The Flag in the Wind
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Compiled by Jim Lynch
[Issue 93 - 15th March 2002]

No particular reason for this, except that 15th March is deemed to be an inauspicious day, as that was the day Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44BC; we are not clear if it was inauspicious before then, or whether Shakespeare just invented another tradition because he liked the idea. Julius Caesar introduced the Julian Calendar, which decreed that every year had 365 days, and that every 4th year would be a leap year of 366 days. The expression "Crossing the Rubicon" comes from Caesar’s defiance of the Senate in 49 BC, when he crossed the Rubicon, a small stream flowing into the Adriatic, defeated Pompey, one of his former allies, and became dictator; he was murdered by a group of nobles, including Brutus, his close friend. "Et tu Brute!"

Along from the Coliseum in Rome there are marble panels on the wall showing the growth and extent of the Roman Empire; these show clearly that in Britain, the line stops dead at the Antonine Wall , built between the Forth and Clyde, so they gave up at that point. The panels indicate that they did not reach Ireland either; Julius Caesar invaded Britain in 55 and 54 BC, and recorded this in his famous phrase "Veni , Vide, Vice!" - "I came, I saw, I conquered!"

DR HAMISH HENDERSON

"But there’s mair than a rauch wind blawin’
Through the great glen o’ the warl’ today"
From his "Freedom Come All Ye"

SNP European MEP Ian Hudghton will be the main speaker at the annual Alexander III Commemoration Meeting and wreath-laying at the Alexander III Memorial, Pettycur, Kinghorn this Sunday ( 17th March ) at 3pm. Supporting speaker will be the historian and author James Halliday. Car parking is available at the nearby Kingswood Hotel.

Peter D Wright, organiser of the event since 1981, said that the meeting was held each year to remind Scots of the success of Alexander's reign which became known to later generations as 'The Golden Age' of Scottish history. Building on the sound foundations laid by his father, Alexander did much to consolidate the Scottish Nation. Without his example of putting Scotland first, Scotland as an independent nation, would not have survived the long Wars of Independence which followed his untimely death in 1286.

A wreath in memory of Alexander III and 'The Golden Age' will be laid by Mrs Lily Hudghton.

A FIDDLE - NOT A MUDDLE?

It is odd indeed that this was the one he forgot, for three reasons:

(a) His wife had been at the meetings authorising the payments to the by then non existent charity, and in fact had been instrumental in setting it up in the first place.

(b) Maureen Rodger, a Fife Council child protection officer was the initial link officer between the Council and the charity; in the first report she was said to be a friend of Mr McLeish’s who knew he had space to let, but was not involved in setting up a formal lease. It is now known that she was closely involved in the letting operation; Ms Rodger was Mr McLeish’s election agent in 1987 and 1992.

(c) Another Labour Party activist was employed as the Third Age’s paid co-ordinator; Lynda Struthers was selected by Ms Rodgers and another person for the job. She was secretary of the Central Fife Labour Party , and was Henry McLeish’ election agent in 1997.

Further points of note; the decision to shred the Third Age’s records was taken by Frances Howatson, a social work team leader and a member of the Labour Party. It is also true that when the Chief Executive of Fife Council says there is no evidence of wrongdoing, he is absolutely correct, because there is no evidence - it has been shredded. When as many of the facts that have survived come out, we will also find that Lynda Struthers , Mr McLeish’s election agent was paid £8000 a year as the paid co-ordinator of the Third Age charity; if you add this to the £1200 a year rent paid to Mr McLeish, then almost half of the money went to those in the Labour Party, and not to the old folk’s lunch clubs at all. Charity begins with the cronies.

Fife Council, and in particular its social work department is no stranger to controversy; in the Eighties there was a tremendous scandal because they would not remove abused children from their parents. We wonder if evidence then was shredded?

On the STV "Platform" programme, interviewer Bernard Ponsonby was pretty offensive to Tricia Marwick, SNP MSP, who has been doggedly pursuing the issue; he was much more charitable to Councillor Christine May, Fife Council Labour leader . Tricia more than evened the score at the end , after Christine May said that the whole affair was now in the hands of Audit Scotland and the Police; "Yes , it is" said Tricia, "Because I put it there." Mr Ponsonby is the living proof that the Liberals are not the nice guys they try to portray themselves.

