AN APOLOGY

An apology to our American readers for omitting to wish them a Happy Independence Day in last week’s Flag in the Wind; it was only when I looked at the calendar for this week that 4th July jumped up and hit me in the eye.

So a belated Happy 225th Independence Day to you all, and I hope it is not too long before you are reciprocating this to Scotland. And also sorry to our Canadian readers as we also omitted to wish you a Happy Canada Day so a belated good wishes to you all!

From the Election until now, Labour is up one point on the constituency vote and down three on the second vote; the SNP is up two on the constituency vote and up five on the second vote. The surprise is the Lib Dems up from the previous month from 8 to 14, and on the second vote from 12 to 18; this can be attributed to the performance of the UK leader, Charles Kennedy, who just happens to be a Scottish MP, and who came over very well during the General Election. Others can claim a rise of 335 on the constituency vote, but it only goes from 3% to 4%;  the second vote drops from 11% to 10%.

The interesting point here is that votes are moving, and that the smaller parties are showing progress; what the SNP has to do now is to seize the initiative and capture these floaters. I always regarded the Liberal vote in Scotland as a second class Tory vote, but times have changed and it is now a second class Labour vote; same thing really.

SEE THEM SHUFFLIN’ ALONG

John Swinney completed his Cabinet Reshuffle last week with the appointment of all the Deputy Shadow Ministers; we had the information last week, but as we had covered all the Shadow Ministers we decided to keep it for this week, sort of letting the Deputies step out of the shadows! (Awful, isn’t it?)

John Swinney’s comment "They are a very talented group of men and women who have a key role to play in deploying the SNP’s arguments in the Parliament and in the country.

"The Labour/Liberal government have failed the Scottish people - it is the SNP who have the team and the talents needed to govern Scotland, and take our nation forward to independence."

UNCLEAR NUCLEAR UNLESS YOU LOOK

The final First Minister’s Question Time in the Scottish Parliament led to heated exchanges between the First Minister, Henry McLeish, John Swinney, the SNP Leader and Bruce Crawford, SNP Shadow Environment Minister; not surprising, as the issue was about Westminster Government wanting us to have more nuclear power stations. John had asked if the Scottish government was to be consulted about a review of energy policy what stance would executive ministers take? Naturally, the First Minister would not answer, and accused the SNP of political opportunism, a standard defence when there is not an answer. John told the Parliament, "The First Minister cannot have it both ways. He cannot sign up to a deal that says there will be a close involvement of devolved administrations, and then refuse to reveal its position. Is it right that London should take the decisions and Scotland should take the risks? Is the Scottish Executive going to go in to this working party and argue for more nuclear power stations or is it not?" Bruce Crawford was equally blunt "You are paid £90,000 to have an opinion. It is time we heard one."

The SNP was highlighting the fact that the Liberal Democrats, Labour’s partners, were opposed to more nuclear power, but Brian Wilson, new Energy Minister in London, wanted more nuclear power stations; Sir David Steel, Liberal Democrat Presiding Officer, rebuked Mr Swinney, pointing out that they were dangerously close to debating an issue that was reserved to Westminster, and they would get the belt. That was the whole point.

TOURISME DE FARCE

In the middle of the tourist season, the Scottish Tourist Board, under whatever name they choose to smell as sweet as, managed to sack their six directors; they will be replaced by three new directors, one of whom is already in post. While this was going on, the Minister in charge, Wendy Alexander, was enjoying a holiday in Canada; far from the madding crowd’s ignoble strife.

Kenny MacAskill, SNP Shadow Enterprise Minister, was scathing in his comments; "The minister with responsibility for tourism should be at the helm to guide the industry through this turbulent term. Instead Wendy Alexander thinks it is perfectly acceptable to take a holiday in Canada during the final week of the parliamentary term. This again raises serious questions about her judgment."

The changes in tourism are all the result of a management consultants’ report by Pricewaterhousecoopers; we think this wonderfully named organisation also came up with the riveting name "visitscotland", and we are reminded that Ms Alexander had a previous life as a management consultant. As Kenny MacAskill pointed out "The ship of Scottish tourism is foundering and there is no one with a steady hand on the tiller. We have no chief executive. We have seen six directors go and of the three replacements only one is in post, one has still to come in, and one will not come in until September. July and August are critical for Scottish tourism and yet the organisation which is supposed to market it is in yet another shambles."

