WATCH THIS SPACE 

          While all the media attention has been focussed on the Sheridan case (see below) a lot of other things have been happening; the Tories have admitted that breaking up the railways was wrong and has increased costs and generally messed things up.  I don’t suppose it was a case of them admitting this, more a case of being found out. 

        Also BBC Panorama highlighted how the water companies are making millions of pounds of profit every year, and are not investing enough to cut water leaks; according to the programme, 5 billion litres of water is lost each day in England and Wales, and some utilities are facing heavy fines for not managing properly.    Not a great problem there, as they will merely increase the charges; on the charges side, some water companies have been fraudulently overcharging, a case for the Serious Fraud Office.  They also showed flooded streets ignored by the water companies while they imposed hosepipe bans; what a wonderful thing this privatisation business, no wonder the fat cats want to get their hands on Scottish water.  Strangely I saw no mention of the programme in the Herald; maybe because it is in England it is not newsworthy.

      And then we have the Scottish Liberal millionaire, who gave them £2.4 million, facing 9 years in jail for perjury and passport fraud; he is based in Majorca and was arrested in Madrid.  Sir Menzies Campbell says it has nothing to do with the Liberals;  such deceit is no problem for a party  who  claim to have abolished tuition fees and are getting hot under the collar because Nicola Sturgeon said the SNP will actually abolish them.  A recent survey of Liberals show that most of them want Charles Kennedy back;  they are not looking too kindly on the man who knifed him and has them mired in the slough of despond.  No wonder they love Sheridan – what a wonderful distraction.

THE FLAG LAUNCHES ITS SHOPPING MALL

We have today launched our Shopping Mall where you can buy any of some 50 books and also various sizes of the Saltire Flag!  At this time prices include shipping ONLY for UK deliveries.

Should you wish to place an order for delivery outside the UK then do place your order BUT we won't ship it right away as we'll email you with the extra shipping cost. When you get that if you wish to proceed with your order simply use the DONATE button to give us the extra payment. Should you not wish to proceed we'd appreciate an email saying so but you also don't need to do anything should you decide not to proceed and your credit card will NOT be charged.

We hope you find this new facility useful and note that some of the books on sale have limited stocks so do get your order in for those quickly before they go :-)
 

THE SHERIDAN SHENANIGANS

          It is difficult, if not well nigh impossible, to know what to make of the Sheridan defamation case against the News of the World; at the end of 23 days of at times lurid evidence, a jury of 6 men and 5 women found in favour of Tommy Sheridan by a 7-4 margin, awarding him £200,000 of damages, and leaving the News of the World to pay all the expenses.

          The case had swung back and forward, with the evidence led by the News of the World, and backed by the executive of the Scottish Socialist Party seemingly rock solid; then Tommy Sheridan sacked his QC, mainly because he had to go off to fight another case in the House of Lords, and not, as I assumed, to lessen his costs in case he lost!  It seemed that the advocate who took over did not perform to Mr Sheridan’s satisfaction; he then proceeded to disprove the old legal adage: “The person who represents himself has a fool for a client.”  Certainly, by all accounts, Mr Sheridan was barnstormingly, eloquently, persuasive, and led many to think that while he may have indeed been guilty, the jury, like most of the onlookers, wanted to see the News of the World get its comeuppance.

       While the court case may be over, pending an appeal by the News of the World, other cases may emanate from it; in the fact that two diametrically opposed accounts were given under oath in court, there is no doubt that both cannot be true, and telling lies under oath in court is perjury, punishable by prison.  Also the Scottish Socialist Party is now split, irrevocably it would seem, pending their Conference in October; this led my friend Andrew Kerr to query whether the Conference would be conducted in Saughton Prison, Edinburgh, or Cornton Vale, the women’s prison in Stirling.  Cruel, cruel.

     What I found strange was that while all SSP elected members give a large chunk of their wages to the party, and live on the average wage, where did Mr Sheridan get the cash to pay for the exotic life style portrayed?  Also, if he had just accepted the case the notoriety would have died down after a while;  he must have been very sure of his ground, because whatever one may think of his politics, he is not stupid.   At the same time, what would be the point of an elaborate charade by the ruling executive of the SSP just to get rid of their most high profile member?  Something does not add up.

   This story will run and run, and it is difficult to see any way back for the SSP, and perhaps will end up with Tommy Sheridan as the only one to survive the debacle;  why am I reminded of a book I once read entitled : “Never steal anything small”?
 

TO ENGLAND – WITH LOVE?

Speaking at a press conference in Edinburgh on Tuesday 8^th August, SNP Leader Alex Salmond MP, revealed new data which means at current world oil prices Scotland will be over £5bn billion in surplus with London this year.

Last month the SNP published Scotland in Surplus, which detailed a £4.3 billion Scottish financial surplus compared to the UK for this financial year. The figure was based on a world oil price of $65 a barrel, but since April the average has been $70 a barrel (compared to a Brent Crude price of almost $79 a barrel yesterday). On the latest average oil price, Scotland's surplus becomes £5.3 billion or £1039 for every man, woman and child in Scotland. The new figures also mean that this year oil revenues will be at a 20-year record high of £12.7 billion, beating the previous record levels in 1984/85 of £12 billion.

Commenting Mr Salmond said:

"Scots now subsidise the rest of the UK by more than £1000 a head. We are seeing record high oil revenues – money which at the moment is lost to Scotland.

