In the first election in 1999, the position was as follows:

The SSP and the Greens had 1 each on the regional list, and you can see that the system does at least iron out the imbalance; the system is hated by the Labour Party, but they were the ones who imposed it, and our current First Minister helped design the method, aimed at frustrating the SNP.

So now the SNP regional voting list are out, and there are moans and groans and recriminations as the losers lick their wounds; the press are now saying that the voting method used by the SNP was too easy for activists to manipulate, and that John Swinney should have changed it. John Swinney was not happy with the method of voting, but if he had attempted to change it then the same press would have been severely critical and would have accused him of vote rigging! As it is, the activists have ranked those whom they wanted, and it is done. Whether we agree or not, it was done in a democratic fashion, and the party leadership stayed out of the fray. The most high profile loser is Margo MacDonald, who ranked No 1 in Lothian for the 1999 election, and has now slipped to 5th place; her attitude has always been that maybe the leadership did not like her, but the party activists did, so now that the party activists have voted her down, there will have to be a new story. Her husband, Jim Sillars, has now launched a public attack on John Swinney, casting doubts on his leadership; one has to question Mr Sillars’ contribution to the Independence cause.

Other notable casualties are Andrew Wilson and Michael Russell, and this is not good news for the SNP; both of these are very able and articulate and have a very high work rate. Andrew is 5th on the Central list, but we had 5 there last time, and Mike is 4th on the South of Scotland list, and we had 4 there last time, so we hope both will survive. In the South of Scotland we are pleased to see that Christine Grahame topped the list; Christine is Convener of the Justice 1 Committee, and also works very hard at local issue in her area, so effort is paying off. In the North East, sorry to see Irene McGugan down to 7th place, but as she is contesting Dundee West, we can only hope she gets in first past the post. (I have a soft spot for Dundee West, as I was born there, and I fought it in 1983.)

While we can accept that any list system will have flaws, the main problem seems to be that the lists have to be submitted prior to the election; it might be more sensible for the ranking to take place after the election, and be decided on the percentage of votes each candidate obtained at the election. This would have the effect of making every candidate fight harder, as they would have to make their own lifeboat, and could legitimise the vote; that’s very simplistic, as there are 129 seats and only 72 constituencies, but it could be worked at.

Further to the above, not every constituency candidate is on the list; on a brief scan I notice Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff & Buchan is not on the list; this should be a safe seat. Other names are Councillor Danny Coffey for Kilmarnock & Loudon, John Mowat for Orkney and Alyn Smith for Edinburgh West. It looks as if Danny Coffey is determined to win the Kilmarnock and Loudon Constituency, but I don’t know about Orkney or Edinburgh West.

According to some sources, the First Minister did not know about the adverts, and he was jumping mad, threatening to cancel the appointments, and in general bad-mouthing Sir Muir Russell, head of the civil service, who was having a quiet holiday in France; much play was made in the press about the poor relationship between the civil service and the Executive, and how this was another part of the power struggle between the two. As it was, the SNP was presented with an open goal, and given two shots; either the First Minister was squandering public money on Labour Party business, and pleading ignorance, or he was squandering public money on Labour Party business, but if he did not know about it he was incompetent! Now the First Minister had not come up with any exciting proposals for the remainder of the Parliament, and was committed to doing "less" but "better", so how come he needed another 40 civil servants costing £2 million? All good knockabout stuff, and he fell for it hook, line and sinker. A showdown with Sir Muir Russell was imminent.

And the upshot? Well, there was no confrontation; the jobs were not all new jobs, in fact only 8 of them were. The remaining 32 were replacements, and if having that number of vacancies at one time seems a mite careless, so what? Civil service jobs are the business of the civil service, and have nothing to do with the Executive, and Sir Muir Russell does not answer to Jack McConnell, but to Tony Blair! Furthermore, by publicly attacking the civil service, Mr McConnell was playing up to the tabloid press, because he knows that the civil service cannot hit back. We all like to have a go at civil servants, so they are a popular target, but Ministers should not; civil servants action government policies, impartially, and where governments have blurred the lines of impartiality there are problems. At present there is a row going on at Westminster, because unelected special advisers are giving orders to civil servants, and there is talk of an Act of Parliament to stop this abuse. That particular row is all about the Blessed Tony wanting a bigger part in the Queen Mother’s lying-in-state, and it will not go away quickly.

