The Flag in the Wind
A weekly online newspaper bringing you information on the political scene in Scotland: part of the monthly Scots Independent.

About Us | Subscriptions | Archives | SNP | Ad Rates | Features | Adverts | Events | Links

CAMPAIGNING FOR SCOTLAND
(Owned, Edited and Printed in Scotland since November 1926)
[11 August 2000]

THE OPINION POLL GIVETH...

And the Opinion Poll taketh away. Last month we were cock-a-hoop as we surged ahead of Labour by 3 points on the first vote, and 8 points on the second vote; now we have dropped only 1 point on the first vote, but Labour has picked up 4 points, putting them 2 points ahead. The second vote is more worrying, as we have dropped 5 points and Labour has gained 6. All politicians will tell you that they do not look at Opinion Polls, if they are not in their favour, but good opinion polls are always signs of a trend!

We do not know what it all means; it could be that the Chancellor’s billions are filtering through to the electorate, or our voters are away on holiday! Maybe the proposed change of leader is having an impact, because change means uncertainty, and people are used to Alex Salmond and not sure of who will follow him.

THE LEADERSHIP RACE

The leadership race is well under way, and we have 5 pledges from Alex Neil, and 6 from John Swinney. They were on Newsnight last week, and Alex Neil came over quite well, while John Swinney was lower key. This is probably as accurate a description of the situation as we can get. Alex may be more volatile, but John is steadier; this contest is about who is going to lead the SNP, and how they will lead it, and it will be SNP members who will vote, and not the Media.

The recognition factor is also harped on by the media, who conveniently forget that once upon a time nobody would recognise Alex Salmond; come to that, who would have recognised Tony Blair before he became leader of the Labour Party? Once either Alex or John, to keep them in alphabetical order, becomes the leader of the SNP, then the recognition factor will kick in.

Interesting, but not surprising, is that Alex Salmond is running for election as a member of the National Executive; he eats, drinks and breathes politics, so he obviously must remain involved. And in a few years time...........?

KERLEY REPORT PRONOUNCED CURSERY

No it is not a spelling error, or a mis type, but how New Labour’s COSLA members regard the report on local government commissioned by the Scottish Executive. It was described as a shoddy piece of work, facile and not properly researched. The members of the Kerley Committee were : Richard Kerley, former Edinburgh Labour councillor, Norman Murray, Labour leader of East Lothian District, and COSLA president, Daphne Sleigh, leader of the Tory group on Edinburgh Council, Neil McIntosh, former Chief Executive of Strathclyde Region, Sheila Richards, former Liberal Democrat leader of Gordon Council, Maureen Watt, former SNP councillor, Marilyn Livingstone, ex councillor, now Labour MSP for Kirkcaldy, Sandra Osborne, former Ayr councillor now Labour MP for Ayr, Bill Speirs, general secretary of the STUC, and Vikram Lall, corporate finance director of stockbrokers Bell Lawrie. That makes 5 Labour, 1 SNP, 1 Tory, 1 Liberal Democrat, 1 professional local government and 1 unknown.

The root of the problem is that the Committee recommended Proportional Representation in voting for council elections; this would mean that Labour hegemonies in Glasgow and the West would end up with a more representative mix of councillors; they are not pleased that the days of wine and roses are scheduled to end.

The Labour MP and the Labour MSP produced a minority report as they did not agree with the proportional representation part either; to paraphrase a quotation from a famous trial - well they wouldn’t, would they?

MAYBE NOT SUCH A GOOD IDEA

The government are pushing for all councils to adopt the cabinet style of local government which would mean decisions being taken behind closed doors; they are not prepared to heed the lesson of Doncaster, which operated a system of cabinet decision making under the aegis of the Mining Community Group. The current enquiry into corruption in that borough has so far resulted in the arrest of 48 councillors, officers and their associates. Although the affairs in Doncaster are clearly labelled Old Labour, they are being vigorously defended by New Labour.

Cabinet government has already arrived in Edinburgh; previously it was known as smoke-filled rooms, but it is no longer politically correct to smoke - cigarettes that is.

