Around Scotland - Monday 31 March 2008

Published in the Morning Star

(Monday 31 March 2008)

MALCOLM BURNS wonders what was behind Wendy Alexander's extraordinary use of the S-word.

More than words?

SUDDENLY, the ideological battle seems to have become clear again. "This is the territory Labour will be happy to fight," said Wendy Alexander.

"Left against right. Cutting poverty against cutting taxes. Rewarding hard work against unearned wealth. Socialist against nationalist."

I didn't actually make it to Labour's Scottish conference in Aviemore, but the hardy socialist delegates and visitors who did will no doubt have been delighted to hear their local leader proclaim a new blood-red Labour identity north of the border on Saturday. Well, maybe.

Can Alexander's new enthusiasm for socialism be true? The very word "socialism," never mind the ideology, has been long reviled by the shiny, shiny McNuLab clan which captured the Scottish Labour Party a political generation ago - they viewed it as baggage to be swept out while proclaiming the new Blairism.

But Blairism is Brownism too. Among Gordon Brown's witterings about the ages of "change" and "ambition," you'll hear socialism being ritually strangled with promises of tax cuts - mainly for the wealthy - "personal choice," private finance and Little Englander jingoism, not to mention full support for imperialist wars.

Odd, then, to think that Brown gave Alexander permission to say the S-word and even define Scottish Labour in terms of it. For permission he most surely will have given.

Alexander owes her elevation to Scottish leader exactly to Brown's patronage. Most people would not disagree with the unnamed party "insider" who was quoted at conference as saying: "If he goes, she goes," in reference to the increasing likelihood of Brown being defeated at the next Westminster election.

So, why is Alexander suddenly allowed to say "socialism" as if it was a good thing - it is, of course - and as if it was policy of the Scottish Labour Party, which it most certainly is not? Well, look at the lost elections last year and the dismal poll ratings now. The party's core voters don't like new Labour and expected Brown to be different. He wasn't and Alexander needs to shore up traditional support with warm words like "socialism" and "left."

Look at the lost battalions of Labour activists. Labour is notoriously shy about publishing full membership figures, but the BBC has helpfully worked out the full horror of the membership loss.

"In the decade since 1997, Scottish Labour has lost getting on for half of its membership. From a peak of 30,000 in 1997, the party reported 17,000 last year."

And look at the unions. Labour's platform north and south of the border bears little relationship with the progressive and often socialist policies which organised and affiliated workers decide at democratic conferences year after year.

With a conference which decides virtually nothing of significance, union delegations who feel increasingly redundant, many constituencies which don't even bother sending delegates and activists having left in droves, Alexander really has to say something.

She can't announce a brand new left-wing policy direction even if she wants to. So, she has to say at least what they want to hear. Now, that's interesting.

The question for the constituencies, unions, activists and the people of Scotland is, how to turn the words into deeds and put socialism on the agenda for real?

Our linguistic roots

I HAVE been at Sabhal Mor Ostaig for the last week. SMO is the Gaelic college in Skye and is part of the continually developing University of the Highlands and Islands network of 15 colleges and institutions.

UHI became a higher education institution in 2001 and was recommended for degree-awarding powers last week. Currently, its degrees are awarded through partnership with other universities.

I am doing a Gaelic immersion course to try to recover the language of my grandparents, which, unfortunately, I did not receive as a native tongue, despite growing up in Stornoway. Or perhaps because of that fact, since Stornoway, regarding itself as a commercial and almost metropolitan town, looked towards the language of business, English, instead of the language of the past and poverty, Gaelic. Oh yes, the age of ambition is nothing new.

One of the buzzy words among the tutors is "Ulpan" and it seems that a number of them have been doing training in this "new" method of language teaching.

The promoters of the Ulpan method say that it provides a speedy, universal route to fluency through rigorous course modules involving group learning through repetitive speech, question and answer sessions and games.
Students of the establishment of the state of Israel since 1948 will be familiar with the term.

Ulpan was devised a a method of creating a unified Hebrew language and culture for immigrants to the new nation, who would have spoken different languages and come from different cultures.

It's not how I am learning Gaelic at present, but it will be interesting to see if this controversial teaching method can help in guaranteeing linguistic and cultural diversity here in Scotland.

Meanwhile, the view from my window of the Sound of Sleat and the mountains of Knoydart is breathtaking. A great place to study indeed.

