HSBC sells Canary Wharf Tower HQ

For those people in the Canary Wharf area of the Docklands in London the HSBC tower is a part of the skyline in London along with the Citigroup tower and the main tower itself.

Well, this week HSBC sold their London HQ for a massive £772.5 million. The tower has been sold to the National Pension Service for Korea, although HSBC and it's staff will remain in the building for the remaining 17.5 years of its lease paying £46million per year in rent.

HSBC sold the 42-storey tower to Spanish property company Metrovacesa for £1.1bn in 2007, buying it back a year later for £840m.

The tower is only seven years old, construction began in 1999 and was finished three years later, with 42 floors in the 200 metre high tower block where 8,000 staff work each day.

Basement flat with offstreet parking available

Thankfully both the driver and his passenger were not seriously hurt and as reported in both the Scotsman and the Edinburgh Evening News it was Friday the 13th!

Utter hogwash, as someone born on the 13th I find this superstitious malarkey utter nonsense.

Here is the picture of the lads car upturned in the basement flat garden in Edinburgh.

Off street parking is always a premium.

Glasgow North East by-election - the aftermath and analysis

So, finally the Labour Government have gained a seat in a parliamentary by-election in this Parliamentary term. Labour have finally turned the corner in campaigning terms in Scotland in my opinion.

Watching them in three consecutive by-elections in just over 12 months has been really interesting.

In Glasgow East Labour ran not only the wrong campaign, they took so long getting their campaign into gear it was quite obvious they were going to lose, plus the SNP pushed them onto the back foot and stole their thunder.

Then we moved to the Glenrothes by-election where Labour once again took a little time to warm up but then got into it and got into the groove and although the SNP were quite obviously on a high after Glasgow East they became arrogant.

Tavish Scott was right to highlight during the Glenrothes campaign that Alex Salmond as First Minister should be busy running the country not gallivanting around Fife in a by-election campaign.

The Glenrothes result was a catastrophic result for the SNP and they had Angus Robertson running around the media scrum at the count telling people they had won, with me and Graeme Littlejohn, our press officer telling everyone it was a Labour hold.

In fact the Labour Party were coming to us for clarification of their own victory, they weren't 100% sure. We were, we got the result from our box counts within 0.2%.

Even the infamous Michael Crick got it wrong, despite us telling him minutes before he went on air. Willie Rennie MP had great fun the following morning rubbing his nose in it.


And then there was Glasgow North East, Labour waited 144 days to fill the vacancy and maybe that was their strategy all along. As both Glenrothes and Glasgow North East were played as the long game, whereas Glasgow East was just three weeks.

Labour hit the ground running this time, third time lucky, local candidate, in fact the only one to vote in the by-election, although by postal vote, good local messages and rebuttals plus the added bonus of a not so good SNP candidate who made gaffes as the campaign hotted up.

On day one the media stated it was a two horse race between the SNP and Labour, and to be fair it was because the SNP didn't have the deceny to observe to protocol of not standing against The Speaker, while we do. The Conservatives also had to do well as the Government in waiting.

We didn't have the pressure on us despite us being the second Westminster Party in Scotland.

The media storm following the BNP appearance on Question Time definitely helped their vote, but the fact the newspapers gave them more column inches than the four mainstream parties at times, including the Daily Mail who dedicated two, yes two, front pages to the BNP.

No wonder they did so well.

Obviously I am disappointed by our result but I am also aware that when the media dictate the horses in the races, the remainder are pushed out.

I suspect from yesterdays line up of candidates there will only be two names back on the ballot paper at the General Election, Willie Bain and our own Eileen Baxendale.

Well done Eileen, you and the team did us proud.

50,000 MoD civil servants get £47million shared in bonuses while 51,000 troops earn £16,681

You really couldn't make this up, in the six months between April and October this year 50,000 Ministry of Defence officials, or civil servants have received £47 million in bonuses between them.

While our frontline troops have to go out and buy their own uniforms and kit to ensure they have the basic equipment they need and the average soldier only earns around £17,000 per year.

This is exactly why Nick Clegg was right to launch the Liberal Democrats campaign for fair pay for our troops some months back you can sign the petition here.

Over 51,000 (Over a Quarter of the Armed Forces) receive less in basic pay than a new recruit police constable or fire-fighter. The basic pay for the lowest paid Private is £16,681.

In comparison there are 85,000 civil servants within the Ministry of Defence, of which around 50,000 of them received a share of the £47 million in bonuses.

The government were quick to jump on cancelling training for the Territorial Army to save money, well I can see how £47 million could be saved Gordon, right here, right now.

How dare this Government short change our troops with crap pay, not enough personal kit and nowhere near the right kind or volume of actual equipment hardware such as helicopters or armoured personnel carriers while paying people who are salaried to do a job extra in bonuses.

Shame on this Labour government and every Labour MP.

