

So in an effort at avoiding any questions put to him and ignoring massive flaws in his argument, one of those people prompted me to write down some coherent arguments for the position I took, which simplified was: A gay couple getting married doesn’t affect you so it’s none of your damn business and leave them to do it without trying to stop it.

So what were some of the arguments used against gay marriage?

Well I will try to list some of the reasons given to oppose it and show the counter argument. Over the course I hope to then flesh out a more concrete argument for gay marriage.

1. Where does someone get the right to get married from? Who gives them it?

The answer to this is pretty obvious. The state you live in. You apply to them for a marriage licence and they grant one providing they can find no reason not to do so based on that particular states laws on marriage.

No idea what point was trying to be made here. Was it that it is God who grants that right? If so you might want to check the bible.

See for example

• Genesis 4:19 And Lamech took unto him two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah. (polygamy)
• Genesis 20:12 And yet indeed she is my sister; she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife. (incest)
• Jeremiah 3:1 They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man’s, shall he return unto her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? but thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, saith the LORD. (remarriage == bad)
• 1 Kings 11:2 Of the nations concerning which the LORD said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love. (marrying someone of a different religion is bad)

Of course most religious people won’t have read their holy book so will be unfamiliar with such verses. Those that are will probably claim these are in the Old Testament so don’t count. You can then enquire as to where in the New Testament God condemns homosexuality. They’ll struggle because they use such verses in the Old Testament to justify their bigotry.

2. Should adults be allowed to marry children? How about animals? How about their sister or brother? Surely it would be discrimination to say no.

The slippery slope fallacy. And one that was probably invoked during every change in the law relating to marriage in the last century. Utterly irrelevant. It is based on the flawed argument that if gay marriage is legalised then incestuous marriage will be legalised. Well that is assuming some massive campaign with the public support for gay marriage takes place for each of those too then?

In a ridiculous tangent the questioner also ignored the flaw in each of those arguments.

Incest is a taboo because of the genetic problems that can result from procreation in particularly close incestuous relationships. The other angle of course is the high probability of some abuse, certainly of power, if not sexual or physical which has made someone think such a relationship is acceptable.

Bestiality is a poor comparison as unlike gay marriage which involves two consenting adults, bestiality involves 1 consenting adult and 1 animal incapable of providing consent.

Strangely they then spent quite a lot of posts trying to talk about incest and come up with justifications for it if gay marriage was legalised. So ironically he himself slid down his own slippery slope whilst all those supporting gay marriage were arguing against incestuous ones.

3. There is a difference between denying someone a religious same sex marriage and a civil partnership.

The religious marriage is a slight diversion as this is not the same as as a marriage as most people have them. Some religions involve having a religious marriage as well as a traditional marriage. They then also have religious divorces, or not in some cases where strict religions refuse religious divorces even though a civil one has been granted.

So someone arguing for religious marriages as well as civil ones doesn’t see the hypocrisy in not even considering a gay marriage as well as a civil as a valid option.

Either that or they were meaning a ceremony inside a religious building conducted by a religious figure inside of a religious building. But then, if those are ok there was no condemnation of those religious figures who conduct mass religious marriages inside religious buildings.

To keep up you might want to forget looking for consistency or coherency in the anti-gay-marriage camp.

4. A whole host of other issues arise from this. What if someone refuses to marry two same sex people, do they lose their job? Isn’t that discriminating against them? What about adoption? A child will be denied a mother or father if adopted by a same sex couple.

This is two issues, firstly about someone refusing to conduct a particular marriage. Well let’s extend it to currently accepted forms of marriage. If someone was to refuse to conduct a marriage between two people of different races would they lose their job? If they worked for the state in some fashion then they would certainly be in some form of trouble. In a religious role in some religious group? Who knows, depending on how batshit insane the organisation is they might get promoted. Would such a couple go to one of these religious organisations hostile to their life choices to get approval though? Probably not.

Looked at that way how is gay marriage any different. Anyone who works in a registry office or similar should be willing to conduct any marriage which is legal. Anyone in a religious organisation would be bound by their internal rules.

The second part’s discussion ended quite soon. Arguer did not wish to argue if a recently bereaved/separated father should be forced to remarry so as to not deny their child a mother. Apparently having two daddies must be worse than 1 daddy and a mummy who has a different uncle every month.

5. If you are an atheist seeing as homosexual people would tend not to reproduce then shouldn’t their genes be selected against and eventually become extinct?

This led to a giant thread where the proponent exposed their complete ignorant of genetics (when coupled with the incest section). What relevance it has to gay marriage is a mystery,

6. If you are an atheist then you are merely an animal and it’s survival of the fittest and you don’t have a “right” to anything. You are just atoms. If you get killed or don’t get your marriage tough luck, you obviously weren’t fit enough.

Yet another strange diversion in the list arguments against gay marriage.

7. Alternative explanation is that there is God and there is such a thing as right and wrong and these decisions and choices do actually mean something.

Refused to explain why God is so lazy now that he doesn’t perform miracles any more. It’s a shame that in the world of near instant worldwide communication and ubiquitous video recording technology the number of talking burning bushes in the last century is surprisingly low.

How not to argue

What was most amusing was the complete inability to form coherent arguments and respond to direct points and questions whilst spitting them out and demanding answers from others that was displayed.

After being told my position of supporting gay marriage whilst opposing fathers marrying their daughters was inconsistent I spelled out my position as such :

Consenting adults should be able to enter voluntarily into whichever form of relationship with each other as they wish. Where there are issues of abuse or negligible effects on others then that is the point when it becomes anyone elses business. Gay marriage between two consenting adults does not. Incestuous relationships for the most part may do, and certainly enter the territory of negligible effects on others if they plan to have children. Bestiality does as animals cannot consent. Relationships with people with some forms of mental disability may if there is thought to be a lack of ability to consent even if the person is over the age to legally consent. When those people wish to formalise their personal relationship in front of friends and society then the state should either not take any part in recognising any of them or should recognise them all.

I then requested that they provide their position for supporting/opposing some forms of marriage. Obviously this couldn’t be provided as it would probably have no rational logical basis.

What now?

Well, I’m still waiting on seeing a coherent argument against gay marriage. I would award bonus points if it didn’t have it’s roots in some holy books.

I would urge you to go take part in the consultation on gay marriage here. Obviously I want people in favour of it to take part but anyone opposed should also take part (maybe from a different link) so that we can find out why they are opposed. These can then be collated into a single answer of I’m a bigot so have picked some verses out the Bible to justify it times the number of negative responses.

If you are on Twitter you should also follow these good people.

@EqualMarriage
@TomFromBrighton
@LGBTNetwork

Added After original article

And what do you know, the next day this article appeared in the Hootsman Gay marriage could wreck independence, claims ex-SNP leader

A rally 200 strong gets this much coverage in a national paper?

As expected all the spurious arguments are about religion. Take for example this completely untrue nonsense spouted by Bashir Maan a former Glasgow councillor and Muslim community leader

Marriage has always been, right from the dawn of history, between a man and a woman.

