Lord Hanningfield and Michelle Thompson are both independents ;p
Hanningfield was a Tory, Thompson was SNP.
Hope that's cleared it up for everyone
Fortunately Thomson can be removed by either the SNP or her constituents and no longer be in a position to Legislate.
Regretably it is far less clear for Hanningfield.
Any SNP legislator can be removed by the SNP and stop being able to legislate after 5 years max even as an independent. Sadly the Tories, Labour and the ridiculously over-represented Liberals cannot make that claim.
Mr. Clipp, I had an Indian lady call about a problem with my computer. Informed her the main user was on holiday. Cue silence, and her hanging up. I despise such practices.
I had a call yesterday where the chap didn't even bother going into the PPI/RTA ambulance chasing spiel. He just said "Don't worry about it" after I confirmed my name and hung up !
I know I often have difficulty in understanding what they are saying, and have to ask them to repeat themselves more than once.
I wonder if this works in reverse, and they do not understand what we are answering, so just plough on with their script.
Does anybody know? Are they paid by results, the number of calls made, or just by time put in?
Meantime in the real world (which is a lost world to the Corbynites) ''Britain has grown faster than any other leading economy since 2013 after bouncing back from recession far more strongly than had been thought, official figures show. Following a series of revisions to past data, the Office for National Statistics said Britain is now 5.9 per cent larger than its pre-crisis peak. It was previously estimated to have been just 5.2 per cent bigger. The revisions revealed that Britain enjoyed the strongest recovery of any G7 leading nation in both 2013 and 2014. On OECD forecasts, the UK is on track to top the G7 again this year, equal with the US. On a per-person basis, the UK is 0.6 per cent larger than ever.'' (Times)
Shadow transport secretary, Lilian Greenwood, said: "We warned ministers for months that these projects were at risk, but they cynically waited until after the election to withdraw support." Ministers had been forced to change course after an "outcry" from passengers after the projects were stopped, she added.
If her comments are a sign of Corbyn's approach to project management, then we should all run kicking and screaming from any thought of renationalisation.
To make it clear: an agreement was made. The agreed projects was massively behind schedule just one year into the five year schedule. Worse, other projects were also being impacted, including routine work.
You then have two options: continue on as before (as Labour did with the WCML upgrade) at massive cost and risk, or pause as much as possible, re-evaluate, and try to being things under control.
Labour seems to prefer the running-the-Titanic-into-the-iceberg approach.
Miss Plato, to be fair, it is the convention to keep schtum during another party's conference, unless a vital event occurs or you're a clown like Brown.
Were they bought when she was an MP or was she just your usual company owner building a business. Given the frothers on here whine on about being all right to earn money , it seems they only want Tories to earn money otherwise it is BAD.
Things must be bad Malcoholic is having to go off script
Dair seems to believe that when someone does something illegal and abominable whilst an SNP MP and also whilst a prominent SNP supporter and peddling the SNP line then its alright for the SNP when she is then thrown out. lt trancadentally becomes an independent MP who perpetrated the horrors. People like him have to believe this of course because if one SNP MP can lie so brazenly (when only pearls of wisdom are supposed to fall from the mouths of the SNP) then they can all be a bunch of liars - not least when it comes to defending their own party prejudice.
Michelle Thomson has been a member of the SNP for less than one year. She was an SNP MP for less than 5 months. She was suspended as a result of recent news.
There is nothing more the SNP can be expected to do. No scrutiny of candidates will ever be foolproof. However, the SNP seem to have done a reasonable job given the constant scrutiny from all sides, only one out of 50 new MPs (many of whom are very recent members) appears to be so problematic.
The only politician for a Scottish seat which we know, by their own admission, to have lied brazenly is Alistair Carmichael. His party support his lying and want him to continue to represent them.
wasting your breath on here Dair , the frothers have not got enough brain cells between them to understand.
Thomson worked in close cahoots with the Gnats for 2 years running Business for Scotland.
When they selected her as an MP her activities sourcing Scottish former Council houses to sell off to English investors had been on public record and the internet for years.
She was toxic even without all these highly questionable financial manipulations.
The only things the SNP could have done more were to have been competent, done their homework, possessed some ethics, and lived out their own alleged values.
Which is quite a lot, really.
And you presumably have links to these stories you claim were so widespread?
"The year is 2020. Inside Number 10 Downing Street, the chief of the UK’s defence staff (Russell Brand) has arrived to give Jeremy Corbyn, the new Prime Minister, some really “heavy” news..."
Were they bought when she was an MP or was she just your usual company owner building a business. Given the frothers on here whine on about being all right to earn money , it seems they only want Tories to earn money otherwise it is BAD.
Things must be bad Malcoholic is having to go off script
Any SNP legislator can be removed by the SNP and stop being able to legislate after 5 years max even as an independent. Sadly the Tories, Labour and the ridiculously over-represented Liberals cannot make that claim.
Come off it, Mr Dair! The SNP ended up with 54 seats or thereabouts, for how many votes? While the Lib Dems got well over 2,000,000 and ended up with just eight seats.
If anybody is over-represented by our broken voting system, it is the SNP. Followed closely by the Tories, of course.
JC: “I want to begin by thanking Russell and Charlotte for their hard work on these important issues. Thank you. Thank you for all of the work that you do. I welcome this debate. It is a debate that we will have in full as a democratic party when conference meets.”
