LET JOY BE UNCONFINED

Writing on the SQA debacle on 18 Aug 00, I ended with the question "Wonder what the System Three Opinion Poll will show now this has hit the fan?" Well, the fan has now been duly hit, and well and truly hit; the System Three now shows:

The SNP is back on first vote to its second highest this year; in March we were at 37%. We would obviously like to have done better on the second vote, but this has wandered over the year from a low of 30% to a high of 35%. To put it all in context at the Election last year we had 29% on the first vote and 27% on the second vote; Labour had 39% on the first vote and 34% on the second, so a fair amount of movement.

However, we might have expected to have done a bit better considering the disarray that Labour are in, but they are doing well south of the border at 45% against the Tories 33%, a result more due to the Tories ineptitude rather than positive approval of their policies. While the electorate in England and Wales do not see much difference between the parties policy wise, they look at William Hague, and shudder.

UP WI THE BONNETS O’ BONNIE DUNDEE

And as all politicians say, when it doesn’t suit them "The only real opinion poll is the ballot box", we proceed to Logie Ward in Dundee West Constituency, where Jim Barrie of the SNP took the seat from Labour with a 6% swing; this now leaves Labour on Dundee District Council as the largest party, but now outnumbered by the SNP and the Tories.

We held Dundee East for many years with Gordon Wilson as the MP, and for a time Dundee West looked likely, but it never happened; the nearest result was in May 1999 when Calum Cashley came within 125 votes of taking the seat from Labour.

SAM GALBRAITH OUTSTANDING

Not our words, but the approval of Tony Blair, the Prime Minister of All England, as he paid a state visit to Scotland last week. Mr Blair was en route to Balmoral, for an audience with Her Majesty, Elizabeth, or the other way about. We are not sure who briefs Tony Blair on his sporadic trips to Scotland, but each time he manages to irritate the electors, apart from his New Labour faithful. In one respect his comment about Sam Galbraith is correct; Sam Galbraith is outstanding, in the sense that he has not yet been dealt with.

This week will see the resumption of Parliament, and we hope there will be some sort of debate on the fiasco, but the real work will be done once the Education Committee starts its enquiry; they hope that this will be wide and deep. It is proposed that all those who have been involved with Higher Still and the SQA will be interviewed; this list will include Brian Wilson, Helen Liddell and Raymond Robertson, all of whom have been Ministers of State for Education, and who approved, and in some instances, forced the changes through in the teeth of opposition from the teachers. However with the recent refusal of Dr John Reid to appear before the Scottish Parliament finance committee, we do not expect to see any Westminster Ministers without a great deal of arm twisting; we anticipate Raymond Robertson will appear, as the Tories will be glad someone wants to listen. Maybe, Michael Forsyth, Donald Dewar, and all the others who helped create the mess could also be called....?

The arms length invisible people of the quango are remaining arms length invisible people; it was stated on the Scottish News that there are 29 Board Members, but nobody’s owning up. We’ll have to ask Raymond Robertson, who appointed them, or Saint Donald Dewar, who re-appointed them who they are, and how much they cost the taxpayer, and what they did for the money, or will we hear the plaintive cry "One of our Boards is missing"?

And this week a group of education officials from Oman have arrived in Scotland; they are visiting the SQA for advice on how to run an efficient examination system. As far as can be ascertained the current debacle will be treated as having no relevance. We should imagine the advice they will get will be "Gonnae no dae that!"

CRUDE OIL - CRUDER TAXES

Denials by the Government that the high price of petrol is due to the world cost of oil have been refuted by the House of Commons Library; officials there have discovered that the big increases by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, in his first three Budgets, are the main reason for the hike in petrol costs, rather than the price of crude oil. From May 1997 until May 2000, the price of petrol has increased by 43%, and 32% of that is due to taxes. It is the case that tax amounts to 76% of the cost of petrol, so if you put £10 of petrol in the tank, the Chancellor collects £7.60. (I know you could have worked that out for yourself, but I like to say it).

The hardest hit by the increase have been the poorest, and rural communities; it is the case that fuel duties take only 1.4% of the income of the richest, but 3.7% for the poorest, which gives the lie to the claim that it is a tax on the middle classes.

As for the rural communities, just look at petrol prices around the country, and you will see a vast difference as soon as you leave urban areas, with the smallest places paying the highest prices; Mrs Thatcher lives! Last month, Brian Wilson made a great publicity play about LPG, announcing a deal with Shell that 23 new garage outlets would supply LPG, which was half the cost of petrol or diesel (Only until it becomes popular). According to him, and his sidekick, Alastair Morrison, Deputy Highlands and Islands Minister, £310000 was to be made available for drivers to convert their cars, and that anyone in the Highlands who wished to convert a vehicle would be guaranteed a grant. Now when you look at the small print, the scheme is open to anyone in Scotland and is limited to vehicles less than a year old; eligibility is based on an EU assessment of vehicle emissions, and not by post code. There are only four garages in Scotland which can convert vehicles, two in Ayrshire, one in Glasgow and one in Perth.

Kenny MacAskill, MSP, SNP, described it as a "fig leaf and a pathetic diversion from the real issue of the fuel duty escalator". He challenged them to attend a public meeting in Stornoway arranged by the local paper, but they had declined the newspaper’s invitation; they managed a photocall in Evanton for the LPG, but while cameras do not lie, they do not ask awkward questions either!

