The Alternative View on Aberdeenshire

rWhen I posted this on Saturday I was expecting quite a bit of backlash to my comments regarding the suspension of Cllrs. Debra Storr, Paul Johnston and Sam Coull. Maybe the worst is being stored up for Perth in less than a fortnights time.

However, as it is in my nature to listen to the other side of the argument I'd direct you to Ruaraidh Dobson's blog post as a Liberal Youth Scotland co-optee unto the exec on a insiders take of proceedings on Saturday. I do however take exception to him saying that the three have badmouthed the Liberal Democrats. The three are Liberal Democrats to the core and that is the crux of this matter, they instinctively know what it means to be liberal and democratic. They have never badmouthed 'the party'.

They have had issues with some within the group with whom they had to work, something that is not unique in large gatherings of Liberal Democrats, and something which they tried to resolve through party channels. Sadly while a mediation was started out upon this action was taken. However, all three still are deeply committed to the aims of the Liberal Democrats something I know from personal correspondence with Debra and Paul, and a sentiment echoed by many other activists across the country.

Also the official line of the exec can be found on Lib Dem Voice and quoted in the Press and Journal.

PS for the kind friend who warned me about the men in grey suits, they haven't turned up yet. But I'll keep my dark glasses, sandals wig and passports handy just in case.

Update 4 March: Cllr. Paul Johnston has made the following comment of Ruaraidh's blog which backs up my opinion that this decision was taken wholly on the evidence of one side.

How many things can you get wrong in one blog. Please, if you want to post
information about what I did or did not do, you can always speak to me.

It is not full of anything that does any of what you suggest.

I am astonished where you might get this kind of view for your blog. If
you are going to publicly remark on my character to suggest that I was
‘badmouthing the Party’ then I hope you might find out from me first, which was
not done at the Executive on Saturday as you have confirmed.

No Tory Helping Hand to Nats

The SNP may well have thought the hand of friendship was going to be offered to them, especially in light of the favourable agreement that the Ulster Conservatives and Unionists seem to have struck for Northern Ireland. However, George Osbourne has spelled out to Alex Salmond and John Swinney that they will have to make efficiency savings even when a Tory government is elected. Osbourne said on yesterday's BBC Politics Show:

"Gordon Brown has left the UK in a complete mess and some of the burden of restraint has to be borne by Scotland as a whole."

adding:

"There needs to be restraint. Britain, Scotland needs to live within its means, the party's over."

So the SNP should stop their whinging as it will appear to fall on deaf ears from both the Labour and Tory camps and get on with doing things, and doing them more efficiently. Osbourne has also echoed the call of Tavish Scott the Lib Dem leader to get over the idea of independence just now and focus on the economy saying, "the SNP's obsession with independence needs to be put on one side while we all deal with Gordon Brown's recession".



Seeing as how interdependent all the global economies are right now on each other this is not the time to go messing with the status quo. Throwing in further uncertainty to the mix at the moment will only have one effect, that would an accelerated negative effect on the Scottish economy. Alex Salmond is obsessing about the rather precise number of 8,664 jobs (heaven knows how he came up with that detailed a number) rather than looking at the bigger picture. It is a time for macroeconomics not microeconomics. Especially at Government level who should get too bogged down in that sort of minutiae in the first place.

Flash Morph Tribute

Had to smile this morning at news of a flash mob of little plasticine yesterday outside the Tate Modern in London. Hundreds of models of the late Tony Hart's morphened sidekick were a very fitting tribut to the man who taught children to draw for over 50 years.

Not Just a Police State of the Future

Harriet Harman this morning on the Andrew Marr show said something which had far reaching ramifications. She said of Sir Fred Goodwin's pension:

"The prime minister has said that it is not acceptable and therefore it will not be accepted.

"And it might be enforceable in a court of law, this contract, but it is not enforceable in the court of public opinion and that is where the government steps in."

So be wary. This current Labour regime is eroding more and more into our civil liberties. They have already shown they see themselves as above the law when they invade Iraq on false pretences. Now they are seeking to overturn the law, their own ministerial approvals all for the sake of making up for a mistake that they have made in the past. So they are not just content with rewriting history they want to rewrite laws you may not have known you'd fallen foul of.

Prescott is Right: Don't Award Failure

John Prescott has asked:

"how the hell the former RBS Chief Executive Sir Fred 'The Shred' Goodwin can claim without a guilty conscience a £650,000 annual pension a year from the age of 50.

"His greed and reckless nature got us into this mess and necessitated us bailing out the bank to the tune of £20 billion to try and keep people in their homes and
jobs. "

He ran a survey which asked amongst other things:

"Should RBS rip up his contract and take the risk of legal action."

Well lets look the record of an even bigger pension holder £1.5million all of that publicly funded. Who has been responsible as a senior participant in the running up of a £2.2 trillion debt. Part of that comes from an illegal take over of another's assets, liberties and well being, on false claims which were retrospectively agreed by the regulator of such things. Part of that was from failure to set stern enough regulations in place that would have seen Sir Fred unable to stretch the bank's risk to the degree he did.

So for costing the nation £1bn a year and 179 lives. Supporting a run up of the national debt, which not includes covering toxic debt from the banks his party could have regulated better which exceeds GDP. In his own words, how an earth can John Prescott claim without a guilty conscience such a pension?

Join the LDV cause on Facebook to Shred Prezza's Pension he clearly has a thing about people not being rewarded for failure, so we should look at clawing back his pension then.

The New Generation's Radio 1 Ban

Every generation of teenagers needs one. That song that just pushes the boundaries of a Radio one sensitivities just that little too far and ends in a ban. For my generation it was of course Mike Read taking exception to Frankie Goes to Hollywood's Relax. I had one friend at school who ended up buying every single mix of it when they came. Hardly surprising then than the record, which at the time of the ban was heading down the charts went back up to the number one spot, nor that my friend ended up working for MTV for a spell.

So this generation have now got Scott Mills and the song Ass to Ass which features in the fictitious show to find a new member for the band SexxBombz in the E4 drama Skins. Well Mills actually appeared as himself on the show as one of the judges of the show and was going to to play the song on his drive time show when some of the stars guested. But Radio One producers apparently got cold feet.

No doubt the song which is available as a download will now soar up the charts as a result. Some things never change.

If you want you can hear the song and see the lyrics here.

Hat tip to adamdustagheer via Twitter

Pay Packet Apartheid

There were moans from public sector employees last year when the government demanded that they accept below inflation pay rises. However, as they nogotiated long term deals over 3 years in some sectors at below the then rate of inflation. These were still between 2% and 3% per annum so we now find that the public sector, with their greater job security, have also gained an advantage in salary over those in the private sector.



With the retail price index measuring inflation at 0.1% for January and trending to dip in negative figures and deflation when last months figures are announced later this month private sector employees are finding their salaries frozen. Some are even finding they have to take a 20% cut and a four day week as their companies try and economis through the recession. Not the case with some of the public sector employees whose Unions tend to seal them into longer term deals but even look for wiggle room on an annual basis.

I intimated earlier it was bad enough that a company that the Government had a 68% share in who had a £177,777 loss per employee*. Now we have the Government who insisted in prudent pay increases for the employees over whom they had some control finding that the long term deals are far outstretching those that many private sector employees can expect.

*That is based on the loss divided by the number of employees as reported in 2007.