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. She has long hated both England and the English.  The irony of seeking refuge in England is lost on her - I'm a victim too,  remember?  

So,  there is currently quite a difference in their respective fortunes.  We couldn't care less about the poisonously ghastly Nicola but we hope Peter will use his time wisely in the nick. 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.

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.  

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.  

THE STURGEONS (1)

A whole lot of stolen goods with a high value amounting to hundreds of thousands of GBP are found by the Police in the house where you live with another.  Many of those goods have been in your house for years and are on open display for all to see on a daily basis.  You even wear some of the jewellery obtained by deceit while preening yourself for the television cameras.

You are arrested by the Police and questioned about those items. You make a 'no comment' reply to all questions the Police put to you despite the civic duty of good citizens everywhere to assist the Police in the investigation of crime.  You offer the Police no explanation whatsoever as to why you are jointly in possession of stolen goods.  And neither do you blame any other person for bringing the stolen items into your home despite having ample opportunity to do do.  You simply clam up like a hardened professional criminal in the style of Al Capone.

If you are,  truly,  innocent with nothing criminally on your conscience, would not the decent and proper thing to do, as a minimum,  be to explain to the Police how that stolen property came to be in your house in the first place and provide a full and detailed account thereof?

And what about a year or two back when you are recorded on video on a number of occasions trying to shut down all dissent over allegations of stolen money and denying that there had been any cooking of the books and that,  financially, things had never been better?  You are in full knowledge of the facts and,  despite that knowledge, you do your usual bullying stuff and get very angry indeed about such allegations and handbagging everyone in sight - and,  knowing your penchant for handbags, quite possibly an illicitly acquired handbag?

You carry on regardless and wilfully disregard the truth and want everyone else to do likewise.  You are pursuing a deliberately false narrative.  You are covering up fraud and embezzlement when any and every honest citizen would report such circumstances to the criminal authorities as a matter of course.

Add together all of the foregoing and it leads to the very clear conclusion that you are well into tarry-fingered territory and that you have a case to answer.  We disagree strongly with any other conclusion however eminent it may be as the evidence is there right before our eyes.

To us,  as lay people, it appears a classic case where guilt or innocence should be determined in a Court of Law according to tried and tested Rules of Evidence.  However, Scotland's Chief Prosecutor,  Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain (who,  incidentally,  you nominated as Lord Advocate),   decides with a flourish of her pen not to prosecute.  That failure to prosecute is,  in our view, by far the worst aspect of the circumstances here and infinitely worse than all of the pilfering involved. 

Welcome to Justice, Scottish Nationalist-Style.  

JENNY GILRUTH MSP

We understand Ms Gilruth now to be Deputy First Minister of Scotland under Dishonest John Swinney.  

We have always found Ms Gilruth to be a particularly disagreeable, aggressive and arrogant individual who doesn't take kindly to being questioned on anything and point-blankly refuses any criticism.  She is brash and brazen and is not the sort to bring consideration and reason into any rational argument.  Her way or the highway.

She is wholly unsuited to being a government minister.  We expect a lot of problems.  

LORD ADVOCATE DOROTHY BAIN (2)

We see that Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain,  Scotland's chief prosecutor,  has intimated her resignation.

No wonder after the ghastly mess she made when she decided to venture into politics in the criminal case of Peter Murrell,  Nicola Sturgeon's man (or ex-man, or whatever).  As if that wasn't bad enough,  the Lord Advocate compounded her stupidity with a complete - and very basic - public misunderstanding of the law.  She lost the confidence of the Judiciary.

Simply,  she was out of her depth.

WESTERN ISLES NOW NATIONALIST-FREE

It has taken many years but, at long last and following the recent Holyrood Election,  we have a Nationalist-Free Western Isles.  Alasdair Allan has bit the dust as Nationalist MSP after 19 depressing years and,  of course,  Angus Brendan had already been shunted as Nationalist MP following the General Election of 2024.