Latin America in the spotlight in Glasgow

IF I can get back from Skye in time, I will go to the Latin American Seminar being organised in Glasgow on Friday April 4 by the Scottish Cuba Solidarity Campaign and the Scottish Trades Union Congress.

Speakers will include Cuban embassy political counsellor Luis Marron and our own Elaine Smith MSP.

The seminar, discussing the challenges and threats facing the peoples of Latin America, runs from 10am till 3pm at the STUC Centre, Woodlands Road, Glasgow.

Phone SCSC on (0141) 221 2359 or email scottishcuba@yahoo.co.uk or contact STUC on (0141) 337 8100 or hcarson@stuc.org.uk for more details.

Ferry disappointed

I REPORTED about Sunday ferries last week. As it happens, the stormy conditions which kept the Stornoway ferries in port on Friday continued through Saturday and meant that essential supplies had to be transported... on Sunday. But then the Caledonian MacBrayne board dodged the issue on Wednesday and decided to defer yet again the decision to timetable Sunday sailings.

Hopefully, the issue will be tabled again next month and a decision could be made then which will turn out to have a happier ending for the majority of local people, businesses and incoming tourists.

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Around Scotland - Monday 24 March 2008

Published in the Morning Star

(Monday 24 March 2008)

MALCOLM BURNS reviews the latest goings-on in Scotland.

Never on a Sunday

IT REALLY is Around Scotland this week. As I write, I am watching a storm roll across the port of Stornoway, Lewis, the main town in the largest of the Western Isles.

If you've not been here or don't know where it is, you'll still be familar with it as the most north-westerly point of reference on the BBC weather map. There is plenty of weather up here.

One of the things not moving today as a result of the spring gale is the lifeline ferry, the Isle of Lewis. It is tied tightly to the terminal and may not sail at all.

With luck, the crew, which is unionised by RMT, of course, will brave the storm, get the delayed travellers to their destination and literally bring home the bacon and all the other vital supplies for the island. Lifeline is not a loose term wrongly applied in this case.

They might have to wait till Saturday if sea conditions stay wild. One thing is for sure, though. They won't be sailing on Sunday.

That's not a weather issue, and it's not a union issue either. Sunday sailings go from the mainland to other islands and RMT does a good job of making sure pay and conditions are protected, whatever days the crew are on rota.

In fact, the "ban" on sailing on a Sunday to Stornoway has no legal or commercial basis at all. Quite the opposite. It positively damages the prospects of an already marginal island economy. It is a bizarre imperative largely determined by a very vocal minority of hard-line presbyterians.

Signs of a thaw in their reactionary hegemony are welcome. The council actually used to chain up the swings in the kids' playground on a Saturday night and unlock them again on Monday. Happily, that no longer goes on.

In the last few years, the ayatollahs on the licensing board have had to admit there is no legal basis to stop pubs serving customers on Sunday.

A Sunday air service was introduced. And a ferry linking the largest islands began to run on Sundays last year. All good for locals and good for tourists.

The predicted thunderbolts have not yet struck.

For many years now, progressive campaigners have tried to get the state-owned ferry company Caledonian Macbrayne to run the essential service from the mainland to Lewis on Sundays.

The Calmac board meeting on Wednesday March 26 is expected to discuss the issue again. Campaigners are hopeful that, this time, as a result of their efforts, a Sunday ferry will be on the autumn schedule which is due to be announced.

If the Calmac board members do bite the bullet this week and put a Sunday ferry on their schedule in the autumn, it will signal the end of at least one "age of cant" and superstition in one small corner of the world.

Inspirational words from Mr Benn

I WAS delighted to go along last week to the Scottish Parliament to hear an address by Tony Benn.

Even more enjoyable than the formal occasion was the public meeting later in a packed committee room. Everyone in the building - staff and MSPs, as well as us lefties from outside - seemed to have made it their business to go to hear the veteran socialist.

Even in his eighties and despite his occasionally fluffed hearing, Benn remains a sparkling public performer and debater. One of his themes was praise for teachers of all kinds - the people who illuminate for us the otherwise darkened landscapes around us and especially the paths to come.

Enlightenment is a key element of the old slogan "agitate, educate, organise," Benn argued. He modestly characterised himself as "an untrained teaching assistant" in this pursuit.

