FLYING THE
FLAG - PART TWO
Following the item in Flag in the Wind on 6 Oct
2000, the Webmaster has made one or two changes, none of which I understand,
but which should mean the Flag will flutter. When I observed it at a Cyber
cafe, there was a small cross and the words Scottish Flag, instead of the Flag
itself. This phenomenon was noted in various exotic locations, Biarritz,
Assisi, Manx Radio on the Isle of Man, and Methil Public Library. To see if
the change has been successful members of the team offered to go to Biarritz,
Assisi, Isle of Man or San Francisco. (We had no reports from San Francisco
and this worried some, who might have thought San Francisco was in Assisi.) We
now confidently await the report from Methil Public Library.
If the Flag is not fluttering for you, try a
message to Webmaster.
DE MORTUIS
NIHIL NISI BONUM
Roughly translated this means " Speak no
ill of the dead"; we gave a short obituary of the late First Minister,
Donald Dewar, last week. Since then, tribute was paid in the Scottish
Parliament by John Swinney, Leader of the SNP , as well as by the other
political parties. John referred to the words engraved on the Parliamentary
Mace "Wisdom, Justice, Compassion, Integrity" and said "These
are the words we should live up to in this Parliament, our founding
principles. In our daily work the demonstration of these four words must be
there for all to see.
"Today, we reflect on the sad loss of our
First Minister, the loss of a towering figure in Scottish politics. The loss
of a father and a grandfather. For some the loss of a friend, for some a
colleague, for others an adversary, but for all of us the loss of a fellow
Scots Parliamentarian. We can hold firm to those words on our Mace. We say
truly of Donald Dewar - in his life he offered wisdom, justice, compassion and
integrity - and in his memory we in this Parliament should live up to
them".
Electric Scotland has also produced a tribute
to Donald Dewar which can be seen at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/donald_dewar.htm
WHITHER THE
LABOUR PARTY NOW?
The death of any leader, however sad and
sudden, inevitably leads to a jockeying for position; we saw this when John
Smith died, and Tony Blair and Gordon Brown did a deal. This seemed to have
been done with unseemly haste, and it looks as if the same thing is happening
in the Scottish Labour Party. According to all reports, the allies of Henry
McLeish are lobbying for him and invoking the support of Tony Blair and Gordon
Brown, while Jack McConnell is maintaining a dignified silence and will make
no moves until after the funeral.(Now if you believe that, you probably have
fairies at the bottom of your garden.) Yes, we do believe that Henry
McLeish’s allies are busily spinning away, and we know that because Jack
McConnell’s allies are telling us , and saying "Jack is furious; there
has to be an election, and that unprincipled rogue McLeish is pulling strings
and Donald isn’t even buried yet. He doesn’t deserve support, showing no
respect" etc, etc, etc. There is more than one way of jockeying for
position, and remember that Jack McConnell was the General Secretary of the
Scottish Labour Party which gives him a terrific grounding in skulduggery.
Whoever gets the job, they have to be approved
by the Scottish Parliament, and who is prepared to bet that this will be a
foregone conclusion? So far, Labour have had the support of the Lib Dems, but
the new leader may not be happy at the pact, and the Lib Dems will know this.
The new leader will also have to be acceptable to Westminster, and although
there have been rumblings about Westminster interference, mainly from the
McConnell camp, Tony Blair does not seem as worried as he was by Rhodri
Morgan, now leader of the Welsh Assembly, or Ken Livingstone, now Lord Mayor
of London.
It will also be the case that whoever does
become leader will not have the same clout as Donald Dewar, and there are
hints that they may have to be more nationalistic in their approach; this will
worry Westminster, and it now seems likely that the proposed scrapping of the
post of Secretary of State for Scotland will not go ahead. They could rely on
Donald Dewar, he was a Unionist and a dyed in the wool Labour man, but McLeish
or McConnell, or Alexander or Deacon for that matter, could be a different
kettle of fish. And if Dr John Reid tries to take advantage of the temporary
vacuum.......?
