Around Scotland - Monday 29 December 2008

(Monday 29 December 2008)

MALCOLM BURNS takes a look back at events of the past 10 months.

THAT was the year that was. Well, for this column, it has been 10 months, in fact. I've had the privilege of pestering you in this corner every week since March with reflections on the state of our wee northern nation.

I can only hope that you have been occasionally entertained and sometimes enlightened. I am sure you'll have disagreed with me more than once.

Around Scotland was part of a planned increase in Scottish coverage in the Morning Star to coincide with the paper's return to Day A circulation north of the border in the spring.

For a number of years, Scots have only been able to get the Star a day or more late due to difficulties with transport and distribution arrangements. Cracking the distribution problem has been no easy task, but it was important to surmount these difficulties and congratulations to those responsible.

It is now quite unusual to get the paper a day late, at least in my local newsagent. Circulation of the Star in Scotland has been increasing. And now we have exciting new developments including the website going subscription free.

If Around Scotland is part of that movement forward, then I am pleased.

Here's some of my highlights - and lowlights - from a year Around Scotland.

March: More than words?

Wendy Alexander provided us with a surprise at the Scottish Labour conference.

SUDDENLY, the ideological battle seemed to 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. Well, maybe.

April: Unions lead the way

WITH the Ineos workers conducting an ultimately successful strike at the key Scottish oil refinery in Grangemouth, the STUC met for its annual congress in Inverness.

Gordon Brown came and said nothing about the 10p tax fiasco or anything else much. Wendy Alexander and Alex Salmond also addressed the congress, which then called for a new constitutional convention.

The STUC, once more, played its historic role of yoking the stubborn, competing donkeys of democracy together and leading them out of the barren impasse of mutual fear, hostility and stupidity.

PCS Scottish secretary and STUC general council member Eddie Reilly was right to remind the First Minister of the SNP mistake in removing itself from the constitutional convention in the 1990s and warned him to "spend more time listening rather than preaching."

He was also right to warn Labour's Scottish leader of the mistake that she was making in removing options from the debate and not recognising the Scottish people's right to self-determination.

"If you don't have confidence to win the argument, then you have no right to be in the debating chamber," Reilly said, in a remarkable speech. "There is no settled will of the Scottish people."

May: I'm as bemused as anyone

Another surprise. Alexander tore up Labour's no-referendum script with her bold call to "bring it on."

AS bemused as the next political hack. That's what I was telling people who asked me what I thought of Alexander and the sudden emergence of the independence referendum question.

As Vince Mills pointed out in this paper, the issue is not really about nationalism. It is much more about class.

It was unlikely that there would be a vote in favour of independence even if a referendum did take place. The problem was that there were no popular left-wing shots in Alexander's new Labour locker with which to outflank the SNP on basic issues.

Until that changed, the gloomy electoral prospects for Alexander and Labour were unlikely to change either.

June: Alexander is out

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 provided Scottish Labour with an unexpected opportunity to have a debate among members and affiliates on its direction. And it was certainly needed.

July: An SNP coup in Glasgow

For Labour, it was hotter than the Gobi out in the East End of Glasgow on Thursday July 24. I had the feeling that the party would maybe just hold on in the Glasgow East by-election, despite its disastrous start. I was wrong.

WINNING Glasgow East was a jaw-dropping coup for the SNP. Labour couldn't lose a seat like this unless a substantial part of its core vote actually turned against it.

The party, moving ever rightward under Blair and now Brown, basically failed to make itself relevant to enough of its core voters over the last decade.

The lack of local organisation and canvassing returns before the by-election - indeed, almost the lack of a proper local constituency party at all - was evidence of a party which has lost touch with its roots.

August: Salmond's Freudian slip

Despite a downpour of legendary proportions, around 150,000 workers were on strike across Scotland on 20 August. The local government unions UNISON, Unite and GMB were joined by PCS civil servants in withdrawing their labour for 24 hours. Meanwhile Alex Salmond lost his footing.

