Not a great day
Winners and losers. There will be one of each when MSPs vote tonight on whether to suspend Wendy Alexander for one day for failing to declare, timeously, donations to her leadership campaign.
The winner will be Ms Alexander. It looks as though MSPs will vote, by a majority, to release her from the sanction recommended by the standards committee.
I doubt if this victory will delight her over much, given that she has already resigned from the leadership of her party.
The loser? Parliament itself. The debate this morning was ill-tempered, occasionally ill-mannered. The speeches were, frequently, ill-considered. Several were read.
They were read badly. It would have served the nation better had they not been read at all.
In advance of the debate, as MSPs were gathering, there was nervous mumbling. One wag wondered aloud whether the presiding officer would don a black cap at the end of proceedings.
Another suggested to the few watching journalists that we resembled tricoteuses.
Partisan nature
The atmosphere seemed to afflict Keith Brown, the convener of the committee - although he was also somewhat breathless owing, he said, to congestion on the Forth Bridge delaying his arrival.
To be fair, Mr Brown read the charge sheet as dispassionately as possible. He set out the case in some detail.
Matters subsequently deteriorated. I exempt Patrick Harvie and Margo Macdonald. Both lamented the partisan nature of the debate and the manner of reaching the conclusions.
Each urged revision of the parliament's systems to clarify what, precisely, merited registration. Their speeches were good and commendably brief.
On reflection, I wonder whether Christina McKelvie and Dave Thompson will feel entirely satisfied with their contributions.
Ms McKelvie delivered her criticisms in a relentless monotone, without even acknowledging, let alone accepting interventions.
Mr Thompson, by contrast, allowed himself to become hugely exercised, with little palpable cause, scattering accusations against other members. He did himself no favours. I suspect he knows that.
Too shrill?
It is perhaps no accident that the more measured contributions came from those who have served in parliament for some time: Brian Adam, Robert Brown.
Then we come to the Labour contributions. Those were mostly, with notable exceptions, cogent and concise. However, I wonder if, on reflection, they will ponder two things.
Did they allow themselves to become rather too shrill in seeking to intervene on rivals, in posing points of order? Might there not also have been a note of contrition regarding other aspects of this whole affair?
For there lies the core. Strictly, MSPs are voting tonight on whether Ms Alexander should have listed donations to her campaign team - on the register of members' interests.
No more, no less. Nothing to do with the donations themselves, their substance or origin.
Some will acknowledge Ms Alexander was advised by parliamentary clerks that she did not need to register these donations.
But some will be influenced by a feeling that the wider affair is less than salutory: that the voting public just don't like the feel of it.
Blunt address
Hugh O'Donnell, who is about to depart the standards committee, said as much, bluntly, in his summation address. He said folk didn't like the notion of donations which were deliberately pitched at a certain level to avoid disclosure.
That, to stress again, is not the issue before MSPs tonight. But it will be tangentially influential - and that is perhaps understandable.
There are other issues. Should parliament bolster its own standards committee by endorsing its findings?
That line, I feel, will influence many who will feel that serving on that committtee is tough enough without second guessing its deliberations.
Against that, others - mostly Labour, but also Jamie McGrigor - argued that the committee had, uniquely, divided on its findings, that those findings were flawed and partisan, that they must be overturned.
That, I guess, will happen. Labour will vote to support Ms Alexander. Most Nationalists will vote with the committee, for suspension - although Christine Grahame declared in the debate she would abstain.
I believe the preponderance of Tories and, probably, LibDems will vote against suspension or abstain.
Not a great day for parliament. Still, perhaps future leadership campaigns will think thrice before soliciting donations.
Perhaps too they will check their provenance a little more thoroughly.
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A quick update for you - MSPs have voted against the proposed sanction by 70 to 49. There were two abstentions.
I'm 
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Quite a few of our precious MSPs deserve a time-out on the naughty step.
For crying out loud, is this our Parliament or a primary school playground?!
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Even before the Scottish Parliament was built ,the focus has been on the government itself rather thanwhat they are employed to do. So often they fail to see beyond the end of their noses and start doing what we are paying for them to do- improve our lives in a fair and equitable way for the good of the whole of Scotland.
