Scientist Farm

Drayson was one of the smarter pigs on Manor Farm he was an Oxford Sandy and Black by breed. After Mr Nutt the Pharmacist was driven away from Manor farm by Johnson the Eastern Yorkshire, Brown the Scottish Saddleback charged Drayson with creating some rules by which all the animals could settle their grievances.

After a few days of thought he came to Brown and said he was ready. All the animals assembled from both barns met down by by the river and listened to Brown as he read out what Drayson had previously written up on the side of the big barn in whitewash.

1. Whatever goes against science is an enemy
2. Whatever comes from open views, or has proof, is valid for consideration.
   
3. No animal mind shall be closed.
4. No animal shall heap scorn on the views of the living or dead.
5. No animal shall think another a fool.
6. No animal shall sack any other animal for their opinion.
7. All scientific opinions are equal.

All of the animals nodded and thought that they were a good set of rules by which to bring things before the council of elders that Brown had established. Some of them felt they could advise as to the needs of the sheep for fresh grass, or the chickens for little tabs of feed. Even old Benn nodded his approval as he supped on some of the fermented berries.

However, as time passed some of the ideas brought by some of the other animals were rejected by the elders. But when they were they were taken to the barn and told to look at the rules. Sure enough they read.

1. Whatever goes against our view of science is an enemy
2. Whatever comes from open views, or has proof, is valid for consideration.
   
3. No animal mind shall be closed to the way of the elders.
4. No animal shall heap scorn on the views of the living or dead with snouts.
5. No animal shall think another a full advisor with his own say.
6. No animal shall sack any other animal for their opinion shared by the elders.
7. All scientific opinions are equal.

One day however, two of the goats got all uppity about never being taken seriously on the matter that some interesting mushrooms were ideal for the animals, and not as dangerous as they had been led to believe. They went to the council of elders and said but didn't you get rid of Nutt so that we could get on with thinking for ourselves. Wasn't all opinion of equal, isn't all open views something you have to consider.

The elders said we have considered and rejected your view, the troll is more dangerous that the fire that comes from the sky, or the festered water that if you drink too much of you can die. And those mushrooms are not to be eaten.

As they walked away from the council the goats looked back at the writing and they thought there was less of it, but Brown's bodyguard assured them that they were mistaken, this was the way it had always been. The white letters read:

• Whatever comes from open views, or has proof, is valid for consideration, but will be rejected if it is against our goals.
• All scientific opinions are equal but some are more equal that others.

With apologies to George Orwell.

Tonight Matthew I'm Gonna Be....

....David Kerr candidate for Glgasow North East, John Mason MP for Glasgow East and Stewart Hosie SNP Tresury Spokesman.

Yeah, Tam Smith SNP PPC for Linlithgow and Falkirk East is back at his Rory Bremner act, this time taking on all three without crediting any.

Today he is saying:

"Scotland's banking workers deserves more than a direct line to the breadline. These reforms must not jeapordise jobs in this industry. [Kerr see here]

"As an SNP MP for this area, jobs in Linlithgow & East Falkirk, and in the city of Edinburgh [said about Glasgow North East here*], which have a direct impact on this consitueency[sic], will be my top priority and I will speak up strongly and loudly against any threat to them.

"Since Tuesday's announcement voters on the doorsteps in Bo'ness, where I am campaigning on behalf of Ann Ritchie in the local by-election have been telling me that frontline workers should not pay the price for the problems their bosses caused.

"It is clear the best way to secure a strong future for jobs in West Lothian and Falkirk district in financial services is to send an SNP MP to Westminster to speak up for this constituency and to speak up for our jobs.

