The Flag in the Wind
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CAMPAIGNING FOR SCOTLAND
(Owned, Edited and Printed in Scotland since November 1926)
"Promoting all that is best in Scottish Nationalism and all that is best in Scotland."

Compiled by Jim Lynch
[Issue 65 - 31st August 2001]

Following a challenge by SNP MSP Christine Grahame the Scottish Government has confirmed that it does not intend to fly The Saltire, the national flag of Scotland, over its Governmental Headquarters in Edinburgh. The move is despite the decision by a number of local authorities to fly The Saltire on a permanent basis. The Government's announcement will be seen as part of a current assault on the flag following a similar decision by the British driving agency, the DVLA, to outlaw the use of The Saltire and the abbreviation SCO on car registration plates. Ms Grahame said:

"It is a sad day for Scotland when Scottish Ministers effectively ban the flying of the country's flag. The Saltire is one of the oldest national flags in the world and one which has flown continuously over Scotland for over 1000 years.

"I think the decision is symptomatic of the Labour / Liberal Coalition's deep seated anti-Scottishness and one which sends a very negative message to both Scots and the rest of the world.

"The response I received in a written parliamentary answer from Deputy First Minister Jim Wallace states that it is not the Government's 'practice to fly any flags routinely'. We are not talking about any flag, we are talking about the flag of Scotland. Where else in the world would a Government be ashamed of flying its own national flag? 

"The decision coincides with the announcement by the Government of their intention to outlaw the use of The Saltire and the SCO abbreviation on car registration plates. When poll after poll shows that an overwhelming majority of Scots feel more Scottish than British then it simply underlines the anti-Scottish nature of Ministers and this current government."

It is not only the Scottish Parliament that is getting stick from opponents, whether the press or just anti -devolutionists (might need to rethink that comment - as I’m an anti-devolutionist myself!) but the Welsh Parliament is also under attack. This is a wee bit more complicated, as it concerns the Lib-Lab coalition; according to press reports, Michael German, Liberal leader and deputy to Rhodri Morgan, Labour First Minister, has stepped down as he is being investigated by South Wales police.

It is all to do with his leadership of the European unit of the publicly funded Wales Joint Education Committee (WJEC); this was the Welsh equivalent of the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) , but it was mainly funded by the European Union, and at one stage it had a £250000 shortfall. EU fraud investigators are also involved, as WJEC is alleged to have received £1 million from the EU without having obtained the same amount from Whitehall. Further accusations seem to centre around a trip to Vienna in 1996, when Mr German went to seek new contacts for WJEC, but managed to attend a European Lib Dem Conference as well; it is being alleged he paid the bills for a fellow member of the Lib Dems with WJEC money.

Whatever the outcome of these investigations, which may be true, or prompted by malice (or both) the Lib -Lab coalition is under strain, and is leading to a lot of bad publicity for the Parliament. When you add to that that they are also under pressure over the cost of the new Parliament building, and that the architect, Lord Rogers was sacked, it is obvious that all is far from well in the Principality; the fact that the charges against Mr German are all to do with events prior to the setting up of the Welsh Assembly (to give it its proper name) could just mean that people have been waiting for the opportunity to kill at least two birds with one stone.

AND TALKING OF STONES

Somehow, and we are not entirely sure how it has happened, commonsense has prevailed on the materials to be used in the new Scottish Parliament; the building will be clad in grey granite from Kemnay in Aberdeenshire, and not in cheap granite quarried by slave labour in China, which was one proposal. Now Caithness stone will be used in the private bathrooms of MSPs, and in the flagstone floor of the main entrance and in the grounds; Scottish timber from Strathpeffer based Cromartie Timber will also be used.

Very interesting that the wood is coming from Strathpeffer; just outside Strathpeffer there is a site called the Touchstone Maze. This is a maze made up of 81 stones in concentric circles representing the different types of rock found in Scotland; they are not wee stones, but muckle great boulders, and the maze was only erected fairly recently. When I looked at it I wondered why on earth we would even think about bringing in stones from anywhere else, but there is always a school of thought that believes things outside Scotland are better; it’s known as the Cringe. Click here for a walk of the area!

STILL A SLOW MONTH FOR NEWS

Well, it certainly must be if the Daily Discord is anything to go by; they discovered that the SNP were using cigarette ads on their website while at the same time campaigning for a ban on cigarette advertising! Shock, horror, dismay with a great deal of glee! Curious as to this story, I looked at the SNP website, but could not find any trace of cigarette ads; I then paid a visit to SNP HQ, still searching for cheap fags. The story is that the search engine used by the SNP is free, as all search engines are, but as search engines need money, they obtain it from advertisers; in this instance some of the advertisers were advertising cigarettes. The SNP have now acted to remove the offending search engine.