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I think that Wendy Alexander and the Labour Party have been punished enough as they have Gordon Brown at the helm and that is punishment enough, as it will probably cost them the next election.
Let her off the hook as she is no longer in power andto bar her for 1 day will in effect penalise her constituents, who she is meant to represent.
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Very disappointing,
One rule for the average person in society and another for Labour. We do something wrong, we face punishment. Labour does something wrong and its buried and avoided.
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Capyainpicard - I doubt very much if the constituents would notice her one day's absence!
Brian, this whole affair smacks of 'bungling' by Wendy and her team! It is known that there was wrong-doing, there were the convenient donations, just below the threshold and overall an arrogance came through that 'we werna daeing onything wrang!' At the end the Standards Committee were left to deal with something which had created a very bad taste all along and they were very restricted in what they could actually do.
I am thankful that I missed this debate, as it certainly sounds as if no-one came out of it very well. Whatever the result of the vote, I trust that the elected members, just may, just may, pay a bit more attention as to how their actions are viewed by the voting public! With one party, I have grave doubts unfortunately.
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Wendy.Alexander.broke.the.law.and.Scottish.parliamentary.rules.period.
end of story. If this was any other party would such pity be shown?
Agree with comment on the poor nature of the debate but the cold facts are still facts.
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Brian
I think the wider point here is the general conduct of the parliament. Most non partisan people would feel that Wendy Alexander did not intend to decieve and tried to follow the rules.
The behaviour of the standards committee is poor, they divided along partisan lines in the most feckless basic way. The real issue was lost long ago.
This was a horrible display of the worst side of party politics in Scotland. No party can take any pride from this. This will increase voter apathy with most people agreeing to the sentiment that " they are all as bad as each other"
Democracy loses. We need politicans of probity without doubt, we also need decent human beings who can occasionaly look beyond party lines and offer political leadership to the country. We have none in the current crop.
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Not a great day for Parliament, Brian? You mean just another day? It wouldn't be so bad that MSPs read their speeches, even badly as you say, if they were their own work. But people stumbling over words, etc., suggests some hadn't read their scripts in advance.
What a gruesome spectacle. Those of us who sat through regional and district council meetings knew what to expect. Thanks to TV the wider public now knows the standards, or lack of them, at Holyrood.
I'm more concerned about visitors seeing this travesty. Most are too polite to say much, but many must leave asking if this is the best Scotland can do.
Even the front benches at Holyrood seem terrified that any of the supporting cast behind them will attempt to speak.
The slaughtering, or sparing, of a diseased holy cow seems oddly reminiscent of that recent row with the Hindus in Wales or somewhere. And a similar waste of time and breath.
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I pay a lot of attention to Politics and read these blogs regularly. Can I just say about this - I dont care and im not interested.
Can I also say - 99.99% of the population of Scotland dont care and are not interested.
We know what Wendy did - and most of us dont like it.
It doesnt change the fact this is irrelevant to us as the public - how about getting on with something useful?
Wheres the transport review for one?
Im sure you and the politicians are finding it all very interesting - is there such a thing as the "West Lothian Bubble"?
As I think you are all in it.
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Well it's the first days back and I get the impression that they all wanted to play their little games. This is not say that the Wee Yin was innocent because she sure as death wasn't, however it is counter-productive that our parliamentarians should kick the poor, pouting wee puppy when she's down. Her career is in tatters and the Labour Party in Scotland is in free-fall. That is punishment enough and with luck she will toddle off to some media job and make loads of dosh! Who's next? I wouldn't have that job for a king's ransome.
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The very first post I ever made on a blog was -
I haven't changed my mind. With her career destroyed, the one day suspension meant nothing one way or another.I think the SNP got this wrong - far more devastating to put down a motion along the lines of
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The debate this morning was ill-tempered, occasionally ill-mannered. The speeches were, frequently, ill-considered.
Before we gie poor frailty names, my fellow bloggers, consider whether our discussions ever sink to such depths...? ;o)
#6 tammienorrielass1: as usual I agree with you! The all too common practice of soliciting donations just below the threshold has to be stopped somehow. Full declaration would seem to be one way - surely we have a right to know who is funding our representatives.
