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
[Issue 52 - 1st June 2001]

Well, we are one year old today, hooray, or - hold it a minute; if we published the first issue on 9th June 2000, how can we be a year old on 1st June 2001? It’s quite simple really, just like the furore as to when the Millennium actually started, although we do not anticipate a vast influx of letters, because who cares anyway? The first issue was published on 9th June 2000, and therefore the 52nd issue makes a full year; even under New Labour there are still just 52 weeks in every year, and next week’s issue will be published on 9th June 2001 and will be the 53rd, or the first one of next year.

AND NEXT WEEK

The Flag will not be published until Saturday 9th June 2001, as there will be the little matter of a General Election on 7th June to be commented on, and I'll be away all day on the Thursday, and will be lucky indeed if we do manage to publish at all, since I usually sit up into the wee sma’ hoors o’ the morning, watching the results. However, rest assured, we will publish next week, hopefully with good news.

THE FOREGONE CONCLUSION

If we believe the undernoted figures, it looks as if there is no point in other parties even bothering to turn up on the day; and indeed the ICM/Guardian poll predicts a 267 seat majority for Labour. However, polls do not always tell the whole story, and as we saw last week the variance in voting by area was very significant; eg Glasgow 66% Labour, 17% SNP, and North East Scotland 36% Labour and 37% SNP; the other factor which complicates the issue is turnout. The Tories always seem to do better in the actual percentage than they do in the polled percentage, as they are more likely to vote; this may not necessarily happen this time, as even your average Tory voter seems to be disenchanted with that party, and the emergence from the Mummy’s Tomb of Margaret Thatcher will certainly not help in Scotland.

I cannot find any Scottish Opinion Poll since the System Three one on 22 May 01, and the only indicator came out of the Scottish 500 on ITV on 29 May; asked if they they thought a vote for the SNP was wasted 34% said "Yes" and 55% said "No", so perhaps the people of Scotland are not all that happy with how the pollsters are ignoring them.

What the above figures do show, is a remarkable consistency of how well Labour is doing in the United Kingdom; the lowest UK figure is 48% and the highest 55%. This gives the lie to Mrs Helen Liddell and Mr George Foulkes and their contention that a vote for the SNP will let the Tories in, as all the polls cannot be wrong, all the time. However, the coded message is not that a vote for the SNP is a vote for the Tories, but that a vote for the Tories is preferable to a vote for the SNP. New Labour is not frightened of the Tory party in Scotland, but they are frightened of the SNP, and their hysterical reaction shows this.

SCOTTISH 500 CROSS EXAMINATION

No this is not a new political programme, but merely a comment on the fact that STV showed the Scottish 500 at 10.30 -11.30 on Tuesday 29th May, while BBC had Cross Examination from 10.40-11.30, on Tuesday 29th May. The significance of this was that John Swinney was on the Scottish 500, and Alex Salmond on Cross Examination; as both were in the hot seat it seems strangely odd that viewers had to choose between the programmes. Both networks would say they gave full and fair coverage, but it seems plausible that they colluded and thus denied the SNP the fair coverage they were entitled to; it is known as lip service.

Being a political junkie, I watched John Swinney, while taping Alex Salmond, but in this I am sure I would be in a minority; if people wanted to watch they would watch one or the other, not both. It was a bit like the BBC coverage of Question Time with Anne Mackenzie when John Swinney was on, just two weeks ago; to ensure full and fair coverage in the United Kingdom they also showed the programme in England. The problem was that they showed it in England at 1.30 in the morning! Lip Service...?

On the Scottish 500, John Swinney performed very well, and he certainly knows his stuff; however, while the 500 is a representative group from all over Scotland, any notion that the group consisted of "uncommitted voters" was soon dispelled by the range and depth of the questions, and in many instances by the tenor of the approach! John, to be fair, took it all in his stride, but in a programme like that abrasiveness is not an option; he is not a naturally abrasive personality anyway, but I think I would not always have been as courteous as he was.

On the other side, Alex Salmond was able to adopt a more direct approach; he was being cross examined by Ross Harper of the Tories, Des Browne of the Labour Party (Alex refrained from exchanging pleasantries with him about their mutual interest, as Mr Browne works as a consultant for William Hill the Bookmakers) and Ross Finnie for the Lib Dems (No they’re not bookmakers, but like to think of themselves as kingmakers). The fun was fast and furious, as Alex was able to turn the other parties’ own manifestos back on them, also their MPs’ performance in Parliament, apart from Ross Harper, as Alex delighted the audience by reminding Ross Harper that there were no Tory MPs in Scotland.