Amusingly as a Muslim community leader (elected by whom and when?) he should be aware that certain countries use Islamic rules as an excuse to allow Polygyny

In Islam, polygamy is allowed and practised under certain restricted conditions. Muslim men are allowed to practise polygyny, that is, they can have more than one wife at the same time, up to a total of four. Polyandry, the practice of a woman having more than one husband, by contrast, is not permitted.

Some Muslim-majority countries have Islamic law (sharia) which permits polygyny, although there is internal debate regarding the role of women in Islam. See this discussion on the extent to which states can and do recognize these forms as valid.

Polygamy for Muslims, in practice and in law, differs greatly throughout the Islamic world, where polygamous marriages constitute only 1–3% of all marriages.[1] In some Muslim countries, polygamy is relatively common, while in others, it is rare or non-existent. Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Tunisia and Turkey, for example, are predominantly Muslim countries that have not adopted Islamic law for marital regulations, where polygamy is not legal.

I thought being religious was supposed to make you more moral? Why do religious community leaders repeatedly lie in public?

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When you read a ridiculous article in the crap tabloid press about tabloid health and safety gone mad the majority of the time it’s nothing to do with health and safety it’s bureaucrats trying to issue diktats. On the few occasions when something is related to health and safety legislation it’s usually blown out of proportion or misreported completely.

But every time you read one of those articles trying to undermine health and safety legislation the purpose is to try and create an opposition to health and safety legislation brought in to prevent tragedies like this. The reason being these events are preventable, but they cost money and greedy bastards can’t stand losing a bit of money to ensure the people who work their ass off so they can make that money in the first place do so in safe working conditions that ensure they will go home at the end of the working day.

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A couple of months ago I went to a show by Mark Thomas, he decided to walk the wall Israel is building around Israel (inside the West Bank). Along the way he spoke to people on both sides of the wall. Ultra Orthodox settlers, secular Jews, peaceniks, IDF soldiers, Palestian politics, children and workers and anyone else he met along the way.

He recorded his trip in a book called Extreme Rambling and then had the show around the trip too.

What he details is utterly horrific. I had read about the wall and though it must be bad but kind of suffered from Bad Thing Overload and it became just another terrible thing happening in some corner of the world.

The fence as Israel calls it, wall as the Palestinians call it and Apartheid Wall as it is more accurately described is a naked land grab. An attempt to steal what little land and resources are left in the West Bank, in places diverting dozens of Kilometres into the West Bank to surround illegal settlements.

Workers are herded like cattle through gates at particular times of the day whilst others are refused permits to cross the wall. Even if their ill newborn child is on the other side. In some places cars must drop their passengers off, drive through and pick the passengers up once they have trecked through the barrier themselves. Including young children and the infirm.

Children cannot cross a road, so have to go through a tunnel under it, which flows with sewage. Meanwhile the school they arrive it is having it’s toilet block demolished as it doesn’t have the impossible to get permit. Leaving aside that having building permits doesn’t stop the Israeli state bulldozing homes or surrounding them with walls anyway, whether this wall cuts through football pitches or farms is irrelevant.

Of course, this only applies to Palestinians. Israeli citizens can travel back and forward with impunity.

Meanwhile the child conscripts in the IDF snatch children, keep them in prison for days before dropping them off miles from home to get back themselves. Others are repeatedly beaten.

And after all this, people can still get through the barrier if they know the right people or can grease the right palms.

And apologists for this country which is committing state terrorism on a daily basis defend it because of made up stories in a book by bronze age goat herders about a sociopathic mountain war god!

Israel has essentially turned the West Bank into the worlds largest concentration camp. Meanwhile in the Gaza strip A4 paper and corriander are banned from importation by a sea blockade whilst the ingredients for rockets are all allowed through. Never mind that the threat from armed militias letting off these rockets is the premise used to blockade corriander but let petrol and metal tubing through.

To the west of these countries of course, the masses in Northern African countries like Libya and Egypt get full support from the West in taking up arms against despots via the UN whilst sanction after sanction against Israels behaviour in Palestine is ignored.

Until the Israeli state ceases to treat Palestinians as chattel it is difficult to take on board any of the bleating from it’s apologists. It’s hard to take the moral high ground when you invade and occupy the high ground.

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Most of these are really pathetic and concentrate on attacking the No2AV campaign. When they are not attacking the No2AV campaign they are talking about how AV can be used to clean up politics. It is all very bizarre.

Yes 2 AV

The Yes campaign are basing their campaign on 3 nonsensical claims

• 1. MPs working harder to earn – and keep – our support
• 2. A bigger say on who your local MP is
• 3. Tackling the ‘jobs for life’ culture

So lets look at these shall we?

1. MPs working harder to earn – and keep – our support

How? This is a lie, perpetuated by the misunderstanding of what democracy is, or should be. Democracy isn’t just marking an X on a piece of paper every few years, it is also about transparency, accountability and recall-ability. The expenses fiasco showed that MPs are pretty reluctant to do anything about those three. Fiddling about with the voting system does nothing to improve these?

If you want to achieve this you introduce some form of right of recall by ballot or the like.

2. A bigger say on who your local MP is

So if I rank them all, my choice has been minimally met, maybe, depending on the result. But say you only support one or two of the candidates. If they don’t win there’s no difference for you than if it was First Past The Post.

If you want everyone to be covered then you have some form of proportional representation. Like the kind of thing I signed some petition to support that resulted in me being on the Yes2AV mailing list.

3. Tackling the ‘jobs for life’ culture

This will make no difference. Particularly when you have seats where Labour hacks get 70% of the vote. If you want to tackle this culture you institute term limits.

AV – the solution that doesn’t fix the problems it claims to fix.

No2AV

The No2AV campaign have been pretty awful though too. Having just received their literature through the door I was appalled by it.

£130 million on electronic vote counting machines – you don’t need any electronic vote counting machines for AV. Even for STV you don’t need it, you can do it by hand, it just takes longer. To count you sort the votes into piles, and then shuffle them around using the elimination rules until a pile is 50%+1.

The second or third best can win under AV – best being defined as? The second person with the most loyal support maybe. But if that does happen it means they can attract wider support than the core of their own supporters. I don’t think that is a particularly bad thing.

[Under FPTP] the one who comes first is always the winner So what this is basically saying is that:

This a good result (FPTP potential)
Person 1 – 12% (wins)
Person 2 – 11%
Person 3 – 11%
Person 4 – 11%
Person 5 – 11%
Person 6 – 11%
Person 7 – 11%
Person 8 – 11%
Person 9 – 11%

This is a bad result (AV potential)
Person 1 who is well liked – 24% at first round (74% at last) – (WINS)
Person 2 who is not liked outside main support – 26% at first round (26% at last)
Person 3 – 25% – all prefer 1 over 2
Person 4 – 25% – all prefer 1 over 2

This is nonsense. Under these results, AV would give a result far more in touch with voters preference.

Here’s why you should vote no – table muddling up voting and counting. This flowchart adequately debunks this nonsense.

The worse part though is the page which insists that it is a principle that whoever gets the most votes wins. This is, frankly, bollocks. For Westminster for example, individual MPs who get the most votes win, but governments can be formed by parties who had less votes than a rival.

