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CAMPAIGNING FOR SCOTLAND
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Compiled by Jim Lynch
[Issue 119 -  13th September 2002]

We send our condolences to the American people and to the relatives and friends of all those who died or were injured in this atrocity. The world is a much more dangerous place, and there is no short term answer to the suicide bomber. What must be done is to alleviate the suffering and poverty in the world, for only thus can we hope for peace and justice.

11TH SEPTEMBER 1997

Our Parliament has not had an auspicious start; prior to its first elections, the Labour Party mounted a vitriolic campaign to frighten the voters, and they succeeded. There was a row about expenses, which should have been settled before the Parliament was elected, there was a row about commemorative medals for MSPs, ordered and struck by Westminster Ministers also before the Parliament was elected, and the site for the Scottish Parliament building was selected by Westminster Ministers before the Parliament was elected. How appropriate that all these things were done by the Labour Party, and the blame put elsewhere.

One thing is certain; recent opinion polls show that the Scots want the Parliament to have more financial powers than it has at present. This makes a nonsense of the term "the settled will of the Scottish people", as a recipe for no more change; the people were not asked if they wanted Independence, and while one of the claims is that expectations were too high, the whole tenor of the Referendum campaign led to that. I am convinced that many people thought they were getting Independence, because they voted for a Parliament that had the power to tax.

On a progressive note, the Scottish National Party are reported to be abandoning the terms "fiscal autonomy" and "full fiscal freedom" as confusing the voters. The new term is "Economic Independence", and I’ll drink to that - any slogan with Independence in it has my backing.

The story so far; Fergus Ewing, SNP MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, and Shadow Rural Development Minister was approached by Scottish businesses because they had not been given a fair chance to tender for wall cladding and windows at the MSPs’ block. The contract was awarded by Bovis Lend Lease (sounds like something from the Second World War), the main contractor, to a shell company Flour City UK, who had assets of £2 (Yes, two smackeroos only)no Scottish Directors, no track record, no knowledge of the Scottish construction scene, and without the parent company, Flour City International of America being made a party to the contract.

Apparently Bovis had worked with the parent company on the Trump Towers, New York, and the Four Seasons Hotel, Miami, and liked their style; the Flour City contracts have been terminated on these projects based on performance defaults, but perhaps that happened later. Anyway, Flour City UK got the £7 million contract, and as Fergus warned away back, having done some research, they went bust. In January this year, Fergus submitted a dossier to the Auditor General for Scotland, Robert Black, and in reply he has been told that while the contract was not "improperly" awarded, there were deficiencies in the selection and management of the contract which had resulted in "avoidable and possibly significant losses."

Fergus has asked the Presiding Officer, Lord Steel, to publish the documents relating to Flour City, but the noble lord says that action against Flour City International is pending, so the documents should not be published; Fergus in return says that Flour City International has been struck off the US Stock Exchange, and has left a trail of debt of unpaid staff and suppliers throughout the globe, so suing them is pointless. I did a little research on the Internet , and their contracts have also been terminated on Random House World Headquarters, Los Olas City Centre, Fort Lauderdale, the 42D Stubbs Road project in Hong Kong and the Ciro Plaza project in Shanghai; looks as if there are a few dissatisfied customers lining up.

The point about all this is that there will be a loss of about £3.85 million of money already paid out and the work not done; this is the responsibility of the main contractor, who, as we pointed out a week or two back , do not list the Scottish Parliament building in their brochure as one of the prestige projects they are proud to be associated with, and they should be picking up the cost. There is a suspicion that Lord Steel does not want the facts made public because they are intensely embarrassing, and might affect his ambition to get all dolled up with cuffs jabeaux at the opening of the new Parliament building; as to whether his judgment is superior to Fergus Ewing, I merely state that Lord Steel has always been a politician, and thus well used to political expediency, whereas Fergus Ewing was a solicitor specialising in insolvency work. You pays your money, but you don’t get a choice. Fergus held a press conference about this on Monday which was briefly reported in the Herald (Glasgow), but ignored by the Scotsman; strange the latter, as their offices are just across the road.

