Since this was a European Election, and completely off the radar screen for many electors, we can only read trends into the result. Because the Tories seem to be enjoying a bit of resurgence, Labour voters became alarmed and returned to the fold; the SSP did not do as well as it might have hoped, probably for the same reason. The presence and high publicity profile of a former Labour MP and TV presenter standing in England also hoisted the UKIP up the polls, and we think that this will be an "Up like a rocket - down like a stick" phenomenon , but nevertheless they had a significant impact. Hostility towards Europe and immigration came through very clearly in Scotland, and perhaps the fact that the Muslim community was going to vote SNP did not help us. Almost 100, 000 votes shared between the UKIP and the British National Party is not good news for a pluralist society; I was surprised at that number of Little Englanders in Scotland.

As John Swinney put it, people decided to vote for a plethora of smaller parties to give the government a kicking, but they were not serious about seeking change, or they would have voted for the SNP. I also think that we rather confused the issue on the European Constitution. The bulk of the electorate is hostile to a closer union in Europe; they are not unhappy with things as they stand, and there does not seem to be a concerted will to exit the European Union, but they feel it has gone far enough. Our decision to make fishing a "red line" issue automatically put us as pro the Constitution, and all the talking and play acting around with the Foreign Secretary backfired on us, and we gained nothing.

SNP AND EUROPE

Europe has always been a fault line in British politics, and in this respect Scotland is no different. Back in 1975, at the time of the Referendum, the SNP opposed membership, but qualified its stance with "On anyone else’s terms", fudging that one. I remember sharing an anti Common Market platform with a Tory; the Tories had taken us in, but this was the Labour Government running the Referendum, and many Tories were anti Europe; my recollection was that my fellow speaker was quite a pleasant chap.

Then in 1978, I tried to get a resolution through the Annual Conference in Edinburgh committing the SNP to campaign against the European Union; my contention at that time was why should we strive to get out of being ruled by one remote foreign country only to submit to being ruled by an even more remote foreign country? The resolution was defeated, although there were claims that it had actually been passed, and if a proper count had been done, a different result would have been obtained, but I don’t know if that was true.

Anyway, in the early Eighties the SNP decided, that to counter the separateness tag, we should hype up the fact that while Scotland should separate from England, we could remain in the European Union, so would not be alone in the world; the slogan "Independence in Europe" was born. This seemed to suit the public mood at the time, and the voices of protest in the Party were stilled, or left; for my own part, when I discussed the matter with my friend and mentor, James Halliday, he countered with: "We will have exactly the same level of independence as every other nation in the Community", a view that had not occurred to me.

What I did believe was that with the expansion of the European Union, and the entry of other countries, then the Community would become wider, rather than deeper; in other words that it would be a looser alliance, without any increase in bureaucracy. However, the question of the Constitution would seem to contradict that. With the various public attitudes that are emerging, I would not be surprised to see the Party adopting a more eurosceptic stance; certainly the fishing issue is not one that will go away. (And it’s just my luck that the Policy Postcard this week is on the Euro!)

THE SNP LEADER

All of them had the pressure and the problems of the SNP as it evolved; Arthur Donaldson presided over the rapid expansion of the Party in the late Sixties, and winning the Hamilton By election, Billy Wolfe had 11 MPs at Westminster, and a National Executive in Scotland at odds with each other. Billy saw us losing Hamilton in 1970, winning 7 and then another 4 seats in 1974 , and losing 9 of them in 1979. Gordon Wilson had the emergence of the 79 Group, and a split Party in the early Eighties, and Alex Salmond, who had been expelled from the Party was allowed back into the Party, and eventually became Convener in the Nineties. The early days of his convenership saw a long running dispute from one of his former allies, Jim Sillars, which still has echoes today.

There have always been disaffected members within the Party from time to time, including myself. Just after Alex Salmond became Convener, there were two by-elections in Paisley; in the first week of the campaign I rushed home one night from work, gobbled my tea and was on my way out when my wife stopped me. "I have a question" she said. "What" said I. She said "I want to know what happened to the man who was going to leave the SNP if Alex Salmond ever became Chairman?" I left without answering! My attitude was fairly typical of a number of members of my vintage who were not happy with things, but if we wanted Independence we had nowhere else to go. Yes I now hear that there are apparently other "Independence" parties (with too much emphasis on the "I"), but there is still nowhere else to go if we want Independence.