Human nature being what it is, I suspect many of these "donations" have strings attached. There's rarely such a thing as a free lunch.
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Despite the praise for Patrick Harvie in Brian Taylor's blog, I'm rather unimpressed with his position that (to quote the BBC News report currently online) "there was no clear reason to overturn the recommendation of the committee".
This is not a recommendation about the purchase of paperclips that has come forward for routine approval: it is a recommendation that a democratically elected MSP be suspended from the Parliament. That is a serious matter, and should be fully debated - which is exactly what is happening.
The committee's recommendation may well be the right one, but MSPs should not hide behind it and abdicate their own responsibility to reach a view on the matter.
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My issue reading the main article is the piety of Ms Alexander's closest ally, Jackie Ballie, MSP for Dumbarton.
"Some in this chamber may regard what they have done as a political victory, but wiser heads will reflect on the consequences for this parliament and democracy," she said.
The lack of a "wiser head" on the part of Ms Alexander and her advisors is the issue here, and the Standards Committee followed the correct course of action.
How refreshing would it be for politicians to hold their hands up when they do wrong and accept the appropriate sanction, and for people like Jackie Ballie to lose the sanctimonious attitude?
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Have the Parly Clerks who gave Ms Alexander the wrong advice been punished? If not, why not?
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#12 Oldnat
Totally in agreement with you, except for the split infinitive. Very wise.
As for Mr Taylor's comment that the wider affair is "less than salutory", I am totally in agreement there again . . . except that it would have been more salutary to get the spelling right. Never mind, a mere detail of little consequence, like this whole tedious, mind-numbingly tiresome little affair.
Once Parliament's decision has been made known, let us move on swiftly to something more worthy of our attention.
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More Unionist twaddle from the BBC trying to cast Alexander in a favourable light and portray those trying to uphold the standards of parliamentary conduct as some sort of "evil executioners".
The real losers here are the Scottish public, who have seen the law broken, the offence publicly admitted, then denied, only to find the police, the electoral standards commissioners, and now even parliament itself, unwilling to administer even the softest slap on the wrist to the offender.
However, the end result has always been predictable, and so the last thing we really needed was yet another 700-word Unionist propaganda piece defending the honour of a failed and discredited Labour politician.
The people of Glenrothes will deliver their verdict on Alexander and her like soon enough. It may not be the guillotine. More likely the Maiden.
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#12 oldnat.
Much as this will surprise you, I agree with your comments, and I'm glad to see that you have the guts to admit the SNP do get things wrong.
This debate has been a total waste of public money. One day suspension? OK, she did wrong but it wasn't exactly an embezzlement was it?
Our MSPs need to get their priorities right. And Alex Salmond needs to grow up over this one. Stand up and say "she did wrong, has taken the consequences now let's return to serious business".
Instead we have the MSPs behaving like a bunch of schoolchildren bullying the class outcast.
And Scotland wants to be seen as a serious player on the world stage?
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Hey! its politics, this one was always going too be heated.
At the end of the day, there will be NO white flag above Ms Alexander's door.
You KNOW what! I like that, there's mettle there.
Bring it on!!!!!!!!!!!
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Everyone (inside and outside Parliament) knows all they want or need to know about the case.
Why not go straight to the vote, and save us this undedifying spectacle?
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#17 Sandy
Split infinitive - Oops!
My only excuse would be that I was thinking as an MSP.
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Why don?t we reinstate that good old Scottish tradition, 'the stool of repentance'? Transgressors could sit at the front of the assembled congregation and receive denunciation and rebuke from the presiding officer. Perhaps a dunce?s cap could be thrown in for good measure?
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#19 Neil
I keep saying. I'm a Nationalist, but not a member of any party. Every party makes mistakes, and I find the spectacle of party loyalists (of any party) denying that rather unedifying.
However, if you've watched debates in Westminster, US Congress, the Dail, NSW (and, I imagine, any other legislature) this was par for the course.
I would like the Scottish Parliament to be better than the rest of the world, but the sad fact is that today does not make us any worse than elsewhere.
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OH dear - the vote is in.
