Slightly better news for Alain Baxter, our Olympic skiing bronze medallist; the British Olympic Association is backing his appeal against the drug charge, and Drambuie, one of his sponsors, who had originally disowned him, are now supporting him. It will be a long haul for him, but we hope natural justice will prevail and he will get his medal back; he made an error, a relatively minor one, but with grave consequences.

There is a school of thought that regards the Old Firm moving out of Scottish football as a benefit, and certainly the preponderance of high priced foreign players is not helping the Scottish game, or youngsters coming through. I can remember one international, a few years back, when there were more Rangers players in the England team than there were in the Scotland one! Jimmy Reid, writing in the Scotsman, thinks that Rangers should play in Belfast and Celtic in Dublin, as Union Jacks and Tricolours are waved, but not Saltires!

My argument is that if EUFA agrees that the Old Firm could play in another country’s league, then they might also stipulate that Scotland could not take part as a country in international football, as they could not support their two largest clubs. Maybe, just maybe, that might lead to independence - no Scotland - no Scottish International team.

A TWO FOOTED GAME

The decision in Dublin that Croker Park is not to be used for football is a definite setback for Scotland and Ireland jointly hosting Euro 2008, as Ireland will not have the two stadia necessary for the bid to go ahead. This is not surprising, as we believe that this was the First Minister, Jack McConnell’s intention all along; it was Henry McLeish’s idea, anyway, and Mr McConnell was not keen on it. He felt that the costs involved were too high, but as the Finance Minister when the Executive underspent the annual budget by £712 million, we are sure that the money could have been made available; as it is, he thought £200 million was too much, but quite happily expected the Irish Government to fork out £500 million. They on the other hand, were quite happy to spend the money because of the kudos they would get.

South of the Border, the approaching World Cup has the English pundits punting 1966 again and again, even to the extent that "Michael Owen is the youngest English team captain

since 1966" - never missing a chance. They are all now in a panic with prayers and supplications being offered to heal David Beckham’s foot, and the nasty foreigner who brought down Beckham putting a stopper on England winning the World Cup. Well, England worries about Beckham’s foot in 2002, and Scotland shoots itself in the foot for 2008.

John Swinney, leader of the SNP, told the conference, or rather the fringe meeting he addressed, as they do not yet let the goodies into the main hall, that he would "Kill PFI stone dead". He said that the NHS would have to become more accountable to the public who pay for and use the service; the SNP would introduce a "new National Health Inspectorate" to ensure the highest standards of patient care. John said that since the Lib-Lab coalition had been formed in 1999 nearly 700 hospital beds had been lost in Scotland, and that PFI was the greatest and most elaborate con of the modern age, as the money that should be going into patient care was being diverted into the pockets of private financiers.

While Mr McConnell was still rejoicing that the Labour conference at the same venue a couple of weeks before "had seen off the union revolt", the STUC conference voted overwhelmingly against further privatisation of the prison service, a pet project of the Scottish Executive. The unions huff and puff, and they may or may not oppose Labour at the next election; one union, GMB, has already decided to cut funding by £1 million over four years. It is my belief that we should help them on their way, and we will be obtaining a political levy opt-out form to aid them; this is because every member of an affiliated trade union pays a part of his union subscription to the Labour Party, and it is very awkward to opt out. Difficulties are always put in the way, not least of which is actually obtaining an opt-out form in the first place, so we will endeavour to do so, and put it in the Flag, ready for printing off.

One last point; John Swinney was interviewed on Newsnight Scotland after his visit to the STUC Conference, and forcefully stated his case. The next person interviewed was Bill Speirs, general secretary of the STUC; the interviewer asked him if he disagreed with anything John Swinney had said. Oh no, not at all; why then, are you putting your name to an agreement with the Labour Party which threatening your members livelihoods and standards of public care? Well, it was not an agreement with the Labour Party, but with the Scottish Executive.................! Spot the difference.

A wee addendum to the above; apparently the Scottish Prison Officers’ Association have been holding secret talks with the SNP about backing candidates at the 2003 election, but have hurriedly withdrawn after it became public.

These points are so elementary that we are amazed that the Scottish Executive are not aware of them; we see in our hospitals that the reduction in cleanliness due to cost cutting by cleaning companies has led to a massive increase in hospital acquired infections. This has reached such a scale that it is almost double the "elderly bed blocking" syndrome, which has received so much publicity; it is estimated that over half a million bed days are taken up each year by these infections. The carrot for all privatisation, and all PFI projects is that the private investor takes the risk, but this is nonsense; RailTrack is in administration, a privatisation which has lost money from day one, and where taxpayers’ subsidies have run right through the books and been paid as dividends to shareholders. Many have made fortunes buying and selling the shares; now it is in administration, the current shareholders are screaming blue murder, and a soft Stephen Byers will give them their money back.