We congratulate local boy,  Donald Mackinnon,  on his being elected Labour MSP.  As long as Donald remembers that politics here is local,  very local,  he'll do fine but he must avoid at all costs the Torcuil way of doing politics which is say nothing,  do nothing and keep whistling in the wind.

CONTENDERS FOR PRIME MINISTER

The story so far.  Angela Rayner,  Wes Streeting, Andy Burnham and Red Ed Miliband all jostling to knife Keir Starmer - and each other - into history.  

Traitors to the last.  Each one worse than the other.  To think that the Labour Party has been reduced to this appalling shower of jokers with not a solitary principle in sight.  Labour is plumbing the depths.  The lesons of appointing Jeremy Corbyn as Leader have been forgotten. 

Should Labour pick any of that lot for Leader (and,  thus,  Prime Minister)  the party will deserve to be out of government for many years to come.

No wonder Reform is on the march.  While we don't like Reform one little bit we nevertheless see the attraction of turning our back on all mainstream parties.  They have nothing whatever to offer the country.

TORCUIL CRICHTON MP - WHISTLING IN THE WIND (4)

We've just been looking up the lists of (a)  those Labour MPs who want Prime Minister Starmer gone and (b) those who wish him to stay on as Prime Minister.  Our MP,  the lamentable Torcuil,  is not on either list - surprise,  surprise!!!!!

Torcuil,  the man whistling in the wind.  Do we know where he stands on ANYTHING?

ANAS SARWAR MSP (2)

Anas Sarwar MSP is Labour Party Leader in Scotland.  Labour received a terrible thrashing from the electorate at the Holyrood Election just days ago.

While,  undoubtedly,  Keir Starmer's unpopularity with the electorate was a factor in the outcome in Scotland,  the bigger problems were (1) Sarwar's telling Starmer to resign only a few weeks back in the middle of Election hustings and (2) the fact that Sarwar himself had no policies on display for the electorate.  No wonder it went belly-up.

Anas Sarwar has made a dog's breakfast of it and has no option but to resign as Scottish Leader.  That's the only honourable course.  

Make way for Jackie Baillie.

THE 2026 ELECTIONS

Well,  that's that over and the Fat Lady is back singing again.  With the Elections being a choice of Keir Starmer,  John Swinney,  Nigel Farage and Zack Polanski it was no choice at all and, inevitably, it was going to be a disaster.  The country couldn't possibly produce bigger dummies than that lot.

We have long expressed our hostility to Keir Starmer ever since it became public knowledge in 2024 that he accepted a huge amount of freebies valued at tens of thousands of GBP from Labour Party benefactor, Lord Alli.  We said at the time that the country would not forget  and most certainly the country has not forgotten despite the passage of time. 

We understand Starmer has now appointed two new advisers in former Prime Minister Gordon Brown and a Mrs Harman.  We don't know anything about Mrs Harman but we would appoint Larry,  the Downing Street cat,  long before we would appoint Gordon Brown to anything.  

Remember,  Brown was not only a useless Prime Minister but also was one of those scandalous MPs who had to repay many thousands of GBP following the Parliamentary Expenses Scandal some years ago.  We haven't forgotten that.  Neither have we forgotten how he has kept the UK bogged down in debt interest from those  crazy Private Finance Iniatives from his days as Prime Minister.

While there were, indeed,  heavy Labour losses,  Dishonest John Swinney  managed to lose a lot of SNP votes also and no bloody wonder.  John Swinney is as stupid,  useless and dishonest as they come with not a principle in sight. Scotland knows it but for many reasons the country was reluctant to opt for both Starmer and Scottish Labour Leader Sarwar and especially following the spat between them when Sarwar told the public in no uncertain terms that he wanted Starmer to resign as Prime Minister.  That spat was the death warrant for Labour in Scotland.

Farage and Company managed to make big inroads into the popular vote. No wonder with Starmer and Swinnney as rulers in their respective fiefdoms - it wasn't much of an opposition,  was it?  But,  and mark our words,  Farage,  the shiftiest man in politics,  is heading for big trouble.  A lot of knives are out for him and rightly so.

Oh,  and let's not forget shameless Polanski,  as untrustworthy as the rest of them. The Greens are the  biggest frauds of all.

