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 56 - 29th June 2001]

HONOURED INDEED

He was awarded it "for services to scholarship and the law". Neil became professor of public law at Edinburgh University in 1972, and he is now regius professor. He said "Academic work in law is very rarely recognised with an honour of this kind.

"It is not for me to say whether I deserve it, but I am well aware that it would not have come without the help and collaboration of close colleagues in Edinburgh and elsewhere, and I am very grateful to them.

"My most recent published work has focused on the the issue of Scottish independence in Europe."

Neil is a graduate of Glasgow, Edinburgh and Oxford; he joined the SNP in 1967 and has held office at local and national level. He has unsuccessfully contested Westminster seats in Edinburgh and Argyll; he became an MEP in 1999.

Neil’s father, John MacCormick, wrote the book "The Flag in the Wind", from which this column takes its name.

As expected, there has been some criticism at a nationalist taking an honour, but it is not a political honour, but an academic one, and to be fair, it is the only honours system there is; we merely remind the critics of the furore they created when Sean Connery ‘s knighthood was blocked!

THE GALLANT FORTY TWA

We hadn’t quite realised it, but John Swinney pointed out that the SNP now has Forty Two Parliamentarians, 35 MSPs, 5 MPs , and 2 MEPs; so we can christen them the Gallant Forty Twa (After The Black Watch, as any old soldier should know!)

John has rejigged his Cabinet, as the addition of 5 Members of the Westminster Parliament, and Stewart Stevenson for Banff & Buchan, has increased the pool of talent available. The full list is as follows:

(1) Responsible for co-ordinating Parliamentary business in Scotland, Westminster and Europe; policy development and preparing the SNP Programme for Government.

(2) Responsible for transport, macro economic issues, including monetary policy; co-ordinating the SNP Economics team, and developing the economic case for independence.

CHRISTINE GRAHAME MSP

We are used to the Scotsman getting their facts wrong, but we are rather surprised that Murray Ritchie, writing in the Herald, has reported that Christine Grahame MSP, was demoted. Christine has been nominated to Chair the Justice Committee 1 of the Scottish Parliament; this position was previously held by Alastair Morgan MSP.

The Scottish Parliament was designed as a committee based legislature; it was a deliberate reversal of the Westminster system, where the committee system was seen as weak, and contributed to executive dominance. (Scottish Government & Politics - Dr Peter Lynch - EUP).

The functions of the committees are as follows :

1. To consider and report on the policy of the Scottish administration.
2. To conduct inquiries into such matters or issues as the Parliament may require.
3. To scrutinise primary and secondary legislation and proposed European Union legislation.
4. To initiate legislation.
5. To scrutinise financial proposals and administration of the Scottish Executive.
6. To scrutinise procedures relating to the Parliament and its members.

As Christine was the spokesman on Social Security & Pensions, which is a matter reserved to Westminster, it looks as if she got a plum!

BANNOCKBURN RALLY

The Scottish National Party held its annual Bannockburn Day Rally on Saturday 23rd June, at the Field of Bannockburn; addressing the Rally, John Swinney said " As we gather at this Bannockburn Rally to celebrate the great cause of Scottish Independence, we should all reflect on the enormous progress that the SNP have made in recent years.

"It is from this strong base of support, with 35 MSPs, 5 MPs, over 200 councillors, two Euro MPs, and the status of Scotland’s Opposition - that we will drive towards victory in the Scottish Parliamentary elections in 2003.

"The Scottish Parliament has provided the ideal platform from which the SNP can argue for the benefits of Independence.

"Only when the Scottish Parliament assumes the powers of a normal Independent Parliament can we provide decent pensions befitting our elderly people, effectively combat the scourge of poverty in Scotland, set economic policies specifically tailored to Scotland’s economic conditions, and provide the necessary resources to protect and strengthen our public services.

"With the Scottish Parliament now in its third year, Scotland has stepped away from London’s shadow. The international community has looked on with a great deal of interest as Scotland reawakens, and within the last two weeks the Irish Taoiseach and the South African President have addressed the Parliament.

"The SNP is ambitious for our nation - we want Scotland to become a full and equal member of the family of nations by completing the powers of the Scottish Parliament and delivering Independence."

