Around Scotland - Monday 30 June 2008

Published in the Morning Star

(Monday 30 June 2008)

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

The dark ages before

THE NHS turns 60 this week. Everyone has stories of their own about why the founding of the NHS was so important. This is mine.

In 1947, my mother's father was dying. He was only 54. The Labour government, which he campaigned for all his life, had taken power. Nye Bevan was forcing through his revolutionary NHS legislation and hammering the Tories and the British Medical Association for their shameful opposition.

By July 5 1948, free universal health care in Britain, collectively provided and collectively funded, was a reality.

It came too late for my grandfather.

As a poorly paid teacher with a large family, he couldn't pay much for medical care and suffered great pain accordingly. He knew that he was dying and didn't want to leave his widow with bills that she couldn't afford either.

His death was lengthy and painful, as my mother, who was then nine years old, still remembers vividly. But the bills for doctors and pain relief mounted up anyway.

It was the worst of all possible worlds.

Within a few short months of his death, the NHS was there to take care. No more doctors' bills, free treatment for all.

Would the NHS have saved my grandfather?

I'd like to think so. I'd like to have met him. But, even if not, it would have spared him the cruel agony of having to choose between buying pain-relieving medication or providing for his children. Basic human dignity, in other words. That's priceless.

That's why the National Health Service is so valuable.

And that's why the principles of the NHS, of Nye Bevan and of the socialist Labour Party which brought it into being have meant so much to so many.

TWO Scottish precursors to the NHS helped to prove the principle and practice of free health services.

The Highlands & Islands Medical Service was started in 1913 to provide free health care in the hard-pressed crofting counties of north-west Scotland, from where my grandfather had been an economic migrant to southern England.

The Clyde Basin Experiment in Preventative Medicine, which began in 1941, provided free access to doctors for war workers in Scotland's poverty-stricken industrial central belt.

Both these schemes were hugely successful in improving health and paved the way for Nye Bevan's NHS.

Of course, an even more revolutionary plan which preceded and certainly influenced demands for socialised medicine in Britain and other capitalist countries was the policy of state-funded universal health care in the Soviet Union - just as today, socialist Cuba shows the world how to do effective universal health care, even under the crippling US blockade.

We've got to keep on feeding our children

SCHOOLS around Scotland closed for the summer holidays last week. Also coming to an end in five council areas was the free school meals pilot for all kids in primary years one to three.

Our five-year-old son Sean is among the children who have been enjoying these meals - in all senses of the word, as he likes his grub - for the last year. The meals have been free of charge, free of means testing and free of stigma and every child covered by the scheme was guaranteed a healthy meal each day.

The pilot scheme was funded by the Scottish government, initially for six months, in Borders, East Ayrshire, Fife, Glasgow and West Dunbartonshire and then extended to the end of the school year just finished.

There is a government commitment to a "phased introduction" of free school meals for all children. The SNP budget which was passed in the Scottish Parliament earlier this year aims to "extend entitlement to nutritious free school meals to all primary and secondary school pupils of families in receipt of maximum child or working tax credit in 2009 and to allow further extension of free school meals to all P1 to P3 pupils in 2010."

I'll certainly be in touch with Glasgow City Council as a parent to express support for the pilot scheme and ask what plans it has to roll it on next year.

I'll look for the SNP government to keep its commitment and to come up with the funding. And I'll be expecting all parties, particularly the Labour Party, to support universal free school meals at long last.

Replacing Alexander

WENDY Alexander's resignation as Labour leader in the Scottish Parliament came as a surprise to everyone. Certainly to me.

I thought that she would serve her day in the doghouse in September for her donations misdemeanour and battle on. Whatever her reasons for quitting, it provides Scottish Labour with an unexpected opportunity to have a debate among members and affiliates on its direction now - and it is certainly needed.

That debate in the wider party can happen if and only if there is a proper contest for leader. And a proper contest can only happen if the views of ordinary members and the unions, which have been largely ignored since the Blairist coup in 1994, are represented in a left candidate. That would have to be either Bill Butler or Elaine Smith.

