Friday favourite 89

Here's the Motors - better known for their hit 'Airport' on TOGWT in 1978 with Dancing the Night Away.

Russia signals end for Assad

The news that Russia thinks Syrian dictator Bashar al Assad may face defeat is surely the end.  Assad has only been able to cling on so long with the support of Moscow and withdrawal of their personnel would be terminal. 

Assad is one of the last of the unreformed soviet dictators who tools of repression, state murder and torture have kept his grip on power while other middle eastern leaders were feeling the cold blast of popular democracy.  But it's not just in Moscow where Assad found support - he always had his fans in the west too - those who in the name of socialism and equality conveniently ignored assad and his ilk's anti social actions and personal agrandizement. 

Assad will no doubt be offered safe passage and asylum somewhere out of Syria where he can spend some more time with his ill gotten gains and guilty conscience.  The question is who will support him then?

Happy 12/12/12

Not for another 88 years and 20 days will we have a similar date - so enjoy it while you can!

Unionist caution needed on Barosso EU entry comments

I'm sure the champagne corks are popping in the 'Better Together' HQ after European President Jose Manuel Barosso said that newly independent states would have to reapply for EU membership.

I'm sure he is right that states created by that secession from a larger entity would have to apply to join the EU.  But that's not the case if Scotland votes for independence.

The United Kingdom is the entity that has EU membership and it was created by the Act of Union in 1707. If Scotland votes for independence then it is surely arguable that both remaining parts - Scotland and the rump state (as it were) are new states and both either remain EU members or neither do.  Scotland is an equal part of the union - as is England - and there can be no UK without both parts.

Now I'm not a lawyer, but I can imagine the legal wrangles over this issue going on for years.  And at the end of the day they are diversion from the main debate.  And that is as much a 'heart' issue as it is one based on logic or legal argument.  So the Better Together campaign shouldn't celebrate too soon - they need to make a case for maintaining the union based on values and positive principles - which so far they have struggled to do.

Patrick Moore - great scientist, lousy politician

With the death of Patrick Moore Britain has lost one of its great eccentrics and a man who popularised astronomy - presenting The Sky at Night for more than 50 years.

What was less well known was Moore's dabbling in right wing politics.  In the 1970s he co-founded the anti immigration United Country Party, which later merged with the New Britain Party. 

The New Britain Party supported apartheid and called for a complete ban on non-white immigration.  They stood in the Bermondsey by-election in 1983 coming eighth with just 62 votes.  And following the winding up of  Jimmy Goldsmith's referendum party several current leading lights in UKIP joined - including MEPs Mike Nattrass and Jeffery Titford.

The party folded in 2008.

Friday favourite 88 - Apollo 17

Forty years ago today Apollo 17 launched the last manned moon mission.  Commander Gene Cernan was the last man to walk on the moon and one of only three to go to the moon twice (he was also part of the Apollo 10 crew who flew round the moon).  Apparently he left his camera on the moon to be picked up at a later date...

Chump Trump takes hump over Scots champ

The news that Michael Forbes - long suffering neighbour of Donald Trump's vandals and bullies at his Aberdeenshire golf course - has won the Glenfiddich Scot of the Year award has been almost universally  welcomed.

But not in Trump Towers needless to say.  Forbes's well deserved recognition has led to Trump to 'lose the heid' as his long lost Scottish grandmother might have once said. 

According to the Guardian Trump has attacked Glennfiddich's owner William Grant and removed all their brands from his hotels and resorts, claiming the award was an 'insult to Scotland' and that Grant's were jealous of his own single malt whisky brand.

Given Trump is seeking a planning application for a second golf course one can only wonder whether this latest unhinged outburst might actually make the councillors of Aberdeenshire see sense and send him packing.  Sadly, given their supine craving to him so far - supported by First Minister and local MSP Alex Salmond - I suspect he will once again get what he wants. 

The problem with Osborne...

...is that he is just too concerned with political point scoring as this response to a perfectly reasonable question from David Miliband on the Autumn statement shows. (The full debate and exchanges can be downloaded from the Hansard website). 

David Miliband (South Shields) (Lab):

This time last year, the Chancellor told me not to worry about youth unemployment on the grounds that his Youth Contract would take care of it. Now we know that 450,000 young people have been unemployed for more than six months and that 179,000 have gone on to the Work programme but only 5,920 have got a job as a result. That is 3% of those going on the Work programme and less than 2% of the long-term youth unemployed. Will he now agree, without point scoring, to look at the level of the wage subsidy to incentivise take-up, at the structure of the Work programme, so that voluntary organisations are not squeezed out, and at the role of a part-time job guarantee to give hope to these young people?

Mr Osborne:

The right hon. Gentleman often has interesting and intelligent things to say about welfare to work programmes, and I am happy to consider the points he makes. I read some of his work earlier this year—it was quite a good job application for being shadow Chancellor.

Osborne's credibility as Chancellor is reduced by this undergraduate debating style and his use of political beartraps in his proposals.  He should take a leaf out of Vince Cable's book and play it straight and grown up.

Tim Farron in Richmond Park

Something interesting is happening in Richmond Park politics - certainly for a seat won by multi-millionaire Tory Zac Goldsmith two and a bit years ago by a slightly too comfortable 4,000 votes.

Given the current languishing of the Lib Dems, Goldsmith is probably expecting a relatively comfortable ride next time with the Lib Dems concentrating their limited fire elsewhere.

But that's not the case - the Lib Dems are in the middle of selecting a PPC and are getting large numbes of activists out on the streets - including this evening Party President Tim Farron - pictured here giving a post canvas pep talk in the Dog and Fox pub, just round the corner from the Goldsmith family pile..

Unbuilt London: a treasure trove of impossible plans

This image of a railway built on stilts in the middle of the Thames is taken from 'Unbuilt London' which is publishing a series of articles looking at the various schemes dreamt up but never implemented.

Their first article looks at the transport schemes that never happened including this mad railway scheme and an airport over the Thames at the Houses of Parliament among many bizarre others...