The other parties are particularly critical of how the 6 SNP MPs voted and attended Westminster, which has been an awkward one, due to the dual mandate, and also because on a point of principle they do not vote on purely English issues. On the vote for the Minimum Wage, John Swinney was attacked for not attending the third reading, although he had attended and voted on the first two; his response was that neither Gordon Brown, Robin Cook not Henry McLeish had been there for the third reading; the "uncommitted voter" had been given his homework, but John had done his! When Alex was questioned by Des Browne about his attendance and voting, his riposte was that he had to be in two places, while Des Browne had only to be in one; despite that he has made 46 speeches and interjections during the period in question, while Des Browne had only made 43. This proved that a part time SNP MP had more value than a full time Labour one!

It was all good lively stuff, and just a pity that the programmes were on at the same time. The London MPs seem to set great store on the voting record, which really means that they just turn up to make up the numbers, and they don’t actually do anything, but are good reliable cannon fodder; Alex Salmond, on being taunted that the SNP was sending a second team to Westminster, retorted that the test of an MP was not how many people knew them before they were elected, but how many knew them after they were elected; he doubted that the average voter could name 6 Scottish Labour MPs, apart from the Cabinet. In the same vein an "uncommitted voter" was castigating John Swinney for not standing for Westminster, but remaining in the Scottish Parliament; just imagine the same chap’s fury if John had opted to stand for Westminster and leave the Scottish Parliament!

MANIFESTO LY WRONG

We were unkind enough last week to quote Andrew Rawnsley of the Observer, who rather naughtily kept New Labour’s 1997 Manifesto, and compared it with 2001; this week it is John McLeod, writing in the Herald who has been looking at New Labour’s 1997 manifesto. He points out that within 48 hours of Tony Blair obtaining office, control of interest rates was handed over to the Bank of England; whether we approve of such a radical transfer of fiscal authority or not, it was not in the manifesto. Similarly, tuition fees and student loans were not in the manifesto either, but they are now in place. I know that the Scottish government claims it has abolished tuition fees, but they have not; they have deferred them and now call them the graduate tax - what’s in a name?

There is no doubt that the second term of a New Labour government is going to see a massive rise in projects under the Private Finance Initiative; this is the most expensive way of funding, and the way they built the Skye Bridge (the first Scottish PFI disaster), the Millennium Dome, they hope the London Underground, although Ken Livingstone looks to have more sense than they have (now there’s an indictment), and the 29 Glasgow schools project which is running into more than a little difficulty. Whichever way you look at it, the mantra seems to be private sector good, public sector bad, but hey, Labour won the last election, and they opposed all this money going to the fat cat private businessmen, so how come all this nonsense?

Well, it seems that New Labour is investing even less than Mrs Thatcher in public services, and that somehow they have to speed up the spending to repair the ravages of the last 20 years, and that Labour and Tory want to cure the UK’s chronically inefficient public services, by putting in cash efficiencies and management expertise from the private sector. This of course means giving private companies "a piece of the action", and in going for a quick fix; nowadays, management theory and management consultants suffer from the same failings of the companies they seek to advise - they want quick fix solutions. I forecast that in 10 years time, if not sooner, the whole PFI fiasco will be seen as a ghastly mistake, but by then the public purse, us, will be paying through the nose, and will continue to do so for up to 30 years; I pity my grandchildren, for I will be long gone in 30 years time!

A few weeks back, the Scottish Tories taunted the SNP, because we had only been given £12000 in donations in the run up to the General Election; the figures are from 16th February to end of March and are from the Electoral Commission, a new body. In that period, the Liberals had received £178000, the Tories £638000, and New Labour £2.4 million! The Tories were reliant on a few donors, who included Lord Ashcroft, who gave £30200, and Sir Stanley Kalms, who gave nearly £40000; Lord Ashcroft, who was given his peerage on condition he returned to Britain and paid tax here, is currently being sued in the United States for his role in a corporate scandal that costs shareholders millions of dollars. As late as February, he was reported as not yet registered for paying UK tax; naturally, he is defending the action, and his spokesman said "There is not a scintilla of truth in any of these actions." Of course, we implicitly believe all our Noble Lords; it will be interesting to see if the jury in the trial of Lord Archer, which started this week, think likewise. The New Labour donations came from GMB Union, £585000; prior to the Electoral Commission rules kicking in, they got £2 million each from Lord Sainsbury, Lord Hamlyn and the philantrophist Christopher Ondaatje; the Tories got £5 million from Stuart Wheeler, who made his money from spread betting. I think we got £50000 from Sir Sean Connery just before they lowered the boom on him - now what has he done wrong that Lord Ashcroft hasn’t? - Well, he’s Scottish, for a start!