Despite his modesty, we, his friends, know - and his enemies grudgingly admit - that Benn's narrative of socialism and democracy is inspirational stuff.

So, I was perhaps even more delighted the day before to learn that one of my own kids, at 17, had gone along off his own bat and without even mentioning it to me to hear Benn doing a similar job of inspiration at a public event in the Aye Write! Glasgow book festival.

I am sure that Tony Benn would have been just as pleased.

The facts tell the story

ON the eve of the fifth anniversary of the war in Iraq, the Guardian published an article What is the real death toll in Iraq? analysing the various estimates. It is worth looking at.

The number of people who have died as a result of the invasion could be over a million by some counts, using well-founded research methods by independent investigators.

Even the most conservative estimate the Iraq Body Count indicates that approaching 100,000 people have died a result of the war. But the killing continues.

I am proud to have been among the organisers of the big anti-war demo in Glasgow on February 15 2003. It may have been the biggest political demo ever in Scotland. Maybe up to 100,000 people turned out that day. Maybe more. Estimates vary. Imagine if we'd killed them all. Or the million more in London.

Stop the war.

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Listening to the prophets - Tony Benn at Scottish Parliament, Thu 20 March 2008

Published in the Morning Star

(Friday 21 March 2008)

MALCOLM BURNS witnesses Tony Benn's visit to Holyrood.

THE Scottish Parliament is much more open than Westminster. It's not just the architecture, although the chamber is much more in the round than the narrow, opposing benches in London.

It is open to the people, not just as visitors, but with its committee structure and petitions, and open to be addressed by non-members.

On Wednesday, Elaine Smith and Bill Butler, Scottish Labour left MSPs, invited Tony Benn to address the Parliament during the Time for Reflection slot.

It's like Thought for the Day, but often much more secular.

Cathy Jamieson, Jackie Baillie, Margaret Curran - and behind them, Malcolm Chisholm - gathered on the Labour benches. A decade ago, more actually, this would have been a left caucus at a Labour conference.

And then Tony Benn arrived.

Taking religion and politics as his theme, Mr Benn traced the Scottish roots of religious dissent in his own family.

"My great great grandfather was a Scottish steeplejack and a severe presbyterian," he said. "And my great granny believed - as a congregationalist - that everyone has a direct line to God. They didn't need bishops. That was a radical idea, and a revolutionary one."

"I learned that the bible conflicts are all between prophets and kings," he continued. "The teachings of Jesus are all about how we should live our lives. And I believe the Ten Commandments are a better guide to a good life than the Dow Jones average."

To a hearty round of applause, Mr Benn concluded his short speech by calling on today's politicians to "make the right decisions by listening to the prophets rather than the kings."

After the speech, committee room one was thronged with MSPs, friends and comrades for Tea with Tony, a spirited and much more political discussion led by Bill Butler and Ann Henderson of the STUC.

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The crime of the century so far... Blair and Bush guilty men

What is the real death toll in Iraq? Jonathan Steele and Suzanne Goldenberg report | World news | The Guardian: "An independent UK-based research group, calling itself the Iraq Body Count (IBC), collates all fatality reports in the media where there are two or more sources as well as figures from hospitals and other official sources. At least four household surveys have been done asking Iraqis to list the family members they have lost. The results have then been extrapolated to Iraq's total population to give a nationwide estimate.

The results range from just under 100,000 dead to well over a million."

Thousands turn out for Glasgow protest

Published in the Morning Star

(Monday 17 March 2008)

by MALCOLM BURNS in Glasgow

LOUD AND CLEAR: Protesters marching through Glasgow city centre.

THOUSANDS of peace protesters in Glasgow heard Scottish Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon call for troops to be withdrawn and the perpetrators of the Iraq war to be held to account at the weekend.

Ms Sturgeon was speaking at Saturday's rally on Glasgow Green organised by the Stop the War Coalition and supported by the STUC, Scottish CND and the Muslim Association of Britain.

Organisers estimated that around 5,000 people joined the march through Glasgow city centre, which saw representatives from trade unions EIS and UNISON, the Scottish Socialist Party, Solidarity and the Communist Party of Britain taking part.

Opening the rally, Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn slammed the MPs who had supported the war.

"I say to all those MPs who voted for the war consciously - where is your conscience now?" he asked.

Ms Sturgeon said that the war had caused many deaths, including many Scottish soldiers.

"We now have a government in Scotland which opposes the war," she continued.