I just hope that this does not send out the wrong signals to the public who these folk were elected by!
ie we can play around with our own egos, do wrong and get away with it! This Wendy was aspiring to be a leader! If she cannot find out and abide by the rules(and ask the right folk when unsure), know she was wrong, and arrogantly try to brazen it out, so what voters!!!!
However, there must be absolutely clear rules set out now, so that this situation never arises again.
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So Ms. Alexander has got off.
No surprise there. But she is still a dead duck.
She and her team thought they were above the rules. After 50 years in power, why should they bother with rules. That is for the peasants. They did not bother to read them.
Any donation in excess of 1% of an MSP salary , £520 has to be declared. Full stop. No excuses.
Her donations were 4 @ £999, 2 @ £950, 2 @ less, can't remember. Because they thought, just surmised, that the threshhold was £1000. PLUS, the illegal one, from Mr. Green.
My reading of the affair is that when they got wind of an investigation they realised they would have to declare them, and scrambled to do so. But too late.
They also realised that the Green donation was inadmissable and thought, I know, let's put it in under a British address, no one will ever check. Wrong again.
They have brought disgrace to our Parliament. Labour are a disgrace and should be ashamed and contrite. But are they. No way.
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An extremely dull day in my view.
Couldnt care less whether Wendy got suspended for a day or not. After all the day was a token jesture, a joke really.
Suppose the bad bit is that MSP's cant even follow the rulings of their own committee.
A waste of time and money......
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Chapeau! Oldnat, wonderful tought.
Based on your: "We are here to honestly serve the people." Someone should compose kind of a prayer all msps would have to recite at the beggining of the day's business.
I'm probably a recentnat compare to you but if I've learned something while canvassing is that the electorate's memory is elephantine.
I would not be at all surprised if after the next Holyrood elections the total opposition is reduced to below 60. I'm not including the Greens, nor Margo if she's still fit to re-apply.
By the by, Glenrothes is hot, hot, hot.
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Kangaroo court over, consensus breaks out in favour of Ms Alexander.
Back to business, and thats blitz that LIT'S.
Good to have you back Oldnat,you no it makes sense!
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So, Alexander gets no punishment for breaking parliamentary rules.
She gets no punishment for breaking the law by accepting an illegal donation.
But to all you peasants out there: remember if you break the law your will be punished to the greatest degree that the law allows.
Yes, indeed. A "victory" for Alexander.
Of course there still remains the inconvenient question of why she's now unelectable.
And the unanswered question of why you and I should obey the law when clearly Labour politicians don't have to.
And the inexplicable mystery of why anyone would vote for Alexander in the first place.
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I suspect a one-day suspension would have blown over pretty quickly. The fact that Alexander hasn't received official punishment (despite falling on her sword) will simply tarnish her reputation henceforth. People will not feel that she has "served her time".
#29 VincentMcdee: "...the electorate's memory is elephantine."
I remember a letter in the Times a little while back. A LibDem canvasser had pitched up at someone's door to persuade them to vote beige. He was sent packing due to the Liberal's poor handling of the Shell Crisis of 1915! He wondered whether this was the oldest recorded political grudge!
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I've just heard what she said. Good grief, that wee wummin has no shame. She still thinks she did nothing wrong. Why oh why did they not have a motion of censure instead of all the voting mince???
Now the wee petted lip is out again. It makes me sick. She broke the law then blamed it on wee boys that ran away. So please, can this be the last we hear of her?
Let's get into some more fun and sport when Cathy Jamieson or any of her lacklustre chums take over as leader. Maybe they'll give Wendy a job as spokesperson on Parliamentary Standards. Maybe I shouldnae say that, funnier things have happened. Anyway, go away Wendy and haunt a hoose.
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The debate was bad enough.
I didn't think that Wendy Alexander did herself any favours by appearing on TV claiming "victory"
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Just watched Wendy being interviewed ,still no modesty no apology. As for the parliament vote it looks like politicians looking after themselves AGAIN . We the public are not stupid ...roll on the vote in Glenrothes im sick of this corupt New Labour government.
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I feel the result was right, I am no fan of Wendy but the SNP behaved reprehensibly in this instance.
The good things they do are undermined by this type of behaviour, they could achieve so much more by growing up a bit.
However as others have said we must return to business and out the LIT for the half baked idea it really is.
