Around Scotland - Monday 24 November 2008

(Monday 24 November 2008)

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

Roaring lion or mouse?

THE Calman Commission on Scottish devolution is due to publish its interim report on Tuesday next week. I imagine that we will not be able to tell from this whether it will squeak like a mouse or roar like a lion when it delivers its final conclusions next year.

Probably a bit of both, if it behaves like the typical commission of the great and good inquiring into a complicated and contested political issue. I am looking forward to next week's interim report though.

I have been pleasantly surprised by the seriousness with which Calman has approached the work. There has been a wide range of submissions from all sorts of interested parties, bodies and individuals and the commission has travelled around Scotland and beyond to hear and record opinions. The exchange of views at the evidence-gathering event which I attended in Glasgow was open, robust and actually quite enjoyable.

Much of this evidence is available in transcript and some in video form at www.commissiononscottishdevolution.org.uk.

A paper on financing devolution by Professor Anton Muscatelli and his independent expert group was published last week. It is as dry and academic as you would expect from a bunch of orthodox economists, but it is well worth reading. It lays out in detail the various funding options with useful international comparisons.

It doesn't take an economics professor to grasp that "full fiscal autonomy" - in other words, a completely independent financial regime - might be incompatible with the continuation of the United Kingdom as it has been up to now.

However, Muscatelli has shed light on the funding issue and rightly pointed out in a TV interview that the way forward is a political and democratic decision, not one for economic technocrats.

The evidence given to Calman by previous Labour first ministers Jack McConnell and Henry McLeish is forthright and revealing. McLeish, in particular, is excellent on the need for further home rule. If he had been so clear-thinking when in office, he might not have muddled his way into resigning.

The evidence from the STUC is also strong, but you will be dismayed by the lacklustre Westminster government submission.

Thus far and no further? It looks like Whitehall and Downing Street have learnt nothing and have probably forgotten nothing either. I hope that Calman will give it a rigorous examination.

Meanwhile, what's happened to the SNP government's National Conversation? Not much.

The initial document last July, shortly after the nationalists became the minority administration, was an interesting one and certainly challenged Labour and the other parties, which were then in disarray.

There's a handy little guide to the National Conversation timeline at the Scottish government website (tinyurl.com/scotnatconv) but it reveals little more than a few regurgitated ministerial speeches and blog entries and nothing later than Salmond and Sturgeon's summer holiday tour with the cabinet to Dumfries, Inverness, Pitlochry and Skye in August.

Perhaps they can argue that they are spending their time governing and so the blue sky thinking has been put on hold. But it seems to me that the SNP government now has all its constitutional eggs in one basket - the referendum pencilled in for St Andrews Day 2010.

So far, on seriousness and level of debate if not yet lionhearted bravery, I have to give Calman the plaudits and Salmond's squeaky mouse of a National Conversation the brickbats.

Aberdeen anti-racists set to defy march ban

NOVEMBER 30 is St Andrews Day, Scotland's national day.

A number of years ago, the STUC, its member unions and local trades union councils decided to strengthen their campaigning against racism and fascism. It was agreed to focus on St Andrews Day with annual marches and rallies which would link the idea of Scotland with an inclusive equality agenda regardless of race, creed or colour.

Each year, on the weekend nearest to November 30, thousands of Scots led by their union banners take to the streets in the anti-racist, anti-fascist cause.

It's become a valuable tradition, so it is shocking to hear that the St Andrews Day march planned by Aberdeen Trades Union Council has been banned on the casting vote of SNP councillor Callum McCaig.

Police advice that the city could not handle a demo in the morning as well as an Aberdeen versus Motherwell football match in the afternoon seems spurious to me.

I am delighted that the Aberdeen comrades are not taking it lying down. Aberdeen TUC secretary Sultan Feroz was rightly defiant in pledging that the rally in the Castlegate on Saturday will go ahead as planned at 11.30am.

I'll be with them in spirit, since I will actually be at the Glasgow march. Assemble at St Andrews in the Square, off Saltmarket, at 10.30am for a march at 11am to a rally at the Glasgow Film Theatre, Rose Street at 12 noon.

It's only four years since Aberdeen's then Lib Dem-led council got into bother by initially giving consent for a National Front demo to take place in opposition to the St Andrews Day march in 2004. That idiotic decision was seen off by a massive popular outcry against the fascists. I fully expect that this one will be too.

Aberdeen was a Labour council until 2003, when it fell to a LibDem/Tory coalition. Last year's council elections resulted in an SNP-led coalition, again with the Lib Dems. How very liberal and democratic they are too, eh?

