Mundells sell out Scotland

So Youngs got a £1.3 million UK Government grant (bung?)to close their plant at Annan and move production to Grimsby.

That leaves the Mundells with a big question to answer, why did they not tell the people of Annan they and their Tory party friends had already sold the good people of Annan down the river?

Fluffy is supposed to stand up for Scotland's interests in the UK Cabinet, where is his apathetic attempt at faux anger over being ignored by by the Minsters at the Department of Trade and Industry and the destruction of jobs in his constituency?

He knew, as did Fluffy junior, what was actually going on, another bit of assett stripping from Scotland, Annan does not matter to the Fluffies, the town does not vote Tory, so teach them a lesson about who is boss, who is actually in control.

Ruth, "get on with the day job", must have known as well; given her complete silence on the issue and attempts to stir up anything to keep folk away from understanding just who was behind the deliberate destruction of Annan's main source of employment by her Tory colleagues in London.

The Fluffies response to yesterday's "All Under One Banner" march was it is unrepresentative of the "Scottish Borders" must rate as the weakest attempt to justify he and his father's failure to stand up for their constituents interests, ever. Dumfries and Galloway is not part of the "Borders", we are correctly refered to, geographically, as South West Scotland.

I have not blogged for months, simply because the disaster that is Brexit and Tory mismanagement of the UK economy is clear for anyone with a couple of brain cells to rub together, to see. Yet listening to Oliver Mundell's only response to 10,000 plus folk marching in Dumfries, for independence, was they did not represent his constituents views simply took the biscuit. I suppose since neither him nor his father represent the constituents of Dumfries and Galloway views, either at Holyrood or Westminster, he would know.

The message from the Fluffies is that Annan does not matter, Langholm farmers do not matter, the inshore Scottish fishing industry does not matter - so how much money will the UK Tory Government throw at Arla to close their plant at Lockerbie and move to the South West of England. Maybe the Fluffies will let us know just how much gold the parcel of rogues that are "Team Fluffy" have been bought and sold for to stay even more quiet over the rumblings at Arla, Lockerbie than they were over the Young's closure in Annan. "See yon couf's that ca'd a Laird" comes to mind.

The message from the UK Tory party is this "Scotland does not matter". It is almost as if the Anglo-British establishment, in London and the Home Counties, is cutting their losses in Scotland before they are cut for them. Even before the next referendum on the issue of independence for Scotland is called, it appears the Anglo-British establishment have accepted they have lost the next argument on the saving graces of Anglo-British Unionism, for Scotland, before it even begins.

The neo-liberalism of Reganomics and Thatcherism is bringing about the very result Thatcher fought to prevent, the termination of the UK Union Treaty. Karl Marx predicted the unrelenting model of capitalism of the 19th Century industrial revolution would eventually consume itself as its ability to generate "growth" for the "elite" would squeeze the rest of us to a point they could squeeze no more. The last area to be attacked in the lust for profits would be health, education and social welfare provision, as is now happening across England with the privatisation of the NHS, ever increasing University fees, attempts to privatise secondary education through erstwhile "Free Schools" and the removal of welfare provision.

Here is the strange thing, the neo-liberal guru's always ignore what Adam Smith, their erstwhile hero, had to say in the first volume of what is now known as the "Wealth of Nations". Smith predicted the same problem for unrelenting capitalism, its eventual collapse if it was not leavened with equanimity, a fair day's pay for a fair day's work. The experiment at New Lanark was based on Adam Smith's overall view of a sustainable national economy and while paternalistic, did prove Adam Smith's contention that "fair" treatment of your workforce in terms of housing, social, education and health provision was just as profitable and, more importantly, more sustainable for employers.

I am certain Karl Marx read Adam Smith's great work in full and this helped influence and form his own views, as rampant  and often destructive capitalism, raced across 19th Century Europe. Smith called on governments and employers good faith to balance the potential imbalance of unrestricted capitalism, Marx thought this could only be done by complete control of national economic policy by big Government, the command economy.

The truth is somewhere in between, as always, this is the line the SNP's "Growth Commission Report" seeks to tread as is the SNP Government's encouragement to pay the Scottish living wage, rather than the UK minimum wage; a truly Adam Smith solution - a fair day's work for a fair day's pay. Unsurprsingly the Scottish buinesses who have engaged in the Scottish Government "Adam Smith" fair pay project are finding they have a happier, effective and more productive staff.

This is all an anathema to the Fluffies and their ilk for whom personal wealth is all, equanimity is a dirty word, and their silence on this, as much else, is telling.