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Deplorable.
Still this shows what the Unionists think of our Parliament. Mickey Mouse place with Mickey Mouse rules. Forget it - Do as we say, not as we do, and remember ignorance of the law is not an excuse unless you are a MSP.
How can we have any pride in the law coming out of that place now?
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So , are we all now going to be forced to concede that MPs MSPs and MEPs are above the law, do not need to pay heed to the laws which they introduce,do not need to have electoral standards officials checking them out?
In short , they can do whatever they choose and the public will just have to accept it.
Is that what this says , or am I misreading the whole thing?
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once again msps look after there own why not change their name to the untouchables
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Those who shout the loudest have the least to say and the most to hide!!
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Oldnat,
The nature of politics..eh,
Anyway its onwards and upwards,looking forward to the sept- conference,should be a real gathering of minds on the Glenrothes-elections.
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Did anyone expect anything else??
If they did one they would have to do them all, and we can't have that now can we, it would have taken for ever. If they let one off with it, then they all get off with it. For now!
The last two sessions of the Scottish Parliament were an absolute disgrace, in which some of the worst self serving wasters and national embarrassments made up our Parliament, unfortunately some of them are still there. Thankfully we now have new leadership to take us forward.
It is amazing what goes on in the Scottish Parliament but isn't supposed to, and equally amazing at what doesn't go on but is supposed to.
Be fooled by no-one.
"Welcome to the official website of the Scottish Parliament. Our founding principles are openness, accountability, the sharing of power and equal opportunities."
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Please correct me if I'm wrong.
An MSP is caught doing 40 in a 30mph zone, asks a policeman is this a 30 mph zone? the case comes to Court, MSP says "I didn't know", automatic let off?
It raises the question of whether there has been any improvement in Scots legislators since 1707.
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On the other hand if I am wrong, then perhaps I am an MSP, so
Hard Cheese, go away and eat brioche, peasants!
Our representatives, pah.
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I think you all mistake the real punishment for wee wendy.
She's going to have to watch one of the intellectual and political pygmies contesting for leadership of Labour MSPs actually get the post, which she threw away due to arrogance/carelessness/poor judgment (whatever).
Will any of them give her a shadow post? Could she bear to be subservient to any of them?
Meanwhile, her wee brother is in Government in London.
If this wasn't politics, it would be sad. However ..........
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That it was not a great day for the parliament is absolutely the fault of the labour party in Scotland.
The labour parties attitude to the spirit and letter of the law and regulations of the parliament - by the insistence that it was someone else's fault that Wendy Alexander and her team of legal advisors fell into error - is the defence of privilege over personal responsibilty.
Her further triumphalism that she has been somehow vindicated by the parliament's collective sense of justice (there but for the grace of god etc) in not suspending her from the parliament for a day (the merest slap on the wrists for most people found breaking the law) is further evidence that she and the labour party have not realised that the parliament is a real institution which requires respect for its rules rather than the labour parties mere creature.
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I simply don't believe that ordinary Scots will tolerate a situation where there is one law for Labour politicians and another law for the rest of us.
I'm sure the public will let Wendy Alexander and her Labour cronies know exactly what they think of this mockery of our justice system at the next available opportunity - which happens to be the Glenrothes by election.
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Bad day for Holyrood parliament.
I thought the parliament was set up to prevent the Westminster sleaze from infecting it but sadly this seems not to be the case.
What is the point of the Standards Committee, when panel members vote to save their party colleague rather than fulfill the role of upholding standards?
Even if the Labour Committee members had done the decent thing, their party would still have voted en-masse to save her.
The Standards Committee is now a lame duck.
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#27 jinnek
Your summary of the whole sordid affair says it all.
She did wrong and is still claiming innocence.
How shabby can she get claiming some sort of moral victory.
If she was so sure of her innocence why did she resign?
A sad day for democracy and the Scottish Parliament.
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Interest rates kept on hold, dam,sigh, I hear in the back ground,anyway that wont bother Stewart Stevenson to much. The last I heard, was he brought one house, right next to his old house, still had a fair profit to bank and he thanks the tax payers, for what was a blatant abuse.
anyway pray to continue...........
