In line with my disquieting new habit of feeling something approximating to goodwill towards the UK Labour leader, I actually found myself watching a Labour Party Political Broadcast this evening without any discernible steam coming out of my ears. That is, until Iain "the Snarl" Gray popped up uninvited midway through (in a clumsily inserted Scottish Labour 'opt-out' from the main broadcast) to make this utterly extraordinary comment -
"Over the last three-and-a-half years, the SNP have broken every single promise they have ever made."
Whether or not it's true that Ed Miliband "gets" Scotland, it's depressingly clear that Iain Gray does not "get" the modern Scottish electorate, and probably never will. In fact, the new contrast with Miliband's sunny disposition is simply going to make Gray's relentless carping, sourness and pointless belligerence ever more unappealing to voters. It's his enormous good fortune to find himself in the position of being favourite to become First Minister almost entirely through no actions of his own, but he could yet throw it all away with his own actions if he carries on like this.
Rest assured that there will have been seven-year-old children shaking their heads in disbelief this evening, asking their parents - "have the SNP really broken every single promise they ever made?". To which the only possible response would have been "no, darling, that man's just being a wee bit silly". If a politician repeatedly uses such stupidly overblown rhetoric, there comes a point where it's a debased currency and people just completely stop listening. Has that even occurred to Gray? It appears not. I believe that's what's known as a lack of 'emotional intelligence' - a failing Gordon Brown often used to be charged with. That was actually slightly harsh in Brown's case, but not in Gray's.
Someone needs to tell him that out here, in the real world, away from Labour Party headquarters, there are people with a few brain cells left.
ReplyDeleteIt is so insulting to people's intelligence to be fed this kind of rubbish on a daily basis when we actually live in the country. We see the things that our government has done. But then what would you expect?
What has Labour got to offer? No real policies, well not until Mr Miliband tells them what they are, and even then who knows, and certainly nothing in the way of leadership. We have to suppose, given that he is their leader, that he is the best they have got.
It wouldn’t be unreasonable to suppose that the deputy leader female who, certainly behind his back, threatened the Duke of Edinburgh with violence, is the second best thing they have....
I rest my case. They are a bunch of pathetic third raters with nothing intelligent to say. They have spent the entire 3 ½ years of the SNP’s government doing their best to oppose for the sake of opposing. They have blocked perfectly good policies which their own party in England and in Wales have backed; and they have done so because the SNP proposed them.
Scotland doesn’t matter a toss to them. Nor do Scots. They are simply livid that their hegemony has been disturbed, and their place at the trough, which they consider to be rightfully theirs for life... if not hereditarily, was denied them. Huff! That’s what we have had.
Scotland deserves better. Not just a little better ... and great deal better.
And one promise that the SNP has very definitely not broken is that every Thursday, excepting his very first FMQ, Alex Salmond has washed the floor with the whining, miserable excuse for an opposition leader.
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I regret to say that I feel it is necessary for the SNP to pass the baton of First Ministership to Iain Gray and the Labour Party. The SNP is unable to push its programme in Government because the unionist opposition block it at every turn, often without bothering to consider the proposals. This leaves the SNP as a sort of caretaker government only ever keeping the country ticking over and it leaves it open to Gray’s scurrilous accusations of breaking all their promises. Even though this only happened because Gray, Goldie and Scott automatically oppose everything.
ReplyDeleteMuch better to move aside and let Labour have a go, they would have to implement the Tory cuts that are coming. And they would either have to form a minority administration or go into coalition with the Tories new best friends the Lib Dems, either situation has enormous mileage for Alex and the SNP. Lastly, the SNP do better as a party of opposition, after all they want to do away with the status quo not be part of it. They have proved they are not a bunch of basket cases, job done I say. Let’s get back to the fight for independence.
Every time I say The Snarl, and the man that it is attached to, on TV I grow increasingly confident about the 2011 election.
ReplyDeleteCome on, there's no way in hell that guy is ever going be our First Minister. Right?
I was raging when I saw that! Surely they can't get away with such bare-faced lies? There must be regulations for these broadcasts?
ReplyDeleteBellgroveBelle - I suppose, to be fair, there has to be the maximum latitude for politicians to say what they like in PPBs. But, there again, there comes a point where a statement is so straightforwardly verifiable as an outright lie that perhaps it shouldn't be allowed!
ReplyDeleteEzio - one thing's for sure, we're about to find out one way or the other whether leadership really matters in Holyrood elections. If Gray does become FM - or if at the very least the SNP don't run him very close - it obviously doesn't matter half as much as we thought.