Politics And Death

Labour and the Libdems managed to have their spring conferences on the same weekend. A feat of organisation some would say and others, the cynics amongst us, may think it was down to a lack of communication. I'd go with the latter because no political party wants to share publicity with another.

Nick Clegg and Michael Moore spoke to the faithful in Inverness but had little of interest to say. I have to be honest - the little I did see of the Libdem leadership was only more feeble requests for the referendum to be brought forward. Congratulations must go to Caron for her debut on the Sunday Politics. She stuck hard and fast to the party line and Willie Rennie should be grateful to have such support.

Dundee should have been full to the brim with Scottish Labour supporters this weekend but that wasn't the case. This past Saturday was no busier than any normal Saturday and few people seemed to realise the leaders of Labour and Scottish Labour were coming to town. Changed days. Only a couple of decades ago most Dundonians would have shown some interest in the visit of their then rulers.

Ed Milliband and Ms Lamont didn't have much to say for themselves either, other than the usual 'we need to win back the trust of the people' and 'separation is bad for the soul'. Johann Lamont reiterated her lies about the new Forth Bridge contracts and mentioned Labour were to set up their own wee anti-independence talking shop.

Both Labour and the Libdems repeatedly called for the referendum to be held 'sooner rather than later' but neither party can agree on who will lead the No campaign and what its key messages should be. One message from both conferences was that any agreement still looks a long way off.

The SNP didn't escape the Sundays either with the Scotsman revealing the (alleged) murky past of one of their MSPs.  Rightly, the SNP immediately suspended Bill Walker, while they investigate the matter more thoroughly. The Scotsman may have questions to answer too now that Lallands has uncovered this little piece of dusty legislation.

The weekend of politiking was overshadowed by the untimely death of QC Paul McBride who is thought to have died from natural causes in his sleep during a business trip to Lahore. His friend and fellow QC Derek Ogg described him as a 'star'. A fine tribute indeed.

1965 -  2012

Tweet

The New Liberal Democrat Leader

Willie Rennie is now the leader of the Liberal Democrats in the Scottish Parliament.  Caron must be delighted.  Mr Rennie did not win his constituency vote but acquire his appointment through the list system here in Scotland and he was the only MSP to put himself forward for the leadership.  A shoo-in indeed.

However, like this blogger, I have issues with Mr Rennie's knowledge when he had the remit of Libdem defence in the Westminster.  In case anyone is unaware Mr Rennie was an MP entered the Westminster parliament after a by-election success but he was thrown aside by the Labour candidate in the 2010 general election.  He has a record of expenses claims.

He held the Libdem post for Defence.  I do hope he does himself a favour by keeping his mouth shut on this issue in the Scottish Parliament.  The man is so uninformed it's embarrassing.

How many civil servants (many of them paid far more than the average hard-worker could dream of) run the country?  The military needs generals as much, if not more so, than the country needs politicians who have no experience of military action or life then profess to vote for legislation on our HM Forces.

I hope Mr Rennie concentrates on the subjects with which he's more acquainted than the current military and wish him well.

Tweet

What Now For The Scottish Liberal Democrats?

Tavish Scott, the leader of the Scottish LibDems has resigned, with immediate effect, after conceding the election results were "disastrous" and that the party needs a "new direction with a new leader".

The LibDems lost 25 deposits in Thursday's election and the Scottish Parliament will now have just five LibDem MSPs, with no constituency seats on the mainland.  In the previous parliament they had 16 MSPs.

What now for the LibDems?  Only a few weeks ago it was rumoured that the LibDems were in secret talks with Labour leader Iain Gray about forming a coalition should Labour not receive a majority.  Then suddenly a Scottish LibDem grandee, John Farquhar Munro, intervened to anoint Alex Salmond as "best for the job" of governing Scotland.

There was no way back from such a slight and the LibDem campaign never recovered no matter how much effort activists put into efforts to persuade voters that the Scottish Libdems are quite different from their masters in London.  Therein lies one of their problems: they are tied to a national party and more and more Scots want their politicians to have Scotland's interests first, second and third and not be playing second fiddle to other parts of the UK.

The SNP capitalised on this on Thursday and rightly so.

Tavish Scott's biggest mistake was not to support an independence referendum.  He represents Some Shetlanders over the years have called for a breakaway from the UK;  even suggesting they had more in common with Norway and ought to be affiliated with the Scandinavian country.  Now the topic of home rule has again raised its head.

Why Tavish didn't support the right of the Scots to decide their own future is anyone's guess but I suspect he was influenced/ordered by London.  It's possible he may resign altogether from politics during the forthcoming 5 year term.  Watching him on Sky yesterday I felt an aura of defeat from his demeanor and not only political defeat.  A return to full-time farming may be of benefit to his health and family but it's rumoured he could be a popular choice for the job of presiding officer, although the same rumour mill suggest that Alex Salmond wants the job to go to an SNP MSP.