There is no word of any donations to New Labour from the Hinduja brothers, but they have all got their passports now, even if the Indian Government is holding them while they investigate bribery charges, and no word of any cash from Nadhmi Auchi, the Iraqi billionaire under investigation by Interpol over the Elf Aquitaine scandal in France; he is the seventh richest man in Britain, and is contesting extradition to France. How strange they all cluster around New Labour.

ELECTION SYNOPSIS

Commenting on the views of Deputy Scottish Secretary, George Foulkes that "Scotland is getting more than her fair share" of spending , reported in Scotland on Sunday and the System Three/Scottish 500 poll in the Sunday Herald that a majority of Scots want the Scottish Parliament to have full fiscal freedom, Alex Salmond said, "At a time when Scotland’s share of UK spending will be cut by £2 billion over the next three years, it is extraordinary that the Deputy Scottish Secretary should be publicly aligning himself with right wing English Tories by arguing that Scotland gets more than her fair share.

"George Foulkes’s comments talk Scotland down, and are further proof that only the SNP can be trusted to stand for Scotland.

"The London based parties can’t be trusted with Scotland’s resources. That is why there is clear majority support for the Scottish Parliament to have full fiscal freedom, so that the wealth of Scotland is kept in Scotland - instead of being squeezed by London."

Addressing a rally organised by the pensioners’ confederation in Glasgow - including the Glasgow Elderly Forum- the SNP candidate in Glasgow Govan, Karen Neary, said "Only the SNP stand for restoring the link between pensions and earnings. Pensioners have been robbed by successive Tory and Labour governments since Margaret Thatcher broke the earnings link in 1980. Restoring the link would mean that by the end of the next Parliament, pensioners could gain up to £200 a year in addition to New Labour’s plans.

"The people and pensioners of Scotland will never forgive New Labour for the 75 pence pension insult, which is why they are demanding the restoration of the earnings link."

The SNP has criticised New Labour after a major gaffe on defence. Dr Lewis Moonie, a defence minister in the Labour administration told the Press & Journal while on a visit to Moray that he "hadn’t a clue" about plans to privatise fire and other safety services at air bases.

SNP Candidate for Moray, Angus Robertson, who is also a defence spokesman, said "Labour’s privatisation plans at our air bases are the number one issue of concern to our servicemen and women at our airbases. For a senior government figure to admit that he knows nothing about privatisation of fire services shows just how cavalier New Labour is about our air bases. This is a scandalous admission.

The SNP stands for strong conventional defence, and is committed to the highest level of safety and ancillary services. Labour does not".

Speaking at a news conference in Edinburgh, Roseanna Cunningham MSP pledged to make crime a key issue in the final stages of the General Election campaign, and outlined a new emphasis on community policing that the SNP are proposing. Ms Cunningham said "At the centre of the SNP’s commitment to tackle crime is a pledge to provide an additional 1000 police officers in Scotland. On average that represents an additional 14 police officers for every Scottish constituency.

"In keeping with our concern about youth offending, we will place a new emphasis on community policing in order to ensure that the ability of the police to perform their core function of preventing crime, rather than just detecting it, is enhanced."

SNP candidate for Kilmarnock & Loudoun, John Brady, added "All parts of Scotland will benefit from the SNP’s commitment to employ an additional 1000 police officers. Public perception will change when they see more police officers patrolling our streets, and people will feel more secure in their own homes and communities."

The SNP has responded to an attack by Dr Lewis Moonie, Defence Minister, concerning the danger of redundant nuclear submarines being dumped in Aultbea, near Loch Ewe.

SNP candidate for Inverness, Nairn & Lochaber, Angus McNeil, said "Lewis Moonie has come north in response to the SNP highlighting the threat of nuclear dumping in the Highlands. If this is the impact that SNP candidates can achieve, it demonstrates what SNP MPs who stand for Scotland can deliver."

Mr McNeil called for the complete publication of the ISOLUS report, concerning the dumping of nuclear submarines, and said that it had been the most comprehensive consultation exercise ever carried out in the Highlands, but nobody was aware of it until the SNP highlighted the issue."

At the start of this issue, I said I would be away all day on Thursday 7th June; lest you think I am swanning off, I will be spending the day in the picturesque constituency of Ochil; I am the election day driver for the genial Keith Brown, leader of Clackmannanshire District Council, and our candidate for Ochil constituency. I did this job for George Reid in 1999, and the good folk of Ochil know a mug when they see one!