Most disgustingly, it insists that the lower choice of supporters of extreme parties such as the BNP are counted again and again. This is a total misrepresentation of how AV votes are transferred.

Round 1
Labour 35% vote
Lib Dem 30% vote
Tory 25% vote
BNP 10% vote

At round 2 the BNP are eliminated and their votes transfer to second preference
Labour 35% vote
Lib Dem 40% vote (30% LD, 10% BNP/LD)
Tory 25% vote

So the votes by the BNP supporters are counted a second time, but so are the votes of everyone else!

Elections

I really really dislike First Past the Post. Reform to the electoral system is needed, but that change is to STV with multi member wards. In the AV referendum I will be spoiling my ballot by adding STV with multi member wards to the ballot and ranking them 1,2,3 as you would in both AV and STV.

In STV, if 1000votes are needed and a candidate receives 2000. Then each vote is counted as 0.5 of a vote for the first candidate and then 0.5 of a vote to the second preference. This continues all down the line so you see transfers of 0.0012 of a vote at later stages etc. Maximising the number of votes used to elect the candidates. This means that right now, 100% of my vote is thrown away, it may instead have 95% used to help candidate A be elected and 5% to help candidate B be elected.

AV is a terrible system, FPTP is a terrible system. Switching from one to the other solves none of the problems that the Yes2AV campaign claim it does. If it did, then it would actually have had people campaigning for it at some point before the Lib Dems sold out electoral reform for coalition power.

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Does anyone else see it or is it just me?

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To quote the Hives Hate To Say I Told You So. Tommy Sheridan has been convicted of perjury. To his acolytes this is a surprise. Even the ones who know he did and also committed perjury on his behalf. To anyone paying attention this was inevitable. To those involved in these issues at the start of them, it was inevitable at the time and he was told it was so. Reckless doesn’t begin to describe his chosen course of action.

A lot has been typed in day following the court case analysing, spinning and putting out the party/ies line on the issue. The SSY have written about some of the facts/logic of the case in their own yoof style.

And to tangent already that gives a great example of the kind of stuff written about the issue.

The SSY in the second paragraph of their 10,000 article state we have no desire to see him punished by prison. People who have read this and are unhappy can be spotted saying The SSY blog is just the endpoint of this kind of scabby logic – outright celebration that “mad shagger” Sheridan is off to the nick..

Given these demonstratable lies and inability to read/understand what has been written in public space, the general public are out of the loop as to the kind of bile being spewed in semi-public lefty discussion space etc by his fan club.

This includes lumping abuse on some witnesses and accusing some of discracefully lying in court and discracefully telling the truth!

Note: I did intend to write more on this but the vile abuse and logical fallacies being spewed by Sheridans sycophants all over the internet reduced my interest in even engaging with them enough to collect some of their nonsense. The post so far is probably enough of a taster on it’s own and I may return to this topic later.

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The RIAA (Recording Industry of America) has had a potted history of cases against individual alleged file sharers. They have sued children, people who don’t own computers and dead people.

Their only courtroom victory was later thrown out. Every time they have won it has been by extortion – threatening people with court if they don’t pay up.

The latest attack on file sharers is taking place in Swedish courts where the 5 people who run the Pirate Bay are on trial. The Pirate Bay site hosts links to torrent files and details of who is sharing files. The important part of this set up is that they don’t actually host any of the files being shared themselves.

They have been threatened before, and generally post abusive messages to the letter writers on their site. They have had their computers siezed and set up quickly in a foreign country. Each of the five is now facing 2 years in jail and up to $180,000 in fines if found guilty.

The case isn’t going so well for the prosecuters, on day 2 of the trial half the charges were thrown out. It looks likely the Pirate Bay will win – the admins don’t even know the new location of the servers.

But leaving aside the actual court case the argument for the court case is bogus. The claim is that copyright infringement costs the companies money.

But

Carina Rydberg

Because I want to watch movies that can neither be rented anymore nor bought on the Internet. I want to read books that are out of print and will cost you £750 eBay. For that reason, I want The Pirate Bay to stay. At the moment, I’m trying to download John Schlesinger’s ‘The Day of the Locust’; it takes time and it’s not even certain I’ll get a copy that is watchable – but at the same time I have no idea how to get the drat flick any another way…

The Pirate Bay is an invaluable source for content that publishers, record labels and movie studios for some reason can’t or won’t offer. If someone on The Pirate Bay chose to download the book I wrote in 1989 I would have no objection to that. That novel is practically impossible to get hold of and as an author I want to be read.

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After the student protests last week there were a couple of gems in the news. The most indicative single article though is this one from the Guardian.

There are two statements of note in this article.

From the Met

The legal challenge came as the Met said more than 180 people have been arrested concerning the student protests. Senior officers said most of the 182 suspects were aged between 17 and 25 and had no records of violence or crime.

According to Theresa May though

the home secretary blamed violence on “an organised group of hardcore activists and street gangs”

So there are a three statements you can take from these if you take them at face value.

1. The police arrested a number of people
2. There were a number of members of street gangs there intent on violence.
3. The majority of those arrested had no criminal record

So this leads to a number of conclusions you could draw

1. There were violent thugs there, but the police did not arrest them and are therefore incompetent
2. There were violent street gangs there, none of whose members had any criminal records
3. There were violent gang members there but people with no criminal record were behaving in such a way that they were a higher arrest priority than the gangsters.

Of course the other stories from the protest are Jody McIntyre being dragged from his wheelchair for the second time on the day by police and then being interrogated by Ben Brown about what he had done to provoke it. The most disgraceful line being that he had menacingly rolled his wheelchair at the police throwing things. He cannot move his wheelchair on his own and due to Cerebral Palsy the chances of him throwing things at the police are remote. The other being Alfie Meadows being given a brain injury by the police

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When you meet with DC Thomson to discuss their slashing of jobs will you be bringing up their Lets Get Dundee Working Campaign?

Recession recovery to take longer in Dundee

Council backing Courier jobs campaign

Surely a local company shedding 350 staff is ideal for being a focus of their campaign? They should be able to get loads of column inches on fighting to retain these jobs in the city.

Thanks,

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David Martin MEP – Labour

First reply from Jim McGovern’s secretary

Dear Alan,

Thank you for your email.

Unfortunately I am unable to attend the rally in Edinburgh tomorrow, but I share your outrage over recent events on the Gaza-bound flotilla, and fully agree with the points you raised in your email. I strongly condemn the Israeli raid, and would in the first instance call for an immediate and unreserved apology from the Israeli authorities. I fully support calls for an international investigation but, in order to ensure an independent and unbiased inquiry, do not believe this should be led by Israel.

The continued policy of the blockade is unacceptable and politically counter-productive. It has devastated the private sector economy and damaged the natural environment, notably water and other natural resources. The EU has consistently called for an immediate, sustained and unconditional opening of crossings for the flow of humanitarian aid, commercial goods and persons to and from Gaza. This has been reiterated following the flotilla raid, and I am pleased that the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon is urging Israel to end the blockade.