The only other constituency MSP, Liam McArthur who kept his Orkney seat with 37.5% of the vote, may have no alternative other than accept the poisoned chalice of LibDem leader, although the Shetland Times suggests the only new MSP, Willie Rennie could become leader, but will the LibDems survive as a party now they are on the periphery in Scotland?

Repeatedly I've said the Tories, in order to be a serious party in Scotland, need to cut the London apron strings and rename themselves.  The LibDems need to take similar action.  With Scotland now having three left of centre parties - the SNP, Labour and LibDems - the chance is there for the LibDems to reposition themselves to the centre.
It's certain though that Alex Salmond won't ignore the Shetlanders. An independent Scotland would have too much to lose.

The question that needs to be asked is does Scotland need three left-of-centre political parties?

Tweet

Campaign Chronicle

It hasn't been a good few days for the Scottish Tories or the Libdems.

The Tories aren't particularly popular in Glasgow; in fact they're decidedly unpopular.  Last week their top regional list candidate for Glasgow was sacked for not declaring a couple of bankruptcies, although the candidate, Malcolm Macaskill insists the party was told some time ago.  Mr Macaskill's sacking has caused ructions with many of his friends and colleagues seriously discontent.  Being a man with a healthy dose of common sense, Mr Macaskill took his wallet with him when he left the fold, resulting in two of his pals threatening to withdrawn substantial amounts of funding. One pal was prepared to donate £100,000 a year for ten years.

The Tory high heid yins say there was nothing in the least suspicious about the sacking and the fact they submitted the official nomination papers - which included Annabel Goldie's close friend Ruth Davidson and not Mr Macaskill - was pure coincidence.

Last October Ivor Tiefenbrun, the prospective candidate for Maryhill and Springburn, had to resign after calling Scots 'thick'.  He was replaced by the senior Edinburgh tory Iain Whyte.  Now, Mr Whyte is a member of NHS Lothian and he thought he could stand down from the health board during the election campaign then return if, as he expected, he failed to get elected.  Then he discovered that wasn't allowed and a return was out of the question.  Knowing which side his bread was buttered on Mr Whyte withdrew his candidacy.

The Tories have now lost three candidates and the campaign has only just begun.  It doesn't bode well for them.

The Libdems are having trouble too. Hugh O'Donnell - ok, I hadn't heard of him either until yesterday - had been seeking re-election as a list MSP for Central Scotland but decided to quit the party and stand as an independent.  He accused the Westminster government of going for 'easy targets', such as disabled people, in its cuts programme. "As Liberals we started the welfare state.  We shouldn't be the party that dismantles it," he insisted.  Some suggest the SNP could benefit from the Libdems' discombobulation.

At least the Tories and Libdems can't complain about a lack of column inches in the Scottish press this weekend can they?

In England the Libdems see no problem with elected councillors working long distance. Sometimes I'm speechless.

Tweet

Let Battle Commence

After Tuesday's fond farewells at the end of the third session of the Scottish Parliament, the Holyrood election campaign began with a whimper rather than a bang, although admittedly it was overshadowed by the UK government's budget yesterday.

We have been subjected to unofficial campaigning, by all parties, for months and I wonder if there will be any surprises when they launch their manifestos.  Will Labour continue to steal SNP policies or will they manage to construct some of their own?

Will Annabel's campaign chatterings continue to echo her pre-campaign mantra: 'Without the Conservatives policies that put 1000 extra police on the streets and gave the council tax freeze would not have been passed'.  I should think every man, woman and child in Scotland knows that by now, but will they be impressed enough to vote Tory?

The Libdems didn't have a good day yesterday when around 2000 students gathered at Holyrood to urge politicians to rule out fees, protect college places and improve student support.  They were addressed by politicians from all the parties except the Conservatives, but LibDem spokeswoman Margaret Smith struggled to be heard over loud jeering.

It's long been said politics and religion shouldn't mix but that hasn't deterred the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, the Right Rev. John Christie and Cardinal Keith O'Brien of the Roman Catholic Church, from launching a rather smart new website Churches Vote, aimed at bringing denominations together.  It is encouraging churches to organise local hustings - a good idea, although some may say hustings are old-fashioned.

There are 41 days until election day: Alex Salmond remains as First Minister until then.  Plenty time for a few surprises.

Tweet

The Latest Scottish Poll

I'm a PC (Poll Cynic) but today it wasn't possibly not to be slightly encouraged by the Ipsos MORI poll published.  Many others have given their articulate opinions such as the Peat Worrier, Joan McApline and Alex Porter and I concur, although a little less excitedly, with their findings.

