BACK IN HARNESS
The
last Flag I did was No 192 on 6th February, and I feel I should start
this one "Unaccustomed as I am....", but I’ll spare you that.
The first four
weekly cycle is over, and I have mixed emotions; in the first instance
I am delighted to have such a varied and talented team doing the Flag,
but I have missed the weekly rush of adrenalin, the jousts with
Kenneth Fee, and the pressure of hitting the deadline. That said, I
have no regrets, as three years almost solo was not sustainable, and
the last year with Allison and Richard taking turns was much better,
but symmetry has now been arrived at, before cemetery took its place.
So here I am, a wee bit
rusty, although I have been monitoring the SNP press releases to stop
me from wearying (Tsk, tsk - sarcasm).
SEWEL JEWELS
One
of the interesting items cropping up recently is that Lord Sewel, who
introduced Sewel motions into the devolution process, is disappointed
at how often the Scottish Executive have used them. To put it in
mundane terms, the Executive is using the convention like a Disabled
Parking Permit, where drivers who have one because of a disabled
family member park in disabled spaces when they are not transporting
the aforesaid disabled family member; that means they cheat the
disabled, while the Executive just cheat the Parliament and the Scots.
The Sewel
Convention was created as it was seen that there would be a need for a
procedure where Westminster’s ongoing legislation would have to be
dovetailed with legislation going through Holyrood. This meant that
Westminster legislation impacting on devolved issues would be nodded
through Holyrood , thus saving time. However, when Lord Sewel
introduced the convention, he foresaw perhaps a couple of issues a
year, but in fact there have been more than 50 in the first five
years. Opposition parties, and Lord Sewel himself (a Labour peer) are
seeing this as a means of sidetracking difficult issues, by leaving
them to Westminster, and then saying "It wisna me!"
Sometimes it is
understandable that the Executive might wish to avoid controversy; in
the first year of the Scottish Parliament we had the abominable mess
when Wendy Alexander blithely announced to the gay community that she
was abolishing the Section 2a (Clause 28) regulation for schools. This
led to an outburst of moral indignation, culminating in a privately
funded referendum which took the opposite view; ever since the
Executive has been running scared of any contentious issue. While this
may be acceptable to the apparatchiks of the Labour Party, we do need
to face and debate these issues in Scotland, and not have the
decisions taken elsewhere; if Labour has not matured, then that’s
their problem.
Like many other issues,
I wonder if the Executive would have been quite so cavalier if the
Westminster Government had been of a different political complexion;
can you imagine First Minister McConnell handing over the NHS Reform
and Health Care Professionals Bill to the tender care of Prime
Minister Michael Howard - or Prime Minister Sir Malcolm Rifkind for
that matter? Especially when the Executive hands them over before
Westminster has even started to amend the legislation; the Tories
support the idea unequivocally, while the Liberals support it
equivocally, as they do everything else.
We know that
Tony Blair really upset everyone when he referred to the Scottish
Parliament as just like a parish council, but it looks as if
McConnell’s time in local government has given him that mindset.
EQUIVOCAL
LIBERALS
What
an absolute dog’s breakfast the Unionist parties are making of
democracy! I refer of course to the recent furore over the Airborne
initiative, where the Labour Party decided to close down a scheme to
rehabilitate persistent young offenders after a BBC TV documentary
called "Chancers" showed the scheme in a bad light.
Some thoughts about
this; where are the lines between broadcasting in the public interest,
and sensationalism to get more viewers? I did not see the programme,
and have very little knowledge of the Airborne project, except that it
has echoes of "Bring back National Service" - a panacea for unruly
youth- which did not quite work either. However, a report from the
Executive’s own inspectors dated 20th December 2003 said the scheme
was working very successfully! Perhaps a case of the BBC not
considering the wider public interest?
In any event, the
Executive decided to withdraw the funding, £600,000, as from the end
of March, and did not bother to inform their Liberal "allies"; the SNP
put forward an amendment to delay the withdrawal of funding until the
matter had been fully discussed in the Parliament. The Initiative had
been featured in the Liberal Party manifesto as a way of reducing
re-offending, and Liberal MSPs Donald Gorrie and Robert Brown were
vociferous in their support for the SNP amendment; come the day and
the debate - and at the end of it all the Liberals, with the exception
of Keith Raffan, voted solidly with the Executive to defeat the SNP
amendment! In a weak attempt to justify their actions, Donald Gorrie
said that the Executive had made up its mind anyway, and that if the
Liberals helped defeat the Executive this could have dire
consequences; the Labour Party Conference was on in Inverness and they
would be debating proportional representation for local government, so
any vote against the Executive could result in considerable
embarrassment and a defeat at the Conference for this most precious
principle.
