Euro-Referendum Breaking News

Tony Blair has just held a press conference (Thursday 22 April) on his referendum U-turn.

I quote Blair:  I have changed my mind on having an open genuine debate with the British people.

So now we know.  For months, up until it became politically impossible for him, the prime minister was totally against having an open genuine debate with the voters.

Well, well.

It¹s all about Democracy

One of the basic arguments for Scottish independence is of course - democracy.  In its simplest sense, democracy means that people first of all vote, and then get the government that most of them voted for.

Not so in Scotland.  Just look at the facts below.

Between 1951 and 1997 Scotland got seven Conservative prime ministers - in chronological order,  they were:

Winston Churchill, Anthony Eden, Harold MacMillan, Alex Douglas-Hume, Edward Heath, Margaret Thatcher and John Major.

Out of those seven prime ministers, who in total triumphed in eight British general elections, and who who ruled over Scotland for almost 35 years, how many do you think actually won the popular vote in Scotland?

The answer is, only one - that was Anthony Eden in 1955, and he lasted for less than two years.  So for the Tories to rule Scotland for 35 years out of 46, they only had to win one election!  One election win, and you get to rule for 76% of the time.

Conversely, of course, of all the 13 general elections in Scotland between 1951 and up to (but not including) 1997, Labour won 12 (92%), but only ruled for some 11 years (24% of the time).

So no wonder the Tories like the present system!  But what about democracy, then?

Makes you think.

Have I Got News for You!!

Readers may remember that in my first contribution to the Flag I had a little statistical corner in which I demonstrated the tremendous advance of the Irish economy compared with Britain¹s.

It showed that in 1960 Irish GNP was only only 47% of Britain¹s, but that by 1972 it had advanced to 64%.

Well, now, according to the European Union's statistical office, Eurostat, the years since 1972 have seen an even more dramatic increase in Ireland¹s wealth.

Final figures for the year 2001 now put Ireland on 112% of Britain¹s GDP.

Are Scots Anti-English? - A Discussion

In issue 188 of the Flag, dated 9 January 2004,  an English reader John Austin wrote in to say how much he enjoyed the website but how much he deplored the knee-jerk anti-Englishness of many of your countrymen, which is ignorant racism pure and simple.

Too often this topic is either pushed under the carpet or is discussed - if that is the word for it - in the crudest possible terms.

So let¹s make a start on a rational discussion.  There can be no doubt that on an ordinary personal level the Scots and the English get on perfectly well together.  Like me, many Scots have English parents or grand-parents, or have lived and worked in England (as I have myself).

Many English folk have ties of family and affection with Scotland.

So why is there a problem?  A problem for both our countries.

First of all, other countries in Europe teach us that this is not a problem unique to the Scotland-England relationship.  Smaller countries which have either lived in the shadow of larger countries, or been ruled by them, tend to resent the larger, while the larger countries can often tend to be insensitive to their smaller neighbours, or simply treat them as a joke.

Traditionally, the Belgians have resented the attitude of the French towards them, while the French have all too often lambasted Belgium (see, for example, the poet Baudelaire).

Most of the other Scandinavian countries, especially Norway, often seem to have it in for the Swedes.  (A few years back I saw a t-shirt for sale in a stall in Bergen, Norway.  The front of the t-shirt showed a map of Scandinavia, but at first I couldn¹t quite see just what was wrong with the map.  And then I read underneath: Scandinavia - without Sweden.)

And the Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians and Poles all seem to resent, to a greater or lesser extent, the Russians, if they don¹t actually seem at times to hate them.

Nearer home, of course, the bitterness Irish Catholics felt towards the British, and the British jokes about the daft Irish, are simply reflecting the feelings and dilemmas that are all too sadly human, and certainly not specific to Scotland and England.

Now none of this can be called racist.  It is a consequence of history and the unequal relationships between these countries.

It is interesting that Irish resentment of the British and British jokes about the Irish have greatly reduced in the years following Irish independence.  The Irish now see Britain as a friend and partner, rather than as a colonial overlord.  It is not in Dublin, but sadly in Edinburgh, that God save the Queen, is booed as it is played before a rugby match.

So what can be done about Scotland and England.

The Scottish situation is exacerbated by the fact that so much of our media commentary comes from London.  This means that there is a London assumption that the rest of Britain, including Scotland, will share the attitudes of the South.

Well, yes and no.  For instance, many Scots tend to be interested and sympathetic spectators when England is playing, be it football, rugby or whatever.  But I have seen many Scots, after listening to an Englsih commentator for five minutes, become passionately supporters of the other team.  

It is the arrogant and partisan attitude of commentators that really turns people off.  It wouldn¹t really matter whether they were English, French, German or whatever.  Those who are not true believers or followers will react, and react by supporting the other side.

So for a start, non-partisan commentators would be a great advance.