"We demand an end to the war in Iraq and our troops brought home.

"We also demand accountability," the Deputy First Minister continued.

"If there is anything more grotesque than the war itself, this illegal war, it is the fact that the only three people to have lost their jobs over it were at the BBC, because they reported that the dossier was 'sexed up'," she said.

Veteran Edinburgh Labour MP Gavin Strang, a former Blair Cabinet minister, said that the war had been a bigger mistake than Suez and "the consequences have been more damaging for Britain and for the world."

Military Families Against the War co-founder Rose Gentle, whose son Gordon was killed in Iraq, vowed in an emotional speech to bring Tony Blair to justice.

"We'll follow that man wherever he goes.

"He might be out of government, but he's not out of our lives," she said.

SSP leader Colin Fox called for an immediate withdrawal of troops and a switch of spending from war to peaceful reconstruction.

"Reconstruction of Iraq is not done by soldiers but by engineers, road builders, power workers, building workers, teachers, doctors, nurses and friends," he insisted.

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Around Scotland - Monday 17 March 2008

Published in the Morning Star

(Monday 17 March 2008)

MALCOLM BURNS reviews the latest goings-on in Scotland.

PFI by the back door

THE private finance initiative (PFI) has been a disaster for the public and a bonanza for private capital. How terribly new Labour that fact is.

It is also yet another reason why Labour lost in Scotland last year.

The absolute top priority for voters, according to a BBC poll during the election campaign, was to "ensure that all state schools and hospitals are built and run by public bodies rather than private companies" - as opposed to Labour's policy of private finance.

The SNP pledged last May to end the scandal of PFI by introducing a Scottish Futures Trust (SFT), which would "crowd out" expensive private finance and allow cheaper public borrowing to provide the alternative.

At least, that's what a lot of voters thought that they heard them say.

The consultation document on the SFT issued by Finance Minister John Swinney in November actually contained a proposal for a quite different creature.

"The government has decided to introduce a body which is private-sector classified but which has a public-interest ethos.

"The decision to place SFT in the private sector seeks to build greater flexibility into the investment vehicle. It would also harness commercial know-how and disciplines as well as offering the prospect of a significant annual addition to overall investment."

Oops. Now, it was deemed essential that the new body be placed "off balance sheet" in the private sector, where it would be run by private investors, commercial banks and other private finance organisations.

Meanwhile, PFI would continue but new projects would use a "non-profit distributing (NPD)" mechanism rather than "standard" PFI.

NPD sounds good, but beware - it's a scheme endorsed by the PFI industry, which clearly helped to draft Swinney's proposal.

The consultation period on the SFT ended on Friday.

UNISON Scotland has made a very clear response which the labour movement should support and campaign for.

Questioning whether a public interest ethos is even possible for the private body proposed, Dave Watson from UNISON points out: "It may not take a profit, but the banks and the private firms it contracts to run our services certainly will."

The union argues that NPD models of PFI are "basically window dressing because they retain the higher borrowing costs, private profit at the contractor level and elements of the risk transfer costs, all leading to the same profiteering and inflexibility ... and the secrecy and accountability deficit inherent in PFI."

The UNISON Scotland alternative to PFI includes reviewing existing contracts, with buy-outs where cost-effective, approving no new PFI/PPP contracts, offering Scottish government grants for new capital projects irrespective of procurement method, giving health boards prudential borrowing powers and ensuring that new procurement arrangements exclude staff from transfer.

Professor Allyson Pollock of Edinburgh University, a respected academic and long-standing critic of PFI, believes that "the Scottish government has an opportunity to exercise sovereignty and challenge Treasury rules on capital and public borrowing, forging a new path entirely, not just for Scotland but for the whole UK."

John Swinney and Alex Salmond should take the constructive advice of UNISON Scotland and Professor Pollock rather than the gnomes of Charlotte Square.

After all, it's what the people voted for - and they are unlikely to forgive the SNP trust turning into a new Labour PFI-light.

Meanwhile, if Wendy Alexander is looking for a sensible and popular policy to revive Labour's fortunes, I can give her Dave Watson's phone number.

Sending in the think tanks

A NEW right-wing think tank is due to be launched in Scotland next month.

It is sponsored by the finance sector - the very gnomes who have been whispering in John Swinney's ear over the Scottish Futures Trust.

