The Scots Independent Newspaper Online

HAVING BEEN ON HOLIDAY...

It is amazing how out of touch you get when you are on holiday. Although I came back to Edinburgh two days ago I still feel that I have quite a bit of catching up to do on the latest news - even although that latest news features marches and demonstrations in our capital city, and even though I could hear the sound of helicopters all day yesterday as they monitored Princes Street.

So this week will not be about Making Poverty History or the G8 conference, which has not actually started as I write. Both will be dealt no doubt very fully by the great Jim Lynch in the next issue.

LATEST STATS ON AID

However, I did pick up on some interesting stats the other day.

In 1992, at the Rio Earth Summit, a target for overseas development assistance of 0.7% of gross domestic product was set for developed countries.

Norway is now the largest contributor with 0.87% of GDP. The UK manages 0.36% and the USA 0.16%.

Does it not just make you wild when you hear Gordon Brown claiming that Britain is leading the way in the fight to help the poor countries of the world?

WHY ARE WE SO ASHAMED OF OUR HEROES?

In an excellent letter in the Herald newspaper, Nigel Dewar Gibb points out that while Bannockburn was the greatest Scottish military victory, there is no Bannockburn Street in either Glasgow or Edinburgh.

This is a truly astonishing state of affairs.

He goes on to say that there are lots of Victoria, Albert, George, Queen and Regent this or thats, but Bruce and Wallace are peripheral.

The powers that be in Scotland resolutely refuse to celebrate our great statesmen, writers, painters, musicians, scientists and so on, except on the very odd occasion.

This struck me particularly after a short visit to Paris recently, where not only do they celebrate an incredible diversity of French talent and events, but some of the most prestigious stations on the metro are named, for instance, not only after General de Gaulle, but also after President Franklin Roosevelt and King George V.

There is a real lesson for Scottish politicians to learn here. Maybe we could start by pressurising the Post Office to come up with some decent stamps celebrating great Scottish events, buildings and talent.

LETTER TO THE HERALD

Have I no shame? I give below a letter I had published recently in the Herald. I hope you find the points interesting.

Scotland in the UK

On the 28 April last you published a letter from a group of Scottish business men and women who claimed that Scotland takes strength from being part of the UK.

Last week, to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the first oil gushing from our North Sea bonanza, David Cairns, MP for Inverclyde, warned: Even in good years the money coming in from the revenues in the North Sea would not make up for the black hole that there would be in the economy if Scotland was not part of the United Kingdom.

So, incredibly, our letter-writing business people think that Scotland is doing tremendously well because we are part of the UK, while at the same time, according to the Labour MP, we are so tremendously poor that we could not even maintain our present - relatively poor by north European levels - standard of living without huge subsidies from England.

Now how can this be, when all around Scotland, from Ireland to Iceland, to the Scandinavian countries and to Denmark, we see small countries far ahead of Scotland in wealth and social development? And they all, apart from Norway, do it without any oil at all. How come Scotland needs gigantic subsidies, when all of them can manage without London?

And the Norwegians, who discovered oil at the same time as Scotland, have used this vast wealth to invest massively in infra-structure throughout their country, to build up a huge fund for future generations, and have so planned their resource that it will last for another hundred years or so. They have also, in the meantime, become one of the wealthiest countries in the world.

The only other small countries in north-western Europe that seem to have huge black holes in their economies which have to subsidised are Wales and Northern Ireland. Is there some unseen parallel between them and us, one wonders?

Of course, Scotland could have emulated Norway, and could yet use its still considerable oil wealth as a great platform for lift-off.

But if history is any guide, our self-interested politicians and all too many of our journalists will continue to ignore or lie about the big arguments, and in a hundred years time our descendants will be looking across the North Sea and wondering how and why we were all so sadly misled.

CELEBRATING TRAFALGAR

Recently we had the bizarre spectacle of ships from many of the world's nations - including, even more bizarrely, France - coming together to celebrate the British victory at Trafalgar.

Maybe it was not so bizarre, after all, for I gather that the emphasis was very much on the fact that this was history and that we have put all that enmity behind us.

But as journalist Joan McAlpine pointed out, what would be the reaction if the Scottish Parliament decides to hold a similar celebration in 1314 for the seven-hundredth anniversary of Bannockburn.

