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CAMPAIGNING FOR SCOTLAND
(Owned, Edited and Printed in Scotland since November 1926)
Compiled by Jim Lynch
[Issue 44 - 6 April 2001]

TARTAN DAY 6TH APRIL 2001

This week, the United States of America will celebrate Tartan Day, in recognition of the achievements of Scottish Americans; this is the fourth such celebration, instituted by Republican Senate Leader Trent Lott by resolution to the Senate on 10th November 1997.

The date of 6th April was chosen because it was the date of the signing of the Declaration of Arbroath in 1320, and the American Declaration of Independence of 4th July 1776 was modelled on that inspirational document.

In attendance this year will be Sir Sean Connery, who is being presented with the American Scottish Foundation’s William Wallace Award. Looking on will be John Swinney, the SNP Leader (Sir Sean is a Party member) and Henry McLeish, First Minister in the Scottish Parliament; this is only the second presentation of the Award, which was given last year to Trent Lott who instituted Tartan Day.

We have produced our own tribute to Tartan Day; read and hear James Halliday, former lecturer in Scottish and American history, Peter Wright, Marilyn Wright, the Gaberlunzie and piper Gordon Duncan at

 www.electricscotland.com/si/features/tartan_day.htm 

ROLLER COASTER OPINION POLLS

As soon as I read the SNP Press Release on the latest System Three, I knew it was not good news, and when I looked at the figures, my fears were confirmed. It would seem that Gordon Brown’s Budget has had the desired effect, and stiffened Labour Party support; well, when you have it in your power to return some of the goodies taken from the punters in the first place, you must get some credit.

The poll was taken between 22nd and 28th March, and while it shows a drop in support for the SNP since the March Poll, it still shows us ahead of our Scottish Election result in 1999 ; it does not look as if the flaunting of democracy of the Scottish Executive over the fishing vote, and the flaunting of Mr McLeish’s authority by Ms Wendy Alexander have impinged on the Labour Party popularity. 

There is a tale that Oscar Wilde, hearing a particularly good phrase being uttered, said "I wish I’d said that", to which one of his friends said "You will, Oscar, you will"; the relevance of that comment is that the sentence popularised by the late Harold Wilson, "A week is a long time in politics", was in fact first said by Harry S Truman. So we will just say "A week is a long time in opinion polls".

SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT

So there we are, only a few weeks from a Westminster Election, and Labour is up 8 points on the first, and 7 points on the second vote, the SNP has dropped 4 points on both, and the difference is made up by drops in Lib Dem and Tory votes; strange the ways of the electors.

AND FOR THE ENGLISH LOCAL ELECTIONS....

Well, we could be excused for thinking that this is what is going to happen on 7th June, and that nothing is further from the Prime Minister’s mind than a General Election, if we believe all the hype; to be fair, confirmation of a General Election would result in an immediate change in that Election Expenses would run from that date, and civil servants could no longer assiduously support their Minister. In fact, there would be a lot of limitations, but we will not be reasonable about them, but continue to point out that the term of a parliament is 5 years, and this parliament has not even run for 4 years; we might be thinking that there are hard times ahead, with the threat of a US recession and its inevitable impact on the UK. Certainly the Stock Market collapse has alarm bells ringing, and Mr Brown’s "Return some of the Dosh" Budget has left a warm glow, so Labour wants to strike before the electorate gets wise.

WESTMINSTER PARLIAMENT

It is interesting to see that Labour have jumped 7 points for this poll, and that the SNP has also dropped 4 points; as it has not been a particularly good month for the Government, with all the dithering about 3rd May, or not, and the public perception that they were more concerned with elections than the crisis in the countryside, this seems strange. But, again, the Budget was well received, and Scotland just managed a draw against Belgium, which does affect the national psyche. (The Sun Newspaper thinks Tony Blair will win on 7th June if England beat Greece at football on 6th June. Don’t know what will happen if England lose; now there’s a problem for Scottish Labour supporters!) It has long been my contention that if there is a strong Labour Party lead in the Opinion Polls, then the SNP will do better; this is because Scotland has a pathological fear of the Tories, and having voted for the Labour Party for 18 years, and been ruled by the Tories for the same period, this is understandable. It is only when the Scots feel that Labour will win in England, that they can then vote for other parties here; it is also worth noting that the SNP is showing a much higher voting percentage for the Scottish Parliament, so there is a potential 9 points that could be gained

However, there is no disguising the fact that we are disappointed at the current poll.