"The UK Government is the main owner of these banks and any sell off that puts this constituency's jobs or Scotland's economy at risk is unacceptable." [Compare those two paragraphs with John Mason's words here]

Tam Smith continued [apparently]:

"We must have competition in our banking sector but the potential loss of local branches and uncertainty of ordinary workers in financial services is worrying for many. [Make that Mason]

Retail workers in our banks are already facing up to job losses. A vote for the SNP will tell the UK Government that West Lothian and Falkirk District's workers will not pay for Labour's broken economy." [Make that Hosie]

Let me make it perfectly clear, many people who live in Linlithgow and East Falkirk are affected by banking jobs. Some of those that get on and off the bus with me in Edinburgh Park work in some of the banking offices situated there. Lloyds have been instructed to off load Intelligence Finance which could affect the jobs of 300 people employed at Kirkton Campus in Livingston. The 3,700 frontline bank jobs that are being cut by RBS to take 14% off their staff wage bill will undoubtedly affect others.

However, the SNP had at the initial outbreak of the banking crisis pledged money from a fictious Scottish Bank in some future independent Scotland to deal with this situation. The amount they offered was £50m which now seems small fry compared to what was needed. All the while Vince Cable had been warning that the futures of our banks was not sustainable from years before, though like John the Baptist he was ignored and his pleas almost thrown out into the wilderness.

Sadly we have got to a stage where the overstretched banks may need to offload staff to survive and protect the jobs of the majority. Other industries have also gone through that sort of situation over recent months. Not all have had the benefit of a Government injection of money to see them through so the job losses have happened earlier. Rather that merely speaking 'up strongly and loudly against any threat' of job losses, Linlithgow and Falkirk East needs an MP that will look to the future, getting those who have already faced or will face the inevitable into a job. It means encouraging jobs to come to the region, using the skills that our people have got, and a lot of recent redundancies in the area have been in skilled positions.

According to the West Lothian Courier West Lothian and Falkirk are currently ranked equal 10 out of all the Local Authorities in Scotland when it comes to unemployment. At 4.4% it is 0.4% higher than the Scottish average and 0.2% higher than the UK average. There has currently been a slip to 900 vacancies listed at local job centres, but there are 4,651 people claiming Job Seekers Allowance, that is 5 people for every job that is going.

We need to hear of real action to real jobs into the area. We need to utilise the workforce's that have been or are about to lose jobs from some of the firms locally that have been laying them of. People with IT, production and financial skills are here in our area desperate to get back into work. We need to seek out those green shoots when they do appear and persuade companies as they recover that investment here gives them a skilled and dedicated workforce. Skills in some of the sectors that have been hit are transferable to other sectors, there is more to a financial job that just what it says on the time managers, IT workers, accountants, data analysts etc are also amongst those that will be losing their works. But all will have transferable skills.

So rather than a short-sighted narrow view of Smith-Hosie-Mason-Kerr we need to get others to think outside the box, see what is available, see what they can offer. Just like many of us who graduated in the early 90s had to do we had to be imaginative it what we did next, throwing off our narrow pre-conceived ideas of where we were heading.

*Sadly again on the De Havilland subscription site, but check out the key phrases on google.

Stonewall Hero a Humble Man of God

I'm quite sure that Scott Rennie the minister of Queen's Cross Church in Aberdeen wouldn't consider himself a hero, he is far too humble a man to do that. In fact I have very little doubt that he would merely consider this year merely one of trying to do the job he wants to do and fulfil the calling that he has.

However, at the Stonewall awards last night Scott won the hero of the year award. You may well recall how early this year his calling to his present charge caused some controversy at the General Assembly, Westboro Baptist Church members were even threatening to turn up to protest outside the meeting to decide his future. Liberal Youth Scotland arranged a counter demo to show support for Scott which has the the bigger attendance despite less notice. But Scott was no doubt most happy with finally being allowed to take up his new post and get on with looking after his flock.

Lib Dem MP Lynne Featherstone didn't win the Parliamentarian of the year award for her work but I know her work on things like the Equality Bill and lifting the blanket blood ban will not cease. It's not about awards for either of them but getting on with work. Lynne did however lose out to Ben Bradshow the first openly gay cabinet minister.

There was also the award that nobody wants to win the bigot of the year award shared between two people. Father John Owen who has said on BBC's The Big Question that the majority of child abuse was carried out by gay men. The other recipient was Jan Moir for her ill timed, ill aimed, ill informed and vindictive piece not just on Stephen Gately but gay men and the lifestyle in general. A rather late comer to the voting as it was already under way when she wrote her poisoned pen piece.