So, the key question is, will a left candidate get on the ballot? At least one-eighth of the 46 Labour MSPs are required to sign nomination papers for a candidate to go forward. That means six signatures.

Last summer, when Alexander was an unopposed shoo-in, it proved impossible to find six MSPs prepared to support a left candidate.

If either Smith or Butler can achieve the required six MSP nominations, the Scottish Labour Party has a chance of having a real debate, taking on board popular policies supported by the main unions, reconnecting with core voters and revitalising its chances of winning in Scotland.

If not, and the choice on offer is same old versus same old, the winner is most likely to be Alex Salmond.

Time right for good pay fight

SUMMER'S here and the time is right for... fighting to get a decent pay award.

Scotland's main local government unions, UNISON, GMB and Unite, will be balloting during July for industrial action over pay. The unions have claimed an increase of 5 per cent or £1,000, whichever was the greater, from April 1 2008. Scottish local councils have offered an increase of 2.5 per cent a year for the next three years.

Members of all three unions rejected this offer and decided to move to a ballot.

UNISON local government members in England, Wales and Northern Ireland voted in June by 55 per cent to 45 per cent for a programme of sustained strike action over a 2.45 per cent pay offer. The Scottish council unions will be hoping for a high turnout and a positive result to follow suit this month.

BARRA, Benbecula, Cambeltown, Inverness, Islay, Kirkwall, Stornoway, Sumburgh, Tiree and Wick - you couldn't get much more around Scotland than that!

These are the airports which are due to be shut down in a further stoppage by Unite firefighters on Friday, following an initial and successful one-day strike last week.

The firefighters have rejected a 2 per cent pay offer as inadequate. However, in this case, the management of Highlands and Islands Airports Limited (HIAL) have actually said that there is more money available, but that they require the authority of the Scottish government to offer it to the workers.

Unions and management have continued to talk, but, in the absence of movement on the pay deal, the workers have said that they will "stand firm."

Local support for the union action has been strong, in what are literally some of the most marginal communities in Scotland.

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Around Scotland - Tuesday 24 June 2008

Published in the Morning Star

(Tuesday 24 June 2008)

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

No booze til you're 21

IN WHAT has been referred to as its "smoking ban" moment, the Scottish government proposed a range of possible measures to try to tackle Scotland's drink problem last week.

The main idea from SNP Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon is to increase the minimum age for buying booze from off-licences from 18 to 21, though the minimum age for pubs and clubs would remain 18.

Also suggested in the consultation paper Changing Scotland's Relationship With Alcohol are measures to affect the price of drink.

These include the banning of loss-leading drinks promotions, setting a minimum price per unit of alcohol and a "polluter pays" social responsibility fee on retailers to help pay for damaging consequences of alcohol misuse.

It is certainly true that Scotland has a problematic drinking culture. The evidence is in the streets and there are plenty of statistics as well.

Alcohol-related deaths have almost doubled over the last 10 years. Alcohol is a significant factor in Scottish rates of suicide and murder, which are much higher than in England and Wales. And cirrhosis of the liver is a fast-growing problem.

The SNP government's proposals all have problems.

Pilot schemes where off-licence alcohol sales to 18-21-year-olds were banned are credited with reductions in anti-social behaviour. However, it is clearly discriminatory to end a right enjoyed by people who, for virtually all other purposes, are classed as adults and expected to face adult responsibilities.

Pricing measures may fall foul of competition laws and cross-border trafficking.

And the highly profitable drinks industry will resist any attempt to get it to pay for damages.

The smoking ban seemed draconian to many, even people who were happy enough to order youngsters into battle in an illegal war, like former Blair cabinet utility player Dr John Reid.

But it appears to have worked. Certainly, Scotland's public places are cleaner and fresher for the ban. Early evidence on health benefits suggests that this is true for our lungs and hearts as well.

It would be good to change the hard-drinking culture in Scotland. Personally, I doubt if the discriminatory 18-21 off sales ban is going to really address the problem.

As a Scottish drinker myself, I predict that changing Scotland's relationship with alcohol is going to be a harder, more complex task than even the banning of smoking.

