John's retirement is a massive boost for the SNP as the Commons Treasury chairman was the kind of politician that you just don't beat. Decent, trustworthy, honest, calls a spade a spade and, as far as I know, didn' come close to getting mixed up in the expenses scandal. Looking at the national swing, the SNP were on paper in with a shout of winning this seat but realistically never with Mr McFall on the ballot slip.
So the door is blown wide open now and Labour have another potentially troubling selection contest on their hands.
The SNP won this area in the European election and there's no reason now why Graeme McCormick can't do the same in a few months time and find himself at Westminster.
12 comments:
I blogged about McFall in November. Here's a video of him admitting that all of Britain's banks are insolvent:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8338647.stm
For some reason no-one picked up on what is an incredible story. I think the reason that the story didn't run is because he doesn't sound like a machine politician. Whatever, I don't think he really understood the import of his words.
In trying to sound like an authentic socialist he seems hypocritical. I mean how could he stand by while citizens were being robbed in order to stuff the banksters pockets?
Just another freeloader masquerading as a 'people's man'.
Well said Alex
Just another freeloader masquerading as a 'people's man'.
Labour to a tee every one of them
From the, "They Work for You", site.
How John McFall voted on key issues since 2001:
Voted moderately against a transparent Parliament. votes, speeches
Voted very strongly for introducing a smoking ban. votes, speeches
Voted very strongly for introducing ID cards. votes, speeches
Voted very strongly for introducing foundation hospitals. votes, speeches
Voted strongly for introducing student top-up fees. votes, speeches
Voted strongly for Labour's anti-terrorism laws. votes, speeches
Voted very strongly for the Iraq war. votes, speeches
Voted very strongly against an investigation into the Iraq war. votes, speeches
Voted very strongly for replacing Trident. votes, speeches
Voted very strongly for the hunting ban. votes, speeches
Voted a mixture of for and against equal gay rights. votes, speeches
Voted moderately against laws to stop climate change. votes, speeches
So he doesn't really want the public to know what the Parliament is up to, loves the idea of state monitoring and control via ID cards and anti-terrorism legislation, thinks the invasion of Iraq was good thing and doesn't want any of the decision making about Iraq made public, believes in student top up fees though these don't apply in his own constituency and wants nuclear weapons.
I've no idea of his personal character but I don't like his political one.
Jeff,
I would not be so sure about the SNP getting this seat not with Jackie Baillie the potential candidate for the now Labour PPC-less seat.
McCormick has two major problems against him there is still no A&E service at the Vale of Leven Hospital which at the time of the Scottish Elections he said he would not stand again if it wasn't saved or brought back. It doesn't look to be coming back any time soon and with more health services evaporating in an area that is becoming a dead zone for the NHS its a killer.
Also McCormick is weak under fire and spouts dangerously untrue information in the local media which makes him a laughing stock amongst the local populous. For an entire interview he kept calling the Trafalgar Class of submarine the Waterloo class which did not lend him much credibility when trying to convince locals the Faslane Naval Base would still be there as a conventional weapon base rather than Nuclear.
He also has problems empathising with peoples problems which in an area with high levels of poverty is devastating.
My cash is still on Labour to take this seat the seat the SNP are more likely to take is the one next door in Argyll & Bute where they have a much stronger candidate in place Mike McKenzie.
Jackie Baillie's recent elocution lessons now make sense.
McFall never got to grips with the Equtable Life scandal and allowed it to be kicked into the long grass.
He was a perfect candidate to be on the panel to question the bankers.
Enough bluster to keep the sheeple happy but on message to not actually do anything about it.
Just more hot air from the hot air party.
This is not tribal warfare people. You should have the generosity to admit when one of your opponents had quality.
And John McFall did. The House will be significantly the worse for his loss, and Labour will find it damned hard to replace him.
Ah well, I think he's a good guy at least.
I'm with Observer, I don't subscribe to the philosophy that all things Labour are all things evil. Far from it infact.
But if people want to laden themselves down with such a mindset then fair enough.
I think McFall did try to the best of his ability to try and hold bankers to account in this instance. Maybe its the fact his own party seem reluctant to take on the banks while he has been slamming them that has made him throw in the towel?
One of the first rules of entertainment is don't insult your fans.
Unfortunately politics is a blood-sport. In Scotland there are places where men die younger than in war-torn Iraq. That's thanks to people like McFall. The Labour mafia preside over the worst poverty in the EU. If bloggers ever found themselves, heaven forbid, in the peripheral housing schemes of Glasgow, where I grew up, they'd know something about how politics destroys lives. When you have low life expectancy, teenage pregnancy proliferation and poor infant mortality you really do have to get to the point where you speak your mind.
The real problem with politics in Scotland is that people are not allowed to speak their mind. People are slapped down for what they drink, eat and think. And in the country that spawned John MacLean and the Labour movement you now get a good telling off for daring to judge the establishment. No wonder blogs are in decline.
Corporate politics and emasculated bloggers continues to dumb down
the debate into tea and biscuits at dawn meaninglessness.
Politicians will be judged on their politics and the people will judge them honestly and they can expect no more. That is the reality of politics. Commentors here have provided the evidence and the man has voted for the destruction of more than a million muslims and half a million of them children as well as nuclear bullying.
There's no room for bourgeois niceties when the world is so divided. All things Labour is bad, that is not tribal. It is a corporate crypto-fascist entity which is giving spy balloons to the police to monitor the population. It is reality! Not the corporate-driven catatonic state that some commentators believe is reality but when millions die out of emperialism it is incumbent on men to speak their minds. Millions of soldiers lost their lives fighting tyranny, my grandfather was one. I wonder who would have the cohones to tell him to be polite to geo-political thugs?
The only thing tribal here is the British emperialism that Observer is excusing.
And while we discuss ladened mindsets, you won't find any corporate advertising on my blog!
Alex Porter....
Watch this video and see why people are wise to avoid trying to take on Scottish Labour.
It's South Lanarkshire Labour but is symptomatic of the whole corrupt institution. Fast forward 5 minutes to see the heavy mob.
This has gone on for generations.
http://www.politube.org/show/2378
Observer, I don't particularly admire McFall's "qualities".
To say so is not tribal warfare but a perfectly valid opinion.
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