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WEST LOTHIAN ONGOING

The West Lothian Question was a term coined at the time of the 1979 Devolution Referendum by Enoch Powell; it was because Sir Thomas Dalyell of the Binns, to give him his full title, Labour MP for West Lothian ( now called Linlithgow) kept asking "How could a Scottish Labour MP vote on matters to do with Blackburn, Lancashire, but not Blackburn, West Lothian ?" There were various other towns, Newcastle but not Nairn, Shrewsbury but not Stirling, for example, as Tam bored on in irritating, alliterating fashion, for years.

Now that there is a Scottish Parliament, the West Lothian Question is alive and kicking once again, although this time it is English MPs who are asking it; last week there was a vote on fox-hunting in the House of Commons. Now fox-hunting, or a version of it, has been banned in Scotland through a Private Member’s Bill brought by Lord Watson of Invergowrie ( to give him his full title) Labour MSP for Glasgow Cathcart. At Westminster, all the MPs had a free vote on fox hunting. This being purely English legislation with no effect on Scotland, one would have thought that Scottish Labour MPs would abstain, but no, 27 of them trotted into the Lobby to vote for the ban. This was greeted with shock and horror by the Unionist press, who saw no anomaly in Scottish legislation being passed by English MPs, particularly during the Tory years when they struggled to find enough to staff the Scottish Office, but are now outraged when the boot is on the other foot.

This week, even more indignation, and this time we have already seen some strident criticism levelled at the SNP, who voted on a purely English measure for the first time since the Poll Tax. The Poll Tax had been legislated on for Scotland by the Tories a year before it became law in England, and the SNP voted against the English legislation as the quickest way of getting rid of the Poll Tax per se. There were riots in the streets in England, over the Poll Tax, not the SNP MPs voting against it, and the Poll Tax bit the dust, followed shortly thereafter by Mrs Thatcher.

So, this week the issue was foundation hospitals, which have been ruled out by the Scottish Executive in Scotland, but assiduously promoted by the Prime Minister as the answer to NHS problems in England; the principle is seen as a divisive one, creating a two tier system. One critic of the SNP, George Foulkes, Labour MP for Carrick, Cumnock and the Doon Valley, who used to be Deputy Secretary of State for Scotland until he was sacked in mysterious circumstances, naturally trotted into the Division Lobby to vote to the detriment of his constituents, along with 40 of his Scottish Labour colleagues. He was supporting the Government, and him no longer on the payroll, on what was purely English legislation, good and faithful retainer that he is.

In that very same week, the British Medical Association, representing all Britain’s doctors, voted overwhelmingly to oppose foundation hospitals; speaking in the debate at their annual conference, Dr Peter Terry, chair of the Scottish consultants committee said "The (foundation) hospital can also, if it so chooses, cherry pick the most lucrative work with the temptation that they will just do the lucrative work while diseases and the long -term care of the elderly will be left to hospitals that do not have foundation status."

The SNP voted against foundation hospitals, but, as stated above, 41 Scottish Labour MPs voted for the establishment of these hospitals, Alex Salmond, SNP Westminster leader (who coincidentally come from Linlithgow) said,

"This is the first time that SNP MPs have voted on English businesses since the Poll Tax - because the consequences for Scotland are so damaging

."Because of the squeeze that will be applied to Scottish public spending as a result of privately-financed English Foundation Hospitals, Scots Labour MPs have driven a stake to the heart of the NHS in Scotland.

"It is perfectly consistent to be in favour of Foundation Hospitals north and south of the Border. It is perfectly possible to be against Foundation Hospitals north and south of the Border.

"But it is impossible and incredible for Scottish Labour MPs to vote for Foundation Hospitals in England, but to be against them in Scotland.

"This was a bad vote for Scotland as well as England, and Scots Labour MPs will pay a political penalty."

SHAKING THE FOUNDATIONS

The English Labour MPs who opposed the foundation hospitals legislation are furious at their Scottish colleagues, and they are seeing this is injury added to insult; the insult was when the Prime Minister appointed Dr John Reid Labour MP for Hamilton North and Bellshill to be in charge of English Health, when his voters are not affected by what he does. Of course, Alastair Darling, MP for Edinburgh Central, is in charge of English Transport; as he is also part-time Secretary of State for Scotland this is causing even more confusion and resentment.

What must be really galling for the English Labour Party is that the Prime Minister purports to be a Scot, the Chancellor is a Scot, the Foreign Secretary who became Leader of the House and then resigned on a point of principle is a Scot (Robin Cook), the Lord Chancellor, Derry Irvine, was followed by the Lord Chancellor, Charlie Falconer, both Scots, the Secretary General of NATO, Lord Robertson, a Scot and now Health and Transport run by Scots; there must be a dearth of talent in England.

