When I responded with the Thistle, I also commented that Scotland’s motto was "Nemo me impune lacessit", translated as "Wha daur meddle wi’ me?" This then set me thinking as to what was the motto of our new Parliament? I looked on their website, and I suppose it must be there somewhere, but as to where I wouldn’t know.

However, one thing I do know; it cannot be "Nemo me impune lacessit", because the Executive, as distinct from the Parliament, seem to be prepared to take instructions and orders from all and sundry, with the Westminster Parliament leading the charge. Of course, we are led by the Lib-Flab alliance, who all believe in the Great God of London. Just think how many Sewel motions have been passed by this motley crew; anything remotely controversial - let London decide.

It was always presumed that any legislature would seek to accrue more powers to itself, but that has not happened with this Scottish Executive. In consequence, I think the appropriate motto for them should be "Ultra Vires." This means that things are beyond their powers, and they are doing their damnedest to put as much beyond their powers as they can.

What the meejah, and the coterie comprising the now suspended MSP Campbell Martin and his acolytes (and puppetmasters) do not seem to understand is that the Party likes and trusts John Swinney; there was an exasperated reaction from the assembled delegates of "We elected John Swinney in September last year, we are now in the middle of another election campaign, so would you all get off our backs." And of course, all John’s proposals for the new constitution went through; I personally did not agree with one proposal, the one on gender balance, but it is in there now. According to one doubter, her view was swung by Nicola Sturgeon’s comment on the Labour women numpties in Holyrood. She asked "Have you looked at the Labour men numpties?" Touche - as they say in Govan.

I enjoyed John Swinney’s speech; in it he paid tribute to Neil MacCormick, who retires from the European Parliament this year. He praised Neil’s contribution to Scotland over the years, and in true SNP fashion said that while Neil was perhaps retiring from the European Parliament, he would not be allowed to retire from the SNP! John’s speech can be seen in full at www.snp.org, but two things in particular are worth highlighting, in my view. In the first place, he very astutely laid out the terms for SNP support for a referendum on the European Constitution. The message to Mr Blair is simple; if you want our support make the repatriation of fishing a red line issue. This puts us on solid ground ( North Sea mixed metaphors notwithstanding); fishing is a major Scottish industry, and unless it is returned to British control, initially, we will not support the European Constitution. A few things flow from this; first it gives Labour the chance to recover an asset the Tories gave away as "of no material benefit", and secondly it has the Labour Party split between those who toe the current party line, and the pragmatists. An instance of this was on BBC TV on Sunday and an exchange between Alex Salmond MP and Anne MacGuire, Scottish Office Minister; Ms MacGuire said that leaving the Common Fisheries Policy was not government policy. Alex rather cruelly remarked that a referendum on the European Constitution had not been government policy either, until that week! Of course, a "No" vote in the referendum could presage the United Kingdom leaving the European Community, giving rise to "And whaur’s your Common Fisheries Policy noo?" All good stuff.

Secondly, John has never struck me as being lyrical, or particularly emotional, but in his summing up of the power of the Independence culture, he said:

"It is the power to contribute. The power to compete. To create wealth. To care for the vulnerable.

"To live and breathe every day the sweet air of liberation."

SNP INTERNATIONAL

The Conference was also addressed by a member of the Irish Cabinet, Pat the Cope Gallagher TD, Minister for the Environment and Local Government, who brought fraternal greetings from Bertie Ahern, the Taosieach, and Fianna Fail. I may have missed something over the years, but an address from a Government Minister of another EU member state is quite significant.

I was intrigued by the name "Pat the Cope", but it is not a nickname; according to one BBC reporter it was because his grandfather had introduced co-operative societies into Ireland. He was known as "Pat the Cope", and it was incorporated into the family name. (When I lived in Peterhead I remember two people called MacDonald, one who was the manager for the bus company and one who was a bank manager; they were known as "MacDonald the Bus" and "MacDonald the Bank." However, their names were not incorporated.)

Minister Gallagher had served in the European Parliament and had a warm and friendly working relationship with Winnie Ewing, and also with the late Dr Allan MacCartney, and Neil MacCormick and Ian Hudghton; proof positive that alliances can be formed in the European context.

