I covered Immigration recently and will do so again in a few days (probably) as the situation I spoke about seems to have exploded over the last few days.

Instead I’m going to cover something that popped up last week and again yesterday.


Jim Murphy, the shadow Secretary of State for International Development, has thrown his hat into the ring for the leadership of Scottish Labour after previously declaring that he had no intention of leaving Westminster.

Now however, he is officially taking his place in the contest for the leadership of the Scottish Labour party and this has the potential to build on comments made by the departing leader Johann Lamont who said that London treated Scotland like a branch office. She resigned after her general secretary was called down to London to be sacked London without anyone consulting her or even telling her it was going to happen.

She considered her position to be untenable and so she resigned and had a few choice words for Miliband and the London party. Can of worms opened.

The Tories are very much an English party, Labour have a strong showing in Scotland and are running Wales (into the ground), the Lib Dems run my corner of the world though given the way they are falling off the bottom of the polls that will change I hope.

North of the border the Tories have one whole MP, a remarkable fact, I’m sure they remark on it while sipping subsidized Champers with their subsidized lunches (on expenses) in the subsidized eating halls of Parliament.

Labour on the other hand has a sizeable number of MPs up there, enough that they would be facing almost permanent opposition status if they lost them.  Given this the London mob have been keen to keep those MPs in place and this leads to part of the problem. Micromanagement.

The London based Labour leadership MUST keep those Scottish MPs, without them English Labour does not have the numbers to challenge the Tories, even with the Lib Dems though how many MPs the Lib Dems can expect after five years as willing lapdogs to the Nasty party is anyone’s guess.

So London seems to be working hard to keep Scottish Labour following the London agenda, the problem comes when Scotland has very different needs and attitudes to London.

Not so long ago we had the Scottish referendum, the SNP pushed hard for independence, London pushed hard for Scotland to stay in the Union. Which led to a problem, the government who most wanted Scotland to stay is Tory, as much as we dislike and hate the nasty party down here in England north of the border they feel even more strongly. So the Tories could not directly lead the stay together campaign, advisors told them to stay out of Scotland and not add their names to the campaign for fear of driving away supporters.

So the Tories let Brown and Co lead the Scottish referendum fight, Labour have much stronger contacts and could bring in something the Tories did not have, Scottish MPs. A number of well known Scots rolled north and added their voices to the better together case.

Gordon Brown was the biggest fish in this pond but Jim Murphy was very active across all of Scotland though he campaigned alone rather than as part of the London Labour machine.

The votes were counted, a massive percentage of the Scottish voters came out to vote and the majority decided to stay in the UK. A great many promises had been made about devolution of powers to Scotland if they stayed in the UK and to my mind this had an effect in swinging votes to stay.

The Tories let Labour front the better together campaign and promised to support the promises on devolution and more powers. Then blatantly said they were attaching conditions to devolution and rather than meet the promised deadline would in fact consider it sometime later on, maybe, when they had the time, after the next election, in a few years.

So far this has simply bubbled under the surface, people have gone back to their normal lives and the day to day worries of surviving in austerity Britain. But those promises have not been forgotten nor will they be, they will become one more thing that will be added to the pile come the elections next year.

There have been a lot of comments from various Quarters about how the SNP are finished, voters are leaving them, Alex Salmon is quitting and Labour will pick up the pieces. But, and this is a big but, Labour is facing the prospect of a huge backlash when people decide that the English politicians lied to them in order to secure a NO vote.

Enter Jim Murphy.

He has said that he wanted Gordon Brown to stand for the role, then when Gordon declined many MPs and Scottish people called on him to step in.

Labour insiders are talking about Mr Murphy coming in without any New Labour baggage.

Jim Murphy has said the following:

“I will hire and fire who I want. I am big enough and ugly enough and I am not going to be pushed around by anyone. If I am leader it is not for anyone else, in any other part of the United Kingdom, to tell me who I can employ in the Scottish Labour Party.

I'm not saying Johann was pushed around but that is the way it is going to be if I am in charge. I want more autonomy for the Scottish Labour Party.

The House of Commons will always be important but increasingly Holyrood is where the action is going to be and that is why I am making this move.”

Other Scottish commentators are warning of the dangers of ‘Westminster Candidates’ and of London interference.

Counter this with a quote from one of the other candidates for the job Sarah Boyack, “It's absolutely crucial that we get an Ed Miliband government elected”. Not a Labour government but a Miliband government, a man fairly unknown by the majority of Scottish voters and the man who is running the London party that treats Scotland as a branch office.

For years now the complaint has been made, and rightly so, that London and the London Political class is out of touch and disinterested with anything outside of the M25. Scotland is about as far from London as you can get and has very different needs and wants to London. But London seems to be trying to run the Scottish political party in exactly the same way as and following the same agenda as the London mob.