"The year is 2020. Inside Number 10 Downing Street, the chief of the UK’s defence staff (Russell Brand) has arrived to give Jeremy Corbyn, the new Prime Minister, some really “heavy” news..."
Corbyn looks more and more isolated in the parliamentary party, hence his pointed references to his "mandate".
"Comrades, this is your Leader. It is an honour to speak to you today, and I am honoured to be sailing with you on the maiden voyage of our motherland's most recent achievement. Once more, we play our dangerous game, a game of chess against our old adversary — The Conservative Party! For a hundred years, your fathers before you and your older brothers played this game and played it well. But today the game is different. We have the advantage. It reminds me of the heady days of 1945 and Clement Attlee, when the world trembled at the sound of our Nationalisations! Well, they will tremble again — at the sound of our Progressiveness. The order is: engage the Corbyn Drive!
"Comrades, our own Parliamentary Party doesn't know our full potential! They will do everything possible to test us; but they will only test their own embarrassment. We will leave our MPs behind, we will pass through the Conservative patrols, past their sonar nets, and lay off their largest constituency, and listen to their chortling and tittering... while we conduct Austerity Debates! Then, and when we are finished, the only sound they will hear is our laughter, while we sail to Brighton, where the sun is warm, and so is the... Comradeship!
The SNP got this one wrong. Badly wrong. They selected someone without proper scrutiny and it has backfired.
Only in the vein popping nonsense stemming from zoomers like you.
If you believe that a party can somehow magically prevent any potential candidate issue (especially one that would be relatively opaque to most observers) then you're just embarrassing yourself.
The transparent frothing in this thread comes across exactly as it is - utterly fanciful nonsense, base SNP bad rants and completely detached from reality.
You should also bear in mind that I am not a member of the SNP, I am not an SNP supporter and have no interest in the SNP outside of their viability as a vehicle for the dissolution of the UK.
The SNP got this one wrong. Badly wrong. They selected someone without proper scrutiny and it has backfired.
Only in the vein popping nonsense stemming from zoomers like you.
If you believe that a party can somehow magically prevent any potential candidate issue (especially one that would be relatively opaque to most observers) then you're just embarrassing yourself.
The transparent frothing in this thread comes across exactly as it is - utterly fanciful nonsense, base SNP bad rants and completely detached from reality.
You should also bear in mind that I am not a member of the SNP, I am not an SNP supporter and have no interest in the SNP outside of their viability as a vehicle for the dissolution of the UK.
Yet more name-calling and abusive language.
You are doing yourself no favours at all with behaviour like this.
Any SNP legislator can be removed by the SNP and stop being able to legislate after 5 years max even as an independent. Sadly the Tories, Labour and the ridiculously over-represented Liberals cannot make that claim.
Come off it, Mr Dair! The SNP ended up with 54 seats or thereabouts, for how many votes? While the Lib Dems got well over 2,000,000 and ended up with just eight seats.
If anybody is over-represented by our broken voting system, it is the SNP. Followed closely by the Tories, of course.
I suspect Mr Dair is making reference to the Lords.
Though he'd be wrong to do so in the context of the last election alone. Given that a peer might serve 15-20 years then the Lib Dems' share is broadly in line with their election scores over the last couple of decades.
The SNP got this one wrong. Badly wrong. They selected someone without proper scrutiny and it has backfired.
Only in the vein popping nonsense stemming from zoomers like you.
If you believe that a party can somehow magically prevent any potential candidate issue (especially one that would be relatively opaque to most observers) then you're just embarrassing yourself.
The transparent frothing in this thread comes across exactly as it is - utterly fanciful nonsense, base SNP bad rants and completely detached from reality.
You should also bear in mind that I am not a member of the SNP, I am not an SNP supporter and have no interest in the SNP outside of their viability as a vehicle for the dissolution of the UK.
Yet more name-calling and abusive language.
You are doing yourself no favours at all with behaviour like this.
I'm not making any attempt to do myself favours, it's hardly important in the scheme of things.
All I'm doing is bringing the conversation down to the level you intended with your baseless, unjustified and unsupported allegations that the party which has probably the strongest level of candidate scrutiny in the UK is somehow failing on this.
Except it's 2 rubber dinghies setting each other adrift. Corbyn, the party supporters and machine are in one, the remaining MP's are in the other. Neither will fare well.
Thank you for pointing out that I'm wrong, I'm very grateful. I'm hopeful that in future you can point me in the right direction when the opinion of the majority of people is wrong.
Perhaps you can start by showing that the MAJORITY want higher taxes, the GE somewhat contradicts your esteemed opinion.
As you said the party that proposed increasing the top rate of tax to 50p recently lost the election despite YouGov finding 61% in support of it. Oops kind of blows a hole in the argument that opinion polls are flawless (as if the election hadn't done that already). I'll happily accept your apology whenever you're ready.
Where on earth have I said that opinion polls are flawless? In a conversation with TSE I have pointed out that polls ARE flawed. It is clear that you've resorted to lies, further conversation is pointless.
You were claiming that the "majority" backed reducing immigration as a reasons it should be done and furthermore asked me to demonstrate that a "majority" back higher taxes as despite a number of people saying to you that plenty of opinion polls have shown people will back higher taxes (so long as they hit other people) you refused to accept it. You asked me to show that a "MAJORITY" (your capitals) want higher taxes and the GE contradicted that.
