STEPHEN (TESCO BOY) FLYNN - LYING AGAIN (5)

This is our FIFTH blog about 'Tesco Boy' Stephen Flynn in the space of two years or so.  Sadly,  it won't be our last.

Flynn is the skin-headed embarrassment that is Transport Secretary in Swinney's bizarre government.  A few weeks ago,  he was quizzed by the Scottish Parliament Transport Committee about a dangerous leakage of LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) from the CalMac ferry MV Glen Sannox last year.  He denied knowing anything about the event so that he could neither assist the Committee nor make any other comment thereon.

It has now been revealed that Flynn knew everything about it having been advised by Scottish Government officials of the situation.  He is now in deep trouble for lying.  Flynn is the sort of parliamentarian who would reduce any Parliament into the gutter with him.

A wrong 'un through and through.

THE STORNOWAY GAZETTE (2)

We first wrote about the ownership of the Stornoway Gazette in 2022.  The paper has come a long way from the ownership of the founder and original editor, William Grant,  in 1917.  We'll try and piece together the history to get to where we are today.

William Grant transferred the paper to his wife and to his son,  James Shaw Grant,  on his death in 1932.  James was to follow down the line  as both owner and editor.  The paper was  subsequently transferred to the ownership of the company known as Stornoway Gazette Ltd on 18 January 1954 with James Shaw Grant becoming the founding director of the new company.  Major Sam Longbotham played a major part in both the running of the company and serving a long stint as editor.

James kept up his assocation with both the paper and the company for many years but the Gazette was sold to those controlling The Galloway Gazette in 1979. Eventually, the Gazette found its way to being owned by Johnston Press plc in 2004. 

Johnston Press plc became a financial basket case and ownership of the Stornoway Gazette was then acquired by JPI Media Publications Ltd,  a company that was,  essentially, a restructuring of Johnston Press plc.   Subsequently, ownership of JPI Media Publications Ltd  transferred to National World Publishing Ltd but that didn't last long and the paper was  acquired by Iconic Media Group Ltd in May 2025.  Iconic Media Group Ltd is owned by Media Concierge (Holdings) Ltd,  a private limited company registered at 22 Victoria Street,  London.  

So,  all in all,  it's been a bit of an eventful journey for the Gazette in its latter years compared with the stability of the first 60 years.

Melinda Gillen was editor of the Gazette from 2004 until 2020.  Her period as editor was marred by her being cheerleader for sometime Scottish Nationalist MP for the Western Isles,  Angus Brendan MacNeil,  together with her publishing all sorts of crazy writings from Lewis SNP  Press Officer 'Dr' David 'Dave' Wilson. There was no news as such in the paper and sales plummeted.

The current duo of The Rt Hon Brian Wilson CBE and Murray MacLeod took control of the paper in 2021,  Murray as editor with Mr Wilson as editor-in-chief,  or editor-at-large, or whatever the designation may be. The turnaround has been remarkable. Wilson was known universally as a man with strong political views on virtually everything and who had never been afraid to very loudly express those views.  He was,  after all,  the founder of the West Highland Free Press.

These guys have really put their backs into the paper but, sadly,  they are terrified of both the Free Church itself and local Free Church-supporting SNP voters so that the paper takes no political stance at all.  Wilson and Murray never forget the power of the Free Church in Lewis - look how the theologians  catapulted Free Church elder, the late Donald Stewart MP,  into Westminster in 1970 - albeit that was a long time ago. For Wilson and Murray, though, the Grey Lubianka on Kenneth Street remains far too close for comfort.

In other words, we don't really know where the Gazette stands on anything of consequence.  It's a pity.

THE CELTIC ALLIANCE CONVENTION

Yesterday,  a bizarre political meeting convened in the Welsh capital city of Cardiff.  We wish we had been a fly on the wall  to witness it for oursleves.  We're sure we wouldn't have stopped smirking and wondering what medication the attendees had been taking.

Present were John Swinney representing Scotland;  the man with the  unpronounceable name of Rhun ap Iorwerth representing Wales;  Michelle O'Neill representing Northern Ireland;  and Mary Lou (Loopy Lou) McDonald representing Sinn Fein.  We have no idea who arranged the event which they declared to be The Celtic Alliance and with the avowed intention of breaking up the United Kingdom.  Enemies hiding in plain sight.

Now,  we have long known Mary Lou who's as daft as a brush and,  like ourselves,  getting even dafter the older she gets. Rhun looked as if he hadn't a clue as to why he was there in the first place but was enjoying the beer and the cameras anyway while Michelle kept mostly, and wisely,  schtum and looking as if she would far rather have been on a Sinn Fein route march along the (Orange) Shankhill Road in Belfast parading the Tricolour. 

