CAMPAIGNING FOR SCOTLAND (Owned, Edited and Printed in Scotland since November 1926) "Promoting all that is best in Scottish Nationalism and all that is best in Scotland." Content of the Flag in the Wind Web Site is the copyright of the Scots Independent Newspaper. [ Issue 358 -  13th April 2007]

Compiled by Jim Lynch

ELECTION 2007

This will be my last Flag before the Scottish Election; next week will be Donald Bain, then Ian Goldie, and I will be doing the Flag on 4^th May – later than usual- with some comment on the Election.

Well, this is a unique position I find myself and the Scottish National Party in; in over 40 years there have been ups and downs, more downs, and it has always been my contention that the SNP always peaked at the wrong time, and that if we could only synchronise our appeal with an election we would sweep to victory.

This time we are into the campaign proper and still rising in the polls; there was a blip, which made headlines!  Imagine -  a headline in the Scottish press saying Labour was ahead in the polls!  We were so used to them being in that position until this year that it excited no comment.  Now they are discredited, and it is possible that at this election the whole rotten edifice that is the Labour Party will crumble – but we are not there yet.

Labour launched their manifesto this week, with the First Minister parading with a classful of innocent and unaware young children all wearing T shirts with “Building Scotland” on them; and at the launch of their “positive” campaign he cries : “Education not separation” , and wittered on that Scotland faced either progress or 4 years of turmoil!  His idea of positive and mine are obviously poles apart.  There is a list of promises, free transport, reduced community charges for pensioners, no tolls on the Forth and Tay Bridges, and more goodies than the Easter Bunny could think up; and of course, no answer as to why they hadn’t already done all these wonders. Labour have been in power for 10 years in the UK, and 8 years in the Scottish Parliament, along with their partners in grime, the Liberals, so surely some of these wonders could have been worked.  We cannot tell if their sums on Council Tax add up, because they haven’t done them, as anyone watching Cathy Jamieson on Newsnight Scotland might have noticed.

Mr McConnell claims he is not fighting for his job, but for the future of Scotland.  In this respect  he must think the electorate has had an irony bypass, because he is fighting for his job.  This election, contrary to the Unionist propaganda, is about who runs Scotland for the next 4 years, and not about independence;  Labour and Liberal are terrified that with an SNP led government, their whole shoddy performance over the past 8 years will be exposed, and the electorate will see why the Scottish Parliament has been dubbed by so many to be a failure.  The placemen – and women- the “servants” of the people, as they hypocritically style themselves, will be shown to be narrow, parochial, and subservient to their masters in London.

After 3 years of an SNP led administration, the people will be asked to choose in a referendum if they wish independence;  they will be asked to judge the SNP not on what they have said, but on what they have done.  Labour and Liberals are panicking as they are about to be judged not on what they have promised, but on what they have delivered, so they keep talking about constitutional issues to distract the electorate from their abject failure.  It is a version of the old adage that the solution to trouble at home used to be war abroad;  this lot have already made war abroad an unacceptable, and illegal, alternative, so they have to find something else.

Labour was most upset at the Sunday Mail poll published on 8^th April; this showed the SNP 12 points ahead of Labour on the Constituency Vote, and 11 points ahead on the Regional Vote.  This would translate into 56 SNP seats and 40 Labour seats.

Just ask yourself – where is all the talk of turmoil, splits, job losses, financial ruin coming from?  Yes, Labour and the Liberals, with the Tories in the background, singing slightly small.

Scotland deserves better.
 

Unpalatable answers?

On Wednesday 4^th April, I saw Iain McMillan, Director of CBI Scotland on Newsnight Scotland;  he was responding to favourable comments on independence made by Sir Tom Farmer.  In the course of the interview he was asked about the questions the CBI had put to the the SNP;  many readers will remember the furore when the CBI said it had sent the SNP a list of questions but had not received any answers.  By a remarkable coincidence this had happened just after Mr McMillan had had a meeting with the Chancellor, Gordon Brown.

The Newsnight interviewer, Gordon Brewer, asked if the CBI had now received the answers from the SNP, to which they had; asked further as to what the CBI thought of the answers, Mr McMillan replied that they were still evaluating them, and that because they were not a political body, they would not be revealing their thoughts until after the Scottish Election, as this would amount to interference in politics.

It was very obvious that the answers were not palatable in the eyes of the Unionists (for what is the Confederation of British Industries anyway?) or they would have made the same fuss about them as they did about the alleged lack of answers in the first place.  On Saturday, 7^th April, a whole 3 days after his “non-political” evasion on Newsnight Scotland, an Iain McMillan, Director CBI Scotland, had a long letter in the Herald attacking the SNP’s policy of abolishing the Council Tax, and backing Alf Young of the Herald who was like minded.  When the SNP unites the Labour Party and the Tory Party it must be frightening them!

Also on the Newsnight Scotland programme, Mr McMillan denied that the CBI had asked the Chancellor to remove the £5 billion tax credit from pension funds in 1997;  his comment was “That was 10 years ago, we are dealing with things now.”; how familiar is the “time to move on philosophy”  which politicians and businessmen use when the chickens come home to roost.  (By the way, Mr McMillan is not elected – he is appointed by the President of the CBI.)
 

And unpalatable “Britishness” questions.

