Our new councillor, David Cunningham is 56, and married with two children; he has been in the SNP since 1970, and is a lecturer in Further Education in Glenrothes. The Labour candidate, who was strongly tipped to win, had originally been a very hardworking and well respected councillor in Thornton, until he was shunted aside in the melee that passed for boundary changes, and put into the Weymss seat, which he lost to an independent; perhaps the Labour Party are now pondering the wisdom of that move. The by-election was caused by the resignation of Angela McCallum, who had been Henry McLeish’s election agent, and who was also involved with the Third Age Charity; she felt betrayed by Mr McLeish’s failure to support her, and her health suffered. This whole mess was relentlessly pursued by Tricia Marwick, list MSP for the area, and is far from being over.

There are pointers to ponder in this by-election; the first is that the Scottish Socialist Party had a pathetic vote in what should have fertile ground for them, only scoring 64 votes.

(In East Ayrshire they only got 39 and in the postal ballot in Teith Ward, Stirling Council they could only muster 52.) The second is the strong campaign waged by the Liberals in Fife, and this should be a warning to the SNP, that the Liberals have a siren song, as they are never going to achieve power but they can always be the good guys, or girls as in this case.

However, the SNP won the seat, which counts; in another by-election in East Ayrshire the same night there was a 14% swing to the SNP, and only 52 votes behind Labour who held the seat, but second place doesn’t make the scoreboard; the Labour vote was down in both seats, and the SNP vote up. A fuller account of these results will be given in the May issue of the Scots Independent.

Douglas started his journalistic career in London, working with Business, and he then moved to Glasgow to become the industrial editor of the Glasgow Herald. From there he moved to the Scottish Council (Development & Industry) as head of publications, and was the editor of the monthly magazine Scotland; at that time he was not a member of any political party. He became the SNP director of communications in 1969, and unless my memory fails me, he was still not a member of the party, but was also influenced by his wife, Joan Burnie, another distinguished journalist; sadly they divorced a few years ago.

In October 1974, Douglas took the rock solid Tory seat of Perth and East Perthshire by 793 votes, and became one of the SNP’s eleven Members of Parliament in the 1974-79 years; like another eight of his colleagues, he lost in 1979. Just after this, he had a massive cerebral haemorrhage from which we thought he would not recover, but amazingly, he did, although he was never quite the same as the dynamo we all were used to. There is no question that he made a tremendous contribution to the SNP during what were very exciting and exhilarating years; these were good times.

A full obituary will appear in the Scots Independent newspaper in June.

The company is owned by Lord Swraj Paul, a "non-domiciled" person for tax purposes, and the business is registered in the British Virgin Islands; it made £20 million profit in 1998 and £25 million in 1999. Between 1994 and 1998 he gave £387000 to the Labour Party, and the Blessed Tony made him an "ambassador for British industry" in 1997; he and his family are worth about £300 million (he is three places above the Queen in the Sunday Times rich list), but then his tax wheezes do help. He is a British citizen, and when he became a Lord we do not know, but in the Register of Interests he has a full page, being a director, member, patron, trustee etc of 26 different bodies, so he is definitely one of the great and good. Pity about him screwing the workers.

And while we are on the subject, at the STUC Conference in Perth last week, the deputy chairperson of the Labour Party (how very politically correct), Richard Leonard, devoted a section of his speech to an appeal to unionists (surely some mistake) not to desert Labour. He told the delegates "Make no mistake, congress, the Nationalists are opportunists. They are not in it for the low paid workers in the public sector we represent. They are not in it for principle, they are posturing on PFI for narrow self advancement. Nothing more, nothing less. So don’t let anyone in the Labour movement be fooled, this week, next week, or next May."

There is no truth in the rumour that the Scottish Prison Officers’ Association thought he was the cabaret, and fell about laughing - Labour gave the congress nothing to laugh about - Lord Paul, Hinduja, Mittal, Bernie Ecclestone... the new paymasters, but they won’t deliver leaflets, or anything else.

