It's easy to be cynical about pretty much anything the Scottish Labour party do, but let's just congratulate them for making the right call on Trident. In days gone by, this sort of vote would have been meaningless, but Kezia has talked herself into a position where she has no choice but to recognise the decision as binding on her "autonomous" accounting unit/branch office.
The GMB and Unite have both been making prize buffoons of themselves on this topic for weeks, and true to form, the GMB's Gary Smith today accused Scottish Labour of "Alice in Wonderland politics" for simply moving to bring the UK into line with the 95% of nations around the world that don't possess nuclear weapons. What will happen to the jobs at Faslane, he demanded, continuing the theme of "let's destroy the world as a job creation scheme".
He's got a point, you know. It seems to me that Scottish Labour have now got very little choice but to embrace independence, because surely the only chance of finding jobs for all the Faslane staff is to retrain them as border guards to man Checkpoint Gretna and Checkpoint Berwick, and dog handlers to patrol the heavily fortified frontier in between.
"Why build another wall? Oh why build another wa-all?" Jobs, frankly.
OK, fine. I think it's time I settled this job fiasco once and for all.
ReplyDeleteDear Labour,
Give me the £167,000,000,000 you want to spend on Trident.
I will guarantee to hire every single worker who loses their job as a result of scrapping the nukes, on TWICE their current salary.
Yes, TWICE.
AND, on top of this, I will also pay the country back ONE THOUSAND MILLION POUNDS.
Deal?
Brilliant.
DeleteWhat Keaton said.
DeleteSo that will deter people who have la bamba from dropping it on us. Some fools do crop up in history Anon and especially those who have the propensity to talk shoite like yourself. It is not about the money you fool just survival on this planet. Go sit on yer chanty you rastler and let tris and keaton squeeze in all arseholes together.
DeleteWe are in NATO which is deterrent enough - An attack on one member is an attack on all. And the vast majority of NATO countries don't have independent nuclear weapons.
DeleteJust for the info of GWC: A chanty Wrastler is one who is boking his drunken load into the chanty, not sitting on it in one of the more traditional ways
DeleteRuk not being idiots like some of the Scots will relocate the Trident. They do have a plan B unlike jockanorey and the currency. The USA will withdraw inward investment and Scots who voted Yes will follow South and pretend they voted No. We will be booted out of NATO and the EU (that is the only bonus), wee Nicola will move in with Big Tam ensuring everyone will get fucked.
ReplyDeleteKangaroo says
DeleteGWC I have read a lot of your comments over many months and can only assume you are actually a resident of 10 Downing St as your views are VERY not GWC.
Go troll somewhere else
GWC,what a dreamer you are,and like most dreamers do so from a point of well really no point to you or your crazy patter.Just thought I'd add a comment for you once only of course,cant see much sense in reading nonsense like you scribe.
DeleteHave you ever heard anyone say "I am going to move to a country with a huge nuclear arsenal, so that me and my family can feel safe" ?
ReplyDeleteNope , me either.
You do not have to move because it will not go away. Are you really thick Anon or just a chanty rastler.
DeleteSurely you would feel safer in Russia, GWC? They've got far more nukes than us.
DeleteJames young chap I feel safe here in Glesga knowing the Gulag is in Russia. Wee Eck was I seem to recall was an admirer off the USSR in his growing up days. But now he is Church of Scotland. I feel really safe now. AYE.
DeleteEat your cereal.
DeleteSomewhere a bowl of cereal is missing it's eater.
ReplyDeleteOr a village it's idiot.
DeleteCmon he's no that clever
DeleteMy 8 year old daughter voted to scrap homework yesterday.
ReplyDeleteWe'll see how that goes after school this evening.
#Scotlab15 #Trident
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteActually homework is not really of much help in terms of education and kids need to do other things after 6 hours sitting down and being fed mostly irrelevant stuff. Homework is not compulsory, education is the responsibility of parents in fact, not the state.
DeleteKids learn by doing all kinds of things, talking, making stuff, drawing, flying a kite, walking and looking and on and on. They learn instinctively, long as not gaming too much on computers. But when my son had to come out of school due to autism and we started home education, the internet was fabulous as a resource, many amazing sites I really loved the interactive ones on the periodic table etc...most of the good ones are American or Australian forget the ebc ones, As a friend pointed out once, the kids need to know how to make a living, how to be environmentally aware and what their taxes will be spent on etc etc. True enough, so, homework booo, learning and education yes. Homework caused us massive stress, no thanks. Let them take responsibility to learn a new thing each day, read a dictionary, a new word and new language. My son is fluent in Japanese and knows more about the old language than his Japanese teacher. Kids are naturally inquisitive. Sorry the long rant. All the best, and happy exploring and learning for your daughter.
Oh and watch Ken Robinson on TEDtalks, a great educationalist. He does a really great talk on how kids learn, funny too.
In my own personal experience, homework and private study were extremely valuable - particularly for things like maths and the sciences where repetition is king when it comes to remembering the key facts and processes.
DeleteI learned pretty much by rote. Then a deeper understanding of what I was doing and why came in later. People have learned this way for thousands of years. That's not to say there aren't other ways of doing things. But, as with many things, the traditional methods are best - easy to implement and mostly effective.
Aldo
Kezia Dugdale made it clear that she thinks Smith is the end of the devolution journey and that no more powers should be devolved to the Scottish Parliament.I doubt if that will win back the support of the thousands of Devomaxers who trust the SNP to take them further down the devolution road.
