Galloway supports New Labour in Glasgow East

[luke]

[faceless]

The SNP defeated New Labour - with a swing of more than 22%. Great stuff! If we were independent there's not a chance in hell that we'd be in Iraq or Afghanistan and that's reason enough to think about it. The SNP also want to get rid of the illegal nuclear weapons based in Scotland too - and more power to them.

If anyone thinks that separation would be bad for the people maybe they'd like to consider that the area which voted for them yesterday is one of the most deprived places in Europe, with the highest murder rate and a lower average lifespan than Baghdad. How much worse could it get?

[luke]

if i lived in scotland i'd have voted snp

is that really true, lower average lifespan than baghdad?!

[faceless]

it is indeed, an average man in the area will die at 54-55. I tried to find the article where the two are compared, but couldn't - it's out there somewhere though.

[faceless]

Nation is suffering from Labour pains
George Galloway
Jul 28 2008
Daily Record

ALAS poor Gordon, I knew him well. The position he coveted, no, desperately craved, since before the day I met him more than 30 years ago, has turned to ashes in his mouth. All that number-crunching - to think he could have presented Countdown over the same period and be a multi-millionaire - all those step-changes from major reformer to minor tinkerer, all those betrayals by his alter-ego Tony Blair.

Like the proverbial "boxer", Brown's face carries the reminder of every glove that cut him until he cried out in his anger and his shame. He is a crumpled suit, a dessicated calculating machine with the batteries running out, a collapsing dinghy from which the air is escaping so fast, he'll be lucky to serve out his holiday in the top job. And after then, what? A lifetime of brooding darkly on how it all could have been different. On the biggest political mistake made by a PM in modern history, certainly since "Sunny Jim" Callaghan left us all "waiting at the gate" in the autumn of 1978, when he lost his bottle over a general election last October.

On how his obsessional pursuit of a job in which he was able - or was it willing? - to achieve precisely nothing of substance has left him lower than a laughing stock, the object of pity on the part of anyone who had a heart. But, sentimental as I am, I can afford only afleeting "so sad, too bad, never mind" for my old sparring partner. Because the consequences of the squandering of three huge parliamentary majorities and Britain's richest ever decade are much more serious for the rest of us than for him.

For the pensioners and the poor who will face a shivering winter unable to afford to heat their homes as the energy companies pay less tax than ever on their record profits. For the children growing up in poverty in greater numbers than the year before, while New Labour's Britain boasts more billionaires this year than last, paying less tax than they have in a century. For the working class communities, scar tissue still livid from the era of Thatcherism, who have been delivered by the failures of Blair 'n' Brown back into the hands of the new Thatcherites, Cameron and Co. For Scotland, delivered on a plate to a parcel o' rogues bedecked in tawdry tartans, who are on course to take us all back to Brigadoon. For the Palestinians, on whose misery Brown danced in the Israeli Knesset in Jerusalem this month, boasting about his father's role in their disinheritance.

From Glasgow's east end to England's south end, throughout the land came the cry: "Your time is up, New Labour, and by the way ... you've really let us down".

-------------------

I wonder where all this vitriol was a couple of weeks ago? And did he have a different column ready had Labour won?

[luke]

i guess its like me and obama, he's less worse than mccain, labour are less worse than the tories, so i can understand him supporting labour the other week, but like i said above, i'd have voted snp

i see he mentions about brown at the knesset, but doesn't mention brown continuing the lie about 'wiping israel of the map', and he didn't mention anything about it on his show - now either brown is fucking stupid and has no idea thats not what was said, and his advisers don't know or didn't tell him, or he's deliberately lying to the knesset and world public opinion - that was all over the media last week. i emailed my new mp ( labour ) to complain about that

[faceless]

But the comparison with the tories isn't really valid - the SNP are a centre-left party with a lot of policies that Labour have given up.

When I heard GG suggest that there would be a potential problem with anti-Catholicism in Scotland if it became independent I immediately thought that it sounded like scare-tactics. I don't think there will be any difference at all if it happens. The fact that Glasgow City Council was run by a 'Catholic Mafia' for many years disproves that entirely.

[luke]

i didn't really mean to compare the snp to the tories, but we know galloway doesn't support the snp - so for him its a choice between labour or the tories, and labour are less worse than the tories. i don't really understand why he doesn't support them, i mean, you can support the snp's policies and when the referendum comes up for independence votes against it if thats what you want - polls keep showing the majority aren't up for independence. i like a lot of the snp's policies and have usually found myself agreeing with alex salmond the times i've caught him on tv

where do you stand on it, would you prefer scotland to be independent? i think i'd be tempted i think if i was in scotland, but i don't really know the full implications of independence, or the snp's more domestic policies

[faceless]

At a push I'd rather be called Scottish than British, even though I was actually born in England to Scottish/Irish parents.

I want to see a Celtic nation/alliance if I'm honest. It would bring in Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Isle Of Man, Cornwall and Brittany in France.



www.celticleague.net

[luke]

the celtic stuff isn't something i know much about, i'll have to read up a bit - theres so much history i really know nothing about

[faceless]

when you think about the potential for an alliance like that - with everything from food, art and invention to manufacturing strength and general passion it would be a tough nut to crack for sure. It was, however, cracked by the Romans, but it took that kind of force, not to mention the need for a sanctions wall (Hadrian's Wall) to drain the Scotii. Cromwell had quite an impact 1000 years later too.

Celtic traders would travel all over the known Ancient world - bringing such treasures as magic mushrooms to the Greeks and ginger hair to the Chinese!

[TheCaptain]

But doesn't this ginger hair business come from the Vikings?

(Don't know, just wondering...)

[faceless]

I've always been of the idea that ginger comes from the neanderthals, who were supposedly wiped out. I have a ginger beard if I let it grow, so I have a vested interest in knowing...haha

I'm hearing in my earpiece an important story.

The English were coming over the Cumbrian hills and getting near to Scotland. As they approached there was a raggedy-arsed maniac on the next summit gesticulating wildly... The General sent 12 men to see what he was about and waited. Four hours later there was no news, so he ordered 50 men up the hill to kick some heathen arse!

An hour later one man crawled back down the hill, almost in tatters. When he got to the General his dying words were 'Don't go up there, there's two of them!'