Hing on a wee minute

I was sitting here watching some news roll by and it suddenly struck me. I did, of course, immediately ask "who threw that?" But I digress ...

Has there or has there not been a bit of a paradigm shift in Scottish politics when the SNP is disappointed at failing to overturn a 10,500 majority? We're a bit cheesed off at only increasing our share of the vote by 13%, sad that we only slashed the majority, gutted that we never took one of Labour's safest seats, pure miserable that we didn't sweep everything before us.

Jings, crivvens, help ma boab, we're still improving.

Right, back to cheese...

Repainting devolution

The Labour Government has delivered tins of paint to the Commission to Repaint Devolution. I can exclusively reveal that devolution is to be repainted a dull beige.

I am, however, intrigued by the recommendation on page 132 that "Scotland should be Independent".

I am pleased

I hear that the Labour party wants to talk to three quarters of the Scottish electorate (I've no idea what they've got against the other 25%).

Can I be the first to say - I'm delighted, bring on the Bristol model ...

Glenrothes

Do as I say ...

Reading the Grauniad (as ye do), I was struck by a couple of stories. Let's fling them up in the air and see how they fly:


First, there's the tale about the people who face a complete ban on spending money - even the spare change in their pockets - because they are suspected of being involved in financing

terrorism - no conviction needed, you'll notice. There's a wee health warning - Orders in Council refers to decisions of the Privy Council.


Then there's the tale about Gordon Brown meeting former members of a terrorist organisation at a deradicalisation centre. At least those guys know what they were accused of.


Of course, Brown and his henchmen's heavy-handed oafishness has already branded Iceland a rogue state using secondary legislation - something which didn't go down too well amongst the average, ordinary, everyday terrorists in the streets of Reykjavik. They believe that Brown sacrificed Iceland's banks for the sake of his own political game. Surely not?

Libya's fine though (Brown later withdrew the invitation when it turned out that he had misjudged oil prices). Iran might be our pal - or might not, depending on the time of day. Syria's on our side - except if we're supporting the USA position.

The fight to cut off terrorist cash is very serious, of course. Responsibility for financial sanctions transferred to the Treasury on the 24th of October 2007. There's a fascinating list of those who have had their assets frozen.

As well as the fight against terror is the begging of wealth (no-one should mention cash for peerages at this point). For some reason, Brown thinks that oil producing countries should be rather well off these days (other than Scotland, of course, he still thinks we can't survive, we've only got 80% or so of Europe's oil, after all).

Satire is alive and well in Gordon Brown's hands.

Save HBoS

Right, come on, there cannot now seriously be anyone who still believes that HBoS should be flogged to Lloyds TSB at a knock-down price? No-one now thinks that it's a good deal, do they?

Knock-down? Yes. With a wee bit of Government help for a couple of years (of the kind offered to the merged bank and to RBS and offered to but rejected by Barclays), HBoS would get through its most pressing immediate difficulties and would come out the other side in a better condition with a higher valuation, higher share price, more secure investment portfolio (as the housing market recovers), and better prospects. It may still not be able to stave off a takeover but at least investors would get a better return and there would be another chance to keep some headquarters operations in Scotland.

There might even be the chance to offload Bankwest, pull Clydesdale back into Scottish ownership and get rid of that Halifax thing that's been attached to the bank for far too long now. Then you might even get a Scottish bank getting back into proper banking.

The evidence to suggest that the Lloyds deal is a dodgy one, a political fix to get Lloyds out of trouble, is mounting. We heard recently that there will be no HBoS people on the board of the new bank if the sell-out goes ahead; we had the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer insisting that help would only be given to a merged bank; we had the Scottish Secretary seeking to scupper an alternative deal by leaking news of it to the press; we've seen speculation that 20,000 jobs could go; and now we have Lloyds TSB saying that the deal will save it £1.5billion a year.

Daylight robbery - daylight bank robbery. Victor Blank get his bank bailed out and gets to expand - at the expense of the consumer, according to the OFT, but not at any expense to his bank - while a smelly political fix puts the kybosh on any other attempt to keep this Scottish institution alive.

It stinks.

How to make a Vegetarian Pie

Take three vegetarians, peeled and finely chopped ....

The worst joke of the campaign so far:
How do Welsh people eat cheese?
Caerphilly


Here all week, try the fish