Plans by UK Ministers to extend a "Britishness" test for potential migrants has been branded xenophobic by a senior SNP figure who accused Ministers of using the questions as a cover for their own anti-immigration prejudices.  The test was introduced as part of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act, which was supported by the Liberal Democrats. Christine Grahame, the SNP candidate for Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale has said the questions, which include grilling potential immigrants on the exact distance between the North of Scotland and the South Coast of England, are utterly meaningless when determining a migrant’s suitability to live here and that the exam would likely be failed by the majority of existing UK residents.

Ms Grahame has instead suggested an alternative questionnaire for potential migrants which would allow them to assess the competency of both the Government and their Liberal coalition partners.  Ms Grahame said more should be done to encourage migrants to Scotland as the country, and the Borders in particular, begins to face the challenges of a growing elderly population with fewer active young people in the region to care for them. Ms Grahame said:

"Instead of placing more barriers in the way of new migrants trying to work and contribute to our communities far more should be done to encourage greater numbers to settle here.

"There is a real and potentially very dangerous rise in xenophobia in some parts of the UK, particularly in the South of England, which has clearly began to permeate into Government policy thinking and that of the Liberals who backed Labour over these plans.

"This is the last thing Scotland needs and more work is required to encourage migrants to come to our country to help ensure we have the necessary skills and financial base to support our increasing elderly population. I have suggested these additional questions to highlight the ridiculousness of them and to expose the rank hypocrisy which lies at the heart of these tests for migrants.

"We will need more migrants to contribute to what we hope will be a thriving independent nation, free of UK pension and tax grabs and billions wasted on weapons of mass destruction and sporting competitions which will favour only a small minority living in the South East of England.

"The questions being asked in the 'Britishness" test would be failed by the vast majority of Borderers and its difficult to see how on earth this exam can truly assess someone's suitability to living and working here. It’s an utterly pointless exercise."

Christine Grahame’s alternative 10 questions, which she has submitted to the Home Office and the Liberal Democrats head office to add to the expanded Britishness test announced this week, are:

1. Which fourth placed Scottish political party has manoeuvred itself into Ministerial power with Labour for the past eight years in Scotland?

2. What year did the Liberal Party conference debate assisted suicide for people with severe depression?

3. Which Labour government is committed to spending over £100 billion on weapons of mass destruction whilst the NHS continues to endure chronic under funding and school buildings face neglect?

4. What nation of the UK, currently administered by the Labour and Liberal coalition, has the biggest oil reserves in Europe but still has 1/5 of its children living in poverty?

5. Which Labour Chancellor has robbed more money from Scots pension funds than the corrupt newspaper magnate Robert Maxwell?

6. How many members of the UK Parliament know what the name of the Labour First Minister of Scotland is?

7. What is the name of Labour's First Minister?

8. How many Liberal voters can name the leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats?

9. How many Liberal Democrats supported proposals to allow 16 year olds to appear in and buy hardcore pornography as well as allowing them to buy alcohol?

10. Which SNP candidate in the Scottish Borders reduced a previous Liberal majority of almost 4,500 to just 538 votes in 2003 and needs only a 1 percent swing to take the seat on May 3rd?
 

FOOT IN THE MOUTH NOTES

The Scottish Executive has been refusing to publish its correspondence with Westminster on free personal care for the elderly;  the demand, under the Freedom of Information Act has been rejected for 2 years, but now the Information Commissioner has ruled that the documents must be published.

The Executive has 40 days to lodge an appeal against the ruling, which effectively means that the publication will not come before the Scottish election; of course, if as expected, the SNP forms the administration then the LibLab skeletons will come storming out of the cupboard. 

 

On the recent hostage debacle, two headlines stand out; on Wednesday 28 Mar, the Herald had: “Blair piles pressure on Iran over captives”.  The following day Thursday 29 Mar, the Herald headline was : “UK anger as sailors paraded for the cameras.”

Modern update of : “My name is Ozymandias, king of kings; look on my works ye Mighty and despair.”

 

In March the SNP had a motion before the Scottish Parliament to abolish tolls on the Forth and Tay Road Bridges; this was defeated by the Labour/Liberal coalition.   In April both Labour and Liberals had promises to abolish the tolls in their manifestos.

Is it any wonder that voters have a low opinion of politicians?

 

The Scottish Christian Party put up election posters on Glasgow lamp posts;  each poster had a biblical text.  They have now complained to police that their posters have been removed.

Quite sure that the texts are now displayed in the homes of devout Glaswegians.

 

There is an official LibDem manual on how to “squeeze” the Greens; the advice is to try and link them to the animal liberation movement, and also to produce leaflets with graphs showing them in third or fourth place. 

Last year in the Moray by election they put out leaflets with graphs showing they were 3% behind the SNP;  the actual results were: SNP 45.9%, Tories 22.7%, Liberals 9.7%
 

In Gordon, meanwhile, where Alex Salmond is standing for the SNP, a prominent Liberal ice cream salesman is asking Tory and Labour voters to vote Liberal to stop Alex.  His plea was called a tub thumping attack on independence.

Now what exactly happens if you thump an ice cream tub?

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Book Launch

Shirley McKie
The Price of Innocence

by

Iain McKie and Mike Russell

 
Wednesday 18^th April 2007
7.00-9.00p.m.

Craigie Hall,
6 Rowan Road,
Glasgow G41 5BS

(just off junction 23 of M8) see link for details

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&rls=SUNA,SUNA:2006-42,SUNA:en&q=craigie+hall&near=Glasgow,+UK

RSVP Kenny Redpath 0131 655 1510 or events@birlinn.co.uk

West Newington House,10 Newington Road, Edinburgh EH9 1QS