John Swinney has had to cope with the defection of Margo MacDonald, who was rejected by the activists, not by him, but to her credit, she has not attacked John; then the manipulation of the candidates’ ranking by schemers lost the Party Mike Russell and Andrew Wilson. The emergence of the Greens, the SSP, and the Pensioners’ Party, none of whom had been much in contention before gave the voters a chance to play about to their heart’s content, which they did. John is the only SNP leader to have had to fight an election as the leader of the opposition, and his critics within the Party do not have the wit to realise that their attacks on him are attacks on the SNP, and give the impression that we are a divided party, which the electorate hates. Every attack is aid and comfort to the enemy, who jeer at John, and us.

Of course, some of the critics are MSPs, and they will be worried as they are seeing their livelihood put at risk; every Westminster MP we had put their livelihood at risk, and only one, the late Donald Stewart, actually retired. All the others lost their seats and had to pick themselves up. The roll call? Dr Robert McIntyre, Winnie Ewing, Margo MacDonald, Douglas Crawford, Douglas Henderson, Margaret Ewing, George Thomson, Ian MacCormick, Hamish Watt, Andrew Welsh, George Reid, Jim Sillars and Gordon Wilson. I do not think that anyone who stood for office then saw that as a career move!

Good leaders are those who have to suffer defeat, and come back fighting; I believe that John Swinney will become harder and tougher, and will, I regret, not be as nice a man as he is now, but politics is a rough old game. I also hope that he will have a reshuffle of his Front Bench, and change his advisers, as somehow he keeps giving hostages to fortune. We should never have claimed to be overtaking Labour, and while it seemed logical to focus on anti war, this was ephemeral. Every party leader gets bad advice, just look at Jack McConnell’s skirt and his D-Day fiasco, but he survived. But he has media backing; no newspaper backs the SNP and in fact the Herald published a story from a disaffected MSP, whose name escapes me, on the eve of poll. The story was that the SNP had wavered over Iraq - at a private meeting in September 2002, obviously only printed to damage the SNP.

NO SMOKE

However, I do understand John Reid’s frustration with the emphasis on smoking, and his comment on anti smoking as a middle class talisman; I am no longer a smoker, and I am glad that I am not a smoker, but let’s have some tolerance and common sense. The biggest menace is alcohol, (and in Edinburgh, according to Gore Vidal, drugs,) and we see no sign of a concerted drive to outlaw drinking. I do not think that Reid’s remark about "one of the few pleasures of single mothers in sink housing estates was smoking" was meant to be patronising, but was just putting things into context.

I suppose I am now classed as middle class, as are all my friends, and nearly all of them used to smoke, and no longer do; this is not a class thing, but a health and wealth thing. In my case, my life was made a misery as my wife kept on at me about smoking, till she won! In a way it was a relief, as I had cigarettes hidden in the garage, in the car, at the office, and I took the dog for walks so that I could smoke; I kept a toothbrush at work, as I was always supposed to be stopped smoking! One thing I do know; we do not get allowed to choose our addiction. Mine was tobacco, but if it had been alcohol I would have died in the gutter years ago.

The TV programme "Gutted", which is being shown this week, is about the Cod Crusaders; it was due to be screened on 2nd June, but Government intervention made the BBC defer the showing. Both the Government and the BBC deny any bias against Scotland and the SNP, and being gullible, we believe them. Access the petition by clicking ....., run off as many copies as you can and circulate them to your friends.

STOP THE WORLD

Winnie’s book has now been launched, and can be obtained from the publishers, Birlinn Ltd, West Newington House, 10, Newington Road, Edinburgh EH9 1QS. It costs £16.99, post and packing free in the UK, but add 30% for overseas.

Winnie will be signing her book at a series of events around Scotland up to the end of June; for further information on that phone Sian Gibson on 0131 668 4371.

BIRLINN - www.birlinn.co.uk

Tel 0131 668 4371 Fax: 0131 668 4466 Email:sian@birlinn.co.uk

The euro

But the people didn’t get to choose —because the decision on whether or not to join the euro was made in London, for London, and nobody in Scotland was consulted. Scotland’s export industries have paid a high price for being left outside the Eurozone. Isn’t it time we started putting the needs of our economy first?

FOOT IN THE MOUTH NOTES

Some of us are no’ that interested.

Last week also saw the state funeral of Ronald Reagan; at one stage the TV camera focused for some time on the flag draped coffin.

I don’t suppose anyone saw the irony of the TV caption: "Live from Washington."

I see George Bush Senior did a parachute jump to celebrate his 80th birthday.