I tried to use the search engine, and I couldn’t find it, and I look at the SNP website once or twice a week, and was completely unaware of any adverts, so the Daily Discord obviously had very little to do, so he spent time crawling up and down looking for a story. This also allowed their sponsors, the Labour Party, a platform to postulate holier than thou statements, as is their wont; this was an "Exclusive", by the way, none of the other papers bothered to comment.

The treatment of the same piece of news by different papers is illuminating, and often tells more about the papers themselves, than the news; last week John Swinney made a major speech on child poverty, highlighting the fact that a child is more likely to be born in poverty in Scotland, than in any other developed country in the world. The Herald headline was "SNP chief attacks poverty "scandal", and gave a reasonable report on what John Swinney had said, and included some criticism of Mr Swinney by Annabel Goldie of the Scottish Tories, and Jackie Baillie, the social justice minister. The Scotsman headline said "SNP leader attacked over "tired and dated" child poverty claims; the report hardly referred to what Mr Swinney said, but quoted much, much more from Jackie Baillie, the social justice minister, and also from Henry McLeish, the First Minister.

The press are also getting all het up about the SNP conference next month, as the party is reconsidering its relationship with NATO; according to them there will be splits, rifts, doomsday approaches, and the SNP is doing a U turn on matters of great principle. This is all a nonsense; as James Halliday, one of our distinguished columnists, and a former Leader of the SNP, wrote in this month’s Scots Independent "In other words, independence is doctrine and is not negotiable. All else is policy, and that is negotiable. Not only is it negotiable but it is likely to be temporary, a response to passing circumstances." The world is changing, attitudes are changing, and the SNP was at one time in favour of membership of NATO, but never in favour of nuclear weapons; membership of NATO will not mean being muzzled, there will still be Alex Salmonds ready to speak the truth, as over Kosovo.

The Labour Party, speaking through Mrs Helen Liddell, was very critical of the proposed policy change; as a senior member of the Labour Party, she will no doubt inform us as to the Labour Party position on Trident, as stated by Labour Conference after Labour Conference. Once she has that straight, she can then explain why it is still at Faslane. Labour are the arch hypocrites of our time; they oppose things in opposition, shout, howl scream, and then continue with the injustices when they are in power. Why only last week, they employed Bell-Pottinger; this firm, owned by Lord Tim Bell, Mrs Thatcher’s public relations guru, has been hired to promote the Private Finance Initiative. O tempora, O mores A pretentious expression, but I am writing about pretentious people.

TRAVELLING LIGHT - BUT TRAVELLING

On the one hand, she doesn’t have a lot to do, so it might be a good idea to let her wander off and squander a few thousand pounds of public money; at least she would be out of our road. On the other hand, as an emissary to expatriates, she might encourage them to feel glad they left in the first place, and we cannot see her persuading people to come here for their holidays, so we need time to consider which is the lesser of two evils.

There does not seem to be much doubt in political circles; her proposed position is seen as a hijacking of the initiative taken by the Scottish Parliament to have a representative (good non sexist word that) in Washington, and in general it is felt that promoting Scotland abroad is the job of the Parliament, and not a Westminster function. In any event, it is certain to increase tension between the Scottish Executive and Westminster, despite the fact that Mrs Liddell might be accompanied by Wendy Alexander. They would probably be known as Thelma and Louise.

Most of the routine trade promotion work was done by Brian Wilson, before he moved to the Foreign Office, and many of us will not have forgotten how Mrs Liddell, and Mr McLeish badmouthed Brian Wilson, and Dr John Reid, at the General Election, when they passed derogatory comments on them, not realising they were wired to live microphones. In these circumstances, we wonder where the suggestion for the trips came from, as they seem to be a recipe for aggravation. Strangely enough, when we investigated the last great try to promote Scotland, which was the "Caledonian Trilogy" video that was killed off, the name of Mrs Helen Liddell never cropped up at all. I think that at that time she was creating mayhem in the Department of Transport; I don’t know what her contribution there was, but in Edinburgh there are bus wars and taxi wars, so she must have had some impact.

HOW LONG, OH LORD, HOW LONG?

Despite all the Government’s pious hopes, Foot and Mouth disease did not go away for the General Election; the last case in Scotland was on 30th May, but in England the total went from 1676 on 31 May, to 1799 by 30th June and to 1914 by 31 July. That is a total of 238 since we were told it was all over, and 238 is the number of outbreaks, not the number of animals involved. It is becoming increasingly clear, that nothing was going to be allowed to stand in the Labour Party’s way in the drive to have a General Election in the Spring or early Summer, and four months on, and thousands of animals slaughtered, the evidence is incontrovertible.

