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CAMPAIGNING FOR SCOTLAND
(Owned, Edited and Printed in Scotland since November
1926)
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Nationalism and all that is best in Scotland."
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[
Issue 367 - 15th June 2007] |
Compiled by Ian Goldie |
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EXCITING STUFF
Well. Folks, what a month it
has been! Beyond doubt, the most exciting month in politics in Scotland
that I have ever known.
Alex Salmond has taken the Scottish scene by storm with a series of
initiatives, and well deserves the praise that has come his way.
But how he has been helped by his opponents!
 Who
would have believed that through their crass behaviour the tabloid press,
the BBC, Jack McConnell, the Prime Minister, the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, a very minor Labour MP and a ten-year-old legal case would all
conspire to boost the standing of the Scottish National Party in the eyes of
the Scottish electorate.
By his reluctance to concede defeat, Jack McConnell showed a lack of grace
that disappointed Scots of many political hues.
Next up were two smear campaigns in two of the tabloids – the so-called
‘Scottish’ Sun (it doesn’t even have a Scottish website) and the Edinburgh
Evening News. Fortunately, most ordinary non-political folk have a broad
sense of fair play, and while most enjoy reading tittle-tattle about
celebrities and MPs, they generally and rightly treat smears – and the
journalists who write them - with the contempt they deserve.
It has been incredible to observe the Prime Minister and Gordon Brown
avoiding the simple act of telephoning our new First Minister to
congratulate him on his victory. This story has run and run in the Scottish
media, and in the end, no doubt realising the damage this was doing to his
reputation, Brown caved in.
Tony Blair, on the other hand, has still – at the time of writing – not
congratulated Salmond, but has easily found time for a grand-standing
farewell world tour, getting into a friendly hug with that model of
democracy, Libyan dictator Colonel Gadaff.
And now from the farcical to the ridiculous, a moment that left most MPs
shifting in their seats with embarrassment. Step forward, Labour MP for
East Lothian, Anne Moffat (formerly Anne Picking).
Ms Moffat claims in her website that she comes from ‘the well-known Moffat
family of East Lothian and Fife". She was elected in 2001 and up till last
month had made only two speeches in the House of Commons.
However, in a speech on 23 May this year she said:
“Proportional representation gave Germany Adolf Hitler and in Scotland to
a lesser degree we've had the member for Banff and Buchan".
Not very pleasant at all. But if she is willing to say that in public
in the House of Commons, what is she saying in private, away from the
cameras and the microphones?
But for the two issues that have really set the political scene alight,
see next two sections.
THE PRISONER, THE
PRIME MINISTER AND
THE VERY STRANGE COLONEL
There languishes in a
Scottish jail the man allegedly responsible for the Lockerbie plane
catastrophe of 21 December 1988, one Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi.
Many people – and I am one of them – have grave doubts that we have
convicted the right man, and his case is being appealed this year. But he
was tried by Scottish judges and is in Scottish custody under Scottish law.
 So
it was absolutely extraordinary that Prime Minister Tony Blair should do a
deal with the bizarre Colonel Gaddafi on prisoner exchanges without first
informing the Scottish First Minister of his intentions.
In Holyrood, the Scottish Parliament, Alex Salmond said that he had written
to the prime Minister about it. He had taken legal advice and his stand was
justified.
What was astonishing was the backing that he had from all sides of the
Scottish Parliament. Tory leader Annabel Goldie immediately grasped the
implications and commented that she found Blair’s actions ‘extraordinary’
and was ‘deeply alarmed’ that he had ‘ridden roughshod over devolution’ and
had displayed ‘unacceptable arrogance towards the Scottish government and
Scottish law officers’.
LibDem leader Nicol Stephensaid the matter was ‘very serious’ while even
Jack McConnell said the it was ‘deeply regrettable’.
Amazingly, Tony Blair, back in the House of Commons’ has suggested that Alex
Salmond should have phoned him!
What is Salmond supposed to do? Lift the phone every morning to ask what
changes Blair has made overnight that might affect Scotland?
The arrogance is quite astonishing.
PAXBRATS AND
PAXETTES
BBC television interviewer Jeremy Paxman is well known for his sneering
attitude to any politician he is interviewing. He makes it clear that he
always assumes politicians will lie to him, and he has built his reputation
on his arrogant and aggressive style.
 Well,
now this disease has definitely spread to Scotland. I first became aware of
it in an interview that Scottish television interviewer Bernard Ponsonby
conducted with Jack McConnell shortly before the election. Again, the
entire time was characterised by sneering, ridicule, and interruption. No
light was generated, only heat.
Alex Salmond apparently got the same treatment and handled it quite well,
but that is no excuse for interviewing of such a low standard.
 Now
we have Kirsty Wark on BBC London’s Newsnightr having to apologise to
Salmond for her offensive interviewing last Thursday evening – and it really
was offensive - and I understand that BBC Scotland’s Anne Mackenzie tried to
get in on the act immediately after on Newsnight Scotland by criticising
Salmond caustically on several occasions for not coming to be interviewed by
her.
 Add
to all that the fact that I heard John Swinney being interviewed on Monday
morning on Good Morning Scotland and he had scarcely uttered five words
before he was interrupted. What an obnoxious female, I thought. Sadly I
didn’t get her name.