I recently saw a cartoon of a man in a casino who had lost all his money on the roulette wheel. When he asked for his money back the croupier said "What do you think this is - RailTrack?"

Scotland on Sunday did not contact Alex Salmond, John Swinney, or Sir Sean Connery, but they ran a potentially damaging fantasy anyway - damaging to the SNP - and by inference to Scotland. The Scotsman treated the SNP a bit better than its Sunday sister.

I have looked at what is in the Budget, and the only thing I see about the environment is a proposal to reduce road tax on environmentally friendly cars; I would concede that what is in the Budget will only be revealed after a few weeks, and I have to reluctantly agree with the Tory leader who said "The Chancellor has reduced the small print to the status of a fine art." It is always a wee while before we suss out the various ramifications, and every Budget produced by Gordon Brown so far has been met with enthusiasm, followed a few weeks later with "Hey, wait a minute......!" Taxation has become more and more complex, more and more obtuse, and just generally more and more.

As an example of the good old sleight of hand, remember the vilification heaped on the SNP in 1999 when we said that we should not accept the 1p tax cut in the Budget then, but spend the money on public services? We were greeted with howls of derision, abuse and general mockery - by the Labour Party and all its henchmen. Now Gordon Brown increases tax by 1p, to pay for public services, and he’s hailed as a hero, a kind, considerate, far-seeing chap. If he had taken the SNP’s advice three years ago then the NHS would have had the money three years earlier, and a lot more taxpayers would be still alive.

There is a lot of word play in politics (Wow!) and the new tax increase is yet one more example of it; the Chancellor said he would not put up income tax, so he put up National Insurance, which is a tax on income! I am also a bit bemused at the mathematics; he said in the Commons that an increase of 1% on National Insurance would cost a person on £21,400 per year, £3.70 per week., and in the Scotsman it said that National Insurance contributions would go up by 1% to 11%, and this would cost £3.23 per week for a full time worker earning £21,400 a year. Now if National Insurance is at present 10%, then 10% of £21,400 is £2,140 per year; if it goes up to 11%, then National Insurance becomes £2,354 a year,a rise of £214, and £214 divided by 52 comes to £4.11 per week. I’m obviously missing a bit somewhere; of course in addition, employers will also pay an extra £214 per year, so he’s actually increased by 20%!

Cigarettes are being hit again, by 6p a packet; this is the Chancellor’s token to social responsibility and health . He has not increased tax on alcohol, and indeed has reduced tax on beer brewed in "Ye Fine Olde English Pub", (not a lot of these establishments North of the Border) in time for the World Cup; perhaps if he visited an Accident and Emergency Unit some weekend and saw the carnage and mayhem caused by alcohol he might have felt more socially responsible, and helped greatly the public servants he cares so deeply about.

We are publishing the booklet in serial form, as it is too long to put in one issue; as the Labour First Minister, Jack McConnell, told us all at First Minister’s Questions, the booklet has 54 pages and 14,308 words, so you will understand the rationale. On the counting of words, we wonder where Mr McConnell found the time to do this, him being so busy mismanaging Scotland; if he got a minion to do it, was this at public expense? Being busy people, we have no time to check if this was another lie to Parliament.

As Labour campaign manager Douglas Alexander MP conceded in an infamous leaked memo in 1999, Labour is concerned that many of its traditional supporters are being attracted to the SNP and its Independence policy, saying "Many Labour voters have a generally benign view of Independence".

The ultimate decision on Independence lies with the Scottish people, and the SNP will continue to argue for the benefits of normal nation status. Our task now is to explain that Independence is more than just a good and popular idea – it is the only way to deliver the changes in Scotland which we all want to see.

That’s an argument which we are winning, which is why people in all parts of Scotland support Independence, and are giving their vote to the party which promotes it - the SNP.

Opponents of Independence like to call it separation. In fact, as an independent country, with a seat at the top tables of the EU, the UN and the Commonwealth, Scotland would be far less isolated than it is at present. At the moment we have no direct representation in any of these international bodies and no diplomatic voice around the world.

When South African President Thabo Mbeki visited the Scottish Parliament in 2001, he said the Parliament had a responsibility to speak up on issues of global importance. The SNP agrees, and the real separatists are the people who would deny Scotland that international voice.

Only if the people vote for an SNP Government after Independence. The SNP proposes that there be new elections to the Scottish Parliament shortly after Independence has been declared. The SNP’s constitution for Independence requires fixed-term parliamentary elections every four years.

Under Independence, Scotland will get the Government it votes for every time. By contrast, the Westminster Government has only borne any resemblance to how Scotland actually voted during five of the last 23 years. With Independence, we would never again be run by a Prime Minister like Margaret Thatcher, whose party had almost no Scottish support because, with Independence, Scotland’s votes will no longer just be one in every ten of the votes that decide a UK Government. Every vote will be for Scotland’s choice.

