Glasgow North-East Needs Fighters!

I've been reading all sorts of comforting excuses about how this seat is unwinnable and how the SNP has learned its lessons about how by-elections are not important.

People, this seat needs fighters. Generations are lost in this Labour ghetto. When the soul of your nation is the issue you don't shirk these kinds of responsibilities. We don't need a good second place and a nice, polite party favourite who will appeal to the better off in Scotland. We needed a fighter!

A battle royal was the order of the day here. These people are fellow Scots who need to find their anger. How can the SNP be thought of as 'Scotland's party' if they do what Labour have done and downplay the relevance of these people to our nation?

The video below should bring shame on all so-called politicians who play games with people's lives!

The hearts and minds of every community in Scotland should be fought for with guile AND passion.

Glasgow North-East and Edward Bernays

Being a Glasgwegian and from a peripheral housing scheme, I know what this by-election in Glasgow North-East is all about.

It's about Edward Bernays.

Indulge me a bit:

Edward Bernays. Nephew of Sigmund Freud and father of public relations. He believed that public opinion had to be manipulated using the subconscious mind. The 'irrational herd' are dangerous and need to be manipulated so that they behave properly. Modern propaganda.

According to Father Ted dangerous libidinal energies lurk just below the surface of every individual and these should be harnessed and channeled by a corporate elite for economic benefit.

Public relations became a science. Through advertising women were conned into smoking because they were 'educated' to believe that smoking would make them equal to men. He called cigarettes "Torches of Freedom". Myths are powerful tools indeed. You can get people to act against their own best interests by pressing certain buttons.

Which brings us to Glasgow North-East. Labour have ruled there for 74 years. The resultant social degeneration is well-known: Worst poverty in the European Union, male life-expectancy worse than in war-torn Iraq etc. Wonderful people kept shackled to poverty.

Why? What good has it done Labour to keep these people downtrodden? Poverty reduces the ability of individuals to stop self-defeating cyclical behaviour. Habits are harder to kick such as unhealthy eating, drug-taking and voting Labour. The poverty is about political patronage. Keep them down and their collective power is in your gift. It's social and economic suicide but they believe in the church of Labour.

Many of these people live without hope and they think that the only influence they can have on the world is to stick two fingers up to the bosses and that voting Labour achieves that end. They identify with each other through voting Labour. People say such things as "I'm a Labour man"

I remember having a pint with a man in the West end whose family rejected him, his wife and kids didn't get on with him and he didn't go home till he was drunk. He told me he was unhappy with his life. Then I asked him if he was "a Labour man" and his answer was: "are you trying to get inside my heid?"

Yep, Labour have Edward Bernays to thank for serving up Glasgow North-East on a platter. As for the 'irrational herd'?

Poverty and Labour gang thegither.

Britain's Default Position

"Which big country will default first?"

asks Martin Hutchinson on his website http://www.prudentbear.com/ :

"The worst budget balance of the three deficit countries is in Britain "

The UK's estimated GDP before the depression started was £1.41 trillion. It is estimated that the governments public borrowing requirement is around £700 billion for 2009 or 47.5% of GDP. Of course as tax from income and profits drop this position is deteriorating rapidly. How can the BoE raise interest rates when the government is borrowing like a drunken sailor?

Hey Martin, do you think that instead of borrowing Brown might just print some more dosh on-the-fly?

"..the Bank of England has been slightly more irresponsible in its financing mechanisms than even the Federal Reserve, leaving interest rates above zero but funding fully one third of public spending through direct money creation."

Interesting, so the Bank of England has been printing money faster than the Federal Reserve. Jings, economist and international investor Marc Faber, in a compelling interview on Canada's BNN, has told us that the $ is going to collapse because of printing and maybe in the next few years.




part 2
part 3
part 4

Where does all this leave the £?

Black Stains on Our National Character

In major oil producing nations the print media covers the ebb and flow of the international oil market. The press in the US, Iran, Mexico, Canada, Iraq, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Russia and so on pour over every detail which comes out of the IEA.

What's the IEA? The International Energy Authority. You didn't know? Perhaps that's because the Scottish press doesn't cover oil economics and politics. Indeed, one has to mine the English press for real oil stories. Wonder why? See my recent entry on Fool's Gold.