This week it was the turn of the Liberals, or was it the Scottish Philatelic Society? Being unable to do anything on their own, the Liberals shared the Centre with the stamp collectors, or to put it more accurately, the stamp collectors shared it with the Liberals, as there were 500 of them, as opposed to 250 Liberals; this should give a little pause for thought - as one might have expected they could rustle up more than 250 - the SNP can turn out 1000, no bother.

So how did they get on? Well, Charles Kennedy, who is very good on the platform and the box, and quite a likeable chap anyway, claimed that the Liberals were due the credit for the Chancellor putting up National Insurance to fund the Health Service "It was the Liberals wot done it", although nobody had noticed. There was a lot of posturing beforehand about private prisons, but a motion criticising them did not make it to the agenda, as the Liberals chickened out on principle yet again, to the great surprise of absolutely no-one.

A few weeks back, their Scottish leader, Jim Wallace, had said that they would not enter a coalition with the SNP if it became the largest party. The Liberals are now saying that the price of the coalition with Labour will be three Cabinet seats instead of two, but what about proportional representation for local government? This was their sticking point, but like everything else, this will become a wishy washy, " let us examine the possibilities" type of argument as they duck and dive. "We stopped student tuition fees" they cry, except that all they did was to defer them; "We brought in free care for the elderly" they cry, but is still not happening, and they were only following Henry McLeish’s lead anyway, and the Freedom of Information Act they boast about will allow the First Minister a veto on anything being revealed! Also, some of us have not forgotten that the Liberals voted for a tie up scheme for Scottish fishermen, and then cravenly fell into line when the Executive re -ran the vote, as they didn’t like losing - a disgrace for a party which style themselves democrats.

A little thought for them about politics, as they are not very good at them; if the SNP become the largest party, but the Liberals decide to go into a coalition with Labour, is that not a denial of democracy - the will of the people? And while they make these statements, it gives Jack McConnell carte blanche to treat them as he wants, because they are throwing away their bargaining position - not very clever - but then if they were there would not be a Liberal Party and we would have to invent one.

To celebrate the nationhood of the English, John Swinney, leader of the SNP, paid a visit to Manchester this week; his real purpose was to finalise arrangements for a conference on Independence at Manchester University this summer, when he will be delivering a keynote speech to academics and campaigners for constitutional change. His reasoning is that the nations of the British Isles share a common history, and that since devolution there is a growing sense of English identity, and a feeling that somehow the English have been shortchanged; after Scottish Independence we will be a member of the commonwealth of the British Isles, and good neighbours. He visited the set of the soap opera "Coronation Street", and this gained a vast amount of publicity, to the utter chagrin of the Labour Party and its official organ the Daily Discord, helped along by that other bastion, the NorthBriton; I am quite sure that if John jumped into the river to save a drowning child they would headline the event "Swinney Guilty of Unauthorised Swimming."

No matter, when our enemies get uptight at what we are doing, we can be sure that we are on the right track; it cannot do any harm to have your picture all over press and TV with stars of the most popular programme, although I never watch any of these soap operas, and deplore them. I am not brave enough to stop my wife watching them, but generally behave like a curmudgeon, and as the point of the exercise is that the Scots will still be able to watch "Coronation Street" after Independence, I shall just have to remain one of the oppressed minority.

The turnout was around 70%, unusually low for France, and it seems that most of them decided not to interrupt their weekend; the main vote was spread between Jacques Chirac on 20%, Le Pen on 17%, and Lionel Jospin, the Prime Minister on 16%. Other parties of the right and left fragmented; on the left a Trotskyite got 7% and a former Sccialist Interior Minister got 6%, so it was all over the place.

The three main issues were crime, immigration and the European Union; in Paris the 18th, 19th and 20th arrondissements, seen as hothouses of drugs, violence and theft, gave Mr Jospin twice as many votes as Mr Le Pen. In rural Alsace, where there is virtually no crime or immigration, Mr Le Pen got 40% of the vote; when asked, villagers said they had seen and heard of immigrant led crime and feared it would spread!

