Scottish battle lines are drawn - Morning Star - Thursday 18 June 2009

(Thursday 18 June 2009)

Malcolm Burns

Scottish battle lines are drawn

The Scottish political battle lines for the next two years have been drawn with this week's publication of the report from the Calman Commission on Scottish devolution.

The UK general election in Scotland due within the year and the Scottish Parliament election in May 2011 will both be fought between the SNP's independence prospectus and the Calman agenda of the pro-devolution parties, Labour, Lib Dems and Tories, against the backdrop of the ongoing recession.

Calman proposes a dose of fiscal autonomy for Scotland through a radical enhancement of Holyrood's existing but so far unused income tax power - and importantly would also for the first time give the Scottish Parliament the right to borrow for funding capital expenditure.

The headline proposal to give Holyrood the power to vary tax in Scotland by as much as 10p was a more radical step than many had expected.

In short, Westminster would levy 10p less on Scottish taxpayers in all bands and cut the annual Holyrood block grant pro rata.

Then Scotland would be free to make up as much, or more, of the difference as it chose, by levying its own flat rate.

So for a status quo outcome, the Scottish Parliament would have to set its new income tax rate at 10p, but it would be also free to increase or decrease the rate.

It would be obliged to actively set a rate each year at budget time. The political consequences of such fiscal liberation from Westminster strictures could be great.

One downside of this Calman proposal is that the Scottish Parliament could not alter the relationship between the higher and lower rates or alter bands, which means that it would be not be possible to increase tax on the higher bands only.

But it affords the prospect of increasing public funding for Scottish priorities rather than living within Westminster's limits.

The vital new borrowing powers would mean that the Scottish Parliament could look elsewhere than the hugely expensive PFI schemes favoured by both SNP and Labour-led administrations to fund public works.

The report proposes a number of extra powers for the Scottish Parliament - control over the running of its own elections and over airguns, drink driving and road speed limits.

There was support especially among trade unions for greater devolution of numerous other powers, for example on broadcasting, health and safety, migration and asylum and the housing benefit and council tax benefit systems.

Calman has made some proposals for limited joint working rather than transfer of power to Holyrood in these areas.

Calman makes recommendations on joining up government between Westminster and Holyrood in a way which has never happened before. Currently the two parliaments and especially the two governments often appear to exist in separate silos - sometimes lobbing missiles at each other.

Recommendations include better joint committees and consultative processes and ministerial appearances at committees of each parliament by ministers of the other - with annual appearances before committee at Westminster by the Scottish First Minister and at Holyrood by the Scottish Secretary.

More structured grown-up co-operation would be welcome and could be very productive.

No-one can accuse Calman of a failure to consult or to consider. Indeed, the breadth and depth of the Calman report completely blows the SNP government's thin National Conversation out of the water.

I don't know if Sir Kenneth Calman smokes, but he clearly doesn't have any use for a fag packet. The full Calman Commission report runs to several hundred pages across four documents - and that's after two sets of interim reports of similar size which were published last year.

And it is serious stuff.

In some respects, the Calman Commission has performed the role which the Scottish Constitutional Convention did in the 1990s.

The convention put in a good deal of detailed work then, just as Calman has now, to found the Scottish Parliament on a solid basis. Calman has engaged with the organs of "civic society" whereas the convention was actually led by the civic bodies themselves, notably the STUC under then general secretary Campbell Christie.

But both convention and commission managed to cajole and corral the warring political parties into some essential horse-trading and consensus-building.

Of course Alex Salmond's SNP removed itself from the convention process then, just as it has from Calman today, in the hope of gaining a pro-independence advantage.

The political trick of getting Labour, Tories and Lib Dems all on side without producing a banal report has been something of a coup for Calman.

His commission was a joint venture between the Scottish Parliament and the Westminster government. Its recommendations are unanimous.

Given that the political parties involved have a clear majority in the Scottish Parliament, and that in one permutation or another they will be in power at Westminster, it is reasonable to suppose that Calman's recommendations have every chance of being enacted in full.

Some of the recommendations can be put into place by the Scottish Parliament itself. Others will require legislation by Westminster.

For Labour, Ian Gray, the Scottish leader at Holyrood and Jim Murphy the Westminster Scottish Secretary have both welcomed the Calman report.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown is quoted as saying: "It sets out the way forward for Scottish devolution."

It is entirely possible that Labour at Westminster will not be fully on board with everything proposed by Calman, even if the Prime Minister is.

There is a powerful cohort of Scottish MPs who are still not keen on or even reconciled to the Scottish Parliament. And English Labour MPs in general probably still do not quite get Scotland, in the way that the population as a whole south of the border often seems not to either.

To that extent there may be some jibbing and some delay over implementation. If that meant the Calman proposals were not enacted by Labour before the next election, Labour itself would almost certainly be the loser.