It is worth recalling what actually happened to Henry McLeish, because it is a cautionary tale. A Fife pensioner, a constituent of Mr McLeish’s, was having some property trouble, and he was not getting any satisfaction from his solicitor; being fobbed off with no progress, he contacted his MP/MSP , Henry McLeish, to complain about the solicitor. In correspondence, he then discovered that the solicitors, Digby Brown, were at the same address as his MP/MSP. The pensioner started to poke about, and the matter became public in April 2001; Mr McLeish ignored it, and just carried on as usual, without taking any steps to sort things out.

What was particularly damaging, as the press got hold of it, was that Mr McLeish was renting out part of his constituency offices but had not notified the fees office in Westminster; this meant he was getting the rent twice, once from public money, and also from private firms. Now he knew that the press was investigating the issue, but he continued to avoid answering questions, something he was notorious for at First Minister’ Questions , (a tactic which led John Swinney, SNP leader to comment "I am still waiting for First Minister’s Answer Time.") If he had come out at the start and stated that he had overclaimed expenses in error, he could still have been First Minister, and as he agreed to pay £36,000 to the Westminster fees office, that might well have been the end of the matter. As it was, he prevaricated, he went on BBC’s Question Time with David Dimbleby and said "I don’t know how much money is involved", and on the programme it was left to Alex Salmond to spring to his defence, saying "I do not believe Henry is a crook."

It was not just the solicitors, Digby Brown, who had rented offices from Henry; the press uncovered 4 other lessees, and that was supposed to be the end of it. But the killer punch came with a charity called the Third Age; they had rented office space, which Henry had "forgotten" to tell anyone about, even although the paid Third Age staff were election agents of one kind or another for him, working in his office! Then it became known that the Third Age charity was no longer functioning, but Fife Council was continuing to pay out the grants. The issue was further compounded when it was disclosed that one of the senior social work managers who had authorised the payments was Mrs Julie Fulton, who became Mrs McLeish.

What a mess, and it was a Labour Party and Westminster mess, only uncovered because there was a Scottish Parliament and MSPs ready to scrutinise; the whole affair was about public money authorised by the Labour Party, and paid to the Labour Party. Mr McLeish resigned as First Minister, his wife has now resigned from Fife Council, and is suing them, and Mr McLeish is leaving politics at the next election. In many ways, the misuse of public monies in Labour fiefdoms (no not Fifedoms) is endemic, and there was a great deal of panic in Labour ranks as these little ploys were disclosed, because Henry was ruining it for them all.

So, a morality tale; if he had made a clean breast of things at the start, he would still be First Minister, or alternatively - in my working days, if anyone had double claimed expenses, which I would construe as fraud, they would have been dismissed without notice, and that would have been for £36 - never mind £36,000. As it is Fife Police have still not completed their investigation into the the affair, but no one is holding their breath; what is palpably evident is the sense of Labour Party relief that last year’s top Labour man in Scotland is not standing for election. And the press blame the Parliament for Labour sleaze!

Having said that, it is pleasing to see that farmers will get more for their produce, as whilst they have never been the most cuddly of beings, they are essential, because we all have to eat. They have been taken to the cleaners by the big supermarkets, who now sell about 80% of the country’s food and drink, and dominate the market I can recall three episodes all around the same time, a few years back; in the first, a meat company was taking back code date rejected meat and putting on a new code date, and another company was bringing back unsold old milk, and instead of destroying it, they mixed it with new milk. The third company was a vegetable processing operation in Surrey, I think, who were using unregistered low paid foreign labour to pack for the supermarkets. In all three instances, the supermarket in question reacted with horror and condemnation, and fired the offending supplier. All three companies were cheating because the supermarkets had screwed them on price, and they had to bend rules to remain in business. So the producer was between a rock and a hard place.

Something of the same has been happening in the bakery business; because the supermarkets are in a constant price war, they are selling bread at 25% below cost. The Competitions Commission said that this was operating against the public interest, but made no recommendations to redress the situation; the Office of Fair Trading has also accepted that the supermarkets exercise unfair buying power over their suppliers, but recommend a voluntary code. This means that a local baker who has a grievance normally loses the business if he complains - some code that. Anyway back to the Competition Commission; a report from Loughborough University found that the Commission had ignored European practice on below cost selling. In Austria, Germany, France, Spain, Greece. Portugal, Belgium and Switzerland retailers are restricted from artificially depressing a product’s price on a permanent basis. On anything to do with the European Community, Britain knows best, particularly to do with food, land, working practices and human rights in general - Thatcher lives.