Thoughts on the above; well, devolution needs more civil servants than they thought, and the civil servants have had a lot of problems with ministers, not least because the ministers keep changing, but also because the aforesaid ministers are not top quality, but current cronies. The only two ministers who have lasted the course so far are Jim Wallace, the Justice Minister, and Ross Finnie, the Agriculture Minister, both Liberals, who cannot easily be sacked, although Jack the Lad tried to move Wallace into the massive department that Wendy Alexander vacated; a bit surprising that Jim Wallace turned that one down, showing a rare flash of commonsense for a Liberal. In fact over the 3 years since the Parliament was elected, we are on the Third First Minister, the Third Finance Minister , and all sorts of chopping and changing of portfolios. For instance, the first executive had Henry McLeish as Minister for Enterprise and Life Long Learning, and Wendy Alexander as Minister for Communities (Local Government, Housing and Social Inclusion). When Henry McLeish became First Minister, Local Government was added to Finance, Wendy Alexander got Enterprise & Life Long Learning, Jackie Baillie got Social Justice (not inclusion) and we do not know where Housing went; when Jack McConnell became First Minister, Wendy had Transport added to her burden, Margaret Curran got Social Justice, Public Services was added to Finance under Andy Kerr, and Tourism Culture & Sport popped up under Lord Watson.

What a merry-go-round of people and posts, and the civil servants probably thinking "Now, who is my minister this week, and what department am I in?" No doubt certain ministers also wake up on a Monday morning, thinking "Who am I this week?"

On another tack, if they gave up the name Royal Mail, why did they still put the Queen’s head on the postage stamp? And while we are at it, why is the First Class stamp in Scotland the one with the Lion Rampant, and the Second Class stamp the one with the Saltire? It would seem that the solution to the problems of the Post Office was not to work away and modernise our own mail service, but to start providing these services in other countries, thus creating the need for a new name. How successful these adventures are we do not know, but we do know that somehow because the Post Office want to deliver in Saudi Arabia, for instance, they will then endanger the delivery in Skye.

This is not as far fetched as it would seem; Royal Mail, as they are now to be called, have asked Post Comm, the regulator, to increase the number of exemptions to a six day delivery service from 43 to 4638. Of the 4638, 2248 are in Scotland, mostly in rural areas; the name of the game is "It cost us too much to deliver your letters every day, so we’re not going to do it." The Chairman of Post Watch Scotland is opposed to this proposal, as in some rural areas the postie is a vital daily lifeline, and a dropping of the service would be very bad indeed, but it all comes down to money, so Post Comm might just rule in the Royal Mail’s favour.

The other little wheeze that Post Comm has come up with is wacky, to say the least; it is accepted that Royal Mail (I’ll have to keep calling it that) loses money on its letter delivery operations, but it makes money on its bulk mail and parcels for business customers. This accounts for about 30% of the business and subsidises the letters; Post Comm thinks that if it opens this business up to competition, the Royal Mail will immediately revitalise itself and become super efficient. So take away the profit making bit, and hey presto - it all comes good! To examine the problems of the Royal Mail, Post Comm brought in consultants; they did not look at how to incentivise staff to improve the dreadful industrial relations, they did not look at new technology, they did not look at developing leadership skills - they decided that there was no cross subsidy in the postal services, and that there was no such thing as cherry-picking, and that good honest competition would improve Royal Mail! The consultants employed were Arthur Andersen; one is tempted to believe that they asked Post Comm what they wanted in the report, did not even bother to read the accounts, and just picked up a fat fee.

The business plan put forward by the consultants has already resulted in spectacular failure in another part of what was the Post Office; telecoms was treated the same way, and we now have lots of incomplete, underused local networks, no national broadband cable network, and an industry on the verge of bankruptcy. As to the no cherry picking. Express Dairies are now attempting to get a licence to deliver business mail in London, Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool; they want to deliver it along with the milk, and admitted that they were cherry picking the most lucrative parts of the market.

Verily indeed, they are making Postman Pat a patsy.