The wreath at the Bannockburn Memorial was laid by Party President, Dr Winnie Ewing, MSP.

Click here to see more pictures from the rally

TO SEE OURSELS AS ITHERS SEE US

The Scottish Social Attitudes Survey (what a mouthful) just published shows that the expectations of what the Scottish Parliament could achieve have fallen dramatically since its creation. At the time of the devolution referendum, 71% of Scots thought that the Parliament would improve the quality of education in Scotland, with 19% saying it would make no difference; now only 43% think the Parliament will improve education, and 49% think it will make no difference.

The findings are not surprising, as the big danger always was that the Scots wanted a Parliament, with financial powers, and in effect believed that what they were getting was a much more powerful institution than the one supplied. In addition to that, the perpetually bad press given, by the Daily Record in particular, has painted a poor picture of the Parliament per se; ironic, indeed, when it is the Labour Party, slavishly adored by the same Record, that is responsible for bringing the Parliament into disrepute.

The survey shows that 66% say they believe that Westminster has more influence over how Scotland is governed than the Parliament itself. On the bright side, and this is the SNP side, 72% want to see the Parliament having more influence, which chimes nicely with our demands. Commenting on the report, SNP Leader, John Swinney, said "These results highlight that devolution is not the "settled will" of the Scottish people but a process which will complete the powers of the Scottish Parliament and lead to Independence. The first step in this process was the overwhelming vote for devolution and the next step - which this survey highlights - is to gain more powers for the Parliament."

John Curtice, the head of research for the National Centre for Social Research, described the finding as "ironic". He said "The findings show that Scots’ expectations of what their Parliament is going to deliver have declined significantly since 1997 when they voted for it in a referendum.

"It contains a warning to both Westminster and Holyrood. For Westminster, it suggests that unless the Scottish Parliament can eventually match Scots’ evidently continued support for the principle of strong parliament, the current constitutional settlement may be increasingly questioned. For Holyrood, the warning is that, unless Scots are convinced that the parliament will make a difference over the next couple of years, voters may begin to wonder whether turning up in the 2003 parliamentary elections is worth it."

His conclusion was that the Scottish Parliament’s ability to meet the aspirations of the Scots was constrained by the range of powers that it currently held. We in the SNP must drive for more powers, and it is the SNP which will be the engine that delivers these powers.

HERALD & SALTIRE SOCIETY DEBATE

The author and journalist, William McIlvanney, has said there was a lack of interest in politics in Scotland because of a failure to recognise the importance of culture and art in the country’s future development. Mr McIlvanney was speaking during the Herald and Saltire Society’s annual debate, in the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, which questioned whether writers, thinkers and artists should have more influence in modern Scotland. He also said "Politicians, once they have achieved the status of being politicians, tend to forget the circumstances that brought them there. There is a need to maintain contact with the aspirations of the people which put the parliament there in the first place. Many people in Scotland really do not care about politics any more."

Mike Russell, SNP, MSP, felt that politicians were already aware of the necessity of the arts to Scottish society; admitting that the drive for change in Scotland had lessened over the last two years, he said "We have got to find a way of recreating the vision, the excitement and the hope in Scotland that was there two years ago. If that inspiration for change has been lost in Scotland, then we have to get it back, and there are two ways to do that - leadership and engagement. I would hope that we can change politics in Scotland utterly because we can change Scotland utterly."

THE EVIL THAT MEN DO LIVES AFTER THEM

Well, I don’t suppose that the late Donald Dewar thought he was doing evil when he foisted on this country the Holyrood Parliament building, but at the time he acted with spite because wherever the Parliament was to be built it was ABC - Anywhere But Calton Hill. For some reason, and certainly neither I nor many of my contemporaries in the SNP in 1979 ever regarded the old Royal High School with anything but suspicion, Mr Dewar regarded this a a nationalist shibboleth, to be avoided at all costs. In this, he was spectacularly wrong, since the view of most nationalists at the time was that this was all part of the plot to stop the SNP, but he thought like that, he made the decision, and we are stuck with the consequences.