It also looks as if the French are fed up with the people running France, and come up with " a plague on both your houses," but they are now shocked, and are expected to vote for Mr Chirac by 78% to 22%, as the lesser of two evils. It is a classic case of the old truism "A nation does not always get the government it wants, but it usually gets the one it deserves."

Of all the 189 independent countries represented in the UN today, around 85 - almost half - have a population smaller than Scotland’s. Eleven of the world’s richest 21 countries (1) have populations smaller than 10 million. Being a small country is normal, and many of the wealthiest countries in the world are small.

Globalisation and European integration mean that many countries are indeed moving into closer co-operation. The SNP welcomes this trend, and wants to play an enthusiastic part in it. The UK, on the other hand, wants Scotland and its Parliament to stand on the sidelines of European events.

The other side of globalisation is that multinational states like the UK are being forced to cede power away from the centre. In fact, around 125 countries in the world have gained their Independence since the Second World War.

Fifty of these countries have gained that Independence from the UK. Many of them initially had a period of partial autonomy through a "legislative council" and then went on to complete Independence. Not one of these countries has since re-applied to be ruled from London!

In 1905, the Norwegian Parliament declared its Independence from Sweden. In 1918, Iceland gained home rule from Denmark, becoming a republic in 1944. Both countries won Independence by very peaceful, constitutional means, and both countries have made rapid economic progress. Both are now among the world’s six richest countries (2) . The Republic of Ireland, independent since 1921, has similarly become Europe’s Celtic Tiger Economy. In 1917, Finland declared its Independence from Russia, and Poland became independent in 1918.

Cyprus and Malta declared their Independence from the UK in 1960 and 1964 respectively. More recently, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia had their Independence from the Soviet Union recognised internationally in 1991. Slovakia and the Czech Republic parted amicably in 1993. At present, the tiny Faeroe Islands – currently a devolved part of Denmark – are in the midst of Independence negotiations with Copenhagen.

1. (OECD countries including Scotland, GDP per head of population)
2. (OECD, countries including Scotland, GDP per head of population)

As this particular enemy is determined to die and take as many with him as possible, it would seem that killing him first might be the best option, or perhaps the correspondent thinks that Kalashnikovs are only for waving in the air.

In a concert given in his honour, President George Bush waved enthusiastically to the singer, Stevie Wonder.

As he has his finger on the nuclear button, we should be afraid, very afraid.

At the time of the Queen Mother’s funeral, a memorial service, attended by 300 servicemen, was held at Pristina in Kosovo; a spokesman said "The Queen Mother was held in very high regard by the lads."

How nice to know that parades are voluntary in today’s Army.

The Act of Settlement prevents any Catholic, or anyone married to a Catholic from ascending the throne of Great Britain.

The Royal Family still uses the title Fidei Defensor (Defender of the Faith) given to Henry VIII in 1521 by Pope Leo X as a reward for his writing against Martin Luther.

In February this year, the American telecoms firm, Telemonde, had to restate its accounts for the year 2000 on the advice of its auditors (no, they were not Arthur Andersen); the company had a market capitaisation of $500 million, and is now only worth $2 million, as the dotcom house of cards collapsed.

The reason for our interest? The founder and chairman of another of these Enron/Global Crossing type operations; step forward Kevin Maxwell, son of the former Labour MP and crook, Robert Maxwell. Must be in the genes.

The former Tory MP, Rupert Allason, who writes under the nom-de-plume of Nigel West, is facing jail as he has not fully disclosed his assets in an action raised by his publishers Random House; a High Court judge described him as a "profoundly dishonest man."

I can think of a few former Tory Cabinet Ministers who could also fit that description, but they are now in the House of Lords, not the pokey (Jeffrey Archer excluded- he’s in both.)

In the continuing confusion which at present marks the Scottish Premier League, accusations about motives are flying thick and fast. "The group of ten are acting only in self interest." said Ian McLeod, chief executive of Celtic.

