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?

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Scotland's Recession Will Be Worse than the Rest of the UK

According to Strathclyde University's Fraser of Allander Institute, Scotland's recovery from the recession will be much slower than the rest of the UK, as the economy is hit by particularly hard by serious cuts to public spending.

The think tanks blames the deeper recession in Scotland mainly on a bigger drop in the output of its financial sector. It is also though that the Scottish economy may confound earlier predictions by not achieving growth in the fourth quarter.

Finance Secretary John Swinney said the report showed there were grounds for "cautious optimism" though any economic recovery was "fragile at this stage", while labour's Iain Gray warned it painted a "worrying picture" and blamed the weak recovery on the SNP government.

Professor Ashcroft of the FOAI said: "This hasn't happened before, certainly since the Second World War, in terms of the output loss being greater in Scotland than the rest of the UK

"That is because of the nature of the recession - the financial services crisis. There has been significant cutback in financial services activity."

The FOAI now forecasts a much greater rise in unemployment this year than it did in its previous forecasts in June.

Tory finance spokesman Derek Brownlee said he hoped the prediction that Scotland was emerging from recession was true, while LibDem leader Tavish Scott said the report showed that labour's handling of the "banking Shambles" was a key reason for Scotland being hit so hard by the recession.

Doesn't surprise me Scottish labour blame the recession on the SNP. After all they can't say it is Gordon Brown to blame can they? Wouldn't want to upset the saviour of the world.

Source

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The Statement and the Questions

I arranged my afternoon in order to watch Kenny MacAskill's statement on the Megrahi decision and the subsequent MSP's questions.

His statement was a repeat of his statement last Thursday but he was much more relaxed.

The questions varied in quality with Ian Gray later insisting, on Sky News, that none of his questions was answered. Perhaps he wasn't listening because in my opinion they were answered fully.

Annabel Goldie's idea that Mr Megrahi could have been transferred to his temporary home in Newton Mearns, a hospice or a hospital was quite ridiculous. Even to the most disinterested person the policing of any of these situations would be a nightmare. I'm sure Ms Goldie doesn't live in Newton Mearns or has ever been in a hospital when a criminal is also a patient. The freedom of patients is seriously curtailed and inconvenience is caused to staff, visitors and patients. With a man of Mr Megrahi's criminal status it would be quite impossible to ensure security and allow normal business to proceed. The same would apply to a hospice situation.

The least said about Tavish Scott and Nicol Stephen's contributions the better. Very disappointing performances from both whose desperate attempts to score political points drifted into the ether. The subject matter is far too important for this type of behaviour.

The MSP who deserves a mention is Malcolm Chisholm, a man not unused to sticking his head above the party line and voicing his own opinion - dignified, brief and to the point. I see others agree with me.

As a result of this afternoon it would seem the unionist parties intend to push for a full debate in the Parliament next Wednesday and a vote thereafter. Interesting times indeed.

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FMQs 28 May 2009

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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FMQs 7 May 2009

A windy Thursday in Edinburgh I believe and another FMQs in the Scottish Parliament.  The First Minister opened his answers with asking everyone to appreciate the benefit the Scottish parliament has been to Scotland over the past 10 years although he of course qualified it by saying further powers were required.

Ian Gray gave a spirited performance listing the SNP government's 'broken promises' but if he expected to land a hit on the First Minister, he was disappointed.  Alex Salmond had his own written list of successes in the past two years and it was like a game of ping-pong watching the old sound bites whisking back and forth.

Annabel Goldie (rather smart hairdo Annabel) tried hard to achieve an answer to her question which was where was the First Minister intending to make the cuts in the light of the £500m deficit imposed on Scotland from the Westminster budget.  The First Minister mentioned an all party committee had been organised but he did not give a detailed response to her question. A very difficult question this was for Alex Salmond and one which I think he has certainly discussed with John Swinney and others, although I'm sure they will not make their opinions public until it is absolutely necessary.

Tavish Scott broached the subject of al-Megrahi and the Libyan authorities request for his transfer stating he wished that al-Megrahi should serve his sentence in Scotland. As with all legal matters it was a balancing act of information, but not much of it, from the First Minister. He reiterated what he said in 2007 that it would have been "greatly preferred if the judicial processes of Scotland were allowed to take their course."  He repeated that the decision which is made by the justice secretary will not be made on economic grounds or political grounds but judicial grounds alone.

A couple of backbencher questions completed the BBC TV recording session. I really must listen to it on radio and because removing the cameras from the Chamber when there is still a third of FMQs to be heard, is becoming more and more frequent.  Why can't we just see the whole 30 minutes?  I can't see any problem.

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FMQs 30 April 2009

A rather subdued FMQs today I thought but of course the main subject matter warranted it. Ian Gray's questions were all concerned with the swine flu virus which led to the First Minister giving some interesting facts about the present situation in Scotland and pandemic processes. Of particular interest was the FM's explanation of why the WHO has raised the level from 4 to 5.  It seems that in accordance with pandemic WHO structures, once they have proof that a virus can travel human to human and enough evidence is available in two countries to verify this, then the WHO have no option other than to raise the warning level.  There was evidence in both Mexico and the US and it was this which triggered the level increase.  As well as these details the FM explained the testing system used in Scotland and the differences between possible and probable cases.  

Alex Salmond detailed the preparations for a pandemic in Scotland and suggested perhaps we are better prepared than any other country.  The exchange between Mr Gray and the FM was all rather cordial, a pleasure to see.

Annabel Goldie also questioned on the flu's progress but also asked if we were prepared for a pandemic where gatherings in public places may be banned.  The FM stated he was concentrating on the present and immediate situation but Scotland's NHS and other agencies were fully briefed on how to handle further developments.

Tavish Scott decided to go with the alleged fall in teacher numbers.  (A bit of advice Tavish, don't try to put so many puns into one paragraph).  Of course the FM suggested Tavish's sums were quite incorrect but hoped he agreed Scotland's budget was being cut by just short of £500m.  I've heard that before somewhere.

All in all an informative FMQs with regard to our public health system.

Note:  Several times I've criticised Ian Gray and said he really does need to show some sparkle at FMQs. Seems I'm not the only one. Perhaps now there are two of us he may take heed.

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