There is a head of steam building up at Westminster against Scotland, and it was most surprising that the week before last, Andrew Rawnsley, a much respected political commentator in the Observer, took up the cudgels on behalf of England, and lambasted the Scots and the Welsh. The issue he highlighted was as above, the number of Scots running the UK, and us with our own Parliament too; we have to agree with him, if not his tone, but then the SNP does not want to run England , but we do not want England to run Scotland, which is what has been happening for 300 years. It reminds me of a conversation I had when on a cruise earlier this year; we had a very nice English couple sitting at our table. The man was baffled at why Scotland should have her own Parliament, and want more, as there was nothing wrong with the current system; at the same time he was bitterly resentful of the European Union taking over and telling them what they could or couldn’t do! The sad fact was that he could see no parallel.

The trouble is of course with the Scottish psyche, used to being told that they could not manage themselves; if the Scots can run the United Kingdom, surely they could run Scotland, or is that a common sense too far?

CHANGE BUT NOT RE-FORM

Naturally, the Tories decided that as the state was paying out the benefit money, the cash from the absent parents should go to the Treasury; there were 100 different factors to take into account and the whole system became a shambles. Labour said it would simplify the situation, but so far it has failed so to do; since 1993, when it came into force, £2 billion of uncollected maintenance has been written off. (Labour have been in power since 1997) Auditors have qualified the agency’s accounts every year since it started.

So while that little problem is left unresolved, there is now another new plan to "help" all families; it is called the family tax credit, and it is supposed to give money to all those with children. This system went in at the beginning of this tax year, and by all accounts is also an absolute shambles; it is very complex and a lot of people have not applied because of this. In addition, the money, worth £545 a year to most families, is three months behind for 220,000 families, as the Revenue has not processed their applications. Now those who have not applied, right reason or none, will not get their entitlement, and the cash, some half a billion, will revert to the Treasury.

According to reports, the Chancellor is not amused at these goings on, but he is responsible; he said he would simplify the tax system and it is now more complicated than it has ever been. In addition, in its haste to find other sources of reducing expenditure, the Treasury adopted a policy which resulted in their offices being sold off to Mapely’s, a company registered in a tax haven, so the rent paid by the Income Tax offices will now go to a company that pays no Income Tax! A week or two back, Private Eye did a major feature on the Mapely Steps fiasco, but this has not really hit the headlines, presumably because all the press eyes have been focussed on who changed what in Iraq. However, it is a major embarrassment, and both financially and politically stupid, but government policy. Another company, running computers for the government, EDS, has decided to move its staff offshore to save paying tax!

And while all these merry things are going on, the take from corporation tax is falling, as big companies base themselves in tax havens; this means that to maintain services the burden of tax will fall on individuals and small businesses. It is known that Rupert Murdoch’s main British holding firm, Newscorp Investments, paid no corporation tax throughout the Nineties, and it is highly unlikely that it has paid any since; in addition to that Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group is based in the Caribbean, but Virgin Rail has had £500 million in public subsidy over the past year. The Inland Revenue is under-resourced, and it is difficult for it to fight the large armies of tax avoidance specialists the multinationals can produce. The richest man in Britain, who invented the TetraPak, is a Swede, who not only pays no tax, but receives farming subsidies; when tackled about his tax avoidance he said that if a country had easy tax laws he had a perfect right to utilise them, or words to that effect.

In January this year I visited Grand Cayman, and had the tourist’s gawping look at the Post Office. All round the outer walls of the Post Office were numbered letter boxes. It was a Sunday, so the Post Office was closed, but I envisaged a normal day, when a "Company Director" , wearing torn jeans and a battered straw hat would ride up on a bike, open the appropriate box, and put all the documents into another envelope. He would then go into the Post Office and send the documents to the real registered office, back in London; perhaps I was too fanciful?

Companies which claim to be socially responsible have a duty to pay taxes in the countries in which they operate; this should apply in spades to newspaper publishers which seek to influence governments for free. If you make money in a country, you pay money in a country; if you choose to live in another country, you pay money in that country.

Now that would simplify tax, would it not? As it stands, all we get are changes, but not reforms, and while the Inland Revenue is understaffed, they just get more work piled on to them. It’s a funny old world, as the original author of many of these misfortunes put it.

Enlightenment as we read on; the cost was incurred by the Scottish Office on behalf of the former Scottish Secretary’s "Friends of Scotland" scheme, designed to give her something to do, and did not include staff costs and overheads. Makes one feel distinctly unfriendly.