IF Freudian slips really do let the cat out of the bag, the size and shape of Alex Salmond's Thatcherite feline was plain to see through the hessian for a long time before its inadvertent release.

Speaking to Total Politics magazine about Scottish attitudes to Margaret Thatcher's policies, Salmond said: "We didn't mind the economic side so much. But we didn't like the social side at all."

September: SNP displays its true colours

As Labour elected new leader Iain Gray, the SNP got caught in the credit crunch.

THE global crisis of capitalism - we can write that phrase with full justification today - revealed many truths.

One of them was the right-wing nature of the SNP government, whose leader is a former Royal Bank of Scotland chief economist.

I too am keen on saving banking jobs for Scotland, but its haste to put the foxes in charge of the hen coop characterises the SNP government in Scotland as much as it has new Labour in Britain under Blair and Brown.

The fact that the SNP has been successful at presenting itself to Labour's left is Labour's fault for being right-wing more than the nationalists' for being socialist.

Global capital needs to be faced down not fawned over in this crisis. The Labour government still has the state power to address that at UK level and beyond, something which the SNP can never do at Scottish level, with independence or not, no matter how many bankers it is pals with.

October: Proud day in Dundee

IT was moving to see 96-year-old international brigade veteran Jack Jones raise his fist in salute to fallen comrades as he rededicated Dundee's memorial to its Spanish civil war heroes on Saturday October 11.

November: Glenrothes surprise

I DIDN'T tell you so. In fact, I admitted 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.

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.

December: End of a bizarre year

IT'S been a bizarre year. Interesting times in Scotland as elsewhere.

I leave you with some good news that the Scottish Water workers appear to have won a substantially improved settlement as a result of their strike.

Sadly it's not all joy. I'm now off to join a demo in Glasgow against the Israeli military strikes on Gaza.

The fight for justice goes on.

All the best for the new year when it comes. Sláinte!

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Hey Bruce, that's my guitar!

Boss class: middle-aged ready to rock Glastonbury














Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young and Blur rumoured to play at Glastonbury | Music | The Guardian

Probably no god...

Polly Toynbee: My Christmas message? There's probably no God | Comment is free | The Guardian: "Here is an enjoyably impudent piece of research from Innsbruck University. People were observed buying newspapers, using an honesty box to pay. They were interviewed later - so the person with the clipboard seemed unconnected with the newspaper purchase - and asked about age, occupation and attitudes. Men cheated more than women; people over 50 cheated more than the young; higher education made no difference; and by a long chalk churchgoers cheated most."

Around Scotland - Tuesday 23 December 2008

(Tuesday 23 December 2008)

MALCOLM BURNS explains why this year's Christmas number one makes him happy.

THIS is the nearest I hope I'll come to a Christmas message, dear reader. I'm cheered by the fact that the Christmas number one chart-topper is Leonard Cohen's song Hallelujah.

It doesn't matter to me whether it's Alexandra Burke's dreadful X Factor interpretation or Jeff Buckley's or anyone's. I'll probably be tuned in to something else.

But the perverse relationship between pop music and Christmas is nicely illustrated for me by the thought that people are buying this complex and dark anthem to the power of sex, written by a Jewish man who is now a Buddhist.

I quite admire Cohen as a writer and musician and I never thought him depressing, that's just a stupid cliche.

Hallelujah isn't my favourite song of his. I think that he's written better tunes and sharper words, but it is certainly not the usual mind-numbing twee pap complete with bells and candles.

I'll not be the first to point out the incongruity of its ascent through the ITV show X Factor, complete with gospel choir and tinsel, belted out by a cabaret singer with a loud voice who clearly doesn't have the faintest idea what she is singing.

Hallelujah is certainly not a Christian song. If it leads in any religious direction at all, it's the wrathful, jealous god of the Old Testament who is in the frame here.

At least we are spared Sir Cliff coming out of every loudspeaker in the land with some inane homily.

Religion excels at making people feel that there is something meaningful just out of reach in what they can't easily understand.

