This week we have a subtly different problem; every week, Alastair McIntyre has been ready and waiting to produce The Flag, and it has been the task of the compilers to provide the raw material - some of it very raw indeed! This week, at the time of publication, Alastair himself is going to be in America on a well-earned holiday, combined perhaps with a little bit of business, and The Flag compilers are bereft.

However, arrangements have been made, and here is this week’s Flag in the Wind; the article we publish this week is already on the site under Features, but we have always felt that James Halliday’s writing merits a much higher profile. James Halliday is a former Chairman of the Scottish National Party (A post now labelled "Convener" in these politically correct times) and was in fact the youngest Chairman ever of the Party. He is the author of Scotland - A Concise History, which we also have on Electric Scotland, and was a lecturer in Scottish and American history until his retiral in 1988. His Immortal Memory of Robert Burns is an integral part of the Scots Independent Burns Supper on this site.

He is a very shrewd and knowledgeable political observer, and a close friend and colleague. This article appeared in the Scots Independent Newspaper in July 2001, after the Scottish National Party had not had a very good Westminster General Election.

HOLYROOD - THE SEQUEL

All available evidence tells us that our Party will attract much greater support in elections to the Scottish parliament than in Westminster elections. We certainly have to hope that the evidence is accurate and that it remains up to date. We must all have had the same thought — let’s get ready now for 2003 and Holyrood: The Sequel.

We would do well to recognise that we have suffered an unpleasant experience; a reminder that our onward march is not inevitable, but has to be worked for. Before our progress can be resumed we have a job to do in reassuring our public, whose morale is bound to have been affected, no matter how we seek to explain or excuse.

Certainly things could have been very much worse; and one would like to think that our enemies expected us to suffer more severely: We were after all "irrelevant" to Westminster; and the campaign, focussing upon issues over which the London Parliament had no further Scottish jurisdiction, helped to make confusion permanent in voters’ minds. Probably this muddle added to the basic defect of the campaign. The battle was found on TV essentially — a fact which further diminished our prospects, as constant reference to "the three main parties", and the constant quotations of their daily guff, and the constant parading of their chief glowworms made obvious.

But we were not the only victims. Intelligence and democratic hopes were consistently outraged. The "campaign" was nothing of the sort. Each party made a daily statement, and these statements had no relationship whatsoever one to another. The Media, which ought to have tried to enforce some sort of order, meekly reported each morning that the Labour Party would to-day be talking about Health, the Tories about the Euro, the Liberals about Education, and so on. The gears never meshed. The cogs never engaged. The assertions met with no response. As a result there was no debate worthy of the name.

Who benefited? All those who had decided that politicians deserve only anger, contempt and ridicule, and that politics should properly be countered by boredom. For all the silliness about low turnout indicating great contentment, we all know — even Mrs Liddell who most zealously spouts the nonsense — that the true reason for the turnout is the widespread and spreading, notion that politics have become something which sensible people will seek to avoid. In truth our political health is in a desperate state, and those who deny it are merely adding to the list of examples of spin, lies, evasion which many voters, and more nonvoters, have decided, are what political argument is all about.

Oddly enough, there was one exception to the rule; one hero soared upward dragging his dubious following with him. All he had to do was answer some questions in a reasonably direct manner, retain civility, and behave in general terms like an average normal decent person. That’s what Charles Kennedy did, and how it paid off for his party. Self-selected; linked by nothing but a readiness to wear the same name tag: invisible and non-existent in large tracts of the country, their vote advanced by quite uniform percentages. There are good explanations for recurring Liberal revivals. This one arose from their leader’s ability to make himself likeable. Sadly his only concession to the now normal level of political spite was in a malicious and quite unfounded slur on the SNP, but no one worried about that, and probably no one noticed.

Finally, the obsession with tax. If British politicians have really decided that income tax will never be raised, we will all have to learn to say farewell to aspirations which will never be met and reconstructions which will never be allowed. AIf Young (one of the journalists who had a good campaign; lain Macwhirter another) pointed out at an early stage that the task of restoring public life after the Thatcher unwisdoms, could not be attempted without massive revenue-raising. If it is not going to come from income tax we are going to have some desperate household bills to look forward to. And if a Labour Government will not tax to provide services for those who cannot make full private provision, then what are they for? Let’s keep asking.

SYNOPSIS

SNP Election Co-ordinator, Nicola Sturgeon MSP, today ridiculed Labour's late entry into the election campaign and labelled their record as "Four Years: One Big Let Down". Speaking as the SNP published its latest poster showing the disembodied head of Jack McConnell together with the catch line "One Big Let Down", Ms Sturgeon said, "Jack McConnell's has finally woken up to the election and is making a belated attempt to defend his record. Labour say they have 'guaranteed' class sizes of 30 for 5, 6 and 7 year olds. What they don't mention is that after almost six years in power, they still haven't delivered. They crow about buying HCI as a way of cutting waiting times, but fail to mention that waiting times have risen. And they say that the police clear up rates have improved, but conveniently forget to tell people that the number of convictions is down. This is exactly the kind of weasel words that has made it impossible for people to trust Labour. Labour obviously plan to fight this election on their record. Good. We will be fighting it on their record too."

Swinney challenges McConnell on profiteering inquiry
Thu 6 Feb 03

SNP Shadow First Minister, John Swinney MSP, today challenged Jack McConnell to order an Audit Scotland inquiry into PFI profiteering after he revealed that construction company Amey had made profits of 31 percent on their schools PFI's and other deals. Speaking during First Minister's Questions, Mr Swinney revealed the company made a profit on their PFI contracts of 13.2 million pounds in the year to December 2001. This huge profit was based upon a turnover of 42.2 million pounds giving a profit margin of 31 percent. Commenting after challenging Jack McConnell to order an Audit Scotland inquiry into the profiteering, Mr Swinney said, "Labour have repeatedly and deliberately refused to tell people what level of profit PFI companies make. Now, following Amey's sale of their Glasgow schools interests, the profiteering on a massive scale has been revealed. For any company to be creaming thirty-one percent profits off the top of our public services is utterly unacceptable. Millions of pounds that could and should be used to deliver improved schools, hospitals and roads; and more teachers, nurses and police are disappearing into the profits of companies such as Amey."

At the time of publication, Alastair will just be recovering from jetlag, but we are quite sure he will be looking at The Flag to see what kind of a mess we’ve made in his absence! Don’t worry, Alastair, you can fix the Archives when you get back!

We will be selecting another of James Halliday’s articles for next week.

SCOTS SKREED
Peter D Wright

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