Not an entirely surprising move from fat cats.

One little item that I missed in all the stushie about the Government’s reshuffle; Dr Lewis Moonie, Parliamentary Under Secretary to the Minister of Defence, who was responsible for conveying Government messages to the House of Commons during the war in Iraq, has been given the Kirkcaldy heist.

Not unexpected, as it would seem communication between the Government and the House of Commons seem to have been patchy, to say the least. Dr Moonie himself was surprised, but should not have been; after all he is the MP for Kirkcaldy.

Three years ago the Royal Ordnance factory in Bishopton, Renfrewshire, lost the Ministry of Defence contract to supply munitions to a South African Company, Somchem; the plant was the last manufacturer of propellant in Britain.

Somchem is unable to meet the performance targets, they cannot deliver, and the programme has been deferred for years; not much consolation for the 284 employees who lost their jobs, or the troops who have been denied the weapons. No apologies from the politicians or civil servants either.

The House of Commons public accounts committee has published a report that the Department of Work and Pensions has failed in its effort to crack down on the estimated £2 billion per year of benefit fraud; in other words , it must try harder.

The specialist office in Edinburgh dedicated to benefit fraud is being closed and its operations transferred to the already over-burdened Glasgow office.

Scotland Yard has accused the French catering company Sodexho of billing them for more staff than actually worked at 15 police stations in London.

Cheating the polis is not very clever, or is it?

NHS Lanarkshire has been in the news lately; they are heading for a £16 million deficit this year, and they paid £1611 in one week for an agency nurse (£83,772 a year). They are also in dispute with architects as the doors to 30 new bedrooms at Cleland Hospital, Wishaw, are a foot too narrow to allow a bed to pass through in emergency.

New stipulation, "As wide as an agency nurse’s pay packet."

We suppose he could claim to have inside information.

"REFUSING TO MEET TO DISCUSS COMPENSATION"

In a news briefing at Westminster the leader of the Scottish National Party Mr John Swinney MSP published a letter that he has written to the Scottish Secretary Alistair Darling, following the refusal of Mr Darling to meet him in order to discuss the issue of Westminster blocking the Scottish Parliament paying out compensation to people who contracted Hepatitis C from contaminated NHS blood.

The Scottish Parliament is united in wishing to make such payments - but there is a problem of the Department of Work & Pensions threatening to claw the money back through the benefit system.

In recent weeks, SNP Social Security Spokesperson Ms Annabelle Ewing MP has questioned the Department of Work & Pensions, the former Scotland Office, the Advocate-General, and the Prime Minister on the issue - without receiving an answer to the problem.

In his letter, Mr Swinney says:

I write following my request for a meeting to discuss the view of the UK government on the payment of compensation to those, and the families of those, who contracted Hepatitis C as a consequence of their treatment in NHS hospitals in Scotland.

Can I first of all note my disappointment in the response of your office that a meeting would be inappropriate and that I should raise my concerns with the First Minister and the Minister of Health in Scotland.

I would have hoped that in your new role as Secretary of State for Scotland you would have taken up the opportunity to create a dialogue on the UK Government's position.

I am also somewhat perplexed as to what you believe I should raise with Scotland's First Minister and Health Minister. As I am sure you are aware the First Minister, the Health Minister, the leaders all of Scotland's political parties and, as far as I am aware, every member of the Scottish Parliament is in favour of making some form of payment to the victims and their families.

According to the First Minister and the Minister for Health, the reason no payment has been made is due to a dispute between Scottish Ministers and their UK counterparts. That dispute relates to both the legal competence of the Scottish Parliament to make the payment, and any subsequent clawback from the Department of Work and Pensions if a payment is made.

The reason I requested a meeting was to discuss the position of the UK government with regard to the dispute referred to by Scottish ministers. It is therefore difficult to determine why I should discuss the position of the UK government with the very ministers your government is in dispute with.

Given you have now said that Scotland's ministers can represent their views to UK department without the aid of the Secretary of State, surely one of the last roles of your office is to represent the views of the UK government to the people of Scotland and their representatives. If you will not even do that, the people will draw their own conclusions on the usefulness of your office.

In the event that your view remains the same I would be grateful for a formal reply outlining the position of the UK government from yourself or from the relevant government departments. If dialogue is not possible then I trust at least you will do me and the people of Scotland the courtesy of putting the position of the UK government on the record so at least we can ascertain where we stand on this matter.

Given the importance of this matter to the people of Scotland and to those who have been so tragically affected I am releasing the contents of this letter to the media.