Michelle's not daft and saw it all as pointless posturing.  Michelle knows also that she is in a vastly different position from that of either the Scotsman or the Welshman.  She was keeping her cards very close to her chest.  She knows that both Swinney and the Rhun guy are just playing at politics in schoolboy fashion. 

John Sweeney looked more stupid and gormless than ever and like a man utterly devoid of all intellectual capacity.  His sole contribution was to repeat yet again his mantra that 'Burnham is the last Prime Minister of the United Kingdom'.  And here was John just back from stopping off overnight with the monarch King Charles at Balmoral where he was bowing and grovelling and scraping and taking the knee and all of that royal nonsense!!!!!  

Brilliant stuff!!!!!

What an absolute bloody fraud.  He'd shaft his granny for a tiny little gulp of press oxygen.

STEPHEN (TESCO BOY) FLYNN and MV GLEN SANNOX (1)

Sadly,  the controversy over the CalMac ferry MV Glen Sannox continues unabated.  

We have followed the Glen Sannox story closely given what we consider to have been criminal failings over the ferry ever since it was first contemplated for construction.  The First Minister for most of that time was Nicola Sturgeon,  easily the most ghastly politician ever to have tarnished Scotland's soil.

The latest difficulty with the dual-fuel Glen Sannox was the release of LNG (Liquified Natural Gas) on a trip in June 2025 - some 16 months ago - on the Troon to Brodick route.  We have now been told that the vessel released 700kg of LNG which was quite a significant amount of danger for the 82 passengers and the crew aboard.  Why this incident has come to public light only now remains a mystery but then this Scottish Nationalist Government has long mastered the black arts of lying to all and sundry.

The matter called a few days ago before the Transport Committee of the Scottish Parliament.  There,  the skin-headed embarrassment that is Transport  Secretary  Stephen Flynn, said he knew nothing at all about the incident so that he couldn't comment.  Believe that if you will.  Flynn,  as always,  treated the Committee with contempt.  He is utterly unfit to be a parliamentarian,  let alone a Government Minister.

We maintain our interest in the Glen Sannox not just for the past but also for the present.  Indeed, as we write,  she is berthed at Lochmaddy Pier awaiting her next run on the Uig - Lochmaddy - Tarbert triangular route.

Controversy apart,  the Glen Sannox remains the finest-looking ferry in CalMac's fleet.

BURNHAMSPEAK WAFFLE - DEFENCE OF THE REALM (2)

A few days ago,  in a debate on Defence in the House of Commons,   Prime Minister Burnham told his audience that 'National Security cannot come at the expense of Social Security'.   Of course,  Andy,  of course, laddie,  you have the unemployable voters of Manchester and your own survival to think about first.

So,  there we have it.  A Prime Minister who is prepared in no uncertain way to leave the country undefended against our foes.  Roll in Vladimir,  just roll in, no opposition,  do your stuff,  easy peasy.

This is exactly why we loathe the Labour Party and its treacherous and traitorous brand of Socialism. As ever with Socialism,  our enemies come first and foremost - and the present collection of Socialists is more treacherous than ever before.  Just like our other avowed enemy,  the traitors of the Scottish National Party.

Some idiot thought this was a great soundbite but Burnham is going to regret ever making those remarks.  Those words will come back to haunt him.

SWINNEY'S PROGRAMME FOR GOVERNMENT

Yesterday,  First Minister Swinney announced his Programme for Government or 'rewiring the state'  as he stupidly referred to it.  It was a long and miserable performance and, essentially, a re-hash of what every government worldwide should be doing as a matter of course anyway.  We have space for only a few items of this alleged 'rewiring'.  Let's have a look.

One of the most controversial proposals was reducing the number of mainland Health Boards from 11 to just two.  That proposal would leave only Western Isles Health Board,  Orkney Health Board and Shetland Health Board intact.  However,  and rightly, the proposal met with howls of derision and anger.  In our view it is utter folly.  Scotland needs at least six Health Boards with Western Isles,  Orkney and Shetland badly needing inclusion in a Highlands Health Board. 

Another piece of utter folly is Swinney's Food Price Cap whereby he proposes to cap food prices.  How on this earth can a government do that?  Does he want food producers and shops out of business?

A £2 bus fare cap?  For how long?  And who is going to end up paying?  The taxpayer?  The bus company,  and drive them into liquidation?