And do not believe that supermarkets create jobs; all they do is transfer them. The presence of a new supermarket does not mean you eat more or spend more, but your local shop shuts.

AND TALKING OF THATCHER

Back to the sell-off of assets; in the wake of Thatcher, John Major had to carry on her policy, so he privatised the railways and the Nuclear Industry. Railtrack is now in administration - literally bankrupt- and this last few weeks, British Energy is also bankrupt, but not officially in administration. Well, the latter needs £410 million from the public purse to stay in business; incidentally on that issue, the Herald headline said British Energy was getting a loan of "£140 million". The Board of Directors must have had a fit before they noticed the figures were transposed - it was in truth £410 million. One of the reasons they are in trouble is because Torness Nuclear Power Station is broken; now there’s a funny thing - we keep getting told that we rely on nuclear power, and that 47% of Scotland’s electricity is nuclear, yet Torness is not working and I still have electric light. In fact, Torness was never necessary and produced electricity for export to England; this saved them from having another nasty nuclear facility. We got it.

And the Blessed Tony’s contribution; NATS National Air Traffic Services. This was the subject of an "Our air is not for sale" campaign when Labour was in Opposition, but flogged off when they came to power. Now they are in trouble as well, and need big handouts from the public purse to keep going. So here we have three industries in a row, all being run by the private sector, as they’re good at this sort of thing (Marconi) and all taking money from our pockets; remember the public purse is our money. And to cap their misery, British Airways, the self styled World’s Favourite Airline, is getting kicked out of the Footsie; not very clever that either. These industries have been paying out dividends when they should have been investing, naughty, greedy b-------ds.

Let us hope that this is a worthier project than the one commissioned by the Inland Revenue who sold off all their buildings to a property company Mapeley Steps Ltd; over the next 20 years the Inland Revenue will pay £2 billion in rent to the company. Mapeley Steps Ltd is registered in Bermuda, and it will pay no tax; clever.

In the Liberals’ draft election manifesto, they have expressed a wish to cut the numbers of Ministers in the Scottish Executive; at present the Liberals hold the Ministerial posts of Justice and Agriculture

The First Minister, Jack McConnell, has denied that Labour MSPs are secretly briefing against the Liberals in the run-up to the election next year, but no one doubts his wish to reduce the number of Ministers also - Liberal ones, anyway.

We commented a couple of weeks ago that the Scotsman newspapers had that Hilton Hotels were going for a sale and leaseback, and that on one page the figure was given as £300 million, and on another page in the same edition it was £350 million.

The final figure was £335 million.

The problems of overcrowding and slopping out in Scottish prisons could no doubt be alleviated if they let prisoners go home on certain days of the week on a rota basis.

Well, Jeffrey Archer, serving 4 years for perjury in an open prison in England, gets home at weekends, so the principle is established. Wonder if he slops out as well as slips out?

There has been a fair bit of correspondence recently in the press about the length a kilt should be worn; in my days (nearly 50 years ago) in the Black Watch, the kilt had to come halfway down the knee, and just touch the ground when kneeling.

Not that all military customs are always correct. When I was serving in Kenya we were forbidden to wear shorts after sundown, due to mosquitos; battalion walking out dress in the evening was the kilt.

At the World Summit on poverty, Robert Mugabe, unelected President of Zimbabwe, said "So, Blair, keep your England and let me keep my Zimbabwe."

We think we know what he meant.

Annabelle Goldie MSP, Deputy Leader of the Scottish Conservative Party in the Scottish Parliament, writing in a letter in the Scotsman "The Scottish Conservatives are a Unionist Party, and make no apologies for being one. Within the context of the devolution settlement, we have sought to articulate an economic strategy which is consistent with the stability of the political, economic and monetary union that is the United Kingdom."

And London rules.