Well I've just shown you a YouGov link showing that 61% wanted it according to YouGov, clearly a majority (in fact more than have mentioned immigration to trigger this thread). Now you want to say conversation is pointless, I'm not surprised its unpleasant being demonstrated to be wrong.
Russians and Americans both in active missions in Syrian Airspace = scary.
They're talking to each other.
'Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook told reporters Tuesday that Secretary of Defense Ash Carter directed his staff to "open lines of communication with Russia on de-confliction."
The timing of these discussions is to be worked out in the coming days. The purpose of the discussions is "to ensure the safety of coalition air crews," he said.
Cook added that the two nations have common ground when it comes to fighting ISIS, with Carter making clear that "the goal should be to take the fight to ISIL and not to defend the Assad regime."'
Israel saving lives of British troops. So what keeps the British government from thanking Israel publicly? Perhaps it's shame that Britain gave second class weapons to its own troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Michelle Thomson had nothing to do with Nicola Sturgeon. She was the managing director of Business for Scotland and as such represented 1300 businesses across Scotland, not her own. There is no particular reason for Nicola to go about investigating people in other organisations.
Should Nicola be doing background checks on Patrick Harvey, Tommy Sheridan, Jane Freeman, Lesley Riddoch, etc? I guess you're too enthralled by the lie that Independence is purely the remit of the SNP.
The SNP has a robust scrutiny process which like any process may not always catch everything they want it to. That has nothing to do with Nicola either.
Any SNP legislator can be removed by the SNP and stop being able to legislate after 5 years max even as an independent. Sadly the Tories, Labour and the ridiculously over-represented Liberals cannot make that claim.
Come off it, Mr Dair! The SNP ended up with 54 seats or thereabouts, for how many votes? While the Lib Dems got well over 2,000,000 and ended up with just eight seats.
If anybody is over-represented by our broken voting system, it is the SNP. Followed closely by the Tories, of course.
I suspect Mr Dair is making reference to the Lords.
Though he'd be wrong to do so in the context of the last election alone. Given that a peer might serve 15-20 years then the Lib Dems' share is broadly in line with their election scores over the last couple of decades.
Fair point then, Mr Herdson. The Lib Dems are fairly represented in the Lords. Though it has to be recognised that UKIP and the Green Party are not.
Still, as long as the Tories are over-represented, all is right with the world!
The SNP disowning one of their own at the first whiff or cordite is interesting.
However questions remain - why the delay between July (pre-Referendum) to December (post-referendum) of the Law society report "informally" to the Cops then another delay until it was "formally" passed in July (post General election) ?
I find that incredible - and a case involving a leading SNP light - it doesn't smell good.
Also someone should tell the National that the SNP are ditching her - they had to print some spin about it being temporary and that the police wouldn't be looking into her specifically - very strange.
Russians and Americans both in active missions in Syrian Airspace = scary.
They're talking to each other.
'Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook told reporters Tuesday that Secretary of Defense Ash Carter directed his staff to "open lines of communication with Russia on de-confliction."
The timing of these discussions is to be worked out in the coming days. The purpose of the discussions is "to ensure the safety of coalition air crews," he said.
Cook added that the two nations have common ground when it comes to fighting ISIS, with Carter making clear that "the goal should be to take the fight to ISIL and not to defend the Assad regime."'
Michelle Thomson had nothing to do with Nicola Sturgeon. She was the managing director of Business for Scotland and as such represented 1300 businesses across Scotland, not her own. There is no particular reason for Nicola to go about investigating people in other organisations. . The SNP has a robust scrutiny process which like any process may not always catch everything they want it to. That has nothing to do with Nicola either.
Mr Dair, I don't usually intrude on Scottish comments but the idea that an SNP Member of Parliament 'Had nothing to do with Nicola' despite dozens of photos of the two of them together, is quite frankly preposterous.
Mr Dair, I don't usually intrude on Scottish comments but the idea that an SNP Member of Parliament had 'Nothing to do with Nicola' despite dozens of photos of the two of them together, is quite frankly preposterous.
The SNP disowning one of their own at the first whiff or cordite is interesting.
However questions remain - why the delay between July (pre-Referendum) to December (post-referendum) of the Law society report "informally" to the Cops then another delay until it was "formally" passed in July (post General election) ?
I find that incredible - and a case involving a leading SNP light - it doesn't smell good.
Also someone should tell the National that the SNP are ditching her - they had to print some spin about it being temporary and that the police wouldn't be looking into her specifically - very strange.
Just bizarre ranting now.
In July and December 2014 Michelle Thomson was not a "leading SNP light".
The SNP disowning one of their own at the first whiff or cordite is interesting.
However questions remain - why the delay between July (pre-Referendum) to December (post-referendum) of the Law society report "informally" to the Cops then another delay until it was "formally" passed in July (post General election) ?
I find that incredible - and a case involving a leading SNP light - it doesn't smell good.
Also someone should tell the National that the SNP are ditching her - they had to print some spin about it being temporary and that the police wouldn't be looking into her specifically - very strange.
Isn't it obvious? Michelle Thomson ultimately comes under the aegis of the House of Commons, which the SNP does not control. Fiona Hyslop comes under the aegis of Holyrood, which the SNP does control. Hence the difference in their treatment.