In that situation, an incoming Tory government may legislate for devolution plus as recommended by Calman. This bizarre scenario might cause consternation in the SNP bunker. Until now the SNP has been desperate for the Tories to win at Westminster.

That, and not the vacuous National Conversation, has been Alex Salmond's whole game plan for a referendum, on the basis that a Tory government would so alienate Scots that we would vote for independence to be rid of them again.

But for now, the political scene is weird enough. A cross-party group led by Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy and featuring Tory frontbenchers will meet imminently to consider how to bring the Calman recommendations forward. And Murphy has said that there could be legislation within months.

Enshrining Calman's recommendations in an updated Scotland Act would certainly sharpen up the independence versus devolution fight in the coming general election - long before any possible referendum.

Bring it on, as they say.

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The rebels without a coup - Morning Star - Tuesday 9 June 2009

(Tuesday 9 June 2009)

Malcolm Burns

The rebels without a coup

In the increasingly surreal nightmare that is our politics today, everything can seem like a game. The absurdity of Gordon Brown hiring reality TV gameshow star Sir Alan Sugar - soon to be made a lord - as a business "tsar" was almost the least bizarre incident of the past week.

The weirdest has been the attempted regicide in the Labour Party by a small crew of Blairite careerists. So far that has resembled a suicidal game of Cluedo - first to go was Hazel Blears in the study with the brooch pin, then it was James Purnell in the dark with the poison pen letter.

These are odd rebels. What are they rebelling against?

The Blairites' last stand is to campaign against a leader, Brown, who they claim cannot win an election - but not against the right-wing policies which have continued to drive voters away from Labour, with the disastrous results we saw in the local and European polls.

They are plotters for sure, but they have no agenda, no policies and no candidate. The rebels simply don't have a coup.

Do they really believe that changing the captain of the Titanic will stop the ship hitting the iceberg and sinking? It is the political direction of the Labour Party that needs to be changed, whoever is the leader.

The Blairites command support, but it is mainly among right-wing journalists.

Indeed, as Purnell and Blears, followed by John Hutton and Geoff Hoon defenestrated themselves from the Cabinet last week, cheers went up from ordinary members of the Labour Party and trade unionists.

I have heard from numerous Labour activists that the departure of this bunch is one of the best recruiting aids the party could have devised.

It was almost funny watching Blears and Purnell shoot themselves in public in the vague hope that this would somehow cause a tenacious and wily political fox like Brown to follow suit. In fact, they simply saved him some ammunition.

It also is worth remembering, as we see Purnell and Blears being canonised by the right-wing media for trying to put the boot into Brown, that both of them still have some pretty searching questions to answer about their own expenses. People like these could hardly lead a clean up of British politics.

Brown saw off the initial attempt on his leadership last week with some ease - and the dubious aid of Peter Mandelson, who supports the Prime Minister like the proverbial rope.

Labour's massacre in the European elections provoked a further froth of media speculation that there would be a fresh coup attempt.

So what do the Euro election results show?

Basically, that Labour's vote collapsed. Labour voters have effectively gone on strike. The headline figure is that Labour managed less than 16 per cent of the vote. And that itself was on a turnout of only 34 per cent across Britain.

The problem Labour faced was replicated for socialist and social democratic parties across Europe - though none managed to implode quite so spectacularly.

It is hard evidence that voters on the left everywhere are increasingly disengaged from European politics.

That is dangerous for the obvious reason that far-right parties like the BNP can get parliamentary seats. But it also lets the mainstream right in Europe off without serious challenge.

Here in Britain, that's a problem for the Labour voters who stayed at home, and for the rest of us too.

Brown and Mandelson are right about one thing - changing the Labour leader and precipitating an early general election would only hand an easier victory to the Tories.

The logic of that position means Labour needs to change direction in order to improve the chances of defeating the Tories next year.

That's not a new prescription, but it's long overdue. Labour MPs, affiliated unions and ordinary members need to now put massive pressure on the leadership of the party to bring the striking Labour voters back on board.

Across the country, Labour voters are withholding their support and standing back expectantly, like millions of Sonic the Hedgehogs during a pause in the video game, arms folded and tapping their feet, waiting for the party they want to back come up with some policies they can actually support.There are plenty of policies like that.

Labour could ditch Trident. Labour could ditch the plan to privatise Royal Mail. Labour could ditch ID cards. All hugely unpopular and expensive mistakes.

Labour could ditch the Purnell assault on the welfare state and add some more tax burden to the wealthy.

If he wants a legacy before he is finished as Prime Minister, Brown could promote a swathe of historic constitutional reforms.

This could include not just cleaning out the Westminster stable regarding expenses, which is essential of course, but a written constitution and bill of rights, an elected House of Lords, and - why not - electoral reform for the House of Commons.