What is it with these TV and radio presenters? Some of them have been much
admired in the past, and rightly. But they seem to assume that they are of
more importance than the person they are interviewing, and that displays of
contempt and disdain are the order of the day.
They are wrong, and people are beginning to realise that by sending in
emails in sufficient numbers or by writing to the press they can turn such
attitudes round. Long live power to the decent people!
PEACEFUL NATIONS
 A
new index has been produced that shows which countries come out as the most
peaceful. It is called the Global Peace Index, and is created by the
Economist Intelligence Unit, with input from the University of Sydney.
Norway is the most peaceful country in the world, and fifteen of the top
twenty places are filled by European nations.
 The
top fifteen countries are:
1 Norway: 2 New Zealand: 3 Denmark: 4 Ireland: 5
Japan:
6 Finland: 7 Sweden: 8 Canada: 9 Portugal: 10
Austria:
11 Belgium: 12 Germany: 13 Czech republic: 14
Switzerland:
15 Slovenia
 The
United Kingdom comes in at 49th, sandwiched between Morocco and Mozambique,
while the United States comes in at 96th, between the Yemen and Iran.
The five least peaceful countries are: Nigeria, Russia, Israel, Sudan and
Iraq.
It is a new index and will certainly need to be refined, but in broad terms
it seems to ring true. It generally reflects other indices of prosperity,
social justice and democracy.
Further information can be obtained at:
http://www.visionofhumanity.com/
Bannockburn Rally
Saturday 16th June 2007
We are assembling at 13:30 at Lower Bridge Street in Stirling with the
March kicking off at 14:00. At the National Trust site of Bannockburn Nicola
Sturgeon MSP will lay the wreath for the SNP. Everyone will hear Nicola and
Bruce Crawford MSP speak and then we will be entertained by Eva Christie who
has played Glastonbury before and Five Park Drive. Hopefully it will be a
good family event that further celebrates our victory at the elections and
the important time in our history. This year Professor Christopher Harvie
MSP is giving our Dr. Allan Macartney lecture at the King Robert Hotel at
16:30 .
The local SNP
branch are hosting a party at the King Robert Hotel, provisionally from 6pm
to 10pm. We do not have their final details yet, but I think it is likely
that there will be a couple of traditional Scottish bands there.
The Working Life of Linda
Fabiani MSP
Click here to read SNP MSP Linda Fabiani's working diary.
SYNOPSIS
Sad to relate, but I have not been able to get any
press releases emailed to me, except from the office of the excellent
Christine Grahame, MSP for the South of Scotland, and her indefatigable
press officer Mark Hirst – at least I think that is his title.
It was one of the most bizarre turns of election night when we realised that
Christine had not won her constituency outright, for no-one deserved a
resounding victory.
Anyway, here is one of her latest press releases:
Thursday 7 June 2007
SCHOOLCHILDREN SHOULD NOT BE TARGETED BY ARMY
RECRUITERS
Key quote: “We owe it our children to offer them more
than a potential one way ticket to the bloody mess which has become Iraq and
Afghanistan.” – Christine Grahame MSP
The recruitment crisis facing the British Armed Forces
following the calamitous invasion of Iraq should not be used as an excuse to
target schoolchildren as young as 14 a prominent SNP MSP has warned.
 Christine
Grahame, a former secondary teacher herself, is urging the new SNP
Government to ban exclusive recruitment visits to schools by the armed
forces following fears expressed to her by teaching unions, parents and
pupils themselves.
Last year Ms Grahame exposed the Army’s recruitment strategy of targeting
children in predominantly deprived areas of Scotland and showed how such
visits had increased by almost 1000% since the start of the Iraq war.
The Educational Institute for Scotland is currently debating a motion
calling on a ban on army recruitment in schools. Ms Grahame said:
“It is entirely inappropriate for the armed forces to be
undertaking these visits simply because they are facing falling recruitment
levels overall combined with increasing levels of desertion and serving
troops resigning from the army.
“We owe it our children to offer them more than a
potential one way ticket to the bloody mess which has become Iraq and
Afghanistan.
“I am not saying that a career in the armed forces
should not be on offer, but it should be presented alongside the other
career options available to young people. At present it appears that the
armed forces are getting preferential treatment in terms of access to
schoolchildren, some as young as 14, at the detriment of other public
services and business career opportunities. That cannot be right.
“Teachers, parents and school pupils themselves have expressed to me their
concerns about such visits and the distorted picture that is being presented
about life in the armed forces today.
“As a result of the deliberate targeting of journalists
news of the reality of life for armed forces personnel on a day to day basis
in Iraq and Afghanistan is very limited. I know from senior military sources
I have spoken to that the conditions and level of risk is very high indeed
and growing. The pupils the army recruiters are visiting are not being told
that.”
Ms Grahame has also called for any ban on army
recruitment in schools to be extended to hospitals across Scotland following
concerns raised by health workers that army recruitment officers had begun
appearing in staff canteens. Ms Grahame added:
“The principal concern of the Scottish Government with
regard to hospital recruitment should be to ensure that we see no
diminishing of the service provided to patients. At a time when NHS services
are stretched as a result of years of underinvestment from Labour and
Liberal Ministers it cannot be in the interests of patient deliver to have
staff poached by the armed forces.”
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