The EU is the biggest contributor to aid in the Palestinian Territories. In March 2009, the EU pledged more than €61 million (around £55 million) in humanitarian and food aid for victims of the crisis. Food, emergency shelter repairs and medical aid is being provided through the United Nations to Gaza Palestinians.

Relations between the EU and Israel have been frozen following a vigorous campaign by the European Parliamentary Labour Party, amongst others, in the European Parliament. I recently asked the European Commission for clarification on the upgrading of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, and I am pleased to say that there are no plans to upgrade the Agreement. Please find my question and the Commission’s response attached.

A human rights clause is an essential element of all of the EU’s diplomatic agreements with third countries, and Israel’s respect for human rights must be an essential part of any consideration to upgrade relations. Given recent events, I believe the EU should go further than this and withdraw all trade preferences under the current Agreement as well as beginning the process of imposing trade sanctions.

Please be assured that I fully support an immediate resolution to the conflict, an end to trade preferences for Israel and an end to the blockade, to ensure humanitarian aid gets to those who need it most and to help secure a lasting two-state solution. I have already written to the chief executives of British supermarkets urging them to end the sale of products from the Israeli occupation which I believe is complicit in the suffering of the Palestinian people. At the European level, a delegation of MEPs returned this week from Gaza. They have called for the EU to launch a political initiative immediately to lift the blockade and begin the reconstruction of basic infrastructure. The delegation has also urged that the EU and other donors increase funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), and I will fully support the attempts in the European Parliament to increase financial support to the UNRWA.

I hope this has addressed your questions. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any further questions.

Best wishes,
David

David Martin
MEP for Scotland

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Jim McGovern – Labour

First reply from Jim McGovern’s secretary

Thank you for your message which I shall pass to Jim McGovern.

Jane O’Neill

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MPs: Jim McGovern (Labour)

MSPs: Joe FitzPatrick (SNP), Alison McInnes (Liberal Democrat), Richard Baker (Labour), Alex Johnstone (Conservative), Nanette Milne (Conservative), Marlyn Glen (Labour), Nigel Don (SNP), Maureen Watt (SNP)

MEPs : Alyn Smith (SNP), David Martin (Labour), Catherine Stihler (Labour), Ian Hudghton (SNP), Struan Stevenson (Conservative), George Lyon (Liberal Democrat)

Dear X,

I am sure that like all people of conscience you have been horrified by the reports of the Israeli military attacks on neutral vessels in international waters killing at least 9 civilians. Amongst those on board were a man from Dundee – Ali El-Awaisi who was reportedly tortured.

The time line of events appears to be filling out as expected now that the Israeli state has released their prisoners.

This appears to be:
On 6 of the boats where the passengers and crew did not resist they were beaten.

on the Mavi Marmara:
IDF attacking the boat with weapons fire from the boats and helicopters damaging transmitting equipment and killing passengers.

Someone waving a white flag and a cameraman being shot – the cameraman being shot 4 times in the head.

IDF illegally boarding the vessel in international waters.

IDF boarding and the passengers and crew defending themselves. They additionally disarmed the soldiers and threw any guns or ammo they found on them overboard.

This continued until they were overwhelmed and more were killed or injured.

They were subsequently interrogated for information.

There are some reports that the tally of killed and injured given by Israel does not match those recorded by those on the boat and that several people are still unaccounted for.

They were then taken to a prison and interrogated, attacked by dogs and some claim to have been tortured.

All film and footage from those on board has been seized by Israel and so far tiny snippets which out of context support part of the Israeli narrative have been released (breaching international copyright laws). These have included clips with no sound at points in the time line where those on board claim they were being shot at.

The aid was then subsequently filtered using the secret Israel check-list of prohibited material into the Occupied Palestine Territories. One known item removed was batteries for electric wheelchairs. The justification for this was they could be used to arm suicide vests. Given they are the size of car batteries this is clearly a lie. Other items known to be banned include deadly coriander and evil sheets of A4 paper.

I would ask what you are capable and willing to do in your capacity as an elected representative of the people of Scotland and Dundee/North East to:

1. Bring attention to this outrageous attack on a humanitarian convoy.
2. Ensure that the truth of the events is released and not solely sanitised propaganda of the Israeli state.
3. Ensure the safe return of all passengers of these vessels to their home states including the dead, injured and the disappeared.
4. Ensure the safe return of all their possessions including the footage taken of the assault.
5. Ensure the safe passage of any subsequent aid convoys to Gaza or anywhere else carrying aid or passengers from Dundee given this outrageous precedent which has been set in the Mediterranean of state forces attacking such convoys.
6. Ending the blockade of Gaza.
7. Ensure that the ignored UN resolutions against Israel are enforced to end the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Additionally I invite you to attend the demonstration in Edinburgh tomorrow. There have been two buses laid on by Tayside for Justice in Palestine.

Yours sincerely,

Alan Graham

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Well as of now my only contact has been 3 hand delivered Lib Dem leaftets and a personally addressed SNP letter.

The three Lib Dem leaflets all contained their usual bunch of lies, damn lies and irelevent and massaged statistics.

A letter from the SNP, surely that would be a reply from Jim Barrie to the question I asked him about the Digital Economy Bill on the 15th of April. No such luck, it was just a standard mailing abour more local Champions. Champions at what? Dundee Amateur chess championship, someone who has completed 3 levels of Hero Quest? Who knows. So as of today I have still not received a reply to my query.

What was most confusing is if it was a standard electoral mail out they go to everyone, or everyone in a certain criteria, so why did Genna not get one?

Speaking of stuff bunged through the door, we have had no Royal Mail delivered leaflets or our polling cards yet. An email to the Returning Officer confirmed we are on the Electoral Register but that is the second time in 3 elections we have received no polling card. Hopefully Labour haven’t snaffled it as part of some systematic Fraud effort.

I took part in one of the Online Quizes to see which candidate best reflects your views. Worryingly the Lib Dems came out top, this was clearly due to only they and the SNP responding.

I emailed the rest of the candidates asking them to complete it (more to see what the independent stands for – if anything at all). The Tory got back saying he had filled it in and was curious as to whether he had lived up to expectations. I wrote back to thank him for completing it and inform him that i was surprised to see agreement on 4 issue, but sadly he had came last in politics matching.

Finding the link for the post I see Jim McFarlane of TUSC has completed it now too, so will go check his answers, I assume they will be closest though (yep). One question 1 he appears to have made a type Ordinary people did not create this economic crisis and should be made

The independent who is apparantly standing for fairness and democracy against sleaze and unaccountability? So far he hasn’t filled out the quiz to keep potential MPs accountable to their claimed positions.

I will as usual pop along early before work to vote. For the evening I will probably stay up til about 2-4 watching it online then get up about 6-7 to catch up on late results. There’s nothing as sweet as watching a vile Tory lose their seat live on TV. Thankfully having not lived under the rule of a Tory MP I have not seen them lose live either. Hopefully Philippa Stroud will be one who is shown losing live on telly. I did have the option to go to the count in Dundee but you only really get news there and on a TV plus I’d have to get next day off work.