Big Culture Bill cock-up poses questions

IT WAS a merry dance in the Holyrood parliament on Wednesday last week. Actually, the fact that the SNP government and opposition parties managed to scupper the Culture Bill was more of a cock-up than anything else.

I won't bore you with the much-disputed and highly arcane way that this happened.

I do point out that, after 13 months, Alex Salmond's government has just suffered its first defeat, not on a point of principle or through Labour's stalwart defence of the interests of its core vote but on a Bill which the opposition parties actually supported.

The SNP was just pushing forward a Bill which the previous Labour-led executive had initiated.

Though it is now much reduced, the Bill retains its main proposal to set up a new cultural development body called Creative Scotland formed from the Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen, which was once the Scottish Film Council.

In the topsy-turvy world of modern politics, the Culture Bill, though defeated, is not dead. Despite much gnashing of teeth and even wailing, it appears that the creation of Creative Scotland may be delayed only six months by this bizarre parliamentary reverse. So, was the Culture Bill really necessary? Clearly not, if its provisions can be delivered without legislation.

Other, more powerful questions might be: What was the point of the Culture Bill in the first place? Why abolish Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen at all? What is Creative Scotland for?

The parliamentary committee scrutinising the Culture Bill asked questions like these and heavily criticised the Bill promoted by both Labour and SNP for "lack of clarity" in its purpose.

It looks as though the politicians of all parties have got hung up trying to pass legislation rather than just providing the support and funding which the arts in Scotland really require.

One public inquiry that is worth attending

IN THE possibly appropriate surrounding of the Court Room in Clydebank Town Hall on Wednesday, the controversial issue of "regeneration" will be subject to a public inquiry.

It will ask what "regeneration" means in reality for working-class people and communities.

It's not the official kind of public inquiry, of course, but an even more important sort - a trade union and community-led public examination of how far the massive government-subsidised schemes for regeneration along the Clyde are benefiting the property developers more than local residents and the real economy.

The speakers will be STUC deputy general secretary Dave Moxham and academic Chik Collins, who has written widely on the subject.

The meeting kicks off at 7.30pm. Organised by Clydebank TUC, it should whet appetites for the Scottish TUC communities conference, which will be held in tandem with the trade union councils conference in September.

Chik Collins's book The Right to Exist - The Story of the Clydebank Independent Resource Centre was published in May and is available from the CIRC, 627 Dumbarton Road, Dalmuir, Clydebank, G81 4ET.

It's alright with the kids

IT'S nice to see that the STUC youth conference which takes place this weekend is being held in Perth's Salutation Hotel.

The venue for many a trade union and labour movement conference, the Salutation has seen plenty of late-night political arguments, not to mention back-room deals.

This year's STUC youth conference will debate a wide variety of contemporary motions relating to workers' rights, living wages, taxes, the future of the public sector and, in line with the key theme, access to education and training across Scotland.

You can find out more about the youth conference and the STUC youth committee at www.stuc.org.uk or contact Ian Tasker by email at itasker@stuc.org.uk or phone on (0141) 337-8100.

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Around Scotland - Monday 16 June 2008

Published in the Morning Star

(Monday 16 June 2008)

MALCOLM BURNS reviews the latest goings-on in Scotland.

As fake as Trump's hair

I didn't turn out in my Hebridean home town of Stornoway to welcome The Donald Trump and his Organisation last week as he played the rich returning son of his late mother from the Isle of Lewis.

And that's not just because I live and work in Glasgow.

According to my sources, Trump sprayed around precious few dollars during the precious few hours that he was on the old island as part of his campaign to develop a massive golf and housing project on the Aberdeeenshire coast.

Seemingly, though, he let it be known that he might spray a few extra dollars in future to help with the restoration of the derelict Stornoway castle. As fake as Trump's hair, it's not really a castle anyway. It's really a Victorian baronial pile built by Sir James Matheson of Jardine Matheson on the proceeds of the 19th century opium trade in China which was supported by the British state and military. He made so much money out of countless Chinese opium addicts that Matheson didn't just build a "castle," he bought the whole island.