Other awards went to:

Broadcast of the Year - Corrective Rape in South Africa

Entertainer of the Year - Boyzone (accepted by Stephen Gately's husband Andrew Cowles who said thanks for all the support in recent weeks)

Journalist of the year - Johann Hari and Joan Bakewell

Publication of the Year - g3

Writer of the Year - Sarah Waters

Community Group of the Year - Allsorts youth project

It's the Weekend So....part 2

It's that time on a Friday where I let you all let you hair down a little it is 5pm GMT. On Wednesday it was the 20th Anniversary of Wallace and Gromit marked by this Google ident.



So for a little bit of fun here is their appearance in last Christmas's BBC One ident.



But just as Nick Park was inspired by other stop-motion animators so he has inspired others. I found this student's assignment piece and very good example of imitation.

The Enemy Within

One common thread links the shooting of 5 British servicemen in Afghanistan and 12 13* Americans at Fort Hood in Texans all seventeen were killed by an enemy within. However, there the similarity ends.

In Afghanistan Guardsman Jimmy Major, Warrant Officer Darren Chant, Sgt Matthew Telford, Cpl Steven Boote and Cpl Nicholas Webster-Smith were shot by a rogue policeman they were training. The Taliban have claimed responsibility for the incident in what was clearly an act of terrorism against the occupying forces. The American incident was carried out by US Army psychiatrist Major Nidal Malik Hasan who had been fighting his impending deployment to Iraq.

While Major Hasan is of middle eastern ethnicity that shouldn't make his case a reason for anti-Muslim sentiment. He appears to have been struggling possibly from pre-traumatic stress disorder. The man had treated those who have returned from the battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan and didn't seem to want to face the psychological conditions that those that had returned had gone through.

With the shootings in Fort Hood taking place at a personnel and medical centre where troops go for last minute checks before deployment it could well be that this was a last ditch attempt for one mant to avoid his own deployment. Sadly there are twelve thirteen* fatal victims of his selfish act and a further 31 30 injured.

The most sad thing about the involvement of Major Hasan is that if even those that are trained to deal and help others cope with the mental pressures of living on the front line of these conflicts, how are others meant to cope. We now recognise post-traumatic stress disorder, and though it is not clear if Major Hasan had partaken on a previous tour of duty from reading the reports his mental state may indicate an anticipatory disorder. But I've already mentioned one Star Trek episode in the title there is need to use another 'Who watches the watchers?'.

Who was looking out for the psychiatric well being of Major Hasan? Who was making sure he was in a fit mental state to be shipped out? Had there been signs of a shift in his mental state that could have forewarned this? Or as someone who is trained to spot such signs had he masked any signs?

The strains of these conflicts are really telling in our troops, not just in the body count or visible injuries that they carry back. Many of the young men we are sending off to fight will no doubt come back with mental conditions, many of which may not surface for years to come. This may not be the last such incident of this kind, that is something that is a worry.

*Just as I pressed publish the official death toll was increased.

Wikio MacBlogosphere Rankings November

It is that time of the month again Wikio have announced the the political rankings for November. So it time for me to put on the kilt, listen to the scurl of the pipes and see how the rest of those canny Scots have faired.

The answer is not bad, not bad at all. There are now 5 in the top 40 one more than last month, 9 in the top 75 two more than last month and a grand total of 13 of the top 100 again two more than last month.

Non-moving yet again is Tom Harris will the top Parliamentarian ever make that break into the top 5. I will count Alex Massie after forgetting his last month and he really has soared climbing 26 places to enter the top twenty breathing down the cute Greek Baby's neck.

Jeff of SNP Tactical Voting has risen a further 7 to number 33 keeping his place as the top Nationalist, but I am right behind him having climbed 13, meaning I've overtaken Caron, who's had a tough month health-wise, as the top Lib Dem. Though Subrosa losing the one place she'd gained last month moves just ahead of Caron to become the top Scottish woman blogger.