ZACK POLANSKI

We understand Zack Polanski to be Leader of the Greens.

He's a complete fraud - even by the abysmal standards prevailing in politics today. 

PAM BONDI, EX-UNITED STATES ATTORNEY GENERAL (2)

Ms Bondi is no longer Attorney General of the United States.  She was removed from office yesterday by the President.

The lesson here is that it was utter folly for Ms Bondi to get involved in government at Federal level. She sold herself only to be destroyed with her reputation in tatters.  We do hope,  however,  that Ms Bondi can now find some inner peace for her very troubled soul.

A salutary lesson for all.

CAROLINE LAMB, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, NHS SCOTLAND

Caroline Lamb,  Chief Executive of NHS Scotland,  is euphemistically 'stepping down' from her post - and not before time either.  

Ms Lamb's  fingerprints are all over the notorious case Nurse Sandie Peggie brought against a disastrous NHS Fife Board earlier in the year.  As are the fingerprints of Carol Potter,  former Chief Executive of NHS Fife,  who resigned from post some months ago.

The Sandra Peggie case was a watershed moment in public life in Scotland where public officials thought they could get away with anything  on the instructions of the nationalist government. It was utterly shameful behaviour involving quite a number of individuals. They found out the hard way and, for their nationalist political masters, the  very expensive way of wasting public money, that they couldn't do just as they pleased.

Our public services  are well rid of both Ms Lamb and Ms Potter.  Now,  for Swinney  to go in disgrace - same as happened to Sturgeon.

DISHONEST JOHN SWEENEY (2)

'Dishonest John' Sweeney was on show at the Union Street Fire in Glasgow yesterday all dressed up in a Hi-Vis Jacket so that he was difficult to miss.   The TV cameras were rolling,  of course, hence the Hi-Vis.   It was the first time 'Dishonest John' has  been seen in Glasgow for many years.

Amazing what a forthcoming Holyrood election in May can do for a First Minister's soul.  As if 'Dishonest John' cares a damn about Glasgow - but votes are votes.  'Dishonest John' at his classic best.  

An outrageous chancer and opportunist - and as dishonest as they come.  He learned his tricks from Salmond and Sturgeon - and that says it all.

LUCY POWELL MP

The Right Honourable Lucy Powell is MP for a Northern working-class constituency.  She is also Deputy Leader of the Labour Party.  As far as we are aware, she no longer holds any Government appointment as she and Keir don't get on terribly well.  

Lucy is one of the great freeloaders of the current Parliament.  She has received tens and tens of thousands of GBPs recently in what is euphemistically called 'gifts'.  Not 'bungs',  of course,  but 'gifts'.  Can anyone tell us why the hell would a politician ever accept a 'gift' from anyone?

Anyway, following last week's disastrous by-election in Denton and Gorton, Lucy stuck the knife brutally into Keir saying that if that chancer,  Andy Burnham,  had been the Labour candidate instead of the Labour-annointed candidate,  Labour would have won.  

That's how stupid Lucy actually is.  It has never dawned on her that the root causes of Labour's unpopularity are (a) the almost unbelieveable wholesale  acceptance of this thing called 'gifts' to politicians that scunnered the electorate  (b) the quite extraordinary dishonesty on which Labour based its election promises to the electorate  and (c) Labour's abysmal record since being elected to Government some 20 months ago.

You might be stupid,  Lucy,  but we certainly aren't.  That's why your own seat is on a very shoogly nail same as the rest of them.

 

MANDELSON'S ARREST

Peter Mandelson was arrested two days ago by the Metropolitan Police invesigating the fallout from the Epstein Saga in the United States.  He was held for 8 hours before released on bail.  

The allegations the Police are investigating relate to this outrageous common law English crime called 'Misconduct in Public Office'.  This deeply unsatisfactory crime is the sort of crime that,  for a public official,  is magnificently vague but covers every alleged wrongdoing under the sun.