All very slick, except
that the devious Labour Party allowed a debate on proportional
representation at their Conference, but in true Labour democratic
fashion they had an impassioned debate - but no vote! All delegates
could have their say, but while they would be listened to, no one
would pay any attention, as the matter was decided. The Liberals were
also rather ingenuous in that they said the Executive had made up its
mind, and who cared what the Parliament decided; that this may be the
case is only possible because the Liberals cave in at the first hint
that they could lose any power. Two years ago, the Executive was
defeated on the fishing issue; they re-ran the vote, and the Liberals
duly caved in.
One little thought for
them - as they tell us how they can change the world; Labour claim to
have delivered 144 of their 146 manifesto commitments - how many of
the Liberal manifesto commitments have they achieved? Please don’t let
them try the abolition of student tuition fees canard, deferment and
abolition do not mean the same; going back to the National Service
comment above, any young man learning a trade was not called up at 18,
but was deferred until he had finished his time, normally about 21.
National Service for painters, plumbers and engineers was not
abolished, only deferred - like tuition fees for students.
DEVIOUS
BUGGERS
It
may just be my natural cynicism, but I cannot for the life of me
understand what all the fuss about bugging is about; the British
State, of which we are currently members, has a vast apparatus at
Cheltenham, called GCHQ, which is devoted entirely to the collection
and analysis of electronic information.
Every country has
intelligence services, every country eavesdrops where and when it can;
when we have an independent Scotland, we will have an intelligence
service, and we will also eavesdrop where and when we can. To do
otherwise would be foolish in the extreme, and put our country at
risk. Whether this is honourable is purely academic, as we do not live
in an honourable world, and it is up to us to look after our own
nation first.
There have been some
highly amusing comments on the issue; I particularly liked one letter
which said that as Tony Blair said his would be a listening
government, how could we complain when it did just that? I can also
recall a former SNP Vice Chairman for Publicity, Colin Bell, publicly
stating "If MI5 are not bugging meetings of the SNP National
Executive, then I, as a British taxpayer, will complain that they are
not doing their duty" - or words to that effect.
So a load of
hypocritical waffle about bugging the United Nations and Kofi Annan,
while no comment on the fact that the United Nations will also be
bugging each other, and Kofi Annan will be kept reliably informed; he
also needs to know where threats are coming from. What is the
difference?
DEWAR’S FOLLY-
A PIG IN A POKE
I
wonder where the Fraser Inquiry in to the Holyrood Parliament building
is going to go next? Since Day One, there has been one sensational
revelation after another, and we are finding out that what we thought
had happened, actually happened, in many cases with bells on.
This week, it has
been the turn of the builders, Bovis Lend Lease, to face the
questions; the fairly direct "question" from John Campbell QC, that
awarding the contract to Bovis was already fixed and that the
competitive tendering was just a formality, would indicate that Mr
Campbell knows more than he is admitting at this stage. Bovis, who
naturally denied the charge, chose to highlight the number of design
changes to the building as their main defence. As there have been
15,000 design changes, and they are not yet finished, this may appear
legitimate, except that they could not satisfactorily explain why they
had not called a halt until things were clearer.
The late Donald Dewar
was the man who picked the site, the architect, the plan and the
contractor, long before the Parliament was elected. The site was ruled
out as unsuitable, the architect was ruled out as unsuitable, the
builder was ruled out as unsuitable - so we ended up with all of them!
As for the plan, as soon as we heard that Enric Miralles had a vision
of upturned boats as a typically Scottish theme we should have run a
mile; upturned boats generally sink, and Miralles had seen them from
the train - in England! Not a good omen, that.
Despite all this
obvious evidence as to where the blame lies, we still have letters in
the press bleating about these MSPs , changing everything at great
expense to provide themselves with a palace to loll about in, lording
it over the rest of us, and being handsomely paid. In fact, the very
scale of the changes, and the fact that they are not yet finished,
shows how ill judged the whole project was from Day One, and the fact
that the project could have been stopped, thought about, and properly
analysed could have saved vast sums, heaps of bad publicity, and a lot
of time and angst.
Enric Miralles seems to
have had in mind something like the Gaudi project in his native
Barcelona, which I have visited, where the architects are making it up
as they go along, which may never be finished, and the purpose of
which is unclear to say the least. Starting with the aforesaid
upturned boats theme, he did not supply proper plans, and when he did
supply plans they were late and vague; by this time the Secretary of
State for Scotland, on the advice of the civil servants, had signed
the open ended contract and the builders were rubbing their hands with
glee; they could not believe their luck - a dripping roast and a
lifetime job at the same time!