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is it just me or is all this bother caused by someone who wanted to raise cash for an uncontested leadership battle - one where there were no other candidates to beat?
how much does it cost to run a campaign where only one vote would be required to win - I would assume that you would be able to vote for yourself and therefore almost guaranteed to win. Thank goodness none of the others in the party wanted to play at leader coz that would have meant lots more money needed. That might have lead to the proposal of 2 days suspended!
By the way, why is it assumed that the parties split on party lines? It may just be that one group of individuals wanted to make sure nobody broke the law/rules of the parliament and were conscientious and the other ones couldn't care less, Maybe they need to keep this avenue of funding open for future leadership fundraising. After all, it will be hard to suspend anyone from any party for the same innocent misdemeanour now that there is precedent.
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This whole problem is that there is a legal difference between the Law of the Land and Rules were one is deemed as being a crime against all, whereas Rules are made and used as guidance nothing more as they are not written down in Statute. If someone breaks rules in the workplace the consequences are variable by disciplinary action or at the other end loosing there own life which is called a workplace accident investigated by HSE.
This whole debacle should of been dealt with long before now rather than the protracted farce that justice within politics has shown. The women was guilty at the onset and should of been punished in a far shorter timescale because it tarnishes all politicians with the same brush.
Postcript I wonder if she is meeting her boss GB in Glasgow tonight.
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I have been quite gentle with wee wendy so far. I may have been wrong.
This from the woman who thought she could take on the onerous task of running our country. If she had any shame, her head would be down in the gutter - with her reputation.The Glasgow Herald has published a "Summary of Commission interview with Wendy Alexander". I quote
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Its a real pity that both the MSP's and many posters on this blog have an attitude that it was a shame for poor wee Wendy.
Well without taking sides based on my support for the party of my choice, I am disgusted that Wendy Alexander is being let off purely because she is a member of the same club of those that covered for her.
We are missing our opportunity to shout out the message that Westmonster behaviour should never be allowed in a Scottish Parliament. Put quite simply, havent we learned anything from our years of subjugation to one of the most corrupt political systems in the free world.
These bloodsuckers know the rules, and even now believe that whats good the Scottish People, isnt good enough for them because they see themselves as being somehow better than THE REST. The rest being every ordinary Scot who just want honest democracy for all. If we were Independant and our Scottish Constitution was back in place, then I am sure the Scottish People as a whole would have voted for Wendy Alexander to be barred from participating in Scottish Politics for life.
We have had a gutfull of corrupt pollies and many many Scots would gladly demand that any form of corruption is tantamount to treason of the Scottish Nation. That should have been the findings of the Parliament, and I would include any future pollie in that mire, even the great man Alexander Salmond.
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Oh dear, an escalation on sleaze.
Well, tit for tat I suppose.
Heard AS gave up on the tour bus, to take a trip to America to watch some golf at the tax payers expense, although his luggage didn't consist of a golf bag - he was advocating a LIT lift.......
There's more (.....................)
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Show me a honest politician you will find it very difficult. I am sure there is no such thing.
sadassnow
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I wish that I hadn't removed a paragraph from my previous post after reading that "Summary of Commission interview with Wendy Alexander" re oldnat. Looks more like a Unionist vote to discredit the SNP by overturning the suspension rather than honesty and integrity delivered today. The time is looming as Labour is certainly heading into extinction and thankfully we won't have to suffer that petted lip smile that she carries in her handbag along with her draft obituary(political).
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#53 oldnat
Again you always find the good stuff.
This particular quote from your Glasgow Herald link shows just how arrogant Wee Wendy is.
"Could a reasonable member of the public think that these gifts of almost £1000 could possible influence subsequent activity?"
In other words if you want to buy favours from Wendy it'll cost you more than 1,000 smackers.
I could be influenced with a gift of one thousand notes but I'm just a poor working punter.
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The rules were broken. The committee made this clear. It recommended a sanction of one day's suspension from Parliament, which Parliament has not considered it appropriate to implement. Due process has been observed, although it is regrettable that it has been such a long-drawn out affair.
Considerations of proportionality and natural justice are not out of place at this stage in a legislature which we wish to respect. It is, after all, not as if Ms Alexander has not been punished.