If Independence is so great, why hasn’t it happened yet? It is up to the people of Scotland to decide their future, and it is the task of a party like the SNP to convince more and more Scots that the best people to run Scotland are the people who live here.

It is significant and encouraging that people in Scotland have a growing confidence in their national identity, with the overwhelming majority now preferring to describe themselves as primarily Scottish rather than British. In 1979, a survey (McCrone and Paterson) was still able to find 38% of people in Scotland who classed themselves as more British than Scottish. By the time of the British Social Attitudes survey of 2001, this group had declined to just 7%.

Our work is to raise Scots’ confidence in themselves as a community. The task of the unionist parties and their friends in the Scottish press is to undermine that confidence as much as they possibly can.

Labour MP Martin O’Neill accurately, if rather cynically, defined Labour’s great political task in Scotland: "Our biggest problem is lowering the expectations of the Scottish people". ("Radical Scotland" June 1984)

Labour campaign manager Douglas Alexander MP put it another way: "We have got to engender fear of the SNP." (leaked memo, 1999)

However, despite the propaganda, people’s confidence is growing – along with their expectations. Scotland is already impatient for more power to be given up by Westminster. We believe that the logical next step for Scotland to take is Independence.

That is what the SNP is working to achieve.

On the next page of the newspaper carrying this report was the headline "Shell chief gets £1.5 million despite dip in profits"; no comment there, then.

The minimum wage is set to rise in October by 10p per hour to £4.20 per hour.

The Tory Party knew nothing good would come of this policy.

Justerini & Brooks, better known as simply J & B, is closing its prestigious George Street, Edinburgh shop; the firm is owned by Diageo, and supplied the Queen Mother with gin and Dubonnet.

Must have been some customer.

The other sycophantic comment was "It is fortunate indeed that the Queen Mother organised her own funeral service. Had that task been left to the more timid courtiers, the service might not have been so traditional- or so moving and inspiring." Our expense was no object.

The political publishing house, Politico’s, has produced a list of the 100 most powerful politicians of the last century; fifteen of them are Scots. Tony Blair makes it at 34, David Steel at 44 and Gordon Brown at 88.

James Keir Hardie, founder of the Labour Party, and founder member of the Scottish Home Rule Association didn’t make it.

The donors were surprised when it ate them.

The centre has now been temporarily closed as their insurers have refused to renew their cover.

The Earl and Countess of Wessex (Prince Edward and Sophie) have announced that they are quitting their careers to take on more charity work and help out the Queen.

Her Majesty will pay them £250,000 per year tax free in compensation; not bad for someone who had made a mess of the business.

EXECUTIVE PLANS TO BUY PRIVATE HOSPITAL

The Scottish Executive is preparing to buy Scotland's biggest private hospital in order to increase health service capacity, it emerged yesterday. Officials from the executive are in talks with the 181 million pound acute-care HCI hospital in Clydebank, which has the capacity for 540 beds and 66 intensive care beds. Shadow health minister Nicola Sturgeon said her reaction to the disclosure was one of "incredulity". "There are around 650 fewer acute beds in the NHS now than there were when Labour came to power. They now have to make up some of the shortfall in bed numbers by buying a private hospital and lining the pockets of private financiers into the bargain," she added.

MARGARET EWING THANKS WELL-WISHERS AFTER OPERATION

Moray MSP Margaret Ewing left hospital after surgery for breast cancer paying tribute to the "hardworking and dedicated" staff who had taken care of her. "I particularly want to thank the surgical team, who operated with such skill and have given me the good news that everything went to plan," she said. "I also want to thank my friends and colleagues, including those in other parties, who have wished me well over the last few days. I will now have to spend some time convalescing, and will need time and space to recover, but am looking forward to my return to political life as soon as possible." SNP leader John Swinney MSP commented: "Everyone has been thinking of Margaret over the last few days and it is great news that the operation has gone well."

MacASKILL ACCUSES EXECUTIVE OF FAILING TO SUPPORT URBAN POST OFFICES

Shadow Telecommunications Minister Kenny MacAskill MSP today accused the Scottish Executive of failing the interests of local communities when it emerged they had failed to assign money to support post offices. The Executive were forced to admit to Mr MacAskill today that they had failed to allocate any of the £1.5 million to support post offices in deprived urban areas - money received from the UK Government for this express purpose. "Post offices in deprived urban areas provide a vital service to all sectors of the local community and their closure will cause serious problems for the most vulnerable members of the community such as the elderly, said Mr MacAskill. "Their failure to act is damning and only confirms that the Executive does not have the interests of local communities at heart."

