Brown Sugar?

Continuing on the musical theme, what on earth is Alan Sugar thinking of agreeing to become Gordon Brown's Enterprise Tsar? Is this man not supposed to be particularly astute? Maybe it's all part of a cunning plan that will end with the irascible entrepreneur pointing the finger at the PM and uttering the infamous words "you're fired"!

I have to say The Apprentice is the only TV programme I make the effort to watch these days. I love it! I like the aftershow too and I particularly like the bit where the latest firing victim appears before an audience who hold up HIRED or FIRED cards. Could we not do that here?

Could we not have GB stand before us so we can decide if he should be hired or fired? Well we MAY be able to do so depending on the outcome of the SNP/Plaid Cymru motion calling for the dissolution of parliament. It will be interesting to see how many Labour backbenchers vote for it - then again when did you ever hear of a turkey voting for Christmas?

This town is coming like a ghost town

The lyrics of that brilliant Specials song kept running through my mind yesterday as the European elections got underway. I woke up this morning with the words still there and realised why. It was because a ghost town is what Glasgow felt like yesterday as the voters stayed away from the polling places in their droves. The silence was deafening and the polling places I visited late last night reported turnouts of 25% at most. Some were as low as 13% and this was in an area which normally has a higher than average turnout. Family looking after polling places in Port Glasgow reported 15% in a text at 9pm with only an hour till close of poll. My guess is that the overall turnout will be little over 20%. Given that it was 40% last time, this shocking result alone ought to be enough for Gordon Brown to call it a day and call a general election. The people have spoken, now let's start listening to them.

Resignation of James Purnell

Am home from electioneering and trying to stay awake to watch the English council results. The news that James Purnell, the Work & Pensions secretary has resigned from Gordon Brown's cabinet, certainly helped to wake me up a bit! It's not just the resignation of yet another government minister but the letter that went with it calling on Gordon Brown to step aside "for the sake of the Labour Party we both love"! Oh dear. Not looking good at all. Personally, I've put everything on hold awaiting the date of the Glasgow North East by-election (my own constituency where Michael Martin is standing down) but I have a sneaking suspicion that it won't be happening because an early general election is almost inevitable now. I just don't see how Brown can hang on and this resignation could open the floodgates. That, combined with the letter from the backbench Labour MPs saying Brown should go AND the SNP/Plaid Cymru motion (being debated next week) calling for a general election makes it very hard for the Labour Government to stay in power. I'd hang on if I were them and I'd go for a reshuffle which, apparently, they are doing. I'd go for a general election once the new team had scored a few hits. That's if I were them .... if I were me on the other hand, I'd think the only morally correct way forward was to call a general election and that's what I think they'll end up feeling they have to do. Exciting times!

Progress Report

Well, it's been quiet out in them thar polling places. Not just low turnout of voters but almost NO turnout of political parties other than the SNP. Could it be the rest of them are afraid to face people? Could they be right to be afraid? I think so. With all that's been uncovered recently (on which I shall be blogging at some point) who can blame people for being angry? Am about to go out again so we'll see if it picks up this evening but I've been to half a dozen polling places today and let's just say the polling clerks are pretty bored!

Come on people - get out and vote for the party you KNOW you can trust to do its best for Scotland. Vote for this great bunch of candidates, every single one of whom I am 100% convinced will be brilliant MEPs for our country.

I love elections

Yes I did! I voted first thing this morning, I've taken other people to vote and I'll be spending the rest of the day doing so. I'm very much looking forward to seeing the results on Sunday.

I was interviewed last night on Talk Sport Radio and they asked me why anyone should vote SNP. I told them it was generally accepted that if you want someone to stand up for Scotland, you vote SNP. I said that was our purpose - to stand up for Scotland.

But I also pointed out that Westminster only ever sits up and takes notice when the SNP starts to threaten their electoral success. So this election is also about sending a strong message to Westminster that Scotland will not accept £5billion being wasted on ID cards and £100billion on new nuclear weapons when the money could and should be invested in jobs and rebuilding the economy.

That's what SNP MEPs will do - work in partnership with the Scottish Government to ensure Scotland uses its resources wisely and does everything it can to protect jobs and create new ones.

The polling places I've been to this morning have reported VERY low turnouts and although I think abstaining is NOT the answer, you can understand why people are more disillusioned than ever. We, in the SNP, will be working hard all day for every single vote and taking nothing for granted. Speaking of which, I'd better get out again.

Bank customers beware

Nothing to do with the elections but due to my pathological hatred of fraudsters I felt I had to mention this scam. Apparently folk phoning their bank have had their calls diverted by scammers who get their details and then plunder their accounts. Thieving **** - I really have no time for these people. They think their crime doesn't affect anyone because the account holder will likely get it back from the banks' insurance. But that's hardly the point. You don't get it back right away, in fact it can take a good number of months. Besides, what does it do to that individual victim of the crime to know that another human being would do that to them? It's something most of us find abhorrent, the idea of stealing someone else's belongings and when it happens to you, it may not be personal but it certainly feels it.

Imagine you're an elderly woman living alone like the 78 year old who was duped by these guys. I imagine that poor woman is now feeling very insecure and possibly unsafe in her own home. It's the invasion of privacy, the idea that someone could be so unfeeling and the conclusion she will no doubt have reached that you just can't trust anyone these days. The fact that she's wrong and that you can trust the vast majority of people is almost irrelevant here (as is the fact that in the end, the bank intervened and the tea leaf didn't get his hands on her money) - her perception is what affects how she's feeling right now. She's probably worked really hard all her life and gone without things to make sure she's secure in her retirement and along comes somebody who somehow thinks it's acceptable to help himself to the security she earned for herself probably long before he was born.

I could rant about this for a very long time. Just please, DON'T let it happen to you, to your mother or father, to anyone - spread the word. Read the article and take the advice and be very very careful about what you tell people on the phone.

Complaints about my blog!

A very amusing friend of mine sent me an email last week telling me my blog was "rubbish"!

"Rubbish"?! said I. "In what way is it rubbish"? (Love the way my friends don't bother to mince their words.)

Her reply was something like this: "You never update it anymore - do you even have a car now? The public wants to know"!

She was of course referring to my frequent references on my old blog to my frequent car breakdowns, this post here is just one of the many.

So, I am happy to tell Mhairi two things - one, I'm restarting the blog as of today. And two, although the joy in the aforementioned post was shortlived and I ended up scrapping the car (one month before THIS FLAMIN' SCHEME which would've given me £2000 toward a new car was announced!) I have finally bought a car! Got myself a 3 year old Hyundai which means it's got a 2 year warranty left and Hyundai's warranties actually cover quite a lot - in my experience car warranties tend to cover only obscure things that you'll never actually need.

Anyway, new car, new start (in motoring terms) but I'm hoping it won't be a frequent topic on this blog. That said, I'd only had it 3 days when some lovely person (terrible being an MSP and having to tone it down!) decided to scrape it with a sharp implement. Why? Why would you do that? Anyway hopefully no more motoring mishaps but plenty more political insight :-) European Elections tomorrow - I'll try to blog on the move.