RUTHERGLEN'S lickspittle Starmer acolyte Michael Shanks has been named Scottish MP of the Year by Holyrood magazine's political awards, which is something.
The award says much more about the irrelevance of Holyrood magazine than it does about the confirmed careerist Shanks, a man for whom political principle is as malleable as the jelly which he has in place of a spine.
Shanks was on BBC Radio Scotland yesterday where he made the remarkable assertion that renewable energy generated by Scottish wind farms isn't really Scottish renewable energy because "there isn't Scottish wind or English wind, there's GB wind."
Pause for a moment to fully appreciate the desperate inanity of that, eh, argument. It's more a replacement bus service than a train of thought, and the bus has broken down. You've heard of a straw in the wind, but this is the first time anyone has ever clutched at straws in the wind.
It's this kind of intellectual rigour which has led Holyrood magazine to name him Scottish MP of the Year, either that or it's because Shanks is the very embodiment of British wind. Still, Murdo Fraser must be relieved, finally someone has overtaken him in the facepalm "Oh My God Did He Really Just Say That?" stakes.
It's one thing when an “I'm not nationalist I'm British” politician trots out a politically expedient line, it's quite another when it's so risibly intelligence insulting. The really infuriating thing here is that Shanks knows his no such thing as Scottish wind line is asinine and laughable, but he doesn't care because he also knows that the Scottish media won't hold him to account for it. The Scottish media will give him an award and name him Scottish MP of the year.
The only power in Scotland most of the Scottish media will hold to account is devolved power, holding Westminster power to account might lead Scots to reflect on how poorly we are being served by Westminster and wonder if we could do better with independence. They can't let that happen. Oh look – a ferry!
Prior to winning the by election in October 2023 which first saw him elected as an MP, Shanks urged people to vote for him, saying Rutherglen needed "a local champion who will fight for our area. I want to be that champion." That claim has aged well.
We expected nothing from him and he has still managed to disappoint. Shanks is the reason we have warning labels.
Since becoming an MP Shanks has voted against abolishing the two-child cap on benefits, he voted in favour of axing the universal Winter Fuel Payment for pensioners, he voted to cut disability benefits, he supported the betrayal of Labour's pre-election promise to ensure fair compensation for Waspi women, and now he has given his constituents higher energy bills.
Since taking office he has voted to make every child, pensioner, disabled person, and energy consumer poorer. He pulled out all the stops to save the jobs of workers at the Lindsey oil refinery in Lincolnshire where Labour is haemorrhaging votes to Nigel Farage, but he threw the workers at Grangemouth under the bus. But never mind, he's got a lovely shiny award for his mantlepiece. I'm sure it's a perfect substitute for the soul he sold.
Shanks has now pontificated that a zonal energy market, which would lead to markedly lower energy bills for Scottish households, won't go ahead because it's "not worth the trade off". The trade off in this instance is that Scotland – which produces most of the renewably generated electricity with its "British wind" – can't be allowed to have lower electricity bills than southern England because that would anger people in an area where there are far more Westminster seats to be had and that would harm Labour's electoral prospects. It would also damage the profits of energy companies, making them less likely to pay for Starmer's suits and fitba tickets.
Shanks, like the rest of the Labour MPs supposedly representing Scottish constituencies, is acting to protect England's interests. Remember that when considering who to vote for at next May's Holyrood election.
UK Government's 'sticking point' on concentration camp
Writing in The National, Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie has noted that at the beginning of this year on Holocaust Remembrance Day, Keir Starmer vowed to stand against hatred and make the phrase “never again” mean what it says.
However, that must have come with an unspoken caveat: except for Palestinians. The UK Government is not merely refusing to condemn the ongoing genocide in Gaza, it will not even acknowledge that a genocide is taking place and continues to provide military equipment and intelligence to the Israeli armed forces.
Just this week the Israeli defence minister Israel Katz, who supports the annexation by Israel of the West Bank, announced a plan for what he euphemistically called a "humanitarian city" – in reality, a concentration camp – to be built on the ruins of Rafah in southern Gaza. Palestinians would be "screened" before entering the camp and once inside its fences they would not be permitted to leave until Israel makes arrangements to deport them to a third country from which they would not be allowed to return to Palestine.
Katz said the zone would initially house some 600,000 displaced Palestinians who have been forced to evacuate to the Al-Mawasi area along the coast of southern Gaza. Katz added that eventually the entire two million population of Gaza would be moved to the camp.
Katz then vowed that Israel would implement the plan, first floated by US President Donald Trump, to allow Palestinians to emigrate from Gaza to other countries and to take over the depopulated territory entirely. Israel has not said what would happen to those Palestinians who fail to pass its "screening" or those who refuse to go to the camp.
After Israel has rendered Gaza uninhabitable, destroyed hospitals, schools, and all civilian infrastructure and blocked the entry of food, water, and medical aid, it is nonsense to suggest that Palestinians would be given the choice to leave freely.
This plan is ethnic cleansing, genocide, and a clear breach of international law, but the most that the British Government could bring itself to say was that the plan would be a "sticking point" in ceasefire negotiations.
