Around Scotland - Tuesday 26 May 2009

(Tuesday 26 May 2009)

Malcolm Burns

Can new Labour restore lost credit with radical democratic reforms?

The MP expenses scandal has provided endless hours of morally justified fun as well as outrage for all of us plebs, who would never ever fiddle a claim of course.

Duck houses and moats encapsulate Tory greed, and we happily jeer because it doesn't surprise us.

But the most shocking thing is that neither does the greed of Labour MPs.

Yes, we know from the last 12 years that there are far too few honourable men and women on the Labour benches. But you'd imagine that every Labour MP would be extremely careful to keep their noses clean on expenses. After all, they owe their very seats in large part to public revulsion at Tory sleaze of the 1980s and 1990s.

Meanwhile, the moral panic kicked off by the scandal has extended to the very constitution of the UK itself.

It is good that people in power are for once talking seriously about a list of issues including the balance of powers between parliament and government, the status of the House of Lords and the electoral system.

But the danger is that it will be the powerful already in the Establishment who will decide what changes get made and that such changes will not fulfil the demands for openness, transparency or democracy.

I can see the twisted smile of m'Lord Mandelson as he readies his latest scam to separate the trade unions he despises from the Labour Party with his scheme for state funding of political parties.

If there's going to be constitutional change, it needs to come from the bottom up, not from the rotten top down.

The people of Britain could learn a useful lesson from us Scots. We went through a lot of constitutional debate before the Scottish Parliament was finally established in the 1990s.

The fact that our Holyrood Parliament commands respect now is because it was founded on a Claim of Right - the sovereignty of the Scottish people.

It was given form by the Scottish Constitutional Convention, led by the civic bodies of Scotland - the Scottish TUC and the local authorities and the churches.

And it was delivered in 1997 by the popular vote for the Labour Party, which had made devolution its main platform in the election in Scotland.

So let's have a UK Constitutional Convention - with the people represented by their unions and civic bodies, not just the Westminster parties and their vested interests. Let's have everything on the agenda for open debate, not conjured up by dark forces behind the scenes.

The Labour Party could rescue some of its lost credit by proposing radical democratic reforms and pledging to implement them if elected.

Sadly, the current Labour leadership is far more likely to worm its way out of the trouble its venality and corruption has landed it in. If that happens, history and the people will not forgive - or re-elect - them.

Kirk facing schism over the calling of Rev Rennie

The Westminster Parliament isn't the only institution facing its biggest disruption in centuries.

The Church of Scotland is riven from genesis to revelation by the "call" which the congregation of Queen's Cross church in Aberdeen made to openly gay minister Rev Scott Rennie.

In fact Rev Rennie has been a Church of Scotland minister in Brechin for 10 years.

He is a popular and active local community activist. He was married and has a child but has been openly in a gay relationship for some time.

Kirk homophobes seized their opportunity to campaign and formal complaints were raised by members from other congregations against the appointment.

So the church's supreme court had to decide.

On Friday last week, the church commissioners voted 326 to 267 to confirm Rev Rennie's appointment.

Now, some of the homophobes have said that they will split from the church, which faced its last major division over the issue of its independence from the British parliament in 1843.

Sunday to Stornoway's a no-brainer

About a month ago, I wrote to the directors of Caledonian MacBrayne, the state-owned ferry company that provides services to the Western Isles, to ask why they couldn't run ferries on Sundays.

I'd been home to Lewis for the school holidays with my partner and two youngest children, wanting to spend a full week there. So it was a bit of a pain not to be able to travel on Sunday at either end of the week, cropping our holiday from seven days to five.

The reply I got from CalMac was a bit like one from Prime Minister's Questions. The company said it was "...sympathetic to both bodies of opinion... blah blah... complex situation..." and would not make a decision until it assessed how the current Road Equivalent Tariff trials work out over the next couple of years.

But the truth is that the company has always been too scared of the minority of Presbyterian zealots that dominate life in the northern part of the Western Isles.

So you can imagine the surprise and delight among campaigners for Sunday ferries when a week or so ago CalMac announced that Sunday ferries were not only needed but would be scheduled imminently.

This was because the Equality and Human Rights Commission had ruled on a submission made to them that to deny travellers the right to Sunday ferries on the basis of the religious views of others would be in contravention of the Equality Act 2006.