The EU election results offer Labour's leaders an opportunity to say that at last they will listen to the voters and recognise that there is massive concern about the direction of European politics.

So let's put the Lisbon Treaty to the people in a British referendum. I think the turnout for that would be somewhat greater than 34 per cent.

And Labour should simply ditch Britain's opt-out on working hours, which many Labour MEPs actually campaigned to get rid of in a historic vote in the European Parliament in December.

If he is to have a chance of re-engaging enough voters to win, Brown - or any Labour leader - must be persuaded to adopt sensible policies like these.

A Tory victory in the next general election is not a forgone conclusion. The Tories have a thin, right-wing and actually unpopular platform of massive destruction of public services and jobs.

The talk of Westminster and the media is not about how unpopular Tory policies are or why Labour voters are on strike. It is all about whether Brown can hold on as leader of the Labour Party.

I might be completely wrong, but I doubt he will be defenestrated in short order by the Blairite coup which the Westminster journalists are breathlessly egging on.

But Brown still has a problem. The prospect of Labour winning by adopting elements of a popular left platform might be too much for his erstwhile ally Mandelson, who may decide to fatally end his support.

In Cluedo terms, Brown is not likely to be done in by the MP with the lead pipe in the kitchen.

There isn't an MP in or out of the Cabinet who could lift the lead pipe necessary to deal the blow. And none of them has a lead pipe anyway.

If Brown is going to be done in this side of a general election, I think I can tell you for sure who will have done it.

It will be Mandelson, in the billiard room, with the rope. On TV.

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Around Scotland - Thursday 4 June 2009

(Thursday 4 June 2009)

Malcolm Burns

Britain's got problems...

It's a hard heart that can't feel a little sorry for a shy and introverted would-be diva from a small town in Scotland who dreamed furiously of playing the lead role on the London stage.

And who after many years won the chance to perform for the top prize of approval by the voting public, but then saw that expected triumph vanish in the chaos of despair.

No, I am not asking you to feel sorry for Gordon Brown.

Save your sympathy for Susan Boyle, who apparently became the most downloaded woman in history and had been tipped to win Britain's Got Talent. She is now in The Priory clinic being treated for "exhaustion."

Brown, though, is about to replicate Boyle's implosion.

The European elections are slated to deliver Labour's worst-ever election result.

Assuming Brown survives as Labour leader until the general election - which must happen within the next year - it seems he is doomed, with much bigger consequences for us all.

Instead of leaving the nation with some songs nicely sung, he'll be leaving us with a Tory government the likes of which made us collectively say "never again" in 1997.

I never bought into the Blairist myth that it was Blair who won the 1997 election for Labour. John Smith, had he lived, would certainly have won that election. Almost anyone would have.

In 1997 people would have voted for any Labour leader because they were voting against 18 years of dismal Tory misrule. They were voting against clear Tory sleaze in government. And they were saying never again.

The problem we have today is that they are now about to vote against 13 years of Labour misrule.

Despite an increase in public spending - and we owe some thanks to Brown as chancellor for that at least - we have seen growing inequality, privatisation, deregulation and disastrous wars on the basis of lies and deceit.

We can catalogue these disasters of new Labour, which we as socialists fought against, and wish that the outcomes had been different. But we still face the harsh truth now - if not Labour, then the Tories.

There isn't a left party out there which can challenge for government. There isn't, despite the collapse and even nationalisation of capitalist institutions, a revolutionary situation.

However, there is a huge appetite for democratic change.

I did actually almost feel a little sorry for Brown was this week when he came out of the bunker to say he was planning to set up a national council for democratic renewal - only to find that Alistair Darling's expenses was the story, and that front-bench ministers were hitting the deck faster that you could look up who they were on Wikipedia.

The Brown plan for democratic renewal, if it were to be taken seriously and make a difference, would have to be not just about the rules of the House of Commons. It would have to take on the system of elections and government in Britain.

A written constitution and bill of rights would be great - an elected House of Lords even more so.

But the electoral system is the crucial point. If Brown's national council for democratic renewal is going to work, it needs to meet two objectives.

First, it has to be open to - and preferably led by - the representative bodies of civic society, just like the Scottish constitutional convention in the 1990s, which achieved our democratic settlement and the Holyrood Parliament, which now command wide support.

More recently the Calman commission has shown a good example of how to conduct cross-party and broadly based consultation in its work on extending the powers on the Scottish Parliament.

Second, and like the Scottish constitutional convention, it has to confront the issue of proportional representation.

I am an agnostic about electoral systems, although I do know that the current one is probably the worst.

First past the post can only be fair and just if there are two parties contending. One wins a majority and that's that. As soon as there are more than two parties, it doesn't give fair results.

Worse, it leads to the kind of dismal relationship between government and governed which has characterised the last 30 years, since 1979.

Neither Margaret Thatcher nor Blair ever commanded a majority among the people - never more than 44 per cent - but they wielded almost absolute power, with disastrous consequences.