Matheson or Trump, I'm not for the bending of the knee to wads of ill-gotten cash. Keep any castle development clean and do it with no strings attached, using public money - taxed properly from the rich, of course.

Donald: you're fired!

List MSPs' 'turkey' vote

DESPITE having imposed the additional member system of proportional representation on the Scottish Parliament in the first place because it was the nearest thing to first past the post that they could actually get away with, Labour has never really come to terms with it.

Some of the Labour MSPs even blame the electoral system for the loss of the Scottish election last year and not Labour's own failures to convince the people that it was worthy.

So it was little surprise last week that the Scottish Parliamentary Labour Party supported a proposal to give constituency - ie first-past-the-post - MSPs £17,000 more than list members for staff costs.

The proposal would have given constituency MSPs £64,300 and list MSPs £46,700 each year to pay for assistants on the basis that constituency MSPs have a bigger workload.

It was even less surprise when the Labour minority was defeated by an alliance of mainly list MSPs fom the SNP, the Tories and the Greens, who voted to maintain the equal status of constituency and list members.

Turkeys don't often vote for Christmas, do they?

Refugee week shines spotlight on the facts

TODAY marks the start of Refugee Week Scotland, a now annual event to celebrate diversity and raise awareness.

According to the Scottish Refugee Council, which runs the event, there are approximately 10,000 refugees and asylum-seekers in Scotland, mostly living in Glasgow. Of these, around 4,000 are asylum-seekers.

The majority of new asylum-seekers to Glasgow are coming from Iraq, Iran and Eritrea, having fled war, torture or persecution. Asylum-seekers are not allowed to work and are forced to depend on state support, though many do voluntary work which benefits the community and helps maintain skills.

Among the events and activities during the week are theatre, film, music and sports. A parliamentary reception will be hosted by Bill Butler MSP on Wednesday and the Refugee Week Scottish Media Awards takes place on Friday June 20, which is World Refugee Day.

You can find a full programme at www.scottishrefugeecouncil.org.uk

A particular highlight is Life After Iraq, an exhibition of work by award-winning photojournalist Angela Catlin and writer Billy Briggs, who travelled to Syria to document the lives of some of the millions of ordinary Iraqis living there after fleeing their homeland.

The exhibition also gives an intimate insight into the lives of Iraqi refugees who have come to Scotland seeking safety.

It runs from now until October 2008 at St Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art in Glasgow.

Glasgow activists' solidarity sleepout

ONE of the most remarkable campaigning organisations in Scotland has to be Positive Action in Housing, which is led by the redoubtable - she'll like that - Robina Qureshi.

As part of Refugee Week, PAIH is organising its second annual sleepout in Glasgow's George Square on Thursday night in support of asylum-seekers in Scotland.

The idea is to draw attention to the destitution caused to the hundreds refused asylum every year who are, as Qureshi puts it, "deliberately being made destitute in Glasgow by government policy."

Many people seeking asylum whose claims are turned down are unable to return home.

"But they are denied all state support, thrown out of their housing and are not allowed to work," says Qureshi. "They have no money for food, shelter and the everyday things we take for granted.

"This misery is a direct consequence of government policy. Destitution is being used to drive people out of the country, but many thousands simply cannot leave and are now homeless and hungry."

More than 100 people slept out in last year's events.

Check www.paih.org or call (0141) 353-2220 for information about how to get involved in the sleepover.

The real apprentices

LABOUR'S John Park, list MSP for Fife and formerly of the STUC and Unite: The Union, has been seeking support for his private members Bill to establish a right to undertake an apprenticeship for young Scots aged between 16 and 18.

The consultation phase for Park's Bill closes on Tuesday. I hope that he gets the support that he needs for this worthy measure and if it increases the number of young people getting a good training and a decent job out of it, that would be great.

The real problem is that not enough employers are prepared to invest in training enough apprentices to meet the need for skills in the economy.