In the long term of course, Scottish independence would greatly help to reduce the chip on the shoulder mentality of the Scots.  It would also help to get rid of the attitude of many in the London-based media that the Scots are a bunch of whinging scroungers.

Executive Packages Rise by more than 12 times Inflation - Herald

One of the beauties of a new independent Scotland is that it will be possible start to build a new, fairer and more just society.

I was prompted to this thought by an article in the Herald newspaper, with the headline above.

It seems that in 2003 chief executive basic salaries in Britain rose by an average of 3%.  But - and here¹s the rub - while for most of us our salary is our salary and that¹s that,  for chief executives these basic salaries account for only 16% of their total remuneration.  Sixteen per cent, you read it right!

So after they get their basic pay, they can add on another 84% to their wealth, picked up in bonuses, share options and pension contributions - to name only the most obvious sources.

So that¹s how chief execs beat inflation twelve times over!

It seems incredible that the government¹s so-called reforms of 2002 have not, in the words of the survey by Independent Remuneration Solutions, brought greater transparency and accountability or helped to restrain directors¹ pay.

It does seem odd that while Gordon Brown is going on about sacking forty thousand civil servants and telling everyone else to keep their wage demands low, the highest paid in the land can indulge their greed year on year and Labout takes no real action.

Burying Bad News - Three Government Examples

It was Jo Moore, a member of Tony Blair¹s spin machine, who famously said in an internal memo that 9/11 was a good day for burying bad news.  She was found out, publicly identified and therefore sacked.

But few people seem to have noticed that while Tony Blair and his government have never made the mistake of repeating Jo Moore¹s assertion, burying bad news is in fact a major aspect of this government¹s spin.

Here are another couple of examples.

Most people have by now forgotten all about it, but in the spring of 1999  thousands of square miles of Scottish territorial waters were removed by Blair and his government from Scottish jurisdiction.  Just like that.  No announcement at the time, no debate in the Commons, just a quick decision taken in an obscure committee.

It was certainly bad news for the Scots.  So how did it happen.  It happened just as the Scottish political parties were concentrating all their efforts and attention on the campaign for the first Scottish parliament in almost three hundred years, so all Scots and their MPs were looking elsewhere.

And it happened just as Britain was gearing up for Tony Blair¹s war in Kosovo, so many other MPs were looking elsewhere too.

There is, however, is a much more recent example of burying bad news - an example that seems to have gone almost completely unnoticed both by the media and the public in general.

Remember the dodgy dossier?  The dodgy dossier was the report supposedly from Britain's so-called intelligence agencies which purported to show that Sadam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.

In fact it was a ten-year-old academic thesis lifted off the internet and published by the british government, complete with the original spelling and grammar mistakes!

Indeed,  the dodgy dossier was far more important than that other earlier dossier that ultimately gave rise to the now discredited Hutton inquiry and report.

The dodgy dossier was a piece of deception practised by the Blair government on the entire country, on Parliament, on its own MPs, and on members of the US government, most notably Colin Powell, who used some of its arguments when justifying war before the General Assembly of the United Nations.

Just how was the dodgy dossier buried?  It is instructive to look at its history.  It was first analysed by John Snow on Channel 4 News.  It was of such importance that it should have hit the headlines in both the newspapers and on TV news the next day.

But the government just couldn¹t allow that.  So Mr Blair came up with the great announcement that his government was going to half the number of immigrants in the queue within a year.

Such is the tabloid obsession with immigration that Mr Blair¹s statement dominated the news for the next 24 hours - the next day¹s ITV evening
news, to its eternal shame, did not even mention the dodgy dossier at all.

And not just that.  So as to really bury the dodgy dossier, Alastair Campbell and the government really went to town with bluster, bullying and humbug over a single criticism of the government by BBC correspondent Andrew Gilligan, made in a broadcast at 6.07 am.

Minds were turned towards Gilligan, the BBC, the storming of Channel 4 news by Campbell, the tragic death of Dr David Kelly and much else besides.  And so we forgot all about the dodgy dossier, which was the real scandal.

So full full marks to Blair, Campbell et al for their clever and cynical exploitation of the media, and nul points to all in the media for having been so consummately hoodwinked and led by the nose.

Statistics Corner

The table below compares the relative wealth of Britain, Spain, Portugal and Greece.

Figures for Spain, Portugal and Greece are given as percentages of Britain¹s.  GNP for 1960 and 1972 (OECD), and GDP for 2003 (EU estimate).

                   1960            1972            2001

Spain           24.8%         33.1%          80.2%     

Portugal      20.4%         20.9%          67.2%

Greece        30.7%         35.5%           63.9%

So where will we all be in another ten years¹ time?

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".  

