Dennis Skinner: SNP battle left me too tired to heckle during Queen’s Speech – Telegraph
Parliament’s new intake of SNP members have the manners of schoolchildren – and the ignorance of the class dunce.
They should have known better than to try bullying the man known as the Beast of Bolsover.
Those responsible for demeaning their position in this manner should be named and shamed – but, like all bullies, they’re probably too cowardly to admit it.
He told the Telegraph (of all papers, it had to be that one):
“I was engaged in an activity today to ensure that the Scot Nats weren’t going to take over that front bench. You have to get up very early in the morning to do it. I was up at just after 6 o’clock and I had to do it yesterday.
“I don’t think you understand the steps that I have to take. I’m dealing with 56 members of the Scots Nats and on some days I’ve been doing it single-handed.”
“It is about the fact that as long as I remember that bench has never been taken over by a party that believes they can own it.
“It is about a battle of wits but it is also about being dedicated. I don’t see why after all these years a party that has temporarily got a few more seats should be allowed to do as they like in the Commons.
“It is not about me. That bench when I came into the House of Commons in 1970 was inhabited by what they called the awkward squad and by and large it’s had that reputation ever since.”
Source: Dennis Skinner: SNP battle left me too tired to heckle during Queen’s Speech – Telegraph
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Mad as a March Hare, and it is finally evidencing itself ….pay the Man for his contributions and retire him to an Asylum.
The last thing a proper Labour Party would be doing is fighting Scots Nats, they did no harm to Labour, actually they us some good, in showing up the grotty snot nosed twerps who have apparently wrested the Party away from the Working Class.
We need a proper Labour Party which is not dominated by pseudo middle class poseurs, innit for the money.
What are you on about? The Scots Nats did a huge amount of harm to Labour! Not only that, but they’re now going back on their word and it seems a lot of Scottish voters are going to be very badly let down by them.
What you should be saying is that fighting a respected, if not venerable, politician over a seat is the last thing the Scots Nats should be doing. Instead, they should be fighting the Conservatives over policies… except, of course, we know that this is the last thing they’re going to do!
I’ve always respected Dennis Skinner but I do think he lost the plot a bit with this one. Your comment about schoolchildren may have been close to the mark on the first day in the house, before parliament sat, and the behaviour should be looked at in the same way. As schoolchildren settle down after the novelty and get down to classes, so the SNP have behaved perfectly well since. Even Diane Abbott has said that all the stuff in the media is rubbish.
If Skinner hadn’t made the seating such a big issue, declaring war on the SNP, it would have blown over the next day. The SNP were making a point about the benches that are traditionally for the 3rd biggest party. If Skinner hadn’t come on with the attitude, they would have happily let him have his seat once the point had been made. He and the media are the ones that created the war.
I agree with this quote about Westminster from another blog.
“You can lie, you can smear, you can abuse public office for party gain, you can cause a diplomatic incident, you can pauchle your expenses, you can cover up the activities of well connected paedophiles, you can cheat, you can start an illegal war that causes the deaths of hundreds of thousands. Just don’t clap, because that’s beyond the pale”.
Another Tory, whose name I can’t remember, was reported to say that the clapping simply wasn’t done. The proper etiquette in the chamber was to say “hear, hear” or, if sedentary, shout “rubbish”. I know which I would rather listen to.
No – as you can see from the article, Dennis is having to deal with these silly SNP antics – day in, day out.
We tend not to rely on Diane Abbott for balanced comments – look how wrong she was about the Charter for Budget Responsibility.
You don’t know that the SNP would have behaved any differently if Dennis hadn’t kicked back. Experience demonstrates the opposite.
he is next in line for father of the house don’t forget with Micheal meacher