Conference was also addressed by a member of the Georgian Parliament, who quoted from the Declaration of Arbroath, as evidence that the people from his country and Scotland were related! He quoted "..the Scots had journeyed from Greater Scythia by way of the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Pillars of Hercules, and after many years among the savage tribes of Spain had come to this land." Georgia is on the Black Sea, and Scythia ran from there to perhaps Archangel, as far as I can establish. (One thing about SNP Conferences; they get me poring over both modern and historical atlases, trying to co-relate the ancient and modern worlds!)

The gist of the speech by our Georgian friend, whose name escaped me, but who I now know was Ziav Mukbianani, was that of all the political parties in the United Kingdom, the SNP had been the most helpful to his nation. This was a reference to the Peace talks held last December in Craigellachie (he got a cheer for his pronounciation), and organised by Angus Robertson SNP MP for Moray; the talks involved delegates from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, and Scotland was the neutral venue. The talks were the first time the countries had sat down together, and I understand the events even included a football match with the three countries taking on Scotland, and no, I don’t know the result, and I don’t want to know it.

Seriously Funny!

Q1; Which Party, in London, says it is against the commercial growing of GM crops - but, in Scotland, accepts it should go ahead?

Q2: Which Party is in favour of congestion charging in cities - while arguing against it in Edinburgh council elections?

Q3: Which Party questions anti-social behaviour orders - but called for tougher action on youth crime in recent Westminster by-elections?

Q4: Which Party’s non-Executive MSPs backed the Airborne rehabilitation project - but failed to support an SNP motion to give it a stay of execution?

Q5: Which Party supports the Common Fisheries Policy - yet condones one of its Ministers telling constituents he wants it scrapped?

Answer: Did you realise how often the Lib-Dems try to have it both ways?

A little research produces a degree of clarity that Labour might find embarrassing; the question was asked on 12th February 2004 by a Welsh Labour MEP, Elunud Morgan. Mr Prodi was asked about Algeria, and the question was answered on 1st March 2004; quite why it took so long for Labour,( mid April), to shout the answer from the rooftops is unclear. Quite why a Welsh MEP asked about Algeria, which is in Africa, and was a French colony, wanting to join the European Community is also unclear; perhaps Labour politicians are not aware that Algeria is on the other side of the Mediterranean? Also, if there was concern about former colonies, why not, for instance, Kenya, which is a former British colony, as I know, for I was there? Anyway, a vague question regarding Africa was asked by a Welsh Labour MEP, then publicised by a Scottish Labour MEP, and there are rumours that Mr Prodi is horrified at the slant put on his answer.

However, a more authoritative answer, to the correct question, came from Eamonn Gallagher; Mr Gallagher was born in Glasgow, and is an Irish citizen now living in Brussels. During his career, he was the European Community’s Ambassador to the United Nations, and the Director General of the European Commission. His statement is as follows:

"Assuming Scottish independence by agreed constitutional change in the United Kingdom, both new entities, Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom, would be equally entitled to continue their existing full membership of the European Union. There is, and in my view could be, no sustainable legal or political objection to this shared "right of succession". Thus the case of Scotland is specific and distinctive in law, and cannot be addressed accurately by general answers, or those that are premised on the example of other places. It would be politically absurd to attempt to use such answers to discuss the particular case of an independent Scotland."

John Swinney, SNP leader, who was taking part in an SNP/Plaid Cymru EU enlargement summit, commented "As part of a concereted campaign of misinformation by Labour MEPs, Mr Prodi was asked a question about Algeria- and his answer was not about Scotland! Therefore it is irrelevant to the Scottish debate."

As to the headline, Algeria is in Africa, and an independent Scotland signed a Treaty of Union with England, and is not a colony, however much the Labour Party like to regard it as such.

Better off British? Funding

The Highlands and Islands should have qualified for Objective One status—but the Office of National Statistics used out of date figures, leading to the region losing out on EU money they were entitled to.

