Conservative candidate Ivor Tiefenbrun describes Scots as "so thick"

I must admit when I read the headline in yesterday's Scotsman, I did  a double take and thought “Really?”  Would anyone be so stupid as to say that?  Has The Scotsman got this out of context?
 

Apparently not.  The Conservative candidate Ivor Tiefenbrun has defended Margaret Thatcher's policies and in doing so said "It's only because Scots are so thick that this was swallowed."

Now,  I have to be honest, Ivor isn't the only man to defend Margaret Thatcher's policies. A fairly well known Scot within the world of politics has also done this, not yesterday but during the Glenrothes by-election in 2008. This person said that the Scots didn't mind Thatcher's policies.

Have you guessed who it is yet?

Well it was in fact Wee Eck himself, our very own First Minister and leader of the single issue party itself, the SNP's Alex Salmond.

Who would have thought that he would support the devastation that Thatcher brought to Scotland?

Anyway, I digress. Back to Ivor who has in fact been selected as the Tory candidate for Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn.

He claimed Baroness Thatcher had;

"saved our cities" in Scotland and had broken the "corrupt power" of the trade unions as well as "enabling people to buy their own homes" during her 11 years in power.

No-one will argue that allowing people to buy their homes was entirely a bad thing, although we should remember that most councils were then prevented using the money raised from the sale of these homes to build  any more by Thatcher. That’s why we have such an affordable housing crisis today. Ivor Tiefenbrun played a leading role in the anti-devolution Think Twice campaign so isn't always on message with Scots anyway.

Mr Tiefenbrun defended the 1980s governments of Lady Thatcher, whose controversial policies included the unpopular poll tax and wide scale closure of Scottish coal mines.

He said:

"The way Labour work is that they have demonised Thatcher as if she was an evil force.

"It's only because Scots are so thick that this was swallowed."

When asked to explain his comments by The Scotsman, Mr Tiefenbrun said;

"You would have to be thick to accept that" Lady Thatcher had been bad for Scotland.

I am neither a Scot, although I now live here and call this home,  nor am I thick and I can see the damage that Margaret Thatcher and the Conservatives did across Scotland in the 1980s. What I can also see is that Labour didn't mend some of the damage either.

During the Glasgow East and Glasgow North East by-elections in the last two years I saw that there are still areas of deprivation which should not exist in this day and age and it is only down to the communities living there that they don't let it beat them.  Yes the Conservatives did damage this country and they should be ashamed of themselves.

Ivor Tiefenbrun continued;

"We have to look at the education system and ask if we have got too many teachers."

Too many teachers?  When did Mr Tiefenbrun last visit a school?

The Tory businessman was last night heavily criticised for his remarks, which included a claim that patients could;

"walk into hospitals and be dead in 48 hours from an infection."

Annabel Goldie has a lot to deal with being the leader of the 4th party in Scotland with just one MP in Westminster and candidates such as Gill Dykes claiming to be an MSP when she isn't, John Lamont who is bored of Holyrood and now Ivor Tiefenbrun who is insulting Scots by calling them "so thick".

I hope Annabel does the decent thing and at the very least insists Mr Tiefenbrun issues an apology, very quickly, or he may just face calls for his resignation from the good folk of Glasgow.

David Cameron, Margaret Thatcher and Gordon Brown

Back in 2007 Gordon Brown was roundly criticised for inviting Margaret Thatcher to 10 Downing Street.

So, even though he is also a Conservative, will David Cameron receive the same criticism for inviting Margaret Thatcher to 10 Downing Street today?

Photograph: Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA

Why Labour MP John McDonnell should not be leader of the Labour Party

Whatever you think of Margaret Thatcher and let's be honest, this is a person who generates feelings from hatred to love, wanting to go back in time to assassinate her is not something you expect of a Labour leadership contender.

John McDonnell had told the GMB union hustings event on Monday evening that he had been asked what single act he would do to improve the world if he could travel back to the 1980s.
John McDonnell replied:

"I said: 'Look, I was on the GMC that Mrs Thatcher abolished, I worked for the NUM and we had the NUM strike, I think I would assassinate Thatcher'."

This really highlights why John McDonnell will should never be leader of the Labour Party.

Tories and homophobia - have they really changed?

Well done to the Independent on Sunday for digging on this story. Roger Helmer, Conservative MEP for the East Midlands claims homophobia doesn't exist, in fact he writes on his blog "Straight Talking" that homophobia is "merely a propaganda device designed to denigrate and stigmatise those holding conventional opinions".

This coming from the same Tory MEP who defended homophobic Michal Kaminski, the head of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group which the British Tories are now part of in Europe.

Although Michal Kaminski and Margaret Thatcher have something in common, no not Section 28, it is their admiration for General Augusto Pinochet!

Michal Kaminski, the head of the European Conservatives and Reformists group, is under fire himself over his controversial views, his one-time membership of the far-right National Rebirth party (NOP) and his opposition to an apology for Polish involvement in a wartime massacre of Jews in the town of Jedwabne.

Anyway, back to Roger Helmer, the MEP who describes himself as having liberal views towards homosexuality but is dead set against gay marriage. Hardly liberal.

Honestly, what an absolute buffoon, how dare he say homophobia doesn't exist, what about those people all around the world beaten to death because they are gay, I was attacked when I was much younger because I was gay, in Nottingham, the person who attacked me did purely because I was gay, he had followed from Gatsby's, the main gay pub at that time and he hurled homophobic abuse at me for well over an hour before he threw the first punch, so Mr. Helmer I can categorically say you are talking out of your arse!

I cannot say I am surprised, this is a Member of the same Party who brought us Section 28, the same Party that controlled Kent County Council under Sandy Bruce-Lockhart who introduced their own version of Section 28 after the law had been repealed.

Senior Tories like Michael Howard MP, William Hague MP, Baroness Young and David Wilshire MP were vocal supporters of Section 28.

Leopards do not change their spots and neither have the Conservatives. I accept the younger newer members may have, and most of those don't remember the bad old days and can't understand folk like me getting worked up about it, but I do, I do remember it.

So my challenge to David Cameron, sack Roger Helmer if you disagree with him or back him?

My message to Roger Helmer, go and meet some gay people, yes real ones, constituents in your region and ask them if homophobia exists?

Howard Stoate MP resigns before losing

As I lived and campaigned in Dartford for 14 years I know a little bit about the politics there, did you know Margaret Thatcher stood for Parliament for the first time in Dartford and I was a Parish Councillor there as well? - facts you may or may not have known.

Just recently, in the last ten minutes I have seen various Tweets and emails that Howard Stoate MP is to stand down blaming the new rules on second jobs, as he is also a practising GP.

I have never heard such a load of tosh in my life, the Labour Party in Dartford has been in a decline over recent years since the Tories took control of the Council and key members of the Labour Party passed away or moved out of the area. Labour have taken Dartford for granted for some years.

The volume of literature had gone from regular labour leaflets to a letter from Howard Stoate now and again, when I moved to Scotland I emailed Howard and mentioned that if the local Labour Party didn't pull it's finger out and get going again he was doomed.

The local Tories are divided on the choice of their candidate but fair play he did get within 706 votes last time, but the Liberal Democrats candidate Peter Bucklitsch and his amazing Agent, Andrew Reeves ran the most intense campaign for some time that the Lib Dems had done thus preventing Dartford becoming a Tory gain in 2005.

I have said for some considerable time that Howard Stoate would lose at the next General Election so his decision not to stand does not surprise me at all.