The Flag in the Wind
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CAMPAIGNING FOR SCOTLAND
(Owned, Edited and Printed in Scotland since November 1926)
[21 July 2000]

THE KING IS DEAD - LONG LIVE THE KING!

The announcement by Alex Salmond MP, MSP, that he will demit office as Convener of the Scottish National Party has sent shock waves through the Scottish political establishment. Those of us who have not been uncritical admirers of Alex do recognise and appreciate the dedication, energy and initiative he has displayed consistently over the years and his massive contribution to the cause of Scottish Independence..

However the Scottish National Party is not a divine institution, and people can and do lose their appetite from time to time, as we’re all human. Despite the media hype the SNP has never been a one man band, although Alex’s skills as a TV performer are formidable; he also scares the hell out of his opponents. Comments have been made that he has not shone in the Scottish Parliament because he is a star player, an individualist, and teamwork is now the name of the game.

There have been only four Chairmen in my time in the SNP, Arthur Donaldson, Billy Wolfe, Gordon Wilson and Alex Salmond. Arthur Donaldson was Chairman when Winnie Ewing won Hamilton; Billy Wolfe was Chairman when we won the Western Isles in 1970, then had 11 MPs elected in 1974 with 31% of the vote. Gordon Wilson inherited the Party after we lost 9 of our 11 seats in 1979, and had to contend with the splits engendered by the 79 Group, which led to the expulsion of among others, Alex Salmond. Gordon spent a few years rebuilding the Party, but when he lost his own Westminster seat in 1987 the Chairmanship was too onerous for someone who had to earn a living outside politics. 

Alex Salmond became Chairman, or Convener as it is now politically correctly called, in 1990, to misgivings among many of the more mainstream nationalists, but has done extremely well and healed old wounds.

Who will succeed? Any of the names mentioned so far, John Swinney, Alex Neil , Roseanna Cunningham, Mike Russell or Kenny MacAskill could, and each of them would bring their own ethos and drive; none of them would be bad for the Party.

It is odd that that opposition to Alex is always from fundamentalists. We do not recognise that term applied to some of the individuals concerned who were arch-devolutionists in the past (This comment excludes the named contenders).

It must be like Humpty Dumpty in Alice in Wonderland who said "When I use a word it means just what I choose it to mean-neither more nor less".

NOT QUEEN ELIZABETH TWO - BUT TWO QUEEN ELIZABETHS

Press and TV is full of fulsome (foolsome?) tributes to the Queen Mother who will shortly be 100 years old; maybe she’s already 100 as the Royals have two birthdays, the official one and the real one.

We also know now that the Queen herself has managed to squirrel away £35 million from the last settlement and that the savings we mentioned last week are really coming out of our money and not the Queen’s. Gordon Brown is not as hard on the Royal pensioners as he is on the more worthy ones.

Incidentally, what will happen to the Queen Mother’s £4 million overdraft, run up at taxpayer’s expense when she passes on? Maybe they’ll get it from the insurance.

ALSO PAST THE SELL BY DATE

No more has been said about the proposal trailed a few weeks back to scrap the post of Secretary of State for Scotland, but it was bruited about to be before the next General Election. According to reports Dr Reid has 86 staff, but it is not clear if this includes the 3 special advisers appointed over the last year.

One item highlighted by George Rosie when he was interrogating Dr Reid on TV, the Secretary of State can annul any legislation passed by the Scottish Parliament; Section 35, I think. After the demise of this post who will be authorised to annul this legislation?

One thing is clear; Dr Reid and his sidekick (literally) Brian Wilson spend an awful lot of time and our money attacking the SNP (Witness Brian Wilson was the only one who publicly denigrated Alex Salmond on his demitting office).

When Tony Blair appointed John Reid and Brian Wilson to the Scottish Office he had obviously never heard of the "Good cop, bad cop" routine.

THE GRAVY TRAIN STANDING AT.....

Photograph Andrew P M Wright

Mr. Ian Smith , who resigned as Chief Executive of Dumfries & Galloway at a day’s notice last year has been given the post of Local Government Ombudsman; the post is part-time and carries a salary of £38,264. Mr. Smith is on the Consultative Steering Group to provide financial services for the Scottish Parliament; he is also a director of West of Scotland Water.

