Tag Archives: Ruth Davidson
Ruth Davidson and mental health
Posted on September 17, 2018 by Horselover Fat
Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson has a book out soon and has been sitting with London-based hacks for a publicity push that involves an interview with the Sunday Times where she states she never wants to be an MP at Westminster, or take a peerage or become Prime Minister in order to preserve her mental health; of which she discusses in the interview as having problems with 20 years ago.
All of this should be good as after all mental health is an issue all of us struggle with, and the more people speak out the better, but in Davidson's case it smacks of a carefully planned release of information which benefits Davidson. With pundits (mainly in England) speaking of how brave she is to speak out then it shows it's worked but here in Scotland there's an air of suspicion because Ruth Davidson hasn't got where she is today from pushing policies or being the 'centrist' politician the likes of Ian Dunt thinks she is.
Davidson won acclaim for her part in the Scottish independence referendum in 2014 where she managed to be questioned by the police about allegations of election fraud, and in the 2015 election lied about 'burly men' scaring away voters. She's also happy to surround herself with extreme far right types, and barely twitches when these people are found out after being elected. It should be also be made clear she's built up a healthy following from exploiting elements of sectarianism and Unionism and this worked in 2017's election where she managed to run a campaign based on no policies at all except 'no to a second referendum' with Tory campaign leaflets hiding the Tory name under Ruth Davidson's.
Davidson is a fantastic media construct but unlike recent examples like Nigel Farage or Jacob Rees Mogg, she's carefully cultivated this herself along with a media in Scotland totally unfit for purpose. Yet some have questioned her, and when pushed on the few occasions she has been, comes over as brittle, angry and totally without substance. Indeed one of her names here in Scotland is 'Rape Clause Ruth' due to her open support for the dreadful 'rape clause', and Westminster Tory policies.
And this brings me back to her comments about mental health. She defends policies which drive people to killing themselves. She supports her party imposing economic ruin upon people that drives them to kill themselves. She's shown no remorse, no compassion and no sense that she empathises with ordinary people, and she's teamed up with Michael Gove to create a thinktank to push Tory ideas to younger people under the disguise of being a 'centrist' and London-based commentators still trip over themselves to praise her and not ask why she's revealing all this now, let alone push her on her policies or why she's never available for interview so she can be asked about the 'dark money' allegations hanging over her.
Make no mistake that if a third of what rattles in Davidson's cupboard were assigned to Nicola Sturgeon or even Jeremy Corbyn, there would be UK wide media coverage and massively sensationalist reporting. Davidson escapes this and now with this revelation, ensures that few journalists will push her assuming they would anyhow which is a shame as the question I have for Davidson is if she's so intent on helping people's mental health then why does she support policies that damages people's mental health so badly?
But that question will never be asked. She's carefully positioning herself for the next post-Brexit phase and if you think Davidson doesn't want to be PM then I suggest looking back at Davidson's history and see a tirade of lies and manipulation aimed at one thing; the advancement of Ruth Davidson and the Tory ideology.
Posted in news, Politics, rant, Scotland	| Tagged Ruth Davidson, Tories	| Leave a reply
Another example of Ruth Davidson's Tories racism…
Posted on June 2, 2018 by Horselover Fat
The other day at First Minister's Questions in Holyrood, the case of Denzel Darku,was raised by Labour's Neil Bibby. Darku has lived in Scotland since he was 14, and was part of the 2014 Commonwealth Games opening ceremonies. Immigration is reserved to Westminster, so the First Minister could only express her repulsion at the Tories ongoing deportation program. The question and answer is in the video below and listen carefully.
That'll be the sound of Ruth Davidson sitting on her hands saying nothing as her MSP's shout 'send him home'. Now, for people outwith of Scotland, Davidson is seen as a 'soft Conservative' and a centrist. A sort of great white hope against the extreme populism unleashed by Brexit or Corbynism, as well as being a protector of the British state.
Truth is Davidson is a liar. who has consistently shown herself to be perfectly happy surrounded by racists and bigots, while defending things like the rape clause and other extreme Tory policies. She's also guilty of having her own career ahead of any principles she may have, so we have Arlene Foster coming to Scotland to head up an Orange Walk; an act so inflammatory and dripping with contempt that it's being condemned by all apart from Ruth Davidson who as a lesbian is exactly the sort of person the Orange Order and their followers would normally despise, but as Davidson is first and foremost a hard right British nationalist she's tolerated.
