"All of us have got the right to speak ".

We've got 'gorgeous' George Galloway MP visiting Dundee this weekend. He's coming north to tell us to "Just say Naw" to independence for Scotland. Tickets are still available at The Whitehall Theatre if you're really quick. A bargain at £12.

"Just say Naw" isn't really a Dundonian slang. We'd say " Just say Nut" but that's probably too close to the truth for George's visit.

George said that "all of us have got the right to speak" about the referendum for Scotland in this video.....

George was repeating the myth that Nigel Farage of the UKIP party had been attacked by SNP, anti English supporters in Edinburgh when the truth was that there were no SNP supporters present although there was an English public schoolboy

Oh and the one person charged was also English.

Last year Scotland was voted the top holiday destination in the world by CNN based in the United States. We welcome everyone to Scotland and are famous for our friendship and hospitality irrespective of a person's race or religion or nationality.

But what about George's claim that "all of us have got a right to speak ".

Will this include Israelis living in the UK ?

George recently walked out of a conference because he doesn't debate with Israelis. I support a homeland for the Palestinians myself but refusing to speak in debates won't help the situation..

George has no problem working for the Iranian Press tv though where gay men are sentenced to death for fighting for their "right to speak" and to live their lives freely and openly.....

I don't know what to make of George. His "Talk Radio" show used to be quite funny but quite often any attempt to challenge him was met by the listener being cut off or he would revert to the old Scottish trick of " whataboutery". This is where any attempt to attack one side of an argument is met by " oh but what about them though".

George has been stirring up fears about what would happen to catholics in an independent Scotland and he said that sectarianism " would undoubtably be able to flourish more"......

He failed to mention all of the fantastic work that has been done in Scotland to stamp out sectarianism. I was brought up in Dundee with a catholic father and protestant mother. I saw both sides of the religious divide being equally sectarian in the 1960's and 1970's. As an atheistic Dundee United supporter I was often accosted by gangs in the schemes who would ask if I was a Celtic or a Rangers supporter in order to determine where my allegiance lay. As an atheistic Utd supporter I had to try and guess which religion they were in order to provide the correct answer and so avoid a doing. This attitude has been mostly wiped out now and Scotland has brought in the first laws to criminalise sectarianism. As a 'responsible' MP George should be promoting the positives rather than reinforcing the negatives. His glee at the demise of the old Glasgow Rangers who are in liquidation was hardly 'statesmanlike'...

George is no better or no worse than the rest of them in the London Parliament. I'm not sure how well he will be received back in Lochee which he recently called a " slum" when he was growing up there. He would watch all the drunks staggering about in the slum apparently. I notice he said that his childhood was " idyllic" in Lochee in the latest Courier newspaper report. Idyllic living in a slum with drunks staggering about ? Mmm possibly I suppose. In George's world.

I think if I went to George's show I would ask.......

1.How can we be 'Better Together' in the Union with Scotland having some of the worst deprivation and life expectancy in Western Europe despite being a so called 'wealthy oil producing nation'. Where has the trillions of pounds of oil money gone ? Norway has saved £800Bn. We've saved nothing.

2. How can it be right to be regularly governed by the Tories when no one has supported them since the 1950's in Scotland ?

3. Why are we spending £40Bn on a new generation of nukes when food banks are opening daily all over Scotland to feed the starving ?

4. Why are we being dragged into eternal foreign wars against countries that are no threat to us ? Bringing death and destruction and despair around the globe.

The list is endless and George would probably cut me off or switch to 'whataboutery'.

'Better Together' in the UK Armed Forces ?

I was watching a 'debate' the other day between the SNP's Keith Brown and Sir Ming Campbell ( in photo above at RAF Leuchars..to be closed shortly ) and Ming said that Scots would prefer to serve in the UK Armed Forces rather than in a Scottish Defence Force as there were more opportunities for travel and excitement. He had absolutely nothing to back up this statement and like many of my colleagues I always tried to get a Scottish posting when in the Forces. The detachments abroad keep on coming wherever your UK base is. A Scottish Defence Force would have plenty of opportunities to travel abroad and to experience as much 'action' as they wanted as they would be welcome anywhere in the world to advise and learn and to share operations with other friendly forces. Likewise foreign forces often visit Scotland to enjoy and share exercises with us. Making use of the fantastic terrain on offer for land, sea and air operations. Scotland recently hosted the biggest NATO exercise for a generation. If this wasn't enough excitement for our young troops then they would still be able to join the Foreign Legion or the UK Armed Forces if they wanted to. Both are full of troops from countries all around the world and Scottish troops have been highly valued for centuries.

Here's a story of how one soldier has been dealt with in the UK Armed Forces. Don't forget that servicemen have no unions to protect them. Everything is done on trust with the so called 'Covenant'. I doubt if his service would have been betrayed so badly in a Scottish Defence Force.....

"A 35-year-old soldier is set to lose a £10,000-a-year pension as he will be made redundant 24 days before he qualifies for a full pension.