A history of struggle

ON THURSDAY, Close the Gap and UNISON Scotland mark the 40th anniversary of the Ford equal pay strikes with an event in Glasgow's CCA.

Winning Equal Pay: From Red Clydeside To Ford Dagenham will be an opportunity for trade union activists and low-paid working women to celebrate past equal pay victories and look to the future to discuss how equal pay can be realised for all women today.

The evening will consist of short films on the Ford strikes and the 1943 Clydeside strikes famously led by Communist shop steward Agnes McLean, later a redoubtable Labour councillor in Glasgow.

There will be an opportunity to hear from two of the original Ford strikers, in addition to trade unionists who are currently involved inequal pay struggles. Light refreshments will also be provided.

Places are limited, so you'll need to register by contacting Shona Roberts of Close the Gap at the STUC via sroberts@stuc.org.uk or call(0141) 337-8146.

Here's a wee YouTube video to put you in the mood - uk.youtube.com/user/winningequalpay

Edinburgh lecture

PROFESSOR Allyson Pollock, chairwoman of International Public Health Policy at Edinburgh University, is never anything less than provocative and always well worth reading.

Her inaugural lecture entitled Liberty, Commerce and Public Health Care is on Tuesday at 5.30pm in The Chancellor's Building, LittleFrance, Edinburgh.

The lecture is open to the public and deals with the excellent question, "If markets don't work for banks, then what is their place in public health care?"

Email Patricia.McClory@ed.ac.uk or call (0131) 651-3166 for more details.

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Around Scotland - Tuesday 18 November 2008

(Tuesday 18 November 2008)

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

Fantastic news for Star

I WAS delighted to read the feature articles by John Haylett and Richard Bagley in the Star last week outlining plans for the paper's bright new future.

It is good to think that some of the path forward has been opened by the Scottish experience.

Sales are on the up. For many years, we Scots were only getting the paper from the day before due to circulation problems. It's great to be able to pick up today's Star in our local newsagent.

Every little helps. We order two copies and the deal with the shop is that the extra one goes on display and we'll buy any that are left at the end of the week. I hear that a woman who works nearby is now frequently buying the extra copy.

Having been an online journalist myself over a number of years, I think that the decision to make the web version of the paper free to access is exciting.

I know what the risks are. There is a danger that sales of the print edition could be undermined. But the opportunity of getting the Star's unique and vital broad left news and views heard more widely is really important to grasp.

So, if you're reading this but you don't take the Star regularly, you know what you have to do. Order it at your local newsagent and get it every day. And make sure your union office and branch are ordering their copies too.

That way, we can make sure that the new improved paper and free-to-access website will survive and grow.

Annual award bash big on backslapping

SCOTLAND'S annual Politician of the Year Awards took place last Thursday at the plush Prestonfield House Hotel in Edinburgh.

The winner was Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who followed in the footsteps of last year's winner Alex Salmond after the SNP success in the Scottish Parliament elections.

I suppose that it was inevitable that the SNP would be recognised two years on the bounce. After all, you'd be hard pushed to award the top prize to any of the Scottish opposition.

Gordon Brown's favourite MSP John Park was handed the title of "one to watch." Some people think that this might be because of his brutal football tackles, painfully evident to sports hack Chick Young in the recent unseemly fracas during a "friendly" between Sottish parliamentarians and journalists. He's now universally known as "Chopper" Park.

Meanwhile, in a bizarre juxtaposition, Alistair Darling won the gong for best Scot at Westminster, an award sponsored by Bank of Scotland, the bank that he has just bailed out with billions of our dosh.

Harmless political fun or a tedious self-aggrandising drink-fuelled backslapping bore? Hmmm. Which could it be? Yes, you've guessed. Dismal.

It's a wonder that no-one's ever thought of just torching the whole proceedings.

Salmond's comic turn

The internet is a great thing. Those of you who missed Alex Salmond's sketch for BBC Scotland Children in Need as the Rev I M Jolly, the miserable TV padre created by the late great Scottish comedian Rikki Fulton, can catch it online at news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7730701.stm

It's the longest that you'll ever see the First Minister going without looking smug.

Opinions differ on whether he was any good. Labour loyalists tend to think not. Personally, I reckon his humorous self-deprecating performance was not at all bad and he had the sense to make sure that he had a first-rate script.

Meanwhile, over on YouTube, another video called Glenrothes Downfall also features some top-grade writing and it skewers Salmond mercilessly.

It's not an original idea - there are plenty of Downfall voiceovers on the web - and I know that I have said that I despise cheap allegations of nazism, but that's not what this is.

As satire, I think that it nails the SNP strategic problem over the independence referendum. But mainly it's just very funny.