Better off British? Working life

UK workers put in longer hours and have fewer rights than other EU workers. The average UK working week is 44.2 hours compared to 40.3 in Denmark and 40.7 in Finland. (Source: Eurostat 2003). Government figures show that almost half a million Scottish workers put in regular unpaid overtime. The average amount is 6 hours and 48 minutes a week - worth an average of £3,769 in extra salary every year! (Source: TUC). This work till you drop culture is not helped by the fact that the UK was the only country that opted out of the EU 48 hour working limit introduced in 1998.

The UK Government is notorious for opting out of, or delaying the implementation of, legislation to protect workers' rights. The Tories did it by opting out of the Social Chapter‹and Labour hasn't been much better.
The SNP wants to see Scottish workers having the same rights as their EU counterparts. Denying workers equal rights and expecting them to spend longer at work than their European colleagues does nothing to increase our competitiveness - it merely results in low productivity, increased stress and family breakdown, as well as discriminating against women and men with caring responsibilities.

We want to deliver a high-skill, high-wage, smart, successful Scotland‹where workers are treated with the respect and dignity they deserve.

SYNOPSIS

Swinney dismisses Prodi's claim as incorrect

John Swinney MSP has hit out at claims by European Commission President Romano Prodi that "newly independent regions" would have to reapply for membership of the EU. The SNP Leader pointed out that Mr Prodi was "not a dispassionate civil servant" but "an Italian politician wanting to become the next prime minister of Italy". Mr Swinney also pointed to the body of legal opinion spanning two decades which had shown the Italian politician's claims to be unfounded.

Mather welcomes survey

Shadow Enterprise and Economy Minister Mr Jim Mather MSP, has welcomed the most recent British Chamber of Commerce Quarterly Economic Survey for the 1st Quarter of 2004 as yet further endorsement of the need for Scotland to have the powers to compete. Commenting he said:

"In category after category in this report we have evidence that the economic recovery that is at present taking place in the USA and some parts of the UK is not happening in Scotland.

"Scotland is recorded as underperforming most other UK regions in Manufacturing Home, Employment, Lower levels of recruitment, Lower Levels of Investment, Lower level of Business Confidence.

"However, what makes the report really worrying is that Scottish manufacturing capacity showed a high level of capacity utilisation, which suggests we do not have much slack in the system for immediate growth recovery. A fact that is underlined given the current dire level of investment."

Blair foolish and supine - Salmond

Speaking in Edinburgh during a visit to the Scottish Parliament, SNP Westminster leader Alex Salmond said:

"The US Administration has abandoned any pretence of even-handedness in the Middle East.

"The Israeli settlements in the West Bank are every bit as illegal as those in the Gaza Strip, and it is unacceptable that the new US policy has been decided without any discussion with the Palestinian Authority."

"Tony Blair may try to portray himself as the President's buddy - but he is really Bush's toady. Blair's support for the US U-turn on Palestine is every bit as foolish and supine as his backing for the illegal war in Iraq."

Northern ferries-link study commissioned

Aberdeen and the north of Scotland must have improved sea links to the central belt and northern Europe, Shadow Transport Minister Mr Kenny MacAskill MSP and SNP MSP for Aberdeen North Mr Brian Adam said as they launched a new maritime strategy.

The European funded Northern Maritime Corridor project has commissioned a study investigating the feasibility of linking the Northlink Orkney and Shetland Ferries with Superfast Ferries at Rosyth and with the Smyril Line that connects Lerwick to the Faroes, Iceland, Norway and Denmark. Moreover, many vessels spend long periods idle in Aberdeen harbour when not operating one of the current routes.

Salmond demands separate Scottish Euro-referendum result

The Westminster leader of the Scottish National Party Mr Alex Salmond MP has written to the Prime Minister Tony Blair, and Sam Younger, Chairman of the Electoral Commission, calling on them to make a commitment that the results of a UK referendum on the European Constitution will be published by nation and region, so that we will know how Scotland votes.

Previously, the Government have refused to agree that a referendum on an EU issue would be published on this basis. For example, on 4 December 2001, Glasgow Pollok Labour MP Ian Davidson asked the then Deputy Scottish Secretary George Foulkes: "Can he clarify whether the Government intend to have the results of any future [euro] referendum counted separately by country?" Mr Foulkes answered: "No."

Ireland leads Europe

The Westminster leader of the Scottish National Party Mr Alex Salmond MP has addressed a conference of the British-Irish Council in Cork, Ireland, on the subject of European Union enlargement. Mr Salmond said:

"In both political and economic terms, Ireland is leading the European Union at the present time.

"The Irish hold the EU presidency as the 10 enlargement nations prepare to become full members on 1 May - nearly all of them countries the same size or smaller than Scotland.

"And Ireland's economy has been growing faster than any other EU or enlargement nation - as official Eurostat figures show that Irish wealth per head is now second in Europe only to Luxembourg, with the UK in sixth place.

"There is a direct connection between the clout in Europe that statehood gives Ireland, and the country's phenomenal economic success."