This would be a boost for island businesses and tourism as well as for the diaspora like me. God, if he or she existed, would know that the people of the Western Isles need it - the local economy is so weak that there are 44 applicants for every job vacancy and it is the only part of the UK that is actually suffering depopulation.

Hopefully, it should also spell the end for the hold which the bigots have over the local council, which closes its sports centre in Stornoway on Sundays, while allowing a similar facility in the predominantly Catholic islands to the south to open every day.

Subscribe to the Morning Star online

www.morningstaronline.co.uk

For peace and socialism - the only socialist daily paper in the English language

Ken Gill: 1927-2009

Ken Gill: 1927-2009 / Features / Home - Morning Star:

Gill hardly fitted the cliche image of a Communist. While he could be forceful and committed, he was rarely dogmatic or unnecessarily aggressive. He was tall, with a rugged handsomeness and his soft Wiltshire drawl and ready laughter belied his steely determination. His charm and persuasiveness easily disarmed many of his harshest critics. He was always a popular and well-liked member of the general council even if the colour of his politics weren't.

Gill believed vehemently that the unions were a necessary basis of any radical social change. But he also believed that the Labour Party was central.

"If you cannot win back the (Labour) Party," he said, "then you are certainly not going to be able to start another mass party."

Ducking out

The Grauniad is sometime very funny...

Tory MP Peter Viggers quits over duck island expense claim | Politics | guardian.co.uk: "Tory MP Sir Peter Viggers said today he felt 'ashamed and humiliated' over his expenses claim for an island to house the ducks in his pond.

He described his decision to include the feature in his taxpayer-funded second home claims as a 'ridiculous and grave error of judgment'.

The ducks had never liked the feature and it was no longer being used, he added."

Around Scotland - Friday 15 May 2009

(Friday 15 May 2009)

Malcolm Burns

Fighting for fairness

Last week, the Scottish Living Wage Campaign awarded its first ever Living Wage Employer Award to Glasgow City Council at a ceremony in the city's Dalmarnock area.

The reason for the award was because Glasgow has increased the wages of all low-paid staff up to the Scottish living wage level of at least £7 an hour - as promised in March by council leader Steven Purcell at the Labour Party conference in Perth.

The Scottish Living Wage Campaign, led by the Poverty Alliance, the Scottish TUC, Faith in Community Scotland and UNISON Scotland, is also calling for the Commonwealth Games due to be held in Glasgow in 2014 to be made a "living wage games," like the 2012 Olympics in London will be.

You can see a short film called What Scotland's Living Wage Campaign Means For Dalmarnock online at UNISON Scotland's YouTube channel.

The film tells the story of the Glaswegian community of Dalmarnock, where the Commonwealth Games will be located, and relates its experience of low pay, though the words of local activists.

The people of Dalmarnock don't just want a shiny Commonwealth Games to be held in 2014. They see themselves as owners of their own future and want a legacy of decent jobs at good wages, better housing and an end to the poverty which has so long blighted their community and their city.

Anti-poverty campaigners and unions will also be working to ensure that a living wage is paid to the increasing number of workers employed by the "arm's length bodies" which the city council has been busy creating from its direct labour force.

Meanwhile, Steven Purcell's colleague Glasgow City treasurer Gordon Matheson has called for a "public-sector pay freeze."

You have to ask yourself what planet the Labour councillor is on if he thinks that the middle of a massive recession is a good time to propose an attack on the wages of his council's workers.

Lesser of the two evils?

The Scottish Parliament celebrated its 10th birthday last week, just as its elder sibling plunged deep into the mire of the expenses and second homes row.

There's plenty of reasons to be cheerful about our Scottish Parliament. One of them is that it is now a damn sight less sleazy than Westminster.

But that was not always the case.

We have seen our share of scandal over expenses north of the border.

Indeed, first minister Henry McLeish resigned in 2001 from his post over what he described as "a muddle, not a fiddle" in the funding of his constituency party office.

Tory leader David McLetchie had to walk the plank four years later after Freedom of Information laws allowed his taxi receipts to be held up to scrutiny and found wanting.

And most recently, Labour leader Wendy Alexander's short reign came to an end following some problems over the funding of her campaign to reach the top.

The expenses rules imported from Westminster were fatally exposed during the McLetchie taxi affair.

The action taken by the Scottish Information Commissioner and the parliament led to all MSP expense claims being posted online for everyone to see. And Scottish democracy is healthier for that.