THE PHARISEES

They decided not to approve his candidacy for the Scottish Parliament elections in 2003, thus effectively killing off his political career; that in itself is bad enough but it is the overpowering stench of hypocrisy emanating from the Labour Party that would make you boak! The Third Age charity is not an isolated instance of the misuse of public money by the Labour Party. There are other charities in Fife needing to be looked at where Labour Party members are receiving great dollops of cash; Trans-Fife Community Transport, Gang Forth , Fife Furniture Stockpile and the Cardenden Community Development Trust, have all been mentioned, the last one having gone bust after getting £450,000 from various sources. In Glasgow Govan, two organisations run by the same group of Labour activists have mismanaged to get through over a million pounds over the last four or five years and are now being investigated by the Council’s audit department.

We are reminded, through a letter in the Herald from Iain Lawson ,of the Renfrewshire Unemployed Workers’ Centre, where the documents were shredded just before the auditors arrived, and of the Ferguslie Community Business scandal just prior to that. Who also could forget Monklands, with the scandal of jobs for the cronies, just at the time of the by-election; Mrs Helen Liddell, the Labour Party candidate, supported her friends and colleagues on the council almost to the bitter end, before her more astute advisers pointed out that she would lose the by-election. She dropped them like a hot potato, overnight, and saved the seat for the Labour Party, although the majority dropped from 16000 to 1600; both she, and her predecessor in the seat, the sainted John Smith, knew what was going on, but that was the way things were done. At the end of that affair, nobody was guilty, but the people knew different. Dr John Reid, found guilty by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards of misusing his parliamentary allowance to pay Labour Party wages during the Scottish Elections, but let off by his Labour pals on the Standards Committee, Nigel Griffiths, also found guilty by the Parliamentary Commissioner of claiming rent paid to himself, and also let off by his pals on the Committee; and the thing about all three, they are all Government Ministers!

And also in sunny Govan, Mohammed Sarwar’s aide, and a Justice of the Peace, is still sitting in judgment on people, despite an alleged assault on an elderly cancer patient in November 2000; a tribunal has been set up and it is expected that the JP will be removed from office. Now in Ochil constituency up pops an office rented to the local Labour MP, Martin O’Neill at half the rent charged to charities for the equivalent accommodation; this has been going on for seven years, and only came to light when a rent review was carried out. The council, Clackmannanshire Council, has changed hands from being Labour to SNP, so things are coming to light!

All the above abuses, and many, many more which will emerge, are mainly due to Labour running one party states for years, and doing as they pleased; the coming of the Scottish Parliament has opened up a lot to scrutiny, but if the Parliament had been elected on the first past the post system, then Labour would have dominated it and turned it into a one party state. The answer to the endemic corruption in local government is some form of proportional representation, and while proportional representation is virulently hated by the Labour Party "because it breaks the link between the voter and the councillor", in reality it is virulently hated because they can see the power and the privileges and the public money sloshing about escaping from their grubby little hands.

Just another thought as we wonder what the people of Glasgow will do in voting for Glasgow’s housing stock to be transferred to a housing association, or not, as the case might be; if housing is transferred to another body, and the greatest part of a councillor’s work is concerned with housing, what will the councillors do? And how much incipient corruption will go with it? Nae key, nae money!

The latest boob, uncovered by Fergus Ewing SNP MSP, concerns the contract awarded to Flour City Architectural Metals (UK) Ltd, and will cost us £2 million for nothing. Fergus said "The Flour City Fiasco arose because Bovis Lend Lease recommended that an unknown shell company, Flour City Architectural Metals (UK) Ltd, which had never traded, had no assets except £2 share capital, and had a suspected bad debt against it, about which I found by obtaining a credit check for £4.50, was awarded a contract on the Holyrood Project.

"The contract was for the cladding and windows of the MSP block. It was worth £7 million and was awarded on the strength of the parent company, Flour City International, although they were never made a party to the contract." According to the Project Convener, John Hume Robertson, and the Presiding Officer, Sir David Steel, Flour City International would pay the £2 million, under a guarantee they signed days before the UK company went bust. Now the parent company is on the verge of bankruptcy, as they have failed to lodge their accounts for the period ended 31 October 2001.