There does seem to be an anomaly creeping in somewhere; as far as I can recall, no exports were to be allowed until England was cleared of infection, and any calls for Scotland to be allowed to go it alone were rubbished, as this would have meant closing the Border, to the dismay of the Unionists. Now we are hearing about the resumption of disease free status for Scotland being deferred until we know whether or not the farms in the Borders have been affected, and this will not be for about three weeks. At what was thought to be the end of the epidemic, Dumfries and Galloway had 176 cases, and adjoining Cumbria had 855, the Borders had 11 and adjoining Northumberland had 56. The disease started near Hexham, and this is where the latest outbreak has occurred; one thing is for sure, despite the slaughter of 3.75 million animals, the disease is not eradicated. The disease did not get any further North than the vicinity of Langholm in the Borders, and we have been disease free since 30 May, so there is hope that this will be a false alarm. And we have to say it, in Scotland we must have done something right.

The English Government’s rural policy adviser, Lord Haskins, has of course been acting as we expect of all our noble Lords; he has said that farmers are mollycoddled and lack enterprise. No doubt he said this secure in the Palace of Westminster, and not in the middle of a muddy field full of dying cattle; Lord Haskins is chairman of Northern Foods, making money at the expense of mollycoddled and unenterprising farmers, so his remarks could be a ploy to demoralise them further.

The noble Lord might wish he had been more temperate in his remarks if another scenario comes to pass; there is a possibility, only a possibility at this stage, that there could be a milk shortage in December this year, due to the number of milk cows slaughtered. If there is a shortage, the farmers might not wish to sell milk to Northern Foods, who are heavily in to dairy products; wouldn’t it be nice to see poetic justice.

INDEPENDENCE

It was decided, by our Chairman, Peter D Wright, that the Flag would use my election address from the General Election of June 83 in Dundee West, to make a few simple points. The basic idea was mine, but the artwork and development was done by a friend and fellow member of Corstorphine Branch SNP, Percy Holton; Percy was a commercial artist and he could turn ideas into reality, a great talent. We were a good team.

At the time, the Sunday Standard was running a campaign to find the best election address in Scotland, and we decided to send ours in; we won it!

There was a downside; on the day I had to go to Glasgow to accept the prize, which was £500, the decision was taken to close the Sunday Standard, and when I visited the offices, the staff were sitting around, thoroughly depressed, bottles everywhere, and nobody was interested. So I had a brief meeting, picked up the cheque, had a quick drink in commiseration, and ran. The Sunday Standard was a good paper, the predecessor of the Sunday Herald, but it was before its time.

During the Election, we also used the idea in press advertising for all of Dundee and Fife and Tayside, even although we had to change the wording to suit the Dundee Courier! The £500 went some way to pay the bills we ran up during the election; we got about 8000 votes, but came fourth as the Social Democrats were on the rise, and they got three more votes than we did.

So, that’s the background, and as you will see, I have aged somewhat in the 18 years, but the arguments are still valid!

Instead of having Mrs Helen Liddell as a roving ambassadress, make her a roving foreign hospital visitor, and Mr McLeish’s problem would be solved overnight.

The Agency, condemned by Labour in opposition, was to be reformed; it has not been, and is currently owed more than £1 billion by absent fathers. This is money that has not been paid to maintain children, whose mothers will not receive it from the Benefits Agency either.

The financial pages of the newspapers are great for giving headlines in initials, as if all readers understand them; I am thinking of one the other day that said " BC (or something) gets Houston as CEO." Wow!

I was slightly more worried when I read one that said "SI Heads West", but was relieved to see that it was a consultancy firm from Stepps, Glasgow, opening an office in Washington DC, and not the Scots Independent going bust!

Hadn’t quite realised how anglicised the Herald (as in Glasgow) had become, until I saw a picture of boys diving into a pool "One way of coping with the bank holiday weather" it said.

It was a holiday in England and the Scottish banks were closed; the pool was in Greenock.

The population of Scotland is declining, and the population of England is growing.

The life expectancy of a man in Glasgow is 68.7 years; in Dorset it is 79 years. Emigrate and live 10 years longer; no wonder the population is declining, but then the Labour Party does not run Dorset, or does it?

The City of Edinburgh is seeking to appoint a Parliamentary lobbyist to the Scottish Parliament; the cost of £30000 a year will be paid by the taxpayer, and it seems strange as the person would be rubbing shoulders with friends and colleagues from Edinburgh District now on the Mound.

