The Compliments of the Season to all our readers.

We ignored the politically correct last week when we wished all readers a Happy Christmas, so this week it is a Happy New Year, which we assume is politically correct since as far as we know the PC brigade, whose name is legion, has not yet advanced any aversion to the Gregorian Calendar.

 

The Year Ahead

We do not know what the year ahead will hold, and it would be a rash man to quote certainties, but we should expect the Unionists to get their act together, as quite frankly their opposition has been dire.

The Labour Party has not recovered from losing the May Election, or even accepted it, and they are looking in vain to London for guidance, where the Prime Minister is also in denial.  His refusal to contact the First Minister of Scotland for 21 days after he was elected is now surfacing again;  this time he has not spoken to the First Minister for 5 months, and calls from Alex Salmond have not been returned.  As far as can be ascertained he is not speaking to Belfast or Cardiff either, so one might expect that one day soon we might have to send a diplomatic mission to London.  We could take over the Scotland Office, which seems to have little to do.

It is possible that criminal charges may be made against Wendy Alexander, who has admitted that she broke the law, and that one of her shadow cabinet (since resigned) may be compelled to leave Holyrood, precipitating another by election in Cathcart; the previous one was when the incumbent, Lord Watson of Invergowrie,was jailed for setting fire to the curtains at Prestonfield House in Edinburgh.  It has also been rumoured that Jack MacConnell may go to the House of Lords; he of course, is going to be the High Commissioner for Malawi, but intends to continue as MSP for Motherwell and Wishaw.  How he can look after the affairs of his constituents is open to question, but he had no high regard for Motherwell anyway.

The Liberal leader, Nicol Stephen, woke briefly from his torpor, to indulge in the gutter politics the Liberals are noted for, but Alex Salmond knocked him out;  we might expect the Liberals to dump him, but then again as they soldier on in their ineptitude, they might be happy to leave him floundering.  They are not nice people.

The surprise so far was the short lived rapprochement of the Tories; this, I think, was predicated on the belief that embarrassment for the Prime Minister would help the Tories in England.  The Real Tory leader, David Cameron, may now be thinking that Gordon Brown is making a big enough mess without any help from the SNP, so has told Annabel Goldie to cosy up to the Labour and Liberal Parties, a situation which may not be entirely to her liking.

 

“Double, double toil and trouble,
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.”

 

And Alex Salmond and his Cabinet stride majestically on.

 

SNP ENDS YEAR ON POLL HIGH

 
The SNP have published a super poll which shows the party ahead of Labour in Scotland for a UK General Election. The cumulative poll, which has a sample of 2462 people, combines party preference data for the Scottish samples of ten UK polls conducted since October.

Commenting on the poll, SNP Westminster Leader, Angus Robertson MP, said:

"The recent YouGov Scottish poll gave the SNP a record 11 point lead over Labour for a Holyrood election. And now this Superpoll - the Scottish breakdown of 10 recent UK polls - shows that the SNP are even ahead of Labour for a Westminster election, which is a hugely significant development.

"The SNP's ratings are soaring - reflecting the popularity of the Scottish Government.

"The SNP are thriving on the back of an amazing record of achievement by the Scottish Government. In the last week alone, Scotland's Government passed legislation to scrap bridge tolls, announced a new Forth crossing, and won a key vote on the Bill to reinstate free education in Scotland - in the teeth of Labour and Tory opposition.

"Gordon Brown's government is sinking while Alex Salmond's administration is delivering. Whenever the Prime Minister goes to the people, it will be clear that the people of Scotland are right behind Scotland's SNP government.

"Building on the strength of our Holyrood result, the SNP can take seats from Labour and the Lib Dems all over Scotland - in places like Dundee, Ochil, Stirling, Glasgow, Inverness, Argyll, Gordon, and others.

"With support for independence also on the up, the SNP and our positive policies go into 2008 on a high."

