LABOUR HYPOCRISY DESERVES DEFEAT IN GLASGOW EAST

One begins to wonder just how stupid the Labour party think the electors of Glasgow East are. Are they really expected to swallow the enormous lie that Labour are still socialists despite the fact that Labour's every move in Government has been designed to appeal to traditional Conservative voters?

The SNP's John Mason said there was little difference between Gordon Brown and Mrs Thatcher, given the idolisation of the latter by the former this is a statement of simple fact. The Labour party try and translate this into the SNP being Conservative supporters. One can't accuse them of originality since they have been attempting to stick the SNP with a Tartan Tory Tag since the 1970's.

Their other big idea is that the SNP are extremist nationalists. Why? Because the SNP believe in full self determination for the people of Scotland. Wait a minute aren't the Labour party also nationalists? Are they not absolutely desperate to maintain the British union? British nationalists are still nationalists they just think it's OK for their countrymen to be outvoted 10-1 at Westminster, probably because their parties are all completely controlled from inside the city of London.

Mason's support for independence (which is the same as every other member of the SNP) makes him supposedly a 'hard liner' ie an extremist. No, he's not a member of the IRA or the BNP but he might decide to keep campaigning for independence after an unsuccessful referendum. What a shock!

Yes, everyone no doubt imagined the SNP would just give up if a future referendum failed didn't they, after all didn't the devolutionists do just that when Labour swindled Scotland out of devolution despite a vote in favour in 1979?

The only policies the SNP have co-operated with the Conservatives on have been those previously contained in the SNP manifesto. Labour on the other hand have destroyed the principle of free education by introducing student loans and tuition fees and voting against the latter's removal. They are in the process of creating a new internment for potential islamic terrorists and have already realised plans to snoop on every person's individual correspondence and telephone conversations.

Pointless ID cards, part privatisation of the NHS in England, new nuclear power stations and most importantly wasting billions on new nuclear weapons show exactly where Labour's loyalies lie and it is not towards their former working class supporters. Their support for the discredited Council tax over a system based on ability to pay and their removal of the 10 pence tax band proved that Labour could not care less about the poor, unless of course they are in a by-election in Glasgow and then they pretend they are redder than John MacLean.

I'm sorry but it just won't wash. Labour should expect to pay the logical price for their hypocrisy on the 24th of July. If they however survive and their gaffe prone candidate becomes their new Scottish leader then don't expect the SNP to lose any sleep. The bitter illogical rubbish which has been generated by this campaign will not sustain any serious politician and will certainly provide no serious threat to Alex Salmond.

LONDON CALLING! CONFUSION NOW REIGNS OVER WHETHER LABOUR WILL SUPPORT 2010 REFERENDUM

London has called and Labour's support for an independence referendum is now looking decidedly dodgy.

Let's be clear about this the British Government DOES NOT support the sovereign right of the Scottish people to choose independence. The proof is here:
www.independence1st.com/comment/not_acceptable.shtml

Up till recently it seemed that the Scottish branches of Labour, Tories and Lib Dems didn't either because all refused to countenance a referendum on independence and yet this is the only point of genuine conflict.

Scottish Labour (if there is such a beast) in the shape of Wendy Alexander seemed to have changed their tune for a brief moment but they have rapidly returned to form with Brown now clearly pulling the strings.

All the parties would supposedly support more powers for the parliament, I say supposedly because the Tories simply cannot be trusted in this area as their last period in Government showed quite clearly.

If all parties support more powers then the SNP can easily accept the Calman commissions recommendations whenever they are published, but as they will still be far short of independence this won't resolve a thing.

We would also then have to rely on Westminster implementing any changes and not fiddling with the powers of the parliament in a detrimental fashion. In fact Labour have already fiddled the electoral system in the Welsh parliament so they can't be trusted in this respect either.

Gordon Brown has already signalled that he wants a number of inconvenient powers removed forom the Scottish Government, an obvious example would be planning rules which allow the Scottish Government to block new nuclear power stations.

The Blair Government ignored elements of the last broad based Scottish Constitutional Convention (this body which included the Liberal Democrats and 'Scottish' Labour recommended broadcasting powers be returned to Scotland but this power was removed at Westminster, also the bill suddenly gained lots of new bits where it was explicitly claimed that Westminster had full power over any future change to the constitution in Scotland even though this violates international law and specifically Scotland's rights to self determination).

Given that episode Westminster can easily ignore their own hand picked cabal of safe unionists whatever froth is recommended (in fact they are so pro-Government they will probably say the status quo is just fine!).

The only way to guarantee as much power as the parliament requires is by voting for independence. Those who oppose that choice don't support the sovereign right of the Scottish people to decide their own destiny and as such don't deserve one vote in Scotland.

BROWN SAYS BRITAIN MIGHT TRY AND TAKE POWERS BACK

Report in Scotsman

Devolution review 'may lead to loss of Holyrood powers'

GORDON Brown yesterday backed a review of Scottish devolution – but suggested it could mean the return of some powers to Westminster.