A right for workers to have an apprenticeship will be meaningless if there are insufficient places. Unite's call for a national training levy on employers in all industries, which was restated at the union's Brighton conference earlier this month, would provide the framework in which a right to an apprenticeship could be realistically delivered.

Preferably, with an increase in the minimum wage for apprentices, which should extend to cover 16-18-year-olds, another Unite policy.

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STUC welcomes communist report

Published in the Morning Star

(Monday 16 June 2008)

MALCOLM BURNS

THE Scottish TUC welcomed a new economic report by the Communist Party of Britain Scottish committee on Friday as an important contribution to the debate on enhancing democratic control of the economy.

Speaking at the launch of the report, STUC deputy general secretary Dave Moxham said: "The recommendations of this document chime accurately with the broad views of the Scottish unions."

The Scotland's Future pamphlet argues that granting the Scottish Parliament a range of new powers - including powers to borrow, increase taxes and take ownership of public assets - would contribute to the wider struggle for economic democracy.

With the Scottish government's "national conversation" and the opposition parties' Calman commission currently under way, there is a big focus on the region's constitutional questions.

"We need to look at the debate in terms of all the powers of the Parliament and power at all levels of government, Europe, UK, Scottish and local," Mr Moxham stated.

"What that should mean is democratic accountability or economic democracy and the alignment of power with delivery."

Mr Moxham condemned the restrictions on the Scottish government's borrowing powers, which he said had left the region "stuck with the expensive and discredited PFI method.

"The provision of prudential borrowing powers would give us a clear vision of public funding for public building projects," he argued.

CPB Scotland vice-chairman John Foster, who co-authored the report, said that Scotland's Future offered an alternative to policies advocated by the Scottish National Party and new Labour.

"It puts the third alternative for a Scottish Parliament to enhance democratic control over the economy," he stressed.

"The increase of democratic power of working people over their own lives and over the economy, going hand in hand with the defeat of the power of capital at British level."

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Launch of Scotland's Future document

Report of meeting to launch CPB document on Scotland's Future

by Malcolm Burns
written for Morning Star
Monday 16 June 2008


Communist plan for Scotland's Future is "welcome"

A new economic report by the Communist Party of Britain Scottish Committee has been welcomed as an "important contribution to widening the debate around the current question of Scottish democracy" by a leading trade unionist.

Speaking at the launch of Scotland's Future on Friday (13 June), Dave Moxham, Deputy General Secretary of the STUC said: "The recommendations of this document chime accurately with the broad views of the Scottish unions."

With the Scottish government's National Conversation and the opposition parties' Calman Commission currently under way there is a big focus on constitutional questions. Each of these reviews is considering the powers which the Scottish Parliament should have in future.

"We need to look at the debate in terms of all the powers of the Parliament and power at all levels of government, Europe, UK, Scottish and local," Moxham stated. "The pamphlet does this very well."

The principle of subsidiarity should be used to gauge the best alignment of powers, he argued.

"What that should mean is democratic accountability, or economic democracy," Moxham said, "and the alignment of power with delivery."

Citing an example of the powers proposed Scotland's Future, Moxham argued: "Local government can do prudential borrowing now - but the Scottish government currently can't. It has been stuck with the expensive and discredited PFI method. The provision of prudential borrowing powers would give us a clear vision of public funding for public building projects."

John Foster, vice chair of CPB Scotland and one of the authors of the report, said Scotland's Future was a contribution to the current debate - but not on the terms set by either New Labour or the SNP.

"If you read the Herald or The Scotsman," Foster said, "you might think there were only two alternatives to the status quo: an independent Scotland within the EU as put forward by Alex Salmond; or a Scottish Parliament with greater fiscal accountability, as proposed by Wendy Alexander."

Scotland's Future puts the third alternative: for a Scottish Parliament to enhance democratic control over the economy.

"This has been the central vision of the Communist Party," said Foster, "the increase of democratic power of working people over their own lives and over the economy, going hand in hand with the defeat of the power of capital at British level."

Power over ownership of Scottish capital - not just by multinationals but also Scottish registered firms - is increasingly outside Scotland.