Can you imagine the reaction of our British Unionist politicians, or their lackeys in the press?

As Ms McAlpine says, anyone proposing such an event would be ridiculed as unbalanced fantasists. Moreover their dream would be pilloried for its militaristic associations ... and would be decried by unionists as a crude exercise in jingoism.

She continues: The criticisms are already familiar and can be summed up thus:

It just goes to show that Scottish nationalism really is red in tooth and claw. It has nothing to offer a modern nation. It represents hatred, inwardness, Balkan-style internecine warfare, an obsession with the past etc etc.

Joan is right, of course. For our unionist opponents, it really is simply a case of one law for them and another law for us!

PITLOCHRY

Pitlochry is one of the tourist gems of Scotland.

It is beautifully kept and well deserves its Britain in Bloom accolade. It has a fascinating main street, often thronged with tourists from all parts of the world.

It has an excellent theatre where I recently saw a first-rate performance of To Kill a Mocking Bird.

But one word of warning. If you are staying over on a Friday or Saturday night in peak season and your hotel is close to the centre, ask for a room that does not give directly onto the main street.

That way you will be able to avoid the noise of the revellers and get a good night's sleep!

The Working Life of Linda Fabiani MSP

Click here to read SNP MSP Linda Fabiani's working diary.

SYNOPSIS

Wednesday 29th June 2005

BROWN'S BILLION POUND OIL BONANZA

SHOW THE LEAD BY INVESTING OIL WINDFALL IN CLEAN CARBON TECHNOLOGIES

SNP Leader, Alex Salmond MP, has released figures, which show that since the start of this financial year, because of high world oil prices, the London Treasury has raked in almost £1 billion in extra oil revenues over and above the Chancellor¹s Budget forecast.

In his March Budget statement the Chancellor forecast an oil price of $40 a barrel and revenues of £7.1 billion for this coming year. However, oil prices have remained well above this level resulting in an extra £938 million above forecast for the first three months of the financial year.

Commenting Mr Salmond said:

Gordon Brown has been quietly rubbing his hands as the world oil price rises. In just three months this has given him an extra £1 billion in oil revenues. In total, the London Treasury has benefited to the tune of £2.7 billion - money that is lost to Scotland.

Earlier this month the government announced a measly £40 million for the development of carbon capture – a technology that could slash our CO2 emissions and allow Scotland to recover billions of barrels of currently irrecoverable oil from the North Sea.

This weekend the eyes of the world turn to Scotland and the G8 summit with climate change top of the agenda. If Britain wants to be taken seriously in the G8 it must show a lead. With almost £1 billion in unexpected oil revenues, the Chancellor has an opportunity to invest seriously in this planet saving technology.

Scotland has some of the best sites in the world for carbon capture - now is the time for Gordon Brown to invest just some of this oil windfall - Scotland¹s oil windfall - in clean carbon technology. If he is serious about climate change he should announce a real cash boost. With the right support we can make real progress towards having the world's first commercial carbon capture power station built here in Scotland.

The Chancellor talks a good game, but it is now time to deliver. With an extra billion pounds in his back pocket, and more on the way, he has no excuses.

NOTE: The following table shows average world oil prices on a fortnightly basis since April 2005 and the corresponding additional oil revenues. The oil prices are from BBC market watch and additional revenues from an analysis by the House of Commons library.

Price	Additional Revenue
$55	£154 m
$53	£135 m
$51	£115 m
$49	£92 m
$51	£115 m
$55	£154 m
$57	£173 m
Total	£938 m

Wednesday 29th June, 2005

HYSLOP CALLS FOR INVESTIGATION INTO HIGH LEVELS OF TEACHERS OPTING OUT OF TEACHING

SNP Shadow Education Minister Fiona Hyslop MSP has called for an immediate investigation into why 30,000 teachers in Scotland have stopped teaching, following a report on BBC Scotland where the General Teaching Council revealed figures of the number of teachers choosing not to teach.

Fiona Hyslop Ms Hyslop said:

The Executive's flagship policy to cut class sizes in S1 and S2 will never be achievable if 30,000 of Scotland's teachers are not teaching in our schools.