Government Ministers always distance themselves from disasters, physically so in the case of Ms Alexander, but they are quick to claim credit for good news, hence the pictures of Ms Alexander introducing the new chief executive of visitscotland, Rod Lynch, to the media earlier this year; this lasted only four days, as this was another mess! And we still believe that the same interference by ministers brought about the dumping of the "Caledonian Trilogy" video during the Tartan Day celebrations in April this year; this was £30,000 of our money thrown away for political spite. Interesting to see that Tartan Day still frightens the Labour Party, as the subject was aired in the Tom Shields column in the Herald this very week; expect a request next year for America to rename "Independence Day!"

CREATIVE POLITICS

There was a long article in the Scotsman this week by Angus MacKay, Finance Minister in the Scottish Parliament; after his "triumph" last week in his budget statement, one would have anticipated a further exposition of his sleight of hand. Instead we got an attack on the SNP’s call for fiscal autonomy. Clever stuff that; make a statement in Parliament on a "realigned" spending process, at the last possible moment, shoot off on holiday, leaving an attack on your opponents, and hope that everyone will forget to ask the questions after the summer recess.

Some little points Mr MacKay did not address; he does not know how much the Sutherland Report is going to cost, because he has not done his homework, so is there enough money? Secondly, the fact that he can find £289 million of savings in other budgets obviously means that the administration is not very competent when it comes to setting budgets in the first place, or that it has been very lax in actually spending the money where it is required, or perhaps both. Whatever the reason, there will now be less money spent on prisons, slopping out or no slopping out, where Scotland is going to have to spend millions and millions we do not have because Westminster neglected the issue, housing regeneration and anti poverty strategies have their funding reduced by £35 million over three years, enterprise and lifelong learning, including tourism is down by £26 million, and transport by £25 million. There was some criticism in the press about the lack of reaction from the opposition, but as they only saw the figures a short time before they were to be presented, this was to be expected. (It’s the name of the game.)

In any normal country, a government would set out its policies and set its tax levels to fund them; in devolved Scotland, there is a finite amount of money, the block grant which has to be cut and shaped. Mr MacKay can justly claim he has very little room to maneouvre, but if we had fiscal autonomy we could set the tax rates; that of course would mean the Scottish Executive perhaps putting up taxes, and losing votes, so they opt for the prerogative of the whore, "Power without responsibility." The crunch will come if the block grant will not be enough to cover Labour’s spending pledges, and Westminster says "No"; Mr MacKay will be hoping that by then he will be the Shadow Finance Minister, hypocritically condemning the SNP Government because Prime Minister Clarke will not give Scotland the money.

SMOKE AND MIRRORS

It is only two short weeks since Angus MacKay was also in the headlines, as he announced "The Bonfire of the Quangos"; according to his statement 113 quangos were to be abolished, 52 right away, and 61 under sentence. Wonderful news, until you take a closer look, and discover the smoke from the bonfire obscuring the mirror. There were three Water Boards, now they’re to be rolled into one; there were 43 separate health boards and trusts and they are being "realigned" as 15 new "unified" NHS boards (incidentally how surprising that none of the new NHS boards have any nursing members appointed to them.) One other, Scottish Homes, is being absorbed into Government as an executive agency; at the end of the day, Mr MacKay has only abolished 11 minor bodies, but behaved as if the revolution had come.

Mr MacKay is a political apparatchik, and was the campaign manager for Henry McLeish when he succeeded the late Donald Dewar; Mr MacKay’s campaign was much praised before the result. When the final vote was McLeish 44 - McConnell 36 (only a 4 vote difference) some concern was expressed at how widely over optimistic and inaccurate his estimate had been; however he has received his reward.

A FRISKY TWO YEAR OLD

Our Scottish Parliament was two years old at the weekend; 1st July 1999 was the Official Opening Day, and there was an Open Day at the Parliament on Saturday 30th June 2001; thousands attended and heard Sir David Steel, Presiding Officer, list the Parliament’s achievements.

And there have been achievements, despite all the bad publicity emanating from those who did not want a Parliament in the first place. We have had a bill to outlaw warrant sales, we are seeing how government works, which we were never able to do in the Westminster scenario, and we know that things can be changed. The committee system in particular is bringing a lot of skeletons out of the cupboard, a practice impossible at Westminster.