When Fergus looked at the accounts of the parent company for the previous year, he discovered that they were taking credit for future earnings, without which they would have been insolvent; they have now lost these contracts so do not have the future earnings. We have now been informed that the fees for consultants and architects for the Holyrood Project amount to £40 million, the estimate for the original total contract. Now, if Fergus Ewing can make a few elementary inquiries and make an assessment of a contractor’s financial state, what are these highly paid people doing? I must find out who these companies are, and not let any of them near my house.

The problem of the Parliament is of course that the Westminster Cabinet decided that it was going to be at Holyrood, and every other site looked at was a sham; Muir Russell, highest civil servant in Scotland says that £40 million was the cost of a brownfield site in Leith, but that was another kite. St Donald Dewar said it was going to be at Holyrood, and he knew he would carry the can if it went wrong; well, it did go wrong, and no doubt he wishes he was carrying the can, but in the words of Mrs Olive Halliday, wife of our esteemed friend and contributor, James, "The grim flymo thought otherwise."

One person, who was on the panel to choose the design, has escaped scot free from any sort of criticism; I refer to Kirsty Wark, given the job because she added a bit of glamour as a TV presenter, and a neighbour and crony of Donald Dewar. One unkind remark at the time of her appointment was "Well, that should spike the awkward questions on Newsnight then." So far I have not seen a word against her ; she is also producing a film, paid for from the public purse, about the building of the Scottish Parliament, a contract given her by - Donald Dewar! So far, £587,000 has been paid to her company, and the film was supposed to be "a showcase for one of Britain’s finest public construction projects." We would doubt that it will live up to expectations, and it will certainly not be shown before the elections in 2003, if even after that.

EDINBURGH ROYAL INFIRM - ARY

The first wards have been opened, and the first patients admitted; first impressions are good from the patients’ point of view. Every bed has access to TV, radio, telephone - and the Internet (say nice things they could be readers!); the first few minutes of everything will be free, but just as the Flag becomes exciting - you’ll need to put money in the slot- all right, there will be a smart card which you can buy, but the end result is the same.

The car park is empty, but fully operational; a van arrived with a technician to check the mortuary temperatures ( yes, people are still expected to die) and the technician had to fork out £3.00 for parking . Along come some nurses on a view visit, yes £3.00 for car parking again; staff who can park have to pay £12.00 per day for the privilege, a mere trifling £60.00 per week to go to work. If you live out of town and cannot come by public transport, or even live on the other side of town - tough. Nightshift nurses are slightly better; they only pay £45.00 a year if they work one night, £90.00 a year for two nights, or £225.00 for a five night week. Allowing for holidays that’s about £5.00 a week, but the car park is empty at night anyway, and Edinburgh is not concerned with traffic congestion then.

As has happened with schools, no more kettles for the staff, and no more microwaves for their meals; down to the public eating area for a McDonald’s, a Burger King or a baked potato, with perhaps a possibility of cross contamination as they go back into the wards. It’s all about raking in the cash, and while the porters and ancillary staff will have their wages kept low to allow the contractors to make money, they also will have to eat the high priced junk food on offer. And as for the WRVS ( Women’s Royal Voluntary Service) who have run the service for generations for charity - well Mammon has taken over - goodbye.

FOOT IN THE MOUTH NOTES

This week, Russia banned chicken imports from the United States, because they contained too many antibiotics and had salmonella; this will cost American chicken farmers $1.6 billion over the next two years. Well, President Bush didn’t count his chickens.

It would have been easier to call it Crony.

While watching a programme on the Glasgow Housing Stock Transfer, I saw a familiar face; it was Maria Fyfe, until last year Labour MP for Glasgow Maryhill, and now on the Executive Committee of the Glasgow Housing Association.

Why am I not surprised?

Preparations are going ahead for the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Year, as this year she celebrates 50 years of her reign; the longest reigning monarch was Queen Victoria who lasted 64 years.

Wonder why it is still the United Kingdom?

One of my slightly partisan friends said "That’s a punishment?"