Recent polls which stated Labour was so far ahead of the SNP didn't quite ring true with me and I assumed most of the contributors were from labour heartlands.  No one I know intends to change their vote in May and our one and only Labour voter may just be coming round understanding the SNP is the only voice we have for Scotland. The unionist parties manipulate us at their London leaders' behest.

In case you don't know the basic results of the poll here they are:

Holyrood Constituencies

* SNP  37%
* Labour  36%
* Conservative  13%
* Libdem  10%
* Greens  2%
* SSP  1%
* Others 1%

Holyrood List

* SNP  35%
* Labour  33%
* Conservative  13%
* Libdems  10%
* Greens  6%
* SSP  1%
* Others  2%

In pie chart form courtesy of PoliticalBetting:

click to enlarge

The complete tables of the poll can now be read here.

Update:  Since writing this post Calum Cashley had published one of his own.  It's always a pleasure to read his analysis.

Tweet

Is the Calman Report a Busted Flush?

Tavish Scott says momentum has been lost over implementing the reforms suggested by the Calman Commission.

The leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats has accused other unionists parties of 'dragging their feet' over the recommendations in the report, which backed substantial new powers for the Holyrood Parliament.

Mr Scott believes that labour and the tories are playing into the hands of the nationalists by allowing a policy vacuum to develop over the report into Scotland's constitutional future.

His comments represent a major breach in the cross-party unity shown since the Calman Commission, set up by the three unionist parties, recommended sweeping new financial and other powers for Holyrood in its report three months ago. At the time the mood of the unionist parties was that momentum had to be maintained to offer the Scottish people an alternative to independence and the devolution status quo.

Meetings of the steering group, set up by the parties, have taken place but much of the discussion has been left to civil servants in London.

When the report was publish Alex Salmond tried to win back the initiative by urging the three unionist parties to agree to putting the Calman proposals into a multi-option referendum, which would include independence, to be held towards the end of next year. That offer is highly unlikely to be taken up but there are now rising anxieties that both main UK parties, labour and the tories, could shelve the Calman proposals until after the next general election.

“I was always concerned that when Calman reported it was not going to be turned into anything tangible very soon. ”

Mr Scott added: “If you are on the side of reform, these two parties must not drag their feet. But that is the reality. The only person that favours is Alex Salmond and the SNP.”

Someone has to benefit from this expensive Commission and I would agree it presently appears to be the SNP. Alex Salmond's spokeman said that Mr Scott's remarks showed that the Calman Commission was 'splitting up into it's constituent parts.'

Credit to Tavish Scott for bringing this back up the agenda. He could do worse than have his party support the SNP's call for the immediate implementation of parts of the report where all parties agree.

Source: Times

Tweet

FMQs 21 May 2009

Today's FMQs were more interesting than of late.  Leaving aside some of the political point scoring some important facts were given by the First Minister.  Ian Gray's questions concerned abscondees in open prisons and he focused on one prisoner in particular.  The FM stated in the last year of the labour/libdem government there were 339 prisoners in the open estate and 79 abscondees.  Since Kenny MacAskill introduced the reforms 342 prisoners were in the open estate with 16 abscondees - approximately 20% of the last government's total.  This is an all time low.  We now have 16,675 police officers in Scotland and continue to train more.

Annabel Goldie, unfortunately for her, asked the FM if he would be prepared to be questioned before MPs at Westminster now that David Cameron has stated, if he became PM,  he would treat the Scottish Government with respect and responsibility. What an opening for the FM! Alex Salmond's response was he was quite happy to appear before any Westminster committee and he had already done so, but of course he kept his best until last. Honing in on Ms Goldie's 'respect' comment, he said that was an admission that tories were viewed as anti-Scottish because they had not treated Scotland with respect.  I have to admit Ms Goldie couldn't quite suppress her amusement at the FM's attack. Ms Goldie's second question asked the FM to support her call for a general election and with this the FM said he could definitely concur. 

Tavish Scott questioned the FM on the subject of Scottish banking job losses.  The FM replied saying the Finance Task Force, which the libdems are requested, was now up and running and, as well as helping with those who have been made redundant, it is engaging with those companies who are growing in the financial sector.  He reminded Tavish Scott that many areas of the Scottish finance sector are doing very well.

There was a constituency question which deserves a mention.  Michael McMahon, who has campaigned long and hard for an answer to the deaths of 14 residents of the Rosepark Care Home in his constituency of Uddingston, asked the FM if the loophole in the law regarding prosecution of those responsible for the home at the time, could be closed.  The FM replied the Scottish Government and the UK legislators were working together to close the loophole but he had just received notification from the Crown Office that a fatal accident enquiry is to be started. At last good news for the families concerned. 

Tweet