SCOTTISH Secretary Jim Murphy, has admitted that Gordon Brown "can be rubbish on tape and not good on telly", in a frank interview detailing the Prime Minister's shortcomings.
In an interview with the Holyrood magazine, a political monthly, Mr Murphy said Mr Brown's intellect did not come across on television because of the need for instant soundbites.
He said he hoped the British public would opt for Mr Brown's "substance", rather than the "airbrushed guy", David Cameron.
Mr Murphy, who is is leading Labour's election campaign in Scotland, said: "Sometimes he is rubbish on telly. In a world where the premium is on a soundbite, Gordon and his intellect do not fit into seven seconds."
Other Labour figures to note Mr Brown's problems include Lord Desai, who said recently: "Tony Blair was champagne and caviar; Brown is more like haggis."
Murphy's comments should not come as a surprise to anyone.
A few weeks ago, when Hoon and Hewitt attempted to bring down Brown's leadership, Murphy and Alexander were alleged to be two prominent members of the plot.
However, at that time, both Murphy and Alexander, who appeared to disappear off the face of the earth, were "unavailable for comment"?
Saturday 30 January 2010
Thursday 28 January 2010
Ministry of Defence pays consultant 'obscene' £84k bonus (while soldiers get a pittance)
A Ministry of Defence consultant has received an £84,000 bonus - as a reward for trying to save the wasteful department money.
The bureaucrat's 'good performance' payment is enough to cover a year's pay for five squaddies in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Critics said it was 'disgusting' the bonus was paid when resources should be focused on troops and equipment on the frontline.
The £84,563 payout was earned last year by a consultant hired by the MoD on a three-year contract to oversee the merger of two of the department's agencies.
Just five years ago the biggest bonus was £14,340. The average bonus for senior fixed-term appointees - staff brought in from the private sector or civil servants seconded from other departments - was £31,890 in 2008-09, compared to £7,243 in 2004-05.
For permanent MoD staff at senior civil service level, the average bonus for 2008-09 was £8,177 with a maximum payout of £15,000. However, two years earlier a mandarin pocketed £17,600.
The figures, released by Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth in reply to a Parliamentary question, provoked outrage as soldiers have accused the Government of putting lives at risk by scrimping on essentials including helicopters, radios and night goggles.
Rose Gentle, whose son Gordon was shot dead in Iraq in 2004, said: 'This is absolutely disgusting.
'The boys putting their lives in danger on the frontline, those who come back without limbs, often don't get that. The MoD needs to get its priorities straight.'
Lib Dem defence spokesman Willie Rennie said: 'People will find it hard to accept that highly paid officials deserve extravagant bonuses.
'These sums certainly leave a bad taste in the mouth when you consider we have frontline troops earning so little.'
Tory MP Patrick Mercer, a former infantry officer, said: 'I find this pretty unedifying when our forces are getting no bonuses whatsoever for fighting the Taliban. A rethink is needed somewhere along the line.'
The MoD said the consultant saved more than £5million by merging two departmental agencies.
A spokesman said: 'Exceptionally higher payments are made to senior individuals on fixed-term contracts. These are people brought into the MoD from outside the civil service to do a job over a set term.
'One individual responsible for saving the taxpayer over £5million was awarded £84,563. This payment needs to be seen in this context.'
The MoD has come in for severe criticism over its bonus culture after it emerged £287million has been spent rewarding civil servants since Britain went to war in Iraq.
Last year bonuses worth £52.9million were handed out and a £58.4million pot has been put aside for 2009-10.
Civil servants across all Whitehall departments shared bonuses of almost £130million in 2008-09.
Wednesday 20 January 2010
Stop building on green belt land
Developers could be set to build on Eastwood's green areas, even those which have been previously protected.
That's the view of Newton Mearns councillor Jim Swift after East Renfrewshire Council voted to allow developers to propose plans anywhere on the green belt. Mr Swift said: "Developers will be swamping the council with proposals to built on vast tracts of our green belt.
