Tories 'will have only one new MP in Scotland next year'

Screams the headline across pages 4 and 5 in today's Scotsman. It did bring a wry smile to my face given the arrogance of John Lamont wanting to be a part time MP because now it looks like his Westminster career hopes could be in tatters.

The Scotsman goes on to predict Edinburgh South will fall to Fred Mackintosh from the Liberal Democrats and says "Their high hopes for ....... Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk ....would be dashed."

Given the news then that there will only be two Conservative MPs in Scotland and assuming Cameron wins the General Election (I know, I know lots of ifs and buts) he won't have a mandate to govern in Scotland in reality and it shows that the 4th party in Westminster Scottish politics will remain just that and the Liberal Democrats will still remain the second party, with the second largest number of MPs across Scotland and according to the Scotsman will increase their numbers.

I do disagree with their claim we will only increase our numbers by one, but to be fair, I would wouldn't I - it's my job to prove them wrong hence why I spent my morning delivering focus leaflets, and tomorrow I will be doing the very same again.

The other good news in today's Scotsman is that the support for the SNP is down by 5% from a year ago, now all we need is for the Scottish journalists to actually have the bottle to attack the SNP in the same manner they attack the other three parties - I don't know what hold they have over them but it isn't helpful as it is stifling proper debate.

Lib Dems radical reform versus Labour's 10% cuts versus Tory Defence & job cuts

So, finally the "C" word is out in the open, cuts, cuts, cuts.

We all knew it was coming. Vince Cable was first out of the blocks with his pamphlet 'Tackling the Fiscal Crisis: A recovery plan for the UK'. Vince outlined nine specific areas of potential savings that are identified as a start to a radical programme of reform, with the emphasis on controlling public spending, not higher taxes.

Today's Scotsman has a fantastic editorial where it says "....we can only hope that both Mr Brown and ....David Cameron, are as honest as Mr Cable has been." "....the Liberal Democrats, has been the most candid with voters."

Yesterday saw Gordon Brown outline his latest vision at the TUC conference in Liverpool, outlining spending cuts had to be made, but fell short of actually stating where the axe may fall - "Labour will cut costs, cut inefficiencies, cut unnecessary programmes and cut lower-priority budgets."

Then the Tories, the same old Tories, I am astounded about the way they have got away with their sheer arrogance on MPs expenses, moats, duck houses and hundreds of thousands repaid because they over claimed.

In today's Scotsman we see that they will treat Scotland with sheer contempt, try and win a handful of seats up here and then along with their independence obsessed bedfellows the SNP they will crap from a great height.

4,600 jobs in the Clyde shipyards are dependent on the construction of the aircraft carriers, but this contract may be under threat if the Tories win George Osborne suggested yesterday. He is will also look at the euro fighter, which will be based at RAF Leuchars in Fife, so more jobs threatened there then.

Instead of these stupid suggestions why not be bold as Nick Clegg has been and declare that we will not renew Britain's trident system - and spend that money where it is needed not where politicians think it is needed.

Cuts, cuts and more cuts - fine but let us see a well thought out spending review and proposals.

At the current time, it is only Nick Clegg and Vince Cable who are daring to think, and then talk about the unthinkable. That is brave.

The Queen has a vigorous sex life

The Queen normally mates with a dozen at a time but has been known to mate with 100 in the space of a few minutes, reports The Scotsman.

Oh my god, you've come here to read about that Queen, no, no, no. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth is not that kind of girl, I am talking about the Queen Honey Bee, obviously. You naughty people.

Researchers all over the world are very worried about the fall in number of honey bees, the honey bee plays a vital part in the overall food chain so the dramatic fall in numbers is concerning scientists.

So, a team of researchers at Leeds University are looking into whether the lack of choice of mates for the Queen within a colony is actually part of the problem, obviously if she isn't mating with enough of the males then the breeding slows right up and the numbers begin to dwindle.

There are many other reasons for the numbers of honey bees going down including the loss of habitat and food, but the team at Leeds Uni believe they've hit another fairly sensible reason and on the face of it I would agree. Let us hope that the three years the project will take won't see another dramatic fall in honey bee numbers, we don't want to see if the theory is correct that if bees die out completely then we are likely to do so as well.

Long live the Queen and may she fornicate early and often!

Botched operations and surgical errors

Well done to Ross Finnie MSP for getting the answer to his question about "botched" operations.

The headline in today's Metro on page nine "Finnie: 5,000 botched ops in last five years" is quite alarming but as my friend and colleague Caron says "please don't panic".

However, as Ross Finnie has uncovered these figures appear quite alarming, but are they really down to negligence? I suspect not. Are they down to surgeons rushing to comply with government targets? Maybe, maybe not.

What they do show is that a little more patience and care is required and less rushing around.

The Health Boards, especially, and mainly the staff do a wonderful job and often thankless but patients have a right to go in for an operation and leave again without bits of hospital equipment left inside them.

The figures released in the Parliamentary answer to Ross show that in the last 5 years, 3106 people have suffered some sort of organ damage through cuts being made in the wrong place or errors such as leaving swabs inside a wound - which really does sound uncomfortable.

The first thing Caron asked herself when she saw this was "how many operations took place in Scotland during this period." Fortunately Caron didn't have to look very far, because the Scotsman had done it for her - 1.2 million operations took place during 2008. If you multiply that by five, that gives 6 million. On these figures, the risk of surgical error is tiny - 0.0919% of an error happening, 0.05% chance of organ damage.

So, don't panic, and trust the Health Boards.

Leith - the plan for the Port and Docks

As I was surfing around catching up on news on the Scottish blogs I saw on my good friend and colleague, Caron's blog a great posting about Leith Harbour, read it here.

I don't claim to be a Leither, I have only lived in Scotland since May 31st 2008 (although 4 weeks holiday every year for many years must count for something). But, I do love where I live and am sure as I am here longer I will call myself a Leither, it's an awesome area.

I live on Western Harbour, next to Newhaven Harbour and close to Leith Harbour and Docks and it is very much Leith, not Edinburgh.

Forth Ports have got this wrong, when you go on their own website they have the Leith Docks development separated from the Edinburgh Waterfront until you go into each aspect and then see that they also include Granton in this, with a picture of Newhaven & Leith.

They claimed in the piece in the Scotsman that people have got it wrong and that Leith Docks is the overall name, well it isn't what their website insinuates. Their website states the opposite, so I think as well as joining Greener Leith and I urge you to check out their take on the Harbour we should let Forth Ports know our views, the only email address I can find on their website is bshaw@bigpartnership.com so I am urging all my readers to use this email and let them know your views!

I am pleased that Edinburgh City Council Leader, Councillor Jenny Dawe is listening to the local residents on this important issue, well done Jenny.

Forth Ports are out of step on this issue, let's hope they get get it right!

Tavish Scott attacks wee Eck for misleading Parliament

Today is a great day for Tavish Scott, Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats in the media because his principled stand against the First Minister, Alex Salmond has now been proven right.

It appears wee Eck wasn't entirely honest in First Ministers Questions on Wednesday 7th January when answering Tavish Scott about the funding of the Inter Faith Council.

The story is carried on the front pages of many of the national newspapers today - The Scotsman, The Daily Telegraph and The Times are the three I have read so far (plus an apology from Alan Cochrane in The Daily Telegraph). The story is also carried on the BBC News website and in The Sun, Daily Record, to name just a few.

Enjoy your reading.......