TURNOVER IS
VANITY, PROFIT IS SANITY
The recent circulation figures published by
Scotsman Publications make very interesting reading; according to them their
daily sales in September were 104384 compared with average daily sales for the
Herald which were 95000 for the first six months of the year. The Scotsman
also says that when the Herald subtracts bulks and discounted copies then they
are only selling 90000 per day; they do not tell us if their 104384 also
includes bulks and discounted copies. We do know that newsagents are still
receiving the same profit per copy as they were when the price was 48p, but we
don’t know what that profit was.
Purely on the basis of like for like, let us
see what the public was paying in September...
Scotsman week days 104,384 at £1 (5X20p) = £104,384.00
Scotsman Saturdays 104,384 at 30p = £31,315.20
Total sales income per week = £135,699.20
Herald sales daily 95,000 at 48p x 6 days =
£273,600.00
So the gross return on a lesser circulation for
the Herald is more than double that of the Scotsman; we know that advertising
revenue is determined by the number of copies sold irrespective of price, but
as the Scotsman is giving newsagents the same profit per copy (Not percentage-
profit) the losses must be horrific. A couple of months ago it was bruited
about that the Scotsman had already lost £8 million; how much will that be
now?
Perhaps this is all being subsidised by the
property arm of Scotsman Publications which has planning permission for a
43000 sq ft office block adjacent to Barclay House; for a company opposed to
devolution it has managed to make commercial opportunities from it, just like
Scottish Brewers. (They were going to leave Scotland if devolution came, and
then sold the Holyrood site to the Scottish Parliament for £5 million). In
addition, there are strong rumours that the Barclay brothers, reclusive tax
exiles, are going to let Andrew Neil buy the Daily and Sunday Express, but he
may have competition from Mohammed al Fayed, who is a non citizen but not a
tax exile.
The Scotsman is now on its fifth editor in four
years, prompting thoughts that letters to the editor should be addressed
"To whom it may concern".
AN EXPERIENCE
TO BE MISSED
We refer of course, to the New Millennium
Experience, better known as the Dome; so far it has cost around £1 billion,
and the latest occurrences make us shudder. First, it was a Tory idea that
Labour should have run a mile from; mind you as they adopted all their other
policies why not this one too? Now , it appears to have been built in the
wrong place (Britain?), they knew before it opened that it would not achieve
budget, and because it had to be opened for 1st January 2000 silly money was
paid to get things ready on time. Then the opening night.. VIPs, including
newspaper editors, were kept on a freezing station for hours, and when they
did arrive the champagne was finished! (Everybody say "Ah"). The
first chief executive, Jennie Page was forced out by the Chairman, Bob Ayling,
also busy almost grounding British Airways ; he got the Kirkcaldy heist in May
to be followed by David Quarmby, who stepped down after three and a half
months.
The current head is David James, but he was not
responsible for selling the Dome to Nomura the Japanese merchant bank for £105
million; the chief executive of Nomura is Guy Hands, a pal of William
Hague’s. The other bidder was Robert Bourne, who was perceived as one of
Tony’s cronies, but he only offered £50 million more than Nomura; now
Nomura have reneged on the deal (Renege as rhymed with Hague) and they are
buying the Olympic Stadium in Sydney, and the New Millennium Company are back
negotiating with Mr Bourne’s company, Legacy, who may now reconsider whether
they should honour their original offer of £155 million.
And, for the latest in the saga, four people
have been arrested in connection with allegations of fraud over an
inappropriate contract at the attraction. This was uncovered during an
internal audit carried out by the NMEC (New Millennium Experience Company).
Now if it was to allocate blame for the misuse of public funds, some people
might think it should be , say: Michael Heseltine, Peter Mandelson, Lord
Falconer and Simon Jenkins, Times and Evening Standard columnist. Be still, my
heart - justice never gets done.
AND TALKING
OF INCOMPETENCE
The Scottish Qualifications Authority is to be
radically restructured, and its present status has been described as
"management by sticking plaster". Well, is it not good that this
blight on our education system, this complicated, Heath Robinson way of
collecting, analysing and disseminating information is to be completely
overhauled, and a simpler, more efficient organisation put in its place? Very
good, but up until August we were told that we had a simpler, more efficient
organisation, and that everything in the examination garden was lovely.