Burke's hopelessly mistaken rendering of Hallelujah displays this kind of credulity. An ironic opiate for the masses indeed.

I had a similar glee when Lou Reed's Perfect Day - a very dark, very beautiful song about heroin addiction - sold millions and hit number one around Christmas a few years back after it was adopted by the BBC as a charidee single for Children in Need.

I am sure that Lou and Lenny can sing all the way to the bank for their royalties and deservedly so.

There, I just felt that I had to write that. Not much to do with Scotland, apart from the fact that it will be playing all over this land, much like everywhere else.

Ho ho ho! Merry Christmas!

Hallelujah! Here's my bum

HOW much of an ass can the law be? A man was sentenced to 12 months in prison at Glasgow Sheriff Court last week.

His crime? Not a violent attack or robbery or fraud.

He was convicted under the catch-all Scottish charge of "breach of the peace" - for being naked.

The man is Stephen Gough, also known as the "Naked Rambler," a former marine from Hampshire and he has spent nearly the last 30 months in prison just for walking around with no clothes on, including a couple of hikes from Land's End to John O'Groats. Apparently the cost to the taxpayer of harassing this man has mounted to more than £200,000.

Gough told the court that, if people were offended by his nakedness, the problem was with them and not with him.

I agree. We are all naked under our clothes. Who cares if he wants to walk around with nothing on? Who is looking?

In some regards, Scotland is a very different country from the narrow Presbyterian place that it used to be a mere couple of decades ago. In others, it is clearly not.

Every time Gough is released from prison or discharged from court, it seems that he is immediately rearrested and stuck back in jail.

There is plenty of violent crime and socially abusive behaviour going on which extra police time could be devoted to instead.

I don't think that the powerful authority of Scots law should be bothered with the Naked Rambler. Free the Naked One!

Hands off the forests of Scottish people

AMONG the welcome plans for tackling climate change which have been made by the Scottish government, there is a very damaging proposal indeed.

SNP Environment Minister Michael Russell has raised the idea of leasing out 25 per cent of the publicly owned forest estate to private investors for up to 75 years to help pay for action on climate change.

The plan is contained in a Scottish government consultation to seek views on how better use can be made of the assets of Scotland's national forest estate to help mitigate the effects of climate change.

The Scottish forestry trade unions - PCS, Unite, Prospect, GMB and the First Division Association - argue that the private lease proposal represents "the biggest challenge to forestry jobs, the integrity of the Forestry Commission and the sustainability of the Scottish forestry sector that we have seen for over 10 years."

It is a bad idea all round, in other words.

The unions are running a campaign to oppose this stealthy privatisation.

As well as preparing a detailed response to the consultation, they have launched an online petition which has already been signed by hundreds of people.

"I believe that Scotland's national forest estate is an invaluable asset that provides health, education, employment, conservation, heritage and recreation opportunities for people across the whole of Scotland and I call on the Scottish government not to lease 25 per cent of the estate to private investors but to keep it in public ownership and control."

If you're online and you agree with that, take five minutes now to sign up at www.fctu.org.uk/petitions
 

In homage to Caledonia

A HIGHLIGHT of my trip to Dundee a few weeks ago to join the local Trade Union Council's International Brigade celebrations was hearing Daniel Gray reading from and speaking about his new book Homage to Caledonia: Scotland and the Spanish Civil War.

Unfortunately, I missed the actual book launch, which was held in the Iron Horse pub in Glasgow last week. Yes, I know that it was a bit of an oversight to miss a book launch in a pub.

So I'm glad to note that Gray will be speaking again on this subject at a public meeting on Saturday January 17 at 11am in the Unity Office, 72 Waterloo Street, Glasgow.

Homage to Caledonia gives an account of Scotland's fascinating relationship with the Spanish Civil War. It is based on the letters written home by Scots Brigaders, in the collection of the National Library of Scotland where Gray has been conducting his researches on the subject.

