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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 81 - 21st December 2001]

We'd like to wish all our readers a  Very Happy Festive Season!

Well, the good is definitely John Swinney, SNP leader; the Senior Salaries Review Board (contrary to the hostile press, MSPs do not decide their own pay) has decided that as John is the Leader of the Opposition he is entitled to a salary increase of £32000 per year. This would be in line with the practice at Westminster where the Leader of the Opposition is also paid a much higher salary than the average MP, and is a recognition that there is an official Opposition in the Scottish Parliament, which is more than can be said for Westminster. Now for some strange reason, the Herald had the news on its front page, and it was on radio bulletins the previous evening, but the Scotsman newspaper missed it that day ; they reported that the main contributor to the Westminster Opposition leader was a hairdresser, newsworthy because the Tory leader Mr In Dire Straits is completely bald. Trivia is more important than credit to the SNP. ( They reported on it the following day, buried in a mass of verbiage about the MSP salary increase and alleged that it was done to embarrass Labour; gey dear embarrassment.)

John Swinney would not take the money and said "At a time when the NEC workers have been told they were to be made redundant and given the recent health workers pay award I do not feel it is right for me to accept a pay award of this size. Political leaders should be acutely aware of the current public attitude towards politicians and my priority in handling this issue is to restore trust and confidence in the political process." Now, we will wait to see if Jack McConnell takes the salary when he becomes leader of the Opposition in 2003.

THE BAD

The bad is the SNP Treasurer, Jim Mather, who has allegedly failed to lodge details of how much the SNP had spent on the General Election within the time limit; apparently this is due to an administrative delay. Just what that means is not clear; it reminds me of a train journey to Doncaster. The train was late, and as we trundled towards York the conductor announced "We apologise for the delay; it was caused by the train arriving late at Newcastle." Think about it. It has never been my contention that the Party had the sum total of all wisdom and knowledge, and I know that it can get it wrong, but you can only be critical of other parties if you are relatively pure yourselves.

As it is, we know the Tories spent £973067 to get one MP elected; as he was from a farming constituency we wait with interest to hear the price per kilo. Labour spent, or declared they spent, £940252, and the Liberals £178249. The largest item of expense was advertising, but transport costs were very revealing; the Tories, with 1 MP spent £82907, the Liberals with 11 MPs spent £130404, and Labour with 56 MPs spent..... £3741! They must all have had bus passes.

AND THE UGLY

The main bone of contention is the Parliament building, which is becoming more and more expensive by the day; this was not the fault of the Parliament, but was a decision taken in London, by the Westminster Cabinet on the instigation of the late St Donald Dewar. They decided, they ruled, and then they left the people of Scotland to pay for the mess they put us into. It was voted on by the Scottish Parliament at a fairly early stage but after significant expenditure contracts had already been entered into, and the decision to proceed was taken by something like 3 votes; at that time rejection would have been seen as a vote of no confidence in the First Minister, Donald Dewar, but the pusillanimous Liberals chickened out again, so the Parliament got the go ahead.

One of the main critics is the Scotsman newspaper, whose pretentiously named building, Barclay Towers, is just across the road; it is easy to be critical of the waste of public money, particularly by the owners of the paper, the Barclay brothers, who pay no tax. They were knighted last year for giving £30 million to charity, but this was only a small part of the money they should have paid, and that could have been spent on the Health Service; it would also appear that the Scotsman publisher, Andrew Neil, has a private company, Glenburn Enterprises. We wonder if this is the same kind of deal that Marmaduke Hussey had with the BBC; he also had a private company of which he was the sole shareholder, and he invoiced the BBC for his services. All Mr Hussey’s expenses were charged against his company, even the Armani suits he wore to his work, and his wife’s car, as I recall; this is known as "legal avoidance of tax", so PAYE, National Insurance etc, is not deducted at source . It is all legal and above board, if morally questionable.

The other issue making headlines is MSP’s pay; they are getting an increase of 6%, over 2 years, and the press is getting all het up about it. MSPs should only get 87% of the salary of Westminster MPs, and many believe, quite rightly, that they should have parity; you average MP (and some of them are very average indeed) gets £55000 a year, compared with £45000 for MSPs. (To put things into perspective, David Coulthart, the racing driver, and Colin McRae, the rally driver, both earn £4 million a year.) There is no doubt that the workload of the Westminster Members has dropped considerably, and they are continually complaining that they are not getting enough publicity; this is mainly because they are not doing enough to justify it. The SNP published a league table of Scottish MPs’ participation in the House of Commons since the General Election; this encompassed speeches in the Chamber, tabling of Motions and submission of Written and Oral Questions.