There is already a plan for PR in Britain. The Jenkins commission set up by Labour in 1997 recommended a form of alternative vote system, with additional top-up from party lists to get closer to proportionality.

Blair decided to kick it into the long grass, not just because he didn't need to worry as he had a huge majority but because Labour MPs have traditionally been hostile to PR, and he didn't fancy a fight over it.

There will be a fight in the Labour Party for sure if Brown proposes PR.

But Donald Dewar, then Scottish Labour leader, didn't propose PR in the 1990s. It was brokered by the convention in order to achieve consensus. The outcome proved very popular.

To the extent that a national council for democratic renewal can replicate the success of the Scottish constitutional convention, it may offer Brown's last chance to rescue his failing leadership, and also save us from more Thatcherite or Blairite misrule under David Cameron.

The problem for Brown - and all of us - is that he doesn't have much time left to make history.

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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.

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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

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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

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Around Scotland - Tuesday 28 April 2009

(Tuesday 28 April 2009)

Malcolm Burns

In defence of a People's Charter

The People's Charter won enthusiastic cheers around the conference hall in Perth last week, as Scottish TUC delegates heard powerful contributions from numerous speakers arguing in favour.

But the motion was lost on a card vote, as two or three of the larger unions had been persuaded to withhold support.

STUC general secretary Grahame Smith said that the Congress already had a "people's charter" which resided in its past decisions. "We are already progressive and imaginative," he said. "We don't need a charter to make us that."

He said the STUC was pushing hard on its agenda with the governments in London and Edinburgh.

"We're in there, face to face - we have to have consistent, coherent and strategic policies, not diversion, division and distraction."

The STUC certainly does have a progressive and imaginative agenda - one of the more notable aspects of which is that it chimes clearly with the People's Charter.

The charter, especially in its Scottish version, seems to me to distil a lot of the progressive agenda which the STUC has helped to develop through years into a clear, short form of manifesto which millions of people could unite and campaign around.

UNISON Scotland convenor Mike Kirby said that the People's Charter should be used by the unions as a "campaigning tool."

"This is not a charter for an alternative political party," Kirby said, "but for constructing broad alliances in pursuit of our already agreed objectives.

"As politicians lose face, we need to rebuild a degree of credibility with the public, the voters and our members."

Sasha Callaghan of education union UCU said she had been amazed at how much of a response the Charter had found among members.

"It is simple," she said. "The People's Charter represents the audacity of hope rather than the audacity of greed which we've seen over the last few years."

I remain hopeful that the STUC and Scottish unions and others on the political left will pick up the charter's six simple pledges and run with them.

General has some wise words

The Trident replacement should be cancelled and the existing system decommissioned immediately, General Sir Hugh Beach told a conference in Glasgow on Saturday.

The former deputy commander-in-chief of British land forces was speaking at the Crunch time for Trident conference organised by Scottish CND and hosted by Labour Lord Provost Bob Winter of Glasgow City Council.

"It is time to reflect on how thin the justification for Trident really is and to evaluate it fairly and rigorously against the costs," Beach said. "It would be better to cancel the Trident replacement programme now and better still to decommission the existing Trident boats forthwith."

Greens getting in the driving seat

Environmental campaigners were pleased last week after a successful rally and lobby of MSPs at the Scottish Parliament on Wednesday.

The Stop Climate Chaos Scotland campaign group, which brings together civic, trade union, faith and environmental organisations, has been applying pressure to strengthen the Climate Change (Scotland) Bill which is currently going through the parliament.

The Bill, presented by the SNP government, will create a legal framework for cutting greenhouse gas emissions in Scotland, target a reduction of at least 80 per cent by 2050 and require ministers to set annual reduction targets for Scottish emissions from 2010 to 2050. It also aims for an interim target of a 50 per cent reduction by 2030.

The government claims it is already "world-leading climate-change legislation." But the Stop Climate Chaos campaigners want more, so it can be a global benchmark at the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit in December.

The rally focused on three "big asks" of the parliament:

• Statutory annual reductions in greenhouse gas emissions of at least 3 per cent year on year, starting now
• The inclusion of emissions from international aviation and shipping from the beginning
• Ensuring that the action to tackle climate change takes place in Scotland and is not "bought in" from overseas.

On Thursday, the Scottish Parliament's lead committee on the Climate Change Bill called for the 2030 interim target date to be brought forward to 2020, a more "robust" framework for the reductions between 2010 and 2019 and other measures in line with the Stop Climate Chaos campaign.

Now, the activists are looking with new hope to the Scottish government's response - the Bill is due to be debated in Holyrood later this week.

Grim reminder of the fight for workers' right to safety

The STUC conference is great for meeting and renewing old acquaintances.