More people, proportionately, went from Scotland than any other nation. Some 549 Scots fought in Spain and support came from all parts of Scotland. Gray makes a powerful case about how action in and on Spain was a continuation of anti-fascist, progressive action in Scotland.

The book is published by Luath Press and can be bought online at www.luath.co.uk

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Just a perfect day

BBC NEWS | Magazine | Just whose hallelujah is it anyway?: "Fans of Leonard Cohen (and of the late Jeff Buckley, whose 1994 version is treated as sacrosanct) are predictably outraged at the big-arms, eyebrow-raised bombast, with the now traditional online campaigns and rival singles vying for the Christmas Number One.

But maybe they need not worry so much."

Brits out soon-ish... but still a disaster

Scott Ritter: Dick Cheney refuses to admit that Saddam Hussein was not a threat | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk: "The occupation of Iraq by the United States is far more brutal, bloody and destructive than anything Saddam ever did during his reign. When one examines the record of the US military in Iraq in terms of private homes brutally invaded, families torn apart and civilians falsely imprisoned (the prison population in Iraq during the US occupation dwarfs that of Saddam's regime), what is clear is that the only difference between the reign of terror inflicted on the Iraqi people today and under Saddam is that the US has been far less selective in applying terror than Saddam ever was."

Around Scotland - Tuesday 16 December 2008

(Tuesday 16 December 2008)

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

Fat cats get all the cream

I WROTE a couple of weeks ago about the Scottish Water pay dispute. The publicly owned corporation imposed a below-inflation pay increase despite £1 billion in savings provided by the staff.

Scottish Water executives claim that Finance Secretary John Swinney's public-sector pay policy doesn't allow them to give workers a bigger increase. Meanwhile, they pay themselves fat-cat salaries and bonuses rising far ahead of prices.

Labour MSP Des McNulty pointed out last week that new Scottish Water chief executive Richard Ackroyd was being paid £263,000 a year. More than even Barack Obama was McNulty's quip. More than 10 times the £23,000 average annual wage of the Scottish Water staff, I observe. And bonuses this year could push Ackroyd's pay beyond £400,000.

The water unions were due to meet Swinney today to see if there is a way in which he can apply the guidelines to allow the corporation to fund a fair pay increase from some of the billion or more which the staff have worked hard to save the organisation.

I don't know whether he will act. My guess would be not, in which case the unions, UNISON, Unite and GMB, have a balloted mandate to follow last month's one-day strike with further planned strike action around Scotland over the Christmas period.

Monkeys and organ grinders

THE reality facing tens and even hundreds of thousands of Scottish public-sector staff is the same. Paltry, below-inflation pay rises which have been arrived at after many months of negotiations and only sometimes marginally improved by dogged industrial action.

It's been clear to the unions that the monkeys with whom they are forced to negotiate in councils and quangos are not grinding the organ of public-sector pay.

Last week, the Scottish Parliament finance committee took some interesting evidence on the public-sector pay system in Scotland which confirmed this view.

Scottish government Finance Directorate deputy director Alistair Brown has responsibility for public-sector pay policy. He set out the aims of the policy - increases should be "affordable and sustainable," there should be flexibility to suit the business needs of public bodies and policy should support pay that is "fair and non-discriminatory."

So far, so fair - in theory.

Comparing the entitlements of the public-sector executives with those of the workers, SNP veteran MSP and committee member Alec Neil argued that some of the former appear to be excessive.

"As you rightly said," he told Brown, "a key objective of the pay policy is fairness, but two completely separate pay policies seem to apply - one for people on the front line who are doing the work and another for those at the top of the tree. My point is that those at the top of the tree seem to be taking the taxpayer for a ride. It is no wonder that we have industrial relations problems in the public sector."

Then, Labour's ex-whip Jackie Baillie had the poor mandarin squirming when she exposed the bureaucracy and delays resulting from the Public Sector Pay Policy Unit's role in overseeing pay offers by the local government employers and the myriad quangos or non-departmental public bodies.