The Scottish Qualifications Authority was the
creation of the Tories, a wonderful quango with 29 faceless members, and was
designed to enhance and streamline the examination system. We are now told
that there will be no redundancies, so the same people who made a mess of the
system will be given another shot at it, but what is to happen to the 29
quango members? Don’t tell me they sacked them when I was out of the
country!
And once the mourning for Donald Dewar is over,
the new leader of the Labour Party will have to decide what to do about Sam
Galbraith; whoever the leader will be , he or she is not likely to feel the
same loyalty to Sam as Donald Dewar did.
DATES
IN HISTORY
14 October 1881
Eyemouth Fishing Disaster, known locally as 'Disaster Day', some 129 men
and boys, one in three of the Berwickshire town's fishermen lost their
lives in a hurricane.
16 October 1774
Death of Robert Fergusson, poet, in the Edinburgh Bedlam. Twelve years later
Robert Burns arranged for the erection of a headstone at Fergusson's unmarked
grave in the Canongate Kirkyard, Edinburgh.
'No Sculptured Marble here, nor
pompous Lay,
'No storied Urn nor animated Bust';
This simple Stone directs pale Scotia's Way
To pour her Sorrows o'er her Poet's Dust.'
- Burns' inscription for
Fergusson's headstone.
17 October 1850
James Young obtains a patent for the extraction of paraffin from shale, the
beginning of the paraffin industry in West Lothian. The successful business
earned the Glasgow-born Chemist the nickname 'Paraffin Young'.
23 October 1295
Treaty between John Balliol, King of Scots, and Philippe IV of France, made at
Paris for mutual military help against the English - "The Auld
Alliance". Renewed by Robert I (Treaty of Corbeil, 1326) it became
accepted response to English aggression against either party.
23 October 1822
Opening of the Caledonian Canal, Scotland's longest canal connecting Corpach
(near Fort William) with Clachnaharry (near Inverness), about two-thirds of
its 60 mile length comprises existing lochs - Loch Lochy, Loch Oich and Loch
Ness. One of Thomas Telford's greatest engineering works.
24 October 1911
Birth of Sorley MacLean, poet and teacher, Oagaig, Raasay. The greatest Gaelic
poet of the Twentieth Century.
THE
REBELS CEILIDH SONG BOOK
SHE MOVED
THROUGH THE FAIR
(As sung by Hugh
MacDonald, Senr.)
My young love said to me,
"My mother wont mind,
And my father won't slight you for your lack of kind,"
And she stepped away from me and this she did say:
"It will not be long love, till our wedding day.
She stepped away from me
and she moved through the fair,
And fondly I watched her move here and move there,
The she took her way homewards with one star awake,
As the swan in the evening moves over the lake.
The people were saying
that no two were wed,
But that one had the sorrow of love it was said,
For she smiled as she passed with her goods and her gear,
And that was the last that I saw of my dear.
Last night she came to me,
my dead love came in,
So softly she entered, her feet made no din;
And she laid her hand on me, and this she did day:
"It will not be long, love, till our wedding day."
See the Songbook
in our features section
A
KIST O FERLIES
A Keek at the Guid Scots Tung
By Peter D Wright
(Note: All
words underlined in this section are RealAudio links)
'The kye were late for milkin when he
piped them up the closs,
The kitlib's got his supper syne, an he was beddit boss;
But he cared na doit nor docken what they did or thocht or said,
There was comfort in the whistle that the wee herd made.!
Frae 'The Whistle' - Charles Murray
See
Scots Language in our Features Section
AND
AS WE CONTINUE.........
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THE
SCOTTISH NATIONAL PARTY
The Scots Independent Newspaper is
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THE FLAG
IN THE WIND
The above was the title of a book written
in the early Fifties by John MacDonald MacCormick, one of the founder
members of the Scottish National Party in 1934. The sub-title was
"The Story of the National Movement in Scotland". His comment in
the book said "It is perhaps in the symbols which men use that their
deepest sentiments are most readily expressed. Flags as well as straws
show which way the wind is blowing". A
fuller account appears under Features.
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