Westminster Voting Intentions

On the Westminster front, the picture is not much better; the SNP is down two points from last month and four points from the Election, which was not one of our better performances anyway. Labour is also down one point from last month, the Liberals up on last month, but down on the Election, and the Tories up one on the month, but back to their Election figure; I never believe the Tory percentages, since people do not like admitting they are Tories, so it is something done in the privacy of the polling booth, between consenting adults. Also, if the turnout is low, as it was in June 2001, the Tories are more likely to vote, thus increasing their percentage; the increase in the SSP and the Green vote is a bit of a worry, as dissident voters go there instead of to the SNP.

Report Card for the SNP; must do better.

DEFINITELY A GUDDLE - WE THINK

The Henry McLeish affair was infamous for the "Not a fiddle, more a muddle" catchphrase, but the implementation of his policy on Free Personal Care for the Elderly would appear to be either a fiddle or a guddle.

Readers with good memories will remember that last year, the then Finance Minister, Angus Mackay, produced an unspent £750 million on the Scottish Parliament budget, and it was commented at the time that this could be used to implement the free personal care policy; we have heard no more of this underspend, so perhaps it has evaporated. As it is, the Scottish Parliament was due to put in the policy from April this year, and it should be stressed that this was a decision of the Parliament, not the Executive, when suddenly a delay of three months pops up, and the policy will not be implemented until July. It is sheer coincidence that the Westminster Government, acting through one of its minor satraps, George Foulkes, Labour MP, and deputy Secretary of State for Scotland, has decreed that £23 million of attendance allowance money will not be paid by London into the Scottish budget, but will remain in the Westminster coffers.

This means that while the Scottish Parliament pays free personal care out of its own resources, Westminster saves £23 million a year; so if the Scots want to look after their old people, the English pocket the £23 million of the taxes Scots have paid, but do not say "Thank you." I am sure my reasoning is correct; the block grant comes from general taxation, of which we pay more than our fair share, and the attendance allowance money also comes from general taxation, ditto, so because we spend our money on principles which Westminster does not approve of, we get fined. We are not saying we want to pay the money out twice, but it was supposed to be allocated to the Scottish budget, and could have been spent elsewhere. Think about it; before free care for the elderly, Block Grant £4000 million , plus £23 million attendance allowance ; after free care for the elderly, Block Grant £4000 million. ( I can’t remember what the Block Grant amounts to, but I’m in the ballpark)

The deferment of the start of free personal care from April to July, will save the Scottish budget some £23 million, but we are sure that this is not a fiddle (says he with his fingers crossed behind his back) but just a part of a general guddle; after all, if they could underspend £750 million or thereabouts in one year as the National Health Service overspent by £20 or £30 million, it looks as if New Labour are not very good at their sums. We need to look a bit closer at the whys and wherefores; the Finance Minister who clocked up the underspend was Jack McConnell, and the Finance Minister who outed it was Angus Mackay. The Education Minister who made a mess of the Scottish exam results was Sam Galbraith, and the Education Minister who put it right was - Jack McConnell, and while we know that the latter spent an extra £11 or £12 million to put it right.... with a bit of luck all this will be lost in the mists of antiquity by the time it becomes public. Changing Ministers is a great way of deflecting criticism.

And while all excuses about "technical difficulties" are being bandied about, if the delay is due to that, then as a mark of faith, we would expect the Executive to make retrospective payments . Oh Robert Maxwell, you should be living at this hour! (Maybe he is.)

RAILROADED YET AGAIN

The appalling mess that is Britain’s railway network seem to be going from bad to worse; when the Tories privatised the railways, they made it nearly impossible to unscramble the omelette. Contracts were awarded for up to 15 years in some cases, and were written in such a way that any attempt to break them would fall foul of European law; how strange that the bitterly anti European Tories adopted European strategies that would benefit their well heeled friends. However, I digress, as is my wont, into diatribes against the Tories who are not in power, or not officially anyway, only their principles rule the roost. Despite general criticism, I believe that Stephen Byers was correct to put Railtrack into administration, but it is what he will do now to rectify things that will count.