As Scotland waits for the promised devolution of power the last thing they want is going to be attempts to bring them more tightly under control of London. The Tories won’t give Scotland the freedom they want, Labour is afraid to give them that freedom in case it costs them the chance of getting back into government.

So it is coming down to who is looking out for Scotland and its people, it’s not London. With the rise and rise of UKIP I would like to see an independant Scotish Labour party, I would like to see the self serving political types in London having to earn votes and support and not taking voters for granted.

A separate party, looking after the needs and wants of Scotland but willing to stand with the English party IF doing so benefits the people north of the border is yet another step towards breaking the binary political situation that blights British politics.

So will Scottish Labour Devolve along with Scotland. I hope so.

The Greater Manchester Built-up area consists of Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Stockport, Oldham, Rochdale, Bury, Trafford and Tameside and has a total population two and a half million. Since 2000 the population of the UK has increased enough to fill two entire Greater Manchester areas plus another a million people. If the population grows by another 400,000 each year by 2018 we will have enough people to fill a third Manchester.

Let’s be honest here, since 2000 has the UK built enough schools, hospitals or power stations to handle another three Manchesters?


Both major parties are unwilling to stand up and try to defend the immigration situation because I feel neither can defend it. Instead they are both rolling our anti immigrant policies rather than attempting to defuse the situation.

Trying to out Kipper the UKIPpers.


The whole situation is crumbling round the edges, we are on a slippery slope towards some dystopian society with a vast gap between the isolated ‘Haves’ and the majority of the population who are ‘Have Nots’. Aside from security concerns in an ever more dangerous world uncontrolled immigration is putting a huge strain on every aspect of our society which simply creates more problems as they begin to fail.

Our politicians are quick to point the finger at enemies both domestic and foreign and send British men and women to bomb people or spy on people while seemingly turning a blind eye to what is both in reality a large problem and in perception a HUGE problem.

Without significant support for every aspect of our ability to cope with children, adults, the sick and the old the UK cannot cope now, bringing in 400,000 people next year as happened this year will lead to more shortages, more failures and ever greater drive by political groups to the right and to oppression and state control.


The Free movement of people in the Euro zone is not the problem, the UKs inability to handle those large numbers of people IS the problem and either we do something to support the people already here and arriving each year or do something to stop the unending flow of new arrivals or we must accept the fact that every resource, utility and service is going to be in shorter and shorter supply as an ever growing number of people fight for less hospital beds, less school places and less electricity.

 

But this is the UK, doing nothing is the Political norm.

In the US it was all reassuring words and tones. The CDC are fully prepared, this is America, best medical facilities in the world. Our doctors are fully briefed, our hospitals are ready, the CDC is the best available. Nothing to worry about.



Then Thomas Duncan flew in from Africa by way of at least one stopover in Europe. Despite the fact that he knew he had been in contact with an infectious Ebola case in Africa, he had helped take his landlords daughter to a treatment centre where she was then turned away and nine people including the woman had then died of the disease, he felt it was fine for him to fly to the US via Europe.








Now the case can be made either way for him not knowing or just being poorly educated about Ebola but it is known that when he became ill in the US he DID inform the doctor and medical centre that he was from Liberia. They sent him home with antibiotics. Because, after all, this is America, Ebola is an African problem.


That worked well.


Ebola is an often fatal disease, it requires intensive medical support and hydration to offer any real chance of survival. But it’s not the world destroying pandemic disease, it’s not airborne (yet and hopefully never) and it’s fairly easy to clean up.

If that is you have the basic idea of how to deal with it rather than a staggeringly huge egotistical failing that Western hospitals and staff are all powerful and there is nothing to worry about.

Household bleach is strong enough to kill it on any surface, it doesn’t last long on contaminated surfaces, optimal conditions six days but the warmer it is the shorter it lasts. At normal room temperature if may last no more than hours.

The place you catch it is most often an infected person by coming into contact with bodily fluids which are highly contagious. So simply by using bleach and by not coming into contact with those bodily fluids there will be no problem, right?

Western hospitals are well equipped to handle this; it’s just Africa with dirt floored hospitals and a handful of trained medical people that have to worry, right?


Then we have reality.


The Spanish medical authorities had two incoming Ebola cases, Spanish citizens who were being flown home to be treated. So they picked the best hospital for the job, well trained staff and with all the equipment they needed. Because after all, Western Europe, modern technological nation, nothing to worry about.

Then we have the nightmare behind that arrogance.

Madrid’s Carlos III hospital where the Spanish Ebola cases is now reporting that its equipment is substandard. The Hazmat suits it uses do NOT meet World Health Authority standards and the staff have NOT been adequately trained in using such equipment.

Then on top of that when the Nurse came into contact with bodily fluids from an infections patient it was not noticed. She went home to potentially infect her husband and others before reporting back to the hospital with a fever.