As stated above, the Parliament per se has had a bad press, mainly from the Daily Record, but they have been surprisingly muted about placing the blame where it belongs, with Her Majesty’s Imperial Labour Party, and not with the Corporate Body or the Progressing Group who are left to make the best of a bad job. Make no mistake about it; the building work is too far advanced to stop it now, without throwing away even more millions of public money; that would be criminal folly. However, the way that the Parliament building is to be funded is another matter; when it was first mooted, the cost was given as £40 million, and this could have been met from the block grant without a great deal of difficulty. Now that the cost is going to be in excess of £240 million, this should no longer be an option; if the Parliament has to meet this from its block grant then the money will come from front line services, because there is no other source. When someone buys a house, they do not pay for it out of the first year’s income, they spread it over a number of years, and indeed that is what is done with all items of major capital expenditure. Mention has been made of a sale and lease back option, which is a well known business strategy, allowing a company to release capital tied up in buildings for expansion, but this has been greeted coolly; strange from a Labour Party which loves the private sector.

THE ACCUMULATION OF SPECULATION?

One option not yet mentioned is the National Lottery; at the present time there is £3.5 billion (yes billion) which has been sitting in cash reserves for at least four years under the control of a series of Government quangos. The system works like this; the money is handed over by Camelot to the National Lottery Distribution Fund, which in turn passes it over to 15 non elected Government quangos who have the job of distributing it. Ten of these bodies are holding back substantial reserves; the worst offender is the New Opportunities Fund, set up for education, health and environment projects. They have admitted that they invest their reserves for longer periods to maximise the interest! The fund has grown from £639 million four years ago to £936 million now. The former Culture Secretary, Chris Smith, also promised to reduce the amount held in reserve by his National Lottery Heritage Fund to £500 million, but now that he’s been given the Kirkcaldy heist, another promise bites the dust.

So there’s a great pile of cash presided over by unelected people, just sitting there accumulating, and accumulating, all controlled by quangos; the old saying was "You’ve got to speculate to accumulate" - well the people speculated and the Government accumulated. It would seem sensible that as Westminster is not going to foot the bill for their extravagance, ie the Secretary of State for Scotland in the British Cabinet decided to spend the Parliament’s money, then the least they could do is lend the Parliament some of the Lottery cash pile, and have it repaid over 10 years. What could be simpler - or more sensible.

CARDINAL THOMAS WINNING

The funeral of Cardinal Thomas Winning took place on Monday of this week, and was covered live by BBC TV; coverage on this scale could never have been envisaged even 10 years ago, such has been the uneasy relationship in Scotland with the Catholic Church. That the ceremony was attended by the Earl of Essex, youngest son of the Queen, and by representatives of all the political parties from Westminster and Edinburgh was a measure of the respect in which Cardinal Winning was held by all. The First Minister, Henry McLeish was there, but the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, was unable to come; perhaps just as well, as in the homily Bishop Devine of Motherwell quoted some trenchant criticism of Mr Blair and the Labour Party by the Cardinal. Strangely enough, this criticism was omitted from the TV and radio news broadcasts later in the day, but inserted after protest by Mrs Margery Fee, wife of our editor, Kenneth Fee. Jump on the media, and they backtrack.

The SNP was represented by our Leader, John Swinney, and our Westminster Parliamentary Leader, Alex Salmond. They both had tributes printed in the Scottish Catholic Observer. John Swinney wrote "I am extremely saddened to hear the news that Cardinal Winning has passed away. He was loved and respected across Scotland and will be sorely missed by the whole nation.

"He was a great ambassador for the the Catholic Church and for Scotland and never tired of fighting against injustice and poverty. He was an inspiration to all and his wisdom will be sorely missed across many sectors of Scottish life."

Alex Salmond wrote "Cardinal Winning - Scotland’s second Cardinal since the Reformation - was a towering churchman but above all a great human being and a great Scot.

"He was fearless in pursuit of the interests and defence of the poor and dispossessed and pursued all his causes with courage and conviction.

"The people when they have time to reflect on Cardinal Winning’s contribution to Scottish life will recognise the greatness of the man and the enormity of the nation’s loss. He was often the scourge of the establishment but was one of the key figures in Scottish society and always retained a common touch."

