The Flag in the Wind
A weekly online newspaper bringing you information on the political scene in Scotland: part of the monthly Scots Independent.

Home | About Us | Subscriptions | Archives | SNP | Ad Rates | Features | Adverts | Events | Links

At first glance, not much has changed; Jim Wallace of the Liberals is still Deputy First Minister, but he no longer has Justice, but has been given Enterprise and Lifelong Learning. The brief also used to include Transport, but this has been hived off to a junior minister, Nicol Stephen, another Liberal; strange how this job could be done by one Minister, Iain Gray, but now requires two? Mr Gray’s passing has been lamented, as he was competent if not exactly charismatic, but he also might have become a serious rival to Mr McConnell, and may be in the future. I thought that somehow he had survived, but then saw that I was looking at Frank MacAveety, Arts, Culture and Sports Minister, whose first job was to represent the Executive at the UEFA Cup Final in Seville; he had a ticket anyway!

Ross Finnie has survived as Rural Affairs and Environment Minister; I would define him as a competent Minister with an incompetent brief. Cathy Jamieson has moved from Education to Justice, which has all the teachers sighing with relief, but the awkward business of gaoling parents for the misdemeanours of their children has been passed to Margaret Curran as Communities Minister. This latter policy was a source of contention between the two parties as they horse traded, hence Wallace away from Justice, and gaoling parents away from Justice as well; viewing the coverage in the press this last few weeks, the biggest problems with youth appears to be caused by the Executive’s own policy of social inclusion in schools, with children actually having to go to court for protection from bullying, but maybe Peter Peacock, the new Education Minister could tackle this? (Voice offstage- "Aye Right.")

So at second glance, nothing much has changed, and the First Minister should expect to have a full four year term to change Scotland, for the better; first indications do not look all that promising with a move on same sex marriages put forward by the Greens, which might plunge us into the same kind of controversy occasioned by the Section 2a fiasco in the first year of the Parliament; at least we cannot have another foxhunting bill. Its sponsor, Lord Watson, has now been jettisoned from the Cabinet; as the only Dundee United supporter he must have been lonely in there anyway, but he got the dunt for supporting the protests against hospital changes in Glasgow, and then dutifully voting in Cabinet for the changes, rather running with the hare and hunting with the hounds, so to speak. Maybe he didn’t have a ticket for Seville. His colleague in Cabinet, Malcolm Chisholm, survived as Health Minister, although he voted for the invasion of Iraq in the Parliament and then publicly recanted, beating his breast, and rending his clothes, but then, who wants Health?

Mr McConnell’s close pal, Andy Kerr, remains at Finance; his main job will be to persuade the passengers on the gravy trains that it’s time to get off, and he will be assisted by the Liberal, Tavish Scott. As Labour local government fiefdoms are in revolt about the agreement to have proportional representation for their elections, he will not be a popular fellow. However, he does hold the purse strings, so a few palms will be greased along the way; if you can’t beat ‘em, bribe ‘em!

PARTIES COMING UP SHORT

The money, known as Short money, after the man who pioneered it, is only paid to political parties; thus John Swinburne, of the Pensioners’ Party will get £22,120 over the four years, while Dennis Canavan, Dr Jean Turner and Margo MacDonald will not receive anything. This time round, the SNP will be down from £751,660 to £587,248, a drop of £154,412, and the Tories will remain on £398,165, as last time. SSP get £132,722, and the Greens get £154,842.

Labour as the ruling party, do not receive any of this money, and in the last parliament the Liberals received £257,712; this seemed odd, as they were in coalition, but apparently if they held less than 20% of the ministerial posts they were still entitled to the cash. This time, they wanted a third minister, so they now have 25% of the Cabinet and this has cost them £257,712; just wonder if Mr McConnell knew what he was doing when he appointed Tavish Scott as Deputy Minister for Finance?

Watching the coalition double act of Cathy Jamieson and Tavish Scott being interviewed on TV, I was particularly struck by one question put to Cathy Jamieson about a proposal to cut the proposed Cabinet by 25%. She mumbled on in goodpoliticalspeak about best people for the jobs, wibble, wibble, when in effect she wanted to say "Cut the Cabinet by 25%? Aye, take away the Liberals."

A lot of money has been spent in Northern England on Hadrian’s Wall, (which I in my youth thought was built to keep out people called Adrian) and this is a World Heritage Site. It was built of stone, and has withstood the ravages of time a bit better than the Antonine Wall which was made of turf and timber; the latter is only visible for about two thirds of its original length of 37 miles, and was in use for 25 years, compared with Hadrian’s two hundred odd years.

When considering how valid is the claim of the Antonine Wall to be the most northerly outpost of the Roman Empire, I would suggest that the United Nations committee taking the decision pay a visit to Rome. There, just along from the Coliseum, they will find a series of marble mosaic murals showing the spread of the Roman Empire; the world, as they then knew it, was black, and turned white as Rome’s Empire spread. The white stopped at Falkirk. Interestingly enough, it also stopped at Wales and Ireland!