FOOT IN THE MOUTH NOTES

A motion of no confidence was passed on the Labour leader of West Dunbartonshire District Council, Andrew White, after an employment tribunal had heavily criticised him over the dismissal of the former deputy chief executive, Ian Leitch; Mr Leitch was awarded £54000 for unfair dismissal. Four of the 14 Labour councillors voted with the SNP, and the motion was passed 12-10.

Did Mr White resign? No, he accused his four colleagues of collusion with the SNP, and has reported them to the Labour Party.

When the Hinduja brothers gave £1 million to the Faith Zone of the Millennium Dome, they asked for the equivalent of 20000 free tickets; no other donors to the Faith Zone asked for tickets.

The agreement between the New Millennium Experience Company and the Hindujas made no mention of VAT which is not payable on donations which attract no benefits; once the free tickets were granted in January 2000 the gift became liable to VAT of £149000, which the NMEC has paid to Customs & Excise. The liability was not uncovered until the Dome was closed, and NMEC lawyers are now trying to see if the money can be recovered from the Hindujas. Faith - another new experience.

Colin Campbell SNP MSP was denied access to the base in July last year, by someone in the Scottish Executive, but no reason was given, although the Scottish Executive had no jurisdiction over Faslane; perhaps if he addressed the Executive as "Tovarich" he might have more luck.

The SNP has produced a report that shows that only half of the jobless coming off the unemployment register have actually found work; the figures are : Found work - 50.7%, Failed to sign - 20.3%, Transfer to training - 5.9%, On incapacity benefit - 5.4%, Gone abroad - 3.1%, In full time education - 2%, Other - 12.6%. So the New Deal is No Deal.

The greatest rise in the "culture of dependency " was during the reign of Margaret Thatcher, when people were encouraged to sign up as disabled to massage the unemployment figures downwards; New Labour are more sophisticated, but just as manipulative.

The Duke of Westminster, Britain’s richest man, with wealth of £4 billion, has received £3 million in state handouts for one of his farms; at one time Princess Anne received £400000 in subsidies for farming at Gatcombe Park in Gloucester. The government will not identify farmers who receive subsidies, and Buckingham Palace would not provide any up to date figures either.

How nice to see that the "culture of dependency" is not confined to the lower classes.

A wee bit of a row is going on at present as to whether there should be a portrait of the Queen in the new Scottish Parliament building at Holyrood; Dr Timothy Clifford, director of the National Galleries of Scotland thinks there should be one "Being next door to Holyroodhouse, it would be extremely ill mannered not to do so."

I did not know it was the fashion to have portraits of one’s next door neighbours adorning one’s walls.

 SCOTTISH FOOD, TRADITIONS AND CUSTOMS

In spite of the cancellation of some Games, due to the foot-and-mouth outbreak, the 2001 Highland Games season is now underway. Many of the places holding Games, such as Markinch in Fife ( this Sunday ), are, of course, far from the Highlands but are popular venues for all that. Games and sports have been held for over a thousand years and were originally organised  to find the best runners to provide communications over our rugged countryside. Many modern Highland Games still echo this original purpose with the incorporation of a Hill Race eg The Binn Race at Burntisland in Fife. Pipe Band Competitions, Solo Piping and Highland Dancing all add colour to the modern Games alongwith the traditional Heavyweight Competition and Track & Field Events. No visit to Scotland during the Games season would be complete without attending a Highland Gathering and seeing Scots throwing large trees ! - Tossing the Caber. Perhaps a plate of Fife Broth will give the Heavies at Markinch the necessary energy to toss the perfect Caber.

 

Fife Broth

 

Ingredients : 1 lb ( 500 g ) pork ribs; 1/2 lb ( 250 g ) potatoes; 2 1/2 pt ( 1 1/4 L ) water; 1 1/2 oz ( 40 g ) barley; salt and pepper. Garnish - parsley

                  

 Put the ribs into the pan with water and bring to the boil. Skim and add barley and potatoes. Simmer for 2 to 2 1/2 hours. Remove the ribs and cut off the meat. Dice finely and return to soup. Check seasoning, garnish with parsley and serve. 

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

DATES IN HISTORY

SING A SANG AT LEAST
(compiled by Peter D Wright)

"That I for poor auld Scotland's sake
Some useful plan or book could make
Or sing a sang at least ........"

- Robert Burns

See the SING A SANG AT LEAST 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. 17
[Click here to bring up the crossword]