The Prime Minister gave his public support for the first time to the Scottish Constitutional Commission, the body which will be set up to look into Scottish Parliament's powers.Mr Brown accepted there might be a case for some financial controls, including new tax-raising powers, to be handed over to Holyrood from Westminster.But he also said the review would examine whether Holyrood should lose control in some areas, particularly over terrorism or agricultural diseases, to Westminster.

Report in Herald

We should be very wary of allowing the UK Government to revisit the Scotland Act. The Welsh Act has already been re-visited by BritGov and they took the opportunity at that point to fiddle the election system to stop people standing on the FPTP and PR Lists, a clear attempt to weaken the smaller parties and strengthen Labour who tend to do better FPTP.

Powers over 'anti-terrorism' are already held (and abused) by the UK Government. This is a chimera behind which GB can try and take over other inconvenient powers such as say the right to refuse planning permission to new nuclear power stations. Any process of delivering greater powers for Scotland has to be led from here because the UK Government simply cannot be trusted to act honestly.

The Scottish Constitutional Convention (devolution version) called for powers over broadcasting and was supported by the scottish branches of Labour, Lib dems and Tories yet mysteriously when we actually got to the bill those powers were removed.

If we want to guarantee the significant extra powers that we need ie foreign affairs and proper control over all our finances then the obvious answer is to demand independence.

Taking more powers along that process seems logical but it possibly encourages the idea that the UK could be trusted not to interfere in other areas. As we can see from these comments we CANNOT trust Labour or the UK Government one iota and that has effectively been our experence of British rule for the last 300 years.

RECORDS REVEAL REVOLT OVER WILSON DEVOLUTION PLANS

Prime Minister Harold Wilson was warned his 1970s gamble on devolution would lead to Scottish independence if it failed, official documents made public today reveal.

Secret government papers from 1975/76 unearthed by The Herald newspaper show the extent of internal opposition to the then-Prime Minister's flagship policy of devolution for Scotland and Wales, as well as concern among the policy's own supporters.

The files have been accessed at the National Archives in London under the 30-year-rule.
Wilson was behind efforts to devolve power to both Scotland and Wales as economic crises raging across Britain in the 1970s.

But according to The Herald, papers clearly indicate that some senior ministers thought the devolution project was politically mad and should be dropped.

The measure is described by the Treasury as a "firebreak" to stop SNP momentum in the mid-1970s, the paper says. Nationalist representation at Westminster reached a high point after the
1974 General Election when the party won 11 seats on the back of SNP's "It's Scotland's Oil" campaign.

One memo seen by The Herald quotes Commons leader Ted Short telling the Prime Minister that there was "fairly widespread misgiving" on the Labour back benches about the plans for Scottish and Welsh assemblies, and that it was "disappointing so many of our supporters are reluctant to see the merits of our scheme".

According to the paper, Mr Short wrote: "If our present policy does not carry the day, the direction in which we shall be forced will not be back towards the status quo or less devolution.
"The possibility of a separate state north of the border (bringing, incidentally, a permanent shift of political balance south of it) is not far-fetched."

The number of Labour anti-devolutionists was said to include Labour luminaries such as Tam Dalyell, Neil Kinnock, Robert Kilroy-Silk, and Dennis Skinner, as well as future New Labour ministers Robin Cook and Brian Wilson, The Herald said.

The newspaper also discovered comments from Wilson Cabinet member Harold Lever, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, who declared that the government's constitutional strategy for Scotland and Wales "cannot work".

In a memo of June 1975 to the PM seen by the Herald Mr Lever argued it would cause "serious friction" between London and Edinburgh with the Labour-run Scottish Executive handing over "more and more money and more and more independence" to appease the SNP.

Labour pursued its devolution proposal for Scotland and Wales, eventually seeing votes take place in 1979.

The Scots narrowly said yes to devolution ? 52% to 48% ? but did not meet the necessary 40% population threshold, while the Welsh voted no overwhelmingly, 80% to 20%.
According to the Herald, the documents also reveal Labour ruled out a referendum on independence as it feared it might not win.

A memo by Sir John Garlick, head of the government's constitution unit, reportedly said: "The underlying idea of a referendum on independence for Scotland is to secure a firm No and thus weaken the Nationalists by being able to dismiss their policy ... at best, the move works only if there is a clear no with a high poll.

"Many factors might mitigate against this. The Nationalists might go for abstention, people might not turn out, there might be tactical voting, eg a significant yes element designed simply to convey a demand for more devolution. Or perhaps worst of all, there might be a significantly large and genuine yes vote."

Commenting on the disclosures, an SNP spokesman said today: "Just as 30-year papers have revealed that London governments covered up Scotland's oil wealth, these new papers reveal how Labour's commitment to Scottish self-government was lukewarm at least. And just as the Tories are prepared to prop up Labour in the Scottish Parliament, they also reveal how Labour connived with the Tories to stall devolution.

"These papers' revelations only show why more and more people distrust the London parties and are turning to the SNP as we approach the elections in May."