Yesterday,  Mandelson's solicitors hit out at the decision to arrest him on Police suspicion that he was going to flee the country.  They said there was 'absolutely no truth whatsoever' on which to base that suspicion and we accept that without question.

In our view,  this is the Metropolitan Police response to the Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor arrest by Thames Valley Police of last week.  We regard both arrests as totally without justification at this stage of the investigations.

We have the same bad vibes about Mandelson's arrest that we had of Mountbatten-Windsor's arrest.

THE WINDSOR ARREST

For some days now,  the media has been awash with the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor to ad nauseam accompaniment that 'no one is above the law' and nonsense of that sort. It's been poor journalism for the most part.

From our point of view, we are very far from convinced that arrest was either  justified or appropriate at this stage and we are firmly of the view that Thames Valley Police were simply grandstanding to be first out the box for a Royal Arrest - the first Royal Arrest since Charles I we are gleefully and repeatedly told.  We are told also that the arrest was in relation to allegations of Misconduct in Public Office - ie scraping-the-bottom-of-the-barrel allegations - relating to Mr Mountbatten-Windsor's time as UK Trade Envoy many years ago.  (Mr Mountbatten-Windsor was appointed UK Trade Envoy by Tony Blair when Prime Minister in 2001 but that's another story).

We have been told further that Mr Mountbatten-Windsor's various properties were  searched and,  indeed,  continue to be searched as we write. We are unsure what the Police expect to find in those properties from all those years ago but there you are.  Certainly,  they have not explained anything and the arrestee was released without charge after only 11 hours in custody. 

That,  in itself,  is unusual in that if the arrest was a really genuine arrest,  rather than for show purposes, one would have expected the detention to have been either for a much longer duration or the arrestee formally charged with a crime.  In a normal criminal investigation of this type of allegation,  we would expect the Police to search first and arrest later if considered appropriate. And why,  of all things,  was Mr Mountbatten-Windsor simply not invited to attend the Police Station by civilised arrangement?

That Mr Mountbatten-Windsor is a very unsavoury character - and keeps equally unsavoury company - there is no doubt.  That,  however,  does not in our view justify the circumstances of his arrest.  It has been reported, rightly or wrongly,  that eight separate Police Forces are interested in Mr Mountbatten-Windsor.  If that is so,  we hope they proceed with much more professionalism,  finesse and savvy than Thames Valley Police.

Sadly,  we suspect that none of this has registered remotely with Mr Mountbatten-Windsor.  He is way beyond any form of contrition, correction or redemption - or even understanding of his predicament.

LORD ADVOCATE DOROTHY BAIN

Dorothy Bain is the Lord Advocate of Scotland and,  as such,  the country's most senior criminal prosecutor.  She's now got herself into a very big pickle and entirely of her own making.

After the decision had been made by Ms Bain's department to prosecute Nicola Sturgeon's husband,  Mr Murrell,  on charges of fraud allegedly amounting to £460,000,  Ms Bain wrote to First Minister John Swinney advising him the details of an indictment and charges  that had been served on Mr Murrell and that the case was calling in court on 20 February.  This was an extremely unusual and extremely stupid thing for a Lord Advocate to do as it didn't concern Swinney in any way. Neither the public nor the Press was informed,  only Swinney.

All hell broke loose subsequently  and the matter called in the Scottish Parliament yesterday when Ms Bain tried to explain herself to MSPs.  She failed miserably and appeared utterly clueless. Essentially,  she had no answer to what she did and,  bizarrely,  maintained that once an indictment had been served on an accused the matter was then public.  However,  her underlings at Crown Office refuted this and said an indictment is a public matter only when it first calls in court.  They cannot both be right ...... and common sense  indicates to us that the underlings,  rather than the Lord Advocate,  are correct.

The Conservatives claimed the circumstances 'smacks of corruption' but such claim is,  in our view, grossly over the top.  Rather,  it smacks entirely of incompetence and stupidity.  It's not,  exactly,  like a Sheriff corruptly giving a verdict in favour of a party to whom he or,  indeed,  she is beholden in some form or other.

On any view the Lord Advocate is clearly out of her depth.  That's the worrying bit.