Flag rescheduling

 

If this Flag seems a bit even more disjointed than usual, blame the rescheduling;  I got so involved in fixing the schedule to accommodate the two new Compilers and to factor in holidays etc, that it took a phone call on Wednesday from Tricia to jolt me into looking at the schedule to see who had not delivered on time.   I then discovered that the errant Compiler was myself!  Not being into self criticism I’ll get my wife to castigate me instead.  So, apologies if it's a bit scrappy, had to be done in a hurry.

 

Forthcoming events – Lancastria Medal

Lancastria Commemorative Medal presentation (sponsored by Christine Grahame MSP)
12^th June 2008 at 5:30pm in the Garden Lobby of the Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh

 

The First Minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond MSP, will personally present the Lancastria commemorative medal to survivors and relatives of victims from across the UK on behalf of the Scottish Government.

 

The medal has been commissioned in recognition of the supreme sacrifice paid by the estimated 4000 victims of the troopship Lancastria (400 of them Scots) which was sunk during enemy action on the 17^th of June 1940 whilst embarking troops of the British Expeditionary Force and refugees from St. Nazaire, France. The medal also recognises the endurance of survivors who continued to struggle on in the hours following the sinking, whilst coming under sustained enemy attack.

The loss of the Lancastria remains Britain’s worst ever maritime tragedy, claiming more lives than the Titanic and Lusitania disasters combined. It is also the worst single loss of life for British forces in the whole of World War 2. On learning of the loss of the Lancastria the then British Government, led by Winston Churchill, banned all news coverage of it, fearing the impact on British public morale. The result has led to decades of silence and the scale of the disaster has remained largely unknown and forgotten by history and the wider public.

For more information on the disaster visit: www.lancastria.org.uk

There will be media opportunities to interview survivors and relatives of victims immediately following the presentation.

Later, at 6:30pm in Committee Room 2 of the Scottish Parliament the UK premiere of the award winning documentary, “Lancastria, the secret sinking” by French Director Christophe Francois, will be shown to survivors and relatives. Again you are cordially invited to attend this event. Wine and other refreshments will be available.

 

Note to Editors: Footage of the Lancastria taken before the war and other material from Christophe Francois’ documentary are available for use with television news coverage of these events and are available in Betacam SP and SX formats. Please contact Mark Hirst for more details.

Picture desks: High resolution images of the Lancastria, both before the war and during the attack on Lancastria on 17^th June 1940 are available again on request. For more information visit: www.lancastria.org.uk and use the following link for examples of images available for use: http://www.lancastria.org.uk/News/Images/images.html

 

Additional forward schedule note: 14^th JUNE 2008, at 1.00pm – 68^th anniversary.

Annual Lancastria memorial service – St. George’s West Church, Edinburgh

Members of the Lancastria Association of Scotland will host the annual memorial service at St. George’s West Church, Edinburgh.

This year Jonathan Fenby, former Editor of the Independent and author of “The sinking of the Lancastria”, will give the eulogy.

Survivors and relatives of victims and survivors will also attend.

MSPs and representatives of the Scottish Government will also be in attendance and will be joined by the Fife Male Voice Choir.

Representatives of the media are invited to attend. Interviews will be available with survivors and relatives of victims on request.

 

Detailed press pack at: http://www.lancastria.org.uk/News/Press_Pack/press_pack.html

 

 

Bring it on

The debacle that was last year’s Scottish Election has now been “investigated” by the House of Commons  Scottish Affairs Committee; it would seem that they were severely critical of the Electoral Commission, commenting that “It is difficult to see the Electoral Commission as having added any value to this entire process.”

What they do not seem to have done is call the Scottish Secretary at the time, Douglas Alexander, brother of the better known Wendy, to resign for his overseeing of the fiasco;  they also believe that they should retain control over Scottish Elections, despite the Gould Report finding that the elections should be run by the Scottish Parliament.  This attitude should mean that the European Parliament could run the Westminster election – same principle.  And they  made great play of the loaded question directed at Mr Gould  asking if he was comfortable that everyone elected to the Scottish Parliament  deserves to be there;  Mr Gould responded “Frankly, no, I am not comfortable with that.” 

I would say that a number of us are not comfortable that everyone elected to the Scottish Parliament deserves to be there, so in that regard we agree with Mr Gould, but not in the interpretation the Committee put on it.  However, if the inference is that the election was wrong, there is a simple, if expensive, solution  -  let them re run the election, and Westminster, which screwed it up, can pick up the tab.  I do not think that anyone in the SNP, who are somehow alleged to have won unfairly, would begrudge a re run of the election.  To coin a phrase “Bring it on.”

 

Referendum

One aspect of the referendum non-debate that has been virtually ignored by the media is the actual position of the Labour Party, or to be accurate, of the current leader of the Labour MSPs.