One of the many reasons people should vote for the BNP is that we will not allow building on green belt land, this has been one of our policies for many years, rather than resulting to concreting over our countryside we would stop the uncontrolled mass immigration that is pushing the need to do so.
Monday 18 January 2010
Answers to Murphys playground taunts
OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE
IN a recent article about the BNP targeting Jim Murphy's seat you quoted Murphy asking for the BNP to answer his asinine questions, something I am more than happy to do.
The BNP are not Fascist, to say we are is to display a staggering ignorance of political ideology.
The BNP are not anti-Jewish, we have Jewish members in fact one of our elected councilors is Jewish.
The BNP do not deny the holocaust, it is a matter of historic fact that millions of innocent people were killed on an industrial scale by the Nazis.
The BNP do not give salutes of any kind to suggest we do is childish, unlike Murphy we have absolutely no interest in a political ideology from thirties Germany.
The BNP do not hate immigrants and do not blame them for the failings of the old parties.
The BNP is not racist it is changing its constitution to allow people from all ethnic groups to be able to join us.
Murphy who attacks the BNP is the same man who supports the following, Iraq War, Afghan War, Privatising Royal Mail, Privatising Schools, Post Office Closures, Abolishing 10p Tax, Refusing Gurkha's entry to UK, Welfare Reform, Council Tax, Abolishing Scottish Regiments, De-regulation of the Banks etc.
Murphy is the extremist who flirted with the Revolutionary Communist party (RCP) during his student days and regarded members of Labour’s hard left Militant Tendency as TOO SOFT.
The RCP, an extreme Trotskyist group, defended the Serbs during the Bosnian conflict, despite evidence of widespread ethnic cleansing, demanded the withdrawal of British troops from Northern Ireland and claimed accusations of child abuse were designed to stigmatize working-class men.
According to the party’s ideology, the British working class could not be relied upon to mount a revolution because it had become "contaminated" by bourgeois values. Instead, its aim was to form the vanguard of a world revolution.
It refused to support the Labour party and regarded other left-wingers who worked within the democratic system as "reformist" lackeys.
The RCP campaigned for the abolition of the anti-terrorism legislation and for the immediate withdrawal of British troops from Northern Ireland.
Later it defended Serbs against accusations of mistreating Bosnian Muslims, despite evidence of concentration camps and mass graves.
For all the apparent distain he has for the BNP can I remind him that we did not invade two sovereign countries, we have not lined our own pockets with taxpayers cash, decimate our manufacturing base, wrecked a once balanced and prosperous economy, kept three and a half million people on benefits while importing four million unassimilated aliens,and implemented some of the most sinister laws attacking free speech and censorship this country has ever seen.
No that was his Party, it is him and his party who wage war that have blood on their hands and who are responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent Muslim men women and children not the BNP.
I look forward to raising these points with Mr. Murphy on the campaign trail.
IN a recent article about the BNP targeting Jim Murphy's seat you quoted Murphy asking for the BNP to answer his asinine questions, something I am more than happy to do.
The BNP are not Fascist, to say we are is to display a staggering ignorance of political ideology.
The BNP are not anti-Jewish, we have Jewish members in fact one of our elected councilors is Jewish.
The BNP do not deny the holocaust, it is a matter of historic fact that millions of innocent people were killed on an industrial scale by the Nazis.
The BNP do not give salutes of any kind to suggest we do is childish, unlike Murphy we have absolutely no interest in a political ideology from thirties Germany.
The BNP do not hate immigrants and do not blame them for the failings of the old parties.
The BNP is not racist it is changing its constitution to allow people from all ethnic groups to be able to join us.
Murphy who attacks the BNP is the same man who supports the following, Iraq War, Afghan War, Privatising Royal Mail, Privatising Schools, Post Office Closures, Abolishing 10p Tax, Refusing Gurkha's entry to UK, Welfare Reform, Council Tax, Abolishing Scottish Regiments, De-regulation of the Banks etc.