A lot of Europeans must have seen this as another wasted opportunity; wrong George, and the parachute worked.

Never knew the Romans had guns.

And a comment from William Keegan in the Observer, on the economic policies of Ronald Reagan, happily supported by Mrs Thatcher and her Chancellor Lord Lawson.

"The one and only Professor J K Galbraith put his finger on it when he said there was something strange about a doctrine which held that the rich would work harder if they had more money and the poor if they had less."

They quoted a Tory, a Liberal and a spokesman for the Scottish Executive; strange that they did not speak to anyone from the SNP. Or is it?

SYNOPSIS

Amidst all the angst of the European Elections, the political show must go on; a look at what some of our our elected representatives have been doing over the last week..

Shadow Justice Minister Ms Nicola Sturgeon MSP has renewed her calls for Jack McConnell to sack Cathy Jamieson after it was revealed that a second person has been jailed by mistake. Ms Sturgeon said:

"Cathy Jamieson cannot continue to make excuses for the chaos that exists within the justice system. She is the Justice Minister and she must take full responsibility for this farce instead of spending all her time trying to find someone else to blame.

"The Justice Minister's track record is one of prisoners being wrongly released, others being jailed by mistake and the slopping out fiasco which is set to cost the taxpayer millions. That is why it is time for her to go."

"With the Reliance fiasco very much in mind, I am determined that the secrecy surrounding the relationship between the Scottish Prison Service and its contractor is not repeated with any new tagging contracts.

"The back room deal arranged for prisoner transport was based on flawed assumptions and inadequate performance penalties. We must learn from these mistakes and ensure that services bought in by government are value for money and protect public safety."

Editors Note:

The Antisocial Behaviour Bill at Section 103(15) provides for contracts for tagging children. Amendments tabled introduce a requirement for any supplier to agree that any contract with them can be published in full.

"Nonetheless, all is not lost and I am sure that England will take the results needed against Croatia and Switzerland to make it through to the next round of the European Championships and onto victory in Portugal.

"The Scottish referee Stuart Dougal is also in Portugal for the competition. I hope that he too has a great championship and that he and England do not meet in the name of good relations between our countries"

"We have to recognise, however, that while I am sure there is scope for improvement within the current setup, it is only by taking control of our own rail network that radical improvements can be made.

"Power over rail currently resides in a plethora of different agencies, almost all of them focused on improving rail services in the south-east of England. Investment, including cash taken from Scottish taxpayers, is being funnelled by the billion into services south of the border. Until we return power over the rail network to Scotland, we will remain stuck on a siding, struggling to meet public demand."

"If we are to have a better Scotland, we need to face reality and maximise our competitiveness, and the Executive will not trigger that process by trying to delude us with unemployment data that is at odds with that reality: by ignoring the large numbers of economically inactive, who would work if there was a healthy flow of good jobs, and those who have simply had to leave Scotland is no answer."

Half a million pensioners can be taken out of local taxation by introducing a tax system based on the ability to pay, Shadow Finance Minister Mr Fergus Ewing MSP said as he called for speedy abolition of the Council Tax. Mr Ewing pledged to use the review of local government taxation to propose the abolition of the Council Tax and the introduction of a Local Income Tax. Under the SNP's proposals, for typical taxpayers this would mean:

* A typical single pensioner on a low income would pay nothing.
* A pensioner couple with an income of 11,500 pounds would save an average of 933 pounds per year on a band D home.
* A single parent with an income of 13,400 pounds would save an average 322 pounds per year on a band B home.

Commenting, Mr Ewing said:

"Under the Tories, Council Tax bills went up by 40 percent in just five years. Labour have continued to hit local taxpayers, with bills rising a further 34 percent since 1997.

"What's worse, the council tax hit the poorest hardest. It penalises pensioners for working hard and saving hard all their lives. They are being hit by bills of two thousand pounds and more despite having incomes well below the average wage. That is simply wrong."

Shadow Culture Minister Ms Roseanna Cunningham MSP has said thatit has come of little surprise that Craig Armstrong has resigned his post at the Culture Commission, blaming a lack of people from artistic backgrounds as the reason for him leaving. Ms Cunningham said:

"Right from the start, it was obvious that there could be serious problems with only one member coming from an artistic background.

"The Scottish Executive has clearly not thought this through. It was bad enough when we only had one artist on the commission, but now we have none and this must raise serious questions about Ministerial motives.

"Culture in Scotland is already facing serious problems and without any artistic input, my concern is that the Culture Commission could be stopped in its tracks before it even gets started."