But some in the media are pointing out how she believes in nothing, apart from opposing a second independence referendum at the expense of all other ideas or policies. With it becoming very clear that she won't ever be First Minister (barring a nightmareishly possible alliance with Labour as happens often in Scotland) she's now got her sights set on something bigger. With Brexit looming Davidson sees herself as best positioned to slide into the aftermath so she can gain power, but at no point has the media (As a whole) held her to account. Davidson is a media construct just like Nigel Farage and Jacob Rees Mogg, and like those two she's perfectly fine with hard right, extremists sitting next to her.
So remember when you see Davidson baking cakes that she's not the smooth media personality that's been created for her, and in fact, we could be getting someone very dangerous being placed in the centre of power.
Posted in news, Politics, rant, Scotland	| Tagged Ruth Davidson	| Leave a reply
Ruth Davidson: Soldier of Orange
Posted on June 14, 2017 by Horselover Fat
Last week the general election saw pretty much everyone lose. Theresa May lost her majority and all her hubris she displayed since last June vanished with an appalling campaign. The SNP lost 21 seats thanks partly to a Corbyn-injected Labour vote and a Tory vote energised by Ruth Davidson's single minded 'no more referendums' campaign. Jeremy Corbyn may have the impetus (for now) but nothing hides the fact he lost and (for now) we've a Tory government propped up by the deeply sectarian DUP.
However most political pundits from all sides point to Ruth Davidson as a clear winner. Her campaign in Scotland saved Theresa May's neck as those 13 Tory MP's in Scotland were the difference between May cobbling together a government and Jeremy Corbyn cobbling together a government but yet bizarrely many south of the border see Davidson as a calming influence on Theresa May and someone of some integrity yet that couldn't be further from the truth.
I've pointed out before Ruth Davidson's defence of the 'rape clause', so really, she's no friend to the left, yet some praise her partly because as Labour loyalists some prefer to see the SNP being given a bloody nose over beating Tories, and here's where Davidson's not went through any scrutiny in England. Now some blogs in Scotland have dragged Davidson's somewhat flexible politics through the coals but her apparent defence of LGBTI rights in the UK (which again she painted as standing up for herself, but as that is a reserved subject for as long as she lives in Scotland she's perfectly fine) led her to Tweet this.
Davidson has played with religion for a while dragging into the Scottish political spectrum when many thought it was dying but here's the thing, when Arlene Foster of the DUP says the union is her 'guiding star' that is exactly the same position as Ruth Davidson. Her campaign in Scotland was built round one thing; no more referendums. That was it. No other policies and when pushed on policies Davidson folded or showed complicit support as in the rape clause.
Yet again, we were warned about Ruth Davidson and her pandering to the Orange Order who may not have the power in Scotland they once had, but hold an influence in Scotland that seems unbreakable for as long as the union prevails. If you haven't a clue who the Orange Order are, this wonderful clip from T2: Trainspotting answers everything in a succinct way.
This election was the last stand of a hard, sectarian Unionism and thanks to Ruth Davidson and the DUP, that strain of Unionism has the whip hand over the entire UK, and as for Davidson's claim last week she'd ensure the DUP preserve rights that's been shown to be bullshit as women from Northern Ireland are now banned from travelling to England to get a termination.
Davidson fought tooth and nail dabbling with sectarianism to put a dent into the SNP, hurt the idea of independence and also hollow out Labour who insanely worked with the Tories in many Scottish seats to help stop the SNP. So yes, Davidson has won and is the media's new love but it's easy to oppose. Now she has to deliver and she's incapable of doing that. What do voters who don't want a second referendum think of the fact the SNP have a mandate for one, the Greens still support one and there's now more independence minded people in Labour? As 2015 was a high point for Nicola Sturgeon, 2017 could well be the same for Ruth Davidson.
I hope so. She's stirred up some horrendously dark forces and they won't get back into their box easily now they're holding a gun at Theresa May's head.
Posted in Britain, England, Politics, rant, religion, Scotland	| Tagged Jeremy Corbyn, Orange Order, Ruth Davidson, sectarianism, Tory	| 3 Replies
Ruth Davidson defends the 'rape clause'
Posted on April 12, 2017 by Horselover Fat
Since moving back to Scotland I've been subjected to the full-on Ruth Davidson (Scottish Tory leader) experience. This is a typical piece of jolity from Davidson's well-oiled media machine.