Unlike Brown, the trade unionists who gave evidence later in the session were models of clarity.

"We have lost any sense of fairness in public-sector pay," Eddie Reilly, Scottish secretary of Civil Service union PCS, told the committee.

"If we have one pay policy and one grading system," Reilly argued, "why do we have so-called negotiations in 22 or 40 areas to produce different pay systems for the same job levels in different areas? Surely, the activities of those employers could be reduced to a central bargaining unit so that the same unions could sit round one table and deal with one set of pay negotiations under one policy, with one grading system. That would deal with pay properly at the Scottish and UK levels."

It surely would. But it would also expose the organ grinders north and south of the border who are short-changing the taxpaying public by offering the fat cats the cream and low pay instead of fair pay to public-sector workers.

Dignity for Palestinians up for debate this week

THE very last item of business in the Scottish Parliament for this year will be a motion on Thursday from Labour MSP Pauline McNeill on "dignity for Palestinians."

Last month, McNeill, who is convener of the Parliament's cross-party group on Palestine, was one of 11 European parliamentarians who sailed to Gaza with vital medical aid on a boat called Dignity from Cyprus in defiance of the Israeli blockade. She was joined by fellow MSPs Sandra White of the SNP and Lib Dem Hugh O'Donnell.

Congratulations to them all.

That was the third voyage of Dignity to challenge the siege of Gaza, which has become a permanent blockade and which has affected every aspect of Palestinian life to the point where they are now in receipt of the largest food aid programme in the world. There has been a fourth in the last week.

McNeill's motion expresses the concern of the Scottish Parliament about the impact of the blockade on ordinary Palestinians.

The denial of basic health care rights, the shortage of medicine and severe restrictions on leaving Gaza for referral treatment have resulted in many deaths.

The motion also supports the efforts of Edinburgh Direct Aid to send aid to Gaza and recognises that action by the international community to secure an end to the siege of Gaza and implement international law is key to encouraging long-term peace in the Middle East.

I hope and expect that the rest of the Scottish Parliament members pass this motion before they head off for their holidays.

You can find out more about the Dignity voyages and aid to Gaza at www.freegaza.org and www.edinburghdirectaid.org

Scottish supporters do this paper proud

KEEPING the Morning Star afloat is just as important as keeping the Dignity sailing the Med and breaking the blockade.

The annual Morning Star bazaar in Glasgow which I enjoyed last Saturday is just one of the many ways in which readers and supporters help the paper. It used to be held in the Govan Unemployed Workers' Centre and migrated to the Annexe in Partick a few years ago.

It's the usual Christmas Fayre and jumble sale kind of event, with stalls and home baking. You can have a cup of tea while waiting to win the wheel of fortune or have a lucky dip on the tombola. As ever, the best thing that I came away with was a few jars of Mrs Ajam's Cape Curry paste, hand made to a secret hot recipe from South Africa by RMT man Stewart Hyslop, who always does a Cuba stall at Star events. But the home baking is always good too.

Elizabeth, my 10-year-old, spent a few days before making dozens of hand-painted paper holders in each of which she enclosed a teabag - a fairtrade one, yes, I think so - with a teapot or a Santa on the front and a little poetic message on the back to Santa or a far-off friend saying words to the effect of "Enjoy a cup of tea on me as I can't be with you at Christmas."

She sold a load of these teabag envelopes for 50p each. I have no idea where she gets her enterprising spirit from, but it certainly helped the cause a little.

The bazaar raised around £1,200, an amazing result from a simple and friendly event.

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The Mother of All Demos

The Register: The Mother of All Demos - 150 years ahead of its time



"NLS was designed to harness the power of 'collective intelligence' - to create a deeper level of thought. His research group was dedicated to 'augmenting human intellect.' But forty years on, Engelbart's core vision has vanished. NLS has devolved into Twitter."

Around Scotland - Monday 8 December 2008

(Monday 8 December 2008)

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

On Thursday, 260 Glasgow-based journalists at The Herald group were told that they faced redundancy and would have to reapply for 220 of their jobs.