Malcolm Rifkind

Forsythe, Portiloo, Mellor and Rifkind

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Well, unless there are any last minute changes or anyone withdrawing at the last minute (ooh err missus) the line up for the election in Dundee West looks like:

Liberal Democrats – John Barnett
SNP – Jim Barrie
Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition – Jim McFarlane
Labour – Jim McGovern
BNP – Ian Murphy
Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party – Colin Stewart

What is most apparent from first glance is that it is an all male list, in Dundee East there are 3 female candidates out of 6 candidates. Given the make up of the local elections where the SSP was the only party to approach any kind of gender balance it is unsurprising.

So the choices:

Liberal Democrats – John Barnett

Lib Dems must be on a bit of a bounce following the leadership debate. I have had two pieces of material so far, both of them having their fantasy land graphics they use everywhere misleading the public over the voting results/opinion polls. Expect the next ones to use the result of the polls of those who watched the leadership debate.

Lib dem 50% (top of graph) Labour and Tories 25% each (sitting at 2% on graph) – it’s a one horse race only Lib Dems can win here. I wouldn’t put it past them.

SNP – Jim Barrie

Jim is a councillor in the West End so should he win there should be a by-election in the ward in the near future. I wrote to him 2 days ago about the Digital Economy Bill and have yet to have a reply.

Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition – Jim McFarlane

Jim has previously stood for the SSP in the seat. Really involved in Unison.

Labour – Jim McGovern

Spent some time on the payroll vote. Caught up in expenses scandal which left him looking really out of touch. Didn’t get back to me over Digital Economy Bill and then sent misleading information. Probably knows he’s out of a job on May 7th.

BNP – Ian Murphy

First fascist arsehole to stand in the seat. Let’s hope he gets bit by a dog should he make the trek from Southern Scotland up to the constituency. Looks like they failed to put in their form in time if they ever intended to- yay! The Facebook group opposed to them standing in Dundee West had over a thousand members.

Conservative – Colin Stewart

Yet another product of the Conservative making factory at Dundee Uni.

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Jim McGovern was too lazy to show up to the debate or vote either way. The vote had a 38.2% turnout. Look out for he and others lecturing in the media about vote apathy in the near future.

Speaking of Jim McGovern I had a letter from him.

A quick timeline
22nd March I write to him asking him to oppose DEB and what he intends to do.
7th April he doesn’t show up to debate.
7th April I get letter from him.

This letter was not to do with the DEB (still waiting Jim) but was his Election called, I’m not MP *cough* vote for me *cough* excuse to use up his branded stationary to all constituents. Pretty insulting right?

The content of the letter was even more so:

I will not be able to ..deal with constituency casework over the election period.

Liar

MPs are able to work on cases for constituents if the constituent understands they are not doing so as an MP and agree for them to continue on work.

So not only does he ignore my letter, he doesn’t turn up to the debate I was asking about and on the day of the debate writes to me with incorrect information.

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Having spent several years as a member of the payroll vote he eventually started being a constituency MP.

He voted for authoritarian measures like storing massive amount of information on citizens and then tried to block information about where he has been on taxpayers money using privacy as his excuse.

He gets caught in the expenses scandal by spending £200 on a DVD player (having already bought a computer), £900 on a desk and putting in £500 for petty cash whilst also claiming 20p and 30p for rubbers and pencils.

He hasn’t responded to my mails about the Digital Economy Bill and last night couldn’t be arsed turning up to hear the debate or vote.

I can’t remember if he voted to extend the time to imprison people without charge but he has just not voted against a bill to cut people off the internet on accusations of breaching a minor criminal offence.

The only thing I can remember him doing of note was call the Royal Family parasites.

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To celebrate, rather than record the usual show of about 1hour the hosts organised a 12 hour spectacular pulling together some of the brightest and most interesting people in the web industry. There were experts on coding and design, CSS and CMS, useability and social networking etc. There were also girls. OMG!!!!!

Suffice to say the mouth breathers in the shows chatroom went ballistic. These women couldn’t have been invited on because they were experts in their field, oh no. They were invited on because they were women. The fact they dared to be attractive women, intelligent women, confident women was just too much for them to bear.

IT is a bad enough field as it is for being male dominated. From university to workplaces the vast majority of people involved are male. If you want to question if this is self-perpetuating or not you only have to have seen some of the reports of comments being made by these people.

Two of the women involved in the show Sarah Parmenter and Rachel Andrew have written brilliant pieces laying into these Neanderthals which I would highly recommend reading.

Take small comfort from the thought that this morning most of those who disgraced themselves will be waking up and falling asleep alone, with only Warcraft to take their frustrations out onto.

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What was strange was it had been expected to be handed to the Health committee. According to party hacks euthanasia doesn’t fall under the remit of health.

The more you know.

There is of course another side to the story according to Scotlands new online newspaper Caledonian Mercury

The practice of setting up committees where an issue doesn’t fall under the remit of an existing committee has a logic to it. The chair of these committees rotates amongst the parties.

The SNP were due to convene the next one.

The SNP were also due to produce their Independence Referendum and have it heard by such committee.

The opposition parties took a serious issue which has caused serious discussion on politics throughout the country and fucked about with it purely to score political points against the SNP.

Those who voted to do so should hang their heads in shame, but like we saw recently in Westminster very few elected representatives are capable of doing so, never mind when they have been caught doing something most people would be pretty annoyed about.

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Before Christmas there was a stooshy in the Courier due to Dundee holding a Winters Light Festival which included turning on the Christmas tree lights among other things as part of the Homecoming Celebration.

Rants and raves from the religious and righteous about political correctness gone mad etc etc. Missing the point that people were taking part in the event who would have no interest in turning on some lights along.

Some were proclaiming that as Christians were a majority no-one should do anything in the slightest to offend any Christians etc etc (never mind the usual Revs who write in saying gay people are hell bound sinners and so on).

I wrote in asking these Church organisations to reveal their church attendance to determine whether they really were a majority or not. Should that be established then and only then could you discuss minority/majority rights/responsibilities with knowledge of the facts.

Answer came there none.

We do have a comparison though. The Church of England has released some figures.

Their average attendance in England is 1.145 million per week. This was a figure from 2008, I could only find the population figure from 2001 (49,138,831), but this will have probably risen so this will be an over-estimate in their favour. This puts attenders at 2.33% of the population of England.

Is this the figure for Scotland or Dundee – no, is it likely to be similar – no reason why it won’t be the same ballpark. Until the figures are revealed it’s as good an estimate as any.

So the next time you hear or read some Christians ranting about how they should have special rights over everyone else or how their spokespersons should have a seat on every debate or indeed that they are a majority in society – remember that figure.

2.33%

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The newspaper headline section was hilarious with their shocking headlines and attacks on Brown. Given the Daily Mails usual line I was shocked that Frozen Britain wasn’t Browns Frozen Britain.

I’m no fan of the pillock but the tabloid attacks can be pretty pathetic sometimes.

