The Flag in the Wind
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CAMPAIGNING FOR SCOTLAND
(Owned, Edited and Printed in Scotland since November 1926)
Compiled by Jim Lynch
[10 November 2000]

OCHONE, OCHONE, THE OPINION POLL....

Having rejoiced last month when the System Three put us 14 points ahead of Labour in the Holyrood constituency vote, and 13 points ahead in the proportional vote, this month we are back down to earth, with the proverbial bang.

We commented on the September poll stating that there had been a big jump in May for Labour, and that this coincided with Donald Dewar’s heart operation; strange indeed that his sudden , tragic death seems also to have had an effect. In September, of course, there was also the fuel crisis, which had an adverse effect on New Labour, as the party in Government which was not governing. There is a long way to got to the next Scottish election, but Westminster looms; it is my contention that Scots are more likely to vote Labour at General Elections because they dread the return of the Tories, when in fact the Tories are now called New Labour.

The poll suggests that there would still be no overall majority, but a Labour/Liberal Democrat coalition would be the most likely Government; ah well, wait for next month! However we are still ahead of our Election performance, which is something.

THE DISAPPEARING BOARD

We were told that there were 29 members on the Board of the Scottish Qualifications Authority, then the Scotsman in the same issue said on one page there were 29, and on another that there were 24, and gave us the names; well they gave us 9 names.

Be that as it may, there are now no members of the SQA Board, or one, as a new Chairman has been appointed, John Ward. The speedy action by the new Education Minister, Jack McConnell, begs the question as to how, if there was no executive authority, as steadfastly claimed by Sam Galbraith, could Mr McConnell have given the whole Board the Kirkcaldy hoist (Pronounced heist) on taking office?

DROWNING NOT WAVING

Mr Galbraith, moved from Education to Environment, to stop him embarrassing the Executive by having to tell the truth, is continuing his no blame culture; he has categorically stated that there will not be a flood warning system for Scotland. He does not think it odd that people in Scotland can switch on their TVs and see flood warnings for England, completely unaware of the water lapping at their own back door; to be fair, Mr Galbraith is not personally responsible for flood defences, as he has only been in the job a few days, but his approach would appear to be similar to his attitude to the Scottish Qualifications Authority. "Not my problem, go see your local councillor, who will send the local polis with a loudhailer ".

It would seem that while most of Scotland has so far missed the worst of these floods, we will be hit as bad weather is indiscriminate and is not aware that it should stop at the Border.

SIR SEAN CONNERY

It is nice to see that the American Senate is going to honour Sir Sean Connery; on 6 April 2001 (The anniversary of the Declaration of Arbroath) Senate Majority Leader, Trent Lott, will present him with the William Wallace Award. The award is for his Scottish contribution to American life, and the occasion will be America’s Tartan Day.

Of course, Sir Sean is no stranger to awards; in 1968, we invited him to become Honorary President of Peterhead Branch of the Scottish National Party. We received a very nice reply from his personal assistant in Hollywood, declining the honour, even though we made it clear we did not expect him to come to all the meetings!

TWO BY ELECTIONS AND A FLITTING

Spare a thought for the hard pressed staff at Scottish National Party Headquarters; not only have they to cope with two by elections, which were never going to become three, they are also in the process of flitting. After Friday 10th November, SNP Headquarters will be at:

107 McDonald Road, Edinburgh, EH7 4NW
Telephone No 0131 525 8900

The address for the Constituency Rooms for the Anniesland By Elections is:

Knightswood Shopping Centre
758 Anniesland Road
Glasgow.

There is no telephone number as yet, but the Rooms are operational now.

AND THEN THERE WERE TWO.....

The Anniesland By Elections are off and running; all the parties launched their campaigns this week, well, SNP, Labour, Tories and Liberal Democrats (Yes) , but we have not as yet picked up on the SSP. The SNP were handed a gift by the Scottish Executive right away, or to rephrase it, the privatisation of Glasgow’s housing stock, was handed a gift of £44 million as a sweetener; the only trouble was that the cash belonged to the National Health Service, and it was creamed off by financial sleight of hand, better known as cheating. Labour do not deny that it was NHS money, but claim it was money locked in the accounts of NHS trusts when they were wound up, and that the Treasury would have taken it anyway. It does not seem to have dawned on them that it should have been used to help remove NHS trust debts; they needed it as a bribe, so there!

The issue will cause some embarrassment for the Labour Candidate for Holyrood, Bill Butler; as a Glasgow Councillor, he was vehement in his protests against the Housing Stock Transfer, the use of the Private Finance Initiative for schools, and Proportional Representation. He is a changed man; he now supports the Housing Stock Transfer, PFI, and Proportional Representation! Ah, the heady scent of power.......

The comment from John McAllion, Labour MP and MSP, and a leading supporter of the Campaign for Socialism, was kinder. He said "Being a by election candidate restricts your freedom to maneouvre".

AND TALKING OF APOSTATES

We said a week or two back that Dennis Canavan had been unfairly treated by Labour in the selection process for Holyrood, and when he announced that he was going to resign his Westminster seat, we quoted the old Arab Proverb "The enemy of my enemy is my friend".

