£3.60 A
GALLON, BUT DOES TONY GIVE A TRUCK?
The
price of a litre of unleaded
petrol at my local filling station hit 81.9p this week.
That’s just 3p below the average price which triggered
blockades at oil refineries in the UK back in June 2000.
Of course, it should go
without saying that this increase has been given a helping
hand by continued instability in the Middle East. However,
as Flag readers and therefore by definition amongst the
crème de la crème of the politically aware, you will already
be aware of these arguments and no doubt have your own
particular views on them!
Whenever voters start to
complain about the cost of fuel, Labour are fond of
lambasting greedy petrol station owners/fat cat
multinational oil company bosses/OPEC (delete as
appropriate). However, out of every £ spent at the pumps in
Britain, just 18.5p goes on the cost of producing and
refining crude oil while as little as 6.5p of the total goes
on marketing and retailer profit (Source: ESSO). Meanwhile,
a massive 75p goes to the Treasury in fuel duty and VAT on
top of all this, which effectively levies one tax on top of
another tax!
One of the lines this
Government is fond of when defending its frequent increases
in fuel duty is that ‘it is only going up in line with
inflation’. But if inflation rises, this will usually be
reflected in the cost of the raw material, the processing
costs and then the costs of getting it to the consumer. If
these costs increase, then so does the tax take for the
Government on top of this.
(Incidentally, don’t expect the increase in the price of a
barrel of Brent crude, the benchmark for North Sea Oil, to
be reflected in the next set of UK Government figures
engineered to make Scots think they are a bunch of subsidy
junkies!)
Increasing the amount of
tax being levied on top of the effects of inflation only
serves to make a bad situation even worse. And don’t think
high prices affect only car drivers or
hauliers. Since over 80% of all domestic freight goes
by road, everyone ends up paying for the cost of high fuel
tax in the increased cost of goods in our shops.
This
week, Blair and Brown have been making noises about
postponing a 2p per litre rise
in fuel duty planned for September. Surprisingly, this has
been reasonably well received, even although it won’t make
fuel any cheaper than it was this week or last. In a spin
cycle which must have had them breaking out the champagne in
Downing Street, they have got the press off their backs on
this issue the week before an election, without actually
promising not to increase duty come September!
For those in rural areas
without a viable alternative to car travel and even for
those without cars in our towns and cities, high fuel costs
are penalising some of the most
vulnerable in society. Of course we are all mindful of the
effects of global warming. However, the way to tackle this
is through providing alternatives to the car and promoting
energy efficiency at home and in industry, not by taxing
poorer motorists into giving up their
vehicles.
It might not be SNP policy
yet, but I really can’t see anything wrong with the
principle of congestion charging in our cities, providing we
reduce fuel duty accordingly and make sure that the
alternatives are first of all in place. A little more carrot
and a little less stick might pay more dividends for the
environment and the poorest in society than those in power
seem to think.
ON THE
FRINGES OF EUROPE
If
the lampposts voted in Edinburgh, right now the Greens and
the SSP would be miles ahead of all the other parties.
Fortunately, the franchise has yet to be extended to street
furniture, so any political upset of this nature seems a
while off yet.
The Greens were out the
blocks first with their very non-biodegradable corrugated
plastic posters. Incidentally guys, if I were of a more
malicious mindset I might have put a complaint into
Edinburgh Council about the fact that many of your posters
seemed to be up before the official deadline which all
parties are supposed to abide by. I’m not, though, so I
didn’t. However, if that’s what happened this time and
anyone does catch you at it in future, these posters might
be heading for landfill sites more quickly than you thought.
And we all know how bad that would be for the environment…
As well as wanting to roll
back the growth in cheap air travel which has allowed
ordinary people to see more of their world and let far-flung
families visit each other more often, the Green party are
campaigning in today’s election for even higher fuel duty.
However, the rise in profile in England of the UK
Independence Party has deprived them of much of the oxygen
of publicity reserved for the fringe parties. Sadly, it’s
also deprived people of the chance to put the Greens and
some of their dafter policies under greater scrutiny.
The
same is true of the SSP, who have
had a fairly quiet campaign by their standards in spite of
their posters. The thing about the SSP is that you can never
tell who you are voting for. They have ‘political platforms’
within the party, which allow members to be part of the
International Socialist Movement, the Scottish Republican
Socialist Movement (which used to call itself the Scottish
Republican Socialist Party), or the Committee for a Workers’
International (Scotland). I use the word ‘or’, because
browsing their respective web pages I get the feeling that
membership of one group would logically preclude membership
of another.
Full
marks for initiative, though. It’s a novel wheeze which
other parties might do well to try – instead of being split
top to bottom over Europe, the Tories could say that like
the SSP they now have ‘platforms’! Seriously, though, I have
great difficulty with the idea that the ideologically devout
and doctrinaire Marxists who form 2 of these groups, and who
let’s not forget have spent the last 30 years largely
disdaining the national question in Scotland, can suddenly
sit down and sup comfortably with ‘nationalists’ under the
SSP umberella.
The
Scottish People’s Front or the People’s Front of Scotland?
Who can tell. It only fuels my suspicions that the SSP are
using Independence as a temporary flag of convenience. I
suspect that any further success will only serve to
exacerbate these tensions. Maybe it will be time soon to
dust down a version of ‘Ten Green Bottles’ which used to be
popular when I was a student:
One
Trot faction, sitting on a wall
One Trot faction, sitting on a wall
And if one Trot faction, should have a nasty squall
There’ll be two Trot factions, sitting on a wall.
Ideological purity is a wonderful thing. Just how long will
it be before the Trot factions of the SSP begin to tear
eachother apart?
