(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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