Murphy is the extremist who flirted with the Revolutionary Communist party (RCP) during his student days and regarded members of Labour’s hard left Militant Tendency as TOO SOFT.
The RCP, an extreme Trotskyist group, defended the Serbs during the Bosnian conflict, despite evidence of widespread ethnic cleansing, demanded the withdrawal of British troops from Northern Ireland and claimed accusations of child abuse were designed to stigmatize working-class men.
According to the party’s ideology, the British working class could not be relied upon to mount a revolution because it had become "contaminated" by bourgeois values. Instead, its aim was to form the vanguard of a world revolution.
It refused to support the Labour party and regarded other left-wingers who worked within the democratic system as "reformist" lackeys.
The RCP campaigned for the abolition of the anti-terrorism legislation and for the immediate withdrawal of British troops from Northern Ireland.
Later it defended Serbs against accusations of mistreating Bosnian Muslims, despite evidence of concentration camps and mass graves.
For all the apparent distain he has for the BNP can I remind him that we did not invade two sovereign countries, we have not lined our own pockets with taxpayers cash, decimate our manufacturing base, wrecked a once balanced and prosperous economy, kept three and a half million people on benefits while importing four million unassimilated aliens,and implemented some of the most sinister laws attacking free speech and censorship this country has ever seen.
No that was his Party, it is him and his party who wage war that have blood on their hands and who are responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent Muslim men women and children not the BNP.
I look forward to raising these points with Mr. Murphy on the campaign trail.
Westminster MPs Have £7,000 Postage per Year — But Soldiers’ Postage to be Taken Away
Westminster MPs from the three major parties each get £7,000 per year free stationery and postage — but Ministry of Defence “budget cuts” will soon see the British Forces Post Office (BFPO) facilities closed down which will dramatically increase the costs of sending our soldiers letters and parcels when they are stationed abroad.
Under current Parliamentary expenses rules, stationery can be ordered from the supplier for use in direct connection with a Member’s duties. In the course of a financial year, an MP is entitled to be supplied free of charge with original House of Commons stationery up to the value of £7,000. This includes the cost of the stationery itself and postage on pre-paid envelopes. MPs may also purchase original House stationery (but not pre-paid envelopes) using their Incidental Expenses Provision or Communications Allowance.
Our Armed Forces have however been advised that the BFPO facilities in mainland Europe will be shut from September 2010.
Personnel and their families deployed in Europe currently enjoy the same postal rates as the UK. Withdrawal of this long established tradition will further erode personnel’s ability to communicate with their families in the UK and safe receipt of parcels, etc. through a secure network.
It also means soldiers’ families will have to pay the full rate to send parcels and letters overseas.
In April, the Government quietly announced the closure of more than one in seven military post offices to save £1.7 million. Some 11 mail centres across mainland Europe, including in Brussels, Brunssum, Ramstein, Stavanger, Karup, Naples, Rome, Milan, Lisbon and Valencia, are set for closure.
Under current Parliamentary expenses rules, stationery can be ordered from the supplier for use in direct connection with a Member’s duties. In the course of a financial year, an MP is entitled to be supplied free of charge with original House of Commons stationery up to the value of £7,000. This includes the cost of the stationery itself and postage on pre-paid envelopes. MPs may also purchase original House stationery (but not pre-paid envelopes) using their Incidental Expenses Provision or Communications Allowance.
Our Armed Forces have however been advised that the BFPO facilities in mainland Europe will be shut from September 2010.
Personnel and their families deployed in Europe currently enjoy the same postal rates as the UK. Withdrawal of this long established tradition will further erode personnel’s ability to communicate with their families in the UK and safe receipt of parcels, etc. through a secure network.
It also means soldiers’ families will have to pay the full rate to send parcels and letters overseas.
In April, the Government quietly announced the closure of more than one in seven military post offices to save £1.7 million. Some 11 mail centres across mainland Europe, including in Brussels, Brunssum, Ramstein, Stavanger, Karup, Naples, Rome, Milan, Lisbon and Valencia, are set for closure.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