The recent plan by the Strategic Rail Authority has been welcomed - South of the Border- as it seems to have very little resonance in Scotland, and indeed, will have virtually no impact at all for a number of years; this was flagged up earlier by Tom Winsor, the outgoing Chairman, who said that there was not enough money available for spending on anything "North of the Watford Gap." Of the 17 major projects publicised, 15 are in England (11 in the south and London) and only 2 in Scotland; the 2 are the rebuilding of Waverley Station in Edinburgh, and rail access to Glasgow and Edinburgh Airports - by 2010! (If you wonder about the concentration on London, out of 250 Lords created by the Blessed Tony, 150 of them live in London; be still you plebs.)

I can never figure out why a railway spur into Edinburgh Airport is such a great problem, as the railway line runs right past the airport on its way to the Forth Bridge; as far as Glasgow is concerned, the same should apply as the railway runs to Paisley, which is adjacent to Glasgow Airport. It seems that as our roads become more and more congested anything to alleviate the M8 motorway has to be "a good thing", and putting this back to 2010 is unacceptable ; the fact that Scotland is campaigning to hold the World Cup here in 2008 should at least have some impact. The present dispute between the train drivers and Scotrail is a direct consequence of the privatisation saga; we know things were not wonderful with British Rail before they were privatised, and how much of that was due to underinvestment by the nasty Tories is a moot point, but other European countries operate in a more efficient manner, so how come Britain is a shambles? The drivers’ dispute is because they want their pay increased as they do not want to work overtime and rest days to get a decent wage; it is symptomatic of the public attitude that those who condemned the car driver who fell asleep at the wheel and caused a train crash, are quite willing to let train drivers work long hours and risk the same thing.

The Scottish Executive are staying away from the dispute, claiming it is up to the private company to make a deal with the private union, and that they have no voice in the argument; when Motorola and NEC were announcing redundancies and closures, the media was full of pictures of the Minister for Enterprise, Wendy Alexander , visiting the plants, and speaking to the management, when everyone knew that this was all facade as there was absolutely nothing she could do. Come a problem for thousands of travellers and the resultant increasing gridlock on the roads, and something the Minister for Transport, Wendy Alexander, could do, and we see neither hide nor hair of her; this may not be her fault entirely, as the petty action of the First Minister , Jack McConnell, in loading Transport onto Ms Alexander’s already heavy portfolio may have seemed clever to him and his acolytes, but as far as travellers are concerned, it is not very clever at all. Transport is far too important to be an add on, and requires a dedicated Minister.

[I received an email from Tom Winsor, the Rail Regulator, asking me to correct something I had written, as I had attributed words to him which he did not say. I had referred to Mr Winsor as the outgoing Chairman of the Strategic Rail Authority; the outgoing Chairman was, in fact, Sir Alastair Morton, and the remarks should have been attributed to him. Mr Winsor is the Rail Regulator, an entirely separate statutory officer. I may have misquoted the press report on which the article was based, and normally I retain the cuttings, but in this instance the article was in January 2002, and the press cuttings were recycled a long time ago. 30/05/03]

AM BUSHED

Enron was an energy trading company, which bought electricity and gas and sold it to utilities; it continually lobbied Senators and Congressmen, and made massive political contributions to both Republicans and Democrats. The message was simple, deregulate, deregulate, deregulate, and let us make increased profits; regulation was seen as the enemy of free market capitalism, and they bribed and cajoled until they got things their own way. Now where have we heard these arguments? And who was putting them forward, and who was opposing them, when in Opposition? Answers on a postcard to Tory Party Headquarters, and to New Labour as well.

The company was not making profits, the executives knew the stock was tumbling, and were selling it off, but the workers who had shares through the save as you earn type schemes, were not allowed to sell; thousands of employees had the shares as a company pension fund, and now have nothing. The company was hiding losses by setting up private companies to enrich their top executives, and their auditors, Arthur Andersen, had disposed of potentially incriminating documents, and misled Congress. The company had given George Bush $3 million since 1993, and John Ashcroft, the Attorney General has had to withdraw from the investigation as he also had received Enron money; the Vice President, Dick Cheney, is facing lawsuits to disclose his contacts with the company. All in all, it is estimated that half of the Republican Senators and more than a third of Democratic Senators have been funded by Enron; there are two criminal investigations going on, one into the selling of shares when the company was insolvent, and one into the auditors who destroyed evidence.