Time to move on, while procedures are reviewed and all parties, not least the Labour Party, reflect upon the desirability of respecting the rules assiduously and of being seen to do so.
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The Numpties on Newsnight
Will anyone in Labour bother to vote?
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Just finished watching Newsnight...
Genuine best candidate: Cathie Jamieson
Best candidate to provide independence: Andy Kerr
Middle of the road enough to actually win: Iain Gray
Their views on Trident and nuclear power show that Labour are irreparably detached from Scottish public opinion and are going to get utterly mauled in the next general election. Iain Gray's arrogant smile after answering the nuclear power question has immediately escalated him to Wendy levels of dislikeablity in my book.
None of the three of them have any chance of genuinely leading Labour throughout Scotland (even after the Scottish Office is being closed down) so it's basically same old same old as far as I can see.
Very much looking forward to watching Labour self destruct on the road to the 2010 revolution.
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I don't usually post on these blogs but I find myself infuriated by these proceedings.
It's fair to say our elected representatives haven't covered themselves in glory but at the black heart of this all is that awful awful woman Alexander and her cohorts! Have they no shame at all?
Surely in all her vast intellect she could see that it would be POLITIC to at least pay lip service to the electorate and APOLOGISE for all this? Instead, as a taxpayer and voter, I'm left feeling very used and grubby by all this.
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Bendy is typical Scottish Labour. She thinks it is ok to bend the rules. That's what Scottish Labour have been doing for 50 years. They can't get away with things like they used to.
Bendy just doesn't see her behaviour the way we do. She doesn't know any better that's why she claims victory today. Many bloggers here and the general public just see her as a typical politician. In fact, she is a typical Labour politician; never done a real days work in her life and hence doesn't appreciate what us Joe Bloggs need to do to earn a crust. She is on planet Labour. Well I'm delighted Planet Labour is in freefall.
Freedom
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Before the sombre remarks start, about the PM's address to the CBI, on the issue of windfall tax on energy companies being paused!
There is a tactic here, the energy companies have said that any imposed tax on their profits, would be met by another increase in bills (greedy git's)
So lets skin the cat bothways,through an installation programme we can drive those energy companies profits down, to the point where they would have NO choice but to drop prices (thin, YES, but workable and a threat layed at the energy companies door)
Winter is coming and the pressure is building.Lets all hope that sense prevails.
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Tora...Tora......Tora
Oldnat, some good spin there, however I believe the point made was a sarcastic reply.....
God luv's someone who tries;;;;;;;
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For a Tory paper, the Times has quite a penetrating article on how the SNP has forced centralist Brown to move towards giving Scotland greater power over our own destiny.
It's identification of the questions for Brown are worth asking every Labour supporter who says that Lab will deliver for Scotland -
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Wendy Alexander resigned because she knew that she had done wrong, and was found out.
Parliament?s Standard?s Committee gave out the correct verdict, but their punishment was far too light, principally because Parliament suspended, I think it was 3 SSP Members for a Month, for a much lesser offence, and there was no outcry for justice then.
Labour Members seem to think that they are untouchable, probably because they have ruled the roost for so long.
The 70 MSP?s who voted not to suspend her for a day, have shown their own disregard for their own rules, which devalues Parliament very much in the eyes of the public.
It seems that nobody wins, except maybe Wendy, though I wouldn?t want to be in her shoes.
I haven?t seen the debate today, but I can imagine how partisan it could have been, with very few people remembering that it was about the running of our Parliament.
These politicians are supposedly clever people and yet they are complaining that they cannot understand their own rules, which seem straightforward enough to me.
Wendy and her cronies should have been sent to prison for all the troubles they have been involved in.
Sensible people don?t want their kind to be running our Country, and that is just one of the reasons why they will be out on their ears come the next election.
Yes Parliament loses, but hopefully for the last time.
What a pantomime this has been.
The end ?.
.
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Wendy Alexander reckons "The decision was a victory for the law, for natural justice and for common sense".
She went on to say; "I regret this issue has distracted parliament, the media and the people from the real issues that deserve to dominate our public life".
And her and her fellow politicians can't understand why they are so reviled and considered unworthy of respect by much of the population.