I first met Neil Rothnie, now secretary of the OILC offshore branch of RMT, when the OILC was a new organisation which had co-ordinated a series of highly effective wildcat strikes following the Piper Alpha disaster.

I recall the OILC executive meeting in the college research offices I worked in then, because it was not politic at the time for them to have a meeting in the STUC headquarters.

I am glad the great work the OILC has done on behalf of workers in the hostile North Sea environment is officially recognised and that they are now speaking from the floor as a valued part of the congress of Scottish unions.

Speaking to an emergency motion on the recent helicopter crash, Rothnie paid tribute to the 16 who died, including OILC branch members Gareth Hughes and Raymond Doyle, and also another OILC member David Stevenson, who died in a separate accident while working on an offshore service vessel on the same day.

Rothnie said: "The OILC was born out of anger from Piper Alpha. That anger is rising again and will need to be addressed by government and the North Sea oil industry. We don't have partners except here in this room.

"Two hundred of our members are locked out of the industry. It is entirely unacceptable for the Secretary of State for Scotland Jim Murphy to lecture anyone with his claim about remarkable improvement in offshore safety. It is nonsense."

On Workers' Memorial Day, as we remember all those who have been killed at their work, let's resolve as a united movement to take on the bosses and defeat the bosses, including the rapacious North Sea operators, who value profit more than our workers' lives.

Israel boycott at last

The STUC conference has endorsed a campaign of boycott, disinvestment and sanctions against Israel. This decision followed a long period of investigation into the effects of such a campaign, culminating in the serious report of a recent STUC delegation to Palestine and Israel.

The report recommended boycott, disinvestment and sanctions against Israel because "it was very clear to the delegation that the daily violations of human rights were as a direct result of Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories."

You can read the report and its recommendations online at the STUC website.,

The Jerusalem Post reported the STUC's boycott call in fairly straight terms, but included a peculiar quotation attributed to STUC general secretary Grahame Smith which implied that he said the campaign would be "divisive." I'm sure he never did say that.

Shady dealings

Visitors searching for the STUC site through Google late last week would have found themselves redirected to a number of less than reputable web pages advertising various sexual services and medications. Others trying to email the STUC would have had their messages bounced.

Denial of service attacks? Possibly. Disinformation? Perhaps. The STUC's decision on the basis of lengthy and detailed consideration of the facts appears to have irritated some people.

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STUC supports "magnificent struggle" of workers in Prisme Dundee occupation

(Friday 24 April 2009)

by Malcolm Burns in Perth

The final act of the 2009 STUC Congress in Perth was to pledge support for the workers who have occupied the Prisme packaging premises in Dundee over the last 7 weeks.

Mike Arnott of Dundee TUC said: "When we were told about the Prisme sit-in, our first reaction was to have a whip-round. This is the first factory occupation for 13 years and the first in Dundee since Timex in 1993."

Arnott said the management had told the workforce with no notice that the company was bust, there was no money for redundancy and they were all dismissed.

"Faced with this," he said "the decision of the workers was a spontaneous and courageous act worthy of support, which is why we support them, even though they were not members of a union. Most workers in Britain aren't. It's not a perfect world yet."

Arnott said that the strikers have received support and donations from trade union branches. "These workers are much closer to the trade union movement and its ethos of solidarity now.

They still have not received their redundancy payment but all donations are going into a fund to start a new company named Discovery, after Dundee's iconic ship.

"Today the workers have been involved in talks to save their company but finance is still needed - please send donations," Mr Arnott appealed. "Cheques payable to TUC Lobby Fund, c/o Dundee TUC, 141 Yarrow Terrace, DD2 4DY."

Calum Murray of UCU said that the Prisme workers occupation was "really quite outstanding and inspirational" and had touched a spark with people in Dundee.

"Occupation is the new fashion," he said. "Here is small non-unionised factory, there is a group of parents in Glasgow, sparks are beginning to spread round the labour movement. When people facing redundancy or closures fight back, suddenly we find levels of support amongst the wider community. We all know that when we ballot for strike we get flooded with membership applications. When we fight back, people flock to us. That's why we should flock to them when they fight back."

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Scotland's unions demand Trident cancellation

(Friday 24 April 2009)

by Malcolm Burns in Perth

Congress reaffirmed its opposition to the Trident submarine missile system, calling on the government to cancel the programme of Trident replacement and work with the Scottish government and others to diversify Scotland’s economy.

Tommy Morrison of Clydebank TUC said: "Trident is weapon designed for a bygone era, irrelevant to our security needs today. And with the economy facing meltdown, rising unemployment and repossessions, Trident is bordering on the insane."

Mr Morrison said: "We need a job diversification programme to protect the defence workers. The STUC and CND have provided evidence to prove this is possible."

Congress also demanded full parliamentary debate and scrutiny on the issue of Trident replacement.