It's to the English paper The Guardian then that we must turn for the most recent scoop on oil. Energy editor Terry Macalister filed this story:

'Key oil figures were distorted by US pressure, says whistleblower'

By contrast, in this - a Westminster by-election week our old friend David 'Mad-Dog' Maddox of Das Schottishman prioritises such major issues affecting Scotland like:

'Taxpayers helped Alex Salmond to treat dentist'

So, what sort of oil story is irrelevant to a major oil producing nation like Scotland then? Only the approaching collapse of the global industrial economy - nothing serious you understand. Oil is in everything from nylon, fuels, lubricants, plastics, detergents, solvents, elastomers, fibers, polyesters etc. Every day would not be the same without it. That's why there are wars in the Middle-East and tensions in Central Asia, Eastern Europe and increasingly in South America etc. (keep an eye on Venezuela and them new US military bases in Columbia.)

What does a global post-industrial economy look like? Try reading Dmitry Orlov's riveting blog on the subject. Let's just say life is going to be nothing like it is now. When the price of oil reaches around 6% of GDP an economy starts contracting. As it runs out prices will go through the roof until it becomes so expensive that demand will collapse. It can't be replaced. Nuclear energy can't run cars and by the time we have the alternative energies to keep some of the industrial economy going, and even if it is cheap enough, the industrial economy will be gone anyway.

According to The Guardian mole the huge influence of the gas dependent Americans on the IEA has led to an overestimation of existing and future supplies:

"The world is much closer to running out of oil than official estimates admit, according to a whistleblower at the International Energy Agency who claims it has been deliberately underplaying a looming shortage for fear of triggering panic buying."

The US wouldn't tell fibs about oil would they? Those wars really are about terrorism, no? And the US poodle doesn't need its own figures when it has the IEA's:

"The British government, among others, always uses the IEA statistics rather than any of its own to argue that there is little threat to long-term oil supplies."

(Unless it's North Sea Oil that is, cough cough. That runs out before every election involving Scotland.)

Anyway, if this is happening faster than we thought then this is a huge story and impacts on Scotland now and must be central to our economic planning.

A little reminder from The Independent about historical importance of oil to the UK economy:

"..while we are apt to attribute the sudden spurt in Britain's prosperity in the mid- to late-1980s to a deregulated and reinvigorated City, it owed far more to the massive windfall from the North Sea. "

The point is though that there is no staged movement towards a 'post-industrial economy' so dependency will continue until another crisis ensues. In the meantime prices are going to spike. This could and should be Scotland's big chance to get out of bankrupt Britain.

As the US's partner in global mayhem, Britain is not going to make such sensible preparations for future generations. As for we Scots, that role must be assumed by an independent Scotland.

The Numbers

It seems that the problem in Scottish politics is that no-one seems to understand numbers.

To understand the reality of Britain's economy you have to understand that The City is liable for about 25% of all the derivative's debt in the world.

Let's look at the world's derivative's debt then.


The Exter Pyramid. Courtesy of ZeroHedge.


The ticking timebomb is that $2 quadrillion of liquidity will collapse into whatever truly tangible assets exist. And you thought gold was already overpriced?

Yes, the Bank of England prints the money to prop up the derivatives markets. It can't work. At some point a lot of that money will find its way into consumer prices, gold and commodities.

This pyramid shows many things such as why the UK's financial sector is insolvent, why the £ is history, why hyper-inflation is a real possibility and why Britain is bankrupt.

Another thing it shows is that Scotland needs to escape from Bankrupt Britain.

Bankrupt Britain or Scottish Independence?

Standing around looking pretty doesn't get you into bed with the electorate. At some point you have to do some chatting up.

Das Herald Sturmer finally has a genuinely bad SNP story. The headline is about an opinion poll that shows a surge in support for New Labour for the upcoming Westminster elections and screams:

"Salmond poll blow as voters shun SNP"

Labour is pumping the message that voting SNP might let the Tories in by the back door. Let's look at what the English papers are saying. Jackie Ashley of the Labour leaning Guardian writes:

"Some Labour people may think I'm sounding too gloomy, but those who have been privy to recent private polling are a lot more than gloomy. This suggests that Labour could return to the Commons with just 120 MPs or thereabouts, taking the party back to 1930s territory. As ministers look for jobs to keep themselves going after politics, a Miliband move to Europe looks sensible."

In The Times we hear that Labour can't afford to run a full election campaign. Polling in the South of England is particularly catastrophic for the prudent money-printer Brown.

Now, normally in Scotland we hear about how Scotland is too poor and too small to have any influence on the world. When it comes to Westminster elections though, Labour propaganda magically transforms. Apparently, the outcome of the next general election will not be decided in England but in Scotland and voting SNP will let the Tories in by the back door.