AND TALKING OF DONCASTER JAIL

As far as we recall, Doncaster is one of the prisons which have been privatised, and has had its problems. Now it seems as if we are in for a rash of privatisations in Scotland; at present, only Kilmarnock is operated by a private company, Premier Prison Services, an American company. The chief inspector of prisons found that 91% of the staff had never worked in a prison before, and that there had been 87 resignations last year. The Scottish Prison Service refuses to let anyone know the costs of running the prison, due to commercial confidentiality. They say they are getting value for public money; public money means our money and we should be able to find out how it is spent.

The chief inspector has also made recommendations regarding staff safety which will cost money; the deputy governor of the prison says he will ignore them. Obviously, Health and Safety at work have no relevance when the operators’ money is concerned, but what is the view of the Scottish Prison Service?

Prisons are not supposed to be about locking up criminals in the cheapest possible way; they are supposed to be about security, and rehabilitation to stop re-offenders. While our current prison system is not very successful at the latter, cutting corners with the former will not help.

What was it Mr Jack Straw said while in opposition? Oh yes "Private prisons are morally repugnant" - now he wants more! Mind you, the reticence of the Prison service is not unexpected; one in three requests for government information last year was turned down, more than 4 times the figure for 1998. The Parliamentary Ombudsman investigated 21 cases last year, and he found that in 17 cases information had been wrongly withheld.

If you want to know the time - don’t ask a politician.

JACK STRAW, JACK STRAW, LEND ME YOUR GREY MARE

We commented last week on how Jack Straw’s police driver was not charged while driving at 103 mph on the M5. We accept that the driver would be in a bit of a quandary, whatever kind of a vehicle that is, but some kind of guidelines must exist, and it would be nice to know what they are.

Perhaps if Parliament was in session, a question might have been asked by Shadow Home Secretary, Ann Widdicombe; she was fined £40 for driving her Ford Focus at 10 mph over the 40 mph limit on the Sidcup bypass. It was her first offence in 30 years of driving; she also received three penalty points. If the Tories were still in power, she would have had a police driver to take the rap.

Mr Straw’s car is an armoured Jaguar, probably to protect him from prison officers, but his minions do not buy British when it comes to cars. 47% of the cars operated by Whitehall departments are made outside the UK, so no "Buy British" for them. We don’t know precisely what kind of cars they do drive, but I suspect the New Labour favourite must be the Toyota RAV 4x4; the Scotsman’s motoring correspondent described this as "aimed at the driver to whom image is more important than performance".

HOW LONG, OH LORD, HOW LONG ?

Dr John Reid and his sidekick, Brian Wilson, seem to be resigned to the fact that they are virtual prisoners in Dover House, the official Scotland office until after the next election, and they must be rattling about in there. Dr Reid is about to lose one of his press aides, Miss Kirsteen Clark, who is going off to work for the Prince of Wales (Oh these devolution rivals). Miss Clark‘s current title is Private Secretary (Presentation) but she’s probably not got a lot to do, apart from polishing up the Doc’s anti-SNP rhetoric.

Another Clark, Dr Lynda Clark, has to answer questions once a month about her work as the Scotland Office’s primary law officer. She never answers any questions; one MP, one of her own friendly Labour ones, asked what advice she had given on the subject of legal measures to alleviate the poverty of asylum seekers. "I can’t disclose the nature of any advice I give".

The next question was from a not so friendly Tory who queried her salary of £106,027 (£9,000 more than Dr John Reid gets) and asked her "In view of the Lord Chancellor’s comments about fat cat lawyers, does she think the taxpayer is getting value for money for this?" Answer "Yes".

Dr Clark did say that although she only intervened in 14 cases (In three years?) she had scrutinised 750. Our own Alastair Morgan then asked what assessment she had made of the additional costs to Scotland of incorporating the European Convention of Human Rights. Answer "It is not for me to cost these matters". As an explanation, she said "I am the legal officer and my job is legal". Somewhere. someone didn’t quite work out this devolution thing.

Two other things we haven’t heard about; what happened to the statement that Gordon Brown was going to look after the Scottish Parliament when Donald Dewar was ill, and what was Dr John Reid’s reaction to that, and when is Ms Elizabeth Filkin, the Westminster watchdog going to rule on the complaint that Dr Reid used his parliamentary allowance to help fund the Labour Party’s campaign in the Scottish Election.