Underdog Bites Upwards is the highest new entry at 70, having been hovering at 102 last month. Wonder which Scot is lurking there this month as Two Doctors was there in September before entering the top 100. The month he has climbed 8 to 74, leaping over Ranting Rob who also enters the top 80.

Yousuf is a non-mover, Malc climbs 4, Andrew Reeves makes it a hat trick of Lib Dems with his entry at 91.

As usual here is the complete list with last month's rankings in brackets.

1. Tom Harris MP And another Thing... 6 (6)
2. Mr Eugenides 16 (16)
3. Alex Massie's Spectator Blog 19 (45)
4. SNP Tactical Voting 33 (40)
5. Stephen's Linlithgow Journal 34 (47)
6. Subrosa 43 (42)
7. Caron's Musings 44 (41)
8. Underdog Bites Upwards 70 (102)
9. Two Doctors 74 (82)
10. Ranting Rab 78 (81)
11. Yapping Yousuf 83 (83)
12. Malc in the Burgh 87 (91)
13. Andrew Reeve's Running Blog 91 (139)


Well done one and all the Scottish Blogopshere really is going from strength to strength and there is some amazing and diverse blogs holding their own and advancing up the rankings.

Watch Out for the Family Jewels

Whenever you see a person in a blue rosette approaching British gents carefully guard your family jewels. The French Europe Minister has said that the Tories plan for Europe is 'autistic' and 'castrating' Britain.

Yes it is true that the party that signed up to the Treaty of Maastricht and did most of the preparatory work on the Treaty of Amsterdam is now calling to undo parts of both, but call a referendum on any future Treaty. Considering how the Masstricht treaty was treated in the commons to get passed, as a vote of confidence, in all bar name, in John Major this seems like a ludicrous about turn for the Tories who have already been playing so wide on the wing to almost be as well as take a seat in the stands after joining their group of extremist Eurosceptics.

Pierre Lellouche, France's Europe Minister threw aside any diplomatic niceties when he said what he thought of David Cameron's approach:

"It's pathetic. It's just very sad to see Britain, so important in Europe, just cutting itself out from the rest and disappearing from the radar map …. This is a culture of opposition … It is the result of a long period of opposition. I know they will come back, but I hope the trip will be short.

"They are doing what they have done in the European parliament. They have essentially castrated your UK influence in the European parliament."

And want did he think of Cameron trying to rewrite the Treaties some of them crafted by his party predecessors:

"It's not going to happen for a minute. Nobody is going to indulge in rewriting [treaties for] many, many years. Nobody is going to play with the institutions again. It's going to be take it or leave it and they should be honest and say that. It is a time of tumultuous waters all around us. Wars, terrorism, proliferation, Afghanistan, energy with Russia, massive immigration, economic crisis. It is time when the destiny of Europe is being defined – whether or not we will exist as a third of the world's GDP capable of fighting it out on climate, on trade, on every … issue on the surface of the Earth.

"We need to be united, otherwise we will be wiped out and marginalised. None of us can do it alone. Whether you're big or small, the lesson is the same. And [Britain's] risk is one of marginalisation. Irrelevance. Finally we have institutional package, but it took 15 years of looking at our navel and getting everybody bored to death with sterile debate."

So what did Cameron promise when abandoning his 'cast-iron' guarantee on a referendum yesterday.

• For starters he is going to amend the 1972 (Heath Parliament) European Communities Act to not allow transfer of powers without referendums.
• Revisit some of the EU employment law set up under Maastricht 1992 under Major.
• Also looking at releasing some of the cross border powers of European security that was set up under Amsterdam just after the Blair Parliament came into being but largely negotiated under Major.

Ed Davey the Lib Dem foreign affairs spokesman called the hotch potch of ideas of how to claw back thing a 'confused middle road' saying:

"Cameron has already done enough to alienate Britain's allies across Europe by leading his party into the lunatic wilderness - now he wants to take Britain there too."