Israel saving lives of British troops. So what keeps the British government from thanking Israel publicly? Perhaps it's shame that Britain gave second class weapons to its own troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Michelle Thomson had nothing to do with Nicola Sturgeon. She was the managing director of Business for Scotland and as such represented 1300 businesses across Scotland, not her own. There is no particular reason for Nicola to go about investigating people in other organisations. . The SNP has a robust scrutiny process which like any process may not always catch everything they want it to. That has nothing to do with Nicola either.
Mr Dair, I don't usually intrude on Scottish comments but the idea that an SNP Member of Parliament 'Had nothing to do with Nicola' despite dozens of photos of the two of them together, is quite frankly preposterous.
ScottP's latest droolings are not about Michelle Thomson as SNP MP. He is asking why Nicola did not investigate Thomson's businesses when Thomson was not an SNP member during the referendum campaign.
The SNP disowning one of their own at the first whiff or cordite is interesting.
However questions remain - why the delay between July (pre-Referendum) to December (post-referendum) of the Law society report "informally" to the Cops then another delay until it was "formally" passed in July (post General election) ?
I find that incredible - and a case involving a leading SNP light - it doesn't smell good.
Also someone should tell the National that the SNP are ditching her - they had to print some spin about it being temporary and that the police wouldn't be looking into her specifically - very strange.
LOL Tapestry lives , now we have SNP running the judges and court decisions
The SNP disowning one of their own at the first whiff or cordite is interesting.
However questions remain - why the delay between July (pre-Referendum) to December (post-referendum) of the Law society report "informally" to the Cops then another delay until it was "formally" passed in July (post General election) ?
I find that incredible - and a case involving a leading SNP light - it doesn't smell good.
Also someone should tell the National that the SNP are ditching her - they had to print some spin about it being temporary and that the police wouldn't be looking into her specifically - very strange.
Just bizarre ranting now.
In July and December 2014 Michelle Thomson was not a "leading SNP light".
Because she was not even a member of the SNP.
So in summary your defence is that the SNP parachutes in non members as candidates and has useless due diligence ?
The SNP disowning one of their own at the first whiff or cordite is interesting.
However questions remain - why the delay between July (pre-Referendum) to December (post-referendum) of the Law society report "informally" to the Cops then another delay until it was "formally" passed in July (post General election) ?
I find that incredible - and a case involving a leading SNP light - it doesn't smell good.
Also someone should tell the National that the SNP are ditching her - they had to print some spin about it being temporary and that the police wouldn't be looking into her specifically - very strange.
Isn't it obvious? Michelle Thomson ultimately comes under the aegis of the House of Commons, which the SNP does not control. Fiona Hyslop comes under the aegis of Holyrood, which the SNP does control. Hence the difference in their treatment.
At this point, only Hyslop has been investigated - by the SNP controlled Holyrood.
As she has clearly done nothing wrong, there isn't much to see regarding this anyway. Company gets bung off government to help fulfil government policy. No politican or adviser benefits personally. Absolutely no legs in it.
So in summary your defence is that the SNP parachutes in non members as candidates and has useless due diligence ?
No, no, no.
When the SNP appoints an MP as their business spokesperson, at no point in any of those conversations do they ask the question "Do you have any business experience, and if so, what was it?"
You said this about Thomson hours before she was binned.
My first comments on Thomson was that there was no evidence of her having any involvement mortgage fraud (which remains the case) and that her involvement in distress purchase property made her incompatible with being an SNP MP.
That was when the story first broke and nothing has changed since then.
The SNP disowning one of their own at the first whiff or cordite is interesting.
However questions remain - why the delay between July (pre-Referendum) to December (post-referendum) of the Law society report "informally" to the Cops then another delay until it was "formally" passed in July (post General election) ?
I find that incredible - and a case involving a leading SNP light - it doesn't smell good.
Also someone should tell the National that the SNP are ditching her - they had to print some spin about it being temporary and that the police wouldn't be looking into her specifically - very strange.
Just bizarre ranting now.
In July and December 2014 Michelle Thomson was not a "leading SNP light".
Because she was not even a member of the SNP.
So in summary your defence is that the SNP parachutes in non members as candidates and has useless due diligence ?
And the Lord Advocate has a "full in tray"..
Reel him in. So in December 14 she was not an SNP member but by what, March 15 she was an SNP Westminster candidate and in May 15 a SNP MP. Duurrrr...
You said this about Thomson hours before she was binned.
My first comments on Thomson was that there was no evidence of her having any involvement mortgage fraud (which remains the case) and that her involvement in distress purchase property made her incompatible with being an SNP MP.
That was when the story first broke and nothing has changed since then.
Yet more unionist lies.
Yet you say the T in the Park story has no legs.
Apart from an SNP candidate who happens to be the bae of the Westminster leader quitting ...
"However, Ms Dempsie announced she would abandon her campaign to become an SNP list MSP at next year’s Scottish Parliament elections.
In the posting on her social media page, Ms Dempsie said: “I have decided I will not be taking forward my nominations across the Highlands and Islands to be a list SNP MSP for the region.”
Ms Dempsie, the partner of Nationalist Westminster leader Angus Robertson, was a special adviser to First Minister Mr Salmond from 2007 to 2009, then worked for the SNP for four years before starting work as a public relations consultant."