Perhaps it is more perceptive than we think; they may well be dealing with the SNP, and not with their current Labour pals.

SYNOPSIS

PHONE FIRM PUTS DUNDEE ON HOLD

North-east MSP Shona Robison has voiced concern that a major investment which promised up to 1,000 new call centre jobs for Dundee has been put on hold. Mobile phone operator One2One revealed plans for the £12m project less than a year ago, but the company confirmed yesterday that the whole proposal is under review. Ms Robison said: "With Dundee's unemployment figures still at unacceptable levels this would be a major blow of the city's economy." She was backed up by councillor Ken Guild, SNP economic spokesman on Dundee City Council, who said, "One2One have already invested over £4 million in this facility. I remain hopeful that they will carry through their investment plans and bring 1000 much-needed jobs to Dundee."

COD WAR" CAMPAIGN, MP HEADS FOR ICELAND

Moray MP Angus Robertson is set to fly to Iceland tomorrow to lobby the Icelandic authorities for evidence of Scottish trawlers which fished their waters over 20 years ago. To date a series of delays and caveats within the UK has thwarted efforts by fishing families to access compensation they are entitled to. Compensation is available to fishermen who can prove they fished the area before Iceland made a firm claim on their waters in the 1970s and who were subsequently made redundant. Mr Robertson said: "The SNP are determined to explore every possible avenue so that we get the necessary information to support the Scottish fishermen's compensation claims. It is ridiculous that compensation is only beginning to be looked at now, some 25 years after the time of the 'Cod Wars'."

SNP BEGINS COUNTDOWN TO 2003 ELECTIONS

The SNP today launched the agenda for its forthcoming annual conference - and made it clear the countdown has already begun to the Scottish Parliament elections in 2003. The party said it was ready to start choosing the candidates who will fight the election, which is still more than 18 months away. Among the issues set to be discussed at the four-day conference are Government plans for land access, globalisation, proportional representation and the case for Scottish independence. 800 delegates from across the country are expected to attend the event, which is being held in Dundee's Caird Hall from September 19 to 22. In the 70-page agenda published today, Fiona Hyslop MSP, the SNP's vice-convener of policy, said the conference was the ideal opportunity for the party to begin drawing up its policies for the 2003 vote. She said: "The SNP has always been a democratic party, encouraging internal debate. This year we are debating topical issues like globalisation, land reform, the threat of ideologically-driven privatisation to future provision of public services and issues to drive forward the agenda on equality and progressive taxation. The conference provides the SNP with the ideal platform to highlight our positive vision of a better Scotland and set our principles which will underpin our election campaign for 2003." In an introductory message in the conference handbook, Party leader John Swinney said he wanted the party to focus on building the case for Independence and firmly establish itself as Scotland's main party in 2003. He said: "We are Scotland's second party. In 2003, we have the chance to become Scotland's first party and to win the case for Scottish Independence."

NATIONAL TEST FOR PRIMARY CHILDREN

The Scottish Executive is planning to introduce national testing of children in primary schools and in early secondary years, a plan which provoked a storm of protest when attempted by Conservatives in the 1990s. An announcement is to be made next month, with the radical plan aiming to provide for the first time a clear picture of how children are progressing individually and collectively in Scottish schools. According to press reports today, the proposal is not expected to meet serious opposition from the teaching profession this time around. But a political row is brewing, with the SNP criticising the plan and suggesting it would do nothing to help improve children's performances. Michael Russell, shadow education minister, said: "There is absolutely no evidence that such tests improve education but there is substantial evidence that early intervention and smaller class sizes in the early primary years have a dramatic effect on achievement." Ten years ago, Michael Forsyth, when education minister and later as Scottish Secretary, dropped the plan in the face of threatened boycotts by teachers' union leaders which said the tests would be a waste of valuable teaching time. Hundreds of parents signed petitions and packed out public meetings around the country when Mr Forsyth made his two attempts in 1991 and 1996.

MSP DEFIES SCOTTISH CAR PLATES BAN

A defiant MSP is prepared to flout the law to keep his "Scottish" car number plates as tough new regulations come into force across Europe. From Saturday it will be illegal to have plates displaying SCO, Alba and the Scottish Saltire. The only letters, which will be allowed, are GB. The new regulations coincide with the introduction of the new style of British number plates, which come into being that day. But Mid Scotland & Fife MSP Bruce Crawford is keeping his "SCO" plates and last night challenged the authorities to stop him. "I have absolutely no intention of changing them and am asking them to come and get me if they want," said the shadow environment minister. "This is an absolute scandal. It is denying that Scotland exists. I have SCO on my number plates and when I buy a new car I will seek out a plate maker to make sure I have SCO plates on that car. I will have Scotland plates on my car for ever more." Yesterday, shadow enterprise minister Kenny MacAskill said motorists with the Scottish plates abroad were a great advert for this country and banning them made no sense at all.

