I dreaded to think in what condition roads are in the countryside, as I stottered around Thurso today.  Even streets in the middle of town were lethal, and the paths and side-streets elsewhere in town barely have been touched since the snow-falls at last weekend.

I had foolishly left my pathway  untended, and relented on Xmas Day by setting about it with an axe and shovel.  Because of the unrelenting cold, hitting Caithness and the north, all this resulted in was a sheen of black ice this morning.

I did see a single-seat gritter in Mount Pleasant for the first time, as one chuntered past this morning at 0730 hrs (triple time).

Eddie Barnes, writing in the Scotsman, describes a compromise for regional political parties which feel left out of the proposed televized debate between leaders of the three main Westminster political parties.  Like a football match, they should play for the full 90 minutes with the regional parties coming on for a spell at extra time.

I do not have any objections to this, and would welcome the opportunitiy for the SNP leader in Westminster to promote his party’s vision for Scotland.

First Minister’s Questions on 17 December included an approach from Scottish Labour leader, Iain Gray about how much Education Minister, Mike Russell knew about his former constituency office manager’s double-life as a guttersnipe-blogger.

Perhaps unaccustomed to not being able to lead a jeering pack against his political opponents on the floor of Scottish Parliament, Salmond chastised Gray for not raising questions about anything else issues such as UN climate change talks in Copenhagen or the collapse of Scottish airline Flyglobespan.

The reasons are simple. The Scottish Executive does not have UN status, despite Salmond’s begging letters in 2007, or a Foreign Office which would arguably have given it an interest in the summit; as Salmond found out when shuffled into a side-room after expending air-miles and carbon stains to arrive unannounced.

Although domestic Scottish interests have definitely been affected by Flyglobespan going into administration, this had been confirmed only the previous day. It would have been rash for an elected politician to make any sweeping statements about the issue, and a waste of valuble FMQ time to direct a statement potentially as simple as calling for an inquiry (which, with a suitable consideration period, has now been made).

The primary duty of MPs and MSPs should not be acting as glorified Citizens’ Advice Bureau volunteers or sparing other politicians from embarassment, but of holding their respective Executives to account.

Much to Fish-heid McMoonface’s chagrin, Mike “Pied Noir” Russell and Mark “Smear-Meister” MacLachlan continue to huff and puff and threaten to blow each other’s house in.

I have negliable sympathy for MacLachlan – who thinks it would be spiffing that an independent Scotland have US-style mass-immigration with a British-style welfare state, although he has yet to point to a business plan – who either resigned or was pushed as Russell’s constituency office manager after being identified as the scabrous Montague Burton of The Universality of Cheese blog.

Various titilatory but unsubstantiated allegations about political rivals had been pushed, and was to include allegations of the sexuality of a married MSP. Unless this individual was a public promoter of “family values” or an anti-gay position, MacLachlan struck as even less reputable than Kenneth Gunn.

There is no freedom-of-speech issue here. Within a lot of reason, I would accept the presence of such personal blogs: just not by paid political staffers of public servants. If I felt so inclined, I have little doubt I could find choice words from the Fish-heid on the Derek Draper unt Damian McBride disgrace, a scant six months previously.

If MacLachlan wishes to embarass his pockets by launching a claim for unfair dismissal, by all means. Any claims that Russell knew about his actions are a Don’t Tell Him Pike moment.

The problem comes considering that following his resignation, Russell thundered that he had no knowledge of the blog ran by his closest private employee. This changed to an equivocating “didn’t know about its contents” during the Home Knitted STV News on 17 December.

Thus, it is a great pity that Russell had not not waited until MacLachlan had publicized details of an e-mail trail which indicated senior SNP employees and elected representatives knew of and offered suggestions for the blog. Even more of a pity that he had not waited before threatening to sue MacLachlan for defamation.

British libel laws are dismal enough, but politicians accuse each other of lying and not caring for the public interest all the time. For one to threaten to sue when he is called a liar is like a boxer who calls the Police when someone lands a punch.

Scotland, wha’ like us? None, thank fuck.

“I think he besmirched it”.

Gerry Adams on the formal Irish Republican funeral afforded to his father, who has now been revealed as having physically and sexually abused members of his own family.

Gerry Adams speaking on the revelations that his late father sexually abused members of his family, and that his brother is now wanted in connexion with allegations of the sexual abuse of his neice.

THIS IS A GUEST POST BY DHAIBHIDH C MHAC DHUIHDHLHEIGH OF THE LENINIST VANGUARD (DRUMNADROCHIT CHAPTER).

Greetings all. Truly inspiring news for our comrades in Glasgow, and all comrades committed to the socialist and non-hegemonic principles being pursued by the Scottish Government in order to bring this nation into the post-colonial and post-capitalist age.

One of the most pressing issues currently to face Scotland is the continuing plight of Gaza; protest against which was shamefully silenced by the weird pro-Zionist enclave within the Celtic Movement.

A truly harrowing image of the effects of Zionist restrictions can be seen below:

Look, no coffee or pasta or footballs in sight! The cruelty!

Thus, I am truly pleased to report that from 1700 hrs on 11 December, Glasgow Central Mosque will host an exhibition, and video link to Gaza officials.

I was truly honoured to have been in the presence of one Gaza official, Ziad al-Zaza, the Minister for National Economy when our comrade George Galloway generously donated his beleaguered government money during the children’s crusade Viva Palestina mission to Gaza which I joined.

I hope to hear from him again.

It should be a source of pride for the Scottish Government that their Deputy First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon will be present in the audience on 11 December. Cross-party support will come from Pauline McNeill, the Chair of the only Holyrood cross-party group dedicated to one specific region of the world.