This week we are looking at the BBC, christened, as we said last week, by the late Oliver Brown, "the Anglosaxophone", the railways, bearing in mind that ScotRail wants all the railways run by Scotland at the moment, and the armed forces; as far as the latter are concerned, Scotland has always contributed more than her fair share of troops, and taken far more than her fair share of casualties, but without getting its fair share of defence spending.

Like many countries around the world, an independent Scotland will continue to enjoy programmes made by the BBC and other broadcasters.

At the moment, however, Scottish licence payers pay an estimated £180 million in licence fees to the BBC each year, and by no means all of that is used to make programmes in Scotland. Independence negotiations will identify a Scottish share of the assets of the BBC and will use them to set up an independent Scottish equivalent. In this way, Scotland will at last have a public broadcaster able to respond to Scottish needs and play its own part in reporting world affairs. It will, of course, also be able to buy in programmes and enter into co-operation with the BBC and other broadcasters around the world, in the way that Ireland’s public broadcaster RTÉ already does. A regulatory body equivalent to the ITC will be set up to regulate independent television in Scotland.

The companies, running services, and rolling stock in Scotland (including Scotrail, which runs most internal Scottish services) will continue in their franchises upon independence and will become subject to regulation by the Scottish Parliament. Franchises for cross-border services will be agreed between Scottish regulatory bodies and those south of the border.

Railtrack, the privatised monopoly which owns the track and signalling in the UK, has been a fiasco from beginning to end. Both Tory and Labour UK governments have utterly failed to invest in Scotland’s rail network with serious consequences for both our economy and our environment.

Following Railtrack’s dramatic collapse in 2001, the SNP has called for a Scottish Public Rail Investment Trust – SPRINT – to be set up, to ensure that the rail network in Scotland has its own trust, accountable to the public and responsive to Scottish priorities. As part of this solution, the SNP has called for the devolution of all railway powers to the Scottish Parliament.

An independent Scotland will be making a number of savings on defence. To start with, we won't be paying for Trident, the UK's nuclear weapons system which is currently based at Faslane on the Firth of Clyde.

In Independence negotiations, the SNP will insist on Trident's phased but complete removal from Scotland. Apart from being morally and militarily unjustifiable, Trident is also massively expensive. Without it, Scots will be saving £75 million a year. A second saving will be in overseas bases, including those in the few remaining UK dependant territories. These will almost certainly be transferred to the UK’s other successor state in Independence negotiations.

The SNP has costed policies for independent armed forces. Independence negotiations will cover moveable and fixed defence properties, again bearing in mind that these have been paid for in part by Scottish taxpayers. Scotland’s population share of UK armed forces assets, for instance is £5.9 billion* , and the assets actually based in Scotland are considerable, including barracks and territorial army bases, RAF bases such as Lossiemouth and Leuchars, defence housing, and naval bases like Faslane.

Scotland already has a long tradition of military service, and all serving military personnel from Scotland – for example those serving in existing Scottish regiments of the British Army – will be given the opportunity to transfer to the Scottish Defence Force. The SNP proposes Scottish Defence Forces which shift their emphasis from nuclear weapons to conventional defence forces with the resources required in modern peace-keeping exercises. Other small countries have shown the way on this. For instance, since 1956, Finland has placed more than 35,000 peacekeeping troops at the disposal of the United Nations.

The SNP does not favour reintroducing conscription, which ended in the UK in 1960, and which is being phased out by many nations like France, in favour of professional forces. The SNP has costed its defence policies on the basis of professional, not conscripted, service personnel.

*Figures given to Margaret Ewing MP in a Parliamentary answer.

Next week we will be looking at Scotland in Europe and the world, and seeing just where we fit in.

Tommy Sheridan’s bill to provide free school meals was rejected by the all-party committee in the Scottish Parliament; one Labour MSP said "We are not convinced that this bill is capable of addressing all the complex issues of uptake, nutritional standards and child poverty."

I thought the main idea was to feed the children first; deciding on the menus could come later.

The big accountancy firms are being battered, particularly after Arthur Andersen’s conduct in the investigation into Enron; they are now concerned with demerging their consultancy arms. Pricewaterhousecoopers is calling its consultancy arm "Monday".