The SNP occupied five of the top six places: 1. Mike Weir (Angus) 2. Malcolm Bruce (Liberal) 3. Angus Robertson (Moray) 4. Annabelle Ewing (Perth) 5. Pete Wishart (North Tayside) and 6. Alex Salmond (Banff & Buchan). The best performing Labour MP is Mark Lazarowicz, in 8th place, and the lone Tory, Peter Duncan, comes at 9. (Incidentally, Mark Lazaowicz was also the only Scottish Labour MP to sign the Early Day Motion supporting Ms Elizabeth Filkin, the Parliamentary Commissioner.) The bottom 12 places were all held by Labour MPs; of the bottom 30, 27 were Labour MPs.

The MSPs work long and hard, as the Scottish Parliament has a very intensive Committee system, and MSPs are nearly all on more than one Committee; in addition, they all have constituency affairs to look after, this giving rise to jealousy from Westminster MPs, who felt they should be allowed to continue ignoring them. It is a fact that the workload of a Scottish Parliamentarian is very much higher than that of a Westminster one; in fact in the early days, the Daily Discord splashed a criticism of Fergus Ewing MSP for Inverness East (SNP, of course) because he asked too many questions! "Look at what this MSP is costing the taxpayer" they bleated; but woe betide anyone who did not ask questions "What are they doing!"

They are worth what they are getting, and more, and while Tommy Sheridan thinks they should be paid the same as a labourer, he would be the first to complain if the Parliament was filled with labourers, and the voters would follow suit. If you want to attract people with ability, you have to pay them. While Tommy Sheridan presently gives half his salary to the Scottish Socialist Party, that understanding will have to change if he and his wife have children. So, one must ask, in whose vested interest is it for the Scottish Parliament to be mocked and vilified, and the answer comes back as the Unionists, who dread Scotland standing up.

So here we have Jim Murphy, Labour MP for Eastwood, brandishing a piece of paper, and shouting from the rooftops "The Fees Office has cleared me"; he says they are even owing him another £200. I am still puzzled as to what has happened to the rent he got from the Scottish Parliament for sub-letting his office to Ken MacIntosh, his Labour MSP tenant; the allegation was that he charged the rent to the House of Commons Fees Office, and that the rent from Mr MacIntosh should have been paid to that office. We do not know what has happened to that rent, and we have to remember that the Fees Office also accepted Henry McLeish’s explanation. Nigel Griffiths has also said he is sorry ( well sorry he got caught) and the Fees Office is said to be happy with his explanation, but again, what happened to the rent from Angus Mackay? What this looks like to me is that the rules for getting money are wide open, and that the Fees Office pay on demand (our money) ; in these circumstances they do not want anyone poking their nose into their archaic rip off money bank, so they just say all right and do not want to take it any further, as this will rock the boat for all the Dishonourable Members.

The matter of course has also been referred to the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner, Ms Elizabeth Filkin, and while she might well decide that there has been a breach of Parliamentary Rules, we know from experience that the Standards and Overprivileged Committee will throw these out; as the accused are (a) a Parliamentary Private Secretary, (b) a Minister (c) a Government Whip (d) a Member of the Standards Committee. I said last week that following Jimmy Reid’s comments on the Inquiry into Dr John Reid and James Maxton, I thought I might have a look at the file, which I looked up on the web. The conclusions were damning: I quote:

"286. In addition, by their behaviour during the inquiry, Dr Reid (in not seeking to encourage witnesses to give a full and accurate account to me) and Mr Maxton (in unresonably and persistently attacking the investigation process laid down by the House) failed to meet their obligations under the terms of the Code of Conduct, as set out in paragraph 283 above.

"287. Complaint against Dr Reid upheld.

"289. Both Dr Reid and Mr Maxton have vigorously protested throughout my investigation that the complaints against them are unfounded. Mr Maxton has strongly criticised the inquiry procedures. In the interest of fairness to the two Members the Committee may wish to consider inviting Dr Reid and Mr Maxton to appear before them on oath."