Arthur West of Kilmarnock & Loudoun TUC said: "The cost of replacing Trident is truly eye-watering, now estimated at over £66bn to replace and maintain. A really worrying aspect is the lack of parliamentary debate and scrutiny. The government is moving onto what is known as the Initial Gate stage, and a report is due to go to ministers in September while parliament is in recess. Given the new Labour government's track record it is important there is pressure put on them to allow parliamentary debate and scrutiny."

Earlier in the international debate, Joy Dunn of PCS set the demand for abolition of Trident in a global context.

Ms Dunn told delegates: "I am sure you welcomed the moves by new US President Barack Obama to enter in to talks with Russia's President Medvedev on nuclear weapons. This sent a significant signal around the world. There is growing support for the Global Zero campaign to rid the world of nuclear weapons. Against that background, the UK government's persistence in investing in Trident looks out of step."

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Congress calls for reinstatement of forced-out newspaper staff

(Thursday 23 April 2009)

by Malcolm Burns in Perth

Congress passed an emergency motion from the National Union of Journalists on Wednesday condemning the actions of Daily Record and Sunday Mail directors for cutting a quarter of editorial jobs.

NUJ Scottish organiser Paul Holleran said: "What can I tell you about the Daily Record and Sunday Mail directors?

"Their greed is surpassed only by their vindictiveness, which is surpassed only by their incompetence."

Mr Holleran said the directors had reneged on a deal following industrial action over workplace stress last year.

"We have 250 journalists in the Daily Record and Sunday Mail," he said.

"A cut of 75 is a huge hit for us. We compromised over redundancies and new technology and shift patterns, but they rejected our offer and went ahead with selections for compulsory redundancies using completely inappropriate criteria."

"These are not loss-making companies," Mr Holleran continued.

"The Daily Record and Sunday Mail have made in excess of £20 million profit a year.

"This dispute is about jobs but also about the quality of newspapers - these directors have driven down and sacrificed quality journalism by making huge cuts in search of further profit."

Arguing for more democratic ownership and control of the press, Roddy Robertson of the FBU said: "The question that should be asked in public is are these papers safe in the hands of the directors?"

Congress called for the reinstatement of the 23 NUJ members at the Daily Record and Sunday Mail who have been selected for the compulsory redundancy.

The NUJ chapel has been taking strike action against the forced-through compulsory redundancies.

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Restore pension link now, demands STUC

(Thursday 23 April 2009)

by Malcolm Burns in Perth

The Scottish TUC urged the government on Wednesday to immediately increase pensions above the poverty line - currently at £151 per week - and restore the earnings link.

The pensions motion rejected the idea that there is a pensions crisis because people are living longer, not least because the National Insurance scheme has excesses of more than £35 billion.

Congress also rejected attacks by employers on occupational pensions. Train drivers' union ASLEF delegate Chris Barrie said that there were few more important issues before congress.

"The current economic situation means that the Labour government should be doing all in its power to help pensioners," he said.

"We will not accept crocodile tears from politicians."

North Lanarkshire TUC delegate Tommy Brennan said: "We should immediately restore the link to earnings and increase the basic state pension to more than £151.

"There is no dignity for many of our pensioners in trying to live on today's basic state pension. There is no dignity in having to decide whether to eat or heat.

"It's an indictment on this supposedly Labour government."

And GMB delegate Charlie Robertson demanded additional resources for older pensioners.

"The derisory 25p a week paid to over-eighties has not increased since its introduction in 1971," he said.

"This is the generation which protested for the right to work, defeated fascism and built the welfare state and are the poorest - they are less likely to have occupational pensions and more likely to have additional expenses."

UNISON delegate Catriona Beveridge told congress that public-sector pensions were currently under attack from the right.

"Do you think council and health and government workers retire early on pensions like Sir Fred Goodwin?" she asked.

"The actual level of the average pension for UK local government workers is £3,800 a year."

Unite delegate Stevie Deans, a shop steward at Ineos in Grangemouth, thanked the STUC for its support in last year's pension strike.

"We were faced with a greedy employer who, despite making millions of pounds in profits, intended to take our members' pensions rights away from them," he said.

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Way for democracy

(Thursday 23 April 2009)

by Malcolm Burns in Perth

A packed STUC fringe meeting in the Salutation Hotel heard RMT general secretary Bob Crow make the case for the new left-wing, anti-EU electoral alliance No2EU.

"The EU was sold to people on the basis of its social benefits after the war," Mr Crow said on Tuesday.

"The capitalist states were petrified that the Soviet Union would expand.

"But after it collapsed, they believed there was no need to offer benefits to the workers. Instead, the EU has become all about competition, trying to race everyone down to the bottom."

Mr Crow argued that the European institutions were an extension of global capital.

"In reality, the EU institutions can't be changed. MEPs meet once a year to talk about the Budget, but, in reality, they have no power."