She made great play and a lot of noise about offering support for a referendum and accusing the SNP of being frightened, even going to far as to comment that the SNP was as yellow as its colours, a bit of a bear trap there if one considers the current colour of her face (red for the obtuse).  Her offer of  support was not even on the table long enough for the ink to dry, or in some stages, for the writing thereof to be completed.  At the end of the day, what she thought was a clever ploy finished up in a meaningless mish mash, and she cannot be taken seriously.  I’m quite sure a lot of her colleagues wish she could just be taken elsewhere.

 

Repatriation of oil and gas revenue  - 1

It is pleasing to see that John Swinney, Scotland’s Finance Minister, is writing  to the Treasury asking for a share of our own money; as the income to the aforesaid Treasury is soaring due to the rising price of oil, this is an appropriate time to continue to stake our claim.

Westminster will of course play coy on this one; they continue to deny that Scottish pensioners are due £30 million per year of attendance allowance.  In his review of the free personal care for the elderly, Lord Sutherland was quite explicit that this sum should be returned;  the previous Scottish Executive, the Labour Liberal coalition rightly asked for it back, but for some reason Labour in the Scottish Parliament have voted against asking for it.  How curious that they have done a U turn on that policy as well – or is it?

We expect £400 million of  Council Tax benefit to be paid – apparently it is OK to pay this kind of money to Northern Ireland on an issue of principle, but not to Scotland.  Of course Westminster does not wish us to have a local income tax, so that is why they deny us the £400 million; quite frankly they are raging at the fact that the Scottish Government has become so popular, and at free personal care for the elderly, free education for all, with the abolition of graduate endowment fees, cuts and eventual abolition of prescription charges, abolition of bridge tolls etc.  Putting it simply they hate the fact that Scotland is better governed by the SNP than it has been in the preceding eight years of wishy washy Labour Liberal toadying.

We expect something from the vast sums being spent on the London Olympics, discovering in the passing that they lied about the costs, and as the previous Lord Mayor of London admitted they saw it as paying for the regeneration of London, can’t quite square that with the Olympic ideal, but then we only get to pay for it.

 

Repatriation of oil and gas –2

To those sensitive souls in our society who shed tears thirty years ago at the prospect of Scottish Independence and the likelihood of the greedy Scots keeping all the money from oil, we still have no understanding or sympathy.

As we knew at the time, and has now been proved, Scottish politicians were complicit in hiding from the people of Scotland how much money was flowing from the North Sea and being sucked into the gaping maw that was the London Treasury, and being squandered on vainglorious projects to shore up Britain’s position in the world.  In the last Flag I did, I commented on the fact that despite all the billions of oil money, the United Kingdom still managed to have a current deficit of £581 billion; and they talk about prudent management of the economy!

Contrast Norway, where they had approximately the same oil and gas reserves as the United Kingdom; in 2008, the State’s net cash flow from the petroleum sector is estimated at £37 billion, or £8,000 per Norwegian citizen.  This constitutes about 32% of the State’s total income;  and this time last year the Norwegian Oil Fund was worth £73 billion, £15,000 for every man woman and child.

This was also the SNP plan, to spend on our own society, eliminate poverty and deprivation, give to the Third World, and invest for the generations to come; instead of that, with the collusion of Unionist Scots, the cash has been spent on Trident, unemployment and the illusion of “Great” Britain, and turning Iraq into a Third World country.  We still have slums, poor health records and 30% of our children living in poverty, while the creators of that society style us greedy parasites for wanting to spend our own money, while they wasted it on themselves.

 

House prices

I am always puzzled at the emphasis placed on house prices as an economic indicator;  when I bought a house it was to give myself and family a place to live, and not as an investment, and I have always assumed, wrongly it now appears, that everyone else felt the same.

Now it seems that houses are a commodity to be bought and sold, and only dwelt in incidentally, which is a very curious way of looking at things;  people worry when house prices go down, even when they have no intention of selling anyway.  At the same time when prices go up there is hysteria because people, young people in particular, cannot afford to pay the mortgages.  As one of the authors of this strange situation said “It’s a funny old world.”

 

 

Clamjamfrie

 Donnie MacNeill

 

 

Pharoh Nuff

 

That well-known corner shop proprietor, would-be ex-Egyptian and chairman of the Prince Philip Appreciation Society, Mohammed Al Fayed, has put the moggy well and truly amongst the doos with his appearance on Radio Scotland’s Sunday morning audio version of Heat Magazine, ‘Shereen and Who?’

Acording to him, despite the fact that we have the great advantage of being Jock Tut-Ankh-Amen’s (well, his half sister Scota, to be precise) bairns, the SNP government are all bull***t merchants who are all talk and no action, as well as being ‘zombies’ of the ‘idiots’ in the South. God (or was it Anubis?) blessed us with the oil, but all the money goes south when we should have a major share of the oil revenues.