25 October 2000 Elizabeth Filkin.

I can find no evidence that they did appear on oath, but as one of the matters at issue was that Dr John Reid had advised Alex Rowley, former General Secretary of the Labour Party, not to give evidence on oath, it could be that I just did not find the appropriate page. Mr Maxton apologised to the Committee for his attitude during the inquiry; ( this was the equivalent of Mr Griffiths also saying he was sorry,) so that’s all right then. The Committee cleared both Dr Reid and Mr Maxton of wrongdoing, although the evidence was all there to show otherwise. The offences occurred in 1998/99, in the period up to the Scottish Elections, the inquiry was completed in October 2000, and the Committee issued its decision at Christmas 2000, conveniently when Honourable Members were away for their jollifications; how strange that the misuse of Parliamentary Allowances by Labour MPs is still with us at Christmas 2001.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS

The above is how the Westminster government is regarding the situation in Afghanistan, and with this we wholeheartedly concur; while the elimination of al’Qaeda and the capture and conviction of Osama bin Laden is ongoing, the humanitarian effort has to be stepped up. The despatch of a peacekeeping force is now imminent, and Britain is sending some 1500 troops as the spearhead. When the Russians left Afghanistan the country descended into total anarchy as the various warlords staked out their territory, and this made the country a fertile breeding ground for the puritanical Taleban. This cannot be allowed to happen again.

There seems to be a degree of disagreement between Britain and America over the way forward; America wants to pursue Osama bin Laden and his followers into other countries, while Britain wishes to sort out the mess in Afghanistan. The message emanating from London appears to be that Britain can either get involved in further foreign adventures, or do peacekeeping duties in Afghanistan, but it does not have the resources to do both; by opting for the latter it is making a virtue of necessity. This is not disapproval of the American intent, as it now evident from the Osama bin Laden video that he planned and executed the Twin Tower massacre, and that wherever he and his evil followers go, they will continue to plan atrocities; they cannot be reasoned with, as their aim is to convert everyone to their brand of Islam, or else.

The aid effort is already underway, and we have seen this week on STV some of the work being done in the refugee camps by the Scottish charity SCIAF (Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund); apparently they have collected £150000 in Scotland for aid to Afghanistan. They are working with Afghan refugees in camps in Northern Pakistan, helping them to build mud huts to get them through the winter; the camp featured was Ahora Khattack and it has about 20000 refugees, of whom 20% are children . Three generations of refugees are there, some from the Russian invasion, some from the three year drought, and some from the allied bombing; a feeding centre for malnourished children and mothers has been opened and this will be the first of 17. It is run by the Afghan Women’s Resource Centre, made up of Afghan women who have been working in the camps since 1989. Once some degree of stability is established in Afghanistan itself, we expect the aid workers to go in; under the Taleban Christian aid workers were forbidden.

PR FOR PR

Or to those not familiar with political jargon, Public Relations for Proportional Representation. Jack McConnell met with the Liberals and his own parliamentary party this week, to lay out a timetable for Proportional Representation in local government. Hold the front page! There will be a White Paper in March 2002, followed by a four month consultation exercise, and there will be a bill put before parliament in mid 2003 - but wait a minute - the local elections will be in May 2003, at the same time as the Scottish Parliament elections, so no Proportional Representation in local government until 2007, if then.

This is the deal agreed by the Liberals, as part of their support for New Labour, and indicates the ineptitude yet again of the Liberals ; they had a deal of sorts with Donald Dewar, "renegotiated" it again with Henry McLeish, and had a further chance with Jack McConnell - three bites - nae cherry. They, of course, blew their chances publicly by saying that they would not consider, under any circumstances, a deal with the SNP after the 2003 elections, thereby telling Labour that they would support them evermore. It could be that they should heed the lessons of history, even history, 1997 vintage; Tony Blair and Paddy Ashdown had a pact, agreed when in opposition, to make definite progress on proportional

representation, and power sharing, and Cabinet seats for the Liberals. Come 1997, and a Labour landslide, bye bye proportional representation, and a loud raspberry to Paddy and the Cabinet seats. Maybe Mr Wallace, and the rest of his inept crew, have not considered an overall Labour majority in 2003? In that case, proportional representation gets the Kirkcaldy heist.

Jack McConnell knows that his Labour colleagues are bitterly opposed to proportional representation, and that Labour councillors will not give up their sinecures, so they will work (well some of them anyway) like beavers to stop the Liberals. Have you noticed how it is always oppositions who are pressing for change, and not the Establishment, who are comfortable with an undemocratic system as long as they retain power. Remember also that the voting system for the Scottish Parliament was cooked up by the Labour Party and the Liberals specifically to make it very difficult for the SNP to gain overall control, and this has caused nothing but angst for Labour ever since.