We will not hold our breath waiting for the answers.

TINKERS AND HAWKERS WELCOME

We commented recently that Colin Campbell, SNP, MSP, and the Party’s Defence spokesman had been barred from visiting Faslane, by some mysterious powers, usually known as Her Majesty’s Loyal Imperial Labour Party. Maybe now we know why; they were not afraid of Colin finding out any Trident submarine secrets, but of perhaps him finding out that they are preparing to privatise the base. In that case we can expect the work to go out to tender, and those with the wherewithal to save the taxpayer cash and make a few bob themselves are in. According to the Defence Secretary, Mr Geoff Hoon, safety would remain paramount, and the base would continue to be protected by armed military personnel; he did not say which nationality they would be, or if their job would be to keep the workers in or elected representatives out.

In a separate, but related issue, Alex Salmond, has written to Dr Lewis Moonie about his statement that he considered it offensive "That the SNP’s Defence Spokesman, is a Member of the Scottish Parliament, Mr Colin Campbell". Alex is astounded that Dr Moonie should try to dictate to other parties who should or should not represent their policies on defence. Dr Moonie thinks it should be a Westminster MP; probably because Scottish Labour Mps are looking for work. Alex also pointed out that the majority of the people of Scotland thought it offensive that Westminster had dumped the Trident nuclear weapons in Scotland.

New Labour haven’t half shoved their snouts into the privatisation trough.

BETWEEN GRANITE AND A HARD PLACE

While being critical of the conception and mismanagement of the site at Holyrood, all of which should be laid at Donald Dewar’s door, where it belongs, we are nevertheless wanting to see a building worthy of our country as it proceeds, inexorably, towards independence. In this respect, the prospect of granite, supplied by China, using what is virtually slave labour, is an affront to the democratic ideals of the Scots.

There is still granite in Scotland, in Kemnay and in Creetown, and while it might take a little more time and trouble, and cost more, it would create Scottish jobs. In addition, in a world where global warming is already causing serious environmental problems, quarrying masses of granite and transporting it half way round the world when we have it here seems the height of irresponsibility. Apparently 10000 square metres of granite facing is required, and this could be supplied here; all it needs is the political will.

The other problem lies with slate for the roof; there are no slate quarries left in Scotland, and when any listed building is repaired slate is specified. The only source for this is other old buildings, and when you consider that 40% can be lost in the refurbishment this is economic madness. Why can we not use Caithness slab? This is what was used in St Magnus’ Cathedral, and it is also in Edinburgh’s Royal Mile, outside St Giles. This is available, suitable for the climate, and could actually lead to exports; it does not exist anywhere else.

Have you ever noticed how quickly principles evaporate when money is concerned?

COM PASSIONATE CONSERVATIVES

The Conservatives seem to be losing things these days. Well it started with the 1997 General Election, but they are not rising any higher in the Opinion Polls (OK a sore point for us this month). In June this year, the Future Face of the Tory Party in Scotland, Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh, left the Tory Party because of William Hague’s "right wing bovver boy attacks on asylum seekers". She was warmly welcomed into the SNP. We do not have any woman only selection lists, as the Labour Party tried, to its cost, but the SNP have some very formidable women, who do not require any special terms.

In July the Tories in England lost one of their millionairs stars, Ivan Massow, who joined the Labour Party. Mrs Blair’s Diary in the Observer put it thus "He’s just realised that the Tories were not after all a caring, compassionate group of altruists...so perhaps not the brightest bulb in the chandelier then. But still a good catch". The Observer was anti-Tory when they were in power, and now they’re anti-Labour, and don’t care much for the Liberal Democrats either, a good iconoclastic newspaper.

However, the Tories do look after their own; Steven Norris, whom you probably would not recognise now, has been appointed vice chairman of the Tories. Mr Norris a former Transport Minister, who was dismissed from the Tory Cabinet under a cloud of alleged mistresses, wanted to be Tory candidate for Lord Mayor of London, was defeated by Lord Archer, who was disgraced, and then got to be the Tory candidate for London’s Lord Mayor.(Whew!) He gained the support of the Daily Mirror, staunch Labour Party backer, and actually got more votes than Frank Dobson, Dobbo, Who?