13,000 lower-ranks personnel in the Armed Forces receive under £17,000 a year basic pay. Even with operational allowances, they receive less than a new recruit to the police force. The average hours worked by Junior Ranks according to the Armed Forces Pay Review Body was 46.2 hours during 2007-2008. Therefore £6.74 is the average hourly pay of a Private. There is an operational Allowance of £2,380 and Separation Allowance of £1,100 paid to all personnel on operations and no opportunities for overtime pay.

The Liberal Democrats proposals would bring the pay of the lower ranks in line with the hourly-rate of trainee and development-level Fire-fighters, as well as new-entrant police constables.

Under the Lib Dem proposals no service personnel would receive less basic annual pay than a new-entrant police constable or development-level fire-fighter.

A fully-trained Private would receive:- an average basic hourly wage of £9.44 from the current £6.74 per hour (£430 per week, an extra £115 a week)- The average pay across the ranks of Private and Lance Corporal would rise to around £25,000- An average basic hourly wage of £10.40 an hour from current £8.80 per hour amounting to £480 per week an extra £73 a week- Other Non-Commissioned Officers would receive pay rises of £20-30 per week (around £1000 per year depending on rank).

You can read more about the Liberal Democrats proposals here.

Caption Competition Time

Okay folks, on a recent campaigning trip in Glasgow North East I spotted this new product and I must admit it brought a smile to my face and more smutty innuendo than you can shake a stick it in my head!

But, I thought I would pass this one onto you.

So, using the comments section, let us open the November caption competition to you, the readers of my blog!

Edinburgh and the bus stops

My work colleagues in London and Scotland know and some share of my frustrations about the sheer volume and the close proximity of bus stops in parts of Edinburgh.

My bus journey in Edinburgh takes the same time as my old train journey from Kent into London, which is completely ridiculous.

So, my suggestion to Lothian Buses is to stagger the services to particular bus stops as they are on George Street, and Princes Street once it reopens.

Let us take Leith Walk for example and my bus, the number 10.

The bus turns onto Leith Walk and the first stop, often the busiest is at the foot of the Walk, then a mere 10-15 seconds on and only a matter of yards is the next one, now this is where they could start splitting the service and make that just for say the 16 and 22, then the next one could be the 10 and 12 and alternate accordingly.

By the time my bus is at the top of the Walk we have stopped, potentially, six times, seven if you count the driver change over.

If the alternation system came in it would stop the stacking that happens at rush hour, the other week I was in a snail queue of 5 or 6 buses that just crawled up Leith Walk, taking 35 minutes just to get up the Walk - it is just crazy.

Lothian buses - please have a serious think and see if it would work?

Puppy Farming

I'm not one of the vegan fanatical animal rights campaigners, I'm just a normal bloke campaigning for better animal rights.

I'm also a member of various animal charities - Edinburgh Zoo, St. Tiggywinkles, Hillside Animal Sanctuary, National Dogs Trust, Cats Protection League and the RSPB.

So, last night I got home and did all my chores, I'm a fairly well trained husband, and sat and read the latest newsletter from the Hillside Animal Sanctuary.

There's a very well written two page article on a joint undercover investigation with Channel Five on puppy farming.

If you're eating, come back to this later!

The investigation concentrated on three puppy farms in Carmarthenshire which supply Dogs4us.

They were using bitches for breeding that were blind, infested with worms, with extensive growths and kept in the dark to save electricity!

Empty water bowels, no exercise, little bedding and no toys for stimulation - all of this found at the puppy farms.

The purpose behind and objectives of these puppy farms is purely financial, these people don't give a toss about the welfare of the dogs nor the puppies.

What I wonder happens to any puppies born with defects, I daren't even begin to imagine!

If you or anyone you know is looking to buy a puppy, don't buy it from a pet shop ever!

If you go to a breeder check them out.

The safest place is an animal shelter because you will save a dog's life and you can offer it a safe home and all in the knowledge you are not supporting a puppy farm or the people running it!

Thanks to Channel Five and Hillside Animal Sanctuary for highlighting this and for re-homing the 12 dogs rescued.

If you can help Hillside by making a small donation please let me know.

Lloyds Banking Group slash another 5,000 jobs

Just what you need to hear weeks before Christmas, "sorry you are being made redundant", but Lloyds Banking Group who have already laid off around 6,000 people this year are now laying off a further 5,000 and around 20% of those will be here in Scotland.

These banking giants, which we now technically actually run, are charging more for overdrafts and loans, laying tens of thousands of staff off and yet still are not lending to small business around the UK, which in turn would stimulate the economy a little more.

I will go as far as to say that the banks will drive the really low paid towards loan sharks this Christmas plunging people further into the debt cycle.

How many Executives and Senior Managers will be on the list for redundancy? I will assume not.

Last week, Lloyds Banking Group revealed that it was to receive a further £5.7 billion in taxpayer support from the Treasury and sell at least 600 branches.

I suppose we have to expect the sale of branches, given there are Lloyds TSB branches and Halifax Bank of Scotland branches often on the very same High Streets, but I really hope a great deal of effort has been made to relocate all of these staff elsewhere within the corporation.

The governments, both in Westminster and Holyrood also have to do more to help. Giving someone £60.50 for six months and then no help whatsoever is an absolute disgrace.