The Scottish Cup semi-final between Celtic and Ayr United was due to be played at 12.45 pm on Saturday 23rd March; the game was being screened live by Sky. This has now been put back to 5.35 pm on the same day, as there will be an English Cup quarter final replay between Arsenal and Newcastle United at Highbury at 12 noon.

Where London is involved, it’s no contest.

Ferguson Shipyard on the Clyde has lost a contract to build two ferries for Caledonian MacBrayne; they rejected importing the hulls for the ships from Eastern Europe, and the contracts have gone to McTay Marine in Liverpool, and Appledore in Devon, who are importing the hulls from Poland.

CalMac says that they are using public money and have to ensure the best value; that would have been to keep the work in Scotland.

As the allegation is that he unwittingly took a stimulant, and Drambuie is also a stimulant, we do not understand their attitude.

Damn cheek; it is an MP’s job to give wrong answers, not a civil servant’s.

JOHN SWINNEY PUTS ECONOMY AT HEART OF "TALKING INDEPENDENCE" DEBATE

SNP leader John Swinney today claimed that the lack of full financial Independence in Scotland was the "core problem" facing the economy as he stepped up his revitalised campaign for Independence. Outlining his business case for Scottish Independence, Mr Swinney argued that the limited power of the Scottish Parliament was the central reason behind all other social and economic problems. Mr Swinney said that full financial powers for Holyrood would boost economic growth and deliver billions in extra cash for Scotland's public services. The comments came as Business for Scotland director Jim Mather unveiled the SNP's revamped business case for Independence in the form of a 30-minute presentation which will be taken around the boardrooms of the country. In his presentation, delivered at the Party's headquarters in Edinburgh, Mr Mather argued that all of Scotland's social and economic problems could be reduced down to a single "key" issue - the limited powers of the Scottish Parliament. He said that this issue led to the brain-drain effect, the departure of head offices, difficulties with transport and an excessively high number of takeovers. In contrast, delivering full fiscal powers at Holyrood would reverse these difficulties whilst pushing GDP growth from the 30-year average of 2.1% to at least the UK average of 2.4%, delivering around 2.5 billion pounds for public spending, he said. Mr Swinney said: "Two weeks ago I launched the SNP's talking Independence campaign and in that I set out our fundamental position that the Scottish Parliament, while being a job worth doing, was a job to be done and the SNP is now focused on completing the task of the powers of the Scottish Parliament. Today we put the economy at the heart of the debate about Scotland's future and the need to have full financial powers to deliver on the expectations of the people of Scotland." Mr Swinney argued that the most important question was how to improve the performance of the Scottish economy and deliver more revenue for public services. "The purpose of the exercise is to establish the SNP as the party with the strongest pro-enterprise credentials of any party in the debate in Scotland, and to get Scotland talking independence."

SNP QUARRY QUARREL WITH UK GOVERNMENT

The SNP has clashed with the UK government over plans for a tax on quarrying. Alex Salmond, Westminster group leader, said the environmental tax could threaten the future of a coastal defence scheme in Peterhead. The Banff and Buchan MP said the aggregates levy - a tax on quarrying to be introduced on 1 April - would increase project costs by nearly 2 million pounds. Mr Salmond warned that the Breakhead project, which promises to make Peterhead harbour "one of the safest deep water port facilities in Scotland", now "hangs in the balance". He said: "A community which is already suffering from a decline in its fishing industry... (and) a number of factory closures now stands to lose one of the largest civil engineering projects in the north east of Scotland." The flat-rate levy would add an extra 1.9 million pounds cost to the 20 million pound coastal defence project, he said. "This is in fact a poll tax on chuckies (stone)," Mr Salmond told MPs during a short debate in Westminster Hall. He called for a delay in introducing the tax and added: "It has to be fair to rural communities, fair to Scotland and fair to communities such as Peterhead where a major public works project now hangs in the balance."