At the time of his appointment to the CSG, Dumfries & Galloway was under investigation for a transaction involving the housing department.

Last week the former Convener of Dumfries & Galloway was given 250 hours of community service for misuse of a council Visa card; his defence was that this was established practice. At the time, Mr. Smith was the Chief Executive.

It looks as if the proposed "Bonfire of the Quangos" has failed to ignite.

THE PRIVATE GRAVY TRAIN IS STILL RUNNING...

A week or two ago it was suggested that three former Scottish Secretaries, Ian Lang, Michael Forsyth and Sir Malcolm Rifkind, might have jobs in the City.

Sir Malcolm Rifkind will become a director of Aberdeen Asset Management on 1 Aug; he is on the boards of Ramco (Aberdeen based oil explorer), British Assets Trust, Foreign & Colonial Emerging Markets Trust and is a consultant to the Australian mining company BHP.

Ramco shares are soaring at the moment; Riffers obviously knows a thing or two.

If he goes on like this he’ll have time to be a Westminster MP.

VALUE ADDED ???

It seems hardly credible that hospices which care for the terminally ill are not exempt from VAT. Scotland’s biggest hospice, St Margaret’s in Clydebank, is appealing against paying VAT on furnishings and building work.

All the expenditure at the hospice is to do with caring with the terminally ill and their relatives. While the NHS contributes to the running costs it supplies less than 25% of the cash; the rest comes from donations.

Hospices give added value to the final days of their patients; it is obscene that Government takes money from them.

You add value - we’ll add the tax.

THE CAMPBELLS ARE CONNING

I did watch a so-called "fly on the wall" programme on the Prime Minister’s Press Secretary, Alastair Campbell. These programmes, which purport to show things as they really are, are a load of nonsense. Anyone conscious of a camera or any recording device will act as they want to be portrayed, not as they are. In fact, the programme was seen as a way showing Mr. Campbell in a good light, and he came out of it very well, which was the object of the exercise.

That said we should be asking why these people should be raking in money from the public purse for media managers who say "Well, what he actually said was..." as if we are all idiots. This government has already spent over £1 billion on consultants of one sort or other in the last three years and this does not include the army of minions we saw on TV.

Politicians are supposed to be communicators, that’s part of their job, they shouldn’t need someone else to do it for them. And if these guys like Campbell were worth their salt then the Government would have a much better public image, or are we missing something?

It is a well known fact that a spin doctor is there to present the story; when he becomes the story his usefulness is ended. Frank Dobson (Remember him) said of another wobbled spin doctor "You can be a successful poisoner, or a famous poisoner. You cannot be both."

NATS IN TROUBLE

No, no, not another everyday story of SNP Treasurers, but a few problems which have arisen with the National Air Traffic Service (NATS). Initials are very much in vogue due to the long winded names and the short winded attention span. There is a Flight Data Processing System (FDPS) and it is being installed by Electronic Data Systems (EDS) at the Oceanic Area Control Centre (OACC) at Prestwick.

EDS is an American firm and they have already installed software for the Inland Revenue (BAST...) ; anyone who has tried to submit their tax return electronically will know of that problem.

Anyway, the Prestwick project is already two years behind schedule and has been halted at the instigation of the Commons Public Accounts Committee (CPAC). According to them the original estimate was £1 billion over a 10 year contract; it is now £2.4 billion and still rising.

SNP Transport Spokeswoman, Linda Fabiani, MSP, has called for a public enquiry as to why this shambles has come about, but it is not likely she will get any answers. The Labour Party say it was a PFI (Private Finance Initiative) started by the Tories, and they scrapped it and put in public money. They say the Government is setting up a PPP (Public Private Partnership) to run it. (You can hardly believe all this jargon!)

This is the privatisation of Air Traffic Control, opposed by aircrew and air traffic controllers, who are sure that safety will take second place to profit; well they have the railways as a model, do they not? When in Opposition Labour was stridently opposed to this policy, but as the New Tories they have wholeheartedly embraced it.

EDS ( founded by Ross Perot) has managed to lock the Inland Revenue into a juicy 10 year contract, and by the looks of it they have done the same thing with NATS. It’s like the Skye Bridge and the Bank of America--Cherchez le Tory Ex Government Minister, probably now working in the City.