Search YouTube for "Glenrothes Downfall" and judge for yourselves.

Argentinian return

IT'S so long ago, was it just a dream? The first time that Scotland played Argentina at Hampden was on June 2 1979. I remember it well. I was there.

It was just a year after the nation had gone World Cup crazy with manager Ally McLeod, who really did claim that we'd come back from Argentina '78 with "at least a medal." So much for that.

But at least we got to see the real champions and Diego Maradona, who, at 17 hadn't been picked for the previous year's World Cup squad, give a lesson in football brilliance to a Scotland team which was led by our best ever player Kenny Dalglish.

The Hand of God is due back in the home of Scottish football tomorrow night, assuming that he hasn't walked out, as he has threatened to do in a dispute with the Argentinian FA. My teenage sons Liam and Neil are going to the game and I hope that they see some Maradona magic. I'd settle for 1-3, as it was on the summer night when I was spellbound.

Money for Palestine

FULL marks to Labour MSP Pauline McNeill for putting on a great fundraiser for Gaza on Friday night in Glasgow's G2 nightclub.

With the venue donated free by the management and artists playing for no fee, the gig raised a healthy four-figure sum to help Edinburgh Direct Aid organise a convoy of medical aid to Gaza hospitals.

The convoy is supported by Medical Aid for Palestinians.

Find out more or make a donation at www.edinburghdirectaid.org
 

STUC women's conference

CAN I add my comradely, even fraternal, greetings to the STUC women trade unionists gathered in Perth on Monday and Tuesday.

The sisters are not just doing it for themselves. As a regular source of imaginative and hard-hitting policy initiatives for the movement as a whole, the women's conference and the committee that it elects are doing it for all of us.

Salud, sisters.

.

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Around Scotland - Monday 10 November 2008

(Monday 10 November 2008)

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

Tale of two by-elections

I DIDN'T tell you so. In fact, I admitted last week that I had no idea which way the Glenrothes by-election was going to go. Like most people, I thought that it would be a narrow win for either Labour or the SNP - most people apart from smug Alex Salmond, of course, who declared outright nationalist triumph days before the defeat.

A 6,700 majority in a mid-term by-election is a thumping win. There was nothing narrow about it. But what accounts for the scale of the Labour victory?

Labour, with fewer activists on the ground, managed to turn out even more voters than it had in the previous Glenrothes election. It was an impressive improvement over Glasgow East in July.

Learning from your mistakes is always wise. Glasgow East was called in a snap and the curtailed three-week campaign revealed an empty shell of a local Labour Party with no voter contact and hardly any active members. The parachuted-in campaign team had insufficient time to identify and turn out Labour voters. This was not the case in the lengthy eight-week campaign in Fife, where a similar team had time to identify and turn out the vote.

Thousands of Glasgow East voters had fallen so much out of love with Labour that they weren't voting and many more went over to the SNP. That clearly didn't happen in Glenrothes. And Labour seized its chance to play as the opposition to the local SNP-led council and the Holyrood government, despite it being a Westminster by-election.

I don't know about a Brown bounce due to the global financial crisis - that will be tested in the year or more between now and a general election. I am sure, though, that Salmond's inability to comprehend and respond to the failure of his beloved Scottish banks has been a turning point, possibly not unlike the collapse of Lehman Brothers, when Obama recognised the scale of the problem and McCain claimed that the fundamentals remained sound.

Ordinary folk on the sharp end usually have a good grasp of the fundamentals and vote accordingly.

Some pundits have compared Glenrothes to Glasgow Garscadden in 1978, when Donald Dewar held off a nationalist challenge at a time when theSNP appeared to threaten Labour's dominance in Scotland.

Up to a point. The position is more complex now, with the SNP actually in government at Holyrood, albeit as a minority administration.

After Garscadden, what happened next? In 1979, SNP MPs voted with the Tories against the struggling Callaghan government to usher in the era of Thatcher.

Salmond's strategy now is to hope that Labour loses the next UK election and that then Scots will turn to the promise of independence to escape from a Tory Britain.

I stand by my view that the SNP had more to lose in defeat at Glenrothes than Labour, though.

The nationalists' leader believes that his party's success depends on sustaining confidence among the Scottish people. He really needs continual spectacular by-election victories to keep the momentum going.

The law of diminishing returns kicks in here. The more you win, the more you are expected to win. When you lose, the magic evaporates.

But, crucially, the SNP has not won the argument for separation from the UK. Independence is still only favoured by about a third of Scots.The local income tax and the Scottish Futures Trust policies are unravelling. The arc of prosperity has turned to ashes.