PUBLIC "LACKS CONFIDENCE" IN LEGAL SYSTEM - REPORT

Members of the public in Scotland lack confidence in and know little about the criminal justice system, according to a new report today. Those surveyed were largely ignorant about sentencing options available to Scottish courts and found the procedure difficult to understand, the report for the Scottish Parliament's Justice 1 Committee found. There was also a widespread "cynicism and distrust" of the justice system, found the study by opinion pollster NFO System Three Social Research. Some 700 Scottish adults who took part thought courts were too lenient and said the judiciary was "out-of-touch" with ordinary people and erratic in its judgements. SNP shadow justice minister Roseanna Cunningham said the poll highlighted the impact of youth crime on the general public and the failure of the Scottish Executive to effectively tackle the problem. "Youth crime can destroy the quality of life in a community and, as this report shows, distorts people's perception of the danger crime poses more generally," she said. "Sensationalist reporting of youth crime leaves people with a false perception of the justice system, and I found it interesting that when presented with the facts on sentencing, the feeling the courts are too lenient dissipated. It is therefore important that much more information on the reality of the justice system is made readily available to the public."

EXECUTIVE "PAINFULLY SLOW" TO LURE BACK TOURISTS

The Scottish Executive has launched the latest initiative aimed at making Scotland a world-class tourist destination. The launch of the initiative follows a five-month consultation exercise which focused on reversing the decline in visitor numbers. With the attack on the United States on 11 September contributing to the slowdown, it is estimated that Scotland lost £500m in tourism revenue last year. A number of niche campaigns, particularly in the areas of golf and genealogy have brought some positive results. The industry supports about 193,000 jobs in Scotland. The Scottish National Party questioned whether there would be any government funding to back the new drive. Shadow tourism minister Kenny MacAskill said: "The executive has identified that Scotland needs to be marketed properly and that our country should be easily accessible to tourists. This isn't news - these are two problems that anyone in the industry has been painfully aware of throughout the current tourism crisis."

DIALLING BEAR PROVES FRUITLESS TASK FOR MSP

A Dundee-based MSP yesterday launched a stinging attack on trunk road maintenance contractor BEAR Scotland after she was unable to contact the company to tell it more ploughs were needed to cope with yesterday's snowstorms. SNP MSP Shona Robison was travelling north on the M9 from Stirling to Perth when, dismayed at the poor road conditions, she attempted to contact the company. The atrocious weather meant only one lane of traffic was moving and Ms Robison was trying to notify BEAR that snowploughs were needed to clear the busy road. "It seems as if BEAR Scotland are trying to reduce their complaints by not logging them at all in the first place," she said. BEAR's work in maintaining trunk roads in the east and north-east of Scotland has repeatedly come under fire since it was awarded the multi-million contract to do so.

PRISON OFFICERS BACK CHIEF INSPECTOR

Scotland's chief inspector of prisons has opposed plans to oust him from the post. Clive Fairweather today confirmed that he has reapplied for the position but refused to comment further. Mr Fairweather, a critic of private sector involvement in the prison service, told BBC Scotland that he would be among the 33 applicants seeking the 50,000 pounds-a-year position. Politicians and prison officers' representatives today gave their backing to Scotland's chief inspector of prisons in his bid to keep his job. The respected prisons watchdog 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 reputation as chief inspector of prisons has been outstanding, and his independent, reforming spirit is self evident."

TOBACCO WHISTLE-BLOWER TO HELP DRAFT SCOTTISH ANTI-SMOKING BILL

The scientist who blew the whistle on the American tobacco industry is helping to prepare legislation to ban smoking in Scottish pubs and restaurants. Jeffrey Wigand has been recruited by SNP MSP Kenneth Gibson to help draft his private member's bill. Gibson wants to use Wigand's unique expertise to outmanoeuvre possible wrecking amendments to the bill by MSPs backed by the tobacco lobby. The bill, which Gibson hopes to introduce later this year, will prohibit smoking in public places where food is prepared and served. It will principally apply to restaurants and cafes, but will also cover pubs that do not have a separate area for serving food. "He is someone whom the tobacco industry know, respect and fear," said Gibson. "He was someone at the very heart of the industry and he knows how they think and how they operate." Gibson has studied the impact of bans in Australia, Canada and America and found that where smoking in restaurants is regulated, revenues have increased. In New York, for example, revenue rose by 4%. In California where smoking is prohibited in bars as well as restaurants revenues rose 20% in the three years after smoking was banned after five years of non-growth.