The Big Debate from Glasgow

Interesting livestream debate from the Riverside Halls Glasgow that includes Tommy Sheridan, Cat Boyd, Ivan McKee, Johann Lamont, Zara Kitson and more.

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  1. JohnEdgar says:

    It will be interesting to hear Johann Lamont confirm whether she sees Slab still as a branch or whether in the light of the 2015 election it is more like a twig.

  2. Frank says:

    It’s about time something interesting happened. This elections dull as dishwater. From the highs of 2014 to this…

    1. JohnEdgar says:

      Tommy Sheridan and Cat Boyd will be interesting to listen to and will challenge orthodoxy. Things are outwardly “quieter” than 2014, but the transformation thereafter and the change on the politics landscape since 2015 is astounding. Still waters run deep and deeper. The ferment from 2014 is still acting on the Scottish body politic. The entitlement parties of yore are still thrashing around trying to get coherence into their dispirited ranks. The unionists must struggle to comprehend that former certainties are no longer there. That is especially the case for Slab. For the Tories, well, they have been faffing about since 1997. For many, that us not dull. That is post Vow retribution. The pfi ( don’t mention the L- word) and the Cameronian offshore revelations have added spice at this juncture in the campaign. The post 2014 reality for Slab that it did nor turn out better for them. They now are along with their erstwhile better together cronies in a trough vying with each other to aspire to be the opposition at Holyrood. Shame!

  3. peter foy says:

    2 women Cat Boyd and Zara Kitson excelling in this debate.

  4. peter foy says:

    Zara Kitson And Cat Boyd both very impressive. Rather sad to see mainstream parties just interested in scoring political points of each other. But didn’t expect any less.

  5. Mark Saunders says:

    Why did Jack McConnell send £1.5 billion back to the UK Treasury when, if Johann Lamont says, we desperately needed new schools? Why didn’t you use some of that money instead of burdening local council budgets for decades?

    1. JohnEdgar says:

      Slab were cauld kale at Holyrood. They never stepped out of the shadow of the Westminster faction in the party. Brown saw Scotland as his fiefdom. Slab, even before they were known distinctly as Slab, were never for devolution. Harold Wilson had to force Ross, then Secretary of State for Scotland to initiate the devolutionary process and did so through gritted teeth. That was why Lab caved in to the 40% rule passed by their English MPs and their Scottish satraps including Tories. Better together at Westminster began then.
      Slab only finally went along with devolution after being hammered by the long years of Thatcherism. A government Scots did not vote for. Still same scenario today with Cameron and Co.
      Hence, then Slab at Holyrood did not really have detailed policies for governing Scotland. They could not even call themselves the Scottish Government, just a pathetic administration.
      The reluctant Scots, the reluctant devolutionists, Scottish cringe at its worst, that was and is Slab. Even Slab is a misnomer, it is just Lab and shoogly branch of Llab London Labour now reduced to one MP representing an Edinburgh constituency! Its current struggling leader at Westminster does not see any need for more powers to Holyrood.

  6. Graeme says:

    The decline and fall of Tommy Sheridan is a sad one. Ten years ago he was a brilliant and inspirational figure. Now he’s a shell of his former self.

    1. Frank says:

      I’m not a big fan of Sheridan and if I lived in Glasgow I probably wouldn’t vote for him, but my wife and I watched this tonight and we both agreed that he was head and shoulders above everyone else on this panel. He totally nailed the SNP candidate who was utterly woeful.

      1. Graeme says:

        He was very good, he’s a very good communicator, which makes his decline all the more disappointing. Even he must regret the way he sabotaged the Scottish left.

        1. Frank says:

          The SNP candidate, Ivan McKee was dreadful. It’s just not good enough that Johan Lamont sounds more left wing than the official SNP candidate. The same thing happened on TV the other week when Swinney was outmanoeuvred by Iain Gray. Simply not good enough SNP! Are we getting to a stage where a monkey could win a Scottish seat so long as it had an SNP rosette on? Is history repeating itself as the great man said first as tragedy but now as farce? Or as a great band once sang, meet the new boss same as the old boss? Not sure where my second vote is going but my first vote is definitely not going to the SNP.

    2. Alf Baird says:

      I only wish I had someone of Tommy Sheridan’s calibre standing in my constituency. It will surely need someone like Tommy to clear out the rotten unionist legacy still strangling a moribund Scotland, a legacy that would continue to undermine the Scottish people even after independence.

  7. JohnEdgar says:

    Further comment on powers at Holyrood. Slab even, when in power, handed powers back to Westminster in name of uniformity with Westminster.

  8. john young says:

    Agree John Edgar “Scottish Cringe” is/has/always will be a bridge too far for us to overcome,for a country that were to the fore in most military conflicts from the 18th century up to the present yet cannot stand firm or show courage where their own country is a concern is a mystery or is it?What is it about 50% of our countrymen/women that they are not proud of their country have no confidence in their country?.Do you think that the answer lies in the above,they and their forefathers fought and died for the British Empire and the legacy lives/thrives to this day? it is the only conclusion that I can come to.

    1. JohnEdgar says:

      Good question, John. I think the ” cringe” is less noticeable in the younger generations. The Empire, GB – Rule Britannia sentiments are fading with generational change. It was sustained with. National Service in the 50’s, but that generation are getting old as all generations do.

  9. Maxi says:

    Tommy sheridan is a champion of the Scottish working class people,who stands up to the unionist underlings in Scotland and tells you straight how it is. When we get our independence it will be people like him we will need to thank. The question is: who would you rather run our country…English schoolboys or true Scots?.

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