The SNP disowning one of their own at the first whiff or cordite is interesting.
However questions remain - why the delay between July (pre-Referendum) to December (post-referendum) of the Law society report "informally" to the Cops then another delay until it was "formally" passed in July (post General election) ?
I find that incredible - and a case involving a leading SNP light - it doesn't smell good.
Also someone should tell the National that the SNP are ditching her - they had to print some spin about it being temporary and that the police wouldn't be looking into her specifically - very strange.
LOL Tapestry lives , now we have SNP running the judges and court decisions
Alsolutely!! If the rest of the world is so corrupt, then why not Scotland?
You said this about Thomson hours before she was binned.
My first comments on Thomson was that there was no evidence of her having any involvement mortgage fraud (which remains the case) and that her involvement in distress purchase property made her incompatible with being an SNP MP.
That was when the story first broke and nothing has changed since then.
Yet more unionist lies.
How strange that someone who claims not to be a Nat, is so defensive when it comes to the precious SNP...
You said this about Thomson hours before she was binned.
My first comments on Thomson was that there was no evidence of her having any involvement mortgage fraud (which remains the case) and that her involvement in distress purchase property made her incompatible with being an SNP MP.
That was when the story first broke and nothing has changed since then.
Yet more unionist lies.
Yet you say the T in the Park story has no legs.
Apart from an SNP candidate who happens to be the bae of the Westminster leader quitting ...
"However, Ms Dempsie announced she would abandon her campaign to become an SNP list MSP at next year’s Scottish Parliament elections.
In the posting on her social media page, Ms Dempsie said: “I have decided I will not be taking forward my nominations across the Highlands and Islands to be a list SNP MSP for the region.”
Ms Dempsie, the partner of Nationalist Westminster leader Angus Robertson, was a special adviser to First Minister Mr Salmond from 2007 to 2009, then worked for the SNP for four years before starting work as a public relations consultant."
Seems like the crown were on the ball - but why the delay from the Law society...
"The Crown Office had to wait seven months for the Law Society to formally submit its full report on “alleged irregularities relating to property deals” which saw MP Michelle Thomson’s solicitor struck off for professional misconduct. It took just six days for it to then instruct Police Scotland to investigate."
"This report, which named his clients for the first time, was received on 3rd July 2015. The instruction to Police Scotland was issued on 9 July 2015.""
Police Scotland were investing an MP in July and yet still Nicola knew nothing until last weekend ?!?!
You said this about Thomson hours before she was binned.
My first comments on Thomson was that there was no evidence of her having any involvement mortgage fraud (which remains the case) and that her involvement in distress purchase property made her incompatible with being an SNP MP.
That was when the story first broke and nothing has changed since then.
Yet more unionist lies.
Yet you say the T in the Park story has no legs.
Apart from an SNP candidate who happens to be the bae of the Westminster leader quitting ...
"However, Ms Dempsie announced she would abandon her campaign to become an SNP list MSP at next year’s Scottish Parliament elections.
In the posting on her social media page, Ms Dempsie said: “I have decided I will not be taking forward my nominations across the Highlands and Islands to be a list SNP MSP for the region.”
Ms Dempsie, the partner of Nationalist Westminster leader Angus Robertson, was a special adviser to First Minister Mr Salmond from 2007 to 2009, then worked for the SNP for four years before starting work as a public relations consultant."
So now Jezza has basically confirmed he would sit by and watch the UK be destroyed by its enemies were he to become PM, will sensible Labour MP's finally grow a back bone and jump off the sinking Labour ship?
Israel saving lives of British troops. So what keeps the British government from thanking Israel publicly? Perhaps it's shame that Britain gave second class weapons to its own troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
You said this about Thomson hours before she was binned.
My first comments on Thomson was that there was no evidence of her having any involvement mortgage fraud (which remains the case) and that her involvement in distress purchase property made her incompatible with being an SNP MP.
That was when the story first broke and nothing has changed since then.
Yet more unionist lies.
Yet you say the T in the Park story has no legs.
Apart from an SNP candidate who happens to be the bae of the Westminster leader quitting ...
"However, Ms Dempsie announced she would abandon her campaign to become an SNP list MSP at next year’s Scottish Parliament elections.
In the posting on her social media page, Ms Dempsie said: “I have decided I will not be taking forward my nominations across the Highlands and Islands to be a list SNP MSP for the region.”
Ms Dempsie, the partner of Nationalist Westminster leader Angus Robertson, was a special adviser to First Minister Mr Salmond from 2007 to 2009, then worked for the SNP for four years before starting work as a public relations consultant."
Nepotism is the appointment of a relative or friend to a position based on that relationship and not their ability to do the job. Dempsie left government to work in PR.
And just as any marketing company wanting to bid for Ladbrokes business would in all likelihood hire a consultant who used to work for Ladbrokes, business do the same when they want to pitch to government.
If no-ones getting a kickback and there's no criminality, there isn't anything wrong with this. You can't go around deciding that anyone who ever worked as a SPAD can never hold a private sector job that might include access to government. That would be ridiculous (and probably illegal).
That's why it's a non story.
The whole reason why T in the Park was at Balado was because the Labour administration wanted it to become a rural based event. The same policy is being carried forward by the SNP. DF could make more money moving back to Strathclyde Park but the policy is to keep the festival in rural Scotland. £150k bung to achieve that seems good value.