Ruth Davidson is being presented as the soft, cuddly version of Toryism. She's the Tory you think may be alright. She's just a jolly person. Look, she's on Have I Got News For You so she can't be all bad right? Davidson is, as said, a Tory that sits at the right hand of Theresa May.
This brings me to a despicable piece of legislation called 'the rape clause'. Here's MP Alison Thewlis making clear what it is the Tories have made law.
We think the policy on limiting tax credits to the first two children is appalling and tantamount to social engineering, but to put a woman who has been raped in a position where she needs to declare that to a government official is just abhorrent. This also stigmatises the child involved, which is surely against the UN convention on the rights of the child.
The Tories have been playing down this policy since it was made law last week but with the local elections weeks away it is worth realising that when they say in Scotland that they want to 'get on with it' it means stuff like this.
Ruth Davidson has been mysteriously quiet on defending the clause which is most unlike her but today she Tweeted this.
The spokesman's comments can be found here.
Davidson is hiding behind a spokesman, failing to make any personal defence of it as somewhere deep down there's a realisation the thing is indefensible but as a Tory, she'll defend it. This is the reality of the Tories, even ones with fluffy media profiles, that if you scratch the surface it won't take much to find out what they really are and what they really stand for.
So vote Tory in May if you support putting rape victims through hell. That's what they stand for and this is the vision of the future that Ruth Davidson wants for all of us.
Posted in Britain, Politics, rant, Scotland	| Tagged rape clause, Ruth Davidson, Tory	| 1 Reply
A word to the Daily Mail and Michael White of the Guardian
The Lib Dem MP and former leader Charles Kennedy died this week. In every single sense this is a tragedy not only for his family, but for Liberal politics in Scotland and across the UK.
Kennedy was exceptionally well liked because he was a decent man and those of us that dumped Labour after voting for them for the last time in 1997 found Kennedy's party a more democratic fit than the increasingly right wing, authoritarian Labour Party that Tony Blair was shaping.
When Kennedy was hounded out of the leadership job by his own party due party to his struggle with alcoholism, but because the right of his party decided to use his illness to pull off a coup and drag the party to the right, I felt real sorrow because Kennedy had worked so hard to build the Lib Dems up as a moral and intellectual force that stood against not just the Tories, but what Labour had become.
But I still gave the Lib Dems my vote in the hope things would remain the same, and like many, many others I lived to regret it as Nick Clegg jumped at the chance of getting into bed with the Tories and in the last five years Kennedy has been dismissed by far too many in the Westminster political bubble as an irrelevance or worse.
When I heard of Kennedy's death the second thing I though after the initial shock (55 is not an age to go) is "when is some lunatic going to blame his death on the SNP?".It only took hours. Then Michael White of the Guardian joined in on his Twitter feed, and then the Daily Mail piled on. At this point even the Mail crossed a line, but then again, it'd crossed the line of using a sad avoidable death for copy previously.
I was pretty fucked off by the entire thing but being unable to articulate that I was glad to see this brilliant article from the Wee Ginger Dug that articulates things perfectly. It's a fantastic, angry and human piece of writing that stands above the open sewer the Mail stands in and the likes of Michael White and Ruth Davidson splash around in trying not to get shite on themselves but on their enemies.
Wee Ginger Dug
There are truths that are true because they actually happened. And there are truths that are true just because everyone knows them to be true. The UK media specialises in the creation of the latter. The latest true truth that's only true because everyone knows it to be true is that Charles Kennedy was hounded into his grave by Scottish nationalists. But everyone isn't everyone. Everyone isn't you or me, it's everyone with power, everyone with influence, everyone with a position to lose. They say it must be so, and so it becomes the truth.
So now we have another true truth that never happened, the latest in a litany of the lies that comprise the story telling that passes for news. Like the truth that Nicola Sturgeon wanted the Tories to win so it doesn't matter what the French ambassador said. Like the truth that Dennis Skinner was driven…
Posted in Britain, death, news, Politics, rant, Scotland	| Tagged Charles Kennedy, Lib Dems, Michael White, Ruth Davidson, SNP	| Leave a reply