 
Super Poll Results:
The results reflect the average for every Scottish breakdown of UK polls published since October. The polls were carried out by Populous, YouGov, Independent/ComRes:

Scot Sample 2462

SNP 35.3%
Lab 30.7%
Con 17.2%
Lib Dem 11.3%
Other 5.3%

YouGov/Daily Telegraph Survey
Fieldwork: 22nd - 24th October 2007

Independent/ComRes Political Poll
Fieldwork: October 26th-28th 2007

Populus/Times Poll
Fieldwork: November 2nd-4th 2007

YouGov/Channel 4 Survey Results
Fieldwork: 21st - 22nd November 2007

Independent/ComRes Political Poll
Fieldwork: November 23rd-25th 2007

YouGov/Daily Telegraph Survey
Fieldwork: 26th - 29th November 2007

YouGov/SNP Survey
Fieldwork: 28th - 30th November 2007

Populus/Times Poll
Fieldwork: December 7th-9th 2007

YouGov/Sunday Times Survey
Fieldwork: 13th - 14th December 2007

Independent/ComRes Political Poll
Fieldwork: December 14th-16th 2007

Excerpt from Mediawatch 27 Dec 07 – worth noting.

We have been asked before about a list of names, addresses and telephone numbers to register complaints, so this will be a start.


From Dave Hill

After an evening of trying to get some response or sense out of BBC Scotland I registered the following complaint to the UK Ceefax HQ and asked for an explanation (not yet received). My concern over BBC Scotland’s news and a current affairs output grows and this is particularly the case over the Online and Ceefax parts of it. I imagine the high profile of the TV and radio news asserts some pressure towards providing balance but this does not seem to apply to Ceefax and Online output.

BBC Scotland threatens to join the Scotsman and the Anti Independence Constitutional Commission as enemies of Scotland. Paradoxically BBC London is fairly balanced. This is probably because they don’t really care about Scotland very much

I have provided some addresses and phone contact which should be used to initiate a war of attrition on the BBC. They are obliged to reply to written complaints.

“On 24th December page 164 on Ceefax purported to be First Minister Alex Salmond's festive message. It was in fact an account of a vicious assault in Paisley from the previous Friday. I noticed this at 4pm. I checked again at 4.20 to find no difference so I phoned to complain and was told my complaint had been registered and the matter would be dealt with. At 5.20 I checked again. No change. At 5.50 I checked again - no change - so I phoned again. I was told that they were aware of this mistake but had no idea when anything would be done about it. This is unacceptable! I checked at hourly intervals and made email complaints. Eventually when I checked at around 11.00pm page 164 had been corrected. We had some entirely different item on it. The First Minister's festive message had never appeared. (Page 175 also had been wrong throughout this period and is still wrong as I pen this at 12.45 afternoon on 25th). The Ceefax Scotland pages are eliciting more and more concern as they are sloppy, inaccurate on many occasions and apparently politically biased. The same can be said about the Online BBC Scotland pages which probably emanate from the same sources. It appears to me - and I watch Ceefax and BBC Online on a several times a day basis - that whoever is responsible for the news and current affairs output onto these services in Scotland is far from objective and impartial. I will be recording the output from these sources now on a daily basis and will distribute the results widely.”

BBC Ceefax
Room 7540
BBC Television Centre
Wood Lane
London
W12 7RJ

08700 100 222*

BBC Complaints,
PO Box 1922,
Glasgow G2 3WT

 

 

Politicians – assessments.

Nicol Stephen, erstwhile leader of the Scottish Liberals:

“Pluck first the beam from thine own eye, that thou may see more clearly to pluck the mote from thy brother’s”

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Wendy Alexander, current leader of Scottish Labour:

 

“The more he talked of his honour, the faster we counted our spoons.”

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Alastair Darling, Labour Chancellor:

“Between a Northern Rock and a hard place – thanks to his predecessor.”

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Gordon Brown, current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom:

“For he might have been a Roosian,  a French or Turk or Proosian,
Or perhaps Ital - ian.
But in spite of all temptations, to belong to other nations,
He remains an Englishman.”

 

Cross Free With SNP

 

Alert readers of the Flag will remember that I have used this story before, but when looking through some old photographs I came upon one from Scottish Week in Peterhead – July 1967.  Peterhead Branch SNP had a float in the Parade, and we won First Prize, as the notice on the lorry windscreen shows.

At that time, the Forth Road Bridge had been open for almost three years, but Scotland was in a ferment – this was before the Hamilton by election- and there was resentment at road tolls.