Reform Scotland aims to influence the Scottish policy agenda at Holyrood. Unsurprisingly, one of its interests is increasing competition in public services.

Who is the heidie? Ben Thomson, chairman of the Noble finance group.

Advisers include Trevor Matthews, chief executive of Friends Provident, and Sir Richard Sykes, former chairman of Glaxosmithkline.
The director will be Geoff Mawdsley, former senior adviser to the Scottish Tories, and the trustees are drawn from across the financial services sector.

And who has been in discussion with the heidie of Reform Scotland even before it is launched?

Step forward Wendy Alexander.

Support this declaration

Uisge Beatha on Woodlands Road is the place to go this Friday for the Glasgow West CND social night with folk music and signing of the Scottish Covenant for Peace.

The covenant was launched last year and the beautifully bound books for signatures have a cover illustration by artist and literary genius of this parish and Morning Star reader Alasdair Gray.

It's a simple enough declaration to support.

"I desire that Scotland should be known for its contribution to peace and justice rather than for waging war."

I am proud to say that Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond has signed it and embarrassed never to have heard of any senior Labour leader doing the same.

I would be happy to be corrected on that.

You can sign the convenant online at www.scotland4peace.org if you can't make it to any signing events.

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It doesn't get much more disgusting than this

BBC NEWS | UK | 'Lack of thought' into Iraq war: "'I think we probably hadn't thought through the magnitude of what we were taking on in Iraq. This is something that will take many decades to sort out.'"

A taxing problem - First Minister's Questions, Thursday 13 March 2008

Published in the Morning Star

(Friday 14 March 2008)

MALCOLM BURNS witnesses the 'nat tax' debate at First Minister's questions.

AMONG the many grey alternatives which parliamentary politics offers us, perhaps the most tedious is the question, council tax or local income tax?

The issue may be even more soporific than Alistair Darling.

Scottish Labour leader Wendy Alexander's new measured tones were suited to the subject as she pressed First Minister Alex Salmond for detail on the SNP government's proposal to introduce a local income tax.

Mr Salmond, in contrast, sounded ebullient, as usual, though his answers revealed precious little.

"It will be a £281 million tax cut for working families across Scotland," Mr Salmond declared.

He repeated the figure several times but didn't give much else away, which is perhaps an indication that the SNP is on dodgy ground.

Ms Alexander's judgement appeared a little off beam when she claimed that "the 'nat tax' got an even worse reception than Thatcher's poll tax."

I don't predict a riot, Wendy.

Abolishing council tax was a popular manifesto commitment for the SNP last May. However, today's political reality looks a lot more difficult.

For a start, the Scottish parliamentary arithmetic doesn't add up - the government will be short of a majority.

Then there is the issue of council tax benefit. The Westminster government wants to withhold £450 million which is allocated to relieving the burden of council tax on those who can least afford it.

Blairite minister James Purnell argues that, if local income tax is based on ability to pay, there is no need for the benefit.

It was Tory leader Annabel Goldie who claimed: "Perhaps we are detecting the early signs of retreat," though Mr Salmond continued to appear upbeat.

The smart money must now be on the Scottish government failing to deliver the local income tax and, naturally enough, blaming the British government.

Meanwhile, the Calcutta Cup's imminent arrival at Parliament with the Scotland rugby team after their quite unexpected victory over England in the Six Nations tournament proved the perfect opportunity for the venerable silver trophy to be used as a political football by Scotland's leaders.

Wendy Alexander got in first, congratulating the Scottish team on their victory.

Mr Salmond concurred, but Annabel Goldie got the laugh by claiming that Scotland had only ever won Grand Slams under Tory governments.

"Not long to wait now, lads," she quipped.

It's not the first time that the Calcutta Cup has been used as a football.

Famously, it was damaged in a drunken spree by international players in Princes Street, Edinburgh, after a Scotland defeat at Murrayfield 20 years ago.

Yes, 1988 - the year that Thatcher's Tory government passed the iniquitous Local Government Finance Act for England and Wales which brought in the poll tax, after hammering the Scots the year before with the genuinely hated Abolition of Domestic Rates Etc (Scotland) Act in 1987.

We still bear the scars. But it looks like Son of Poll Tax could be with us for a while yet.

Malcolm Burns is the Morning Star's Scottish correspondent.