Of course there have been things going wrong; the new Parliament building is a case in point. This was not a mistake by the Parliament per se, but a calculated act by the Westminster Cabinet which we have to live with; similarly, there is disappointment that more has not been achieved, but the expectations were too high in the first place. I think many people thought that the Parliament would be closer to the independence model than it has been allowed to be, but the people want the Parliament to have more powers, not less.

One other factor which has caused disillusion is that the Executive is still largely behaving as if it is a continuation of the West of Scotland Labour hegemony, but this will change radically come the 2003 elections; in 1999 I said that I did not want the SNP to form the first administration, as so many things would go wrong that we would be accused of "wrecking" the Parliament. Now, you cannot go into an election fighting to lose, so naturally the SNP fought a hard battle against the massed ranks of London Labour and the Press, and made a creditable impact with 35 MSPs; in 2003, we need to win to make Scotland a better place.

Last July the Observer newspaper revealed that companies which had donated staff free to Government departments had won lucrative company contracts and profited from crucial policy changes. Ministers refused to say who these individuals were, and claimed that they could not provide the information under the Data Protection Act which was designed to protect privacy.

This was challenged by the Observer using the code for open government introduced by John Major’s government in the wake of the cash for questions scandals; so the paper had to use rules put in to catch the sleazy Tories to catch the sleazy Labourites. The Government has agreed to publish the names, if it has the employees’ agreement; Chancellor Gordon Brown has produced a list of only seven out of fifteen after a year, but the Observer knows about another secret one because his employer has published it on their website! Others boast about it on their CVs!

In his first year in the Scottish Parliament, Tom McCabe, the minister for parliament, only received a little over £1000 for overnight accommodation; this year he has applied for and received a grant of up to £9500 to buy a flat in Edinburgh. Mr McCabe was previously Convener of South Lanarkshire Council.

Spend £9500 to save £1000; sounds like fairly typical Labour expenditure of public money.

And speaking of South Lanarkshire, a headmaster with 67 "ghost" pupils on his school roll has been reprimanded; this was done at an internal inquiry and no further details have been given. At one school in Glasgow, the head teacher was demoted to the chalk face for less.

Question for Higher Still; "How many Scottish headmasters are not members of Unionist Parties?"

In a huge NATO naval exercise off the coast of Lewis, involving 14000 servicemen and women, one of the Royal Navy ships ran out of petrol for its inflatable dinghies; the captain ordered some from the local garage, and was surprised they had to wait until after midnight as it was the Sabbath.

I worry about our intelligence services sometimes.

Last month there was a televised debate between Alex Salmond and Ken Livingstone, Lord Mayor of London; I think it was on Carlton TV and I was unable to find any report of it in the press. However, in the Herald, Ruth Wishart did a report as she was there.

In her article, about 1200 words, she managed to mention Alex Salmond’s name twice, but not what he said, thereby keeping to her strict New Labour impartial reporting.

Tony Blair is determined to introduce private practices into public services, with the Tory theory that private is good and public bad.

Since Greg Dyke became BBC Director General, audiences have fallen on BBC1 by 1.6%; Mr Dyke has been given a bonus of £91000.

The late Donald Dewar was famous, or infamous, for his voracious appetite when he attended official receptions.

That probably explains how he was able to amass £2 million to leave in his will.

Last weekend saw pictures of hundreds of holidaymakers stranded at airports here and in the Balearics due to a strike by Spanish coach drivers.

Strange that no one from visitscotland saw this as a marketing opportunity; well, maybe not.

SCOTTISH FOOD, TRADITIONS AND CUSTOMS

See our Scottish Food, Traditions and Customs in our Features section

DATES IN HISTORY

SING A SANG AT LEAST
(compiled by Peter D Wright)

"That I for poor auld Scotland's sake
Some useful plan or book could make
Or sing a sang at least ........"

- Robert Burns

See the SING A SANG AT LEAST 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)

Peter and Marilyn Wright after doing the Kist O Ferlies at Electric Scotland.

See Scots Language in our Features Section
for other poems, stories, sayings and words in the Scots language

THE MONTHLY PRIZE CROSSWORD

Each month the Scots Independent Newspaper offers a prize crossword and we're now offering this online in the Flag in the Wind as well.   Should you complete the crossword by the deadline you can fax it over to the SI and the first correct one opened on the closing date will win a £10.00 book token.

SI Prize Crossword No. 19 July 2001
[Click here to bring up the crosswords]