We remain totally convinced of the altruistic nature of the Old Firm.

SNP PUBLISH NEW ECONOMIC STRATEGY

The SNP today published a major document aimed at giving the party a more responsible image for economic management ahead of next year's Scottish Parliament elections. The document says the party should aim to double the underlying growth rate to 4.2% and cut corporation tax and small business taxes to some of the lowest levels in Europe. It also tied the party into strict fiscal rules, drawn up by the European Union, and backed Scottish membership of the single European currency "as soon as practicable". SNP shadow economy minister Andrew Wilson said the document, called Economic Policy and Positioning, would distance the party from the view that Independence on its own could "deliver nirvana". The document will be discussed at this weekend's National Assembly, the grassroots organisation led by Fiona Hyslop, who holds the SNP's government strategy brief at Holyrood. The SNP published the paper in the wake of last week's budget in which Chancellor Gordon Brown raised national insurance contributions, delivering an extra 8.2 billion pounds for Scotland over the next five years. During a press briefing in Edinburgh, Mr Wilson said: "Oil doesn't have the most potential for success. We want to focus on growth. The SNP will win the independence argument not by saying there's a pot of gold with oil. If we get people to be in control of their own economic affairs, forces and operations we can start to target growth and then we will be successful." Once the document has been discussed by the National Assembly it will then be redrafted by Mr Wilson before going before the party's national council or annual conference to become policy.

ROSYTH FERRY FEAR AS SWEDISH ROUTE SINKS

The Greek firm chosen to operate Scotland's first-ever continental ferry link has raised fears for its Rosyth operation by pulling the plug on a similar route after less than four months. Superfast Ferries has cited "changes in fleet composition and market demand" for its decision to ditch its newest route between Södertälje in Sweden and the German port of Rostock. The service had received nearly 5 million pounds worth of state subsidy from Swedish public funds for the provision of freight facilities at Södertälje. Rosyth's operator, Forth Ports, is receiving 12.7 million pounds in funding from Westminster to upgrade freight facilities for Superfast. SNP transport spokesman Kenny MacAskill said: "It is disappointing what is happening in Sweden and I can only hope the authorities there have penalty clauses which they can implement. What we need to do is make sure our back is covered. It is my understanding that we [in Scotland] do not have any penalty clauses in contracts with Superfast." But he added: "We need to support this service as much as we can. We need to help launch it with a favourable wind rather than scupper it before it has even started."

PARLIAMENT BOSSES CUT WHEELCHAIR ACCESS

One in four places for wheelchair users have been cut in the new Scottish Parliament building at Holyrood, it emerged today. Now SNP MSP Linda Fabiani has tabled a motion defending the right of wheelchair users to have the same choice as an able-bodied member of the Parliament about where to sit. Ms Fabiani said: "This decision means a back-bench MSP who uses a wheelchair will be relegated to the back row. The design agreed in September 1999 allowed 81 spaces of choice. To reduce this by 20 is quite clearly wrong in what is going to be Scotland's most public building."

"CFP REFORM MUST NOT BE SABOTAGED" - SNP

Shadow fisheries minister Richard Lochhead MSP and SNP Euro MP Ian Hudghton MEP today expressed grave concern that the publication of the first batch of proposals for reform of the Common Fisheries Policy has been delayed until the end of May. Commenting on suggestions that Spain and other nations are pressing for the retention of subsidies, Mr Lochhead said: "Reform of the CFP is essential if the Scottish fishing industry is to be saved for the future but now countries in southern Europe are trying to wreck reform with their demands. Like every other country they had their chance to put forward their views on CFP Reform. They shouldn't be allowed to cause delay and discord at this stage. Mr Lochhead called on Scottish and UK Ministers to ensure the interests of the Scottish fleet would not be trampled on by the selfish interests of other countries. "If other countries want to fight it out then our Ministers should be in the frontline," he said. Ian Hudghton also voiced his concern saying: "This is the second time that the reform proposals have been postponed and will only increase anxiety in Scotland's fishing communities. The current CFP runs out at the end of the year and the clock is ticking. If the reformed CFP is not in place on January 1st, there could be a legal void which would lead to a free-for-all in Scottish waters which would have a catastrophic effect on the Scottish fishing industry and simply cannot be allowed to happen."