"We believe there is a massive protest vote out there against the EU," Mr Crow said.

"But who can people vote for? The Tories, the Lib Dems and new Labour all support the EU capitalists, they all support the European Court of Justice judgements. If we don't pick this issue up, the BNP will pick up votes."

Mr Crow stated that some people had criticised No2EU by saying it was another new political party, but he pointed out that it was an electoral alliance to mobilise opposition in the European election of June 4 - finishing on June 5.

"If we win any seats, we will not take them up - we'll call a convention to discuss how to take the issue forward."

Mr Crow argued that No2EU wants a different kind of Europe.

"It's not European workers who we oppose - we want to link up and show solidarity with other workers in Europe - it's the European Union that we oppose."

"Let's get out of Europe and back into the world," Mr Crow concluded.

No2EU candidate in Scotland John Foster told the meeting: "The EU is a concentration of capital. That means its power is concentrated and so it attacks workers.

"We can see this in the terms of the Lisbon Treaty and the European Courts of Justice cases of Viking, Laval and Luxembourg.

"It is nothing less than a frontal attack on workers' rights."

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Salmond supports Scottish bank idea

(Thursday 23 April 2009)

by Malcolm Burns in Perth

SNP First Minister Alex Salmond told the STUC Congress in Perth that his government would act to establish a Scottish Investment Bank, as called for in the STUC agenda for rebuilding collective prosperity.

Mr Salmond said: "In the aftermath of the financial crash, we have to look at every economic lever available to us.

"The Scottish government has studied very carefully the STUC agenda and we find that the proposal for a Scottish Investment Bank has substantial merit. We are now working to establish exactly that."

He added that he was looking to Scotland's main economic development agency Scottish Enterprise to form the basis of the bank and announced that £20m would be found to support the initiative from the Scottish Venture Fund.

"This is very much a first step, an acorn from which a mighty oak might grow," he said.

"We will look to pull in substantial resources from the European Investment Bank," he said.

"There is huge potential for investment and innovation in high-growth Scottish businesses. In taking forward the ideas initiated by this congress and others, we can make sure prosperity is realised."

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Forget the bankers - focus on the workers, Barber tells government

(Thursday 23 April 2009)

by Malcolm Burns in Perth

In a fraternal address to the STUC in Perth, TUC general secretary Brendan Barber urged the government to show "the same determination in protecting working people from the worst of the recession as it has in protecting banks from the greedy excesses of their bosses."

Mr Barber issued a warning to the government and the Chancellor.

"The idea that there are £15 billion worth of painless cuts is quite mistaken. To claim this is to play into the hands of the small-state right who lose no opportunity to attack the public sector, its staff and their pensions," he said.

"Governments must over the long-term ensure that they can run sustainable public finances.

"But if we let the country's productive base waste away now through a short-term refusal to let the deficit grow, it will be much more painful to get the public finances in order, with millions on the dole and whole industrial and service sectors hollowed out."

Mr Barber argued that the union message is clear - we can't go back to business as usual.

"We don't want to go back to the idea that the market always knows best and that deregulation is the only game in town," he said.

"We don't want to see inequality grow as a new class of super-rich float away from the rest of us - a group who think tax is for the little people."

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Health and safety 'needs transparency'

(Wednesday 22 April 2009)

by Malcolm Burns in Perth

STUC Congress demanded a new culture of transparency in health and safety on Tuesday to address the high level of fatalities in Scottish workplaces.

Construction union delegate Harry Frew said: "In the last five years, 148 workers including 35 self-employed have died as a result of workplace accidents, yet not one director has been successfully prosecuted."

Mr Frew called for dramatically increased funding of the HSE so it can inspect and prosecute companies that break health and safety laws and a greater emphasis upon worker involvement in health and safety, including a strengthening of the role of safety representatives and ring-fenced funding for workplace safety advisers.

Speaking to a motion condemning the Scottish government's civil justice reform agenda, Unite union delegate Hugh Scullion added: "This is a crossroads moment for our justice system. The Scottish government is taking steps towards making citizens pay directly for the court they use.

"The Civil Court review taking place under Lord Justice Gill is a 150-page document. You'd imagine there would be some mention of trade unions in it. There was one reference - and it got it wrong.

"Despite the new law on corporate manslaughter introduced in Westminster, the law needs to go further to make sure company directors are fully responsible for the health and safety of workers."

In Scotland, you are more likely to die or be injured at work than elsewhere and, when that does happen, compensation is lower than elsewhere. That is just wrong."

Public-sector union UNISON delegate Dave Watson said: "This is not just a technical argument - it is a fundamental attack on the legal systems we use to protect our members. Making the public pay full cost is treating justice like a commercial operation rather than a public service."

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Delegates call for a balanced energy policy

(Wednesday 22 April 2009)

by Malcolm Burns in Perth

STUC renewed its commitment to a balanced energy policy on Tuesday based on a diversity of fuel sources, to enable secure, affordable energy supplies and help cut emissions.