It never happened under Blair was a jokey comment followed by Just call me Dave will sort it out. You could just picture a Dave sermon on waste

Under the former Labour Government, Labour councils were riddled with waste. For example: grit. They whinged and whinged they didn’t have enough of it, then when he splurged more on them it dissapeared immediately. None could be found it the depot, they were just chucking it away. As soon as it was gone they demanded more. Outrageous. Millions couldn’t make it to work, schools were closed, it was more damaging than a day of strike!! Our Conservative government stopped this by not shipping grit to councils who would waste it and moving everyone into workhouses so they wouldn’t have an excuse for being late. As for kids, education is a ridiculous expense they can sweep chimneys in my manor from the age of eight.

You get the idea.

With Tory or Labour cuts coming you could see a repeat of this only getting worse. If you are a council in the South East and get a wee sprinkling of snow every other year and an inch or so every 30 years it’s a short term gain to cut spending on grit supplies. In the next 4 years that’s a low chance of needing them. Look at all that waste you have saved, inefficiency solved. Never mind that to get it when you need it as your streets are locked up means the price is gouged and days of work have been lost for thousands of people including council employees. It’s the same short term policy planning that leads to quarterly bonuses for bankers etc.

I was reminded of this watching a video on Daily Mash of David Mitchell ranting about waste. He points out it’s like taking over a bar and saying you will eliminate waste by banning spillages and being really really careful. And just as likely to work. Unfortunately I can’t find the clip.

Maybe the councillors should find out more about the delays in getting salt and grit to their doors when it’s needed. They all seem in favour of a junket at our expense, in Dundee these have included trips to the middle east and trips to strip bars. Maybe a fact finding mission to the salt mines of Siberia is in order. Of course we should only look at the short term cost so buying a return ticket is out. Once there they can make a plan for the short term by trying to then get a single to return.

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Banks had to meet the costs of doing business.

From a bank who had billions chucked at it after failing at business and then billions more in secret so that it’s share price wouldn’t plummet more. They then started discussing how many staff to make redundant.

The bare faced cheek of the man.

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It is an outrage that your government have sacked Professor David Nutt. Surely the purpose of advisers is to give an experts opinion not to rubber stamp policy decisions by government taken not because of scientific evidence but in line with the opinions of the readers of the vile Daily Mail.

Perhaps your government can find a drugs adviser from the scientific school of Trofim Lysenko? It is bad enough that the government ignores the evidence from scientific study into the uselessness of the “war on drugs” and the huge positive gains to be made by prescribing heroin to addicts but to now sack advisers for stating that the facts are contrary to government policy is inexcusable.

Considering McGovern spent months on the payroll vote and his likelihood of being re-elected is zilch I doubt I’ll get anything positive back from him (as per usual).

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Firstly by claiming that other churches do it too (nice deflection)

Secondly by claiming that the majority of paedophile priests were gay.

Supremely ironic given one of the vilest homophobic attacks is to claim that gay people are paedophiles. See this article for example.

but lastly with this belter.

only 1.5%-5% of Catholic clergy were involved in child sex abuse.

So if you are in a room with 20 priests, one of them is a child molester, and according to the Vatican that’s no big deal.

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The reports have mainly went on about the war he fought in and ignored his insights into the situation.

Which is a shame, as he had wise words to say on the war

On a graveyard in France

Any one of them could have been me. Millions of men came to fight in this war and I find it incredible that I am the only one left.

He described war as the

calculated and condoned slaughter of human beings…war isn’t worth one life.

Of course this is in stark contrast to Butcher Haig who callously sent thousands to their death due to his stupidity, lack of respect for human live and inability to understand that sending people over an open field covered in mines towards a machine gun isn’t going to work.

The fact that he has a fund in his name for surviving soldiers is a travesty of irony.

It is of course one of the reasons I avoid wearing a red poppy and every year buy a pack of Peace Pledge Union white poppies to sell on behalf of the Dundee Coalition for Justice Not War.

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£658 for a computer desk.
£4360 to set up his 10 page website – surely not.
£123 for a trouser press.
£950 for a sofa bed.

As well as everything from cushions to bath screens he also claimed £2 for a knife.

His office expenses are equally bizarre with things as petty as 32p for a pair of scissors and 22p for drawing pins.

Almost every month he was putting down £400 for food (one month he tried for £500 and was knocked back), £250 for petty cash. How can you claim 32p for items in your office then £250 for petty cash, what the hell was the petty cash for?

Most amusing though was regularly paying a grand for leaflets then companies 4 grand to deliver them. Kind of shows the state of the Labour party membership in the city if they have to pay for leaflets to be delivered!

So given that the expenses cover council tax, rent/mortgage, food, household goods, phone bills etc.
The question remains: what is his salary for?

Mind you that is after the question what are the expenses for?. Well they are supposed to be essentials needed to be an MP. I don’t think cushions are essential. I don’t think a computer desk needs to cost over £600 and I am baffled as to why an MP from Dundee can claim for an overnight stay in a hotel in South Wales. Was that when he was visiting parliament or his constituency?

Jim Devine

Jim Devine is even more amusing a list of different dodgy expenses and every one of them was someone else cocking up in a completely different way. Occam’s Razor slices, it dices, it leaves it most likely he’s fibbing.

Eric Joyce squirming

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On the Scottish Socialist Party site there is a monthly competition run with philosophy football.

I just won their International Brigade t-shirt.

Two wins in two months from this competition, enter it yourself!

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Californias Supreme Court rules that no more gay marriages can take place.

For an accurate summary of this insanity see this Center For Inquiry post.

Can anyone point to an argument against gay marriage not based on religion. I have looked and looked but can’t find one.

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On the Scottish Socialist Party site there is a monthly competition run with philosophy football.

I just won their Miners Strike t-shirt.

The new competition is to win an International Brigader t-shirt.
Edit – which I won too!

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Please sign the online petition in favour of Scott Rennie the gay minister who is in danger of losing his post within Queen’s Cross Church due to his sexuality.

Here is what you have to do:

1) sign up to Facebook

2) go to the petition created by Anne Gourlay and sign

3) In case anyone needs some background then this is a useful article

4) pass on this to your pals

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First up was Mark Thomas with As Used on the Famous Nelson Mandela: Underground Adventures in the Arms and Torture Trade. This was really interesting, funny and horrifying in equal doses. Some brilliant anecdotes of groups set up to take on arms dealers.

Next was Mark Steel with What’s Going On?: The Meanderings of a Comic Mind in Confusion. I had been looking forward to this as it covers the last ten years or so. Each chapter has a mixture of the disintegration of his private life, the disintegration of any lonely last principles in the Labour Party and the disintegration of his relationship with the SWP.

Each of these is quite depressing and bitter to read and the contrast of the three leads to a real understanding if what he has been going through.

Recently I also read Jack Jones Union Man: Autobiography and have just started on IOU: The Story of the Debt a book I got in Poundland and has a first chapter praising Bono so looks to be pretty shit.

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The latest issue has x years since monarch succession law Brown wants to change, 14 years, time Brown waited before becoming prime minister unelected.

Now whilst strictly true, it is certainly misleading. Gordon Brown was not elected as Prime Minister, the implication is that this is unusual. But neither was any other Prime Minister. Ever.

