Scottish Affairs Committee

Deirdre Brock MP has been doing a great job unearthing the amount of money being spent by David Mundell’s Scotland Office.

The figures are vast and shocking and new, and signs of a new desperation … these are vast sums of money being ploughed into British propaganda …

 

Comments (38)

Join the Discussion

Your email address will not be published.

  1. Dougie Blackwood says:

    Listen to him squirm. This numptie has been Westminster’s man in Scotland for many years now and he still hasn’t a brain in his head.

    1. Irene crichton says:

      I listened to mundell recently & at the end of the committee meeting i decided i had never heard anyone talk so much yet say so little !

  2. Kenm says:

    What a shambling incoherent performance by Mundell! The questioner must have lost the will to live waiting and waiting and waiting for a response that actually answered the question and made some sense! I met him once in a social setting and he was exactly the same, so people he attempted to chat to quickly made excuses and fled. That then begs several questions: how on earth did he get selected as a local Tory candidate? Is their talent pool so barren that they adopted a man who can’t speak concisely and cogently as their parliamentary candidate? Are the Tory-supporting constituents so obedient to the party ideology that enough of them voted him into Westminster? Were the candidates of other parties just as feckless and inappropriate? And who in the Tory party imagined he was a suitable man for the job of Secretary of State for Scotland, or did they just see a gormless man incapable of communicating at any level who would do as he was telt no matter how damaging it might be for his constituents and the people of Scotland.

    1. Karen Ann Donald says:

      You forget he was the only Tory in Scotland at the election he won in. There was one job and one candidate. And that’s how we got this bumbling idiot. Otherwise they would have had to have an English MP residing over Scottish affairs. He is a disgrace to the post and an embarrassment to Scotland. But there is no bigger a-licker, liar and prevaricator, so he is perfect in the eyes of WM.

      1. Brian Spoors says:

        I disagree on the a-licking assessment. His tongue is only so far up May’s a that he can see Ruth Davidson’s heels.

        1. Stephen Gell says:

          Brian, I have to say that is quite possibly the most concise, truthful and well put summation of the Scottish political scene (at least the right wing of it) I have ever had the fortune of reading…. bravo!

        2. Trisha says:

          Am buckled here

  3. Alan Bissett says:

    Fearing that Holyrood is now lost to ‘the Nats’, the aim is to beef up the Scottish Office as a Unionist powerbase in Scotland, both challenging and undermining Holyrood’s authority, with the Secretary of State their de facto First Minister.

  4. Mary McCabe says:

    Malcolm Rifkind once described the Secretary of State for Scotland as being akin to the Governor-General of a dominion. Appointed by the UK Government and answerable only to them, he has the power to overrule all the elected bodies throughout Scotland. (The present incumbent isn’t permitted the autonomy of a Governor-General – for him “puppet governor” is more apt.)

    It’s amazing to remember that with the inauguration of our devolved Government, the UK Government was seriously considering abolishing the Scottish Office. That was before they realised the effect Holyrood would have on the Scottish cringe upon which their overlordship relied.

    The massive amount of taxpayers’ money currently lavished on Unionist propaganda through social media is to counteract Westminster’s inability to control/suppress social media in the same way as they control the information output on mainstream media. However there’s a lot more on the agenda than fake news.

    The Scottish Office in 1999 had a staff of 5 or 6 – it now has more than ten times that. The immediate plan is for the Scotland Office to by-pass the Scottish Parliament and the Barnett Formula, to spend our share of the taxes directly rather than trust Holyrood with block grants. This spending can be presented as a benevolent gift from the UK Government (will “put a union flag” on projects.) The money will go on England’s priorities which are very different from the priorities of succeeding Scottish Governments.

    The long-term plan is of course to present the Scottish Parliament as a toothless talking-shop and a waste of money, and to disband it, either in one go or through a death of a thousand cuts.

    1. Alan Bissett says:

      Nail. Head.

    2. Francis McIntosh says:

      Sadly your fears are valid. Much evidence indicates this over the years. The arrogant dismissal of Scottish views and input over the last three years over Brexit in Westminster has been evident. The latest sudden interest in Scotland over the last few weeks indicates that a no deal Brexit is expected, and that rUK i.e. England needs Scottish assets badly.
      I fully expect a suspension of the devolved parliament/assemblies “in the national interest” post Brexit. Don’t hold your breath during the suspension.

  5. James Mills says:

    There is a vacancy in Washington for a UK ambassador – could we not appoint Mundell to this post ? It would be sweet revenge on Trump !

    1. Anakim Hemelloper says:

      Brilliant! Let’s start a campaign to have Fluffy made the new ambassador to the USA!

  6. Squiggly says:

    um..ah..ehhh….uh…..um…..ehhhhhh….ad infinitum…
    Well now we know……hope you were all listening cos yer gonna be tested on that lucid description by ..er wots ‘is name..ah yes… er….um… the UKs precious precious numpty.
    I just worry we let him back over the border…let the Sassenachs keep him..they deserve him.(we don’t)

  7. Welsh Sion says:

    It’s the Wales Office NOT the Welsh Office – not that I’m particularly enamoured of either title. Indy Cymru is the answer!

  8. Stephen Duncan says:

    I don’t think this is a sign of a new desperation. I think it is a sign of a renewed determination amongst the representatives of the British establishment to propagandise the Scottish people … and it a development that is deeply worrying.

  9. Colin White says:

    British Government propaganda machine and at our expence.

  10. AdamH says:

    I always think of D. Mundell as the nodding dog of Scottish politics.