Anyway, here is another headache for the Liberals; the SNP could form a coalition with the Tories after the election of 2003. Well, Labour have already adopted Tory policies and stolen their treasured right wing credentials, and the Tories are becoming more left wing. They still have a bad press, and are regarded with fundamental distaste by the SNP, and by the frauds in the Labour Party (all of them), but when you are dealing with greedy, conniving, clever fraudsters, it is better than dealing with greedy, conniving, stupid fraudsters.

Another little tale I heard about; at the time of the election of a deputy presiding officer, a report in the Daily Discord said that 4 SNP MSPs had voted for the Labour candidate, as they could not bring themselves to vote for a Tory. Apart from the fact that it was a secret ballot, and that no SNP MSP would help the Daily Discord, it would seem more likely that the story was to make Jack McConnell think that even more of his troops had voted against him; maybe I’m just being mischievous.

FOOT IN THE MOUTH NOTES

During the Scottish Parliament Lobbygate Inquiry, Jack McConnell’s constituency secretary was represented by McGrigor Donald. The company which had employed Mr McConnell was called Public Affairs Europe Ltd, and was a joint venture between Beattie Media and Maclay Murray & Spens; it’s a small world.

In September this year a coal shipment of 180716 tonnes was unloaded at Hunterston, the biggest ever; the coal was for US owned electricity generator TXU, and it came from South Africa on a Liberian registered vessel.

Scotland’s last deep coalmine, Longannet, paid off 170 staff in November, due to a geological fault; we wonder just how much coal there is in Longannet, about 50 miles from Hunterston?

In November, the Scotsman had to print a retraction as they had stated that Digby Brown, who rented an office from Henry McLeish, had worked with the firm Claims Direct, who operated on a "No win, no fee" basis; Claims Direct did not offer this service in Scotland.

We are surprised they should have even considered Digby Brown would be working for nothing.

There was an outcry in the Scottish Parliament earlier this year when two contractors were given road maintenance contracts at the expense of the local authorities; the two companies, Amey and Bear, apparently put in much lower tenders, although the local authorities claimed they had not been given the same specifications.

Amey have now received at least 14 warnings for failures in 7 months, in Glasgow, Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire, whereas the local authorities got 24 over 2 years. Fife Council have taken the contract away from Bear as their service has been sub-standard, and the police in Highland warned them about untreated roads in the Highlands. Cheapest is not often best, and we expect the new Transport Minister, Wendy Alexander, to sort this out.

The Ministry of Defence has ordered boots made of Brazilian leather for the Armed Forces; they claim that they deal with a main contractor, and have no control over where they get their supplies.

So the next time the troops have to go in to help with farming problems (Foot & Mouth again?) they’ll be wearing boots that helped to put farmers out of business; it’s a funny old world, as one of the instigators of this process said.

SYNOPSIS

A selection of irems from the SNP Daily News over the last week:

MCCONNELL MISLED PARLIAMENT ON WAITING LISTS
The Labour Executive were this afternoon forced into a humiliating climb down as weeks of SNP pressure over NHS waiting lists paid off. Just two weeks ago, Labour were claiming there were no 'closed' waiting lists in Scotland, then SNP Leader John Swinney confronted the First Minister with evidence to the contrary at last week's First Minister's Question Time. Today, the crisis in the NHS was finally exposed, as the Government were forced to admit there are at least six closed waiting lists. These closed lists come on top of SNP revelations of deferred lists where patients are put on what is effectively a waiting list for the waiting list in an attempt to make Government Statistics look better. Now Labour's mismanagement of our Health Service has started to unravel. The SNP Leader told Daily News ""The First Minister has repeatedly and categorically denied that there were closed waiting lists. Now he has had to admit that after less than a month in office he has misled Parliament, not once, but twice. He has stood by while patients were betrayed and repeatedly denied it was happening "

SCOTTISH WATER - FINNIE TREATS PARLIAMENT WITH CONTEMPT
The Scottish Executive today announced their appointments to oversee Scotland's largest quango - Scottish Water, which employs 5,000 people and has a turnover in excess of 16 billion pounds. These appointments have taken place before the Scottish Parliament's Transport and Environment Committee has even met to discuss its desired shape for the new board. Bruce Crawford, the SNP's Shadow Environment Minister described the move as "Contemptuous" and told Daily News "The appointment of board members by a Minister - without the approval of Parliament - does not reach the high standards of scrutiny the public rightly expect."