ReplyDeleteUnder the Tories/Libs I pay £55 less a month in tax. I was managing ok without this. People were also managing to pay road tolls so why withdrawn this revenue! when it could be helping those suffering welfare cuts and those attending food banks. The Nat sis are wind bags and like their Tory pals just pander to the greedy and better off.
ReplyDeleteEat your cereal.
DeleteRather than he eats his cereal maybe it would be better for all of us if he chokes on it.
DeleteI wish the troll no personal harm. I merely remind the troll about the cereal dished up to all of us by dint of being "better together".
DeleteLatest cost estimate = 167 Billion punds
ReplyDeletejackie baillie says 13,000 dependent jobs.
That's about 12.8 million pounds per job.
Let's just create 13,000 millionaires and call it quits
I absolutely do not trust labour in any way to reject trident at the vote in wm. They are trying to lure voters back by coming out as against, but will abstain and therefore condone renewal when the chips are down, pun intended. Thing is this will lure some voters back, but, given how labour did Scotland down for such a long time, hopefully not too many will be conned again.
ReplyDeleteHasn't the Scottish wing of the Labour Party always opposed Trident? There is nothing new here, really - just a restatement of a position they have held for many years.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, the United Kingdom is governed by the grown ups who recognise the need for nuclear weapons when China, Russia, North Korea and Pakistan all have them - with Iran about to join the list in the next few years.
Aldo
Grown ups Aldo, I think not, last I heard one, the so called important one had sex with a pig, if that is the mark of a grown up god help us.
DeleteI don't think they have opposed it in the past, no.
DeleteI'm not sure i get the 'need' for an independent nuclear deterrent, so long as the USA is a member of NATO. The only situations I can see beyond that are :
a) We want to nuke someone but the USA doesn't. Possible, but pretty unlikely in this century.
b) We want to nuke the USA. I'd put this one down as pretty far fetched.
So moving on from the unresolvable uni/multi bickering and taking on board your point about the 'need' for nuclear weapons, do we really 'need' an independent strategic level nuclear deterrent?
'Grown-ups' would be trusted to be able to choose when to fire nukes surely? Wee kiddies would need permission.
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbiE-U7Zijw
Published on 2 Nov 2015
Major General Patrick Cordingley DSO, who led the British and American forces in the first Gulf War in 1991, unequivocally rejects the idea that the UK's nuclear deterrent is independent of the USA
Trident is fully operationally independent of the USA. However, it is perhaps not entirely politically independent - and that is understandable - they are our closest ally and number 1 force for peace and democracy in the world. We are unlikely to fire these weapons unless doing so in conjunction with them. However, even with as close an ally as the US, you can't be 100% sure that your interests will be safeguarded by them. America has a history of isolationism - there is no guarantee they would rescue / avenge us if we were to find ourselves at war with an entity that left the United States alone. Therefore, we need to have our own nuclear defence system.
DeleteAldo
Who to believe...
DeleteMajor General Patrick Cordingley DSO, who led the British and American forces in the first Gulf War in 1991, or...
Anonymous guy on internet who goes by the handle of 'Aldo' and thinks countries that develop their own independent nuclear weapons system will happily sell it / lease it to another country without insuring that said other country couldn't use it against them.
Hmmm. Tough one.
I'll go with the Major General.
The major general has been contradicted by other high ranking military men and politicians.
DeleteThe missiles have their own guidance systems that do not rely on American satellite systems to find their way to their target. It really is quite ingenious but the entire thing, once fired, is self contained. If the Americans had put in some wee bug into the system whereby they press a button in the Pentagon and the missile de arms itself or drops into the ocean, don't you think our scientists (equally qualified and knowledgeable) would've found it by now?
The idea we would use nuclear weapons against the USA is absurd in the extreme.
Aldo
GWC:
ReplyDeleteYou have gone beyond the crude vulgarity and blatant lies of the bog standard troll into the territory of evil (if you grasp what EVIL is (and there is a body of evidence in your posts, still growing, that you do)).
Why do you do what you do?
I rarely find another human being to be wicked beyond reasoned discourse which may help them and me modify our mutual positions; however, you seem to be simply hell-bent on wicked provocations, regardless.
And I do mean wicked despite your plea of humour to me in a private e-mail.
Of course, you will fan-dance around this "j'accuse" post of mine; but there is, as I pointed out, a now substantial body of evidence indicating that you are a provocateur to whom decent, human conscience means nothing.
Nor evidence substantiated argument made in a civilized fashion.
Ergo, you are trash sir/miss/bot.
david
Can I borrow your brain GWC?
ReplyDelete.......I'm gonna build an idiot.
GWC,
ReplyDeletethere is guy wrong on the internet! It is you.
Thanks for clearing that up for me.
Regarding the first sentence of the piece. There is no Scottish Labour party.
ReplyDeleteThere is no independent party called "The Scottish Labour Party". But there is a Scottish wing of the UK Labour Party, who work collegiately with their fellow Labourites across the whole of Britain. This reflects the will of the Scottish people, who rejected independence firmly.
DeleteWhy does everything need to be exclusively "Scottish" anyway? If you were rushed into hospital with a gushing head wound, would you stop to ask the nurse "is the doctor Scottish?" before being wheeled into surgery? I daresay not. What matters is what people do - not their nationality.
Aldo