"Neither of the two establishment alternatives of Scottish independence in Europe or Scottish fiscal accountability would touch this power," Foster said.

Scotland's Future argues that a range of new powers for the Scottish Parliament would contribute to that wider struggle for economic democracy.

These include:

• power to borrow
• increased tax powers
• maintaining a needs based system of allocating a block grant
• power to regulate utilities
• power to take into public ownership
• power to develop strategic areas of manufacturing

"Two things are clear," Foster said in conclusion:

"First, there is an urgency here we've got to address: property and financial services won't sustain the Scottish economy in the short term, just as oil won't sustain it in the long term."

"Secondly, these powers for the Parliament will only be achieved by popular campaigning from below, by communities of working people and the trade union movement."


Scotland's Future
Published by CPB Scottish Committee
Price £2.50 from Unity Books, 72 Waterloo Street, Glasgow G2 7DA
Tel 0141 204 1611
Web www.scottishcommunists.org.uk

Around Scotland - Tuesday 10 June 2008

Published in the Morning Star

(Tuesday 10 June 2008)

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

The unions strike back

IN THE last week, two more public-sector unions have moved toward ballots on industrial action in Scotland. The Educational Institute of Scotland conference surprised a lot of political commentators by agreeing an emergency motion supporting a ballot on industrial action including strikes in protest against budget cuts which the union argues would see increases in class sizes and job losses.

EIS president-elect David Drever told the conference: "It is apparent that the problems that currently exist will be multiplied in the coming years.

"There is a potential colossal waste of energy and expense in training new teachers who may be lost to the profession if they are unable to find teaching jobs."

Then, as I suggested they would in last week's column, the Civil Service unions in Scotland rejected a below-inflation pay award by the Scottish government, which is sticking to the 2 per cent line from Westminster.

PCS, Prospect and the FDA, which together represent more than 15,000 civil servants, will ballot members within two weeks on industrial action, which might include a two-day strike later this summer that would effectively stop the Scottish government from operating.

PCS Scottish secretary Eddie Reilly said: "We stand ready to return to negotiations in order to resolve the pay impasse, but, if they are not prepared to treat their own workforce fairly, then we are prepared to take industrial action."

It seems that everyone, including the SNP government in Holyrood, is suffering from the Brown effect.

Tartan history

MANY of us who come from the Highland and Islands of Scotland don't bother to wear tartans. Rather, we regard clan tartanry with suspicion, if not downright loathing.

The tartans which have been associated with specific "clans" were little more than a kind of chequered land grab by absentee landlords in the declining years of the clan system which gave us poverty, feudalism, the clearances and "Balmorality."

The very same expropriating landlords were the enemy during the 19th and early 20th century land wars as crofters battled for rights and a living.

Not everyone from the Slough area will regard the Eton school tie as their emblem.

So, I have a jaundiced eye on the progress of Tory MSP Jamie McGrigor's Bill to create a register of tartans which passed through its initial committee stage last week at Holyrood.

It may well make sense for there to be a proper public register of tartans instead of the current competing private agencies which make these claims, but it is hard to take anything which involves the Lord Lyon King of Arms seriously.

I have nothing against the designs by the way. Some tartans are very beautiful.

The Black Watch is a classic, of course, despite being associated with the regiment of the same name which has a long, bloody and repressive history in support of British imperialism, not least against the highlanders of Scotland.

The clowns might forget, but we certainly won't

IF YOU were among the 250,000 people at the Make Poverty History demo in Edinburgh three years ago, you'll never forget it.

Unfortunately, the bunch of clowns who were gathered up the road in Dunblane for the G8 Summit that year, including George Bush, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, seem to have amnesia.

Edinburgh certainly hasn't. This Saturday sees the start of the third annual Edinburgh World Justice Festival. The festival celebrates the anniversary of the Make Poverty History demo and aims to continue the momentum in the campaign for world leaders to make a difference.

From a one-day event attracting about 150 people in 2006, the festival has grown dramatically into a fortnight of events ranging from live music in Princes Street Gardens to films, talks and discussions on topics such as environmental justice, peace, human rights and fair trade.