If, as is possible, the President is impeached, then the Presidency should pass to the Vice President, who in this instance is also involved with Enron; failing him, the next is probably the Speaker of the Senate, who also might be involved. I do not know if that is the succession, or even at this stage, who the Speaker is, but the tentacles of Enron are spread wide and deep, and it could give the United States a constitutional nightmare.

This scandal is not confined to America; Enron was a major trader in electricity and gas in Britain: it owns Wessex Water and power stations on Teeside, and in all employs some 4000 workers in Britain. Hundreds of traders in their London office lost their jobs when the administrators were called in. They also have a British political notable, Lord Wakeham, former Tory Minister , as a non executive director. No allegations of impropriety are being made against the noble Lord, but he was a member of the Enron audit committee, and they paid him £80000 a year (Double the salary of a Member of the Scottish Parliament.) When Enron collapsed, after its share price had fallen from $82 to less than $1 in a year, Britain’s electricity distribution almost collapsed, and we would have suffered a blackout (as happened in California,) but for the quick and clever acts of Ofgem; business does not like regulators, but we bet they liked this one. (Incidentally, the press must have taken the noble Lord’s salary from Enron’s accounts, as it is not registered in the House of Lords Members Register, nor is it required to be; as a matter of fact, the rules for the Upper House are even more lax than for the Commons.)

One of the questions which will not be asked is this very fundamental one, "If deregulation and the buying and selling of energy was such a surefire way of making money, how come they made massive losses?" One question which British businesses should be asking, and they will not, is "Why cannot we have more smart regulation to protect ourselves, our employees, and our customers?" As noted above, maybe Robert Maxwell is not dead, or has been reincarnated at the CBI.

FOOT IN THE MOUTH NOTES

As the Scotland the What song puts it "Where the hell has the money a’ went?"

In 1999, Sir Tom Farmer sold Kwik-Fit to the Ford Motor Company for £1.2 billion; he was also given a seat on the main Ford board; Ford are now selling Kwik-Fit, and it is anticipated that Sir Tom will make a bid. The company are expecting to get about £500 million for it.

The lad from Leith is no daft. (He also sees the logical progression of our Parliament to Independence.)

A recent publication of the public engagements of the Royal Family, showed that the Queen Mother, at 101, attended more events than the Countess of Wessex (no relation to the Water Co) who is not yet 30.

Aye, the old biddy, sorry, the old dear, was never one to miss a free lunch.

A move is afoot to paint speed cameras in bright colours , as motorists are being distracted looking for them, and not watching the road; this is seen as contributing to accidents.

That’s a bit convoluted; they should be watching their speed, and avoiding accidents.

What is the difference between God and Tony Blair?

God does not think He is Tony Blair.

SYNOPSIS

VOLUNTARY BODIES GROUP SLAMS WATER CONCESSION

An Executive concession aimed at small local groups about to be hit by a big rise in water charges were today dismissed as "unworkable" by angry voluntary bodies. And the announcement of the move backfired when details appeared by mistake on the Executive's website. The new concession follows a political row about the relief which charities are presently given from water charges. This relief is to be phased out from April with the creation of the new body Scottish Water and many charities have complained they will be hit by massive increases. The SNP today highlighted the plight of St Margaret's Hospice at Clydebank, near Glasgow. Fiona McLeod, SNP MSP for West of Scotland region, said the hospice, the biggest in Scotland, could pay more than 14,500 pounds in water charges from April, instead of the present 3,378 pounds. The concession announced by Mr Wilson would exempt local groups with an income of under 10,000 and who qualify for the relief scheme which is now being phased out. It is aimed at bodies like lunch clubs, parent and toddler groups, and scout and guide groups on limited incomes.

SALMOND CONGRATULATES NEW ARCHBISHOP

SNP Westminster group leader Alex Salmond has written to The Roman Catholic Bishop of Aberdeen, promoted last night to become the new Archbishop of Glasgow, to offer his congratulations. The Right Rev Mario Joseph Conti, 67, was named as Archbishop-elect, simultaneously in Rome and Glasgow, to replace the cardinal, who died last year after a second heart attack. Elgin-born Bishop Conti - who had been in charge of the Aberdeen diocese, stretching north to Orkney and Shetland and west to the Highlands, since 1977 - will be replaced by an apostolic administrator who will be elected by the College of Consulters. Mr Salmond said Bishop Conti has been very successful in the North-east and would be well placed to carry on the work of the church in Glasgow.