Now, not only are all members of the Scottish Parliament obliged to present every single receipt for everything they claim - pretty much as you or I would for any expense claims we made at work - they are also open to scrutiny.

Also, the use of the Edinburgh accommodation allowance to pay mortgage interest - within the existing rules, of course - has been exposed in the media as a means for certain MSPs to profit from property speculation at the expense of the taxpayer. This loophole will be closed off from 2011, on the recommendation of an independent inquiry.

The fact that the MPs in Westminster have devised a system where their expenses and second home allowances are hidden means that they have something to hide.

Let's have it all out in the open and stop using these dodgy perks as a top-up for salary. MPs don't need more salary. At nearly £65,000 a year, our Westminster representatives are already more expensive than our Holyrood members.

An MSP's salary is set at 87.5 per cent of an MP's, which means that the Edinburgh parliamentarian has to struggle by on a little under £57,000.

It certainly puts the campaign for a £7 living wage into perspective.

Cycling around half the world for Cuba

Word reaches me of an intriguing world film premiere which is being held this evening in Fauldhouse Miners Welfare, West Lothian.

Yes, you read that correctly. That is the venue for the launch of the documentary film Half The World Away (or from Addiewell to Havana via Fauldhouse).

The film documents the progress of three Scottish participants during the 2008 Cuba Cycle challenge.

West Lothian Labour Councillor Neil Findlay, and his friends Tommy Kane and Alan Brown, cycled 350km in five days, took part in educational and humanitarian projects, and presented musical instruments and equipment to a school for visually impaired children in Havana.

Tommy, from the village of Addiewell, is a PhD student in geography at Strathclyde University.

He says: "We've finished our film of our time in Cuba last year doing the cycle challenge.

"It has turned out really not too bad despite us being complete amateurs. We employed an editor who has polished it beyond anything we thought possible."

The bold Cuba campaigners and DIY film directors are having a glitzy cheese and wine reception before their movie premiere and a celebration disco afterwards.

I think this is a great initiative and hope that they will make the film available for others, maybe via the Scottish Cuba Solidarity Campaign.

If you want more information on the film or the premiere event, contact Councillor Neil Findlay at neil.findlay@westlothian.gov.uk

Subscribe to the Morning Star online

www.morningstaronline.co.uk

For peace and socialism - the only socialist daily paper in the English language

Around Scotland - Wednesday 6 May 2009

(Wednesday 6 May 2009)

Malcolm Burns

Stranger than fiction

I caught In The Loop, Armando Iannucci's film based on the satirical TV show The Thick Of It, at Glasgow Film Theatre last week.

Iannucci's writing and, in particular, fellow Scot Peter Capaldi's dramatic creation of the venal, violent and foul-mouthed spin doctor Malcolm Tucker are brilliant.

The film is very, very funny, even though it is about the depressing machinations of a new Labour government as it prepares for an illegal and mass-murdering war on the coat-tails of a hawkish US administration.

As a piece of cinema, it is well deserves the five stars given in the Morning Star review. The creations of Glaswegians Iannucci and Capaldi would maybe make us proud to be Scottish if they weren't so disturbingly realistic.

I am reliably informed by some who have been inside the bizarre circus of new Labour governments north and south of the border that it is not really like this - it's worse.

My own tangential involvement in politics suggests that this might be right - every succeeding week of news about the likes of Damien McBride or dodgy expenses, never mind illegal wars, seems to confirm it.

The dramatic conflict at the centre of In The Loop and The Thick Of It is the way in which what we might call "a small group of politically motivated men" capture power in a large party and force its representatives to act against the interests of that party itself and the people it represents.

IT WAS good to see a little clear red water emerge at the weekend between Labour MEP David Martin and the candidates of the other main parties.

Martin, who tops the Labour list for the European Parliament, was arguing in a TV debate against the British opt-out from the working time directive, which limits the number of hours people should work each week on average to 48.

SNP candidate Alyn Smith MEP, former Lib Dem MSP George Lyons and Tory MEP Struan Stevenson all lined up to oppose the Labour MEP and his support for the "socialistic" working time directive.

Martin denied that he was going "off-message," but in fact this directive is one of the many scenes of huge political conflict within the Labour Party.