What were all the
design changes? Well for a start there was the debating chamber; while
the one required was a horseshoe shape, Miralles designed one that was
rectangular, like a lecture theatre; perhaps an elementary look even
at the European Parliament would have given him a clue, but the change
to the original concept cost more than £30 million to fix . I can
remember in my working life an office being built in a temperature
controlled chamber where the window was 6 feet off the ground; the
builders were a bit embarrassed when we asked how were dockets to be
issued to drivers through the window, when the staff and drivers could
neither see, hear or reach other? The problem there was that the
builders/architects had not spoken to the operators. Now that was in a
fairly standard distribution warehouse, and not a large and
complicated Parliament building designed for a site with plenty of
room for expansion, and not the shoe-horned place it finished up, so
one can imagine some of the monumental cock-ups the architects and
builders were faced with, because it was rushed and no one talked to
the operators, but then there were no operators when it was designed!.
However, while we are
still being denied the films of the late Donald Dewar and Enric
Miralles sniggering away as they screwed everything up, perhaps our
much maligned intelligence services have tapes of these conversations?
We would hate to think that they omitted to bug this saga.
SCOTLAND’S
GOLDEN AGE
The
Alexander III Commemoration will be held at the Alexander III
Memorial, Pettycur Kinghorn, Fife, on Sunday 21st March 2004 at 3 pm.
Speakers will be Ian
Scott, Former Director of the Saltire Society, and James Halliday,
Historian and Author.
Car Parking will be
available at the Kingswood Hotel.
BBC CHARTER
RENEWAL
There
will be a Public Meeting in Edinburgh on Thursday 11th March where
viewers and listeners can put their opinions directly to Andrew
McIntosh, the Minister for Broadcasting, Department for Media, Culture
and Sport; unfortunately, in his long letter to the Oban Times, he
neglected to give a time or location.
Those who wish tickets
can phone 0845 3000 656; alternately, pick up the leaflet "Your BBC,
Your Say" in the public library. Further information can be obtained
at www.bbccharterreview.org.uk, and your views can be expressed by
writing to BBC Charter Review Consultation, Department for Media
Culture and Sport, 2-4 Cockspur Street, London SW1Y 5DH, or emailed to
: bbccharterreview@culture.gsi.gov.uk All responses should be sent by
31st March 2004.
By the way, the current
Royal Charter comes up for review on 1st January 2007; it is reviewed
every 10 years, and was last renewed in 1996, which will make it 11
years, but who’s counting?
Mr McIntosh’s letter
notes that it is a considerable distance for readers to travel from
Oban to Edinburgh, and I look forward to further illuminating
information in his letters to the Scotsman and the Herald.
POLICY
POSTCARDS
We
continue our publication of the SNP Policy Postcards; we will publish
a new one every week, each one dealing with a different aspect of SNP
policy. The full list can be seen on the SNP website under "Vision"
and "Policy".
Waste
Scotland is
currently the dirty man of Europe. Radical action is required to bring
waste management in Scotland up to acceptable levels. Instead the
Executive has relied on rhetoric. Scotland should be moving towards
sustainability but this will only be achieved with real leadership.
Only the SNP has the vision required to deliver a clean, green
independent future for Scotland.
Our recycling
record is an embarrassment – less than 5% of household waste is
recycled when the European target is 50-65%.
Scotland sends £50m
a year in Landfill tax revenue to the UK Treasury – this money
should stay in Scotland for investment in waste management and the
SNP will make sure it does.
The SNP are
committed to the development of a resource efficient culture in
Scotland. We want Scotland to become a world leader in securing a
sustainable environment. We can only do that with Independence.
As an addendum to the
above, a recent study has shown that Scotland produces enough waste
for everyone to fill one and a half bin bags every day of the year; as
in this household we struggle to fill the bin once a week, there must
be some really prolific wasters out there
FOOT IN THE MOUTH
NOTES
An
interesting thought from Richard Ingrams in his weekly column in the
Observer; there is grave concern (no pun intended) at the demographic
nightmare of Britain’s ageing population, with forecasts that most of
the residents of the United Kingdom will be geriatrics within the next
thirty years.
At the same time, we
are being urged to stop smoking, eat healthier food, and take more
exercise - so that we can live longer.
Advocates of
congestion charging should take note of what is happening in
Indonesia; the authorities have banned cars carrying less than three
people from the city during the peak period. So "car jockeys" stand by
the roadside, get a lift into town and a few bob, then walk back and
start again.