We do know that pockets of Roman civilization spread a wee bit further, for there is the legend that Pontius Pilate was born at Fortingall near Kenmore in Perthshire. According to the historians, his father, a Roman Officer, was on a peace visit to Metellanus, King of the Picts, whose seat was at Dun Geal, but there is doubt if he brought his wife with him, or met a local lady; if the latter, then the peace talks must have been a bit protracted! Fortingall has its Yew Tree, which is the oldest tree in Europe, and Pontius Pilate was supposed to have been born under that; stranger things have happened.

THE ROCKY ROAD

We have a very anomolous situation in this little Scotland of ours; after the accession of President Blair, he felt compelled to give us a Parliament of sorts, but due to pressure from south of the Border, there had to be a Referendum. This was not in the original game plan, and the Labour Party in Scotland had this foisted on them. First it was one question, then two, and then, courtesy of Mohammad Sarwar, not at that stage an MP, three! In the event, we were left with two; the first was did we want a Scottish Parliament, and the second was did we want it to have tax raising powers. It has always been my contention that the second question was designed to fail, as Labour had already discovered to their cost that people would not vote for more taxes; they were astonished when both questions received a resounding "Yes!"

My own thoughts at the time were confused, to say the least; in 1979 I was opposed to Devolution, seeing it as a device to stop the SNP, and I very reluctantly followed the party line and campaigned for it. That Referendum was won by the Yes side, but lost under the 40% rule, put in by George Cunningham, Labour MP for Islington North, a renegade Scot. At the subsequent General Election we lost 9 of our 11 MPs, and the party went into the doldrums. The best we ever did since 1974’s 11 seats, was 6 , and this was the case when the 1997 Referendum came along; we were further back than we had been 20 years before, and no sign of the upsurge for Independence. So I delivered a few leaflets, running into Malcolm Chisholm doing the same, and left him somewhat bemused at my affable greeting! (I am not particularly affable anyway.) My thoughts were "Let’s get a Parliament, get control, and run it to Independence."

Well, the voting system and the restrictions mean that things never quite work out the way you want. A lot of criticism has been levelled at the SNP policy of a Referendum on Independence, but I look on it this way. When the SNP fights a General Election Campaign for Westminster we fight it on an Independence policy, just as we have always done; when we fight local government elections, we fight to improve the administrations, but we do not construe the local government votes as Independence votes, do we? The Scottish Parliament elections are to an extent glorified local government elections, but it is a National Parliament, however limited its powers and if we can gain control of it and manage it properly, then we are justified in our Referendum approach. One of the big reasons for the low turnout at the recent elections is that at the time of the 1997 Referendum the voters thought they were getting a much more powerful Parliament, virtual Independence, and they feel they have been cheated. As in 1979, Labour’s policy, SNP’s casualty. 

FOOT IN THE MOUTH NOTES

Wonder how many of them have been in a bookie’s lately?

As another comment put it "Amazing! They must all be in their eighties!"

As a sop to the introduction of proportional representation, councillors will be given severance pay if they lose office, ie elections; payment for failure just beginning, but it’s public money anyway.

Scottish Questions, House of Commons, Tuesday 20 May 03: in response to a question from Annabelle Ewing MP, on compensation to those infected with Hepatitis C as a result of contaminated NHS blood, Scottish Secretary Mrs Helen Liddell, with the agreement of the Tories, said that this devolved issue should be dealt with on a UK basis; the Scottish Parliament wanted to pay the compensation but could be prevented by the Department of Health & Pensions clawing the money back.

Prime Minister’s Questions, House of Commons, Wednesday 21 May 03; Annabelle Ewing MP "Can I inject a sense of urgency into this debate and ask the Prime Minister to confirm today that Westminster will not frustrate the will of the Scottish Parliament to pay compensation under the exemption from the benefits clawback regulations. Surely the Prime Minister would agree that these people have already waited far too long for justice?"

Prime Minister: "I’m aware of the Scottish Executive’s decision to pay compensation to sufferers of Hepatitis C. I’m not aware of the particular problem to which she has just drawn attention. I will look into it, and will write to her about it." (Off stage "Helen.. Helllen!!)

We are not sure if, in reciprocation, HM the Queen joined Mr McConnell in a rousing chorus of "The Red Flag."

SYNOPSIS

"Robertson slams Secretary of State for misleading MPs and fishing communities"

At Scottish Questions in the Commons today [Tuesday], Scottish Secretary Helen Liddell implied that she had discussed the fishing crisis with Prime Minister Tony Blair this morning. Asked whether she had attended the first meeting of 10 Downing Street's strategic review of the fishing industry, she said that she had "left the Prime Minister half an hour ago". It later transpired that she did not in fact attend any fishing meeting as it had been cancelled.

The SNP MP for Moray and Westminster European Spokesperson Mr Angus Robertson MP - who questioned Mrs Liddell on fishing earlier in the session - said:

"Helen Liddell doesn't have a real job - her only task is to answer questions once a month in the House of Commons, and now she has been caught out being economical with the truth.