I might be wrong of course, but, after Glenrothes, I think that the independence referendum promised for 2010 is going to become a poisoned political football which Salmond will wish he had kicked further into the long grass.


THE innocence of youth. Sean, who is just six, was concentrating last week on the wall-to-wall television coverage of Barack Obama's victory.

"Can we get a black government, mum?" he asked, clearly envious of the exciting new development in the US. "Well, we have a Brown one," shejoked.

"But he's not even brown, he's just peachy," said Sean in disgust.

If only he was just peachy, Sean, if only he was.

Late-night clamouring of the inarticulate cybernats

THE cybernat is a curious form of virtual life. It cannot be seen, but obviously sleeps during the day, because its bilious trail of fury only ever begins late at night.

As tomorrow's politics stories find their way online after the first editions go to press, a series of bizarre postings by SNP web surfers appears on the websites of the Herald and the Scotsman or their Sundaysisters like a trail of droppings behind a flock of wandering sheep.

These describe the evil dealings against Scotland of Maggie Broon and his New Liebour party and the heroic defence of the nation by Wee Eck Salmond and his SNP bravehearts in terms so juvenile, inarticulateand sometimes offensive yet so insistently off-planet that it is indeed a wonder to behold.

Some, notably the cybernats themselves, believe that they have contributed to whatever successes the SNP has gained. I take the opposite view and, if I was Alex Salmond, I would issue a cease and desist order.

Sometimes, a comment thread becomes so faecal that the papers just switch it off. Who needs it? The cybernats then gather round another completely unrelated thread and add the complaint of censorship to their anti-English clamour.

I would say that they swarmed - they do like to give that impression - but I think that there are only about seven of them altogether.

You could tell that something catastrophic had happened in the Scottish political environment around midnight on Thursday, as it became clear that Labour had won the Glenrothes by-election with a rather large, indeed splendid, majority.

The cybernats were silent, virtually all night.

But the nuclear blast of Glenrothes clearly hasn't wiped the cybernats out - they have blearily continued to buzz helplessly beneath online articles over the weekend with the bizarre view that the election was rigged.

But somehow I think that it may never be glad confident one in the morning for the cybernats again.

What about more cash in our pockets?

AS the economy slides into recession, what better way for government to mitigate the crisis than putting some more money in the wage packets of ordinary workers.

You'd think that, after we've part-nationalised the banks and slashed interest rates, a simple old-fashioned Keynesian measure like that would be a no-brainer.

But right-wing monetarist orthodoxy still holds sway with the Labour government and it still says: "No, cap pay rises at 2 per cent." The Scottish government follows suit.

Thirty thousand Scottish civil and public servants were due to be on strike today, along with hundreds of thousands more across the UK fighting for a decent pay award.

A last-minute offer of talks means that the action has been suspended, but the mandate for striking is maintained. If there is no progress, more strikes will follow.

Meanwhile, ballots on further action are due to close this week in the long-running Scottish local government dispute and at Scottish Water, where the same hard-faced pay policy is being dictated by the Scottish government to an employer which admits that it could afford a better offer than 2.5 per cent.

Other workers in the public sector, such as meat hygiene inspectors, and in the private sector, such as the lorry drivers at CarntyneTransport, are also balloting on action over similar paltry pay deals.

Unless you're a banker, it looks like you have to fight hard for your money.

.

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Around Scotland - Monday 3 November 2008

(Monday 3 November 2008)

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

Glenrothes challenge

THE Glenrothes by-election remains too close to call hours away from polling day on Thursday. I am not going to try. That fact that it's so tight would be remarkable considering that central Fife has been a Labour heartland for generations if the SNP had not snatched Glasgow East from Labour's helpless grasp in July with a swing of over 22 per cent.

It is likely that the swing away from Labour in Glenrothes on Thursday is going to be once more of pretty scary proportions whether or not it exceeds the 14 per cent required for the SNP to win.

However, in a way, it is a bigger deal for the SNP to fail in Glenrothes than for Labour.

Labour could indeed lose Glenrothes and, if it does, it will be another huge blow for the party. But it will merely confirm what everyone already knows - the right-wing policies of Blair and Brown have been a massive turn-off for Labour's core support.

Labour's reckoning will come when it has to try to turn out its core vote in the next UK general election. Meanwhile, Brown will remain in charge of the party and hold that evil day off as long as possible, perhaps even until June 2010.

For the SNP, Glenrothes could be more of a watershed moment.

The SNP opposed the war, it opposes Trident and it has posed as more left wing than Labour, though the latter is not a hard act to play.