  11. a.j.m says:

    what a gibbering idiot

  12. JOHN curran says:

    Err umm as eh I was err umm as was saying eh eh err umm ……………
    public speaker he is not he mums and errs that much we’ve forgot the question

  13. gerard gallagher says:

    he is a bumbling idiot

  14. John McCallum says:

    Last time, in real life, that I saw a performance like that was when a pupil was trying to come up with a suitable lie.

  15. Jacqueline Tosh says:

    As a resident of Dumfries and Galloway, may I just say that even if I were a Conservative voter (which I most certainly am not!) I would find him a total embarrassment! I really don’t know how he’s still in Parliament……except that old potato, “aye been”!

    1. Hetty says:

      Yep, and of course, he is installed there to actually embarass Scotland on the world stage. An unintelligble incompetent supposed ‘sec of state FOR Scotland’, to counter the actual First Ministers reputation on the world stage as a competent and intelligent politician and leader of a democratically elected government in Scotland, who does work FOR Scotland, as opposed to Mundell who works for the British Nationalist government, a colonial throwback, desperate to hang onto their gravy train.

      The BritNats have had it so easy and so good for so long, pulling the wool over the eyes of the people of Scotland, and they must know after that sectreted Ipsos Mori poll, that their gravy train is on a very shoogly peg. As others have pointed out, how far they may decide to go to thwart Scotland’s democratic process is of great concern indeed.

      1. Jacqueline Tosh says:

        I agree totally with you and can only hope most sincerely that our Government will prevail

  16. Msureen Purdie says:

    A blatant advertising canpaign for the Unionists. Well done for challenging this. Cannot believe that these people are in charge of any office..

    1. John Cooper says:

      My thoughts exactly, he got away without answering the question. The whole bloody lot of them were useless.

  17. Francis McIntosh says:

    This is certainly not only an eye-opener in terms of the money spent, and it’s purpose that appears to be against the interests of Scotland, but the inability of the Secretary of state to answer straight questions.

    I cannot remember such a pitiful response from a government minister. Incoherent mumbling punctuated by umms, aahs, of a person who is unsuccessfully trying to hide his ignorance and incompetence.

    In any normal senior position, he would be dismissed promptly, but hopefully never appointed in the first place. Of course he was the only one available, but even an old Tory lordship dragged out and dusted off would have been more competent!

    This is Scotland’s person in the cabinet, the government representative at Westminster of our country.

    Shameful.

  18. Jessie Young says:

    So, after numerous coughs, eh’s. more waffling , he still could not say what he had actually spent this money on.Mind you, I nealt chocked myself when he tried to compare his spends the the millions the Government as a whole spent.
    Normally, I cannot stand the sight of this an, but I forced myself just to see him squirm, and squirm some more.

  19. R.Norman says:

    It appears to me that Mr Mundell and his cohorts in the Scottish office are hell bent on spending public money in an attempt to try and brain wash the people of Scotland that we should bend the knee to the supreme Westminster’s will behave ourselves and cowtow to the glorious union.
    The tories sense of superiority/supremacy stinks to high heaven it is really time for Mr Mundell and his English Tory masters to shut up and do something that his foreign to them listen to the Scottish people.
    You are driving more and more people in Scotland away from the union.
    You lied through your back teeth the last time and used every dirty trick you could think of , enough is enough

  20. David Pettigrew says:

    What more do you expect from one of worlds top little weasels
    There must be budgets.
    No money tree eh?
    Shame black shame on May Davidson Pidlington and Sniffie Mundellie

  21. Geraldine says:

    They still haven’t woke up to the fact that Scotland switched on after the Referendum, yes or no, we switched on and we are paying attention these days.

  22. James Reilly says:

    Blithering idiot

  23. James Reilly says:

    A truly blithering fool

  24. carole oattes says:

    A pure embarrassment, we don’t want that waffler speaking to or for us.

  25. George Paterson says:

    Civil Servants are obliged to carry out the instructions of their political “masters”. They have to sign the official Secrets Act on that understanding. With this avalanche of Civil Servants (at a Scottish Cost (?)), they are being deployed to Edinburgh to mount a catalogue of facts and figures to justify the WM case in defending their case for the Union. All minutiae of details against anything done or said by the SNP Politicians at Holyrood will be undermined by this army of unionist employees. Even Scottish Civil Servants in St Andrew’s House come under the authority of WM !! This move to Edinburgh is the real indicator that WM now realise Independence is more likely now that in 2014. I wonder if the current HQ for Scotland in London, Dover House, will be maintained and staffed by the same Civil Servants who will operate in Edinburgh in a transitional arrangement. Is it still a fact that WM has the power to abolish the Scottish Government parliament at Holyrood ?? Interesting to note that the Civil Servant aiding David Mundell in the clip from the debate shown is Gillian McGregor CBE! Honoured for her work with Mundell??

  26. David Craig says:

    He just wants a seat in the House Of Lords. Lord Haw Haw of the present day seems appropriate

  27. John Cooper says:

    It beggars believe this clown was elected to represent anyone. Are borders people on some sort of halucagenic substance that makes them see something that isn’t there? Every time I hear him speak makes me want to scream, he’s an embarrassment to Scotland. Stop voting for him!!!

Help keep our journalism independent

We don’t take any advertising, we don’t hide behind a pay wall and we don’t keep harassing you for crowd-funding. We’re entirely dependent on our readers to support us.

Subscribe to regular bella in your inbox

Don’t miss a single article. Enter your email address on our subscribe page by clicking the button below. It is completely free and you can easily unsubscribe at any time.