OPEN FOR BUSINESS

As aforesaid, there will now definitely be English Local Elections on 7th June 2001; the Prime Minister has decreed that they will be delayed as 3rd May will be too complicated. Reading the story correctly, the Prime Minister was dead set on 3rd May 2001, although the Election is not due until 2nd May 2002, but he had it all set up for this year; Budget handing back some dosh, poster sites booked, winter weather out of the way, Millbank all geared up, press fixed and Mandelson and Vaz reports in clearing them; oh and the report on John Reid also in clearing him. Ms Elizabeth Filkin must be very disheartened indeed; she gets the goods on the various Ministers, or they do not answer her questions, and the Commons Standards and Privileges Committee find them not guilty. Wouldn’t be at all surprised if Milosevic asks to be tried by them as well.

Key words were missing from the Downing Street briefings on the date of the Election; the statement said that Mr Blair had to act for the good of the country, not the party. It should have said that Mr Blair had to be seen to be acting for the good of the country, not the party, not quite the same thing. Only last week, Mr Blair’s favourite paper, the Sun, devoted the front page to a map of the United Kingdom, excluding Northern Ireland and the Shetlands, of course, cancelled out by a huge cross, and Sorry We’re Closed; this was the message to the world if Mr Blair postponed the May Election. It does not seem to have occurred to the Sun that the message Sorry We’re Closed was the actual message going out; then again, maybe American tourists don’t read the Sun, but if so, why bother? By the weekend, the message was Go Go Go for 7th June, hinting that they knew it all along.

What will happen on 7th June if the Foot and Mouth situation is still out of control? Well now, that will be a problem; Mr Blair cannot say that the election is deferred, or not so advanced, to allow him to deal with the crisis, and then gaily devote himself full time to an election in the midst of the said crisis, or could he? June will pose other problems, holiday time , although now everyone can get a postal vote that should not matter, but schools, which are also

polling stations, will be holding examinations, so what about Education, Education, Education? This may not be so much of a problem in Scotland, as the exams could mostly be over, but there will definitely be problems in England, where they will not be over; in addition, officials and staff involved in elections will have arranged their own holidays after the normal local election time of 3 May, so what do they do?

In any event, it is not right that a General Election being held in the United Kingdom should be determined by English Local Elections; that is showing contempt for the Scottish electorate - all right, what’s new?

FOOT AND MOUTH

Further to the above Election date, we are now receiving strong hints that vaccination of animals might be approved; European Union vets approved a request from Britain to vaccinate up to 180000 cattle just last week. The apparent volte face (Well it was the EU after all) seems to be because Tony Blair was persuaded after action was taken by a farmer’s wife; before you have a mental picture of a rosy cheeked buxom woman in wellies mucking out the byre as she helps her husband scratch a living, this particular farmer is a millionaire publisher, and millionaires are listened to by politicians. Mrs Juliet Kinderley had commissioned a report from Dr Keith Sumption of the Tropical Animal Health Department at Edinburgh University; Dr Sumption’s report states that the disease is too infectious to be controlled by movement restriction and slaughtering herds, and that use of slaughter has never been attempted on an outbreak of this scale, the animals cannot be slaughtered and destroyed as quickly as required, and this is causing further infection. There is a lot in the report, but the conclusion is for vaccination.

Against the vaccination policy is the loss of the disease free status of British cattle, which would lead to the economic ruin of the British farming industry, but as things are, it could be that there will be virtually no farming industry left to speak of; it would seem that Dr Sumption has given evidence to the Rural Development Committee of the Scottish Parliament. According to Fegus Ewing, Shadow Rural Affairs Minister, there was no need for vaccination in Scotland, but vaccination in Cumbria would also ruin Scotland’s disease free status; he felt that the Scottish English Border should be closed to livestock movements and a cordon sanitaire created. (Some farmers in Scotland have just realised that they are only 8 miles from Cumbria - as the virus flies.) Dr Sumption admitted that he was not an expert in this area, and that he could not offer any useful advice as to whether vaccination should be used to combat this outbreak.

The situation gets more and more complicated, and there is a crying need for someone somewhere to come up with a solution ; what will not be a solution is for vaccination to be used not for the stopping of the outbreak, but to allow the Government to hold a General Election on 7th June. That would be unforgiveable.

DOUBLE STANDARDS

In this case, the double standards are both Union Jacks. In 1997, the Government was desperate to win the Referendum for the Scottish Parliament; well they were desperate to get a "Yes" to the first question that there should be a Scottish Parliament, and confidently expected a "No" to the second question as to whether it should have tax raising powers. In any event, Peter Mandelson persuaded Sean Connery to join the campaign and he, along with the support of the Scottish National Party , helped to deliver a resounding "Yes" vote to both questions.

Great, the Government’s policy succeeded; then in a sneaky move, the late Donald Dewar blocked a move to knight Sean Connery. Gadzooks, the man lives abroad, and he’s in the SNP! That move succeeded, but it leaked out, and lo it came to pass that in July 2000, the Queen knighted Sir Sean, and we in the SNP were delighted.