Reduce the number of Quangos?  A long time coming but we'll believe it when we see it.  Remember,  Quangos are a speciality of  Nationalist governments.  They just love appointing their own placemen to their Quangos.  There are nearly 150 such bodies currently in Scotland.

Reduce the number of Scottish Councils from the current 32?  Now,  for the first time in his very grey life,  Swinney's talking sense.  

We would really like to see this as,  in our view,  Regionalisation worked well previously.  It is the only sane proposal of the lot. Indeed,  in the 70s, Regionalisation worked so well that it threatened the supremacy of what was then the Scottish Office before the Scottish Secretary of the day,  Michael Forsyth,  maliciously took to scrapping it.  But,  when the chips are down,  will Swinney have the guts to create potential rival power blocks?  

We very much doubt it - and we remain firmly of the view that Swinney is as stupid a politician as ever walked this earth.

 

BURNHAMSPEAK WAFFLE - TRIPLE HELIX (1)

Unusually for us, we watched a little bit  of the news on telly last night.  We were fed up with something or other and broke the habit of a lifetime.

In what,  we think,  was Prime Minister Burnham's first Commons appearance,  he droned on and on in true Socialist style and with convicted criminal fraudster Louise Haigh sitting at his side.  It certainly wasn't a pretty sight.

Andy concluded his monologue by saying that 'we will back local industrial strategies ................. by developing the triple helix approach to economic development'.  

What does any of that mean,  other than classic Burnhamspeak waffle?  

Words from a politician are cheap but,  as we've said from the beginning,  the intellect required for leadership is patently not there.

JENNY GILRUTH, DEPUTY FIRST MINISTER (2)

We're unusually prescient types here at Loch Roag Diary.  Either that or we're telepathic or psychic or whatever.

We first wrote about Jenny Gilruth on 28 May this year,  just days after the Holyrood Election,  and on being told that Ms Gilruth had been appointed Finance Secretary and Deputy First Minister.  We slammed the appointment at the time,  describing Ms Gilruth as 'a particularly disagreeable ,  aggressive and arrogant individual'  before adding that she was 'wholly unsuited to being a government minister and we expect a lot of problems'.

This morning Ms Gilruth is making headlines and accused by Scottish Government civil servants of bullying and belittling staff to a grossly unacceptable extent. The allegations against her are extremely serious matters,  way beyond bullying as we know it.  They are,  of course,  only allegations as we write.

We repeat.  Jenny Gilruth is a nasty piece of work and wholly unsuited to being a government minister.

PRIME MINISTER BURNHAM - NOW TAKING HOAX CALLS!!!!! - (2)

Well,  that didn't take long,  did it?  Less than a month.

Prime Minister Burnham engaging in hoax calls with somebody pretending to be the White House Chief of Staff!!!!!

How's that for naivety and stupidity,  exactly as we predicted?

LORD BRACADALE

If our understanding is correct,  Lord Bracadale is a retired Court of Session judge. A year or two back,  he was appointed by the Scottish Government to inquire into the circumstances of the death of a young man while being restrained by Police in the Kirkcaldy area of Fife.

That the man was openly carrying a large knife is not in dispute.  Neither is the fact that he was high on narcotics,  doped up to the eyeballs in colloquial terms.  A most thorough investigation by Police and Crown Office failed to find any evidence of criminal conduct by Police Officers who attended the scene.  Quite why there is now a Judicial Inquiry is way beyond our understanding.

Anyway,  to date,  the Inquiry has taken up a staggering 122 days of evidence before Lord Bracadale.  There was a major hiccup last year when the Scottish Police Federation - who appear to be the main protagonists in the case - discovered that  Bracadale  had had  FIVE private meetings with the deceased man's family.  The Federation took legal issue therewith and asked Bracadale to withdraw (or 'recuse' himself we believe to be the legal term).  A perfectly reasonable and proper request one might think.

Bracadale refused.  Astonishingly,  he told the Inquiry that 'having reviewed the facts,  the fair-minded and informed observer would conclude that there was no possibility that I was biased'.  Quite,  man, quite!!!!!  And what was that about the supposed impartiality of the Judiciary?  And, while we're at it,  what was that about the need for justice not only to be done but manifestly seen to be done?

After a lot of very unhappy noises from all over the country,  and with the Scottish Police Federation threatening Judicial Review,   Bracadale at long last relented and withdrew from the Inquiry.  A new judge has now been appointed to continue with the Inquiry but why did it take Bracadale so long to accept the inevitable and realise that he was adrift all on his own and without a paddle?  The powers that be,  realising the enormous stupidity of what Bracadale had done,  just washed their hands off him.