"As predicted in papers the UK government tried to keep secret from the people of Scotland thirty years ago, our nation has a chronic surplus of 10% of our total government budget. That means we are missing out on over £5 billion a year that could be used to transform Scotland.

"It is a Scottish revenue that could finally deliver the same level of childcare support available in our small independent Scandinavian neighbours – improving the life chances of young Scots and significantly boosting the quality of life of working mums and dads.

"It is a Scottish resource that could kick-start a new era of low tax economic growth, with Scotland matching the success of our small independent neighbours – Norway to our east, Ireland to our west and Iceland to our north – who are among the top half dozen richest nations in the world.

"And it is a Scottish opportunity to wipe out pensioner poverty and end the penny-pinching that has so undermined the delivery of free care and left older Scots stuck in a queue for a place at a care home.

"Just last month the UK government's energy review admitted that there are at least 25 billion barrels of oil and gas remaining and that production in the Scottish sector will remain strong for decades to come.

"We have the prospect of decades of unprecedented wealth for our nation but that will only begin with the election of an SNP government in May next year."
 

LIST RANKINGS

      The SNP has now completed its list of candidates  for next year’s Scottish Elections;  most constituencies have selected their candidates, and the Regional Lists have also been compiled.

          Each elector has TWO votes; the first is for the Constituency, which is decided on a first past the post system, and which means the person with the most votes is elected, irrespective of how many votes are cast against them.  The second is the List vote, which balances out how many additional seats each party gets depending on the percentage of votes cast for it; it is not a second preference vote, or an alternative vote, but a method of ensuring proper representation.

  In 2003, the Greens only stood on the List, and conned everyone that the vote was a second preference, thus gaining a number of seats, and all SSP members were elected the same way.   The SNP will be contesting all Constituency seats and all supporters of Independence should therefore vote SNP TWICE, Constituency and List; failure to do so could cost us the election.  The members standing under this system have been ranked by all SNP  members, using One Member One Vote, and are as undernoted.

(For space reasons I am only showing the first four in each list; some regions have 8, some 9, some 11 and one 13!)

STAR PERFORMERS

Alex Salmond MP has published a league table of MP's participation in the House of Commons since the 2005 General Election, based on data from the Parliamentary Information Management System (PIMS).

Encompassing speeches in the Chamber, tabling of Early Day Motions, and submission of Written and Oral Questions, the analysis shows that all six SNP MPs are in the top ten among Scottish MPs.

Angus MP Mike Weir is in top place, Angus Robertson (Moray) is 4th, Stewart Hosie (Dundee East) 5th, Alex Salmond (Banff & Buchan) is 6th, Angus MacNeil (Na h-Eileanan an Iar) is 7th and Pete Wishart (Perth and North Perthshire) 8th.

Nine of the bottom ten places are held by Labour MPs. Of the bottom twenty places, 17 are held by Labour MPs.

On average, SNP MPs are nearly 5 times as active as Labour MPs and twice as active as LibDem MPs.

The best performing Labour MP is Mark Lazarowicz, in 9th place, with Scotland's sole Tory MP, David Mundell at 20th.

Mr Salmond said:

"As Labour MPs at Westminster line up to attack Scottish self-confidence before next year's Scottish Parliament elections, these figures expose the fact that they are not fighting for Scotland.

"These figures show that in terms of participation in the House of Commons through speeches, questions, and tabling motions, the SNP's super six are in the top ten out of all the Scottish MPs.

"On average, SNP MPs are more than five times as active as Scottish Labour MPs and twice as active as LibDem MPs.

"As we approach the 2007 elections the SNP's MPs build on our record. With those elections a two-horse race between the SNP and Labour we will continue to expose Scottish Labour MPs' dismal performance, and show that only the SNP can be trusted to fight Scotland's corner at Westminster."
 

FOOT IN THE MOUTH NOTES

On a recent visit to our local supermarket, I spotted boxes containing fountains;  well, the packaging said: “Fountain” on the side, “Fountiain” on the front, and the price ticket said: “Fountian”.

I won’t be tempted to buy a crossword book in that store.

Lord Watson of Invergowrie was warmly welcomed at the House of Lords by Lord George Foulkes when he made his first appearance there after serving his prison sentence for fire-raising.

Obviously the Lords don’t like their curtains.

Interesting snippet from the electronic Scotsman, which I can access free; in their Fact of the Day on 2 August, they record the death  in 1922 of Alexander Graham Bell, the Scottish inventor of the telephone.  The report says: “Bell, about to test a new type of transmitter, spilt battery acid on himself.  Watson, in another room, heard a disembodied voice come out of his receiver saying: “Mr Watson, come hear. I want you.”  From then on it was elementary.”

The Scotsman, I understand, still lacks an editor; oh well, it was phonetically correct, was it not?

On 23 July, the Sunday Herald had a headline: “SNP ponder 3p “tartan tax cut” to help economy”, accompanied by a large picture of Nicola Sturgeon MSP, Deputy Leader of the SNP.  Nicola was presenting a policy to abolish student tuition fees, and had nothing to do with the tax proposal which was from  SNP MP Alex Neil, convenor of the Parliament’s enterprise committee.

Under the “need to know more” feature, the paper refers readers to the SNP website, which does not mention the tax proposal; strange?

An ICM poll commissioned by the Sunday Mail found that 31% of people south of the border wanted England to be independent from Scotland.

Probably the rest thought it already was.