Unite union delegate Marie Vannet said: "A balanced energy policy is absolutely vital to ensure stability of supply."

She argued that action is needed now to ensure that replacement capacity is available when existing power stations close.

Public-sector union UNISON delegate Dave Watson said that the market trumpeted by both Scottish and Westminster governments has dismally failed consumers.

"Regrettably, a coherent policy is not what we always get from these governments," he said.

"We either get more market madness from the UK or a crude 'no nukes at any price' from the Scottish government. We shouldn't wait until the lights go out before we recognise that market madness is no way to run a vital public service like energy."

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STUC demands cash for public services

(Wednesday 22 April 2009)

by Malcolm Burns in Perth

THE Scottish TUC passed a series of resolutions on Tuesday supporting well-funded public services and protecting society's most vulnerable.

Public-sector union UNISON convener Mike Kirby slammed the rush to outsource public services as "a tax scam that abandons democratic control and allows the council to avoid its legal duty to pay men and women equally."

He described Glasgow council's increasing reliance on outsourced trusts and Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs) to deliver public services. Currently, around 15,000 staff are employed by nine LLPs, trusts and partnerships in Glasgow.

"A recent Glasgow Council report into these arm's-length external organisations‚ or ALEOs, admits that they are a tax scam, that they lead to loss of democratic control by councillors and they can avoid more equal pay claims because they have fewer comparators. So much for the Labour government's public-sector equality duty," he said.

Teaching union EIS delegate David Drever said: "We must not underestimate the political fight we face.

"The papers are speaking about an 'obese' and 'inflated' public sector and the Chancellor is preparing for billions of pounds of 'efficiency savings' in the Budget. But we must not allow public service workers being posed against our colleague the private sector."

Civil Service union PCS delegate Cheryl Gedling added: "We listened carefully to Harriet Harman on Monday when she said that you can't cut your way out of recession.

"Maybe she was just off message, but we think she needs to go knock on the door at 11 Downing Street to let Alistair Darling know what he should do.

"After the previous chancellor announced 104,000 job cuts in 2004, we launched a campaign of industrial action and ensured no compulsory redundancies. If this budget announcement means public-sector cuts, be assured that our union will defend our members' jobs and their terms and conditions."

General union GMB delegate Linda Miller called for action on equal pay in the public sector.

"Low-pay is still a real issue for many women. On average, 27,000 - mainly female - part-time local government workers in Scotland earn less than £6.50 per hour and 14,000 in the NHS earn less than £7 per hour," she said.

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Scottish Labour leader: I want unions to be partners

(Wednesday 22 April 2009)

by Malcolm Burns in Perth

SCOTTISH Labour Leader Iain Gray told the STUC Congress on Tuesday that he wanted his party to be a real partner with the unions in working towards their policy agenda for collective prosperity.

"We will continue to campaign alongside the unions as we have against the sale of forests, against cuts in the voluntary sector, against cuts in teacher numbers, for better protection of workers against abuse and for stronger regulation of the bus industry," he said.

Despite the financial chaos which has engulfed the world, Mr Gray argued that the big banks are not beyond our control.

"We made the banks and we can control them." he said.

"And that is why the Labour government has led concerted international action to strengthen banking regulation, closing tax haven loopholes that drain wealth out of the countries that produce it.

"Many people feel that the high aspirations for the recent G20 hosted by the Labour government have not been met, but real progress was made."

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Congress backs UCATT call for an immediate ban on blacklisting

(Wednesday 22 April 2009)

by Malcolm Burns in Perth

IN a passionate speech on an emergency resolution on blacklisting, construction union UCATT general secretary Alan Ritchie won the unanimous support of congress to call for immediate legislation to outlaw the practice.

"Last month, it was proved that blacklisting is endemic in the construction industry," he told delegates.

"Forty major companies have been paying an affiliation of £3,000 a year to The Consulting Association to get personal details of workers. And, because our members are trade unionists, companies have been blacklisting them and stopping them from being employed."

Mr Ritchie said that, for decades, UCATT has raised the issue, but the companies had denied the practice took place and the government always claimed there was no evidence. Now the evidence has been provided in a report from the Information Commissioner.

The resolution calls for a new law to prohibit the making, keeping or circulation of a blacklist and put employers under a legal obligation to disclose any lists that they hold.

"This Labour government has a moral obligation to this movement to make sure blacklisting is ended," he said.

"We also call on the Scottish government, which gives multimillion-pound contracts to these companies, to make it illegal to operate a blacklist."

Congress also passed a resolution calling for improved employment rights for migrant and vulnerable workers.

CWU delegate John Brown said: "Some of the most vulnerable workers are also migrant workers and are often exploited by unscrupulous employers."

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