This in the hospital chosen by Spain as being the best available to handle Spanish citizens who had caught Ebola in Africa. Where staff are threatening to strike or are already walking out because of the risk to them posed by poor training and equipment.

Makes you think doesn't it.

In the US when Mr Duncan was finally taken to hospital because he  was displaying clear signs they still didn't start any sort of containment measures. The CDC claims that they were alerted and dealing with the situation within two hours and yet days later the family members who had been caring for him were still on in isolation and his home had not been cleaned.

The family were told to stay at home but nothing seems to have been done to enforce that quarantine and they were seen coming and going from the house several times. In addition by quarantining them in the house where the victim had been they were locking them in with the disease making possible infection from contaminated surfaces more likely.

Now a week later the family and others thought to be at risk have finally been moved to a supposedly controlled environment and a hazmat cleaning crew has finally cleaned up the home.

Compare this with what we see on the news and satellite channels where African teams dealing with Ebola victims spray bleach on anything and everything that may be contaminated and are wrapped up in multiple layers of protective clothing.

But then Africa has been burning the dead for months now and fully understands what they are dealing with, the West, the oh so arrogant west, not so much.

Ebola is NOT a world ender; it is made more dangerous because of its much longer than normal incubation period of up to three weeks before symptoms appear and the victim becomes infectious. So a person can become infected and fly around the world before symptoms appear.

But and this is the big but, ignorance and an attitude in the west that it is not a problem make it far more dangerous make it far more dangerous.


Even now in the 21st century in the information age far too many people, even medical professionals who should have been briefed, do not seem to have a clue. Someone with fever, headache, body aches, cough, stomach pain, vomiting, and diarrhea may have one of a number of diseases, but if they have just come from Africa the one at the top of the list should be Ebola.

After all the world has had months to prepare for this. But then it’s just an African problem, nothing to worry about here in the west. Or bother preparing for or informing people about.

With routine levels of checks and body searches at airports how hard is it to use thermal scanners to spot anyone with above a 97 degree body temperature as a first line of checks. Apparently too difficult or not something that has needed because it will not spot anyone who is infected and not yet showing a fever and anyone who has come into contact with the disease will freely admit so when they fill in the questionnaires, right?

Here is the thing. Ebola can be dealt with by preventing people catching it, household bleach, basic measures to avoid contact etc. African tribal conditions and attitudes are making the problem far worse that it should be because even in the 21st century the number of people lacking modern education number in the many millions in these areas.


But Europe or the US are not Africa. The hospitals are well equipped and the staff well trained. The population knows all about Ebola and how to respond. Right?

I hope that the cases in Spain and the US make our western medical people sit up and pay attention because it’s not Ebola that is going to kill us; it’s the incredibly arrogant attitude that the West can handle it easily so there is nothing to worry about. If the best Hospital in Spain cannot handle two cases without its medical staff getting infected what does that say for the best hospitals elsewhere in Europe? What about the worst hospitals?


When the CDC doesn't bother to quarantine the family of a victim or clean his house for days after a positive diagnosis when they are dealing with just one case how will they respond to two case, or ten or one hundred?



The risk isn't Ebola; it’s the complacence of the West towards it.

OK people. I’m going to be more blunt that normal because I see what is being thought on this matter and to my mind it's part of the problem.

In a recent online post I said this: 


That is why this should be dealt with by the nations of the region NOT the west. Western ground troops would be used to bring in far more Muslim support for ISIS / IS because like it or not and despite the grovelling apologies of our politicians this is Islam and these animals are Muslims.

I got a number of responses that I was generalising, that I was insulting Islam in some way and that I was being unfair to many peaceful Muslims who oppose the atrocities of ISIS.

Our politicians spend 30 seconds in sound bites condemning ISIS and promising to degrade and destroy them then spend many minutes denying that they are Muslim and that their actions are not Islamic. 

Utter stupidity.


The ISIS animals ARE MUSLIM.
 

They follow a version of the faith, it may not be the same one as western born men and women do but it is as much Islam as the Crusades were associated with Christianity. To deny this in a search for votes or political correctness or for some other reason simply makes it more difficult to deal with the problem because you are denying that there even is a religious aspect to the problem. ISIS is not hiring mercenaries or Christians, it is calling Muslims to join it in a religious war and tens of thousands of people are hearing that call and answering. To deny this is happening is madness, or politics.
 

ALL Muslims are NOT Animals.


I never said they were and yet this is how my words were heard and read. Because it is somehow wrong to criticise the religious belief that inspires such savage behaviour in ISIS savages, because linking ISIS to Islam upsets other Muslims. Like it or not ISIS claims to be Muslim, they call others to them for this reason and large numbers of people answer that call.

Between 30,000 and 40,000 thousand people have been drawn to join ISIS and fight what they think is some kind of holy war, they are doing so because they believe rightly or wrongly that this is something they are called to do by their religion.