Put us Together

Just for a little fun have a go at putting the Flag in the Wind team of Jim, Peter and Alastair together in our Jigsaw puzzle. This was taken at the Burke's Landed Gentry launch on 1st August 2001.

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SCOTTISH FOOD, TRADITIONS AND CUSTOMS
(if you have any suggestions on what you'd like us to include email peter@scotsindependent.org)

Football has gained world-wide importance since the very first International Football Match in the world was played at a Cricket Ground in Partick, Glasgow on 30 November 1872. The game between Scotland and England ended in a 0-0 draw. Now, more than a hundred years on, Scottish supporters, known as The Tartan Army, are a familiar sight world-wide. But as the Scottish International Football squad face up to two crucial Group Six World Cup Qualifying games - this Saturday ( 1 September 2001 ) against Croatia and Belgium away from home on Wednesday ( 5 September 2001 ) - a slur has been cast on the good name of the Scottish supporters. Sociologists at the University of Leicester, England, have sought to undermine the reputation of the Scottish Football Fans who are renowned throughout the world for their good behaviour, humour and friendliness. Their study purports to show that racism "collective anti-Englishness" is the basis of The Tartan Army behaviour. SNP MSP Kenny MacAskill, a well known member of The Tartan Army, firmly refuted the charge - "They are trying to intellectualise something that is just a hobby and a past-time that can sometimes be a little rough round the edges but nearly always good humoured. I do not think that The Tartan Army is anti-English. It is anti the English Football Team but that is a quite different thing." The Tartan Army, supports Scotland, first, foremost and last and perhaps it is the fact that they do not support England which really sticks in the craws of the English sociologists! The record of The Tartan Army speaks for itself. They are welcomed, with their Kilts, Saltires and Bagpipes, the world over and have been presented with an award for good behaviour from UEFA in 1992 and a  civic award from the Mayor of Bordeaux after the 1998 World cup in France.

 

On Saturday ( 1 September ) England are also playing a crucial International match away to Germany, and as friendship and bonhomie is at the core of The Tartan Army's behaviour ( certainly not racism ) this column would suggest slices of German Friendship Cake all round - and especially to the English sociologists!

 

German Friendship Cake

 

Do not use a mixer - Do not refrigerate

Use the same tea cup throughout and a very large bowl

 

Using the cup, make up a yeast mixture. When mixture is ready ie frothing, pour it into the bowl and proceed :-

 

Day 1 - Add 1 cup of granulated sugar + 1 cup of plain flour to the yeast mix. Do not stir
Day 2 - Stir well. Add 1 cup of milk

Day 3 & 4 - Do nothing!
Day 5 - As Day 1

Day 6 - As Day 2

Day 7, 8, & 9 - Do nothing!

Day 10 - Stir well. Remove 3 cupfuls and give to 2 friends with a copy of this recipe! Set one aside for your own use - this will be the base for your next Friendship Cake.

 

Add to the remaining mixture :- 1 cup sugar; 1/2 tsp salt; 2 tsps vanilla essence; 2 heaped tsps cinamon; 2 heaped tsps baking powder; 1 or 2 cooking apples ( peeled, cored and chopped ); 2 eggs; 2 cups plain flour; 2/3 cup corn oil ( or similiar ); 1/2 cup chopped walnuts; 1/2 cup sultanas; 1/2 cup glace cherries.

 

Mix well. Put mixture into large roasting tin. Sprinkle top with demerara sugar. Bake at 160 deg C ( Gas Mark 2 ) for one to one and half hours.

Bake and start again! Freezes well.

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

DATES IN HISTORY

4 September 1241
Birth of Alexander III at Roxburgh, last Celtic King of Scots. He succeeded the throne in 1249 on the daeth of his father, Alexander II. His reign became known as "The Golden Age".

 

5 September 1889
Sixty-three miners died in an underground fire at Mauricewood Pit, Penicuik, the cause of which was never discovered. Most of the miners died from suffocation when smoke entered the ventilation shaft.

 

6 September 1715
The standard of the Old Pretender, the Jacobite "James VIII", was unfurled by the Earl of Mar, "Bobbing John", at Braemar in the first of the major Jacobite Risings.

See Dates in History in our Features Section

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

SI Prize Crossword No. 21 SEPTEMBER  2001
[Click here to bring up the crosswords]