Martin and his Scottish Labour Euro MP colleague Catherine Stihler deserve credit for working closely with trade unions and taking account of what they have to say on workplace issues such as that of working hours - and fighting for them.

They played a leading role among the Socialist Euro MPs who voted in December against the new Labour line on the British opt-out from the working time directive.

The European Parliament's decisive vote by 421-273 to end that opt-out then had to go to what is known as "conciliation" - negotiations with the Council of Ministers. There, the democratic vote to end the opt-out was scuppered by new Labour ministers Peter Mandelson and Pat McFadden.

Employment Minister McFadden is a veteran of the Blair sofa as an internal adviser helping to deliver anti-socialist policies ever since the ditching of clause four all those years ago. He was elevated to a safe seat in Wolverhampton in 2005. His current claim to infamy is the disastrous privatisation plan for Royal Mail.

McFadden's justified scuppering the working time opt-out and supporting Britain's dismal long-hours culture by saying: "In the current downturn it is more important than ever that people keep the right to put more money in their pockets by working longer hours if they wish."

Although he doesn't sit for a Scottish constituency, McFadden comes from Glasgow and makes us all every bit as proud to be Scottish as In The Loop's Malcolm Tucker would if he really existed.

Glasgow's Latin heartbeat

ON Saturday, I'll be heading to the Scottish Trades Union Congress Centre on Woodlands Road in Glasgow to enjoy the Adelante Cuba! social and fundraiser for Scottish Cuba Solidarity.

Apart from the usual pleasures of supporting Cuba and meeting good friends and comrades, the music is guaranteed to delight as it will be provided by the wonderful Voces del Sur led by the talented Valentina Montoya Martinez.

The band has been gaining a good reputation, having played at Glasgow May Day on Sunday and also appearing at the UNISON-sponsored Cuba Solidarity night at the STUC in April.

The Adelante Cuba! event follows Scottish Cuba Solidarity's AGM in the afternoon. The social starts at 7pm on Saturday May 9, at STUC Centre, 333 Woodlands Road, Glasgow.

Tickets are £6/£4 available from the SCSC office - call (0141) 221-2359 or email scottishcuba@yahoo.co.uk to book.

Beat the BNP - help maximise the vote

SCOTTISH unions are supporting Searchlight's Hope not Hate campaign to prevent any success by the BNP in next month's European elections.

The Scottish Trades Union Congress and UNISON have already agreed to co-ordinate a union day of action, UNION Friday, on Friday May 15 and other unions will be taking action.

Scotland had a lower vote for the BNP in the last European election than any other part of Britain. In fact, the fascists only managed 1.5 per cent of the Scottish vote in 2004. But that's 1.5 per cent too much by any count and it is essential that we keep up the pressure.

One of the things that the BNP will be hoping for will be a low overall turnout in the European elections on June 4, so that their tiny minority of support will appear larger in percentage terms.

If enough people don't vote against the BNP, this might allow them to claim a seat in regions such as the North West or the Midlands.

So the Union Friday organisers want to make sure everyone who can possibly vote against the BNP will do so.

One of the actions you can take wherever you live is to make sure everyone you know is registered to vote. If people are not on the register they can't vote.

Check the electoral register at local library or council offices. Voter registration forms can be got from the local council or online at the Electoral Commission's official UK election site www.aboutmyvote.co.uk. The completed form has to go to the local council.

The final deadline for getting forms back to ensure a vote in the Euro election is Tuesday May 19.

Why not sign up your union branch to take some action against the BNP on Union Friday? Check out www.hopenothate.org.uk for more information.

They'll sell like hot cakes

ANOTHER place you can get a fix of music and politics, this time for free, is at Glasgow Caledonian University's Centre for Political Song on Wednesday May 20.

The centre is holding a Night of Political Songs, Hootenanny Style featuring a stellar line-up of Attila the Stockbroker, David Rovics, Alistair Hulett, Arthur Johnstone, Fiona Keegan and Dominic O'Hara. Tickets are free, thanks to the goodwill for the centre among performers and activists.

You'll probably have to be quick to grab one, as I reckon they will be snapped up pronto. The event kicks off at 7pm and, if you're in fast enough, you can reserve a place from research collections manager John Powles on (0141) 273-1189 or J.Powles@gcal.ac.uk

Subscribe to the Morning Star online

www.morningstaronline.co.uk

For peace and socialism - the only socialist daily paper in the English language