To date,  the Inquiry has cost the public purse the extraordinary sum of £55million and rising fast.  Of that figure,  the sum paid to Bracadale has been £711,680 or,  to be more specific,  £5833.44 per day!!!!!  

But does the Scottish Government now have the guts to try and recover this figure from Bracadale over a dreadfully botched Inquiry that was entirely of Bracadale's  own making?  It would be an interesting development.  And the wider public question is whether judges should be allowed to bugger up on such unprecedented scale without consequence or sanction and retain their large and publicly-paid pensions intact?  

The question that has never been answered is why Bracadale behaved in this most unbecoming manner in the first place.  We cannot recall any explanation from him far less any word of contrition or apology.  

Utterly out of his depth.  And arrogance beyond measure. 

(It has long been a standing joke in these islands of ours that our Free Presbyterian friends love money much more than they do God!)

THE MANY SCANDALS OF NICOLA STURGEON (4)

We have been writing about Nicola Sturgeon for years now and for one reason.  She's a dishonest and perfectly horrible piece of work who has long shamed both Scotland and Politics.

Just the other day,  Geoff Aberdein,  her predecessor Alex Salmond's former chief-of-staff, described her as 'of no self-awareness,  no loyalty and no class'.  And Geoff should know.  Translated,  it means she is poisonous,  traitorous, vulgar as they come and couldn't give a toss for anyone but herself. 

Geoff was being kind.  We continue to view her as the ultimate psychopath. 

PRIME MINISTER BURNHAM (OFF ON HOLIDAY!!!!!) (1)

Andy Burnham became Prime Minister on 20 July 2026.  He's off abroad on holiday some 14 days later leaving convicted criminal Louise Haigh in charge of running the country!!!!!

Well done Andy,  well done indeed.  Obviously,  you are much more frightened of The Wife than you are of the electorate.  And what was that we said just a few days ago that you were naive, stupid  and without intellect? 

Didn't take long for us to be proved correct,  did it?

GIANNI INFANTINO

The best thing the World Footballing Authorities could do is get rid of FIFA President Gianni Infantino. 

NOW!  

THE BURNHAM CABINET (3)

Well,  that was some 24 hours.  And another shower of absolute dopes in Cabinet.

The only appointment of which we approve - tentatively - is that of John Healey as Chancellor of the Exchequer and who has replaced the dreadful Rachel Reeves,  the most stupid woman on earth.   And we'll give Work and Pensions Secretary,  Pat McFadden,  the benefit of the doubt for the time being.  Other than that it's incompetent after incompetent.  

Trouble's brewing from this lot alone - and never mind the public or the rejected Starmerites.

THE BURNHAM CABINET (2)

Well,  Andy,  that didn't take long,  did it?  A matter of only minutes into your Premiership and you appoint The Right  Honourable  Louise Haigh PC as First Secretary of State,  Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Secretary of State for Transport!!!!!

Louise Haigh is a convicted criminal.  Some years ago she pled guilty to a charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice when she alleged falsely to the Police that her mobile phone had been stolen.  The circumstances are as murky as Ms Haigh herself.

We are all for forgiving and forgetting and all that but bearing false witness against anyone is something we take with the utmost seriousness.  It is a particularly horrible crime and is not remotely a minor breach of the law.  With judgement like this in appointing Ms Haigh to important public roles,  the electorate is going to turn against you - and it won't be long either.  Louise Haigh should never have been  allowed any role in government.

Sadly, it's just as we thought it might be. You have no sense of propriety whatsoever or any sense of decency.  Just whatever it takes in your own personal interests.  The ultimate chancer in other words.  You conned the people of Manchester but it is infinitely more difficult to con the rest of us.  We know a carpetbagging chancer when we see one. 

And forget everything about extending your term beyond this current Parliament.

THE BURNHAM CABINET (1)

We understand The Right Honourable Andrew (Andy) Burnham PC will become Prime Minister tomorrow.  

It is not something we are looking forward to for five reasons.  Firstly,  Burnham has no mandate from the public; secondly, he's yet another schoolboy Socialist class warrior;  thirdly,  he's stupid and naive; fourthly, the intellect required for the job simply isn't there;  and, fifthly,  his hero is the one-time Leader of the Labour Party,  Neil Kinnock,  better known in his heyday as The Welsh Windbag.

There is much anguish within the chattering classes as to who will be in the Cabinet and, especially, who will be Chancellor.  Our own view is that it will not matter a toss as they are all a shower of abject idiots anyway.

THE STURGEONS (2)

The dust has settled a bit,  at least for now.  Let's have a look.