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It smells like...

i love the smell of napalm in the morning
it smells like... victory

Around Scotland - Monday 10 March 2008

Published in the Morning Star
(Monday 10 March 2008)

MALCOLM BURNS reviews the latest goings-on north of the border.

Kicking up a stink at SEPA

I ONCE applied for a job with the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA).

SEPA is a public regulatory body whose objectives include "minimised, recovered and well-managed waste" and "good water environments."

At the interview, I couldn't resist a flippant remark. I told the panel that I was sure that I would fit in at SEPA as I was myself about 85 per cent water and the rest was mostly sewage.

I didn't get the job. Hint to young job applicants, it's probably not worth making a joke at your interview. It still makes me laugh, though.

In the light of the Victorian style shown by SEPA in the last few months, I should maybe count myself lucky.

Since last November, SEPA has attempted to impose new pay and conditions on all staff unilaterally. Despite a motion of no confidence in the management, which was passed by 93 per cent of staff in December, bosses have forced many of them to sign the new contracts.

The 570 staff who refused have now been issued with termination notices. Sacked.

UNISON is currently organising workplace meetings across Scotland discussing action by SEPA staff to challenge the dismissals.

Branch chairman Alan Feming says that the union "will not allow members to be bullied and brow-beaten in this way and we will be considering all methods of challenging these Victorian labour relations - including by industrial action where appropriate."

This former SEPA reject looks forward to the day when the union gets the public body - yes, funded by us - to withdraw the dismissals and negotiate in a civilised manner.

I think I'll write asking First Minister Alex Salmond to ensure that SEPA applies two of its other main objectives, "a respected environment - protected, informed and engaged communities" and "economic well-being," to its own workers.

I wonder what his reply will be?

Smoke gets out your eyes

SCOTLAND will be two years smoke-free this month. The ban on smoking in public places came in here long before the reprobates down south summoned up the courage.

Talk then was of pubs closing and people breaking the ban. Well, there have been occasional penalty notices issued to pubs, hotels and even the odd smokist - I think smokers deserve their own -ism, don't you?

But the change has been almost universally accepted and even welcomed. Perhaps it was the best thing that Jack McConnell ever did.

A few of my friends really miss their ciggies in the pub and some of the old pubs are with us no longer, though maybe that would have happened anyway.

The nicotinistas gather outside nowadays. I usually join them for the crack.

I do the same any place where I am employed. Why should only smokist workers enjoy the benefit of the crafty wee fag break?

Seriously though, the health benefits of the ban are now starting to become evident - although there are still parts of Scotland where life expectancy is less than Third World countries and even war zones such as Iraq.

Stop the war now

OF COURSE, we should be as shocked by the death rates in Iraq and Afghanistan as those in Calton and Ruchazie.

It is five years since we turned out 100,000 people in Glasgow to protest before the illegal invasion of Iraq on the same day that a million marched in London and many more did the same around the world.

A month later, on March 20 2003, despite this unprecedented global public opposition, the killing began. The lowest reasonable estimate of deaths due directly to the action of George Bush and Tony Blair is 150,000.

More people died than were on the biggest demo that Scotland ever saw. It never gets less shocking. But the war still goes on.

Apparently, there's even more people against the war now than at that point. So, I am expecting a full turnout in Glasgow this Saturday March 15 for the latest Stop the War national demonstration.

The demo, which is again part of a worldwide day of protest, is supported by the STUC, Scottish CND and the Muslim Association of Britain (Scotland).

And you. Get to Blythswood Square on Saturday by 12 noon for the march to rally at Glasgow Green.

By the way, the demo will need plenty of stewards. If you can help, email SCND at adam.beese@banthebomb.org or phone (0141) 423-1222.

Aye, Write!

I AM looking forward this week to some events in the Glasgow Book Festival - Aye, Write!

I think I'll go and hear Nick Davies talking about his new book Flat Earth News, which blows the gaff on "churnalism," whereby the capitalist media - and the good old BBC - recycle mainly PR guff and you never get the real story.

Nothing like that in the Morning Star, readers. Here you get the unvarnished truth!

I also fancy the session on 1960s music with Joe Boyd, former record producer for bands such as Pink Floyd and Fairport Convention, and Peter Doggett, who wrote There's a Riot Going On about politics and popular music in the hippy years.

The line-up also includes big political names such as Tony Benn, Helena Kennedy and Morning Star cartoonist Martin Rowson.

Aye Right! runs until Saturday March 15.