Next little act in the anti Scottish play, people who were not British citizens could not give money to political parties. Well, they could give money to Sinn Fein, or the Ulster Unionists, and if they were tax exiles living in the Channel Islands they could own newspapers. In fact if they had money and lived anywhere, they could own any piece of land in Scotland they could afford; Mohammed al Fayed, who owns Harrods and cannot get a British passport, owns an estate in the Highlands, and can give as much as he likes to political parties. (Well he bought a few politicians in his time, did he not?) But, Sir Sean Connery, who lives and works abroad, and pays tax on any work he does in the United Kingdom, cannot give money to the Scottish National Party.

And now, when Scottish tourism is in crisis, the First Minister, Henry McLeish has asked Sir Sean to help in restoring confidence in Scotland during Tartan Week in the United States; and Big Tam, who is a bigger man than any the Labour Party can put up, will help Scotland. While accepting the William Wallace Award on the steps of the Capitol Building in Washington, Sir Sean said "Millions of Americans make the return journey to Scotland, and let me say "Come this year in particular". You will find our majestic countryside open. You will find our championship golf courses open - although not easy! But most of all, you will find the hearts of our people open"

ALEXANDER THE GREET

Following on from last week’s tale that Ms Wendy Alexander had point blank refused to take on the Water portfolio because she was going to be too busy running London Labour’s General Election campaign, it has emerged that Gordon Brown leaned on Henry McLeish on Wendy’s behalf; it would seem that Mr Brown is keeping his proteges firmly under his wing.

Another row broke this week, when a senior civil servant asked for a transfer from Ms Alexander’s office, because he was being pressurised to act in a political fashion, and that this was in breach of the civil service code of impartiality; he was transferred, and a complaint lodged with Muir Russell, Permanent Secretary to the Scottish Executive and Scotland’s most senior civil servant. The controversy has been smoothed over, and the whole affair hushed up, but this might well affect Ms Alexander’s handling of the General Election campaign, as this is the third time she has behaved in an intemperate fashion; first she announced out of the blue that SHE was going to repeal Section 28 (2A) and the fallout from that is still continuing, then she told the First Minister where to stick the Water portfolio, and did not care who knew it, and now she has attempted to politicise a senior civil servant, and does not seem to care who knew that either. All down to her previous existence as a management consultant, a breed who cannot manage, and only make a pretence of consulting as they pick your brains.


Maybe Ms Alexander should hijack Paul Brady, chief official at the Fisheries Ministry; he persuaded the secretary of the Mallaig and North West Fishermen Association to write to Henry McLeish supporting the Scottish Executive’s proposal, and driving a wedge between the Scottish fishermen. Alex Salmond MSP, and former leader of the Scottish National Party, said that this was a clear breach of strict impartiality rules which prevent civil servants from doing Ministers’ bidding. Mr Salmond added "If Mr Brady was acting on his own then appropriate action should be taken, but if he was acting on the instructions of Rhona Brankin then the minister should be considering her position." 

ROBERT MAXWELL R I P - OFF

The long awaited report from the DTI on the affairs of the late Robert Maxwell has now been published; as far as can be seen, it could have been written by the House of Commons Standards and Privileges, so devoid of condemnation is it. The London Stock Exchange knew that Cap’n Bob was a dodgy character, they knew that he was not a fit person to run a public company (Pergammon Press 1973) and they were told he had illicitly moved assets out of a pension fund just days before the Mirror Group float, but they still allowed it to go ahead.

The greed for money which motivates merchant bankers, finance houses and stockbrokers blinded them all; only one City institution , S G Warburg, refused on principle to work for him. Robert Maxwell had acted in a crooked capacity before, and the DTI report was scathing in the early 1970s, but this was ignored, and the outcome was that Maxwell looted £400 million from the Mirror Group Pension Fund, sorry, not looted, stole. 

The report blames Maxwell’s sons, Kevin and Ian, for not stopping their megalomaniac father from these excesses; it also blames Goldman Sachs , brokers, and Coopers Lybrand, auditors, for not acting to restrain Maxwell; Lord Donoghue, a former agricultural minister in Tony Blair’s government is also castigated.

At the time of the Mirror Group flotation, Helen Liddell, now Secretary of State for Scotland, was "the eyes and ears " of Maxwell; apart from the picture in the Scotsman of her fawning over him, she does not appear to rate a mention. Maybe she’ll be able to sleep at night now, although we might wonder at how her undoubted perception did not make her aware of what Maxwell was up to.

The report has been 9 years in preparation and has cost us £8.5 million; it does not seem to have been worth it.

THE GATHERING STONE

There has been a storm of protest about the decision of Stirling University to start construction work on a historic battlesite hailed as the birthplace of the Scottish nation.