I like this man; he talks my language! He has even offered to stay permanently in an independent Scotland. Not only would I give the man Scottish citizenship (if only to annoy the London establishment), I would nominate him for the position of Scotland’s first President and put him in charge of the Holyrood souvenir shop.

 

More Islay Wit

 

 

Another wee gem from my old Islay worthies, Donnie Ghibbie and Erchie Dubh during one of their sparring sessions at Carmichael’s corner in Port Ellen.

Donnie thought he would play a joke on Erchie and invited him round to his house for some home-made chicken soup. As they entered the dim wee kitchen, Erchie remarked that he couldn’t detect the aroma of boiled chicken.

“You’re right,’ said Donnie, ‘neither there is’

He lifted the lid to reveal a pan of clear boiling water.

“Well, damn me,’ exclaimed Donnie, ‘would you look at that the b****y chicken has gone, and she’s eaten the rice, barley and carrots as well!”

Erchie wasn’t one to be taken in easily and decided to make the most of the situation.

“Did you take its feathers off before you put it in the pot?” he asked.

“Of course I did,” replied Donnie annoyed that things weren’t going as planned.

“Well come on, “said Erchie heading for the door, “We’ll not have much bother in spotting her then!”

 

 

Waiting for Sod-all

 

Listening to grown-up radio (Radio 4) one recent Sunday night, the recent little local difficulty in Scotland (The Never ReferWendum) was discussed by an eminent English professor and, fresh from his trip along the road to Damascus, Ian McWhirter. During the exchanges, it became clear just how hollow the gesture made by Wendy Alexander had been. Her referendum (and the SNP one for that matter) would achieve nothing, other than the fact that the SNP one would at least give the Great Leader authority to apply pressure on Westminster to hold a ‘proper legitimate’ referendum on the disassociation of Scotland and the rest of the UK. This would be followed by years of protracted and detailed negotiations on the allocation of resources. If Scotland was expecting any cash settlement from these talks, then she could forget it!

Ah well, like Moses, I’ll just have to be satisfied by getting only a glimpse of the promised land – unless, of course, we put President Al Fayed in charge of things. I can see the Red Sea parting already!

 

 

 

 

TWA CHEERS FIR KOSOVO

 

   Europe haes anither independent kintra. Hurrah! Weel, mebbe. Kosovo is ane o thir fashious kintras whaur twa peoples threip it belongs ti thaim, an naither wants ti sattle fir less. In fower hunner wirds, A cannae dae juistice ti the case. Bit Serbs an Albanians hae baith leeved there fir a lang time (an yaisually didnae fecht ilk ither). Likely the forefaithers o the Albanians war there first; bit i the Middle Ages, Kosovo wes the central pairt o a muckle Serbian Kinrick. That fell ti the Turks at the Battle o Kosovo in 1389. Think o Flodden, the daith o Wallace, an the Union aa at aince, an it wad gie ye a feeble idea o whit Kosovo means ti the Serbs.
 

   Fest furrit ti 1912. The Turkish Empire wes faain apairt, the Serbs gat Kosovo back; maist o the fowk there war Albanians bi nou. Bit the Government thocht o Serbia as a state fir Serbs; this wes whit we wad caa ethnic raither then ceevic naitionalism. Sinsyne, conflick atween the twa peoples haes maistly been ti the fore – excep i the latter days o Tito, a statesman that ettled ti gie the Albanians their fair share o pouer.

   We’ll can aa ken whit cam efter that. The brekup o Yugoslavia; Milosevic’s vain attemp ti keep the 10% o Serbs in Kosovo in pouer; NATO’s war in 1999. Sin that time, Kosovo haes been unner the protection o the Unitit Nations. Bit the Kosovan Serbs didnae get muckle o that protection, an hauf o them left. Politeecians on baith sides thocht o the seetiation as a zero-sum gemme. They hae nae notion o “Gie an tak”, it’s “We tak, ye gie.” The Wastern pouers decidit independence wes the ainly answer; it wad saitisfee 95% o the Kosovans. Bit it wulnae saitisfee the Serbs; they wulnae recogneese independence, an Russia, wi hir veto i the Siccarness Cooncil, stauns ahint them.

    Mairattoure, this gies an exemple o a kintra brekan awa wiout the greement o the kintra it breks awa frae. Wha is nou ti say the Serbs o Bosnia hae nae richt ti independence? Whit aboot the disputit pairts o the auld Soviet Union? In ane o them, Transnistria, the heich-heid-anes hae aareadie said they want the same richts, an Russia is on their side an aa. Deed, there’s a wheen o bad fairies gaithert roun the cradle o independent Kosovo.