So now Jezza has basically confirmed he would sit by and watch the UK be destroyed by its enemies were he to become PM, will sensible Labour MP's finally grow a back bone and jump off the sinking Labour ship?
Seems like the crown were on the ball - but why the delay from the Law society...
"The Crown Office had to wait seven months for the Law Society to formally submit its full report on “alleged irregularities relating to property deals” which saw MP Michelle Thomson’s solicitor struck off for professional misconduct. It took just six days for it to then instruct Police Scotland to investigate."
"This report, which named his clients for the first time, was received on 3rd July 2015. The instruction to Police Scotland was issued on 9 July 2015.""
Police Scotland were investing an MP in July and yet still Nicola knew nothing until last weekend ?!?!
Nicola now micro managing the Law Society , courts , judges , police and supposed to know that the police are investigating someone they claim they are not and never have been investigating ........LOL... Tapestry on steroids
Conference closes with a v different day - scale of challenge of keeping party together with such big conflicts inside abundantly clear
One thing I don't understand is why Labour have their leader's speech on Tuesday a day before the end of Conference? That gives the media 24 hours to pull apart the Dear Leader's speech and find people who are all gathered at Conference to disagree with the leader. Admittedly not normally Cabinet Ministers like now.
In contrast the Tory Conference ends with the leaders speech after which everyone goes home so the leaders speech dominates headlines and that's the end of it (and as far as delegates are concerned it should end on the high note).
Israel saving lives of British troops. So what keeps the British government from thanking Israel publicly? Perhaps it's shame that Britain gave second class weapons to its own troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The MoD bought weapons from a third party, in this case Rafael in Israel, to bolster the Army's requirements. And? Nothing unusual there. If they hadn't, you'd be whinging that they'd under supplied the forces.
In fact it was not a case of second class weapons as MikeK suggests. We had a new requirement due to new circumstances and quickly (for a change) adapted and found something suitable. It is analogous to when we got the latest sidewinder from the USA during the Falklands War. It is an interesting story for a number of reasons. It was in 2007 under a labour government. Imagine the same under a corbynite govt?? Israel re-opened up its production line to supply us with a mk 2 version of this weapon. Again just imagine a corbynite response. We were and regularly still do visit Israel to train in use of equipment supplied by them. This includes drones. Cue corbynite inspired anti Israel riots.
She was an SNP Member (presumed PPC) at the time of the alleged offences though.
Michelle Thomson was not a member of the SNP in 2010 and 2011 when the transactions took place.
So it was poor screening that put her in such a prominent position?
Are there any other MPs that you wish to disown before the cock ctows thrice?
Considering you are pontificating on something you don't know the first thing about , you should refrain from crowing. Read up on your topic first , hope you do more homework before operating on people.
So now Jezza has basically confirmed he would sit by and watch the UK be destroyed by its enemies were he to become PM, will sensible Labour MP's finally grow a back bone and jump off the sinking Labour ship?
So now Jezza has basically confirmed he would sit by and watch the UK be destroyed by its enemies were he to become PM, will sensible Labour MP's finally grow a back bone and jump off the sinking Labour ship?
That's a radical interpretation of the text. I doubt the specifically nukes issue has much traction, but if it does -- and I realise this next bit is a big if -- and Labour was awake, it would counter-attack on Conservative (and coalition but never mind) defence cuts. Cameron refuses to put planes on carriers; Osborne sold our Harriers -- that sort of thing.
Seems like the crown were on the ball - but why the delay from the Law society...
"The Crown Office had to wait seven months for the Law Society to formally submit its full report on “alleged irregularities relating to property deals” which saw MP Michelle Thomson’s solicitor struck off for professional misconduct. It took just six days for it to then instruct Police Scotland to investigate."
"This report, which named his clients for the first time, was received on 3rd July 2015. The instruction to Police Scotland was issued on 9 July 2015.""
Police Scotland were investing an MP in July and yet still Nicola knew nothing until last weekend ?!?!
Nicola now micro managing the Law Society , courts , judges , police and supposed to know that the police are investigating someone they claim they are not and never have been investigating ........LOL... Tapestry on steroids
With her finger in all these pies, it does show how skillful and capable she must be.
Petulant and arrogant. Dismissing the entire press corps as unworthy of his time is incredibly stupid. They'll write about him, and he won't influence the end copy.
Seems like the crown were on the ball - but why the delay from the Law society...
"The Crown Office had to wait seven months for the Law Society to formally submit its full report on “alleged irregularities relating to property deals” which saw MP Michelle Thomson’s solicitor struck off for professional misconduct. It took just six days for it to then instruct Police Scotland to investigate."
"This report, which named his clients for the first time, was received on 3rd July 2015. The instruction to Police Scotland was issued on 9 July 2015.""
Police Scotland were investing an MP in July and yet still Nicola knew nothing until last weekend ?!?!
Nicola now micro managing the Law Society , courts , judges , police and supposed to know that the police are investigating someone they claim they are not and never have been investigating ........LOL... Tapestry on steroids
With her finger in all these pies, it does show how skillful and capable she must be.
She has no idea what her own police are up to - she has confirmed this. An investigation into an MP since July and she has no inkling.
If Corbyn gets control of Labour completely (he seems to have NEC, has a mnadate [as he likes to remind people] and only needs to rid himself of some pesky MPs) the press can write what it likes and he won't be moved.