BED BLOCKING ON THE INCREASE

The number of "blocked" beds in Scotland's hospitals has risen, according to new figures. In October last year, 2,191 patients waited more than six weeks to be released from hospital into further care, compared to 2,019 in July. The statistics come only days after First Minister Jack McConnell announced a 20 million pound boost for efforts to tackle delayed discharges. The problem occurs when doctors are unable to discharge patients because of problems in arranging post-hospital care. These are often elderly people waiting for a care assessment or a place in a nursing home. The SNP said that the Scottish Executive had a record of failure on the issue. "Labour's mismanagement of the NHS has left thousands of patients to languish in hospital beds when they should be looked after by social services," said shadow health minister Nicola Sturgeon. "This denies them the services they require and denies the NHS desperately needed beds."

STORM OF PROTEST OVER CENTRAL BELT ADS FOR DUNDEE-BASED JOBS

A Scottish Executive decision to limit advertising jobs in important new social work watchdog headquarters being set up in Dundee to Central Belt newspapers raised a storm of protest last night. A range of positions, from the 55,000 pounds-a-year head of legal services for the new Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care down to an 18,000 pounds-a-year accounting technician for the commission and the Scottish Social Services Council, appeared in Edinburgh and Glasgow-based dailies. But despite the obvious attractiveness of the employment concerned, the vacancies were not advertised in the North-east media. MPs and MSPs across the region said they were astonished by the decision to limit the advertisements to papers whose main circulation is outwith normal commuting distance. North Tayside SNP MP Pete Wishart said: "Many of my constituents who could be interested in these positions are not regular readers of the newspaper concerned. I find it curious that they are not being advertised in the newspapers we have serving our area and I see it as an impediment to these bodies getting a full range of suitable candidates." North-east SNP MSP Richard Lochhead said: "This is not the first time this has happened and it is disgraceful that such jobs should be advertised in Central Belt newspapers alone. "It beggars belief that the Scottish Executive is not advertising Civil Service posts based in the North-east in the local press."

SNP MUST "PROVE ITSELF" TO SCOTLAND

The people of Scotland, not politicians in London, should decide how much money should be spent on Scotland's health and education services, says John Swinney. In his first major television interview of the New Year, the SNP leader said his party's ideas and aspirations to create a better Scotland opened up clear dividing lines between New Labour and the SNP. Speaking on the ITV Seven Days programme, Mr Swinney said he had focussed his shadow cabinet on preparing a programme for government that will make a "real difference to Scots" and Scotland's public services. "I want the Scottish Parliament to have the ability to defeat Scotland's appalling child poverty record, to tackle our terrible health problems and to secure a prosperous economic future," he said. But he warned that the SNP would need to prove itself to the people of Scotland if it was to win political leadership and move Scotland forward. "Independence is all about having the power to deliver a better health service, a better education service and a secure economic future. We need to ensure 2002 is the year in which we lay the foundations for victory in the next Scottish Parliament elections." In this morning's interview, Mr Swinney said his aspirations for Scotland were underpinned by "ambition". And he called for Holyrood to be given powers to raise money to pay for better public services. The SNP MSP savaged Labour and sought to position his party as the main defender of public services. But he continually rounded on the Labour-led Executive and promised to "lead this country to independence".

OUTSPOKEN PRISONS WATCHDOG SACKED

The Scottish inspector of prisons has been effectively sacked amid rumours he was too outspoken in his criticism of the Scottish Executive's criminal justice system and its plans for the penal system. The respected prisons watchdog will not be reappointed after his term of office expires in October, and his 50,000 pound post is advertised in today's papers. Fairweather has been forthright in his criticisms of the Scottish Prison Service and by extension his masters in the Justice Department. He has spoken out over prison privatisation, slopping-out and the number of women in prison. Fairweather has reproached the Executive for failing to deliver on its review of the prison estate, leading to plummeting morale and a high staff turnover . He also implied that bosses at Scotland's only private prison at Kilmarnock were fiddling staff assault figures. Michael Matheson, SNP shadow deputy justice minister, said: "Clive Fairweather has been treated in an appalling manner. His reputation as chief inspector of prisons has been outstanding." Christine Grahame MSP, convener of the Justice 1 Committee, added: "I think that when he was appointed with his SAS background they thought they were getting a Tory. But instead they got an independent, reforming spirit."