SCOTTISH HOLIDAYMAKERS BEING ROBBED AND RIPPED-OFF
As the Office of Fair Trading published its report into the high charges for Scottish Holidaymakers, the SNP Shadow Transport Minister Kenny MacAskill said Scottish Holidaymakers are being 'ripped-off' by tour operators. With the OFT refusing to take any action, Kenny MacAskill demanded the Scottish Executive move to protect Scots travelling overseas, and declared the start of a campaign to stop the robbery and end the rip-off. We asked Kenny to comment on the decision and he told News Today "This whole issue should be about taking action to protect the Scottish consumer and not being an apologist for London tour operators."

"LABOUR STEWARDSHIP OF NHS PROVING DISASTROUS" AS AUDIT REVEALS DEFICITS
INCREASE BY £14.4 MILLION
Shadow Health Minister, Nicola Sturgeon MSP has described Audit Scotland's annual report into the NHS as "very grim reading". Speaking about the publication of 'Overview of the National Health Service in Scotland 2000/01', Ms Sturgeon said the report was "further evidence that Labour's stewardship of the NHS is proving to be disastrous." The report shows that the net deficit accumulated by eight Trusts for 2000/01 was £31.9 million, compared to just 17.5 million pounds in 1999/00. "That represents an increase in the deficit of £14.4 million in just one year" said Ms Sturgeon who continued, "this gives lie to Labour's claim that record sums of money are being invested in the NHS. The reality is that under Labour the NHS is struggling to make ends meet and patients are suffering as a result." Ms Sturgeon said it was easy to understand why the Beatson Oncology Centre was in such a state of crisis when you realise that North Glasgow University Hospitals NHS Trust alone accumulated a deficit of £9.5 million pounds. The report also show that 107,000 people in Scotland are currently waiting for treatment and that the average waiting time is 91 days two weeks longer than when Labour came to power but Ms Sturgeon said what was most worrying was the prognosis for the future. "The report notes that the £90 million announced by the Scottish government in September to alleviate pressures is a non-recurring payment. It goes on to express the concern that 'many Trusts will be challenged by new and continuing pressures on their budgets in the current and future years which may result in a continuation of deficits at individual trusts in the new unified NHS board areas'. Labour must now stop spinning that all is well in the NHS and heed this warning. In particular, it must outline what it will do to prevent Trusts slipping back into deficit in this and future years, because if that happens the people who will suffer are the patients who  are already waiting too long for treatment."

1400 FAMILIES WITHOUT HOMES THIS CHRISTMAS CONDEMNED BY FABIANI
Linda Fabiani MSP has condemned the Scottish Executive for not doing enough to help the number of families who will be without a home this Christmas. Speaking about the latest homelessness figures published today the Shadow Depute Social Justice and Housing Minister said, "Rather than putting a spin on the figures in an attempt to hide the reality of the situation, the Scottish Executive should be working harder to honestly reduce homelessness." The report reveals that between June 2000 and June 2001, only 140 families with children out of the 1400 affected have left local authority temporary accommodation. "The fact that over 1400 families will spend Christmas in temporary accommodation, 189 of them in hostels, is a disgrace" said Ms Fabiani. "To compound this, the figures highlight the level of homelessness in Scotland has increased by 3 percent on the same quarter last year. This is unacceptable and the Scottish Executive is clearly not doing enough to solve the problem."

HAMILTON & ULLRICH CALL ON MINISTERIAL INTERVENTION OVER FERRY STRIKE
Shadow Minister for the Highlands and Islands, Duncan Hamilton MSP, and west of Scotland SNP MSP Kay Ullrich MSP today joined forces to call on the Transport Minister to intervene in the current Cal Mac industrial dispute. Mr Hamilton said, "Cal Mac and its staff provide a vital service to the west and islands and people across the area depend heavily on Cal Mac's smooth running. The current industrial action being taken is not merely an inconvenience but is causing the severance of lifeline services to many island communities which could have dire consequences. We need to pull out all the stops to find a resolution to this dispute immediately. I am today urging Wendy Alexander to convene a meeting of Cal Mac and the unions in order to find an urgent resolution. The stand-off between the two parties and the accusations being made are totally destructive. The losers, as ever, are the people of the west coast who need guaranteed crossings at Christmas and throughout the winter." Mrs Ullrich added, "Communities, such as those on the Isle of Arran, are just beginning to see some hope after the terrible impact on tourism that the foot and mouth outbreak had - despite there being no foot and mouth on Arran, of course. Now, as hoteliers and guest house owners, indeed all of those involved in tourism on the island, look forward to the Christmas and New Year holiday period, they are faced with the prospect of people not being able to get to the island because of the strike. In the interests of everyone concerned - the islanders served by Cal Mac ferries, RMT members and Cal Mac itself - Wendy Alexander must get both sides back to the negotiating table and talking."

