MALCOLM BURNS reviews the latest goings-on in Scotland.
In for the long haul
THE 15 members of the Calman commission were announced last week.
You'll remember that this is the body which Wendy Alexander hopes will spike the SNP government's "national conversation" over powers for the Scottish Parliament. Endorsed by the majority opposition in the Scottish Parliament and, with much reluctance, by Gordon Brown, its remit specifically excludes any mention of independence.
The 15, who will be presided over by Sir Ken Calman, a former chief medical officer, included some people I have never heard of and, given that it is a Lab-Lib-Tory affair, a few of what you might call the usual suspects.
On the Labour side, it includes what Alexander will hope are two safe pairs of hands - former lord advocate and Scottish Lib-Lab cabinet member Colin Boyd and the amiable rightwinger Lord Elder, who used to be Murray Elder and was Scottish secretary of the party in the 1990s. Yes, he is an Elder statesman of the Brown Labour Party.
Another former big knob named is Lib Dem Jim Wallace, the ex-deputy first minister.
The list also includes London-based chief executive of the Tory Telegraph group and long-time opponent of the NUJ Murdoch MacLennan, another amiable right-wing peer in Tory Lord James Douglas Hamilton and CBI Scotland director Iain McMillan.
So far, so clubbable.
Among the members who add gender and ethnic balance is Glasgow University Islamic studies professor Mona Siddiqui.
Adding a twist of youth and what Alexander might imagine to be celebrity given his win on Big Brother is the also amiable but broadly apolitical "politician" John Loughton, president of the Scottish Youth Parliament.
Only one trade unionist has been allowed, but at least that is the estimable UNISON Scottish secretary Matt Smith, who should strongly represent the long-standing and democratically agreed position of his own union and the STUC for much-increased powers.
As a senior member of the STUC general council, Smith is closely involved with the current STUC initiative to lead a new constitutional convention which could break the logjam threatened by the authors of both the Calman commission and the national conversation.
The Brown-Alexander sponsored Calman commission is due to present an interim report by the end of the year and final recommendations next summer.
If it is to produce any more than a Brown mouse, Smith surely has his work cut out.
Blame lies with Brown
WE watched helplessly from north of the border as another Labour election disaster unfolded on Thursday, much as comrades down south must have looked at Scotland a year ago when the SNP won.
It is true that Ken Livingstone has always been one of the most partisan critics of Scottish aspirations for self-determination. The reason for this escapes me and had I been in London I would surely have given Ken a vote.
In fact, when he first stood for London mayor as an independent, having been stupidly excluded from Labour by Blair and Brown, he benefited from a cash donation by yours truly, a Scottish Labour Party member.
I can only commiserate with Red Ken that my uneasy Scottish compatriot the Prime Minister almost single-handedly undermined Livingstone's Labour mayoral campaign with his 10p tax band attack on the poor.
Gordon Brown has wilfully persisted with the Thatcherite and Blairite policies which are increasingly driving away Labour's core voters north and south of the border. We all pay the price.
Firm's business as usual
I WAS glad to see Rangers obstinately nil-nil their way to a European football final as their two-leg-plus-extra-time marathon culminated in a penalty shoot out victory against Fiorentina on Thursday night.
I am neither the greatest football fan nor a chauvinist, but I do like to see Scottish teams do well in Europe.
However, I will spare you the platitude that this is "good for Scottish football." Rangers and Celtic are good for little but Rangers and Celtic.
The bigoted baggage that they still carry, especially the undoubtedly heavier Rangers baggage, is good for nothing at all. And they dominate Scottish football beyond the point of tedium.
The last time that another club won was Aberdeen in 1985.
I'd happily trade the Old Firm to the English Premier League as part of any devolution or independence deal.
That would give us a Scottish football league where you didn't know who was going to win from day one.
Meanwhile, the Old Firm fans could look forward to welcoming the likes of Manchester United and Arsenal to play regularly against their teams up here in Scotland. Or Northwich Victoria and Rushden and Diamonds, if they had to work their way up from the lower orders down south.
Sadly, this side of the revolution it will never be, comrades, because, as it stands, the money does the talking and it says no. But we can dream while we are waiting.
Upside down world
AS FAR as I can see, the Ineos workers should really be getting a hell of a lot more than they are paid and City fat cats are worth nothing.
This is not just prejudice.
I merely point out that, when the Ineos workers stopped working and went on strike for a couple of days last week, the whole of society started to grind to a halt.
In contrast, it was precisely because the City whizzkids had actually done some "work" creating smart-arsed credit "instruments" for which they continue to pay themselves unholy millions that the financial world started to collapse, as Mervyn King almost told the Treasury select committee on Tuesday.
If you ask me, it's time to turn the world the right way up.
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