"The Scottish fishing industry is in crisis and coastal communities need to be properly supported by government ministers. Instead, Helen Liddell tried to create the impression with MPs that she had been discussing the crisis with the Prime Minister. Only later did it emerge that the key fishing meeting had in fact been cancelled, and officials would not reveal what the Secretary of State discussed with Tony Blair.

"This means either MPs have been misled or that policy is secretive.

"Either way, Helen Liddell is failing to do a job for Scotland, which is why her expensive non-department should be scrapped."

SCOTLAND NEEDS MORE POWERS NOT MORE MINISTERS

The Scottish cabinet has more Ministers than there are Government departments, SNP Leader Mr John Swinney said today (Tuesday) after Jack McConnell increased its' numbers from 11 to 12.

Even if you exclude the First Minister, the Lord Advocate and the Parliamentary Business Manager, that still leaves more Cabinet Ministers than there are Scottish Executive Departments. Speaking after the lineup was announced; Mr Swinney said Scotland "needs more powers not more Cabinet Ministers". Commenting he said:

"The people of Scotland sent a clear signal at the election that they wanted a more focused, efficient approach to the government of Scotland. Instead of listening to that message, Jack McConnell plans to inflate the size of his cabinet even further.

"Bizarrely, we now have the ridiculous situation where, even if you exclude the First Minister, the Lord Advocate and the Parliamentary Business Manager, there are still more Cabinet Ministers than there are Scottish Executive Departments.

"Many of these Ministers presided over the disappointments and disillusionments of the last four years. They now have to understand that people expect more. They expect problems not simply to be managed but to be tackled. And for that, we need more powers not more Cabinet Ministers."

SNP TABLE COMMONS MOTION ON EURO
Mon 19 May 03

As the Government hold Cabinet discussions on euro membership - with the expectation that the announcement on 9 June will be negative - the Scottish National Party's Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Mr Angus Robertson MP today [Monday] tabled a House of Commons Motion calling for the Government to publish an assessment of the 'five economic tests' specifically in relation to Scotland's economy.

The text of Mr Robertson's Early Day Motion is:

"That this House notes the speech of the Secretary of State for Scotland on 12 May on the implications of the euro for the Scottish economy; believes that Scotland has distinctive economic conditions that require an equally distinctive assessment of the Chancellor's five tests on euro membership for the Scottish economy; and calls on the Government to publish evidence and conclusions on euro membership specifically in relation to Scotland, and for the other nations and regions of the UK, prior to announcing any decision regarding UK membership of the euro."

Mr Robertson said:

"Helen Liddell has said that being excluded from the euro will be damaging to Scotland - yet we are told that the Government are set to reject membership.

"Scottish interests are being sacrificed by the power-play between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, and the disarray of the Government's European policy.

"What is important now is for a full assessment of the euro tests to be published specifically for Scotland, so that we can have a positive and informed debate of the benefits of the euro for the Scottish economy."

Note:

Speaking at a business lunch last Monday [12 May] organised by the Centre for Scottish Public Policy, Scottish Secretary Helen Liddell asked people to "reflect" on what being excluded from the single currency "would mean for Scotland".

Mrs Liddell said that failing to join the euro would be damaging to Scotland, that it would leave Scotland "out on a limb", and that Edinburgh would be left "offshore" (12 May).

She asked: "How would we help our financial services industry go from strength to strength, when a growing single market, with the prospect of escalating demand for our financial services products, would carry exchange rate risk?"

Commenting on the publication of the Scotland Office Departmental Report today [Friday], Scottish National Party Westminster Whip Mr Pete Wishart MP pointed to the figures showing that the running costs and staff numbers are continuing to go up. The key figures are:

Scotland Office Total Net Administration Costs (million pounds):

Staff (Full-time equivalent)

Mr Wishart said:

"Helen Liddell has reportedly said that the post of Scottish Secretary isn't a real job, that she is 'bored', and the leaked diary last year revealed that she has next to nothing to do.

"And yet the costs and staff numbers for this non-job continue to soar.
Both have gone up since the start of devolution, and both are set to rise further in the years to come. Over the next two years alone, the running costs of the Scotland Office are set to rise by 15 per cent.

"Instead of this bloated bureaucracy, the Scotland Office should be scrapped and its resources handed back to the Scots Parliament for spending on health and education."

Commenting on the announcement today [Thursday] of Government support for the London bid for the 2012 Olympic Games, the Scottish National Party's Westminster Spokesperson for Culture, Media & Sport Mr Pete Wishart MP said:

"The fear is that this will become another 'Millennium Dome', with the other nations and regions of the UK expected to cough up to pay for expensive new infrastructure in London.

"The Government's London-centric approach sidelines other great English cities - such as Birmingham, which has previously sought the Olympics - as well as Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

"There is a strong argument for not basing the Olympics in state capitals, in order to spread the economic benefits across the host country - in that regard, the most successful Games in recent times was the Barcelona Olympics in 1992.

"The other problem facing London is that its bid will be scuppered because of the UK's enormous international unpopularity in the wake of the war in Iraq."

WINDOWS SCREENSAVER

Download our Windows Screensaver here!

SCOT WIT
Enjoy a Scottish Joke every week and listen to it as well