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".
Taking
Scotland out of the Common Fisheries Policy
The SNP has launched a
Private Member's Bill at Westminster to withdraw from the
disastrous Common Fisheries Policy. The bill has cross-party
support from every political grouping in the Commons, as
well as the backing of the fishing industry.
This reflects the wide
acknowledgement that the very survival of our coastline
communities depends on breaking the vice-like grip of the
CFP. It is perfectly possible to withdraw from the CFP,
while remaining part of the EU, and it is essential to do so
to ensure a future for the Scottish fishing industry.
Scotland needs action NOW
to restore national control over our fishing industry.
The
SNP’s cross-party bill will make it clear to the
European Commission that MPs from
fishing communities all across the UK have had enough of the
CFP.
We need strong Scottish
voices in Europe who can be trusted to fight for our
national interests when Westminster lets us down.
Labour, the Lib
Dems and the Tories have all let
Scotland’s fishing communities down at one time or
another—only the SNP can be trusted always to stand up for
Scotland in Europe.
SYNOPSIS
Commenting
on the story in the Scotsman newspaper that the Government
have already secretly decided to
replace Trident with a new generation of nuclear weapons,
the Scottish National Party's Defence Spokesperson
Mr Angus Robertson MP said:
"It is a grotesque irony
that this country was dragged into an illegal war
in Iraq based on non-existent
weapons of mass destruction - and the
self-same Labour Government that took us to war is
secretly planning to dump a new
generation of WMD on Scotland.
"Scotland does not want nuclear weapons in our country - and
every vote for the SNP is a vote
for a non-nuclear Scotland.
"Apart from anything else, nuclear weapons are utterly
useless in combating the real
threat that is international terrorism. 'Son of Trident' has
nothing to do with real defence, and everything to do with
the self-aggrandisement
of UK politicians.
"At a time when Scotland's infantry regiments have the
threat of cuts hanging over them,
the Government should be keeping the regiments - and
scrapping Trident."
Shadow
Fisheries Minister Mr Richard
Lochhead MSP has reacted with
fury
to
BBC Controller Ken McQuarrie's
reasons for his last minute decision to postpone the
screening of 'Gutted' until after the European elections.
. Commenting
Mr Lochhead
said:
"The BBC have made a huge
mistake by refusing to screen what they themselves
acknowledge
is a "factual" documentary, in a bid to save their masters
in
the
Government significant embarrassment in the run up to next
week's
European elections.
"The BBC is supposed to be
an independent organisation that
places the facts
before
viewers allowing them to make up their own minds.
"'Gutted' is a powerful
film that illustrates the human and economic damage
inflicted
on our fishing communities by a disastrous European policy,
compounded
by heartless Scottish and UK Ministers.
"If next week's turnout is
as low as expected, then no doubt the BBC will be
quick
to broadcast opinions about why people don't vote when at
the same
time
they are suffocating debate on European policies."
At
a news conference in Edinburgh, the Westminster leader
of
the Scottish National Party Mr
Alex Salmond MP published a
three-point
oil
plan to assist the Scottish economy, following the sharp
rise in the
price
of oil. Mr
Salmond said that the Treasury is set to rake in
extra
revenues
of up to 3 billion pounds in North Sea revenues.
Mr
Salmond's
three-point
plan would:
* Cancel the fuel tax
increase planned for September.
* Convene an Industry Summit to boost exploration and
appraisal activity.
* Hypothecate a share of the extra revenue to accelerate
investment in
infrastructure
projects and home insulation in Scotland.
Mr
Salmond said: "The Government is
due to rake in up to an extra 3
billion
in revenues because of the high price of oil. Even in the
unlikely
event of prices returning quickly to the Budget forecast
level of 27 dollars a barrel, additional revenues of 1
billion pounds are already
bound
for the Treasury.
"The
SNP's three-point plan would ensure that the Scottish
economy and
people
benefit from Scotland's natural resource wealth."
The
Scottish National Party's second-top list candidate in the
European
election
Mr Alyn
Smith spoke at a cross-party hustings
meeting in Edinburgh organised
by Oxfam in Scotland. Senior Scottish journalist
Mr Murray Ritchie chaired the
meeting.
Mr
Smith called on the Government to set a clear timescale for
meeting the
commitment
to spend 0.7 per cent of Gross National Income on overseas
development
assistance.
The 0.7 per cent figure is
the level that 22 of the world's richest
countries
agreed with the United Nations over 30 years ago, but which
is
yet
to be met by the UK. Mr Smith
said:
"It is vital that the
wealthy countries meet their moral obligations to
the
parts of the world where poverty and violence is rife. In
the 21st
century,
it is outrageous that nearly half of the world's population
live
on
less than 1.39 pounds per day.
"The Government currently
contribute only 0.32 per cent of
Gross National Income in overseas aid - which is well below
the international average -
despite
a promise over 30 years ago to contribute 0.7 per cent. And
the United States is at the very bottom of the league,
contributing a pathetic 0.1 per cent.
"As the war in Iraq has
shown, money is no object when it comes to
nflicting death and
destruction."
SNP
MSP for the Highlands and Islands Mr
Rob Gibson has welcomed the
announcement
made by Jim Wallace that the Skye Bridge tolls would be
scrapped by the end of 2004. Mr
Gibson said:
"This announcement from the
Minister that road tolls on the Skye Bridge will
be
scrapped by the end of the year is very welcome.
"The economy of Skye has
benefited from having a bridge, but a free bridge
would
have been better still, and this should have been the case
in the
first
place.
"I am very pleased that the
Executive has finally seen sense and will be
putting
an end to these tolls once and for all."