How does the old rhyme go "Monday’s child is fair of face", or could it be that they are all members of the Tory ultra right wing Monday Club?

Royal greed is nothing new, but it puts into perspective the adulation heaped on the Royal family so far this year.

In a Parliamentary debate last week, Dr Richard Simpson, the deputy justice minister (as of now) said that the youth court scheme in England was "an absolute disaster"; this comment runs counter to the youth crime policy being put forward by the First Minister.

To clarify the apparent contradiction, an Executive statement said "Dr Simpson was in no way inferring that the English system was inappropriate (ie a disaster) but was simply trying to stress the importance of finding the most appropriate way of tackling youth crime and that what works south of the Border is not necessarily the best solution for tackling the problem in Scotland." Sounds like an absolute disaster.

SNP shadow transport minister Kenny MacAskill today welcomed the call by Strathclyde Passenger Transport Executive for rail services to be devolved to the Scottish Parliament. SPTA made the call in their submission to the Scottish Parliament Transport Committee inquiry on the issue. Mr MacAskill, who is to lead a debate in the Scottish Parliament on this issue tomorrow, [Thursday] said he was pleased with the growing consensus amongst the transport and business community on this issue and that it was time the UK Government responded by devolving control of rail to the Scottish Parliament. Mr MacAskill commented: "Strathclyde Passenger Transport Executive have confirmed what everyone else in Scotland is already saying, that we must take control of Scotland's railways. Train operators like Scotrail want control of our railways devolved and so do the Scottish business community, with organisations like Scottish Financial Enterprise calling for the Scottish Parliament to take control of rail policy. It is time for government to govern and that means taking control of rail, not passing the buck to London. We need less spin and more substantive action from the Scottish Executive. They must stop cowering and take charge."

HOUSING TRANSFER DEBATE "WHOLLY UNBALANCED" - ALASDAIR MORGAN
Tue 18 Jun 02

Following on from the decision made last week by Dumfries & Galloway Council, to ballot its 12,300 tenants on the proposed transfer of their homes to a private housing trust, Galloway & Upper Nithsdale SNP MSP, Alasdair Morgan, has condemned the way that the whole debate on stock transfer has proceeded. The local Scottish National Party representative has expressed concern at the one-sided nature of the debate, with the combined strength of the Scottish Executive, the council and Dumfries & Galloway Housing Partnership (DGHP) on the 'pro-transfer' side, opposed only by a poorly financed group of council tenants and D&G councillors. Commenting on the matter, Mr Morgan said, " I fail to see how a balanced debate can be had on the issue of housing stock transfer in these circumstances. The organisations that are pushing for stock transfer have spared no expense in bombarding local authority tenants with propaganda outlining the wonderfully rosy future that they are supposed to enjoy under DGHP. At the same time, it is deeply disturbing that groups opposed to stock transfer have been denied the financial support necessary to make their case, and to put the other side of the argument"

CHILD CARE SERVICES "NEED IMPROVING"
Tue 18 Jun 02

Improvements are needed in local authority services provided for children in care, according to a study published today. The research study, commissioned by the Scottish Executive, found many authorities lacked appropriate procedures and difficulties were found with monitoring and evaluation systems. The Children (Scotland) Act 1995 gives Scottish local authorities responsibilities to prepare young people for leaving care and to provide services after they have left. But the research found that although 77% offered a programme for those leaving care, only 39% had received one. Commenting on the findings, Irene McGugan, the SNP's shadow deputy education and children spokeswoman, said: "I am extremely disappointed that almost two thirds of children have not achieved any standard grade qualification. This is despite the Scottish Executive in their social justice annual report for 2001 stating that one of their milestones was that all young people leaving local authority care will have achieved at least two standard grades." Ms McGugan claimed the Executive had failed to help young people or achieve a major target. She added: "Young people in care deserve the same opportunities as young people generally."