Have The Herald and its sibling titles the Sunday Herald and Glasgow's Evening Times been losing money hand over fist? Not in the least. They provided Newsquest, owned by the US Gannett corporation, with £26 million of profit in the last financial year.

It is true that, like most of the print media, they are suffering from a long slow decline in sales and a loss of advertising revenue as a result of the growth of the internet.

But Newsquest, rather than investing a good chunk of the profits generated by their talented journalists and make a transition to the digital age, has prevaricated and penny-pinched over essential new technologies, which has caused many problems. And redundancies have been the order of the day at Newsquest's Glasgow operation.

Last year, a successful one-day strike led by National Union of Journalist chapels averted compulsory redundancies. But even the voluntary redundancies have been damaging. Staff numbers have been cut by about one-third in the past four years.

The impact on the quality of The Herald in particular could be described as Metrofication. Readers of other so-called quality dailies, especially the regional press, will be familiar with this process.

Apart from the masthead and a veneer of Scottish news on the front and back pages, an increasing proportion of the content of The Herald is remarkably similar to the Metro papers you can pick up for free on your morning bus or train. It no longer has enough staff to write sufficient original stories.

Huge swathes of Scottish life, especially in politics and business, now go unreported and unscrutinised. Much of the content is simply regurgitated wire copy, mostly from PA.

Now, new Herald editor Donald Martin has claimed that the latest changes taking place are "exciting." Maybe they are if you are on the editor's salary. But the 260 journalists who are being forced to take less pay and poorer conditions, four fewer holidays a year and work new enforced shift patterns or lose their job altogether do not agree.

The big idea is "direct input" journalism, as has been so successfully implemented - irony intended - at the Express group of pornographer Richard Desmond.

But direct input by journalists is no guarantee of better quality. It's no better than blogging. It's a bit like going to the pub and pouring the beer straight from a barrel into your mouth. You might get just as drunk, but you'll probably prefer to go to a better pub.

However, the greedy owners can only see the short-term pound signs as they strip away the "costs" of production.

When Newsquest took over in 2003 from Scottish Media Group, it promised the Competition Commission that the titles would be safe in its hands and that the quality of journalism would be maintained through investment to take the papers forward.

It looks now as though what Newsquest is really about is simply pumping cash from its flagship Scottish operation across the Atlantic to the coffers of its hungry owner Gannett. At this rate, there will be no Scottish quality newspapers left in a couple of years time, an outcome which will be bad for Scottish civic life and democracy.

There has been much talk in the last couple of years of the potential of The Herald under a new owner, perhaps a trust guaranteeing editorial independence on the model of the Irish Times Trust. The Scotsman, which was reduced to a rump under the Barclay brothers and continues to languish with the current owners Johnston Press, might also benefit from a similar arrangement.

The NUJ must engage in talks with management to try to avert the current disastrous redundancy strategy at the Herald titles.

Meanwhile, on the national stage, civic and public leaders in Scotland including the NUJ and the STUC should now be galvanised into a campaign to rescue an important institution of our public life from its rapacious and destructive private owners.

I am sure that governments in both Edinburgh and London could be convinced to support such an initiative.


CONFIRMATION of Newsquest's cost-cutting strategy was provided after the BBC Trust decided to abandon plans to invest in a network of local websites. This news was greeted with relief by owners of local newspapers such as Newsquest. The Evening Times in Glasgow last week ran a special feature calling on people to get involved as "correspondents" who would report on local issues for the planned Times microsites in districts of the city. The salary for doing this work was not mentioned, mainly because it appears that there is none. You too can work for Newsquest in Glasgow - for nothing!
 

Nationalists' plan set for little local difficulty

IT HAS been obvious for a long time that the SNP government's plans for a local income tax have been in trouble.

They deserve to be. Last week, the government suffered a 60-65 reverse in the Scottish Parliament on a Conservative motion that the local taxation Bill should allow debate on all options including a land value tax, as favoured by the Greens, and reform of the existing council tax.