Working as I do in trans-European work environment like I do in a call centre that caters for many parts of the EU, with sites in two other European countries, I see practical implications of what he is trying to do. Removing fundamental rights from many of my co-workers could well lead to less 0f them being likely to want to take up work here, leading to issues for the rest of us if clients are unable to fill desired language sets here in Edinburgh. We have managed to weather the economic storm to some degree but whether on the back of that we can weather a Eurosceptic one as well is something that I don't want to have to find out.

Can You Tell Me How To Get.....

It clearly is a good year to turn 40. Not only yours truly but total is the turn of PBS educational staple from the Children's Television Workshop. Just hope Cookie Monster doesn't eat all our online cookies to mark the day.



Anyway Happy Birthday Sesame Street and by way of celebration how about a classic 1970's opening title.



My nickname in one of the civil service jobs I did was after this guy. Can't see the reason myself.



I also remember this tune, animation and how to count to 12 in this way.



This blog post was brought to you by the letters H and B and the number 40.

Tam, Whose Line Is It Anyway?

I was reviewing the website of Tam Smith the SNP PPC for Linlithgow and East earlier, and saw on his website that Tam had commented on the Lib Dem debate on Saturday. His blog article starts:

Commenting on the Liberal Democrats’ special conference held to debate the party’s position on a referendum on independence, the SNP called on all parties to back the right of the Scottish people to have their say on Scotland’s future, with Linlithgow & East Falkirk SNP Candidate Tam Smith saying:

"All parties must endorse the right of the people of Scotland to have their say on Scotland’s constitutional future.

"The Liberal Democrats are deeply divided on the issue and all over the place – it’s impossible to tell what their position will be from one day to the next, never mind one year to the next. The only constant thing about the Lib Dems is that they keep shifting their stance. They should hold to liberal and democratic principles and back the Referendum Bill when it comes forward in 2010."

This is just the first two paragraphs of five in quotation marks which read very familiarly to this blog writer. The reason being I'd quoted and commented on them here, when they had been said in press release and attributed to Dr. Alistair Allan MSP. Also over recent days Tam has written on diesel prices aiding recovery mixing a local paragraph straight into a quote from Angus McNeil MP. Speaking about axing the attendance allowance he morphs into John Mason MP. His comments on the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey he actually taken from the mouth of neighbouring MSP Angela Constance. On the Royal Mail strikes and Peter Mandelson having to answer questions it is the turn of Mike Weir MP to share the exact same thought as Tam.

As you can see he is claiming to say verbatim what these elected members of either parliament are quoted as saying through the SNP's own website. All this fisking in only on the first two pages of the six currently with news content on his site, I suspect if I go back further I'd find more of the same.

As someone who has been putting across the my own Liberal Democrat view in this area since this blog started up in 2005 I too have quoted party spokespersons and their words. However, unlike Tam I will credit those words to the person/s who actually said them not claiming them as my own, I will also express my own views on matters of policy. Strange then that even the words 'spoken' at the launch of his website all point to the one SNP Press Release*.

With no offence to Tam I know he is smarter than just being put up as a monkey with an SNP rosette on. However, whoever is attributing words to him which are attributed to other SNP representatives elsewhere is actually mocking the intelligence of the electorate of Linlithgow and East Falkirk. Tam has commented on my blog, an option not available on his website in any public domain, saying:

"Try out my website and keep up to date with my and the SNP activity. Let me know what you think.Are we right or what."

Well I have, and now you all know. I will be keeping an eye on it to let you know just who Rory Bremner Tam Smith impersonates next.

*This is subscription site but search for any of the key phrase and whoops they all point here.

Website Revamp

There has been a revamp of a website. No not the one all Lib Dems have been talking about, although LibDems.Org.uk does look impressive in its new clothes.

No as I had been saying for some time Tam Smith the SNP PPC for Linlithgow and East Falkirk, well at the start of the month it finally came to life. Not a lot there just now, though Tam appears to be taking me on as a local poitical Tweeter.

However, how obvious is the photo shopping on this picture. The light is coming from opposite directions, the Palace behind Tam's shoulder is his shadow unlike his forehead.