Mind you, Labour tremble at the prospect of knifing a leader anyway.
I'm on the train to Edinburgh to cover Corbyn's visit tomorrow and just been told he won't be speaking to journalists. Well worth the trip.
Seriously WTF is wrong with this guy.
He's a grouchy old man, who's spent 30 years doing his own, pointless and grumpy things on the back benches, and is wholly unsuited to lead a political party in 2015.
Petulant and arrogant. Dismissing the entire press corps as unworthy of his time is incredibly stupid. They'll write about him, and he won't influence the end copy.
I wonder if the increased concern about immigration might be because you can be concerned about immigration to the UK in an anti-immigration way, but also concern about immigration in a compassionate way. I might not be concerned about the numbers entering the UK, but I may be concerned that immigrants/refugees throughout Europe, which is an issue affecting the UK, should be well treated.
Corbyn and the press now looking more like the US spectcacle of a candidate being dragged from event to event, exhausted literally and eventually emotionally.
Petulant and arrogant. Dismissing the entire press corps as unworthy of his time is incredibly stupid. They'll write about him, and he won't influence the end copy.
Comments
Regretably it is far less clear for Hanningfield.
Any SNP legislator can be removed by the SNP and stop being able to legislate after 5 years max even as an independent. Sadly the Tories, Labour and the ridiculously over-represented Liberals cannot make that claim.
I wonder if this works in reverse, and they do not understand what we are answering, so just plough on with their script.
Does anybody know? Are they paid by results, the number of calls made, or just by time put in?
''Britain has grown faster than any other leading economy since 2013 after bouncing back from recession far more strongly than had been thought, official figures show.
Following a series of revisions to past data, the Office for National Statistics said Britain is now 5.9 per cent larger than its pre-crisis peak. It was previously estimated to have been just 5.2 per cent bigger.
The revisions revealed that Britain enjoyed the strongest recovery of any G7 leading nation in both 2013 and 2014. On OECD forecasts, the UK is on track to top the G7 again this year, equal with the US. On a per-person basis, the UK is 0.6 per cent larger than ever.'' (Times)
If her comments are a sign of Corbyn's approach to project management, then we should all run kicking and screaming from any thought of renationalisation.
To make it clear: an agreement was made. The agreed projects was massively behind schedule just one year into the five year schedule. Worse, other projects were also being impacted, including routine work.
You then have two options: continue on as before (as Labour did with the WCML upgrade) at massive cost and risk, or pause as much as possible, re-evaluate, and try to being things under control.
Labour seems to prefer the running-the-Titanic-into-the-iceberg approach.
Corbyn looks more and more isolated in the parliamentary party, hence his pointed references to his "mandate".
(as slightly modified).
It is stupid to interrupt your opponent when he is digging multiple graves for his Party.
Arf!
If anybody is over-represented by our broken voting system, it is the SNP. Followed closely by the Tories, of course.
Or you could say the parliamentary party looks more and more isolated from the membership.
It doesn't look like they can co-exist. Blimey.
Corbyn Labour, and the other Labour. Which one will Burham stick with?
"Comrades, our own Parliamentary Party doesn't know our full potential! They will do everything possible to test us; but they will only test their own embarrassment. We will leave our MPs behind, we will pass through the Conservative patrols, past their sonar nets, and lay off their largest constituency, and listen to their chortling and tittering... while we conduct Austerity Debates! Then, and when we are finished, the only sound they will hear is our laughter, while we sail to Brighton, where the sun is warm, and so is the... Comradeship!
"A great day, Comrades! We sail into history!"
If you believe that a party can somehow magically prevent any potential candidate issue (especially one that would be relatively opaque to most observers) then you're just embarrassing yourself.
The transparent frothing in this thread comes across exactly as it is - utterly fanciful nonsense, base SNP bad rants and completely detached from reality.
You should also bear in mind that I am not a member of the SNP, I am not an SNP supporter and have no interest in the SNP outside of their viability as a vehicle for the dissolution of the UK.
Labour has gone all Confucian....
You are doing yourself no favours at all with behaviour like this.
*points into the far distance*
look over there
*squints*
what is it?
*wry smile*
it's a politician being cast adrift
Though he'd be wrong to do so in the context of the last election alone. Given that a peer might serve 15-20 years then the Lib Dems' share is broadly in line with their election scores over the last couple of decades.
All I'm doing is bringing the conversation down to the level you intended with your baseless, unjustified and unsupported allegations that the party which has probably the strongest level of candidate scrutiny in the UK is somehow failing on this.
Michelle Thomson was Nicola's face of business in Scotland, but she never thought to ask "what business?"...
@heraldscotland: Sturgeon: I did not know about Michelle Thomson's business deals
http://t.co/Zj8Fl2ZJ4a http://t.co/YFJ3cMQ1nx
Conference closes with a v different day - scale of challenge of keeping party together with such big conflicts inside abundantly clear
Well I've just shown you a YouGov link showing that 61% wanted it according to YouGov, clearly a majority (in fact more than have mentioned immigration to trigger this thread). Now you want to say conversation is pointless, I'm not surprised its unpleasant being demonstrated to be wrong.
'Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook told reporters Tuesday that Secretary of Defense Ash Carter directed his staff to "open lines of communication with Russia on de-confliction."
