The Strasbourg Stramash - Prescott asks Salmond for his "socialist"credentials

News arrives of a stairheid rammy in Strasbourg, with Alex Salmond being challenged by old bruiser John Prescott to prove his “socialist” credentials after the SNP MP attempted to join a Labour-dominated grouping in Europe.

Prescott, I'm told, barred Salmond’s path into a meeting of the Socialist Group of the Council of Europe this week.

Salmond, the SNP’s Foreign Affairs spokesman in Westminster, and Tasmina Ahmed Sheikh MP were attending the Council of Europe, a grouping of European politicians, as first-time delegates.

On the eve of the meeting in Strasbourg Salmond boasted on Twitter that he was “happy to announce the SNP’s membership of the Socialist Group”.

That was news to the Labour party, so when Salmond turned up the following morning Prescott, the leader of Labour’s UK contingent, met the SNP MP at the door, accusing him of "playing a flanker" by posing as a socialist.

Prescott told me: “ I said to Alex: ‘You’re not coming in to this meeting’. To which he replied : ‘You’re not big enough to stop me.’ He meant politically, not physically, but he didn’t get in.”

According to Salmond's account the former Deputy Prime Minister “blew a gasket” and created such a scene that it was best to diplomatically withdraw while things calmed down.

Salmond countered: John really needs to calm down and move with the times.  Lord John is still living in the past in the by gone days when Labour ‘ruled the roost’ in Scotland. This sort of blind sectarianism has laid Labour low in Scotland."

After this Strasbourg Stramash, and SNP protests, the duo were allowed in to the evening meeting as “guests”, but with no speaking or voting rights within the group.

Prescott admitted: “He did get in later. When I wasn’t there the chairman invited him to come and listen. We do that for some politicians but we don’t do that for nationalists as we are all opposed to nationalism.” 

But because of complaints by Prescott the SNP’s application to join the Socialists will be re-considered by the group’s bureau in April.

To be a member a party has to be affiliated to the Socialist International. On that basis the SNP does not qualify. In more bad news for Salmond Prescott sits on the Socialist group bureau.

Salmond's is starting to sound less confident than he was about an independent Scotland getting into the EU.

He said: “I’m sure the Socialist bureau will pursue the SNP membership in due course and so meanwhile we have held the invitations from two other groups who have been in contact already”"

The final jab from Prescott: “I have some doubts about his socialist credentials, Alex is flying under a flag of convenience, he’s calling himself a socialist but he’s hiding it well.Maybe he can borrow Jeremy’s little red book to prove it.”

Mar chuimhneachan air Sìm Friseal

An t-ath-leasachadh a thàinig air ceist an fhearainn anns na 90an ann an Asainte agus Eilean Eige, agus a tha a-nis ri fhaicinn bho cheann gu ceann na Gàidhealtachd agus nan Eileanan, cha do thuit sin às an adhar.

Thàinig diofar fhactaran ri chèile:  eachdraidh nan daoine a bha air am mealladh; beachdan ùra poilitigeach bho leithid a' Phàipeir Bhig, Aonadh nan Croitearan agus Seumas Mac an t-Sealgair; misneachd nan coimhearsnachdan fhèin agus an suidheachadh eaconomach aig an àm.

Agus ged a bha h-uile càil sin ann, dh'fheumadh iad a thighinn ri chèile ann an saoghal foirmeil, glaiste, laghail nan uachdaran.

Dh’fheumadh cuideigin a bhith ann gus na h-ùghdarrasan, agus na h-uachdarain, agus na mèarlaich a ghoid am fearann a chasg.

Agus bha am fear-lagha Sìm Friseal, a bhàsaich an t-seachdain seo, ann air an stiùir, mar fhear a' bhàta, do choimhearsnachdan anns an t-saoghal laghail sin, agus uair às dèidh uair, threòraich e iad gu tìr ùr.

'S chan e a-mhàin gun robh e proifeasanta, 's gun robh earbsa aig daoine ann, ach bha e a' creidsinn anns a' chùis, agus rinn sin diofar mòr. Rinn e diofar mòr.


Seo aithris a BhBC air Sìm agus seo na bha anns a Herald

Soraidh leat Starman

Sùil Eile, airson an Daily Record

Tha mi nam bhalach òg, a’ ruith ‘s a rìogail comhla ri balaich eile air an fheasgar, timcheall air a’ bhucas-fòn dearg ann am meadhan a’ bhaile.

Chan eil fòn anns a h-uile taigh anns an eilean fhathast, ‘s mar sin tha am bucas dearg cudromach, samhla air an àm ri teachd.

Chan eil fios agam ciamar, ach tha cuideigin air dòigh fhaighinn dà sgillinn a chur dhan toll-airgid agus an toirt a-mach a-rithist.

Le sin tha sinn saor fòn a chur gu duine sam bith a thogras sinn. Ach co?

Corrag a’ cur timcheall an daitheal, trì àireamhean, agus tha iad a’ sìneadh a’ receiver gum chluais.

Tha an ceòl neònach seo a’ tighinn sìos an loidhne: “This is ground control to Major Tom, You’ve really made the grade, And the papers want to know whose shirts you wear.”

Tha mi glacte air an spot. Guth bho shaoghal eile, tighinn thugam tro Dial-a-Disc, bho Phlanaid Pop. 

‘S e Daibhabh Bowie a’ chiad chlàr pop a chuala mi, a’ chiad atharrachadh a dh’fhairich mi nam bheatha bheag dhùthchail.

Soraidh leat Starman, bi aig fois am measg na rionnagan. 

I am a young boy, running with other boys in the evening, fooling around the red phone box in the middle of the village.

Not every house on the island has a phone yet, so the red box is important, a symbol of the future. 

I don’t know how, but someone has worked out a method of putting tuppence in the slot and getting it out again.

With that we are free to phone anyone we wish. But who?

A finger goes round the dial, three numbers, and they rest the receiver against my ear.

This strange music comes down the line: “This is ground control to Major Tom,  You’ve really made the grade, And the papers want to know whose shirts you wear.”

I am frozen on the spot. A voice from another world, coming to me through Dial-a-Disc, from Planet Pop.

David Bowie was the first recorded pop music I heard, the first change I felt in my little, rural life.

So long Starman, be at peace amidst the stars.