Commenting on his letter, Mr Swinney said:

"I am extremely disappointed that Alistair Darling declined to meet me - his suggestion that I discuss Hepatitis C compensation with Scottish Ministers suggests that he doesn't understand the issue. In the Scottish Parliament, we all want to make the compensation - it is Alistair Darling and his colleagues at Westminster who are blocking it."

Ms Ewing said:

"This is an issue of basic justice - the Scottish Parliament wants to pay out compensation to sufferers of Hepatitis C, but Westminster is threatening to claw the money back. If Alistair Darling won't help to get this serious problem resolved, then he is simply demonstrating the irrelevance of his office."

SCOTTISH EXPORTS IN FURTHER DECLINE
Wed 9 Jul 03

EXECUTIVE UNABLE TO REVERSE ECONOMIC SLIDE SAYS MATHER

SNP Shadow Economy Minister Mr Jim Mather MSP has today (Wednesday) expressed concern after the latest export figures show a further decline in the Scottish economy. The figures state that:

* Manufactured export sales have decreased by 24 percent in real terms in 2003
* Electrical and instrument engineering exports have dropped by 40 percent in the last year

Commenting, Mr Mather said:

"The latest figures show that the manufacturing industry in Scotland continues to be in distress and that the Scottish Executive has been unable to reverse its dangerous slide.

"Unfortunately, today's statistics join the litany of other damning evidence that the Scottish Executive's economic policies are just not working.

"From low growth to lost jobs and falling relative wages, the proof is there that Scotland must stop being a branch economy with its tax rates dictated by London, and must grasp the power to compete.

"Unless we do, many Scottish families will face a much more difficult and uncertain future with the possibility of family members having to move away to find rewarding jobs.

"This will only cause a further decline in population and make the Scottish Executive's top priority of Economic Growth even more elusive.

"Surely it is time for the Scottish Executive to recognise the harsh reality that faces Scotland; otherwise they will prolong unnecessary national and individual under-performance with all the adverse economic and social implications that involves."

EXECUTIVE MUST SUPPORT SCOTLANDS NURSES
Tue 8 Jul 03

FOUNDATION HOSPITALS POSE A REAL THREAT SAYS ROBISON

SNP Shadow Health Minister Ms Shona Robison MSP has today called on the Executive to back Scotland's nurses. On the day UNISON Scotland launched their campaign for fair pay and MPs debate Foundation Hospitals for England Ms Robison outlined the double threat the NHS in Scotland faces:

"The NHS in Scotland is already crying out for more nurses as low pay pushes more and more nurses out to the privates sector, other employment and agency work.

"Foundation hospitals south of the Border with increased financial resources will exacerbate that problem by luring nurses out of Scotland, with the promise of higher pay

"UNISON have made the case for a better pay deal to stop nurses leaving the NHS and it's time the Scottish Executive heeded their warnings and woke up to the real threat posed by foundation hospitals in England.

"The SNP was the only party during the last election to argue for a separate Scottish solution to the Scottish nursing crisis and that case is growing stronger by the day.

"Nurses in Scotland play a vital role in the battle to reduce waiting lists and waiting times and it is time that the Scottish Executive awarded them financial support in line with the vital work they do.

"If they don't the crisis is just going to get worse."

DRINK DRIVING AT ALL TIME HIGH
Mon 7 Jul 03

ALMOST 8,000 SCOTS CAUGHT OVER THE LIMIT

SNP Shadow Justice Minister Ms Nicola Sturgeon MSP has today (Monday) revealed that drink driving offences in Scotland are at an all time high since Labour came to power and has called on the Scottish Executive to do more to raise awareness of the growing problem. Ms Sturgeon revealed that:

* Driving over the limit - The number of people found driving with blood alcohol content over the prescribed limit in 1999 was 7,397, but has risen to 7,850 in 2002.

* Driving after using drink or drugs - The number of people caught driving while unfit through drink and drugs was 825 in 1999, but has risen by 21 percent to 1,001 in 2002.

Commenting, Ms Sturgeon said:

"Almost 8,000 people in Scotland were caught driving over the limit last year and there has also been over 1000 people, a 21 percent rise, who drove while unfit through the influence of alcohol or drugs since 1999, and this cannot be allowed to continue.

"It is a very worrying trend that drink driving offences are at an all time high in Scotland since 1999 and the Scottish Executive must do more to raise awareness of this problem.

"It is time that action is taken to reduce the number of Scots who drive after using drink or drugs, so that we can cut the number of related accidents on Scotland's roads.

"Not only are people putting their own lives at risk when they get into a car under the influence, but they are also risking the lives of other people in Scotland."

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