The most recent example of a situation identical to Brown is John Major. After Thatcher was ousted, he was made Prime Minister on 28 November 1990 and did not call a general election until 9 April 1992.

Unsurprisingly the Tory rags ranting about Brown being unelected did not make the same argument back then!

After a General election the monarch asks the leader of the party with the most MPs to form their government.

Should the accept, as they generally do, they go on to form a government and a cabinet.

It is therefore possible that Labour can have the most MPs elected. Their leader, who is not an MP becomes Prime Minister and then forms his Cabinet out of a load of Lords and Bishops on the Privy Council – none of whom were elected either.

So, the premise is made: this Prime Minister is not elected so that is not democratic.

The other one: no Prime Minister is elected so that is not democratic, is not made.

The conclusion: we don’t live in a democracy, but an oligarchy, is not drawn either.

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Courier article

The overriding incident, which I found disgusting and unforgivably embarrassing, was that I was approached by the (Labour) group through Kevin (Keenan), asking if I would give up two years of my term of office to keep Mr Borthwick on board, who would subsequently get me an OBE. I am disappointed to say that Mr Borthwick made the same request to me later.

I turned both requests down, of course, expressing my disgust to both of them and reporting the incidents to the relevant officers of the council.

Which is a bit of an explosive revelation as [OBE] Appointments are made on the advice of the governments of the United Kingdom and some Commonwealth realms.

It would show just how the honours system works.

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He claims to have a long list of reasons for resigning but only reveals one:

I have been trying to persuade my ex-colleagues for nearly two years to recognise the fact that, in the interests of the city and fair play, Dundee City Council committee conveners should be compiled from all parties

Mr Letford said that was more than self-evident when the SNP, as the largest single party on the council with 13 members, had been excluded from any role in the administration. The situation had been made worse since the SNP increased to 14 members—almost half the 29-member council— by winning the Maryfield by-election earlier this month.

It is ludicrous to believe all the political talent required to run a city is only available in the administration and exclude half of the councillors

My pleas fell on deaf ears and, because of that and other serious differences, I felt I could no longer stay a member of the administration and the Labour group.

This afternoon was Labour’s chance to throw some mud. Jim McGovern implied that he was only interested in keeping his allowance as Lord Provost and that he no longer has principles. Clearly he missed Labour trying to form an even wider alliance of everyone but the SNP in an effort to keep their convenership allowances. That doesn’t mean his charge isn’t true, just a bit short sighted.

Kevin Keenan was next in a bizarre move claiming that Labour intend to nominate an SNP councillor,Liz Fordyce, for Depute Lord Provost. Liz Fordyce laughed off the proposal – showing it to be well thought out.

Ernie Ross was wheeled out to prattle on, his nonsense included claiming Labour are a democratic socialist party. That would be wrong on both counts Ernie you rent a quote former MP. (Ernie once tried to defend voting for war to me in the street making the ludicrous claims that because Tony Blair repeated a lie that didn’t mean he wasn’t telling the truth)

Jill Shimi who sent her kids to a private school whilst making ludicrous claims about how great the state schools in the city are was also wheeled out alongside Chic Farquhar. Shimi said nothing of importance. Farquhar makes a decent point, that the constituents voted for a Labour candidate and Letford should resign and force a by election.

Unfortunately the Labour first preference results for the ward show Letford scoring 1385 votes, Ferguson 940 and cueball Hind trailing on 479. (Hind and Fergusons results being unexpectedly reversed following an anonymous smear campaign from sources unknown saying to vote Ferguson instead of Hind). With Letfird having 49.3% of the Labour vote and being elected on Round 3 with Ferguson on Round 9 it seems like a rearrange the deckchairs strategy from Labour.

The Evening Telegraph also confirmed the dates I couldn’t find on a quick lunchtime Google search.

Labour have run the council since 1980 and have been in charge since 1946 for all but 11 years. No doubt it’s those 11 years that all the city’s problems were created…

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One of the SNP councillors resigned as councillor and prompted a by election. The SNP won this comfortably with 48.89% of the first votes.

Earlier this year a Labour councillor resigned. At the by election the SNP again won it comfortably.

This shifted the balance to 14 SNP, 9 Labour, 3 Tory, 2 Liberal Democrat and 1 Independent. Needing 15 for a majority it seemed clear that the SNP would take power with Borthwick as kingmaker, and in this case democrat.

Today there was a shock though. John Letford, the Lord Provost and most prominent member of the Labour Party in the city resigned the Labour group and now sits as an independent.

This shifts it to 14 SNP, 8 Labour, 3 Tory, 2 Liberal Democrats and 2 Independents. The two independents being Lord Provost and Depute Lord Provost can probably show what deal is being struck.

In the course of 6 years Labour have went from largest Councillor group to being 3 behind at the election, losing 2 by elections by clear margins and a defection. A defection of their most prominent, well known, longest serving councillor? and to be fair, most well liked member in the city.

It is worth noting the thoughts of the Labour Party spokesman after the by election. He is anonymous but believed to be former Information Minister in Iraq.

We are pleased that Labour increased our share of the vote in what the SNP were convinced was a very safe council seat for them.

Coupled with recent by-election wins, it shows that the momentum is moving from away from the SNP.

Of course reality, as ever, contradicts the Labour Party.

Dundee Councillors 1995 to 2009

Jim McGovern has written a piece on his site.

In it he implies that John Letford has no principles and is only out to line his own pockets. He also mocks him for a claim he made about what was at his core – Labour and the Trade Union Movement.

Quick Quiz:
If you cut the Labour Party in two what would you find?

(Comedy Option: 2 Tory parties)

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If you needed a better reason to doubt that religion is the basis of morality and irreligion is the basis of amorality it is the recent case from Brazil.

A nine year old girl was systematically raped by her stepfather for a number of years. She eventually fell pregnant to twins. At nine years old.

Her doctors sensibly advised that she have a termination due to having the body of a nine year old and thus having a very high if not certain chance of death giving birth. Her mother supported the decision and the doctors carried it out.

Then along came the celibate ranks of the Catholic Church.

Shock and Horror, Hell and Damnation they spouted. Abortion is a sin don’t you know. Can’t have that sort in our church they proclaimed.

Cast them out like the imaginary demons they exorcise in Latin.

Excommunication for the child’s mother and the sinful doctors who save her life. The girl herself is fine, too young to be at fault – just like her foetus in heaven or Limbo or whatever the line is now. She can remain in the church. Her and her step-father. The multiple rapist (who also molested her mentally disabled sister).

Rape children or be a fascist dictator (Hitler, Mussolini, Franco) and you’re a-ok. Just repent your sins on your deathbed and it’s straight to heaven with you. You can also stay a member of the church.

Save the life of a nine year old rape victin – begone, out ye go and probably straight to hell when you die.

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For some people Mark Steel went from being Double Plus Funny to Double Plus Unfunny overnight. Thankfully I don’t have anyone telling me what to think so can still have my own opinion about such matters.

Poignant and funny at the same time.

Oh for God’s sake, they’re not going to break down the embassy with balsa wood. Then he added Come on dad, let’s get to the gates.

No I think it’s safer to stay here, I advised.