There were moments of levity during the service, virtually all from Bishop Devine, quoting Cardinal Winning, but one unconscious one when Archbishop Pablo Puente, the Papal Nuncio, who talked of how much Cardinal Winning had loved Scotland, called him a great Scot, and referred to him in his heavily accented English as the "Archie Bishop of Glasgow" a peculiarly apt Scottish remark.

See a tribute to Cardinal Winning on Electric Scotland

FOOT IN THE MOUTH NOTES

Tom McCabe, the Minister for Parliament, has applied for, and received an allowance of up to £9500 a year to pay for a flat in Edinburgh; strictly speaking he was not entitled to this, as he lives only 45 minutes away, and has the use of a ministerial car to take him home. The rule is that you must live 90 minutes away. The Lord Provost of Dundee, Mrs Helen Wright, was sacked after a vote of no confidence in her by the council; she had been claiming donations to charity through the petty cash. The First Minister, Henry McLeish, is to write to Ms Elizabeth Filkin, the Westminster Parliamentary Commissioner, to explain why he did not declare £4000 rent from a firm of solicitors paid in to his constituency offices; the complaint will not be pursued as Mr McLeish is no longer a Westminster MP, but his letter of explanation will not be published.

As stated above, the people of Scotland have no faith in politicians; all the above are members of the Labour Party.

Last week we wondered who had complained about the absence of the Union Flag from the podium in the Scottish Parliament; in a televised interview, the Irish Taoiseach had said that he was so pleased to see the Irish Tricolour there that he had not noticed what other flags were there. From information received it now appears that Mr Ahern was incensed, but was too diplomatic to say so.

The person who complained was Tom McCabe, the Minister for Parliament, MSP for Hamilton South; he is a former leader of South Lanarkshire Council, and will no doubt want a flagpole for his new flat in Edinburgh.

It has finally dawned on me what the Government’s policy is on the euro.

Let it stick to the wall.

The retirement funds of our Members of Parliament are invested in some of the most unethical companies around; after years of condemning companies such as Gallaher, Bae Systems, Shell and RTZ, classed as cancer peddling warmongers which exploit workers and despoil the earth, lo and behold they are acceptable for safeguarding MPs nest eggs. The funds are controlled by Cazenove and Barings, but it would be untrue to say that MPs would not know where their money is going. There are trustees, fellow MPs, and they have all the detail. Amazing what you can see if you look.

There are eight Trustees, all Members of Parliament, and the Chairman is John McGregor, former Tory Cabinet Minister. Mr McGregor has at least two claims to "fame": he was the Minister of Agriculture who neglected to tell his European counterparts that the British Government knew that animal feed was the cause of BSE, and he subsequently became a director of Associated British Foods, the biggest manufacturer of animal feeds, and he was responsible for the "successful" privatisation of British Rail.

In 1999, four investors formed a company called Knutsford, a penny share shell company; the four were Nick Leslau, Nigel Wray, Julian Richer and Archie Norman, Tory MP and former boss of ASDA. The sharp types in the City went mad, calling them the "Awesome Foursome" and the price of the shares went up to around £7.00 if I remember right.

No deals emerged, and the current price of the shares is 3.25p; verily indeed, the old adage is right. How do you make a small fortune? Take a large fortune and give it to a stockbroker.

GNER, owned by Sea Containers, a Bermuda registered company, operates the east coast main line between Edinburgh and London; this franchise is being bid for by Stagecoach and Virgin. It looks as if GNER are heading for some financial trouble; they insured with Independent Insurance, which is now being investigated by the Serious Fraud Office as they are insolvent, and GNER’s claim for £65 million against the company will not be paid.

Independent boasted that they could undercut any other insurer; it looks as if cheapest is not always best.

Motorola, who are paying off their staff of 3100 in Livingston, West Lothian, are giving each of them a going away present of a mobile phone worth £200; it would seem that the redundant workers will not be able to say thanks publicly, as their redundancy terms have placed a gagging order on them.

One must admire the financial cynicism of Motorola; they have a lot of mobile phones in stock, and will no doubt try to claim tax relief on them as part of the redundancy package.

SCOTTISH FOOD, TRADITIONS AND CUSTOMS

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)

Peter and Marilyn Wright after doing the Kist O Ferlies at Electric Scotland.

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. 19 July 2001
[Click here to bring up the crosswords]