Aye, Right

INCIDENTALLY, the Scots idiom is the only one known where two positives make a negative.

As in, Gordon Brown: "Let us embrace this new age of ambition."

The people of Scotland: "Aye, right."

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Labour left lacking - First Minister's Questions, Thu 6 March 2008

Published in the Morning Star

(Friday 07 March 2008)

MALCOLM BURNS sits in on an entertaining First Minister's questions at Holyrood.

SCOTTISH Labour leader Wendy Alexander tried to pick a fight on Thursday with First Minister Alex Salmond over Scotland's "booze and blade" culture, but came off worst once more.

Compared to the hyperventilated verbal torrents of the old gabbling Ms Alexander, the new, slow Wendy sounds not just heavily scripted but almost sedated.

Labour MSPs looking for a killer blow to cheer at last were to remain disappointed.

Wendy's setup was slow and deliberate.

Surely, the Scottish Labour leader asked, articulating the syllables like a very careful primary school teacher, there is a contradiction in the SNP position. Finance Minister John Swinney is lobbying for a cut in alcohol duty while Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill wants to double it.

When even the Scotch Whisky Association was arguing only for a tax freeze, Ms Alexander painstakingly intoned, the SNP was busy stoking up a "budget battle."

She asked Mr Salmond: "Why is your government more interested in starting fights with London than stopping fights on Scotland's streets?"

This was meat and drink to the First Minister. Mr Salmond pointed out straight that, in the real world, the problem of booze and blade culture is not fuelled by crates of cheap whisky, but by cheap lager and alcopops.

As a chaser, he said that he would continue to press for fair duty since thousands of Scottish jobs depend on the whisky industry.

Labour's private polling shows that a major reason why it is now in opposition in Holyrood is that most Scottish people do not believe that it "stands up" for Scotland.

It is not entirely clear how Ms Alexander plans to transform that perception by using her one weekly shot in First Minister's questions with a question which Mr Salmond can so easily use to show, once again, that he is the one who supports Scottish jobs - as well as being concerned about booze and blade culture, which nobody doubts anyway.

The thousands of GMB and other union members working in the industry might wonder, if they were to see this exchange on television or online, who they should count on to support their jobs.

Labour's leader doesn't have her troubles to seek. If today's FMQ performance was as scripted as it appeared, then she needs a new scriptwriter.

And, if her new, ponderous style is due to her extensive media coaching, maybe she should just go back to being her 20-to-the-dozen self, verbosely spewing out subclauses, with hostages to fortune and all. It can't be much worse.

Meanwhile, Mr Salmond, who used to be unfeasibly smug in a former life, continues to deal effectively with FMQs, showing, like his minority administration so far, an assured air of business-like confidence.

Malcolm Burns is the Morning Star's Scottish correspondent.

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Scottish left 'must make broad links'

Published in the Morning Star
(Monday 03 March 2008)

by MALCOLM BURNS in Glasgow

WAY AHEAD: Ian Davidson MP, Lynn Henderson, Pauline Bryan and John McAllion.

LEFT campaigners told the Morning Star's Spring conference in Glasgow on Sunday that the Scottish left could link activists and campaigns across parties with a clear socialist narrative.

Shop stewards, community activists, union leaders and parliamentarians were among the participants in the Winning Left Policies conference held at the STUC centre.

"We need a dialogue on how we can win left policies," argued Scottish Labour Campaign for Socialism convener Pauline Bryan.

"A fundamental shift has taken place and business as usual is no longer possible.

"The Campaign for Socialism is now working with the Labour Representation Committee to involve people who are both inside and outside the Labour Party. LRC is hoping to attract affiliation from the left alliances in larger unions over the next year," she added.

Former Labour MSP John McAllion, now the Scottish Socialist Party parliamentary candidate in Dundee, called for a "linking narrative which explains what we are trying to achieve in building socialism."

Referring to Naomi Klein's recent book on "disaster capitalism," he said: "We should not pin our stripes on 'disaster socialism,' always proclaiming impending economic and social ruin. We have to get a programme that does sound like common sense to ordinary workers.

"I'm delighted with this conference," Mr McAllion added. "Let's hope it is really a new beginning, just like the Morning Star in Scotland tomorrow."

Ian Davidson, Labour MP for Glasgow South West, said that he came at the issue from the perspective not just of theory but what he described as "retail politics, on a day-to-day basis."