SCOTTISH COAL "WARNED OFF" SNP CRITIC

Scottish Coal has been accused of using intimidating tactics to silence critics of its decision to close Longannet colliery, Scotland's last pit. The company has engaged a firm of solicitors to counter what it claims are untrue and damaging allegations made by the SNP. Its solicitors have written to Bruce Crawford, the party's environment spokesman, describing the interview as "grossly defamatory of the company and its senior and executive directors". However Bruce Crawford, who has demanded details about Scottish Coal's use of a 41 million pound government grant, insists he is asking legitimate questions about the company's operation and has pledged to fight on. "I'm not prepared to be silenced because there are a lot of big issues to be answered," he said. "I will continue to ask the awkward questions because it is the job of politicians to do just that." Scottish Coal closed the mine less than a fortnight ago, putting 500 miners out of work, after a neighbouring pit in an adjoining mine complex was flooded with 17 million gallons of water. The company said the flood meant it could no longer guarantee the safety of workers.

AIR SAFETY FEARS AS UPGRADE PLAN IS SHELVED

Air passengers are set to face lengthy delays and airport closures lasting several days after the suspension of a 50 million pound project to upgrade the country's creaking radar system. The National Air Traffic System (NATS) has postponed its Radar Replacement Programme leaving air controllers to rely on 30-year-old equipment that needs monthly servicing to keep it working. Aviation experts said a full-blown breakdown of one of the radar installations could lead to massive delays at airports and make it more difficult to deal with hijackings. The suspension of the programme provoked fury from MSPs last night, who accused NATS, which is also planning to cut 225 engineering and support jobs, of putting cash savings before air safety. Kenny MacAskill, the SNP's shadow transport minister, said: "The government has to get a grip. They pressed a privatisation through that has failed to deliver and will not deliver. We need to embrace the safety element and we need public control to do that."

DUNGAVEL REFUGEES MOVED AHEAD OF MSP VISIT

Asylum-seekers and refugees who were to have met MSPs during a fact-finding visit to Dungavel detention centre on Tuesday have been removed and relocated to other centres. Last Wednesday Shona Robison MSP, convener of the group, faxed a list to the Home Office of the individuals and families that she and her colleagues on the Scottish parliament's cross party group on asylum-seekers and refugees had hoped to meet at the centre, near Strathaven in South Lanarkshire. However it has emerged today that most of the on the original list of seven detainees were removed last week. Ms Robison said: "All the people who have been removed are people we requested to see. I would be extremely concerned if any connection was to be established between us requesting to see people, and the decision being taken to remove them. I will be asking questions about this on Tuesday."

TOP WATER MEN BLOW 100,000 POUNDS ON JUNKET

Water chiefs blew 100,000 pounds of public cash at a luxury country mansion just days before their business was taken over. West of Scotland Water spent 89,000 pounds on a seven-day residential training course for just 10 bosses. And after their course at the magnificent Ashridge House, they spent another 10,000 pounds on a party at one of Scotland's top hotels for 70 top managers. Days later, the organisation was wound up, control of the water network was handed over to Scottish Water - and four of the staff on the course left the company. Top executives walked away with massive pay-offs totalling more than 300,000 pounds. SNP water spokesman Bruce Crawford called for an urgent inquiry by environment minister Ross Finnie. He said: "This is an astonishing misuse of public money. These are public servants with a duty to get best value. There should be a proper inquiry and someone should look at disciplinary action against the managers involved. I will be asking parliamentary questions. It is not fair on ordinary workers or the charge payers. Ross Finnie has got to take tough action on this."

LABOUR DONOR WINS VACCINE CONTRACT

The government has denied the award of a 32 million pound contract to supply the NHS with a smallpox vaccine is linked to donations to the Labour Party.  The Department for Health confirmed on Friday that it had bought a stockpile of the vaccine to protect half the UK population against a smallpox attack. The deal is with British company PowderJect Pharmaceuticals, whose owner Paul Drayson donated 50,000 pounds to Labour in July 2001, according to the Electoral Commission website. Opposition politicians are now demanding an investigation. SNP deputy leader Roseanna Cunningham observed that the Labour government is increasingly dogged by claims of sleaze and cronyism. She said: "Since Tony Blair promised to clean up Westminster, we've had Formula One and cash for policies, Peter Mandelson's unique approach to the right to buy, passports for donors, rows over the office expenses claimed by Labour MPs, financial links to the collapsed US energy giant Enron, and favours for rich foreign businessmen who donate money to the Labour party. It is little wonder New Labour is mired in sleaze." Last month a poll showed that 60% of people think Labour gives the impression of being "sleazy and disreputable".

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SING A SANG AT LEAST
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A KIST O FERLIES
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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. 28 APRIL  2002
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