 

Kenneth Fraser                                                                                                        

 

 

 

Cràdh Wendy Alexander

 

Wendy Alexander bhochd. Chan eil eud sam bith agam rithe.  Cha bhi e gu diofar dè thachras aig a co-labhairt no na dèidh, cha tèid aice air buannachd idir. Gheibh i droch chàineadh ma nì i tòn, ach chan fhaigh deagh chliù fiù ‘s ma bhios i sònraichte math. Chan eil e coltach gu bheil am Pàrtaidh Làbarach air an rathad air ais fhathast, no gun d’fhuair iad seachad air an fhìrinn neo-thlachdmhor - gun do chaill iad an taghadh mu dheireadh. Bidh sgaraidhean anns a h-uile buidhinn ach tha rudan air a dhol fada ceàrr nuair a thig iad a-mach gu poblach. Cha b’ fheudar do Wendy mòran feart a thoirt air na gearanan nam bitheadh iad dìreach eadar na h-ìochdarain, ach nuair a bhios a leithid Margaret Curran a’ togail teagamhan tha i ann an trioblaid. Tha mi cinnteach nach do chòrd Àm na Càisge rithe nuair a chunnaic i na pàipearan ag aithris gun tuirt Henry McLeish gum bu chòir do neo-eisimeileachd a bhith air clàr-ghnothaich a buidhne nuair a bheachdaicheadh iad air a’ bhun-reachd. Bhitheadh e na bu mhiosa an ath latha nuair a bha Sam Galbraith ag ràdh (a rèir coltais) gun robh esan airson gun rachadh McLeish don SNP, agus nach bitheadh McLeish na chall co-dhiù. Miaow! Ged a tha a’ mhòr-chuid phàipearan taiceil do na Làbaraich, ‘s e droch naidheachd a chreiceas . . .

 

Chan eil e cuideachail do Wendy nas mò gu bheil i cho dlùth air Gordon Brown, duine a nì son a’ Phàrtaidh Làbarach ann an Alba na rinn an Rìgh Herod son cùram cloinne. B’ urrainn dhi faighinn seachad air faoineas mar “an tadhal a b’ fheàrr leam riamh” agus bòidean dìlseachd, ach ‘s e sgeul eile a th’ ann nuair a bheir esan seachad an dealbh gum bi e thairis air a chorp mharbh ghrodadh a gheibh Alba barrachd cumhachd. Chuir e dragh air cuid anns a Phàrtaidh fhèin nuair a rinn e soilleir gun robh urram aige do Margaret Thatcher. Le adhbhar. Rinn Maggie barrachd ann an deich bliadhna son pàrlamaid ann an Alba na rinn an SNP ann an còrr is trì fichead. Ma chumas Oor Gordie air ‘s dòcha gum faic sinn neo-eisimeileachd taobh a-staigh an riaghailtais seo! Nuair a bha Tony Blair a-staigh chleachd na Làbaraich an t-òran Things Can Only Get Better. Gu mì-fhortanach dhaibh, chan eil sin fìor.

 

The Torment of Wendy Alexander.

 

Poor Wendy Alexander. I don’t envy her at all. It doesn’t matter what happens at her conference or after it, she just can’t win at all. She’ll get an awful slating if she makes a backside of things, but she won’t get a good reputation even if she’s outstandingly good. It isn’t apparent that the Labour Party is on its way back yet, or that they’ve got over the unpalatable truth - that they lost the last election. There are splits in every group but things have gone pretty far wrong when they are paraded in public. Wendy wouldn’t have to pay too much attention to the complaints if they were just between the minions, but when someone like Margaret Curran is raising doubts then she’s in trouble. I’m sure that she didn’t enjoy Easter when she saw the papers reporting that Henry McLeish had said that independence ought to be on her group’s agenda when they were considering the constitution. It would have been worse the next day when Sam Galbraith was (apparently) saying that he wanted McLeish to join the SNP, and that McLeish wouldn’t be a loss anyway. Miaow! Although most papers are supportive of Labour, it’s bad news that sells. . .

 

It’s not helpful for Wendy either that she is so close to Gordon Brown, a man who does for the Labour Party in Scotland what King Herod did for childcare. She could get past silliness like “my favourite goal ever” and oaths of allegiance, but it’s another matter when he gives the impression it will only be over his rotting corpse that Scotland will get more powers. He bothered some in his own party when he made it plain that he respected Margaret Thatcher. With cause. Maggie did more in ten years to get a parliament in Scotland than the SNP did in over sixty. If Oor Gordie keeps going maybe we’ll see independence in the lifetime of this government! When Tony Blair was in power the Labour Party used the song Things Can Only Get Better. Unfortunately for them, that isn’t true.