The Branch had decided to enter a float, and Social Convenor, Nicol Suttar, came up with the idea of a model of the Forth Road Bridge on a lorry;  I was the Accountant for Sutherlands of Peterhead, and the Managing Director of Sutherlands, Peter C Pearce, was Chairman of the Scottish Week Committee.  Anyway we got the trailer, built the model of the Forth Bridge with the slogan “Cross Free With SNP”.

We also loaned the vehicle to Central Buchan Branch who took it to Aikey Fair, and got sixteen new members, and to Aberdeen for the Bon Accord Parade.

The relevance of this now is that although this was more than forty years ago, the first SNP Government has abolished the tolls on the Forth and Tay Road Bridges in its first year in office.

We are also going to build another Forth Bridge, as the current one, opened in 1964, requires to be replaced; this in itself is surprising, but one of the reasons seems to be that the original specification was from a bridge in America, but the powers that be cut back on the materials to save money.  So it is not even 50 years old.

I cannot say that I am ecstatic about the new bridge, as I was hoping for a tunnel that would last for hundreds of years; this has been ruled out on cost, length of time to build and the transporting of hazardous materials. I am not entirely sure that I buy  the last reason, as there is a tunnel between Sweden and Denmark , and our Continental cousins seem to have the right kind of tunnel vision, because they have them all over the place.  I would have thought that hazardous loads could have been routed over the new bridge almost completed just west of Kincardine.  However the die is cast, so a bridge it will be; so far there is discussion as to how the bridge will be financed, as the SNP is implacably opposed to PFI, so that has to be settled.  One thing is for sure -    there will be no tolls.

 

 Clamjamfray     Donnie MacNeill

 

Kingdom Come

Recently, the Herald printed one of the many letters I have submitted, more in hope than expectation, it has to be said. Its publication had a peculiar repercussion in the form of a letter from the ‘Office of the Regent’. “Regent”, I hear you ask! Yes indeed, Regent.

It appears from the content of the letter that Scotland still exists as an independent entity (forget the referendum, Alex!), as does England. The Union was, and is, illegal and, as a consequence, we are not members of the EU. Our one misfortune is that, since James VI sloped off down to London, thus effectively abdicating the Scottish crown, we are at present, monarch-less.

Which is where the good Michael Andrew Ritchie of Slegden in the Parish of Greenlaw comes in. He has very kindly taken upon himself the office of Regent and Acting Chancellor of Scotland, awaiting the day when the Scottish throne receives the imprint of a right royal posterior and the Stone of Scone is retrieved from its secret lair and given its rightful place. This will happen only once the fighting over where the Royal entourage will bide has produced a compromise location. I’d plump for Bathgate myself.

What our republican brothers and sisters will make of this, remains as big a mystery as whom the new monarch will be. Let us hope he/she is not selected using the single transferable vote!

 

Wee fish, big pond

So hail and farewell, Alex McLeish! Having marched this best wee country in the world up to the top of the ben, you swim off to find a bigger pond and leave us clutching at straws without a paddle! (McLeish? Sorry I though you said McCliche!).

Beware Big Eck, all that glisters is not brass; the streets of Birmingham are not paved with gold. I know; I’ve been there! Your country needed you for the battle ahead, but after narrowly losing a skirmish to the invading Romans, you forgot the story of Bruce and the spider, and packed up your sporran and left. Bought and sold for English gold, some might say; but I couldn’t possibly comment, as I don’t have a leg to stand on.

 

From rags to Riches

On the subject of funding of political parties; before I made the dash from Livingston to Perth for December National Council (I keep telling the chief executive to change the National Council dates so as to avoid conflict – but he doesn’t listen!), I helped set up our regular monthly branch jumble sale, or as we call it in these environmentally friendly times, “recycling bazaar”! This has been a regular monthly ritual for the last 30-odd years and has seen our branch ‘pay its way’ without recourse to brown envelopes or overseas donations. It is also a great way of letting our electorate know that we exist in their area all year round – and not just at elections.

Since the advent of the new laws on party funding though, we have had to put a £1000 limit on any one purchase and have also had to ensure that the person purchasing the goods is doing so for their own use and not on behalf of a third party! As if!!