 SYNOPSIS

JOHN SWINNEY PAYS TRIBUTE IN PARLIAMENT DEBATE
Wed 11 Sep 02

Any military action against Saddam Hussein must be taken under international law, Scottish National Party leader John Swinney has told MSPs. In a Scottish Parliament debate to mark the first anniversary of the 11 September terror attacks, he said those who had committed the atrocities had shown contempt for both human life and democracy. But he cautioned that concerns about evidence, aims and consequences must be addressed before any decision was taken to attack Iraq. Mr Swinney defended his decision to raise the issue. He emphasised the historic, economic and cultural links between Scotland and the US during his speech. "But with that close friendship comes a right, a duty, to say what we think a friend needs to hear," he said. "Action can only be morally justified as it was in the Gulf War when a new Security Council resolution is debated and approved. It can only be justified when incontrovertible evidence is brought forward to prove the threat posed by Iraq and the case for action." Mr Swinney said his party viewed Saddam Hussein as "barbaric". However, he stressed: "Action against Saddam - and if it has to be military action - must only be undertaken in accordance with international law. "In Scotland today a large majority appears opposed to a military offensive. I believe that it is right that this parliament, our national democratic forum, should help to inform those views. Debate is the life-blood of our democracy and that debate should be heard."

SNP WELCOME WESTMINSTER RECALL DEBATE ON IRAQ
Wed 11 Sep 02

Commenting on the news that there is to be a recall of the Westminster Parliament in order to discuss the crisis over Iraq, SNP Westminster Group leader Alex Salmond MP said, "Last Tuesday, the SNP/Plaid Cymru Group were the first to write to Tony Blair formally requesting a Westminster recall, and I am pleased that the Government have caved into the cross-party pressure for a debate on the crisis over Iraq." However Mr Salmond warned there should be a substantive Commons debate on a Government Motion which is capable of amendment by MPs, rather than an open-ended discussion merely on the 'adjournment of the House'. "MPs must be in a position to insist on a fresh United Nations mandate for any military action, based on a specific Security Council Resolution, rather than allowing the issue to be fudged by Tony Blair." Speaking from Kuwait, during a tour of RAF personnel in the Middle East, Shadow Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Angus Robertson MP added, "The Gulf War in 1991 was based on clear UN authority, enabling a widespread international coalition to be assembled. Unilateral US/UK action in Iraq is unacceptable - it would not carry the authority of the international community, and is opposed by the vast majority of the people. Our service men and women will be paying close attention to this debate, and Parliament should have the authority to pass a clear policy position."

SCOTTISH MEDIA GROUP TO SELL HERALD NEWSPAPER
Tue 10 Sep 02

Following reports that the Herald newspaper has been put up for sale by the Scottish Media Group SNP Shadow Education and Culture Minister Mr Mike Russell MSP lodged a motion in the Parliament stating that it is important the sale helps to increase the diversity of media ownership in Scotland. Mr Russell said, "It is absolutely essential that when these titles are sold it should help increase the diversity of media ownership in Scotland. The alternative would be the further concentration of ownership in fewer hands which would be anti-democratic and bad for the consumer as well as the producers of the newspapers."

SNP TRADE UNIONISTS CALL FOR END TO 'SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP'
Tue 10 Sep 02

The SNP Trade Union Group has today called upon the Scottish Trade Union Congress to follow the example of its British counterpart to put aside its "special relationship" with New Labour and invite John Swinney, the leader of the Scottish National Party, to address next year's Congress. Mr Bill Ramsay, the SNP Trade Union Group's representative on the National Executive of the SNP said that given New Labour's determination to continue with and further develop the Tory privatisation agenda it is understandable that the TUC looks elsewhere for political support. However it is ironic that they select the leader of the Liberal Democrats, the party that has driven forward the prison privatisation agenda within the Scottish Executive.

SCOTTISH ECONOMY STILL UNDERPERFORMING
Tue 10 Sep 02

Commenting on the First Minister's speech today regarding the need to boost enterprise in Scotland, SNP Leader Mr John Swinney MSP said that it appears at long last that Jack McConnell has opened his eyes to the problem and now he must open his mind to the solution. Mr Swinney said that the First Minister must realise that paying lip service to the problem is no substitute for hard action to actually address these problems. The SNP Leader said, "We need full financial independence so that we can focus our policy on cutting taxes on growth and reversing the trend of people, talent, businesses and wealth migrating out of Scotland instead of in."