MATHESON HIGHLIGHTS NEW POWERS FOR THE SCOTS PARLIAMENT
SNP MSP for Central Scotland, Michael Matheson, today exposed an astonishing blunder by the Scottish Executive, who had failed to realise that they and the Scottish Parliament have responsibility to legislate on Human Cloning. A High Court ruling in November demonstrated that such cloning does not fall under the reserved powers that are handled by Westminster, yet Westminster has just legislated on this area without permission from the Scottish Parliament. Michael Matheson told News Today "This demonstrates both the incompetence and arrogance of the Westminster Government by failing to recognize that the matter is now entirely the responsibility of the Scottish Parliament."

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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)

Click here to do the jigsaw!

Many Scottish towns can boast/or rue battles fought, in the past, on their doorsteps. Inverurie is one such town. The most famous battle was probably Harlaw in 1411, but there were two others. The victory of Robert I, The Bruce, over The Comyns in 1307 and the battle which concerns us this week, the Jacobite victory on 23 December 1745. The victors were led by Lord Lewis Gordon, who was appointed a member of Bonnie Prince Charlie's Council at Edinburgh where he had joined the Prince in October 1745. The Prince sent him north to recruit in the counties of Aberdeen and Banff and to collect arms and money. He not only raised a regiment of two battalions but completely defeated the Hanoverian troops under MacLeod of MacLeod and Munro of Culcairn at Inverurie. Among the prisoners taken by the Jacobites was the great Skye piper Duncan Ban MacCrimmon. The morning after the victory, the Jacobite pipers refused to play until Duncan Ban was released. Hugh MacDiarmid said of this act  - 'the silent bagpipes of Lord Lewis Gordon on the morning after the battle of Inverurie was the greatest tribute ever paid to genius.'

He used the incident in his poem 'Lament for the Great Music' -

'Only one occasion
Would I have loved to witness - after Inverurie
When Lord Lewis Gordon's pipers kept silence
Since Duncan Ban MacCrimmon was his prisoner.
No Scottish Army or English, no army in the world,
Would do that today - nor ever again-
For they do not know and there is no means of telling them
That Kings and Generals are only shadows of time
 But time has no dominion over genius.'

 

Duncan Ban MacCrimmon was released, but the story did not end happily as he was the only fatality at the Rout of Moy in 1746. We shall return, at some future date, to the piping traditions of the great MacCrimmon family. The Jacobite Army would have been sustained by oatmeal and this weeks recipe includes oatmeal in the form of porridge oats. The recipe for Mincemeat Crumble Squares is taken from 'The Anniversary Cook-Book of the Dumfriesshire Federation SWRI' which was published in 1992.

 

Mincemeat Crumble Squares

 

Ingredients : 7 oz self raising flour; 6 oz margarine; 6 oz caster sugar; 4 oz porridge oats; 1 lb mincemeat

 

Mix margarine, sugar, flour and porridge oats to make a crumble. Press half into a swiss roll tin. Spread mincemeat over crumble. Cover with remaining crumble and press down lightly. Bake in a moderate oven for 30-35 minutes. Cut into squares when almost cool.

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

DATES IN HISTORY

21 December 1795
Birth of Dr Robert Moffat, Ormiston-born, missionary who worked as a gardener before being accepted by the London Missionary Society and sent to Southern Africa. He worked there, almost continually for 54 years, mainly at Kuruman, Bechuanaland ( Bophuthatswana ). In 1841 he was joined by David Livingstone, who had come to Africa on Moffat's advice and who subsequently married Moffat's daughter, Mary. His grand-son, H U Moffat, became Premier of Southern Rhodesia and unveiled the statue to Livingstone, his uncle, at Victoria Falls.

 

23 December 1745
At the Battle of Inverurie Jacobite forces under Lord Lewis Gordon completely overwhelmed Hanoverian troops led by MacLeod of MacLeod and Munro of Culcairn.

 

23 December 2000
Death of East Wemyss-born Sir Jimmy Shand, internationally renown accordianist and Scottish Country Dance Band Leader. Composer of over three hundred tunes, through his regular wireless and television broadcasts, Jimmy Shand became a household name. 

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. 24 DECEMBER  2001
[Click here to bring up the crosswords]