There will always be teachers who opt out of teaching, for example, to have families, but if more than half of registered teachers are not teaching we have a problem.

Stress and a lack of discipline in the classroom affects morale. As recently as last spring, the First Minister was saying the problem was not as serious as teachers were making out. This is obviously not the case.

If we can't keep our teachers, Scotland has a serious problem which needs to be dealt with immediately.

We must address the lack of morale in the classroom. There is a ticking time bomb with 40 per cent of teachers due to retire in the next ten years and 30,000 teachers in Scotland deciding not to teach.

There must be a review of the implementation of McCrone where there has been billions of pounds in investment in making the teaching profession more attractive. The public will be seriously concerned to find out that despite all this money invested, there are still not enough teachers to teach their children.

More teachers than ever are being recruited but this pales into insignificance when you consider how many teachers are still being lost to the system.

Workforce planning has gone wrong in health and now in education. There must be an urgent investigation to ensure that the education of Scottish children does not suffer.

Saturday, 2nd July, 2005

SALMOND ADDRESSES MAKE POVERTY HISTORY RALLY

LET'S SPEND LESS FIGHTING WARS AND MORE FIGHTING POVERTY

SNP Leader, Alex Salmond MP, has addressed the Make Poverty History rally in Edinburgh.

Mr Salmond urged the G8 leaders to grasp the thistle on international poverty and find agreement on the crucial issues of aid, trade and debt relief.

Mr Salmond said:

This is one of the most important weeks in the history of Scotland and the world.

The eight leaders who will be gathering in Gleneagles in a few days time are there, not in their own right, but because they represent us and the many millions like us around the world who demand change, who say with one voice that it is time now to end injustice and inequality.

They must grasp the thistle on international poverty and find agreement on the crucial issues of aid, trade and debt relief.

What kind of world do we live in when the few here in the west enjoy unprecedented wealth and opportunity at the expense of the many across the world?

It is time to make poverty history and this campaign, which reaches one crescendo today, will be back, again and again, until the world¹s leaders listen.

We know the root causes of the poverty that afflicts people across Africa. Many of them will form part of the discussions around the table at Gleneagles inequalities in trade, the heavy burden of debt, the failure of the west to meet its own aid targets and corrupt government in some nations.

But one will be missing and that glaring omission, I know, exercises many of you here today. War and conflict, is as big a part of the equation as any.

The facts are stark together we spend $162 on weapons for every person on the planet, for the first time over $1 trillion worldwide. In the last year alone there were 19 conflicts, most more than 10 years old, which cost over 1000 lives - statistics that only give a hint of the real human suffering.

We need only look to Darfur or Congo, Rwanda or Palestine to know that war and conflict is as big an issue if we are serious about ending poverty and injustice in Africa and elsewhere.

Conflict hurts the most vulnerable. It means people lose their homes and their livelihoods they can no longer support themselves or their families.

And to our shame, it is conflict and repression, fuelled too often by weapons we, the rich countries, export.

Indeed, on 9/11, as the terrible and tragic events were unfolding in the United States, the British government was sponsoring an arms fair in London where weapons were sold to both sides of the conflict in the Congo.

There is another side to the equation. Together the EU-15 countries spend just under half on aid what the UK spends on defence.

Here in the UK we are planning to spend another £20 billion on the obscenity of a replacement for Trident, enough on one single weapons system to provide clean water for two and a half million people, put 350,000 children through school and save the lives of 50,000 under 5¹s every year for almost 40 years.

In the Scotland I seek we would not have such warped priorities. We would follow the example of nations like Norway and set a target of not 0.7%, but 1% for our contribution to international aid.

Today, let's make our commitment clear. We should spend less fighting wars, fuelling conflict and more, much more, fighting poverty.

If we are serious about opening new doors for the world's poorest through fairer trade, about giving people the tools and the opportunities to build their own wealth we must also get serious about our part in providing the weapons of war and oppression.

The G8 leaders must not forget this crucial part of the equation more peace can deliver less poverty.

Monday, July 4th, 2005

SNP ON CONSULTATION ON COUNCIL TAX REFORM

Speaking following the publication of the independent Local Government Finance Review Committee's report summarising the results of its recent public consultation, SNP Deputy Leader Nicola Sturgeon said:.

