A criminal theme today from the opposition and a return to last week's subject by Ian Gray and Annabel Goldie.
When the BBC programme commenced Alex Salmond was announcing there is to be a one-off £2,000 payment given to apprentices who discontinue employment and to ensure they move into gainful training. I would have liked to have heard more about this new policy but that was not to be.
Ian Gray tried hard to pin the First Minister down to the matter of the latest abscondee from Castle Huntly but the FM was having none of it. In stauch defence of Kenny MacAskill the Justice Secretary, Alex Salmond explained the information flow had been inappropriate and that had been explained yesterday. He added with the present government absconds had reduced to one-fifth of the last administration's level.
At this point the Presiding Officer raised himself from his throne to vent his rage at the squabbling members. "When I say order I expect order," was his message. Personally, I wish he had added that if they didn't conform then it would be an open prison for the guilty.
The Open Estate and early release were Annabel Goldie's hobbyhorses and she made little impact because, as the FM pointed out, the tories had been the ones to introduce the Open Estate in the first place, but now they want to abolish early release Mr Salmond said he would be expecting their support for the forthcoming proposal to do just that.
Tavish Scott changed to the mattert of climate change, something which the public either love or ignore. It appears Stop Climate Chaos Scotland had commented on the climate change bill calling it 'deeply ambitious'. The FM countered such claims with his own commenters' quotations.
Frank McAveety was seeking reassurance that all was being done to help pupils, parents and staff at the school in his constituency which has an outbreak of swine flu. Reassurance was given by the FM and he told Parliament the public health officials were at the school this morning to give parents the guidance they need.
Ian McWhirter was 'the voice of the media' at the end of the programme. Three points he made are worth noting. He gave credit to Alex Salmond for the way he uses the microphone and continues to talk even through the unruly shouting of members, knowing full well that viewers could hear him even although his words were nigh on impossible to hear by those present in a noisy chamber. Point two - he felt the opposition had missed the boat regarding acquiring the scalp of Kenny MacAskill. "If they had got together last week and had a cohesive attack they may have achieved, it but now it's too late." Point three - the government are getting away with abandoning their 3% climate change policy and introducing a softer one. Time up, fade out.
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5 comments:
Strange how the leaders of the opposition parties opposed the idea of a referendum to concentrate on the economy and yet none of them seems to question the FM on it.
Neither do any of them put forward any positive suggestions regarding this matter which they previously claimed was of prime importance.
I've never seen Salmond so angry. Labour have personalised this attack on MacAskill to such an extent that future Justice secretaries will be deemed responsible for every piece of litter dropped, granny mugged and sweetie pinched.
You can imagine the song and dance they'll make tomorrow about the latest prisoner to abscond. I am informed that the polis expect to find this guy dead drunk in a ditch somewhere. He was sentenced to life in 1976. 32 years in the pokey. Castle Huntly is where the long-long termer's are supposed to end up.
As Monty says Brownlie, they're far more interested in getting an SNP scalp than looking to making Scotland a better place.
I realised he was angry when he didn't hear the PO speak Monty but I think the PO understood. Haven't read about the latest abscondee but will read the papers in the morning.
I've just read about it on the BBC site Monty. Indeed they'll have a field day. Castle Huntly isn't suitable as an open prison, it should be closed. As a list D school it was fine but this open estate business doesn't suit it or the surrounding communities.
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