After all, SNP fundamentalist, Margo Macdonald considers Palestinian Arabs in the 21st Century to be the same as a warring nation 800 years ago.

This truly inspiring event is to be arranged by Friends of Al-Aqsa, whose founder, Ismail Patel is also scheduled to speak. Also a spokesman for the British Muslim Initiative, he is a close political ally of Mohammed Sawalha who has been named as a fugitive Hamas commander; and Azzam Tamimi who would detonate himself against Israelis if only he were given a visa.

Patel knows what Jews should and should not believe, and knows that Hamas is not a terrorist organization.

“Hamas is no terrorist organisation. The reason they hate Hamas is because they refuse to be subjugated, occupied by the Israeli state, and we salute Hamas for standing up to Israel.” … “…to the state of Israel: you no longer represent the Jewish people. You have no moral authority to speak for the Jewish people when thousands of Jews are against what you are doing. And finally, to the British Jewish Board of Deputies, shame on you, to work, to promote the genocide of the Palestinian people and the war crimes of the Israeli government. You do not speak for the British Jewry who today have signed in the Guardian against the Jewish government, what it is doing to the Palestinian people. Shame on the British Jewish Board of Deputies.”

Police in Peru have arrested a number of people on suspicion of murder.  It is feared that the victims were sought for their body-fat, which was then sold for as much as £9,000 per litre to Western cosmetics companies.

THIS IS A GUEST POST BY DHAIBHIDH C MHAC DHUIHDHLHEIGH OF THE LENINIST VANGUARD (DRUMNADROCHIT CHAPTER).

I am truly, truly, truly disturbed.   I wrote before about the shameful attempts to smear me, our Brothers Osama Saeed and Azad Ali and the forces of good hegemony over our past statements concerning Anwar al-Awlaki, and his tour-guide business to Somalia.

I cannot stress enough that I refute any allegations that these past statements reflect a desire to see American troops being killed in America.  I am now disgusted to see similar allegations being made against the truly inspiring East London Mosque and London Muslim Centre.  The Khatib, or primary iman of this place of worship and community outreach is Shaykh Abdul Qayyum, a man of peace, who has also been the target of neo-con smear-attempts for his support for the Palestinian people.

In an article, the notoriously right-wing The Times stated:

This year a video lecture by Mr Awlaki was delivered at the East London mosque under the banner “The End of Time” with a poster depicting New York in flames. The mosque said that an outside group had used its facilities for the event.

It is truly disengenuous to attempt to link promotion literature for this eschatological discussion to a support for terrorism.  Look, for instance, at the promotion literature for the upcoming blockbuster, 2012.  Why is this not being condemned?

Obviously, our Brothers at the mosque were most disturbed, and wrote immediately a letter of clarification to The Times, which was not published.  They wrote a second letter, which The Times has seen fit to publish:

Sir, Contrary to reports in The Times (Nov 12), Anwar Al-Awlaki did not give a lecture via video link at an event held at the East London Mosque on January 1, 2009.

The article implied that the event was organised by the East London Mosque. The event titled the “End of Time” was a private ticketed event, organised by an external company called Noor Pro Media, which hired the London Muslim Centre (LMC).

The East London Mosque hires its facilities (LMC) to all members of the community, Muslim or non, with the proviso that nothing unlawful takes place. The centre has a robust hiring policy to ensure this, and as far as we are aware, nothing illegal and/or extreme took place at this event.

We unequivocally condemn the actions of Major Hasan, and the reported statement of Anwar Al-Awlaki expressing support for him.

Shaynul Khan
Assistant Executive Director
East London Mosque and London Muslim Centre

I think this is reasonable.  I am unsure why the ELM did not heed warnings prior to the event from The Telegraph or leader of the opposition at Tower Hamlets, Cllr Peter Golds, as reported by The East London Advertiser but this matter should now be put to rest and wounds allowed to heal.

One of the most disreputable arguments for an academic boycott of Israel came from Tom Hickey, a philosophy lecturer at Brighton University who said in the well-known political publication, the British Medical Journal:

In the case of Israel, we are speaking about a society whose dominant self image is one of a bastion of civilisation in a sea of medieval reaction. And we are speaking of a culture, both in Israel and in the long history of the Jewish diaspora, in which education and scholarship are held in high regard. That is why an academic boycott might have a desirable political effect in Israel, an effect that might not be expected elsewhere.

Even if this were true, and the achievements of the likes Aaron Ciechanover and Avram Hershko, or Ada Yonath were front page news in Entitean newspapers (hint, they were not), how obscene would it be for anyone claiming to represent the unifying force of academia and scientific thought to ostracize a society in which such brainboxes are uniformly praised?

Yet, apart from senior and genuinely brilliant academics such as Professors Stephen Rose or Terry Eagleton, many of the pro-boycotters – not least, Hickey – are minor lecturers or higher education staff whose ‘political activism’ is pursued due a lack of professional responsibilities. I assume Israeli institutions are seen as a soft-target because of their real or perceived lack of co-operation with British institutions: true moral consistency would surely involve a similar call for boycotts of American institutions, and definitely those with ties to the US Government and/or military, but this would likely result in a rapid response from university Senates at such a threat to their academic relations.

In my experience, people involved with academic life for the love of knowledge and learning may have disagreements with the policies of named countries, but never have been so perverse to boycott their institutions such as those in Serbia at the height of the Balkan wars.

The latest wheeze from professional political agitators in Norway, appealing to their status as the indulged children of state-education, has been to pursue an academic boycott of Israeli institutions and individuals deemned to move in the wrong circles.

They reckoned without, however, the likes of Professor Bjørn Alsberg of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, and the tendancy of the Board of Trustees NTNU to reject outright vanity projects which single out only one country for especial oppobrium.