The site is on the Airthrey estate where King Kenneth McAlpine defeated the Picts to create a unified Scotland in 834 AD; Historic Scotland thought the land was safe after they intervened to protect a 10 ft standing stone to commemorate the event. Stirling University stuck rigidly to regulations saying they could not disturb the ground within 15 metres of the stone, but are bulldozing all round it to create rugby pitches for the students.

Despite pleas from historical groups and a campaign by George Reid, SNP MSP, and Deputy Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament, the University is going ahead. When George visited the site last weekend, he said "Scotland’s battlefields are a part of our heritage; I have already gone to the highest levels on this matter, but now we have to see what can be done in terms of preserving this battlefield to the best of our abilities. My main concern now is to see it treated as tastefully as possible within the environment".

We expect our Universities to be institutions which help to preserve our history and culture, and the blatant disregard by Stirling University, and by the planners of Stirling Council is disgraceful.

There will be a peaceful rally on Sunday 8th April, 3 pm onwards, at the site of the Gatheringstone (Airthrey estate, University of Stirling); more information on www.electricscotland.com/history/other/gathering_stone.htm 

FOOT IN THE MOUTH NOTES

Just had a glossy blurb delivered by the local Liberal Democrats; it says "Delivered by volunteers at no cost to the taxpayer"

Reminds me of some items which come marked "Delivered by hand", which creates a mental picture of a dog trying to open the letter box with its nose!

A former adviser to the Indian government has claimed that British Aerospace paid a commission (bribe in blunt terms) to the Hinduja brothers to fix a £1 billion arms deal with the Indian air force to sell them 66 Hawk jets.

At present more than a third of the Royal Air Force’s entire fleet of 747 aircraft in unserviceable; the problems range from computer software to accidents in training exercises. Obviously commissions not going to the right people.

Sir Anthony Hammond, who conducted the passport enquiry which cleared Peter Mandelson and Keith Vaz of acting improperly for the Hinduja brothers, was a very busy man, and made a thorough investigation.

In his report to the Prime Minister he wrote "I have not interviewed any of the Hinduja brothers. There were obvious practical difficulties in visiting them in India." Quite, the passports at the centre of the investigation had been removed anyway.

Tony Blair won a massive majority at the 1997 General Election when the people removed a repellent Tory regime, to the general delight of all but Tories.

The turnout was the lowest in the history of British democracy.

First Minister Henry McLeish is stepping up spending on media personnel to repel media attacks; this includes a separate press officer for weekly newspapers and local radio stations.

He might save a lot of public money if he just fired Wendy Alexander.

In a news release issued by the same Ms Alexander on Monday this week headed "Minister Announces Measures to Assist Businesses Affected by Foot and Mouth" it was stated that Ms Alexander announced that Scottish Enterprise and Highlands Enterprise networks would receive an extra £5 million to provide business and assistance. Details of a £6.5 million European objective 2 support package for the South of Scotland will be announced on Thursday"

The package announced on Thursday had nothing to do with Foot and Mouth, or helping businesses in the South of Scotland affected by the crisis; it is European money which was coming anyway to help with such projects as building a 256 seater cinema and transport measures. See management consultants; see duplicity!

SCOTTISH FOOD, TRADITIONS AND CUSTOMS

See our Scottish Food, Traditions and Customs in our Features section

DATES IN HISTORY

THE REBELS CEILIDH SONG BOOK

Scots Wha Hae Wi' Wallace Bled
(Burns)

The song "Scots Wha Hae" by Gaberlunzie

Scots, wha hae wi' Wallace bled
Scots, wham Bruce has aften led
Welcome to your gory bed
Or to victory!
Now's the day an' now's the hour
See the front of battle lour
See approach proud Edward's pow'r
Chains and slavery!

Wha would be a traitor knave?
Wha would fill a coward's grave?
Wha sae base as be a slave?
Let him turn and flee!
Wha for Scotland's king an' law
Freedom's sword would strongly draw
Freeman stand and freeman fa'
Let him on wi' me!

By oppression's woes and pains
By your sons in servile chains
We will drain our dearest veins
But they shall be free.
Lay the proud userpers low!
Tyrants fall in ev'ry foe
Liberty's in every blow
Let us do or dee!

Visit Gaberlunzie's Web Site here!

See the Songbook in our features section

A KIST O FERLIES
A Keek at the Guid Scots Tung
By Peter D Wright
(Note: All words underlined in this section are RealAudio links)

See Scots Language in our Features Section
for other poems, stories, sayings and words in the Scots language

THE MONTHLY PRIZE CROSSWORD

Each month the Scots Independent Newspaper offers a prize crossword and we're now offering this online in the Flag in the Wind as well.   Should you complete the crossword by the deadline you can fax it over to the SI and the first correct one opened on the closing date will win a £10.00 book token.

SI Prize Crossword No. 16
[Clicking on the picture will bring up a life size version which you can copy to your desktop or print out]