 

Well Connected

On a recent business trip to Oslo, I was more than impressed by the rail service from Gardemoen airport (beautiful terminal building, by the way) and the centre of the capital. After buying my train ticket in the terminal concourse, I glided down a glass ‘tunnel’ onto the spotless station platform under the terminal. The clever Norwegians built their terminal over the railway line, so no need to undermine the runways. The trains were similar to the French TGVs in design and comfort, left every 10 minutes and glided into the central railway terminus at some 200kph.  This makes a tram stop at the Gyle look very ‘third world’!

The approach to road transport is equally ‘state of the art’. The problem of crossing Oslo, a classically gridded old town (similar to the centre of Glasgow) has been  overcome by running the road UNDER the city, with slip tunnels, at intervals, affording access to the different neighbourhoods. “Whaurs yir M74 extension noo?!!”

Norway, as some of you will know, is an independent country. This might explain the difference in strategic thinking between it and Scotland. Maybe we should try some of that independence stuff ourselves; it seems to have done the Norwegians no harm at all!

 

Cairtean-aithne

Bùrach ann an oifis HMRC agus dè thig às an riaghaltas ann an Lunnainn? B’ e mearachd a bh’ ann gun teagamh, ach b’ e coire cuideigin ìseal san ùghdarras a bh’ ann. Chan eil e idir a’ sealltainn duilgheadas leis an dòigh anns am bi oifisean an riaghaltais a’ cumail is a’ dèiligeadh ris ar fiosrachadh pearsanta. Cha bu chòir dhuinn seo a ghabhail mar fhianais nach eil sinn deas son cairtean-aithne, oir thèid leasanan ionnsachadh.

‘S dòcha gun gabhadh e creidsinn mura bitheamaid air an aon seòrsa pàtrain fhaicinn roimhe iomadh uair. Bidh a h-uile riaghaltas ag obair le polasaidh “need to know” ach tha eachdraidh fada aig riaghaltas an Rìoghachd Aonaichte de “sgeulachd sam bith freagarrach dhuinne”. O chionn goirid bha an dodgy dossier,  ach ro sin bha na breugan mun Belgrano, na h-innealan-sprèadhaidh phosphorous ann an Ceann Tìre, Bloody Sunday, - tha an dealbh agaibh.

Chan ann dìreach a’ cumail rudan dìomhair an trioblaid ach an àite nan daoine aig a’ cheann smachd a ghabhail air an t-suidheachadh, mar as àbhaist fanaidh iad gus an tèid rudan ceàrr is coirichidh iad fear de na daoine beaga, ciont ann no às, gun aideachadh laigsean no an uallach fhèin. Tha feallsanachd na h-İmpireachd fhathast beò! Cò dhìochuimhnicheas an Attorney-General Sasannach a’ seasamh sa chùirt ag ràdh nach do dh’innis e breugan, bha e dìreach “economical with the truth” nuair a dh’fheuch Thatcher stad a chur air an leabhar Spycatcher? No an riaghaltas a’ togail casaid lagha mun “Iraqi Supergun” ged a bha fhios aca gun tug iad seachad cead?

Nuair a thig e don t-seirbheis shìobhalta bidh na ceannardan cho math air glanadh an làmhan gun rachadh aig Pontius Pilate leasan a ghabhail bho chuid aca. Chìtheadh sibh barrachd dìon ann am bun-sgoil na bha san HMRC ach thàinig naidheachd a-mach gum b’ e mearachd oifigeir ìseil a bh’ ann. Dh’ fhalbh Paul Grey – is their e rudeigin gun do ghabh esan uallach airson na mearachd - ach b’ fheudar don duine òg a chaill na diosgaichean falbh cuideachd. Dè mu dhèidhinn na daoine a leig leis mearachd mar sin a dhèanamh? An ann mar a chòmhdaicheas tu thu fhèin an leasan a dh’ionnsaicheas a h-uile duine? Is ma bhios, tha e eagallach smaointinn dè ‘n seòrsa brochain a nì an riaghaltas a’ làimhseachadh cairtean-aithne. Tha diofar eadar eucoirich a’ goid aithne, agus ga fhaighinn mar thiodhlac sa phost.