If there was any real justice, she would be in a court of law facing criminal charges. So don't give us this guff about "distracting parliament from the real issues that deserve to dominate our public life".
The matter of exposing dishonest politicians is considered to be hugely important by the public, so she should just shut-up and be thankful she's got off so lightly.
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"The decision was a victory for the law, for natural justice and for common sense".
Right... according to the law she broke the rules.
"natural justice"? presumably she means she broke the law by mistake - but no hint of contrition.
"common sense"... well that one speaks for itself, where was hers?
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Re Oldnat, @66
"For a Tory paper, the Times has quite a penetrating article on how the SNP has forced centralist Brown to move towards giving Scotland greater power over our own destiny."
I'm constantly surprised by the attention The Times (London) gives to Scottish affairs. I have started taking it because it gives, in my opinion, an even-handed view.
Unlike the Scotsman or Herald. In fact, I keep pointing it out to my-English- son in law.
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Let's not forget that she only asked for advice after the 30 day limit for declaring donations had expired.
It's like letting your road tax expire, waiting a few weeks, and then asking the DVLA if you really need to renew your road tax.
Wendy doesn't think that breaking the law is "BREAKING THE LAW".
Labour and their cronies just don't understand what LAW means, and cannot conduct themselves in a suitable manner.
It's not surprising therefore that they have lost the trust of the Scottish people (especially as they are always telling us that we can't do this and we can't do that), and it is unlikely that they will even be in power in Scotland again.
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I am disagree fundamentally with a lot of the comment here.
Firstly, it was elements in the Labour party who wanted her out who supplied the info to the press that brought her down. They were probably driven by the realisation that she was a liability.
It was not the SNP so we should stop the rewriting of this episode.
Secondly the wrongful and knowing acceptance of a small illicit donation was less serious than the inept attempt to cover it up and the absoutely juvenile lies which surrounded this issue initially.
The frenetic and downright stupid behaviour of Scottish Labour on this issue proved conclusively that they couldn't be trusted collectively to run a cloakroom.
The Labour Party,which seems to have misplaced the handle on political judgement and what is actually important, would be well advised to shut up completely about this episode which really turns the voters off.
Wendy Alexander should be left in peace to contemplate what she should be doing with her life. Politics it isn't.
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#72 - best summary I've read of the whole sorry affair
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So the situation we have is that Parliament took a whole day to debate, and then vote for, whether or not to uphold a ONE day suspension for ONE MSP. By voting to overturn the committee's decision, they might as well have just all been suspended from Parliament yesterday.
I'm not particularly concerned about the affair to be honest - the damage has already been done to Wendy Alexander and her party, so a one day suspension is small fry in comparison to the fact she's ruined her one chance to lead the party - but I was most disturbed by her characteristic triumphalism when interviewed after the result. It would have been nice if the whole affair could have knocked a bit of humility into her, but instead she gave her usual arrogant, defiant nonsense that merely serves to make politics rather off-putting for the casual observer.
Anyway, with the general public's disapproval of shifty political behaviour - especially in the current environment - the result merely plays into the SNP's hands. Keep it up, unionist parties.
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Derek Barker @50
There is blatant abuse within the rules, and blatant abuse outwith the rules. I am not defending Mr Stevenson, but his was the former, Ms Alexanders the latter.
Each in their different way diminishes the Scottish Parliament.
Best Wishes,
William1957
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Cheers Wiiliam.
1957, any significance?
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derekbarker@76,
Nope, just the year I was born. Of great significance to me and my family and a few others, but nothing else.
Best Wishes,
William1957
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local income tax. sounds like the POLL TAX all over again. Why dont we instead of raising the off sales age to 21 and criminalising our youngster, triple the duty on alcohol and use the extra money to fund the council tax. Alcohol is a luxury living is not! or we could tax the farmers and fishermen who dont pay any duty on fuel or how about double the council tax on second homes instead of giving a discount to those with to much money!!!
(L.I.T)= POLL TAX
and we dont want to go down that road again!!
OR how about msp's take a wage cut and lead by example, work for minimum wage.
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This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
Brian
From what I was reading it, was not a good day for the MSPs....
I hope they will have a better days ahead...
~Dennis Junior~
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