UKIP to hold their deposit in Aberdeen?

Latest news from the count seem to suggest so.  Hmmm...

Is this the best SPL table ever?

Taken from the Beeb earlier.  And likely to be the closest Hearts get to the sharp end of the Scottish leagues for some time - that is if they make it to next season at all.

Friday favourite 112

It's the start of the festival season so here's one of Scotland's finest live bands.  Biffy Clyro with 'Many of Horror' at T in the Park.

Kingston Council leader quits after child porn arrest

More here.

Nigel Farage and UKIPs first parliamentary by-election?

Some rare footage from the Dunny-on-the-Wold by-election from 17 September 1987 with the late great Vincent Hanna.

The ultimate unexpected item in the bagging area...

... so says the Beeb

Friday favourite 111

With the release of Shane Meadow's Stone Roses reunion film - Made of Stone - it's appropriate to give Manchester's finest ever band an airing, so here they are with the much underrated 'Ten Story Love Song' from their second album

 

Clegg speaks at Davey fundraiser

Ed Davey's annual fundraising dinner and auction was held last night in a Mayfair hotel.  With the keynote speaker - one Nick Clegg.  I suspect - given the number of corporate types there - a substantial five figure sum was raised.  A far cry from the days of chicken stew and a raffle for a bottle of Lambrusco in a local scout hut...

Better together - hypothetical scaremongering

Two articles on Lib Dem Voice caught my eye today - both from the so-called 'Better Together' campaign who are effectively the political wing of the Scottish Labour party.

One is written by Kirsty O'Brien, who fails to mentions she is a London based Labour hack - looking to become a Scottish MEP next year.  Confusingly titled 'London is not a foreign country' - er no because it is a city - she raises the bizarre spectre of her poor wee son having to get his passport out when visiting his Granny.

If you couldn't think it could get any more bizarre - we then have an article from Willie Rennie - who should know better - fantasising about in/out EU referenda with Scotland staying in and the rest of the UK leaving.

I'm pretty relaxed about the outcome of the Scottish vote - but the result will be determined by which side can inspire the most confidence in Scottish voters that they represent their longer term interests and will provide optimism for their economic futures.  Not this sort of hypothetical scaremongering.

Guardian opposes NHS, jobs and affordable homes...

...well it does if they are being promoted by Liberal Democrat run Watford Council.

The Guardian's John Harris - best known for his eulogies of britpop and Tony Blair - has taken to his keyboard in the idyllic Hay on Wye to write a piece attacking the Lib Dems for wanting to redevelop some less than idyllic derelict land by Watford General Hospital (along with some allotments) to expand the local hospital, provide much needed new homes - more than a third of which will be affordable - and provide new jobs. All the existing allotment holders will be relocated locally.

The most interesting contention made by Harris is that:

'The rest will be given over to development which seems to have little connection to health at all: houses, along with "business incubator and retail units"'.

Sadly for Harris he obviously hasn't read the rest of Friday's Guardian.  Because if he had he would have stumbled across an article by Sarah Hayward, Labour Leader of Camden Council titled 'How councils can take action to bridge the equality gap'.

In it Harris would have found the following:

'The report found that housing is an important issue because it impacts on the borough's social mix, community cohesion, health, educational attainment and employment.'