When they get there they plunge into savage and barbaric action that ISIS justify because it is a holy war and the enemies are non believers, Christians, Shia and others. Then quickly it becomes a matter of anyone who does not follow the same version of Sunni that ISIS does so they can justify turning the animals lose on other Sunni.

The men and boys and girls who flock to join ISIS / IS have been failed by their societies and communities, they have become filled with hate and fear and been isolated from civilisation by their religious beleifs, it does not matter that they have warped and twisted what they believe, they use the same quotes, speak the same prayers and go to the same mosques and it is this fact they seek to use by deliberately provoking the non Muslim world to attack them.

Children, some not even old enough to drive or vote, have been helped to leave the UK and head to Turkey so they can join ISIS where they kill and abuse and perform atrocities because they believe what they are doing is for their faith. 


ISIS are doing everything they can to provoke a holy war between the west and Islam, they will die trying to do this but if they succeed then it will not be tens of thousands joining them but instead it will be millions.

Thanks to the actions of the west over the last two decades there is an undercurrent of thought that the west is anti Islamic and will bomb a Muslim country while ignoring the atrocities of a Jewish one.

This perception is based on reality as reported in our own newspapers, western governments have freely attacked Middle Eastern nations while ignoring others who are as bad or worse. This happened and is still happening; it is a colossal failure of policy and a demonstration of bias.

ISIS / IS are trying to exploit this feeling, they are trying to create fear and hatred among the larger religious organisation. To deny they are doing this, to deny that they are Muslim or to take my comment that ISIS are murderous scum and are Muslims as an attack on all Muslims is to become part of their activity.


The groups and gangs that made up ISIS were, last year, being funded and supported by the likes of Saudi Arabia because they were Muslim groups fighting Assad. Even now Saudi Arabia which has a larger army than the UK does is sitting and watching events rather than moving in on the ground and smashing the IS. The Saudi army has as many soldiers sitting on the Iraqi border as ISIS has in its entirety; they have much better equipment, tanks, support weapons and the like.

But they are doing nothing because of a reported fear of being seen to be fighting against fellow Sunni which would result in extremists becoming active inside their own country.

Fellow Sunni. The nation that has done so much to fund ISIS and has now lost control of the thing that they created considers them to be a Sunni organisation.


To claim, as so many are doing, that ISIS are somehow not Muslims because they are doing things that are not the mainstream Western ideal of Islam leads where? Is it OK to bomb them because we say they are not Muslim, they claim that they are being attacked because they are Muslim.

The Westboro scum were mentioned, Christianity is happy to ignore a dozen of the WB types when they picket a funeral or perform some appalling protest. But if there were 30,000 of the Westboro Christians deliberately trying to provoke a war with Islam and getting killed in what they report to be a war between Islam and Christianity does anyone think there would be any lack of Christians joining them or support for them in the US in a Christian holy war. This is the situation we face and that is what we have to avoid.


Speak out, say that they do not represent your version of Islam, call for the Muslim nations of the Middle East to act, start campaigns to get the King of Saud to start acting rather than just watching.

This is a war within Islam, the modern version that is learning to adapt to modern societies and cultures and the thousand year out of date version that is barbaric and cruel and rules by terror and force,

Christianity has been through this stage and it was bloody indeed.

Want to join the fight, then do so. The hate preachers who act to recruit these tens of thousands of ISIS recruits do not operate in a vacuum, so why are they not being identified and shut down.

Don’t blame the internet, a handful of people can self radicalise on line, when that number is in the thousands we are dealing with a systemic Europe wide failure.

Don’t deny that ISIS are following what they interpret to be Islam, don’t deny that ISIS are Muslims. Instead accept that they are following a wrong interpretation of your faith and work to persuade others that they are wrong.


ISIS are barbaric scum, they are following their version of Islam. They claim that they are fighting a war between the entire west and Islam. If you take offence at my statement that ISIS are scum and are Muslim because you don’t like your faith being mentioned then you are part of the problem and you are helping to perpetuate the concept of war between the West and the East.

Don’t deny that they are Muslim, instead work to isolate them as a mad dog fringe that must be cut from the rest of the religion if it is to survive in the 21st century. If you want to have a religion in this century it cannot be run as if it were the dark ages. Hatred, fear, gender discrimination, mutilations, flogging, beheading, these are from the dark ages and should have no place in the modern world. But they do and they are done in the name of all three of the Abrahamic religions by groups and by nations.


I don't see the need for organised religions in the 21st century but I understand that some people want and need some sort of focus in their lives that a shared faith can bring them. If you want a 21st century religion then it must be able to operate in this century, not cleave to concepts and attitudes that were out of date a thousand years ago.



Change and survive in this century or remain barbaric and be destroyed. If you want a religion you cannot do both.