He questioned whether the left might spend too long trying to build a unifying narrative and not enough trying to mobilise people on issues that concern them.

"Politics is in flux, with so many of the old certainties gone," he argued.

"Things are much more fractured now. There ought to be a much greater emphasis on alliances in action. The vast majority of people in this country are not involved in anything that they see as politics.

"There is a real opportunity to get more people involved in politics and create the sort of society that we want to see."

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Around Scotland - Monday 3 March 2008

Published in the Morning Star
(Monday 03 March 2008)

MALCOLM BURNS reviews the latest goings on in Scotland.

Power challenge is up to us

EMBATTLED Scottish Labour leader Wendy Alexander appears to have lost all momentum with her manoeuvre to outflank the Scottish National Party, otherwise known as the cross-party constitutional commission.

Having got agreement from the Lib Dems and Tories on terms of reference that strictly excluded the issue of independence, Alexander found herself embroiled in another commission, of the electoral variety, after admitting to breaking the law - Labour's law - on raising political funds.

The argument that pursuing this was not in the public interest won the day for Wendy with the Electoral Commission.

After weeks of toiling, Wendy was clear to proceed - until her Westminster friends rained on her devolutionary parade. First, Scotland Office Minister David Cairns rubbished the commission, saying that it was of interest only to the "McChattering classes."

Then, the Prime Minister, ostensibly supporting Alexander, announced that the commission would in fact merely be a "review" and that its remit would seemingly be less to do with how much power could be transferred to Scotland and more with what powers could be transferred back to Westminster.

Meanwhile, the SNP government's National Conversation, which naturally includes the independence option, seems to be following its new Labour namesake - anyone remember the Big Conversation? - into the long grass.

As Labour and the SNP bicker over whether or not to consider the independence option, no-one is able to mobilise the large majority which clearly supports a significant increase in the powers of the Scottish Parliament.

Surely, it is time for an intervention by the organs of civic society, suitably marshalled by the STUC?

You'll have had your free school dinners

THIS month was due to see the end of the Scottish free school meals pilot which began in October 2007. The good news is that the pilot is being extended until the summer break, as part of the concordat between the Scottish government and local authorities.

Five local authorities were funded by the Holyrood government to make free nutritious meals available to every child in primary classes one to three during the six-month scheme. For all other schoolchildren in Scotland, free school meals provision is means tested.

The councils in Borders, East Ayrshire, Fife, Glasgow and West Dunbartonshire were allocated a total of £4.5 million to run the pilot scheme until March 2008.

A spokesman for the Scottish government said: "The trial was always considered worth extending. As part of the concordat, it was agreed the five local authorities would continue to provide free meals until end of the school year."

A policy of universal free school meals has been campaigned for by trade unions, socialists and communists in Scotland over many years.

The Child Poverty Action Group, single parent charity One Plus and the Poverty Alliance joined in to support Bills introduced by the Scottish Socialist Party in previous Scottish parliamentary terms.

Although these Bills failed to gain the votes of the other parties, the minority SNP government initiated the pilot scheme when it took office last year.

Going coastal over pay

ON Thursday, Scotland's coastguards will be among hundreds around Britain on strike over pay, following an 80 per cent vote in favour of action by PCS members.

The strike ballot was the culmination of a long-running dispute dating back to May 2007 over pay levels in the Marine and Coastguard Agency, which have fallen far behind other emergency services.

Coastguard watch assistants actively participate in search planning and other duties along Scotland's 8,000-mile coastline in response to 999 calls, yet they only earn the national minimum wage.

Despite starting salaries of just £12,097, staff have also been expected to take a pay cut in real terms with pay rises averaging just 2.5 per cent for many and the most experienced staff receiving pay increases of less than 1 per cent.

Which side are you on?

THE public interest argument which got Wendy Alexander off the electoral law hook appears not to apply in quite the same way to poor old Tommy Sheridan and comrades, who have been charged with the serious offence of lying in court, but over something that many might find trivial - Tommy's alleged sex and drugs life.

The public definitely has a large, if mainly prurient, interest in the case, of course. The recent intervention of Lothian and Borders' finest in reporting Tommy's wife Gail to her employers British Airways for possession of a couple of spirits miniatures may have been a defining moment.

The public probably knows which side it is on in the Sheridan perjury case by now, even if it didn't before.

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