COME ON, he insisted, and we shuffled through the squashed crowd to get nearer the front. Why don’t we all invade the Israeli embassy? he asked, and whoever was stood next to us answered Because the Israeli embassy is better protected than Buckingham Palace.

Well then let’s invade Buckingham Palace, he said.

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FFRF

They have a wide range of topics and guests to do with atheism, secularism, humanism, philosophy etc. Some of the guests are excellent, some not so much, but it’s such a diverse view you get it’s worth wading through the occasional bad one.

RSS feed for show.

One topic frequently covered is the rights of oppressed groups, such as LGBT, African Americans, and women (Annie Laurie Gaylor, one of the presenter is the daughter of Anne Nicol Gaylor, a pioneer for abortion rights)

Show 132 which was particularly excellent.

Topic: Prop 8 & the Religious War Against Gay Rights The show will be devoted to an expose of the religious backing of Proposition 8, to deny same-sex marriage to California residents via a Nov. 4 ballot initiative. Listen for clips of religious ads, and of religious leaders inveighing against gay marriage. FFRF Lifetime Member and Gay Atheist founder Dick Hewetson will be interviewed about Proposition 8 and the religious war against gay rights.

Show 132 is a particular highlight and well worth listening to.

A word of warning, Dan Barker, the other host, used to be a minister. Although this means he has an excellent grasp of the Bible and criticism of it, he still loves playing songs on his guitar about his belief. Some of these are excellent, some are a bit cringe worthy.

Some of the excellent tracks he plays, and has others play are Bread & Roses, Nothing Fails Like Prayer, It Ain’t Necessarily So, No Gods, No Masters

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At 83 it can’t be long now surely? One of the days where I smiled most was reading that her dementia was so bad that she thinks her racist piece of shit husband was still alive. Having to be re-told every day that the person you love most in the world is dead is the best punishment she could possibly receive. It is the only small comfort in the knowledge that she is still depriving the rest of the human race of the oxygen she continues to use.

Costello said it best

Because there’s one thing I know, I’d like to live
Long enough to savour
That’s when they finally put you in the ground
I’ll stand on your grave and tramp the dirt down

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Laughing so hard.

Trying and failing to find any way to describe the ridiculousness of this all whilst masking their identity and making it political…

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The question is, underneath the main plot of the film what does it show of the slums and poverty in which the majority of the film is set?

The first thing you notice about the slums is the grime, the cameras chosen really show off the filth everywhere. Danny Boyle chose to shoot parts of the movies in the real shantytown of Mumbai rather than sets. The kids play cricket on the only available flat area – the airport which backs on to their homes. After being spotted they are chased and beaten by the Police. After a short period seeing their basic lives the turning point is a sectarian attack by a gang of thugs angry at people having a different religion to themselves. The police are now turning a blind eye to the brutality of the sectarian mob. The children are rendered homeless and living in a garbage dump, an even worse situation than they had been in before.

From here you see a number of different routes out of the lives of the slum dwellers. There is begging in a Fagan style gang. Involvement in criminal gangs and as a teaboy in a call centre. No positive or progressive lifestyles are shown for those in poverty in the film. This narrow look at life only focuses on the main characters and not the wider society they live in and really limits the film to be a love story set against a backdrop of abject poverty rather than a film that takes a serious and detailed look at this life. This has been the basis of most of the criticism of the film, and I admit slightly disappointed me when I had watched it. To be fair though it was never marketed as exploring these issues, I had just hoped it would spend a small amount of time looking at them rather than featuring them as the fluff for the background of the love story.

Review after review have described it as a feel good movie. Certain parts of it were certainly cheerful, laugh out loud moments. The ending is as feel good as the reviews train you to expect. Other parts of the film are far from feel good. Part of the opening of the film is seeing Jamal, the main character being brutally tortured. Seeing the poverty in the shantytowns, the exploitation of a young woman was not a cheerful part of the movie. One early scene had me squirming as some reviews had mentioned child abuse being an issue in the film and I had mistakenly thought it may be sexual rather than physical, verbal and emotional. Those last three are certainly aspects of the movie although thankfully the former was not, although it was certainly implied that a girl was to be sold to a man.

The movie is certainly entertaining, deserving of its praise and all the Oscars which may fly it’s way. It is a film I would highly recommend anyone to see. It is not however one you will be laughing all the way through as the reviews imply. When I saw it on opening weekend in a packed screen the end was greeted with complete silence. Probably the most suitable way to digest the complete story you have been shown.

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* He of Father Ted, Black Books and IT Crowd fame.

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What has not been as widely reported are the demos in Israel against the action

One account described the slogans/banners and the hoops they had to jump through to be able to protest.

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A multimillionaire politician and media tycoon responsible for the harassment and mass fingerprinting of the Roma population in Italy and trying to make himself immune to prosecution for his corrupt terms in power.

After taking a massive amount of cash for a huge spread in the Daily Record including half naked pictures it is unsurprising.

At the weekend I had better things to do, such as attend a protest against the slaughter in Gaza.

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96 years and 230+ wars (28 ongoing) after the war to end all wars.

Israel have been blockading medical supplies to Palestine for months and one of their ships rammed a vessel in international waters taking urgent medical supplies to help the injured.

Consider donating a small sum to Medical Aid for Palestine, one of the charities working to provide on the ground emergency medical aid.

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If Brown’s ridiculous use of anti-terrorism laws against Iceland have stopped this beautiful drink getting into the country it will be the straw that broke the camels back. I’ll oppose you privatising public services, march against the wars and bailouts you have bottomless pits of money for, but deny me good vodka and you’re beyond the pale sunshine.

In other news this week, a tanned celebrity going into Big Brother house has caused much mirth in lefty circles and an Iraqi with a pretty good aim has caused many cheers.

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I remember the day unfolding and posting in the thread on UGS being sceptical about the numerous claims made by the Police: he was running, was challenged, had heavy clothing to conceal a bomb etc, all of which turned out to be nonsense.

Where are the Tories bleating about the abuse of state powers and Stalinist government today? Or are Labour only stamping on civil liberties when Tories are the subject of their regime?

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Various news agencies have reported on EC President Jose Manuel Barroso talking about Britain and the Euro.

I don’t mean this will happen tomorrow, I know that the majority (of British people) are still opposed, but there is a period of consideration underway and the people which matter in Britain are currently thinking about it

Democracy EU style as usual. No doubt if there was a vote against it another follow shortly after.

I don’t really care what currency I have in my pocket whether it’s Euros, Pounds Sterling or Scottish Pounds.

In other political news the Tories are spitting in their corn flakes about the arrest of Damian Green. They have now come to the conclusion that New Labour have a wee bit of an authoritarian streak about them and that the anti-terrorism laws are being abused. This from the self righteous hypocrites who were trying to decide whether people should be locked up for 28 or 90 days without charge, support locking up children in prisons before they are sent back to regimes where they face torture and excecution and stayed silent whilst the laws were used to attack Icelandic assets in the UK.

Yes it’s a bad thing but after the litany of attacks on democracy by both Labour and the Tories they are hardly able to complain.

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