Now if they
implemented the same system here, pensioners could do that, using
their bus pass to get back for a second shift; just the job for
augmenting the pension.
I
was somewhat abashed at a recent cost comparison between Britain and
average EU prices for a list of products; the items featured were Coca
Cola, Pringles (crisps not sweaters) Marlboro Light cigarettes, Veuve
Cliquot champagne, MacDonald’s hamburger and a bus ticket.
The only item on my
shopping list would have been the bus ticket, and as a pensioner I
travel free. Note - must widen my horizons.
The Scottish Executive
has asked Ballast Wiltshier to comment on new proposals to hand over
hospitals and other health related facilities to private companies;
the company was included in a list of consultees asked about forming
joint ventures with local councils.
It would be
interesting to know this particular company’s response; Ballast
Wiltshier had a £43 million joint venture with East Lothian Council to
build and refurbish secondary schools, a project launched with great
fanfare and glossy brochures. They went into administration (polite
word for bust) last year, bankrupting many sub contractors, who
supplied the materials and did the work, while Ballast took the money
and ran.
Cold
calling with a difference; I answered the phone to hear a recorded
message : "We are sorry to have disturbed you. This message was
intended only to be answered by an answering machine. Thank you."
How did it know I
was not an answering machine?
Every time I walk in to
my living room, I seem to see programmes on cooking, with this or that
celebrity chef preparing appetising meals in a jiffy, surrounded by
admiring acolytes; it would seem that the public are hooked on cooking
and eating more and more exotic meals.
These programmes
are shown everywhere, including to patients in hospital, who normally
have jaded appetites, anyway; what a disappointment for those in
hospital in Edinburgh, for starters, when they get tasteless
scrambled eggs - trunked up from Wales.
SYNOPSIS
A selection of the
press releases put out by our elected representatives over the past
week. It is not possible to do a lot; there were 42 press releases
between Thu 26 Feb 04 and Wed 3 Mar 04.
HUDGHTON SEEKS EU RULING TO HALT
TETRA MASTS
Wed 3 Mar 04
Ian
Hudghton MEPSNP Member of the European Parliament, Ian Hudghton, is
asking the EU to rule that further installation of TETRA masts be
halted until a full evaluation of risks to public health is carried
out. Mr Hudghton, who was contacted by Perthshire campaigners over the
erection of a mast at Comrie, has tabled an urgent question to the
Commission, pointing out that current regulations have failed to keep
pace with recent developments like TETRA. He further reminds the
Commission of its own recommendations on Extremely Low Frequency
modulations, such as those used by TETRA, that further research needs
to be carried out in this field.
Speaking from
Parliament in Brussels today, the MEP said:
"The European Union has
a duty to protect public health through legislation to harmonise
regulations on exposure to electromagnetic fields. The current
guidelines are hopelessly out of date and yet the UK Government is
forging ahead with its TETRA programme quoting regulations which
predate this system. We just can’t allow this programme to run on
unchecked when we can’t put our hands on our hearts and say "It’s
safe".
"The Commission’s rules
lay down that it’s the Member States who bear responsibility for
ensuring that adequate health protection measures are taken. This has
not happened and it’s not good enough. This is why I’ve asked the
Commission to exercise its duty of care in stopping the UK Government
in its tracks until proper testing is done."
Perth and Kinross SNP
Councillor John Hulbert, who recently sought to have the health
implications posed by TETRA masts taken into account in planning
decisions, welcomed Mr Hudghton’s actions.
TETRA is being
introduced in the UK to serve the Police and emergency services. It
operates at ultra high frequency (395 Mhz) pulses of around 17.6Hz, a
frequency which has been shown as causing damage to the nervous and
immune systems in human beings. The UK Independent Expert Group on
Mobile Phones in their Government commissioned study of 2000, the
Stewart Report, said that modulation around the frequency of 16Hz
"should be avoided" because of possible health impacts.
OVER 200 JOBS TO GO AT AA
Wed 3 Mar 04
Following
the announcement today (Wednesday) that the Erskine Branch of the AA
is to close, affecting over 200 jobs Shadow Economy and Enterprise
Minister Mr Jim Mather MSP and Shadow Transport Minister Mr Kenny
MacAskill MSP have labelled the decision as a massive blow to Scottish
workers and a clear indication that the Scottish Executive is not
working with employers to keep jobs in Scotland.
Commenting Mr Mather
said:
"This is the latest in a depressingly long line of companies moving
jobs out of Scotland either south of the border or overseas. And it
begs the question, "What exactly is Jim Wallace doing to improve our
country's economy?"