The festival kicks off on Saturday June 14 with Fugee, a play at the Lyceum Youth Theatre about a 14-year-old called Kojo and his experience within Britain's "system" of refuges for underage asylum-seekers.

For the second year running, UNISON is the major sponsor of the festival. Go to www.ewjf.org.uk/calendar for the complete programme of events.

All of the events at the festival are free and unticketed, so you can just turn up on the day and join in.

One event that I hope to go to during the festival is the Latin American Alternatives evening on Monday June 16. MP Michael Connarty will introduce a screening of "Tambogrande - Mangoes, Murder and Mining in Peru," an award-winning film about a community which is threatened when gold is discovered under its farmland.

Later, a political discussion on a trade agreement for improving people's lives, not making profits, will be addressed by speakers including Venezuelan embassy first secretary William Suarez and Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples spokeswoman Gladys Allyon.

Monday evening's events start at 6pm and the venue is the Augustine Church, George IV Bridge.

Edinburgh fights developers

ALSO in Edinburgh, a remarkable community campaign continues against plans to demolish listed buildings and people's homes on the Canongate, the lower part of The Royal Mile in Edinburgh's world heritage site.

The scheme known as Caltongate is promoted by controversial London-based developer Mountgrange and is centred on development of a former bus station.

But Mountgrange also wants to build on council and "common good" land which community opponents say would mean knocking down 18 homes, half of which are still council tenancies.

In their place would rise a five-star hotel, a conference centre, office blocks and upmarket shops and apartments, all without proper consultation or consent from the local people, who are unsurprisingly but fiercely opposed to becoming a "clone town."

A range of community activities continues up to Saturday. Check out www.eh8.org.uk for details.

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Gods that failed

Larry Elliott and Dan Atkinson on how reckless speculation of a super-rich elite has left us poorer | Business | The Guardian: "The gods of greed

They promised economic stability, order and prosperity. But instead the world's bankers have delivered chaos, debt and uncertainty - and then blamed the feeble governments that surrendered control of the global economy to them. In the first of three extracts from their new book, Larry Elliott and Dan Atkinson explain how the reckless speculation of a super-rich elite has left us all the poorer"

Around Scotland - Monday 2 June 2008

Published in the Morning Star

(Monday 02 June 2008)

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

60 years of good health

AMONG the Bills and motions on the table at the Scottish Parliament congratulating the members' local football teams on playing football and their local businesses on winning things like the "Retail - Fruit or Vegetable Category Award" in the Scotland Food and Drink Excellence Awards - I'm not kidding - there will be debated a motion this Wednesday from Bill Butler MSP celebrating an event of universal importance - the 60th anniversary of the National Health Service.

"This is about celebrating the greatest acheivement of the most radical Labour governent in history," the left-wing Labour MSP for Glasgow Anniesland tells me.

Butler's motion calls on the Scottish parliament to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the NHS, launched on July 5 1948 by Labour minister for health Aneurin Bevan.

Recognising the continuing relevance of the principles that Bevan established for a socialised health service, funded through general taxation and free to all at the point of need, the resolution demands that "all citizens, trade unions and politicians should remain true to the founding principles of the NHS."

Clearly one of Butler's aims is to identify the NHS as a Labour issue, but his motion has been signed by a few SNP members - though, notably, no Tories.

"Just like 1947, when they voted against Bevan's Bill in Westminster," Butler reminds me.

The attempt by the SNP to rain on the Labour NHS parade in the debate on Wednesday is an amendment which "welcomes the Scottish government's efforts to reintroduce free prescriptions, beginning with the reduction in costs introduced on April 1 2008, as keeping with the spirit of the NHS that Aneurin Bevan helped found."

But it's hard to see why anyone, far less Bill Butler, would disagree with the SNP amendment anyway.

"Free health care is one of the pillars, the basis of a socialist society," Butler says.

"The NHS and its staff improved the treatment and care of the people of Britain immeasurably. We must never go back to the unacceptable conditions before the NHS was established. And now we need to look to the future and strive continually to improve our health service."