Poor Peter is slumming his sentence of 5 years and 3 months at His Majesty's Prison Dumfries.  Nicola is living in London lording it up in the fancy wine bars of Notting Hill and couldn't give a toss about her man - or anyone else  for that matter.  She's the very coldest of very cold fishes.  She's the classic psychopath.

Nicola has long hated England, the English and Tories. She has said so on many occasions.  Those are her passions in life. The irony of seeking refuge in England is completely lost on her.  'I'm a victim too',  she moaned of her husband.  Me,  me, me, me forever.  Frankly,  Scotland is well shot of her and,  with a bit of luck,  it is eternal.

So,  there is currently quite a difference in their respective fortunes.  We couldn't care less about the poisonous and ghastly Nicola but we hope Peter will use his time wisely in the nick and reform into becoming a good citizen.  Our advice to him is to write his memoirs and provide some sort of accurate record as to those long-running events of yesteryear.

His memoirs would make him a fortune,  many times the price of the assets he purloined.  And those memoirs would be infinitely more entertaining than any self-serving rubbish coming from Nicola's £5,000 pen.

MR BURNHAM MP

So, Mr A Burnham is the latest MP for the Makerfield constituency.  The unrefined Northern Labour Party machine politician won the day.  

Starmer is,  admittedly, a dreadful Prime Minister but we would prefer him any day of the week to Burnham. Burnham is a self-promoting opportunistic chancer with the biggest ego on Planet Earth.   We simply don't like the cut of his jib. His victory is anything but a good omen for UK politics.  And we will never,  ever trust an ageing politician who adds colouring to his greying hair.

If the Labour Party had any sense left it would take a lurch to the Right well away from the Soviet-style politics practised by Starmer, Reeves & Company. However,  should 'Grecian Boy' Burnham ever become Prime Minister,  it would be a gigantic leap to the Left draining the confidence of the Financial Markets.  And we all know where that would lead us - job losses,  more job losses and even more job losses still.

With Mr Burnham in charge the country would be well and truly doomed.  He's the ultimate chancer.

ROZ FOYER (GENERAL SECRETARY STUC)

54 year old Roz Foyer is the firebrand General Secretary of the Scottish Trades Union Congress.  Like every other trade union official in the country,  Roz has a very loud mouth and is ready to criticise anything and everything under the sun.  Except herself,  of course.

Lately,  it has come to light that Roz,  who 'believes strongly in the redistribution of wealth' (her words),  owns five residential properties.  Like the extraordinary hypocrite that she is, Roz finds nothing wrong with that. She's a millionaire several times over.

These Socialists never change - one rule for them and another rule for the rest of us.

Gaun yersel,  lassie,  and bugger the homeless.

NATIONAL POLICE CHIEFS' COUNCIL

The National Police Chiefs' Council is,  as the name implies,  the organisational umbrella for the most senior Police Officers in the United Kingdom.   According to its blurb 'the NPCC  brings UK Police Leaders together to set direction in policing and drive progress for the public'.  That's the theory anyway.

We have long been critical of Police Leadership both north and south of the Border.  Police Scotland is a dog's breakfast and we have no reason whatever to think that the Police south of the Border is in any better shape.  A lot of Chief Constables and other senior ranks have found themselves in legal difficulties in recent years basically through lack of character and terrible failings in leadership. 

In our view,  far too many senior Police officers are being promoted nowadays without having the character required for the job.  There are failings,  terrible failings,  in Police Forces up and down the country virtually every day of the week  and most of those failings are caused  by utterly inadequate leadership. Sadly,  it is a fact of life that an inadequate and incompetent Police Leader will promote an equally inadequate and incompetent individual over a competent officer so that the vicious cycle of undeserved promotions continues unabated.

We despair with our head in our hands when we see some of the most senior Police officers in the country appear on television and in the Press sporting that ghastly facial stubble that seems to be an almost statutory requirement for senior ranks nowadays. They simply have no concept of just how ridiculous they present when they are seen more as scruffy Social Worker types than senior Police ranks. Perception does matter in the Police to a huge degree.

It doesn't just stop there. Senior Police ranks must nowadays be more steeped in Social Work Speak than policing and they must be politically correct at all costs.  That political correctness has gone mad of late.  Just look at what the National Police Chiefs' Manual says about racial problems in policing the UK when it reads that 'our commitment to racial equality does not mean treating everyone the same or being colour blind'.  

Let's face it, only a shower of clowns could present anything like that for public  consumption.  And they wonder why  there's always trouble about the cop shop - and not least that terrible incident at Southampton recently where a young student lost his life?

Best foot forward.