FOOT IN THE MOUTH NOTES

Last week Concorde arrived at the Museum of Flight in East Fortune, East Lothian after a week long journey by barge and special trailer, costing some £350,000 in total, the journey, that was. A few weeks back I wondered why they had not left it at Edinburgh Airport when it called in there in the autumn?

The answer is that we got the broken one that couldn’t fly anywhere.

Parked on double yellow lines beside the smiling minister, was a taxi; the notice on its door said "Open doors for yourself." How quaint.

Apparently the English Home Secretary has agreed that Muslim women will be exempt from having their photographs on the new identity cards which are to be forced on all of us; the Muslim Council of Britain are concerned that the identity cards may be used to persecute ethnic minorities.

One wonders how they manage passports?

And then I wondered? Did he, like myself, have a copy of John’s speech, headed by "Check against delivery"? Another illusion shattered!

Headline in the Business Herald this week; "Scottish Coal planning £36 million wind farm."

Unlike George Bush, of course.

"Whisky tax stamps are opposed by the industry, unions, and the Scotch Whisky Association, who proposed sensible alternative anti-fraud measures. The National Audit Office criticised the Customs & Excise figures that were used to justify tax stamps."

Ms Fabiani told BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme: "When it's something as fundamentally important to everybody in Scotland, everybody has the right for it to be discussed in Parliament".

The draft Bill was being published at Westminster as trials involving 10,000 volunteers got under way to test the technology that could make the scheme a reality.

Speaking during Department of Work and Pensions questions in the Commons Mr. Weir pointed out that many post offices closed because of a loss of benefits business and asked the minister

"How many more Post Offices does he expect to close should be manage to strong-arm the remaining pension and benefit claimants who have not yet transferred to opt for direct payment?"

Mr. Weir said that the minister's reply where he claimed the government were strengthening the network was "complete fantasy".

The MSPs, all members of the Scottish Parliament’s Finance Committee, concluded:

In a joint statement, the MSPs said:

"The view taken by the majority of the Finance Committee, and reflected in the Majority report, does not accurately reflect the evidence, which has been presented to the Committee nor, the errors which were made in financial control both by the Scottish Executive and the Water Industry Commissioner."

When speaking to the Scottish Occupational Health Nurses’ Forum annual conference Shadow Health Minister Ms Shona Robison MSP adddressed the issue of attacks on health workers in the workplace.

"Stress has become a major health problem, with it being estimated that work-related stress cost Scotland about 370 million pounds every year, and it is therefore in our best interests to tackle this problem.

"Violence and aggression are other serious problems in the workplace that must be tackled. I firmly believe that attacks on any staff should be treated under the law as serious assaults; workers anywhere should not have to be concerned about violence and aggression and any new legislation should reflect this."

Shadow Tourism Minister Mr Kenny MacAskill MSP has launched a paper which revealed that Tourism Ireland is outspending VisitScotland by a massive nine million pounds in marketing in Europe and North America.

Together, Europe and North America make up three quarters of Scotland's overseas tourism market. In March, tourism minister Frank McAveety announced an extra five million pounds for marketing Scotland, yet Ireland still significantly outspends Scotland in these two crucial markets. Commenting, Mr MacAskill said:

"Tourism is Scotland's biggest industry, with a fantastic product to sell but insufficient resources to properly do so. For the Executive to be slapping themselves on the back for an increase in the marketing budget while our main rivals out spend us by nine million pounds in our two most vital overseas markets is beyond belief."

Shadow Enterprise and Economy Minister Mr Jim Mather MSP has called for greater economic powers and more economic data following the publication of the Quarterly Growth Data for the fourth quarter of 2003 by the Scottish Executive, which shows that the rest of the UK is growing at 4 times the rate of Scotland. Commenting on the figures, Mr Mather said:

"Alongside Wales and Northern Ireland, Scotland still has no power to run its own economy and has no target for economic growth.

"Andy Kerr said at yesterday's Finance Committee that the Scottish Executive could not set targets in areas where they do not have the levers to control the outcome. This should trigger more widespread concern because he was amazingly unconcerned about this powerless situation."