The soldier, who joined the Army aged 16 and served in Northern Ireland, Sierra Leone, Iraq and Afghanistan, was recovering from surgery when his wife found out by chance that he was due to lose his job."

Oh and it gets even worse. The person who has decided that the soldier won't get a penny in pension for risking his life for the Union is an unelected peer who is accountable to no one....

"The Government’s defence spokesman, Lord Astor of Hever, responded to Lord Touhig saying only 1.2% of Armed Forces personnel selected for compulsory redundancy were close to their pension point and that there were no plans to review the policy."

An emergency debate was held in the unelected House of Lords where Lord Astor was challenged to make things right for the servicemen and women who will lose out due to no fault of their own. He said.....

"The view of the Ministry of Defence is that this is most unfortunate, but that any cut-off dates before IPP or EDPP would invariably leave some Service men and women just outside the bracket. This is unavoidable and adjusting the rules, after their agreement and promulgation would only cause further hardship"

Any other public sector worker would automatically get a pension based on their time in service. These UK Defence pension 'cut off ' dates are only possible because the troops have no means to challenge them.

UK Government Defence Spokesman John Jacob "Johnny" Astor VIII, 3rd Baron Astor of Hever ( DL) presents the Baroness Thatcher 'Sword of Honour' (sic).....

Don't worry son. I'll protect the 'Covenant'

'Wings over Scotland' at the Scottish independence rally.

This is a great video from September's pro Scottish independence rally in Edinburgh....

BBC Scotland seemed to be doing a bit of fakery with their report of the rally. Firstly they claimed that only 8,000 pro independence supporters attended the rally when even the police said it was about 20,000 and organisers on the day estimated 30,000. Then the BBC report ( in order to be 'impartial' lol ) showed campaigners for the anti independence 'Better Together' team out on the streets talking and canvasing with 'members of the public'. The 'members of the public' seemed to be just acting. Check it out at about 55 seconds into their report...

Millionaire Tory MP claims £5,822.27 for gas and electric.

While we're all being told to put on a warm jumper or switch energy suppliers in order to cut our energy bills the joker above claimed £5,822.27p for gas and electric on his large estate in Warwickshire this year.

Conservative MP Nadhim Zahawi , the Stratford-upon-Avon MP, boasts on his website of his ­achievements on the Energy Bill Committee at improving energy efficiency measures to homes and businesses.

No need for any energy efficiency for himself though. Why bother if someone else is picking up the tab ?

'Only' 340 MPs put in claims for their energy bills and the Mirror newspaper has made a helpful interactive map so you can see who claimed. All the usual suspects are on there so go and have a look.

Millionaire Labour leader Ed Milliband, who is campaigning for an energy price freeze claimed £348.55p for 3 months energy and so froze his own payment at zero.....

Millionaire Anas Sarwar's seems quite reasonable at only £575 ( 3 monthly or per year ?)but Cathy Jamieson's was £725 ( 3 monthly or per year ?). It might be worth putting on a warmer jumper or switching suppliers Cathy.

Of course it goes without saying that the habitual trougher 'Dame' Margaret Beckett is up near the top of the list at £3,960.

The sheep will keep voting for her so she'll keep on troughing.

The last expenses scandal...

HS2 farce.

This high speed rail farce is getting out of hand. Call me Dave is going to commission a report apparently to see about extending it over the border to Scotland. This obviously has nothing to do with the upcoming independence referendum in Scotland and the 'secret' report that explained how HS2 would cost Scotland hundreds of millions in lost revenue if it stopped at Birmingham or Manchester.

Scotland will contribute £4Bn in taxes towards the present HS2 plans although the costs will probably double as usual. It won't reach Manchester until 2033 so will reach Scotland by about 2050. By which time we will all be using jetpacks to travel around and won't need trains.

Scotland contributed hundreds of millions towards HS1 and the eurostar to France and will now contribute billions towards HS2 while we struggle with ancient old trains on ancient old tracks. Like the London Olympics, Scotland will be contributing billions towards something that will actually have a negative effect on our economy. 'Better Together' sticking with the Union ? Buttoned up the back more like.

Meanwhile the new Scotch Secretary Alistair Carmichael " accused SNP transport minister Keith Brown of pitiful behaviour after he questioned the UK government’s commitment to extending HS2 to Scotland. However, Mr Carmichael refused to make any commitment to extending the proposed high-speed rail line across the Border"

Do you see what he did there ?

This is the same drone who wanted his present Scotch Sekratry job scrapped until his Limp Dem party sneaked into power on the back of dumping all of their principles for some comfy seats in the Tory limousines.

Like HS1, they will have to build some kind of HS2. The latest 'vote' in the House of Chancers was all theatre. It's already been signed and agreed behind closed doors with our dear leaders in Brussels so it will go ahead. It's all part of the Trans European Network.

Choo choo.....

Evil witch on Newsnight...

Happy Halloween.

My neighbour never seems to have any problems with 'trick or treaters'.....