While this is not the same as outright defeat for the SNP plans, it neatly demonstrates the parliamentary arithmetic which will probably scupper them.

The SNP needs to buy off the Lib Dems who do not believe that the local income tax proposed is nearly local enough. Then they need to persuade the Greens to give up the land value tax and still hope for a fair wind on the day.

I hope that the local income tax ship sinks. Whether or not you are a believer in local income tax in principle, this plan works out as little more than a cut in local government funding of several hundred million pounds.

Ironically enough, as with the unloved Scottish Futures Trust, defeat for its flagship policy has also been part of the SNP political plan. It hopes to blame Labour for voting down its "popular" and supposedly "fairer" policy rather than actually have to implement it.

But Labour is happy enough - the flawed tax plan was a vote-winner for Labour rather than the SNP in Glenrothes.

New people for new times

FULL marks to Scottish Trades Union Congress economist Stephen Boyd for nailing the first report of the government's Council of Economic Advisers led by erstwhile gnome Sir George Mathewson.

Former Royal Bank boss Mathewson chairs the council whose report published last week failed to rise to the challenge of the current economic crisis.

In fact, its main recommendation was for a restructuring of Scottish university education in the future, with students presumably paying more.

"As a lesson in the banal, the report is peerless," Boyd commented. "Reflecting the long-standing prejudices of its chair, the council calls for an extension in flexible labour markets, thereby ignoring the wealth of international comparative evidence demonstrating that the UK is already very lightly regulated."

This is both a devastatingly understated critique of Alex Salmond's favourite banker and yet another reminder that the SNP government's economic policy was, until a few weeks ago, effectively that of the Royal Bank of Scotland.

We undoubtedly need some smarter, more successful Scottish thinking at the top.

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Around Scotland - Tuesday 2 December 2008

(Tuesday 2 December 2008)

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

A quality of life issue

IT'S not often that former Labour chief whip Jackie Baillie MSP has everyone agreeing with her, even or maybe especially in her own party.

But the stage-one reading of her Disabled Persons' Parking Places (Scotland) Bill in the Scottish Parliament last week turned into a bit of a love-in.

Not only did Lib Dems and Tories praise her in order to bask in the warm glow of the moment, but the SNP government judged the initiative worth supporting and even agreeing to find resources for.

So what is this worthy initiative? A Bill to make disabled parking spaces legally enforceable. It's actually so simple that you wonder why it wasn't law before.

Of the one million disabled people resident in Scotland, 96,000 are registered wheelchair users and almost 230,000 are registered blue badge holders. But almost 85 per cent of disabled parking bays are advisory, which means that anyone can park in them without risk of being penalised. Local authorities, at present, simply rely on other drivers' goodwill not to park in designated places.

Baillie's Bill would require councils to make these legally enforceable - in other words, you'd be liable to a parking fine if you used one without a blue badge.

As well as being an issue of equality, it is a quality of life issue too.

The East Dunbartonshire MSP had done her homework on the main issue which might have caused the Bill problems - the cost of implementation.

Highland Council indicated that it would take two workers 12 years to identify where its 400 or so disabled parking spaces were and to promote a traffic regulation order, yet it would only take two from Glasgow one year to do over 4,000 spaces, Baillie reported in the debate.

"And why does the process of designating a bay cost £119 in Fife and £466 in Glasgow?" Baillie asked. "The higher cost of paint in Glasgow remains a mystery worthy of Arthur C Clarke."

Parliament unanimously agreed that the Bill should move forward to its next stage and it is likely to become law next year. Around Scotland is happy to add congratulations to Baillie on a small piece of progress towards a fairer Scotland.

That's rich coming from the bankers

THE Scottish media credulously and uncritically reported last week that the average wage in our little segment of northern Europe's erstwhile "arc of prosperity" was up from £23,080 in 2003 to £28,296 in 2008.