The timing of these discussions is to be worked out in the coming days. The purpose of the discussions is "to ensure the safety of coalition air crews," he said.
Cook added that the two nations have common ground when it comes to fighting ISIS, with Carter making clear that "the goal should be to take the fight to ISIL and not to defend the Assad regime."'
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/09/30/politics/russia-syria-airstrikes-isis/
So what keeps the British government from thanking Israel publicly?
Perhaps it's shame that Britain gave second class weapons to its own troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
http://www.thejc.com/news/israel-news/146128/israel-gave-uk-rockets-own-stockpile
Should Nicola be doing background checks on Patrick Harvey, Tommy Sheridan, Jane Freeman, Lesley Riddoch, etc? I guess you're too enthralled by the lie that Independence is purely the remit of the SNP.
The SNP has a robust scrutiny process which like any process may not always catch everything they want it to. That has nothing to do with Nicola either.
Still, as long as the Tories are over-represented, all is right with the world!
However questions remain - why the delay between July (pre-Referendum) to December (post-referendum) of the Law society report "informally" to the Cops then another delay until it was "formally" passed in July (post General election) ?
I find that incredible - and a case involving a leading SNP light - it doesn't smell good.
Also someone should tell the National that the SNP are ditching her - they had to print some spin about it being temporary and that the police wouldn't be looking into her specifically - very strange.
In July and December 2014 Michelle Thomson was not a "leading SNP light".
Because she was not even a member of the SNP.
If they hadn't, you'd be whinging that they'd under supplied the forces.
And the Lord Advocate has a "full in tray"..
As she has clearly done nothing wrong, there isn't much to see regarding this anyway. Company gets bung off government to help fulfil government policy. No politican or adviser benefits personally. Absolutely no legs in it.
When the SNP appoints an MP as their business spokesperson, at no point in any of those conversations do they ask the question "Do you have any business experience, and if so, what was it?"
That was when the story first broke and nothing has changed since then.
Yet more unionist lies.
So in December 14 she was not an SNP member but by what, March 15 she was an SNP Westminster candidate and in May 15 a SNP MP.
Duurrrr...
Apart from an SNP candidate who happens to be the bae of the Westminster leader quitting ...
"However, Ms Dempsie announced she would abandon her campaign to become an SNP list MSP at next year’s Scottish Parliament elections.
In the posting on her social media page, Ms Dempsie said: “I have decided I will not be taking forward my nominations across the Highlands and Islands to be a list SNP MSP for the region.”
Ms Dempsie, the partner of Nationalist Westminster leader Angus Robertson, was a special adviser to First Minister Mr Salmond from 2007 to 2009, then worked for the SNP for four years before starting work as a public relations consultant."
Read more: http://www.scotsman.com/what-s-on/music/fiona-hyslop-to-appear-before-msps-over-titp-funding-1-3886801#ixzz3nEfj9clx
Seems like the crown were on the ball - but why the delay from the Law society...
"The Crown Office had to wait seven months for the Law Society to formally submit its full report on “alleged irregularities relating to property deals” which saw MP Michelle Thomson’s solicitor struck off for professional misconduct. It took just six days for it to then instruct Police Scotland to investigate."
"This report, which named his clients for the first time, was received on 3rd July 2015. The instruction to Police Scotland was issued on 9 July 2015.""
Police Scotland were investing an MP in July and yet still Nicola knew nothing until last weekend ?!?!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRPcssq-7Us
Are there any other MPs that you wish to disown before the cock ctows thrice?
I'm on the train to Edinburgh to cover Corbyn's visit tomorrow and just been told he won't be speaking to journalists. Well worth the trip.
Nepotism is the appointment of a relative or friend to a position based on that relationship and not their ability to do the job. Dempsie left government to work in PR.
And just as any marketing company wanting to bid for Ladbrokes business would in all likelihood hire a consultant who used to work for Ladbrokes, business do the same when they want to pitch to government.
If no-ones getting a kickback and there's no criminality, there isn't anything wrong with this. You can't go around deciding that anyone who ever worked as a SPAD can never hold a private sector job that might include access to government. That would be ridiculous (and probably illegal).
That's why it's a non story.
The whole reason why T in the Park was at Balado was because the Labour administration wanted it to become a rural based event. The same policy is being carried forward by the SNP. DF could make more money moving back to Strathclyde Park but the policy is to keep the festival in rural Scotland. £150k bung to achieve that seems good value.
In contrast the Tory Conference ends with the leaders speech after which everyone goes home so the leaders speech dominates headlines and that's the end of it (and as far as delegates are concerned it should end on the high note).
Doesn't make sense to me.
It is an interesting story for a number of reasons.
It was in 2007 under a labour government.
Imagine the same under a corbynite govt??
Israel re-opened up its production line to supply us with a mk 2 version of this weapon.
Again just imagine a corbynite response.
We were and regularly still do visit Israel to train in use of equipment supplied by them.
This includes drones.
Cue corbynite inspired anti Israel riots.
Needs to up her game.
Mind you, Labour tremble at the prospect of knifing a leader anyway.
@JohnRentoul 22s23 seconds ago
Cameron calling him "the Labour leader" on #skynews & "You cannot trust Labour with the national security of the UK."
NEC now majority of Corbyn backers - changes to rules he wants to make now look possible + once rules change, big policy shifts more likely