An interesting sidelight on the price of fuel has arisen after the French blockade; the European Court of Justice has been approached , by whom it is not clear, with the argument that fuel tax contravenes competition laws in that it puts British business at a disadvantage compared to their European competitors. Professor Neil MacCormick, MEP (SNP and son of Dr John who wrote "The Flag in the Wind") will be raising the matter with the European Commission; nice to see someone using the rules to our advantage for a change.

QUEEN CANUTE

Susan Deacon, The Health Minister, is presiding over an increase of 5% in the hospital waiting list over the last quarter; the actual rise in the lists since last year is 15%. According to Ms Deacon, she will be sending in "Hit squads" to poorly performing Health Service Trusts; these are officially termed performance management teams, and will probably tell the Trusts how to manipulate their statistics when they should be sending in resources to get the job done rather than how to measure it. Who are they, anyway? Do we have battalions of medical statisticians sitting at HQ, all kitted up and ready to roll, or doctors and nurses similarly occupied, waiting for the call?

Ms Deacon has also ordered senior NHS staff and social workers that there must be no repeat of the chaos which threatened to cripple the Health Service in previous winters; she must be pleased that she is not responsible for Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle which was opened by Tony Blair last June. In August, the 444 bed hospital was full, so when winter comes what will they do? The hospital is the first one financed by the private finance initiative, it is smaller than Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, which is also being built under PFI, and which has also cut back on beds. Ms Deacon seems to think that wishing people will remain well when reducing services and theatening the hard pressed professionals is the way forward.

At least, King Canute was demonstrating how futile he was.

PARTY ROWS

The leadership contest is being conducted in a civilised fashion, as is the contest for deputy leader, mainly , we hope, because they are all reasonable people who will have to work together after the results are declared. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the contest for Treasurer; Ian Blackford, in his "Manifesto" for election put out with the Conference papers, chose to ignore asking delegates to vote for him, but mounted an attack on Alex Salmond accusing him and other senior office bearers and officials of reckless and irresponsible spending. Alex Salmond, in a letter to delegates, refuted the claims, and provided a detailed rebuttal.

In military terms there is an expression "friendly fire" which means killing or injuring your own side accidentally. The Blackford Manifesto does not look like "friendly fire".

DOME IS A FOUR LETTER WORD

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan, a stately pleasure dome decree.....

Just when we thought it was all over, and the Millennium Dome would pass into infamy and become a cash cow for Nomura, the Japanese merchant bank who bought it, back it sails into the headlines. What puzzles me is that the latest cash is to save it from becoming insolvent. A company which is trading at a loss and does not have the wherewithal to pay its debts and its running expenses is insolvent, and throwing great chunks of cash at it does not make it solvent. It has now cost almost £1 billion, and this year alone, well it has only been open for this year it has received £186 million of Lottery money, public money, which was supposed to be spent on good causes. All this cash, not only wasted, but causing a lot of grief for the Blair government , who should have thrown this out; however like the SQA, they just continued with the project.

When we consider the fuss about the cost of the Scottish Parliament, the money splurged on the Dome this year would have paid for the building which will be there long after we’re gone, and the Dome dough is gone, gone, gone. While we admit to joining in the attack over the cost of the Scottish Parliament it was because of the duplicity of the Secretary of State for Scotland, then Donald Dewar, in decreeing where it should be built, and then being evasive about the costs and denying any responsibility. We still require a world class building, preferably using Scottish granite.

Further on in Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem are the lines

"That with music loud and long, I would build that dome in air
"That sunny dome, those caves of ice, and all who heard should see them there
"And all should cry , Beware, Beware!"

It looks as if the Tories, whose idea it was, never read past the first lines; oh well, they created the SQA so they’re not into education anyway.

DATES IN HISTORY

9 September 1978
Christopher Murray Grieve died in Edinburgh but his literary output as Hugh MacDiarmid lives on. Scotland's foremost poet of the 20th Century, he was the lynch-pin of the Scottish Literary Revival and a founder member of the National Party of Scotland in 1928.

'The rose of all the world is not for me.
I want for my part
Only the little white rose of Scotland
That smells sharp and sweet - and breaks the heart.'

- The Little White Rose (Hugh MacDiarmid)

11 September 1297
Battle of Stirling Bridge where the Scots under the command of William Wallace and Andrew de Moray defeated a larger English force under John de Warenne, Earl of Surrey, and the Treasurer of England, Hugh de Cressingham. Andrew de Moray subsequently died of wounds received in the battle.

11 September 1997
Scots voted overwhelmingly for a Scottish Parliament with tax-varying powers. The first Scottish Parliament since 1707 was reconvened in 1999.

THE REBELS CEILIDH SONG BOOK

SKYE BOAT SONG
(Fionna version)

Chorus:
Speed bonnie boat like a bird on the wing,
Onward, the sailors cry,
Carry the lad who was born to be King,
Over the seas to Skye.

Loud the winds cry, loud the seas roar,
Thunderclaps rend the air,
Baffled our foes stand by the shore,
Follow they do not dare.

Chorus:

Many's a lad who fought on that day,
Well the Claymore did wield,
When the night came silently lay,
Dead on Culloden's field.

Chorus:

Plundered our Homes, exile and death,
Banish the loyal men,
Yet ere the sword cools in the sheath,
Scotland will rise again.

Chorus:

See the Songbook in our features section

AND AS WE CONTINUE.........

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THE FLAG IN THE WIND

The above was the title of a book written in the early Fifties by John MacDonald MacCormick, one of the founder members of the Scottish National Party in 1934. The sub-title was "The Story of the National Movement in Scotland". His comment in the book said "It is perhaps in the symbols which men use that their deepest sentiments are most readily expressed. Flags as well as straws show which way the wind is blowing". A fuller account appears under Features.

 

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