"A steady leakage of quality jobs with mainstream companies is a huge
issue, yet it is becoming increasingly clear to everyone that the
Scottish Executive is incapable of doing anything about it.
"There is no
doubt that Scottish workers want something done about it. This country
will never accept the Eddie George scenario, which said that we should
be a compliant buffer-zone to protect the economy down South."
Speaking later Mr MacAskill said:
"The AA has served both Scottish motorists and our job market well in
the past and this decision will come as a massive blow.
"The parent company Centrica owns both the AA and Scottish Gas and
after dismantling the AA in Scotland, they still intend to market
themselves to customers as a wholly Scottish company with Scottish
interests and this is a slap in the face for AA employees."
HAPLESS GREENS
VOTE AGAINST FISHERIES CONSERVATION IN KEY VOTE
Wed 3 Mar 04
Shadow
Fisheries Minister Mr Richard Lochhead MSP today (Wednesday) promised
to take the SNP's opposition to December's fisheries deal to the full
parliament following the defeat of his motion to annul the
controversial Days at Sea legislation at the meeting of the
Environment and Rural Development Committee.
Mr Lochhead's
motion was defeated by six votes to three. Mr Lochhead provided
examples of how the deal not only discriminates against Scotland but
goes against fisheries conservation by forcing fishermen to dump
healthy fish overboard even though they have quota. Despite this, the
Greens decided to support the fisheries agreement. Mr Lochhead
commented:
"The committee
vote was a key opportunity to stop the fisheries deal becoming law in
Scotland. As expected, the Labour and Lib Dem members of the committee
were whipped into defending Ministers, but the Green Party decided to
drop their policy of promoting fisheries conservation and that will
disappoint people who voted for them in the last Scottish elections.
The Greens proved
today that they are no friends of the sea and no friends of the
fishing industry. Their decision to support the Government threatens
the future of the fish stocks in the North Sea."
"The complex and
draconian fisheries deal limits the now much smaller Scots fleet to a
mere fifteen days at sea when despite there being fewer boats and more
fish in the sea. Bizarrely it also forces Scots fishermen to dump
their haddock overboard when catching cod and dump cod overboard when
catching haddock even though they have legitimate quota for both these
stocks. None of the new restrictions that give rise to this ridiculous
situation apply to other foreign vessels fishing the same waters for
the same stocks".
PARAMILITARY
PRISONERS TO BE EXPORTED TO SCOTS JAILS
Wed 3 Mar 04
The
Scottish Executive is planning to railroad a plan through Parliament
that will see the compulsory transfer of "disruptive prisoners" - from
Northern Ireland to Scotland, Shadow Justice Minister Ms Nicola
Sturgeon MSP revealed today (Wednesday).
Speaking as she
revealed details of a Scottish Executive Sewel Memorandum laying out
the plan, Ms Sturgeon said:
"By the Executive's own admission, Scottish prisons are already
heavily overcrowded. Into our packed prison cells, ministers now
propose to accept Northern Irish prisoners who are deemed to be
disruptive. In effect, they want the power to import some of the UK's
worst terrorists into Scottish jails.
"If that is a part we can play in the peace process then it is
something we should consider. What Ministers are trying to do,
however, is railroad it through Parliament using the controversial
Sewel motion system.
"Instead of having an open debate, looking at whether we have the room
for these people and their likely impact on our own jails, they are
attempting to sidestep democracy by kicking the issue down to London.
That is an abdication of responsibility.
"Sewel motions have become an abuse of Parliament. Time and time again
they are used to avoid making difficult decisions. It may be that
Scotland should take these prisoners but it must be Scotland's
decision. Anything else is political cowardice."
PENSIONS BILL DEBATE
IN COMMONS Tue 2 Mar 04
The
Scottish National Party's Social Security Spokesperson Ms Annabelle
Ewing MP today [Tuesday] intervened in the debate on the Pensions Bill
in the House of Commons.
Ms Ewing raised the
issue of employees who have already lost out as a result of their
pension fund collapsing, and the failure of the current Bill to give
such people compensation. Ms Ewing said:
"The Secretary of State
said that we must not prejudge the issue of those who have already
lost out in their pension - and that is just not good enough.
"This Government have
been in office for nearly seven years. Why has it taken so long for
them to start examining the plight of those thousands who have lost
out through no fault of their own in their pension entitlement? Surely
the time to bring this sorry saga to a close is in this Bill?
"The Pensions Bill
should extend compensation to employees who have already lost out in
recent fund collapses. What we have at present is a watered down bill
which leaves people who have contributed to failed pension funds with
nothing".
