I imagine Gordon Brewer watched Andrew Marr failing to land a punch on Farage and thought, ‘Politicians are betraying democracy? That will be a good opener for my interrogation later of the other John Smith girl and that woman who was in the jungle.’
She didn’t like it and nipped him politely. Doesn’t he know her dad’s a saint and her sister is his boss?
Kathryn Smith, sister of Sarah, State Broadcaster (Scotland Region) News Supremo, and Kezia Dugdale were there to talk about the John Smith Centre for Neo-Liberal Economics, US Foreign Policy Support and Befriending the Tories, which will ‘restore faith in Scottish politics.’ Even Gordon was a bit skeptical about that but didn’t go so far as to suggest viewers would be better off with the Jimmy Reid Foundation. I would.
Kezia looked happy in her new family show, McDynasty, where she plays the ‘Poisoned Dafty’, and will, I feel sure, bring her much-needed, post-Labour, pest-toleration aptitude to the project.
Smith did, however, pull out a big one aimed at converting any doubters watching, when she told us her dad liked Tory PM John Major quite a bit and would often retire together with him to have tea and talk about how Labour was now ready to betray the working people in return for job security. There should be more of that! Kezia nods.
Can I be critical of the beatified John Smith? I can, of course, but should I? Well I don’t need to. See these three telling extracts from a Guardian obituary:
Smith impressed Hugh Gaitskell, who heard him at a May Day rally in Glasgow in 1963 – not only because he spoke well but because he already exuded the level-headed pragmatism of the Labour right.
Smith qualified as an advocate in 1967 and subsequently was involved in some of Scotland’s biggest trials. He defended one of the men involved in the notorious ‘ice cream wars’, during which a family of six were burned to death in an arson attack. Smith ‘s client escaped with a three-year sentence.
The other side of his character which was perhaps not clear to the general public was his enormous self-confidence. He was the sort of man of whom it is said that he thought he could walk on water.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/1994/may/13/obituaries.past
John Smith Centre for Public Service? Aye right!
Talking-up Scotland 
Given the air time the BEEB generously allows Ruthie and Nigel, would it not make sense (I know) if they had their very own show!
It could be called “The Two Gonnae’s (no dae that)”.
The premise of “The Two Gonnae’s” would be preventative censorship—for our own good.
Scots would not be allowed to consider a different future—as the one “planned” for us is pure golden!
Brits would be prevented from knowledge about nasty foreign types who live in darkest Europe—unless its about Putin.
We would be “encouraged” to admire our new PM, Boris (Ruthie having done another of her famously frequent flip-flops).
Our wonderous ally and friend, The Donald@, would come to our shores to cherry-pick our best, most profitable, bits, whilst sending our children off to fight in Iran, North Korea and Venezuela.
To Make America Great Again, and enrich the Military-Industrial complex—the “iron triangle” of profit.
SNP are HIGH in the polls—soooo…..guess what?
Federalism is on the cards again! And I have a bridge for sale………………The ghost of Alec Douglas-Home never rests!
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Brilliant. I’d watch that.
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There is a long piece about John Smith by Anthony Barnett on Open Democracy today. Professor Barnett’s location of Mr Smith’s politics is, as you have located him, on the centre right. However, he is much more charitable with regard to Mr Smith’s stance on human rights and about constitutional change.
With regard to Mr Smith defending one of those involved in the ‘Ice Cream Murders’, defence lawyers have to present cases for the most unpleasant of people, because it is a tenet of justice that people are innocent until proven guilty. In the recent ghastly murder of Alexa MacPhail, the trial judge made a point of complimenting the defence for presenting the case on behalf of the accused. The lawyer had received a lot of abuse.
With regard to Mr Smith’s friendship with Mr John Major, such friendships across party lines are not uncommon, and, it is surely in the interests of social cohesion that people of different political outlooks can engage at a human level. By many accounts, despite his political and economic stance, it was often reported that on a human level, Mr Major showed empathy. Shortly after he became PM, the left wing Labour MP, Mr Eric Heffer, who was dying, made a final appearance in Parliament, and sat on the back benches as he always did. After PM questions, Mr Major reentered the chamber and sat on the steps adjacent to Mr Heffer and engaged him in conversation. This was done quite unobtrusively and only became known when Mr Tony Benn drew it to the attention of others. When one witnesses the appalling conduct on the Tory benches today, Mr Major’s decency is worth applauding.
I started at university a little after John Smith had left. He had been one of a long line of formidable debaters at the University Union, which included people like Donald Dewar, Dickson Mabon, Menzies Campbell, Malcolm MacKenzie (Mrs Thatcher’s adviser on education, and one of my greatly admired tutors, when I was taking my Masters). The Union at that time was very much a ‘gentleman’s club’ – nae burdz! – and Mr Smith was, undoubtedly comfortable in that milieu. However, it was his belief that there should be a Scottish Parliament, that, despite the vacillation of Messrs Blair and Brown, that Donald ?Dewar delivered as Smith’s legacy. Had there not been the Parliament, I do not think we would have advanced the case for independence to where it is now. Probably, this would have been to the chagrin of Mr Smith, who believed in the UK, albeit differently configured.
I was working in Lanarkshire at the time of John Smith’s death, in the neighbouring constituency, and many of my colleagues lived in his constituency. They were sincerely moved at his early death.
His stance with regard to socialism, and social democracy did not overlap greatly with mine (and yours, I think!), but he believed in human rights, in the value of the European Union and the framework of rights and rules that it has. I think that there is a fair amount to commend him for.
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Sti not sure about the psyche of a lawyer who defends a psycho.
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Your reaction is one I always have to check myself for when I read of such horrifying cases. However, we need to have ‘due process’ in the interests of a civilised society.
A former pupil of mine was left severely disabled following the attack that became known as ‘The Ice Cream Murders’. However, in the subsequent trial a man was found guilty and served a fairly long time in prison before having the sentence quashed. He escaped from prison on several occasions, but always gave himself up after some headline grabbing demonstration, such as supergluing himself to the railings of Buckingham Palace. He had been branded a psychopath. We need someone to defend people who are accused so that the chances of a miscarriage are minimised.(Incidentally, I had educational connections with that family, too.)
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I have just watched a DVD of ‘Twelve Angry Men’.
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One of Margaret Thatcher’s tasks as a chemist before she became something else, was to see how much air could be injected into ice cream before it collapsed, to make it look bigger.
Kezia does a similar job with a load of shite.
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Excellent analogy.
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Alastair, I agree with you about everyone being entitled to a defence and so did the Scots Parliament in the 14th/15th century when the passed an Act entitled – ‘Guise as Ian puir man…’ The Act said that anyone who was tried and found guilty of a capital offence at the High Court but was not represented by a lawyer would have their sentence quashed. The Act also set up the post of Defender to the Poor who would act, unpaid, to provide legal representation for the puir man.
The post was abolished in 1965 when legal aid was introduced in the UK.
The last holder of the post was Iain Hamilton QC. It was still unpaid and his job was to arrange legal representation for those who could not afford it.
I remember reading about this many years ago on his blog.
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Legerwood,
Thanks for this piece of information which is new to me and pleasantly reassuring to learn that for centuries concepts of equity and fairness have been enacted in the laws of Scotland.
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Brian Powell , Priceless
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