ALASDAIR MORGAN BERATES "TAX ON JOBS"

Shadow finance minister Alasdair Morgan MSP today told a meeting of Federation of Small Businesses representatives today that Gordon Brown's Budget was "a tax on jobs as it makes it more expensive to take on staff." Speaking at the meeting the Galloway & Upper Nithsdale MSP said he was concerned about the effect of Gordon Brown's latest budget on small businesses. "Gordon Brown has tried to claim that his budget will be good for small businesses because of the planned reduction in corporation tax. However that will only benefit incorporated businesses and in Scotland 75% of small businesses are not incorporated." And Mr Morgan warned, "While these businesses will not get the benefit of the corporation tax drop they will feel the pain of the increase in National Insurance contributions for employers. This Budget ignores whether or not a business is making a large profit or just making ends meet. They will have to pay an additional 1% on their payroll costs. For small businesses, and for large employers with low profit margins, this is very bad news."

END REFUGEE CENTRE CHILD DETENTION" - MSPs

A group of MSPs today demanded that the practice of locking up children in Scotland's only detention centre for refugees should be scrapped. In a hard-hitting report, they said there was "no justification" for detaining youngsters at the Dungavel Centre in Lanarkshire. Instead, they said that families with children should remain in the community while their asylum applications are being dealt with. The report, by the Scottish Parliament's cross-party group on refugees, follows a visit by MSPs to the former prison a week ago. The report, which was written by the group's convener SNP MSP Shona Robison says: "Dungavel is not an appropriate place for families. Community reporting procedures should be explored as an alternative to the detention of families with children." Ms Robison later said she hoped the organisations would react positively to the concerns she and her colleagues raised. She said: "I think we've produced a very balanced report. I think it's reasonable and rational and I hope the response will be equally as balanced and reasonable because there are areas where there could be major improvements."

HOLYROOD BARKS UP 6,000 POUND TREES

The grounds of the new Holyrood parliament are to be planted out with 40 native Scottish oaks - all shipped from Germany at a cost of 6,000 pounds each. The 20ft high trees, all between 15 and 20 years old, will be dug out of commercial forests in Bavaria, put on the backs of lorries and transported the 700 miles to Edinburgh. The revelation has enraged MSPs who said the cost was a "rip off", while environmentalists claimed the trees would suffer from the move. SNP MSP Fergus Ewing has pledged to raise the issue with Presiding Officer Sir David Steel at a planned meeting on Wednesday. "I will be raising this issue, together with other worrying examples of financial mismanagement in the building programme, with Sir David Steel on Wednesday and can only hope that the Parliament has not already signed contracts," he said. "If they haven't then I will be seeking assurances that the trees chosen will be native to Scotland and bought at a reasonable price."

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SCOTTISH FOOD, TRADITIONS AND CUSTOMS
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See our Scottish Food, Traditions and Customs in our Features section

DATES IN HISTORY

SING A SANG AT LEAST
(compiled by Peter D Wright)

"That I for poor auld Scotland's sake
Some useful plan or book could make
Or sing a sang at least ........"

- Robert Burns

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A KIST O FERLIES
A Keek at the Guid Scots TungA Keek at the Guid Scots Tung

By Peter & Marilyn Wright 
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for other poems, stories, songs, sayings and words in the Scots language

THE MONTHLY PRIZE CROSSWORD

Each month the Scots Independent Newspaper offers a prize crossword and we're now offering this online in the Flag in the Wind as well.   Should you complete the crossword by the deadline you can fax it over to the SI and the first correct one opened on the closing date will win a £10.00 book token.

SI Prize Crossword No. 28 APRIL  2002
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