After the tragic death of Donald Dewar, we began to suspect that something was up; the date was given for Anniesland, but no word about Falkirk West, and so it has come to pass. Reading between the lines, Mr Canavan was out because the sainted Donald had held a grudge against him for many years; well, ever since Donald thought Mr Canavan did the dirty on him at the West Stirling selection in 1974 (Not West Dunbartonshire, as some papers had it). In any event, while there had been some dirty work to keep Mr Canavan out of Holyrood, there has also been some dirty work to get him back into the fold Issues of principle, on both sides, have been jettisoned for fear of losing a seat to the SNP, and the electorate in general is disappointed at the outcome. It is also debatable as to what will happen to those who supported him, and left the Labour Party; will they also be accepted back? The touching scene where Mr Canavan congratulated Mr McLeish on his elevation to First Minister, and the guff about "I would have voted for you, although my support might have been the kiss of death" fell into place when it became known that they had been meeting secretly for two weeks about re admission; we wonder if Jack McConnell would have been so forgiving.

When asked if he regretted standing as an independent, Dennis Canavan said that he did not regret it, but that he regretted some of the things he said; you will, Dennis, you will.

OUR NUMBER’S UP

As from 1st September 2001 it will be illegal to have SCO and the Saltire on your car number plate. Currently, number plates with the European stars (No , not football players) and the Saltire and SCO are all right, but after the above date we can only have GB and the aforesaid stars; Shadow Transport Minister, Bruce Crawford has accused Westminster fo trying to wipe Scotland off the map, "And deny our motorists what other nations would consider to be a basic human right".

Well, the SNP MSPs are protesting, but we only have 35; what are the other MSPs saying? One would assume that the unionists of the Tory Party will seize on this to emphasise their Scottishness, and Tommy Sheridan and Robin Harper from the SSP and the Greens respectively, would agree with the SNP, but what about the Liberal Democrats? Probably the answer is that they haven’t had their minds made up for them yet. We would be surprised if the Labour Party even commented on the issue, since Westminster rules.

MOST OF OUR MINISTERS ARE MISSING

SNP Leader, John Swinney, was in Brussels this week to speak to Brussels Branch of the SNP; he told them that the SNP had been researching the attendance records of the Scottish Government Ministers at European Council of Ministers Meetings. There have been 103 meetings since the advent of our Parliament, and Scottish Ministers have only attended 9 of them; all 15 member states have a 100% record. Despite all the pan European problems with fuel tax, Sarah Boyack has not attended one single meeting; justice matters have become more important since the Amsterdam Treaty in May 1999, but the Justice Minister has never attended, and the Health Minister hasn’t gone to Health Meeting either, or the Minister for Social Justice. All these matters are devolved, so why are the Scottish Ministers not there?

The answer, John, is probably that Westminster will not let them.

AND SIMILARLY AFFECTED

Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Dr John Reid, the Secretary of State for Scotland, are also guilty of not attending meeting, but in their instances they were specifically invited. The meetings in question were those of the European Committee of the Scottish Parliament, and Messrs Brown and Reid (If they do not mind the French appellation, or even if they do) were requested to attend to give evidence and explanations about the European Structural Fund. The Committee feels that the Westminster lot are giving Scotland money, but keeping the European allocation for themselves; the absence of the two men in question is an indication that this might be true. Then again, as above, it might be that anything to with Europe makes them run a mile.

Dr John Reid, of course, while shy of attending meetings, will be attending one with the House of Commons Standards and Privileges Committee; he has been summoned after a report was submitted by the Westminster Watchdog (Not her true title, but she looks for chicanery) Elizabeth Filkin. Both Dr Reid and Mr John Maxton, Cathcart, were reported as having used their Parliamentary allowances to pay Labour Party workers during the Scottish elections last year; there were three researchers, listed as Commons researchers and paid for from the public purse (us) and they included Kevin Reid, son of John, and Chris Winslow, special adviser to the late Donald Dewar. Both men deny the charges and say they have co operated fully with the enquiry; the report is likely to be published before the end of the year.

While on the subject of Dr Reid; his plan to have a reception in Edinburgh Castle to mark the first anniversary of the Scottish Parliament has been cancelled. According to him, no public money would have been involved, although it was supposed to help cement relations between MPs and MSPs, a Good Thing. He hopes to find a sponsor to pick up the tab, no doubt a parliamentary researcher, and the bash is now put off until after Christmas; he could help cement relations by attending some of the Committees in the Scottish Parliament, but we don’t know if they’ve appointed a Standards Commissioner yet.

PRISING OPEN THE PURSE

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown , like his Labour colleagues, who must include the Prime Minister, was very vociferous that any reduction in fuel tax would lead to the closure of schools and hospitals; that was all so much window dressing, as in his Budget statement he’s very kindly going to reduce fuel tax, car tax, lorry tax, in exchange for the use of greener fuels, of course. His po faced henchman, Douglas Alexander, wee brother of the more infamous Wendy, says Mr Brown is keeping faith with the environmental lobby and helping hard pressed hauliers and farmers. What we are seeing is a looming General Election, and Mr Brown taking bits of policy from all parties, and pleading principles.

We remember the last Budget statement which was well received generally, until people went away and looked at the small print, only to discover that Mr Brown was all smoke and mirrors, and pensioners got 75p a week. One Ayr by election, lost, one fuel protest, making the country grind to a halt, and a slide in the opinion polls-----we believe he is a man of principle. And what is today’s principle?

Another conundrum; when is a principle not a principle? When it is a political principle.

TAKING THE BISCUIT

When Burtons Biscuits, which employs 1000 people in Edinburgh, was bought by Hicks, Muse, Tate and Furst, a firm of US venture capitalists, we knew the name was familiar, but could not quite make the connection. It was left to Christine Grahame, SNP MSP for the Borders to point out that this was the firm that bought Viasystems in Hawick and closed it last year with the loss of 1200 jobs; the firm has a history of factory closures and mass redundancy. Christine has tabled a Parliamentary question on the subject.