That's almost a quarter more in five years or the equivalent of a 4.2 per cent increase each year. The figures were produced by our friends at the Bank of Scotland, apparently on the basis of official UK earnings statistics.

Good old statistics. Black is white, according to nine out of 10 people who responded to a recent survey.

Bank of Scotland chief economist Martin Ellis makes this conclusion: "Average earnings in Scotland have risen by more than retail prices over the past five years, indicating an increase in living standards for the typical worker."

But there's treachery in the words "typical" and "average." I'm pretty sure that I know a hell of a lot more typical workers in Scotland who are paid below the £28,296 line than way above it.

The Bank of Scotland's number-crunchers have used the mean average - total pay divided by number of people paid. But that doesn't reflect typical pay at all. The very high earnings of the fat cats, including the bankers themselves, bring the mean average up.

STUC deputy general secretary Dave Moxham points out that the median figure - the point at which half of earners are below and half above - is more accurate.

"The median salary in Scotland is considerably lower than £28,000," the STUC official explains, "while 23 per cent of Scots are living on poverty pay of around £12,000 to £13,000 a year."

He states that "Scotland has one of the highest levels of wage inequality among major developed countries."

That is a point which could and should be addressed by the governments in Scotland and the UK as we head into a recession.

I am sure that the Scottish public-sector workers who have been striking for fair pay this year, including those in Scottish Water, might have settled for a 4.2 per cent increase each year over the last five. It would at least have kept them more or less in line with inflation.

Why Scottish water workers are angry

WORKERS in the real world have lost out badly over the last few years of restricted pay settlements and rising inflation.

It's rather different to the feather-bedded world inhabited by Bank of Scotland high-fliers and even the directors of a big publicly accountable corporation like Scottish Water.

Research by UNISON Scotland shows that staff pay in Scottish Water has lagged behind inflation and even further behind what the directors pay themselves ever since the corporation was formed in 2002.

"The latest retail prices index for October 2008 shows that prices are 23 per cent higher than they were in the middle of 2002," the union said. "In contrast, wages in Scottish Water have only risen by about 15 per cent in the same period.

"The current pay increase of 3 per cent for 15 months from April 2008 (equivalent to 2.4 per cent over one year) which has been imposed by Scottish Water does not help workers to catch up with the price increases which they have faced in the last few years.

"In contrast with staff wages, the remunerations of Scottish Water's executive directors has risen substantially since 2002. Three executive directors who have been on the board continually have seen their annual salaries (excluding bonuses) rise from an average of £108,000 in 2002/03 to £172,000 in 2007/08.

"That represents an average executive director increase of nearly 60 per cent - more than twice the increase in RPI over the same period and almost four times the increase in staff salaries."

These very directors bleat that they must pay the workers in line with Scottish government pay guidelines - which are themselves a reflection of Britain's regressive public pay policy - even though the accounts show that there is money available for a fair settlement. In fact, workers have helped Scottish Water make savings of more than £1 billion in the last few years.

Labour MSP Bill Butler has tabled a motion in the Scottish Parliament recognising that Scottish Water is publicly owned and accountable to Scottish ministers, who are responsible for setting the pay remit and approving any pay deal.

Butler's motion calls on the Scottish government to engage directly to resolve this dispute and ensure that public servants are awarded a fair and negotiated pay settlement.

Last week, the three Scottish water unions UNISON, Unite and GMB held a well-supported 24-hour strike for fair pay. The action was unprecedented - but, unless there is some movement by the government and directors, it will be repeated this week.

Climate march

ANOTHER week and another demo.

On Saturday, the Scottish Climate Change march in Glasgow will call for just solutions to climate change at Holyrood, Westminster and at the United Nations talks in Poznan, Poland.

The demo is supported by UNISON Scotland, Friends of the Earth and the World Development Movement among others. It starts at the Amphitheatre, Clyde Street, Glasgow at 12.30pm. Regular Star contributor Richard Leonard of GMB Scotland will be one of the speakers.

Visit www.scottishclimatemarch.info and www.globalclimatecampaign.org for more info.

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