by smeddum

What you need to know about the protogation of parliament.

Letter from today’s National

THE. judgment by the Court of Session -the most senior UK court to sit on the very specific issue of whether the protogation of the UK Parliament by the UK Prime Minister, in this particular case, was lawful or unlawful -is now UI<. law. Ever since the judgment was made, the closure of the UK Parliament under’ this prorogation has been unlawful under UK law. This fact cannot be compromised by the possibility of any future judgment(s) from the UK Supreme Court.
Anyone who values the ‘ fundamental principle of the rule of · law should take their opposition to I this unlawful prorogation to the UK Prime Minister and/ or any MPs who supported it. There are, for starters, 13 Conservative MPs in Scotland who seem to have made ·no effort to support the court judgment. Their silence shows a lack of respect for the legal process not just in this country but throughout the UK as a whole, on this matter. Services performed by the UK Parliament, on our behalf and paid for through taxation, have been unlawfully curtailed. The meter started ticking from the moment the Court of Session made its judgement. It is time for us to calculate the value of the many work hours, paid .for through taxation, that have been lost through this unlawful action of the UK Priine Minister. The bill for the rebate for these unlawfully removed services should be paid by the person responsible, the UK Prime Minister. There is also a very real possibility that the unlawful prorogation may create its own costs to the public. Class action anyone?
Donald Hamilton
Milngavie

by smeddum

New plan for website.

I have been doing some thinking on this and I feel that it is best to replan the whole website mid October and pay for an upgrade then. I am thinking of it as an extended holiday . If I feel the need to say anything about Brexit before then I ll post an editorial . Presently the battle lines are clear and a General election is due. Hopefully my present sense of ennui will be gone or at least diminished to a point where I feel I can enjoy getting right into the middle of things again.

by smeddum

The Static and the Dynamic

The older I get the less I want to linger around abstract thought but it is needed to get at the root of our political situation. The centuries old static power relations are still very much at the heart of our western “civilisation”, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer or driven to suicide. The dynamic has a static element  too. There are finite types of agents of change workers, peasants students eg  There are alliances and/or potential alliances. Yet, one of the important aspects of the movement on the ground is that it monitors how bad things are becoming. It is very much an unheard voice that genuine democrats must push  it to the fore. This is the context of all protest.

Here in Scotland the polarisation of classes is expressed as a national question as the Tories move further to the right, the Scottish National party gains ascendancy .  This is the fundamental reason that the Labour party has little future in Scotland as it cannot break this  unionist  tie with the Tories, at least at present. I for one never expected Jeremy Corbyn to rise to ranks of leadership so I am not sure of what twist and turns we can get from the Scottish Labour party.  The run up to a second referendum on Scottish independence will be perhaps their final test as a viable entity in Scottish politics. In  the meantime, the battle for democracy will rage.

by smeddum

New direction at Smeddum’s Hotpotch

The website is now under reconstruction. Instead of posting links, I will be writing short articles with links embedded if appropriate. I will be up and running fully at the end of August : as I hope to enjoy my recuperation and the silly season a bit longer. With the election of Johnson it might take me that long to stop vomiting. Anyhow I ll be getting into all that at a later date The newly created website will be orientated towards rss. So that it can be heard on feed bot the Alexa skill and read as a feed on the platforms still reading rss.