The review's findings clearly back up the SNP's argument that the current unfair system of Council Tax should be abolished and replaced by a progressive system based of local government finance based on the ability to pay.

We are therefore greatly encouraged that a significant number of the public who have responded to the review support our position in advocating a local income tax.

There is no doubt that a local income tax system would benefit pensioners and those on low incomes and would mean that a clear majority of the Scottish population would be better off.

Tuesday, July 5th, 2005

NEED FOR PROPER ROAD FUEL REGULATOR

Stewart Hosie

Commenting on the government's decision to freeze the planned increase in fuel duty SNP Treasury spokesperson in the House of Commons, Stewart Hosie MP said:

This is good news for motorists but it is only a sticking plaster solution - much better that we have a proper road fuel regulator that limits increases at the pump when oil prices are high.

It is not good enough that this decision is left to the whim of the Chancellor. There should be a mechanism in place to ensure that high oil prices trigger an automatic freeze on fuel duties.

8 July 1822
Death of Sir Henry Raeburn, portrait painter and King’s Limner, in Edinburgh. The leading Scottish artist of his generation, Raeburn was knighted by King George IV on his Royal visit to Scotland.

9 July 1907
Launch of the 8662-ton SS California by D & W Henderson, Glasgow. Built for the Anchor Line, she was torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine in 1917.

9 July 1938
Gas masks were first issued to the civilian population in Britain in anticipation of the Second World War.

10 July 1308
An English fleet was ordered to sail from Hartlepool to help raise siege of English garrison by Scottish forces in Aberdeen.

12 July 1683
Edinburgh merchant Thomas Hamilton, who had been importing beaver and racoon skins from North America, set up Scotland’s first beaver hat factory.

13 July 40
Birth of Julius Agricola, Roman Governor of Britain. He defeated the Caledonians, under Calgacus, at the Battle of Mons Graupius. The site of the battle has never been acceptably identified.

See Dates in History in our Features Section

SCOTTISH FOOD, TRADITIONS AND CUSTOMS

Rhubarb

A recent item on Scots love of jam brought an immediate response from a visitor to The Flag requesting a jam recipe! It also prompted the SI skeilie Webmaster to recall a boyhood visit to friends of his parents who had a croft in the Scottish Borders and made their own bread, butter and jam. The young Alastair kept going back to the kitchen for another jammy piece until his mother called a halt. She probably thought, reminised Alastair, that her friends would think that she didn't feed him properly! But it was so good, just like nectar, claimed Alastair, and he still remembers with great pleasure the thick bread smeared liberally with butter and jam.

Peter Wright, who still uses his mother's rhubarb jam recipe, recalled how she won a rhubarb jam competition at the Crimond SWRI fifty years ago. "Fit kin o ginger did ye ess?" she was asked. "A dinna lyke rhubarb and ginger jam" was her reply. It turned out that the competition was for rhubarb and ginger jam, which just proves that rhubarb on its own tastes much better! In a future item, we will look at that great Scottish institution, The Scottish Women's Rural Institute, but meantime, here is Gladys Wright's prize winning recipe.

Rhubarb Jam

Ingredients : 4 lb rhubarb; 4 lb sugar; teaspoon lemon juice

Wash and chop rhubarb into one inch lengths and put into jelly pan. Cover with sugar. Cover pan with dish cloth and leave overnight. This draws out the juice from the rhubarb. Next day bring pan slowly to a rolling boil, stirring continuously with a wooden spoon. Boil for thirty minutes adding a teaspoon of lemon juice near the end, to aid setting. During the boiling time skim off the impurities coming to the surface in thick froth. After thirty minutes put a wooden spoonful of liquid in a saucer and allow to cool. Test for setting. A finger run gently across the surface causes wrinkling in the set jam. If necessary repeat. When ready pour into jam jars, to avoid breakages half fill jars, then top up. Early rhubarb, being juicier, is more difficult to set than the later crop, but if desired gelatin can be added. Like Alastair spread on a piece and enjoy! Makes 7/8 lbs.

See our Scottish Food, Traditions and Customs in our Features section