SKYE TOLLS "LIFTED BY SUMMER"

Tolls could be removed from the Skye Bridge by the summer, forcing the Scottish Executive to shoulder a multi-million pound debt burden, say campaigners. Bridge protesters claim the saga behind the bridge, Scotland's first public finance initiative (PFI) project, raises some fundamental questions about the future direction of the private funding of public works. Campaigners are buoyed up by a Westminster committee's decision last month to accept submissions on the right of the Skye Bridge Company to collect tolls. They believe they have identified two procedural holes in legal documents which will bring down the entire toll regime. Irene McGugan - who, before she became a member of the Scottish parliament for the SNP, was one of those who refused to pay the toll - agrees that the implications of the tolls having to be removed were "enormous". "That's the reason all these challenges are being defended so robustly," she says. But she believes the toll system is "so fatally flawed" that it cannot be sustained for much longer. We are not going to go away until we have won, until the tolls are off." The Skye Bridge opened in October 1995, on the same day the Caledonian MacBrayne ferry was pulled off the route. The tolls were to be the same price as the ferry, making it one of the most expensive bridge crossings in Europe. They now stand at 5 pounds 70 each way for a driver and car in the summer period, or 4 pounds 70 in winter.

---

OUR ADVERTISERS
Please support our Advertisers by visiting their web sites

Send a superb bouquet of flowers from Wild About Flowers to any UK address. Use our special login name and password to ensure you get your special price negotiated for you by the Flag!
Login Name: Scots  Password: Independent

James Thin, Booksellers

Burke's Landed Gentry

---

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

The Scots, as we have noted previously, are famous, indeed infamous, for having a sweet tooth. This is sadly reflected in both dental and heart problems but does not stop Scots 'soukin awa' on all types of sweeties. The Border towns are particularly famous for having their own local brand of sweets - Hawick for Hawick Balls; Jedburgh for Jeddart Snails; Peebles and Galashiels for Soor Plooms; if we take back the town of Berwick, then Berwick Cockles can be enjoyed again; and Moffat gives us Moffat Toffee. Melrose, in the past, gave as Coltart's Candy ( pronounced Coolter ) which is still remembered in a song written by Robert Coltat ( an early form of advertisement ! ) himself. The chorus of 'Coulter's Candy' goes -

 

                            'Ally bally, ally bally bee,

                            Sittin' on yir mammy's knee,

                            Greetin' for anither bawbee,

                            Tae buy some Coulter's Candy.'

 

Melrose based Robert Coltart was a colourful travelling man whose famous candy attracted bairn as if he was a Scottish Pied Piper. The candy was aniseed-flavoured but the recipe and custom seem to have been lost following Coltart's death in 1890. The recipe for Coltart's Candy might no longer be available but we are able to provide a splendid recipe for Creamy Toffee which will delight bairns of all ages!

 

Creamy Toffee

 

Ingredients: Half-pound sugar; quarter-pound margarine; 4 tablespoons syrup; 1 small tin condensed milk.

 

Put sugar, margarine and syrup in pan, heat until melted, then add condensed milk, bring to boil, stirring all the time. Keep stirring for 20 minutes after it comes to boil. Test ball in cold water and pour into greased tin.

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

DATES IN HISTORY

18 January 1812
The Comet, the first Scottish passenger steamboat, designed by Henry Bell, of 30 tons burden and 3 H.P. engine, built by John Wood and Co., Port Glasgow, made her trial trip from Glasgow to Greenock. The Comet inaugurated the Scottish steamship building industry.

 

21 January 1284
Prince Alexander, heir to Alexander III, King of Scots, died in Cupar, Fife, on his twentieth birthday, leaving only the infant Margaret of Norway as heir to the Scottish throne.

 

21 January 1970
Five members of the crew of the Fraserburgh lifeboat, The Duchess of Kent, were lost when she was turned over by a freak wave 36 miles off Kinnaird Head while escorting a Danish fishing vessal Opal to safety.

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

'Twas on a Monday morning,
Right early in the year,
That Charlie came to our town -
The young Chevalier.