Pernicious propaganda? Yes, but what do we expect from said source. And it works. The SNP is down to 25% and Labour up to 39% in voting intentions for the next UK election. 43% are still undecided and that will help the SNP but only if they help themselves.

So, in the cut and thrust of the battle for hearts and minds, what is the SNP's strategy? Eh, stand around and pout. The British economy is bankrupt and Labour are getting slaughtered in England. This is an open goal; a sitter. No, the 'message' is that increasing the number of SNP MPs will send a strong signal that blah blah blah blah.

It's a little late for a thingy, what do you call it, oh yes - a campaign strategy. However some ground can be made up and the foundations of the Holyrood and referendum elections laid.

So, where and how is the SNP taking a beating and what can be done? Robbie Dinwoodie, an actual real-deal Scottish journalist, writes in Das Herald Sturmer that the SNP government:

"has been under heavy fire over the Glasgow Airport Rail Link cancellation, the planned clampdown on alcohol, failure to reduce class sizes and job losses such as those planned at Diageo – all giving opponents a sense that a corner is being turned."

Technocratic rebuttals ala Swinney isn't going to cut it. People don't realise that unemployment, house prices inflation, tax rises and so on are a consequence of economic policy set in London under Gordon Brown.

TELL THEM! John McFall and the BoE MPC have admitted that Britain's entire financial system is insolvent. International investors are talking about a sterling currency crisis, the OECD says that Britain is 'uniquely vulnerable' in the economic crisis. The SNP should be telling people that they fear the future because of the union - it's bankrupt.

TELL THEM! The SNP core policy of independence is a soft target. Unionists will forecast hell in an independent Scotland. Well, the SNP must forecast hell with the union. The disadvantage that the SNP had before was that you can't really provide evidence of the viability of an alternative future. That can now become an advantage in that the SNP can prove that the union will not provide a viable economic future for Scots. This should be a visceral battle. Offer the bright future of independence and an economic reason for leaving the union. This way you can exploit all that positive capital that has been built up without losing it. The truth is that Britain's finances are seriously minging. The UK faces the combination of an economic, currency and monetary collapse. There is no manufacturing base to dig the UK out of depression and so generations are going to be stuck with debt that they can't pay back. They'll emigrate if they can. The TRUTH (not propaganda) is that Britain is going bankrupt.

TELL THEM! Robbie's interview with the pollsters brings out interesting observations:

"Chris Eynon of TNS-BMRB said the poll showed no evidence of a Cameron effect north of the Border, nor “any particular disenchantment with Gordon Brown,” adding: “It is the SNP who have most to be concerned about in these results."

Brown should be getting hammered. His economy is impacting on the Scottish government's finances but by holding back on the 'Bankrupt Britain' campaign the SNP are allowing their opponents to blame them for their opponents' problems. This is monumentally naive! The reason that Labour's propaganda works is because Scots distrust the Tories and because Labour is an old habit. Well, if you want to make the SNP the Scottish party then this bad 'habit' must be kicked. Scots should know that it's not Tories nor Labour, it's London government, that's the problem. The choice is bankrupt Britain or Scottish independence. The SNP must turn this corner. It must refocus the minds of the Scottish electorate away from an anti-Cameron celebrity UK tabloid election. The SNP must seize the agenda - it has a fantastic opportunity.

Scots need to be informed that the Tories are going to win anyway and that if the election is a 2 horse London race then it's a two horse race to bankruptcy.

TELL THEM!

Britain is in Brownruptcy

Praise the Lord. This Sunday ZeroHedge brings good tidings for our economy.

The pressure is off! Notional global value of over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives' contracts in 2008 have been revised down to $592,000,000,000,000.00 from $683,700,000,000,000.00

Lots of zeros, eh.

Ok, that's $592 trillion down from $683.7 trillion.

Big numbers, someone should put them in context. In 2008, the entire real economy of the world was around $55 trillion - less than 10% of the banks' dodgy derivatives scam (DDS). So, when all the fraud in those derivatives exploded last year and this $700 trillion market collapsed where did that leave Britain's banks?

Well, let's say London was responsible for 25% of these contracts. In pounds that amounts to £90-100 trillion. The British GDP was £2 trillion (top of my head figure but doesn't matter anyway). So, the financial sector in Britain's financial sector has dodgy derivative contracts worth 50 times Britain's GDP.

Brown's odds against saving these banks are approximately (the zeros above help here) 1000,000,000,000:1. a trillion to one against.

Since Gordon got us into such a fankle, I've decided to refer to Britain's debt, not as enormously 'in the red' but massively 'in the Brown'. Or Britain is Brownrupt.