Butler's motion lays down a marker for politicians of whatever party to support the socialist principles of the NHS.

Perhaps just as important to the future of the NHS in Scotland will be the support that he has been gathering for his radical proposal to introduce democratic representation on health boards.

Pension pressure at parliament

Meanwhile, SNP MSP Keith Brown is currently seeking signatures from other MSPs for his motion supporting the campaign by the Scottish Pensioners' Forum for a decent basic state pension.

Brown's motion notes that most parties campaigned in the 2005 Westminster election on a platform of restoring the link between pensions and earnings and calls for the British government, which has responsibility for this issue, to restore the link "substantially before 2012."

The Scottish Pensioners' Forum would welcome a similar move in the Welsh Assembly to keep pressure on Westminster. Any takers among our numerous AM readers?

Public sector set for a summer of strife

The summer of discontent is gathering pace. Last week, UNISON started to ballot 850,000 members in England and Wales over industrial action against the below-inflation pay offer.

And it looks as if 100,000 Scottish council workers will not be far behind.

UNISON, Unite (T&G) and GMB had submitted a claim for 5 per cent or £1,000 a year, whichever was the greater, plus increased annual leave. The Scottish local government employers' group CoSLA responded with an offer of 2.5 per cent a year for the next three years, with no reopener clause.

A UNISON conference in Glasgow on Thursday last week heard that a consultation exercise over the pay offer received from CoSLA had resulted in an 80 per cent rejection rate from members throughout Scotland. As yet, there has been no response from the employers.

UNISON Scottish local government group chairwoman Stephanie Herd told the conference: "For our low-paid members, this offer represents an increase of 46p an hour after three years. It is time that CoSLA realised that members are serious about the unacceptable nature of this offer. We will be balloting our members over July, urging them to vote and to vote yes."

UNISON, along with GMB and Unite (T&G), has also agreed to establish a joint group to co-ordinate the trade unions' programme of action. Meanwhile, I hear that Scottish civil servants represented by PCS are likely to be following suit as their pay offer remains unacceptably low.

High price for victims of Stockline disaster

IT WAS one of the worst industrial accidents in Scotland, killing nine people and injuring 33 others.

And it became a cause celebre for campaigners who believe that employers have a responsibility to guarantee that people are safe at work.

The struggle to get justice for the victims of the explosion at the ICL/Stockline plastics factory in Maryhill, Glasgow, four years ago has been led from the front by the Scottish TUC.

A major victory was winning consent for a public inquiry, which is due to begin under Lord Gill on July 2.

But now it looks as though the families of the victims could face means-testing if they want to be represented at that inquiry.

"The families are totally dismayed at the decision to apply means-testing to assess if they will have access to legal representation at the public expense," says Scottish TUC assistant secretary Ian Tasker.

And he has slammed SNP Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill for failing to meet a commitment made to the families to take the issue up with the British government.

I hope he does - and successfully. The cost of justice should not fall on the victims.

A new date for trades councils

I HEAR that the STUC much-postponed Trade Union Councils annual conference and the Communities Conference which was due to happen in tandem with it are now being scheduled for the first week in September instead of this month.

That would be Friday September 5 for the Communities Conference and Saturday September 6 for the Trade Union Councils.

Hopefully they'll go ahead then and the grass-roots voices will once more be heard loud and clear in the corridors of Scottish trade union power!

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Find yourself a copy of Das Kapital

Oil Scam That Has The Poor Over A Barrel (from The Herald ): "What do we know about fuel prices? We know that oil companies have managed to avoid going bust. In fact, they may be doing quite nicely. We know also that the Opec ring has protected itself, and then some, against a weak dollar. We know further that hedge funds have piled into the energy futures markets to the tune of $260bn, and enjoyed some handy rewards.

Then we know that governments, especially those with a bit of off-shore oil, can reap certain benefits from consumer and producer alike when the spot price for a barrel tops $135. Enterprises, their investors, sovereign funds, speculators and governments are surviving without pain. So why all the fuss? Who is hurting?

That would be you."