Mairead NicEacharna
 

Identity Cards

A burach in the office of HM Revenue and Customs and what comes from London? It was undoubtedly a mistake, but it was the fault of a junior person in the authority. It doesn’t show any problem with the way in which government offices store and deal with our personal information at all. We should not take this as evidence that we aren’t ready for identity cards, because lessons will be learned.

Maybe this could be believed if we hadn’t seen the same sort of pattern before many times. Every government works on the “need to know” policy but the United Kingdom government has a long history of “any story that suits us”. Recently we had the dodgy dossier, but before that there were lies about the Belgrano, the phosphorous bombs in Kintyre, Bloody Sunday,  - you get the picture.

It’s not just keeping things secret that’s the problem but that instead of the people at the top exercising proper control over the situation, usually they wait until things have gone wrong and blame one of the minions, guilty or not, without admitting any weaknesses or their own responsibility. The Empire mentality lives! Who can forget the English Attorney-General standing in court saying that he hadn’t told lies, he was merely “economical with the truth” when Thatcher tried to stop the book Spycatcher? Or the government raising a legal action in the Iraqi Supergun affair, though they knew that they had given permission?

When it comes to the civil service the bosses are so good at washing their hands that Pontius Pilate could take a lesson from some of them. You would see more protection in a primary school than there was in the HMRC but word came out that it was the fault of a junior officer. Paul Grey went – and it says something for him that he took responsibility for the mistake – but the young man who lost the disks had to go too. What about the people who allowed him to make such a mistake? Is how to cover yourself the lesson that will be learned by everyone? And if it is, it’s frightening to think what sort of brochan the government will make in handling identity cards. There’s a difference between criminals stealing an identity, and getting it as a present through the post.

 

WHIT WUL WE LEA AHINT US?

   Whan Napoleon’s empire wes at the heicht o its pouer, an he wes makkan his brithers an sisters keings an princesses, there wes ae memmer o the faimly that kep her heid; his mither Letizia, Madame Mere. I the mids o aa the glore o the Coort, whiles she wes heard ti say: “Gin this lests…” Sae she thocht it wyce ti get a pickle siller pit by, juist in case it didnae. She wes richt; an the siller turnit oot gey yissfu in haurder times.

   Whit haes Napoleon got ti dae wi us? Weel, the S.N.P. haes risen ti a heicht it never rase ti afore, bit we ocht ti keep in min that as it haes nae majority in Pairlament, the weird o oor Government hings bi a threid frae a shoogly nail; it coud faa neist week, fir aa we ken. Sae, lik Letizia Bonaparte, we ocht ti think o whit we’ll can lea ahint us; in oor case, whit the Government can dae nou ti bigg up Scotland’s constitutional poseetion, in a wey that the ither pairties wulnae turn back agane.

   Firstly, there are some things the Government can dae bi yaisan its ain pouers, wi nae need fir the appruival o the Opposeetion pairties. An it haes taen this gate aareadie, maist notably bi the deceesion ti caa itsel the Scottish Government raither than the Executive. It is true that anither Government coud chaise ti gang back ti the name o  “Executive”, bit shairly the people o Scotland wadnae want them ti dae it. Luik at whit a stushie there wes whan Angus Cooncil wantit ti tak the Scottish flag doun frae its biggins! Ae thing the Government ocht ti dae, bit hesnae duin yet, wad be ti gie a heize ti the yiss o Scots, as they hae duin lang syne fir Gaelic: Linda Fabiani, please note.

   Saicont, it’s weel kent that the lest Executive didnae e’en yaise aa the pouers it haed. Seean itsel as a glorified local cooncil, it wes content ti sen as mony devolvit meisures back ti Wastmeenster (bi the wey o “Sewel Motions) as there war Acks o the Scottish Pairlament itsel. The S.N.P. Government wulnae mak that mistak! Gin it daes gang ti a fou tairm, it wul hae a chance ti rax faurer. Hou coud it dae sae? That maitter wul hae ti wait fir anither airticle.

Kenneth Fraser

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Read Christina McKelvie MSP's Weekly Diary