Until his beloved Scottish banks began to fail and get bailed out by the UK taxpayer, Alex Salmond boxed much more cleverly than Labour. He has enjoyed genuine popularity, so much so that the SNP started this campaign as huge favourites to overturn a 10,000 Labour majority. Now, failing to win Glenrothes would be the SNP leader's first significant reverse since his return in 2004.

* Glenrothes is not the only election happening this week. From my perspective, the outcome of the presidential election in the US on Tuesday will have deeper and longer implications for Scotland, as well as the rest of the world, than Glenrothes on Thursday.

If you're reading this online across the pond, keep your eyes on the prize and get out and vote Obama. He might not be a socialist, but the world can't afford any more maniacs in the White House.

Abu Ghraib firm campaign gathers pace

THE Scottish government has contracted the research company CACI to conduct the 2011 census, as reported in the Star last week.

CACI is a wholly owned subsidiary of a firm that provided interrogators at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

A "rehearsal" for the census contract is due to begin in spring 2009 in the west of Edinburgh and in the island of Lewis and Harris.

Campaigning initiatives to oppose CACI involvement include the Scotland Against Criminalising Communities petition for an Ethical Scottish Census in 2011, which calls for the contract to be cancelled. You can sign it at www.sacc.org.uk/census/

The SACC campaign has been supported by many people, including comedian and writer Mark Thomas, journalist John Pilger, former Labour MP Tony Benn and Labour MSP Malcolm Chisholm.

Fellow Labour MSP Pauline McNeill also put down a Scottish Parliament motion recently calling for an ethical census, which has been supported by numerous MSPs including Bill Butler, Cathy Jamieson, Jackie Baillie, Patrick Harvie, Elaine Smith and Marlyn Glen.

CACI UK is the firm which operates the ACORN marketing and social classification tool. Most people who have done social research at one time or another, including me, have used ACORN (A Classification Of Residential Neighbourhoods) codes. I feel somewhat unclean even by that unwitting association with Abu Ghraib.

The ethical census campaign is rightly focusing on the Scottish government, but many other publicly funded organisations, including local authorities and universities as well as government agencies, will have paid for services such as ACORN provided by the UK arm of CACI.

We should be calling for them all to have an ethical audit of their suppliers, with Iraq war privateers top of the list for cutting.

Cardinal nazi-bashing sin

SCOTLAND'S leading Catholic Cardinal Keith O'Brien let fly yet another intemperate outburst at Labour last week.

He attacked Gordon Brown for supporting the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill.

O'Brien described research allowed by the new law as "grotesque" and akin to "nazi-style experiments."

I'm not a fan of loose accusations of nazism. You might disagree profoundly with the Prime Minister - I do often - but he is no nazi.

Anyway, if the spiritual leader to whom I owed my job had been in the Hitler Youth and my church had such a dodgy relationship with real nazi war crimes, I don't think I'd be accusing anyone else.

Fair deal for public services

THE voluntary sector is often overlooked, but it provides many essential public services.

In Scotland, as elsewhere, some voluntary organisations are being contracted to perform public services for less than they cost to deliver, putting at risk the quality of services for society's most vulnerable.

The Scottish government is being pressed to deliver a funding framework for public-service contracts to ensure equitable wages and conditions between front-line voluntary sector workers delivering public services and public-sector workers.

The Scottish Council For Voluntary Organisations and Community Care Providers Scotland have joined forces with the Scottish TUC and leading unions Unite and UNISON to bring the case for a national framework before the Scottish Parliament petitions committee.

You can find out more and sign the petition online before November 26 at www.stuc.org.uk/campaigns
 

Anti-rape campaigners aim to reclaim the night

THE Rape Crisis centre in Glasgow is organising a Reclaim the Night event on Tuesday November 25.

This marks the UN International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and is the beginning of 16 days of action on violence against women running up to International Human Rights Day on December 10. In 2008, the theme for the 16 days of action worldwide is around women's human rights - the right to be free from male violence.

The Glasgow event is being held under the banner, "Stop violence against women. Women in the west of Scotland reclaim our right to safety on our streets, in our homes, in our schools, in our workplace."

Participants should gather from 6.30pm on November 25 at the STUC Centre, 333 Woodlands Road for the short march to Glasgow University Union where there will be speeches, music, stalls and food. All women and supportive men are welcome.

Visit www.rapecrisiscentre-glasgow.co.uk for more information.

It's quite apt that the Reclaim the Night event should end up at Glasgow University Union, a former bastion of student male chauvinism.

The sisters of today will follow in the footsteps of those who famously stormed the then men-only GUU Beer Bar almost 30 years ago and claimed it for gender equality. I was outside cheering them on.

.

 

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