The Scottish NHS must shed its layers of bureaucracy, SNP Shadow Health Minister, Nicola Sturgeon MSP, said today as she revealed new figures showing that there is twice the number of senior managers per head in Scotland as in England. The figures show that there are just 17.2 senior managers per 100,000 people in England, compared with a massive 35.4 in Scotland. The figures highlight the need to slash needless layers of bureaucracy, starting with NHS trusts, which the SNP has proposed to abolish. Commenting Ms Sturgeon said, "With twice the number of senior managers per head as in England, there are far too many generals in the Scottish NHS and nowhere near enough frontline troops. The NHS suffers from a massively bloated bureaucracy with whole layers of management now effectively redundant. It is time that we bit the bullet, stopped trying to reform the system and simply axed redundant layers of management to ensure that every possible penny is spent on frontline care."

The earnings gap between high and low paid workers is getting wider all the time, a comprehensive survey of wage levels across Scotland has found. Despite government pledges to introduce "social justice" by curbing boardroom excesses and helping the worse-off, company directors, judges, top army officers and politicians have continued to increase their income by many times more than average. The Scotland on Sunday survey is based on average earnings for certain professional groups in 1997 and 2002. During this period inflation has run to levels well below 3%. Andrew Wilson, the SNP's shadow minister for the economy and enterprise, claimed the widening pay gap was a serious concern. "There's nothing wrong with being well-paid when people are turning in a good performance, but these figures show that the Scottish governing classes are becoming increasingly remote from the reality most people face," he said.

SCRAP "DEEPLY FLAWED" PRIVATE PRISONS PLAN, URGES MSPs
Sun 16 Jun 02

Plans to build three private prisons in Scotland are "deeply flawed" and should be scrapped, according to a damning report by MSPs. The parliament's Justice I committee says it does not believe the Scottish Executive's claim that the private prisons option will be 700 million pounds cheaper than prisons built and run by the state. The committee, which recommends prisons should be run either by the state or by a not-for-profit trust, has employed a firm of accountants to prepare alternative costings. The judgment, contained in a draft report sent to MSPs last week, is a major blow to justice minister Jim Wallace, who has championed the cause of private prisons. It is bound to add to the growing weight of criticism from coalition and opposition benches of him and the prison proposals. Stewart Stevenson, the SNP MSP for Banff and Buchan and a leading campaigner for the retention of Peterhead Prison, welcomed the committee's report. "It's very clear to me that every member of the committee has found at least some aspect of the evidence that has been put together to show that the Executive 's review of prisons is deeply flawed."

GREY BACKLASH LOOMING OVER "FREE CARE" BILLS
Sun 16 Jun 02

Ministers are bracing themselves for a backlash from pensioners over free care for the elderly after their own focus groups revealed most Scots are unaware they will still have to pay huge bills for key services. The groups have revealed that Scots wrongly believe the Executive will pay for everything in old age, including accommodation costs, food and laundry - items that are not covered by the new scheme. Elderly concern organisations are worried that people will fail to prepare properly for old age, increasing the kind of pensioner poverty that free care was supposed to alleviate. The SNP voiced anger yesterday after it emerged that as many as 5,500 assessments still require to be processed in Glasgow and Edinburgh, leaving many pensioners unsure what care they will be eligible for. It means many will have to wait until after the July 1 launch date has passed before the level of assistance they will qualify for becomes clear. Shadow health minister Nicola Sturgeon "The Executive must take urgent action to clear up the confusion and ensure that the policy is implemented on time, without any further delays. This is the democratic will of the Scottish people."

SNP CALL FOR BUSES TO BE RE-REGULATED TO END "BUS WARS"
Fri 14 Jun 02

At a press conference in Glasgow today, SNP leaders called for buses to be brought back under regulation to end ongoing Bus Wars and to provide an affordable and accessable service to all the City. Shadow transport minister Kenny MacAskill and Glasgow City Council SNP Group Leader John Mason launched a paper which outlined the benefits of Re-regulation and promised that an SNP Executive would legislate for Bus Regulation. Mr MacAskill explained: "People need buses that go where they want, when they want them, and at a price they can afford. In the current deregulated system the choice is severely limited; there are too few buses, on too few routes, at too high a price. Buses are a vital part of our public transport infrastructure, not just about making profits for shareholders. Glasgow needs an affordable and accessible bus network, as do other parts of Scotland. We are making it clear that this is a vital issue for the SNP and we will ensure the buses are re-regulated."

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