(Wednesday 11 March 2009)
Unions get a voice
Malcolm Burns on how Scottish Labour is setting an example for others.I'M not a great fan of big set-piece conference speeches, but Scottish Labour leader Ian Gray made a serious and thoughtful contribution at his party's weekend conference in Dundee.
There was a bit of ritual nationalist-bashing which some people found inspiring - to me, this stuff always sounds furious but signifies nothing.
However, I was particularly pleased that, among the four independent experts he announced to help with the four draft policy documents which will form the basis of Labour's next Scottish manifesto, STUC assistant secretary Stephen Boyd will be advising on economic issues.
It is a welcome step to bring progressive trade union thinking into Labour's economic policy-making, at least in Scotland. Labour down south should certainly be paying attention.
Boyd's appointment by Gray contrasts with Alex Salmond's choice for chairman of his Council of Economic Advisers - Sir George Mathewson, the short-selling banker and tax-avoiding Cayman resident who rails against employment protection laws.
The four draft policy documents which were presented at Dundee can be downloaded from Scottish Labour's website (www.scottishlabour.org.uk/what_we_believe) under the heading Ideas For A Fairer Scotland.
Even as a working title this is an improvement on the 2007 manifesto, which was tragically called Forward, Not Back.
Boyd will work with the Labour Party group considering the document on a "prosperous and sustainable Scotland." The draft is long on developing skills and employability but pretty short on job creation.
The latter will be most urgently needed after the storm of recession has demolished employment around Scotland.
The great PFI rip-off
What rip-offs the private finance initiative and its alter ego public-private partnership really are.
UNISON Lothian health branch has discovered that the private contractors which run car parking at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary are going to make something like £170,000 because of reductions to VAT.
Neither the main contractor Consort not its subcontractor Meteor had a clause which covered the recalibration of parking machines to take account of changes in VAT.
They are now billing a whopping £70,000 to change the machines to a 15 per cent rate and they will charge the same again to put the level back to 17.5 per cent when the rate reverts next year.
And that's not all. Since December, people parking at the hospital have been paying 17.5 per cent in VAT instead of 15 per cent while the machines were not yet recalibrated. As a result, the greedy contractors have scooped £29,000 already, just for doing nothing.
Lothian health branch chairman Tam Waterson says: "It is exactly this kind of contractual inflexibility and profiteering at the expense of our NHS which UNISON has campaigned against from the first days of PFI."
UNISON is supporting Labour MSP Paul Martin's private members Bill to make car parking charges illegal in all NHS sites. What remains diplomatically unsaid is that, if Labour hadn't introduced the charges in the first place, then there would be no requirement to abolish them.
Through gritted teeth
THE co-operation which seems to be breaking out between the UK and Scottish governments on funding the proposed new Forth road bridge is as tense as the bundled wires which now hold the old one up in such a fragile manner.
The UK government has offered a package worth £1 billion to help fund the new Forth crossing. Labour Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy MP (pictured) describes this as "grown-up politics achieving grown-up results."
SNP Finance Secretary John Swinney called the meeting to discuss the initiative as "useful and constructive."
So far, so mature.
However, each side of the Westminster-Holyrood divide is clearly anxious to be seen as more co-operative than the other and therefore hopes to be able to portray the other side as hopelessly unco-operative.
The temptation for each to draw daggers is likely to prove irresistible.
Write on at Glasgow fest
GLASGOW'S Aye Write! book festival is in full flow this week. One of the best aspects is the way in which it engages even the youngest of readers.
Our Sean, who is six, and Elizabeth, 10, are big fans of the Beano and the Dandy. The likes of Desperate Dan, Dennis the Menace and what Sean calls the "Bash Road Kids" are heroes.
So both were thrilled and completely captivated at an illustrated presentation at Aye Write! based on the newly published History Of The Beano by Morris Heggie, former editor of the Dandy, and Euan Kerr, editor of Beano Max.
The kids queued up to get their copy of the huge and beautifully produced volume signed by both authors.
A very special bonus was a fast pencil drawing of Minnie the Minx on the flyleaf by Jim Petrie, who was the cartoon anti-heroine's artist for over 30 years.
Sean has found a new career path. We thought he wanted to be a train driver, but he's been bowled over by the colourful tradition of the DC Thomson comics.
Now he says he wants to be a cartoon artist on the Beano and Dandy and to revive The Magic, a sibling title aimed at the younger reader which was started in 1939 but fell victim to the wartime paper shortage.
As long as you're in the union, son, we will be proud.
THE Aye Write! book festival is based in the Mitchell Library, Glasgow, and runs until Sunday.
Highlights include a session on Wednesday night to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of the Spanish civil war and celebrate Scotland's 500 International Brigade volunteers.
Daniel Gray, whose book Homage to Caledonia has recently been published to acclaim, will discuss the war with Chris Dolan, author of An Anarchist's Story: The Life Of Ethel Macdonald.
Macdonald was an embedded reporter from Motherwell known as The Scots Scarlet Pimpernel. Also on the panel will be Mike Arnott of Dundee TUC and the International Brigade Memorial Trust and the session will be chaired by Willy Maley, whose late father John was a brigader.
Find out more of what's on on the web at www.ayewrite.com
"YOU can't privatise or deregulate your way out of a recession."
So Gordon Brown said on Friday at the Scottish Labour conference in Dundee. And that is true. But you can certainly privatise and deregulate your way into one.
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