SWINNEY EXPOSES LABOUR SPENDING CON
Mon 9 Sep 02

SNP Leader John Swinney MSP has exposed a massive spending con by Labour as he revealed Treasury figures that show Scotland will get just £100 million in new money from the Comprehensive Spending Review and not the £1.5 billion claimed by the Scottish Executive. Accusing Labour of "an outrageous attempt at Enron style accounting" by claiming massive amounts of new money will be available. Exposing the Executive's figures as a combination of old money already announced and a change in accountancy practice, Mr Swinney said, "Labour is engaged in a massive con against the Scottish public. First they changed the way the figures are calculated to increase the total without adding a single penny to spending, then they added in money that has already been announced. The result is that they have been claiming a spending bonanza and spinning stories about huge improvements in transport and the public services, when in fact the money is little more than a figment of their imagination." Mr Swinney explained that Whitehall has changed the way it calculates what public services are worth to a system known as Resource Accountancy Budgeting which has led to the Scottish Executive's budget being adjusted upwards by £800 million, even though no extra cash was actually allocated. "This is not the first time that Labour have been caught fiddling the books. They have been caught double accounting, triple accounting and now Enron accounting."

SNP MP VISITS FRONT LINE MIDDLE EAST AIR BASES
Tue 9 Sep 02

Scottish National Party Shadow Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Angus Robertson MP today started a visit of front line Middle East air bases where the RAF is stationed. Mr Robertson's trip will take him to bases in Kuwait, Oman, Turkey and Cyprus, as speculation rises of an impending war against Iraq. The bases are key to the ongoing policing of the United Nations no-fly zones over Iraq, and would almost certainly be involved in any military action if UK Prime Minister Tony Blair backs United States' attempts to overthrow Saddam Hussein.

EU DECISION-MAKING UNDER FIRE
Tue 9 Sep 02

SNP Euro-MP Ian Hudghton has slammed the "clandestine way" in which decisions affecting the Scottish fishing industry are taken in the EU. Speaking at the World Wildlife Fund fisheries summit, being held this week in the Danish town of Nyborg, Mr Hudghton has renewed his appeal to Danish Presidency to reopen negotiations on the deep sea fisheries deal, rushed through in the dying days of Spain's EU Presidency in June this year. The SNP MEP remains critical of many aspects of the Spanish deal. "What really gets my back up is that the deal was brokered without any real consultation and negotiation with interested parties," he said. "Where decisions, like those reforming the CFP, are of a highly sensitive nature and have enormous socio-economic impacts on fragile fisheries dependent communities, those involved in the industry must be fully involved. Deals done behind closed doors inspire neither trust nor confidence and I know many in the Scottish fishing industry were astounded at the outcome of the Spanish deal on the deep sea sector."

SNP DEMAND ANSWERS OVER SCOTTISH WATER SEMINAR "EXTRAVAGANCE"
Fri 6 Sep 02

Shadow Environment Minister Bruce Crawford MSP today demanded that Ross Finnie disclose the full cost of sending thousands of Scottish Water staff to the prestigious Crieff Hydro Hotel to "envisage the future" of Scottish Water. "Is there really any need for almost the entire staff of a public body to be treated to hospitality at a luxury hotel at the public's expense? Glasgow's water crisis demonstrated that Ross Finnie does not have his department under control but extravagance on this scale is quite unacceptable. Mr Crawford added, "I will now be demanding answers in the Scottish Parliament from Ross Finnie. At a time when people's water supply is being poisoned because of under investment and water charges are going through the roof, he must now tell us exactly how much of the public's money is being spent on these seminars."

MSP FEARS "DOUBLE WHAMMY" OVER THREATENED AIR RANGE JOBS
Fri 6 Sep 02

The fallout from about 100 proposed defence job losses at a Ministry of Defence air range was the focus of talks held today by local MSP Alasdair Morgan. The Galloway & Upper Nithsdale MSP said he was "disappointed" by the axing of staff at the West Freugh range, in Wigtownshire, who will be made redundant by next spring. The strip, near Stranraer, which is used to test low-flying military jets, will be taken over by science and technology firm QinetiQ. Mr Morgan expressed his sense of frustration following a meeting with the Ministry of Defence and QuinetiQ today. "I am deeply disappointed that we are being subjected to a 'double whammy' of this kind," he said. "Stranraer and the Rhinns are faced with the loss of defence jobs on which local livelihoods depend, and, on top of that, efforts to create alternative employment at the West Freugh site are being effectively frustrated. I find this situation wholly intolerable."